There is a search on for for people over the age of 16 with specific Hobbit-like features.

Dirty, smelly, hippy Penny Bright says she is prepared to be jailed to defend lawful rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. She has put out a press release to that effect.

I’m in favor of this and think we should grant her wish and jail her.

Chris Trotter writes that Labour is yet to have it’s “Kodachrome Moment”:

My friend, the photographer and artist, Barry Thomas, reckons the manufacturers of Kodachrome and the New Zealand Labour Party have a lot in common. Both were once at the cutting edge. Both had something to sell which masses of people were happy to buy. And both, by failing to keep pace with a rapidly changing world, have seen the power of their “brand” dwindle and fade.

Ouch, Trotter isn’t holding back:

Mention Labour in 2012 and most New Zealanders will struggle to conjure-up any images at all, apart from a succession of vaguely recognisable faces and a sorry string of embarrassing headlines.

The Labour Party Opposition should be in the business of displaying courage, thinking the unthinkable, searching for the root causes of the nation’s problems and coming up with solutions that require the voters to discard their prejudices, step away from past failures, and take the risk of committing themselves to something new.

A successful Opposition doesn’t waste time attacking the Government, it devotes itself to enlisting the electorate in a great adventure.

If a vote for Labour is anything less than a decision to join that great adventure then the party will share the fate of Eastman-Kodak. It neglected its core business: preserving people’s memories. Labour’s core business, in 2012, must be stimulating New Zealanders’ imagination.

Using digital, colour, and, if necessary, black-and-white.

This small kid is lucky to be alive:

Gnarley is his name, and he certainly lived up to it yesterday, “surfing” a vehicle down Golden Bay’s Takaka Hill.

The parents of the adventurous Takaka Hill toddler turned stowaway are relieved to have him back safe and sound.

Two-year-old Gnarley Maguire hitched a ride in his grandfather’s trailer for 20 kilometres, from the hill’s summit to Motueka.

A truck driver spotted him in the trailer with a 1.2-metre-high cage, winding its way down the steep Takaka Hill road, and followed him to Motueka.

He asked Gnarley’s grandfather, who had stopped at the town’s Placemakers store, if he knew he had a child in his trailer.

He didn’t.

All those Labour MPs who went round saying their policy prescription in 2011 was the ducks nuts are going to have some serious humble pie to eat. I doubt they will though because butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths. David Shearer certainly appears to be rolling back Goff’s “game changer” policies:

“We still think a capital gains tax is something that’s good for New Zealand but I’m not so sure about some of the others,” he said.

And this guy went out all guns blazing today claiming the Government doesn’t know what it’s doing.

Sheesh.

Maurice Williamson has done the right thing and approved the sale of the Crafar Farms to the Shanghai Pengxin bid. The creditors of Alan Crafar have got the best deal that they can rather than the discounted attempt by Michael Fay to screw the scrum in his favour.

Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson and Associate Minister of Finance Dr Jonathan Coleman this morning said they had accepted the recommendation of the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) to grant consent to Milk New Zealand Holding, a subsidiary of Shanghai Pengxin Group, to acquire the 16 Crafar farms.

“It is clear that all criteria under sections 16 and 18 of the Overseas Investment Act 2005 have been met, therefore we accept the recommendation of the OIO to grant consent,” Williamson said.

“We are satisfied that Milk New Zealand’s application for consent meets the criteria set out in the Act,” Coleman said.

A condition of the sale is that a joint venture company to be owned 50/50 by the Chinese and Landcorp would develop and manage the farms.

The majority of the planning, budgeting and reporting relating to the farms would take place within the joint venture company and Landcorp would operate the farms, providing operational services and advice.

David Farrar posts about the Crafar Farms, compared with Labour’s record on land sales.

The small circle represents the size of the Crafar farms at 8,000 hectares. The large circle represents the amount of land sold to foreign owners under the last Labour Government at 650,000 hectares.

Under Labour, the equivalent of the Crafar farms were sold each and every month they were in office.

As readers know I have been collecting information about the Christchurch City Council and in the next few weeks I will be commenting further.

A rumour that has been coming through from a number of sources is that the Mayor offered to take the fall for any Earthquake stuff ups in exchange for a job after he stop being mayor and a knighthood.

This does not seem right for a man who hasn’t actually done anything other than stand in front of TV and talk. He will deserve a knighthood if he leads a successful rebuild, but until he does this rumour should stay just a rumour and there should be no “Arise Sir Bob”.

It also does not seem right that a Knighthood can be traded for taking political flak. Knighthoods need to be for a lifetime of service and contributing to the community, not taking the heat out of a political situation other politicians.

What do you call a deer with no legs and no eyes? The Labour party….still no idea.

Labour has now had the chance to get the measure of National’s ministers. Their initial punts as to who would be vulnerable targets were sometimes wide of the mark – such as welfare minister Paula Bennett.

They used their caucus retreat to refine their attack plan. Anne Tolley and Jonathan Coleman can expect to come under some pressure this time round.

Paula Bennett will not get off scot-free because Labour can not afford to ignore such a critical area as welfare reform. However, Labour is likely to wait until it has heavy artillery before trying to embarrass her.

Labour couldn’t get Tolley when she was Education Minister, I doubt they can get her now she is Police Minister. Jonathan Coleman?? Oh come on surely they jest?

I’m going to so enjoy watching Jacinda Ardern try and get one on Paula Bennett. The Pig hunter vs Socialist Cindy…can we have a reality TV show please.

There are moves in the UK to strip Sir Fred Goodwin of his knighthood:

Sir Fred Goodwin built the Royal Bank of Scotland into one of the world’s largest banks, earning a knighthood and walking away with a multi-million dollar pension as the bank collapsed.

But the former chief executive may still face a day of reckoning: an unusual movement wants to strip him of his knighthood, a rebuke usually reserved for criminals.

The movement has the support of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who says the Honours Forfeiture Committee will discuss the case this week.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says he sympathises with demands that Goodwin lose his title.

The Daily Mail quoted opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband as saying that, “knowing what we know now,” Goodwin should not have been knighted.

Goodwin, 53, is likely to retain his other title of “Fred the Shred,” a tribute to his aggressive cost-cutting while expanding RBS.

Shane Jones has made similar calls here.