WELL, it's been a funny old week in Parliament. I made the announcement that I was stepping down at the next election and was flattered

DID it cross your mind occasionally, in the past week, to wonder where all of the "250,000 civilians trapped in eastern Aleppo" have

JOHN Key has surprised everyone and pulled the plug. But it's probably a pretty good time to do it. With a workable consensus forming

WHEN Ole Romer determined that light has a finite speed it was 1676. Putting the year in perspective, it was 10 years after the

IT'S A funny thing, but after every election someone finds a reason to explain why "their" candidate failed to make it. Of recent

PHEW. That was some curveball. Totally out of left field (sorry ... right field), John Key announces he's quitting and eclipses TV

Our region is alive and well and heralding the festive season with market days, Christmas parades and even night markets - many of

Von Clausewitz's aphorism that "war is the continuation of politics by other means" may well apply today, with reversal of the two

There has always been a philosophical debate in politics - should governments/councils be in business? More specifically, should

The death of Ray Columbus on Wednesday has added another music icon to what many see as a swingeing cull on pop stars in 2016. David

Separate dux Again, I wonder whether New Zealand is a country of equality or are racial distinctions still seen as necessary? We

As I write my final contribution for the year (and - as I am about to leave Whanganui - for the foreseeable future), I am thinking

Care confusion Re: The lovely independent 91-year-old and her troubles with Mid Central District Health Board and its home care policy. I

YOU will be amazed by this satirical take on conspiracy theories and clickbait. Did you realise that there are untruths everywhere;

THE human race is like a smoker. As cigarette smoke is to the human body, greenhouse gases are to the planet. So we can learn lessons

New mayor Hamish McDouall's idea of government department's in Wellington damaged by the November 14 earthquake re-housing in Whanganui

Last month's Whanganui Science Forum talk featured Doug Armstrong from Massey University. A professor of conservation biology, he

IT'S been a funny old week, and readers will have no doubt seen the news that this will be my last term in Parliament. I appreciate

LIKE Green Party member Chris Cresswell, I, too, was in Auckland last week for the Royal New Zealand Navy's 75th anniversary. Unlike

THE worst-kept secret in town is now official - Whanganui is to be the nation's new capital city. Any day now, following extensive

Guy McPherson is nothing, if not controversial. His human extinction within 10 years prediction polarises people. And attracts large

WE HAD a bit of a Guy Fawkes evening the other night. It was all very low key. I brought home a large old washing machine drum and

EVENTS over the past two weeks in the rest of the country and now, with the vandalism and attempted arson of Whanganui's surf lifesaving

The news that Kerry James Borrows - aka Chester - is stepping away from politics prior to next year's General Election is not a great

Another White Ribbon Day last Friday, and another good crowd supporting the cause of ending domestic violence against women. It is

Looking back I realise I have had a privileged art education. At Parakino Maori School I was a day one student in the new modernist

AS THE silly season descends on us and - hopefully - so does the summer weather, opportunities to get together with family, friends

MONDAY They call me The Punisher but at the end of the day I'm just plain old Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Philippines, and

THE sixth anniversary of the Pike River disaster has been and gone with some new information exposed. Radio New Zealand's Checkpoint

I'M NOT known for quoting from The Bible, but Luke 21:11, "There will be great earthquakes ... famines and plagues ... and there