Opinion

We have done quite well

At our last council meeting, a plea was made for councillors to cut back on events and focus on the basics.

Editorial: Monday Monday

OPINION: The man after whom Invercargill is named wouldn't have approved of Mondayising holidays like Anzac and Waitangi days.

Editorial: Could have been worse

OPINION: When it comes to border security, over-reactions can be mightily irritating.

Short of a celebration

OPINION: Joe Bennett stuck around, stuck it out and beat the sticker.

Editorial: Financial game tough for sports

OPINION: To say we are smack in the middle of one of the most important periods in Southland sport would not be an overstatement.

The Secret Diary Of ... James Cameron

OPINION: It is James Cameron who attracts the attention of Stephen Braunias in this week's May Contain Facts.

Editorial: Signs of hope for Waituna Lagoon

At last, some good news about Waituna Lagoon.

Farming to the conditions

OPINION: We get far more weather extremes than those living in continental climates.

Editorial: Smelter makes canny move

OPINION: The world of international finance can be confusing to the uninitiated observer.

Press on with revolution

OPINION: Joe Bennett has got used to having his underpants ironed.

Editorial: Vive la difference

OPINION: An old boys' club of fatcats getting fatter – that would be one way to read the results of research into the gender of New Zealand's company directors and how much they get paid.

Editorial: Making the dreams real

OPINION: There's been a lot happening during the past few days: from Syria to Queenslandm and Waitangi to Kingston.

Editorial: Time to bite back

OPINION: Few international bodies can be as toothless as the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.

The secret diary of ... Hannah Tamaki

This week, Stephen Braunias turns his attention to Hannah Tamaki.

Editorial: Regrets, I've had a few

OPINION: Are we alone in finding it curious that the five biggest regrets of the dying, as recently reported, don't include: "I regret that I'm dying"? That might reflect a comforting sense, at the very end, of completion. Of peace about one's fate.

Editorial: Cruel convergence

OPINION: It was an unfortunate turn of phrase to call Glenn Becker a "fall guy".

Editorial: Treaty implications

OPINION: Prime Minister John Key will have to tread a fine line on Waitangi Day when he delivers his promised settle-down explanation for why neither Maori nor anyone else need get too het up about the Government's resistance to include the Treaty of Waitangi section in State Owned Enterprises legislation into new law planned to cover state asset selldowns.

Editorial: Room for manoeuvre

OPINION: Sometimes the right thing to do is to deviate from the straight and narrow.

The Secret Diary of ... David Shearer

Stephen Braunias checks out another secret diary in this week's May Contain Facts.

Why the city should wait

This year was looking reasonably positive for Invercargill and Southland, writes Tim Shadbolt this week.

Editorial: Somebody's 2c worth

OPINION: Just for a moment, your imagination may run away with you. The sole objector so far to a $23 million retirement home, hospital and associated facilities in Invercargill's Racecourse Rd has cited noise and traffic safety concerns.

Editorial: Bloody, bloody kids

OPINION: So, have our kids hardened up during the school holidays?

Why shearing is a sport

OPINION: Should shearing become an Olympic sport? With March's world championships being held in Masterton, that question has sporting purists the world over in a stir.

Editorial: Reckless adventurism

OPINION: It's certainly unsanctioned, most likely ill-considered, and arguably the vainglorious undertaking of a damned fool.

Editorial: Lukewarm outpourings

OPINION: The contents of the teapot tapes were pretty well stewed by the time they were released online.

Nothing to fear from Food Bill

OPINION: The Government's proposed Food Bill sets out to replace existing outdated food safety regulations, simplify processes and ultimately ensure that the food people buy is safe to eat.

Editorial: Report after report

OPINION: Vengeance fantasies are shabby things. We have one for you anyway, brought on by some dispiriting reading.

Editorial: Worth looking up

OPINION: Talk about your free-to-air entertainment.

The Secret Diary Of ... Mitt Romney

OPINION: This week, Stephen Braunias takes a look inside the secret diary of United States Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Suckers in my stockings

OPINION: The subject of this week's treatise is how pausing to scratch an ankle with the big toe nail of the other foot can cause you to forget the subject of this week's treatise, writes Joe Bennett this week.

Editorial: Even nice dogs can attack

OPINION: In the extremity of the moment, a pregnant Rotorua woman flung herself on her pet American bulldog attacking a young girl. That was brave.

Editorial: Still down there

OPINION: The Pike River mine is no resting place. Not yet.

Editorial: What about the workers?

OPINION: Maybe Central Otago needs to do a deal with the devil.

Editorial: Goliath reconsiders

OPINION: Meridian's Project Hayes wind farm has turned into a castle in the air.

Editorial: Cutting-edge sportsmen

OPINION: Picture any of the great New Zealand shearers.

Sign language

OPINION: Stephen Braunias takes a look at what the year my bring.

Editorial: Euro vision contestable

OPINION: The euro is in limbo. Not the state-of-purgatory version. Nothing so serene.

Editorial: A worksong for Chch

OPINION: The last thing Cantabrians could stomach right now is some overwrought anthem resolutely calling on them to rise up. Mercifully, the charms of the James Beck song Christchurch City (My Home Town) are no less discernable for being so modest.

Editorial: Editorial dribble

OPINION: That, we grant you, is a headline asking for trouble.

Editorial: Not getting away Scot-free

OPINION: Neither the Scots nor the Brits would thank us for portraying them as Siamese twins.

Editorial: Bladders and blame

OPINION: The good, the bad and the ugly.

Editorial: Nutritious but unhealthy

OPINION: Ethical as we try to be, should we prefer it if thieves are stealing vegetables and fruit rather than lollies, chips and fizz?

Easy to prove Sartre wrong

OPINION: Jean-Paul Sartre was dull and wrong. This will not come as news to anyone who has sat through one of his plays. They're a better soporific than Scotch, writes Joe Bennett this week.

Editorial: Another country

OPINION: A disreputable character called Barabas impatiently acknowledges committing fornication in the old play The Jew of Malta. "But that was in another country. And besides, the wench is dead."

Editorial: Getting over it

The Japanese whaling fleet security ship, Shonan Maru No.2, pictured recently in the Southern Ocean.

OPINION: There's a lot to be said for an anti-climax.

Editorial: Summer sorrows

Fair weather sometimes comes at the expense of fair warning.

Editorial: Dunedin overtures crudely timed

OPINION: Look out, Christchurch – the vultures are circling. Bad enough the threats that lie beneath, now Cantabrians are facing a threat that lies to the south as well.