The America's Cup bill keeps racking up

And this is one reason I wasn't celebrating the Ministry of Yachting's America's Cup last win: because these gorgeous bastards will now have their hands in our pockets forever.

The latest cost to the honest taxpayer/ratepayer: upwards of $150 million (plus stuff-ups) to build them a home on the water.

Oh yes, folk will point to studies saying if "we" spend $150 million then "we" will get $300 million back.

Quite apart from the returns rarely if ever being quite as juicy as those studies ever show, the bare fact remains that the "we" in the paragraph above is for the most part not the same people. That is to say, those enjoying the most spectacular returns are rarely those making the most hard-won forced contribution.

To put it another way: is there a reason that those who do except a great return from the Cup shouldn't be the ones who pay? Because if that is their expectation, they would (or should) be quite happy to pay voluntarily, shouldn't they.

Anything else would just be corporate welfare.

And I thought a Labour Government was supposed to be against that.

.

Quote of the Day: On bludging sailors and subsidised Cups

“It’s starting to look as if Grant Dalton is well-named, because he’s after another one. A grant. A handout. A reach-around from taxpayer to pocket -- the pocket being his and his colleagues, the lever to extract the dosh being the fear “we” may not have [an] America’s Cup [defence…
    “Because his America’s Cup programme is looking increasing like it’s just welfare for well-fed sailors.
    “If he and his colleagues want to run another challenge, then I suggest they approach a few of those businessmen and women who can be heard saying the America’s Cup would be “good for the economy.” People like Marine Industry Association bludger-in-chief Peter Busfield [who says “a decision not to invest would be disastrous for New Zealand.” If people like Mr Busfield think it would be good for their economy, then let them either front up, or shut up. Put your hand in your own pocket, Peter, and keep it out of ours."
~ quote from this blog’s 2014 post ‘Piss Off, Grant.’

“The bottom line is this: if people with their own money want to enjoy having a team in the Cup,  then all power to them. Great. Put up your own dosh.
    “If businessmen and women think a Team NZ in the America’s Cup will help their business, then all power to them too. Let them put up their own money to help their business out.
    “And if politicians, like [Bill English] and Steven Joyce et al want a place at the international sporting table, then let the bastards go out and get a real job to earn it.
    “[And] don’t employ economists to write bullshit on your behalf to justify your expensive grandstanding.”
~ quote from this blog’s 2014 post ‘Sailing in Subsidised Waters’

.

Yachtsmen in the trough, again.

I could write another post on the subject of yachtsmen in the trough, but what would be the point in repeating what has already (I think) been made plain enough about these subsidised sailors with an entitlement complex who are among the wealthiest beneficiaries in the country.

I could repeat from any one of

• Piss off, Grant
• Team New Zealand: Sailing in Subsidised Waters
• Yet another reason to dislike Team New Zealand

It’s the same cronyism as the no-collapsed Sky City subsidy: an alleged economic benefit to something called “the economy” used to justify a private organisation’s costs being met by the taxpayer.

I don’t say an Auckland regatta and another tilt at the America’s Cup won’t be good for New Zealand business. I don’t say that it will either. What I do say is that if particular New Zealand businesses think it will be good for them, then they should pony up themselves.

That’s what sponsorships were invented for. (Something Grant Dalton used to know something about before he became a beneficiary.)

And if a crowd of  individual New Zealanders wants to get behind “their” team out of a sense of nationalism, then I say get to it and help fund it voluntarily. (That’s what crowd funding like Kickstarter was developed for, to get supporters funding projects they want to see happen without demanding others pay for their pleasures; something Grant Dalton should start trying to get his head around.)

Simple point: even if there is an economic benefit to be had, then there is simply no case that NZ taxpayers should be made to pay for specific NZ businesses to benefit economically.

Another Bermuda triangle we can do without

Grant Dalton is about to go the taxpayer government to talk turkey about getting “support” for a sum from the government taxpayer to help prop up his budget --  projected to be “north of $100 million” -- for Team Dalton to contest the next America’s Cup, announced yesterday to be held in Bermuda.

Dalton didn’t make the argument in his round of interviews this morning, presumably because he thought he wouldn’t need to, that New Zealand involvement would be good for New Zealand business. He was only concerned it would be good for Team Dalton.

But since others will be making that case on his behalf, let’s kick it out of the park right now.

I don’t say another tilt at the America’s Cup won’t be good for New Zealand business. I don’t say that it will either. What I do say is that if particular New Zealand businesses think it will be good for them, then they should pony up themselves. 

There is no case that NZ taxpayers should be made to pay for specific NZ businesses to benefit.

If Grant Dalton wants help, let him do the rounds of sponsors and make the case it will benefit them. Don’t approach the government with the begging bowl out hoping they will extract it from the taxpayer on their behalf.

That’s another Bermuda triangle we can do without.

Piss Off, Grant.

It’s starting to look as if Grant Dalton is well-named, because he’s after another one. A grant. A handout. A reach-around from taxpayer to pocket -- the pocket being his and his colleagues, the lever to extract the dosh being the fear “we” may not have another America’s Cup challenge.

Without an immediate cash injection the syndicate are, in the words of boss Grant Dalton, "gone by the end of the month."

And if Mr Dalton is looking nowhere else than the dwindling resources of the taxpayer for that injection (and the statement is made in the context of approaching the government yet again with a begging bowl), then it should be.

Because his America’s Cup programme is looking increasing like it’s just welfare for well-fed sailors.

If he and his colleagues want to run another challenge, then I suggest they approach a few of those businessmen and women who can be heard saying the America’s Cup would be “good for the economy.” People like Marine Industry Association boss Peter Busfield. If people like Mr Busfield think it would be good for the their economy, then let them either front up, or shut up. Put your hand in your own pocket, Peter, and keep it out of ours.

Team New Zealand: Sailing in Subsidised Waters

Did you see a government department released a report yesterday informing us that government spending our money supporting Team New Zealand made us all $50 million richer? Yeeha! If only they’d spent even more.

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce says the $36 million of taxpayers' money pumped into the last America's Cup challenge directly benefited the New Zealand economy to the tune of $87 million.
    Joyce … released two evaluation reports, both an independent evaluation [sic] of the Government’s investment in Emirates Team New Zealand… and an evaluation of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s leveraging programme in San Francisco.
    "The economic benefit from our investment in Team New Zealand is considerable. From a $36 million taxpayer investment,” Joyce said, “the evaluation shows an estimated positive impact of $87 million to the New Zealand economy."

Yeah right.

First: reports prepared for, and and paid for by government departments, are not independent – no matter what their press releases say.

Second: Even if you believe the figures, the “us” that was allegedly made much richer is a different group of folk to the “we” who were plundered on their behalf. But if you think a net gain to Grant Dalton makes up for your net loss, I invite you to knock on his exquisite front door and invite yourself in as if you own the place. You’ll find You’ll find that’s a form of redistribution Mr Dalton et al is unwilling to contemplate.

Fact is, only in government accounts, where (as our sailing-brother’s keeper) all our wealth is measured together, can a forced redistribution from long-suffering taxpayers to high-earning subsidised sailors be measured as a net gain to all of us.

Third: neither the report on subsidised sailing nor the other on corporate welfare, both touted as “cost-benefit” analyses,” properly address the cost to taxpayers. Or to put it in a way the report’s authors wouldn’t, the benefits that might have accrued to taxpayers if the the $36 million of taxpayers' money pumped into subsidising sailors had been left instead in taxpayers’ pockets. 

It estimates the “value added” by the spending of every one of those $36 million, but estimates not at all the value that might have been added by taxpayers themselves if it hadn’t been taken from them and distributed as high salaries and high-tech yachting equipment.  As if, you know, government subsidy is all benefit, whereas if they’d kept their own money Jack and Jill Taxpayer would have just, like, baked it into pies or something.

The alleged “economic impacts” of sailors’ spending their $36 million building and racing boats, buying houses, and paying restaurant and hotel bills is ramped up in the report by the international sponsorship it attracted and spent here by the even bigger spending in NZ of Oracle and Luna Rossa sailors (every dollar of which it explicitly assumes was only spent here because of every taxpayer dollar), and by a “multiplier effect” that inflates the effect of every dollar spent by the amount of “re-spending” of that dollar – while ignoring whatever “multiplier” might have applied to whatever productive spending you and I might have done with our own dollars if left in our own pockets. ¹

That spending on restaurant and hotel bills by the way is significant. Despite the talk of boatbuilding benefits and the like, the report informs taxpayers that “the sector receiving the greatest share of [Team New Zealand]’s domestic operational spend was ‘cultural and recreational services.’” And they don’t mean the cost of Maori concert parties.

Friday Morning Ramble: The Cup Hangover Edition

Three unfortunate New Zealand traits were in evidence after yesterday’s loss, almost outweighing the admirable New Zealand traits otherwise so much in evidence over the previous nineteen days in the teams of both boats (let’s not forget, NZers were everywhere): the ability to put together winning teams, the ability to put together winning technology, the passion to pursue excellence, and the ability to win. (Yes, plenty of NZers were on the winning team, in all of the sailing, technology and organisational fronts. Just enjoy that.)
    The first and worst reaction to losing was whinging. Something NZers are getting too good at when losing.
    The second was the tall poppy reaction to Larry Ellison winning, all the whinging about how he had more money to spend than “we” did, and all the conspiracy theories asserting that if their boat was so fast and he is so rich then ipso facto he and his team must have cheated.  Get your hand off it, people.
    And the third was the almost instant leap into print from rent-seekers keen to continue having Team NZ on permanent welfare. Bollocks to that, I say. if people with their own money want to enjoy having a team in the Cup,  then all power to them. Great. Put up your own dosh. If businessmen and women think a Team NZ in the America’s Cup will help their business, then all power to them too. Let them put up their own money to help their business out. And if politicians, like Trevor Mallard, want a place at the international sporting table, then let the bastards go out and get a real job and earn it.

But do not, do not, have the cheek, the temerity, to demand that other NZers put their hands in their pockets to help you out.
    Please. Let’s not go there again.

Ian Taylor says America's Cup is vital for NZ boat industry [AUDIO, 4’33] – RADIO NZ
Of Free Riders and Forced Riders: America's Cup edition – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR 
The good news from the America's Cup – Paul Walker, ANTI DISMAL

Right. I’ve got that off my chest. On with some other things going on out there while you were otherwise engaged…

“Asenati Lole-Taylor MP uses distortion while trying to foment moral panic against vulnerable South Auckland whakawahine, fa'afafine and cisgender street sex workers... and she's not alone.”
Sex Work, Moral Panic and the Manukau Bill – Craig Young, GAY NZ

You might never before have valued the Daily Mail’s accuracy. But their description of John Key might change your mind.
"Perhaps she is having second thoughts about letting this galloping colonial clot through the front door?" – DAILY MAIL

Go on, take a guess. How many years on average?
"Sole parents spend an average 15.8 years on benefit" – LINDSAY MITCHELL

So much for Reserve Bank independence, eh?
That’s it, I’m done: RBNZ takes the path of discretion – Matt Nolan, TVHE

I think he makes a god point about Cunliffe’s Shadow Cabinet.
A signal to the Greens? – NO RIGHT TURN

If society as a whole--a nonsensical construct of course--is concerned about the well-being of low-wage workers why should shareholders in McD's, KFC etc. be the ones footing the bill?
McDonalds and the minimum wage – John Cochrane, THE GRUMPY ECONOMIST

“To paraphrase Hayek, electing one's govt is not the same thing as controlling it.”
- Philip Schuyler

The local #SurveillanceState isn’t going away.
Next step in the fight against a surveillance state – the TICS bill – Steffan Browning, FROG BLOG

Simple advice for filling out the complicated STV voting for.
Don’t vote for people you don’t want – STEPHEN FRANKS

Okay, who has more economic power in the US -- rich business people or politicians?

Daniel Hannan speaks on Magna Carta: the secular miracle of the English-speaking peoples.

In his latest book, The Great Degeneration, historian Niall Ferguson argues that the west is stagnating because of broken "institutions."
'The Great Degeneration' - by Niall Ferguson – PRACTICE GOOD THEORY

Another story from the Law of Unintended Consequences. (This is your future under Bernard Hickey.)
Currency controls invite arbitrage – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

Don’t trust models funded by taxpayers, either economic or climate models, or on anything else, that are in the perceived self-interest of the political class doling out the funding.
Model Meltdown: Govt Funds the Forecast It is Looking For – Richard Rahn, TO THE POINT NEWS
'Political advocacy by climate scientists has damaged trust in the science' – THE HOCKEY SCHTICK

Oh, and careful of that mathematics.
Mathematical Truths Do Not Make Untrue Assumptions in Economics True – ADAM SMITH’S LOST LEGACY

"If we used today's inflation measure in the 70s, there would've been no inflation."
- Peter Schiff

“The "foreign aid ends poverty" debate is over. Jeff Sachs omits aid from things ending poverty.”
The End of Poverty, Soon – Jeffrey Sachs, NEW YORK TIMES

Growth? Prosperity
Illusion of Prosperity: Deflating the American Dream; No Recovery in "Real" Income – MISH

Are we really any wiser than we were five years ago?
Six Lessons You Should Have Learned From the Financial Crisis – Brett Arends, WALL STREET JOURNAL

“The United States is caught in a stimulus trap from which there is no easy exit. How can the Fed wean the economy from stimulus when stimulus IS the economy?”
The Stimulus Trap – Peter Schiff, March, 2013
The Taper That Wasn't – Peter Schiff, Sept 18, 2013

“Human beings are suckers for a story. The story peddled by mainstream economic commentators goes that the US Federal Reserve and its international cousins have acted boldly to prevent a second Great Depression by stepping in to support the banks (and not coincidentally the government bond markets) by printing trillions of dollars of ex nihilo money which, through the mechanism of quantitative easing, will mysteriously reflate the economy. It’s a story alright, but more akin to a fairy story.”
Taper (where?) party – Tim Price, COBDEN CENTRE 
No tapering, no surprise – Alasdair Mcleod, COBDEN CENTRE

The simple reason Ben Bernanke can’t “taper” …

Yes, Dianne Feinstein, people have.
These 5 people used an AR-15 to defend themselves and it may have saved their lives – THE HUMBLE LIBERTARIAN

Yes, you can both dispense justice and save money.
An Amnesty for Prisoners of the War on Drugs – Ernest Drucker & Mike Trace, HUFFINGTON POST

No, fracking isn’t as dirty as you think.
Is hydraulic fracking for natural gas safe? – Leith Van Onselen, MACROBUSINESS
The new fracking study environmentalists don't want you to see – THE WEEK

Yes, there is good news this week.
HIV infection figures tumbling around the world – NEW SCIENTIST

Yes, Islamist attacks are universal.
Two Muslim Outrages – POWER LINE
All Muslims leave.. we only want non-Muslims – AFRICAN SPOTLIGHT

Yes, even a Marxist Muslim can make sense.

Germany demonstrates the world’s energy future.
Germany's green dream is becoming a nightmare – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, VANCOUVER SUN

Um, but what happens if do you lose the last decimal?
EU climate chief: “You don’t need to have the last decimal to see that the overall number isn’t  looking good” – Steve Milloy, JUNK SCIENCE

“UN IPCC Report Exposed By Its Own Members as ‘a pure political process”
Why the IPCC Meeting Isn’t Being Televised – NO FRAKKING CONSENSUS

“The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is set to release its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the physical science of climate change at the conclusion on its editorial meeting in Stockholm scheduled from September 23-26th. A version of its Summary for Policymakers (SPM)—perhaps the most influential portion of the report as it is the widest read—has been “leaked” to generate media interest in the upcoming release. It certainly has, but perhaps not in the manner intended. The leaked SPM has revealed a document so flawed and removed from current science that it has been described as not only being  "obsolete on the day that it is released, but that it will be dead wrong as well."”
More IPCC Misdirection: Its Dodgy Sea Level-Rise Assessment – Patrick Michaels & Paul Knappenberger, CATO AT LIBERTY
Access: The “leaked” IPCC AR5 draft Summary for Policymakers – WATTS UP WITH THAT
EPIC FAIL: Financial Times graph shows IPCC projections fail against observations – JUNK SCIENCE 
Sure the warming is there if only they could find it – ANDREW BOLT

“IPCC Scientists “forced to concede that the models have been giving CO2 too much weight as a climate driver’”
Warming Gets Delayed Again…IPCC Scientist Mojib Latif: Pause “May Stubbornly Remain Until 2020 or 2025″! – P. Gosselin, NO TRICKS ZONE

“Arctic ice was the last remaining surface refuge for the perpetrators of the climate scam, and now they have retreated to the missing heat in the deep oceans – more classically known as climate science hell.”
Hell Freezes Over For Climate Alarmists – Stephen Goddard, REAL SCIENCE

“But there’s a CONSENSUS!” shrieked the bossy environmentalist with the messy blonde hair.  “That, Madame, is intellectual baby-talk,” I replied.
The illogic of climate hysteria – Christopher Monckton, WATTS UP WITH THAT

“If you had the opportunity to ask 5 critical questions for the IPCC, what would you ask?”
Five critical questions for the IPCC – CLIMATE ETC.

The IPCC responds to the five questions sceptics are asking:

Which do you prefer? (Yes, this is scientific research.)
The average women's faces in different countries –MY SCIENCE ACADEMY

Perhaps I should hang out more outside philosophy departments?
The hotness-IQ tradeoff in academia – THE HARDEST SCIENCE

Now, the results of  this I really would be interested in.
Tell Us: Which Way Does Your Desk Face? – APARTMENT THERAPY

“Our fascination with faces exists, to some extent, on the day we’re born.”
How we learn to see faces – 3 QUARKS DAILY

Cool!
The world's first inflatable concert hall arrives in Japan's disaster-hit north eastern coast – ARCHINECT NEWS

Bring on the Kickstarter!
Atlas Shrugged Movie Launches Kickstarter Campaign – Dale Halling, STATE OF INNOVATION

Then, they came for the chess players, and I said nothing …
Brickbat: Checkmate – HIT & RUN

Serial Thomas Jefferson liar won’t go away.
Debunking David Barton's Jefferson Lies – Chris Rodda, HISTORY NEWS NETWORK

 

"The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to
take the government off the backs of the people."
-Justice William Douglas

“Why don't apes have musical talent, while humans, parrots, small birds, elephants, whales, and bats do?”
Why Humans Are Musical – SCIENCE DAILY

Mies Van Der Rohe’s modernist icon--the world's largest single-room schoolhouse, the Crowne Hall—is being renovated. Not everyone’s happy.
The redesign of the interior of Mies van der Rohe's Crown Hall: Glass Boxes within the Ultimate Glass Box – ARCHITECTURE CHICAGO PLUS

“It's what architects call the useless, non-occupiable additional space in super-tall structures.  In fact, there's even an organization that measures and ranks buildings on the vanity height variable.”
Much of the height in Earth's tallest towers is useless space – io9.COM

The late-twentieth century’s favourite stylist—for a time he was interior design’s Jamie Oliver—lets photographers into his apertment.
A Visit To Terence Conran's Old Apartment – APARTMENT THERAPY

Yes,we have the technology.
Michael Green: Why we should build wooden skyscrapers – ARCHITECHNOPHILIA

Cool!!
10 Live Gems By Louis Armstrong - 1940-1947 – THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG

Grammar jokes on a mug. What could be better?

And finally, tomorrow is the last Saturday in September. Time for the world’s most libertarian Grand Final!
Complete 2013 AFL grand final guide – THE ROAR
Grand Final preview: Hawks v Dockers – AFL.COM.AU
AFL grand final: five of the most memorable moments – ABC

Thanks for reading.
Have a great weekend!
PC

[Hat tips Anti Dismal, Keeping Stock, Geek Press, Division of Labour, Bishop Hill, Small Dead Animals, Climate Depot, On Liberty Street, Mark Thoma, Mark Thornton, Justin Templer, Peter Schiff, AECR, Virginia Murr, William Easterly, Eric Crampton, The Anti Al Gore, Julia Hartley-Brewer]

‘The Billionaire and the Mechanic’

It’s the story of how the billionaire, Larry Ellison, brought the America’s Cup to San Francisco through his friendship with a car mechanic. “It’s non-fiction that reads like a novel.”

And this is just the story of how he first won the Cup, and that’s almost the material for a film.

As if history’s greatest ever sporting comeback—the dramatic story, that finally ended this morning, of how the Cup was held by the same team—isn’t material enough on its own!

The world’s biggest sporting comeback. Ever.

Granted, I”m not a sporting historian, but if anyone knows a bigger, more spectacular come-from-behind sporting victory than this famous America’s Cup victory by James Spithill’s and Team Oracle, then let us know.

These boys started at minus 2.  They were down on the canvas with a broken arm at 8-1. Yet they got up, focussed, fixed things, and came out to win, eight straight, against the very best Team NZ could try to throw at them.

That right there is the work of deserving champions.

So stop whinging New Zealand, and start recognising greatness when you see it.

And start being thankful our pockets aren’t going to be picked to “rebuild” the Auckland Viaduct in the vision of Len Brown and Stephen Joyce.

Some random Cup questions

How do you manage to go sideways in one race for the Auld Mug just when you’re catching up, and then put yourself dead in the water at a start in another one—putting your boat right in the way of the other boat—just at the moment it looks like you’ve taken the advantage?

From 8-1 down to 8-7 (or 8-9 if you exclude the court’s penalty against Oracle) are we witnessing the greatest comeback ever in any major sporting contest?

Isn’t that a reason to admire James Spithill and Russell Coutts, instead of denigrating them?

Given that sailors are saying Oracle is a better boat but much harder to sail well, and it took some learning time in those first few races to get it right, isn’t that even more reason to admire their cool heads when losing, and their skill and application now they’re winning?

Is it just me, or is the frustration many New Zealanders feel at being on the receiving end of the amazing comeback turning just a little bit into an entitlement mentality? As if we’re somehow entitled to the world’s oldest sporting trophy? As if the sporting gods should hand over the Auld Mug just for our effort?

And given that Oracle has just crossed the “-2 threshold” initially imposed by the courts, isn’t the contest likely to end up back in the courts if TNZ were to pull out one last win? [UPDATE: Question is null. Larry Ellison confirmed this morning it won’t happen.]

Is there anybody else who isn’t listening to Pete MontCommentary on Radio Sport/NewstalkZB instead of the moronic Martin Tasker on TVNZ?

UPDATE: And finally, can anyone hear the fat lady out back starting to gargle?

Do you have any random rhetorical questions of your own you’d like unanswered … ?

And they’re off … or are they? [updated]

Wait your patience with the classic Irish yachting commentary…

UPDATE: Former blogger Cactus Kate is a Kiwi Ninja.

A non-contest for a non-trophy

Despite NZ’s victory on the water this morning in the conclusive Louis Vuitton UP race, it’s hard to take it seriously.  It was a non-contest for a non-trophy with a non-audience, winning them the right to be in a contest that no longer matters.

Yes, it’s a dramatic boat when it’s flying. But there were only two boats in the non-contest, only one of them fully prepared. 

So little interest has the world for the contest only two of the world’s billionaires had sufficient interest to back other boats. Just them, and the long-suffering New Zealand taxpayer fronted up—pouring millions into a sport once described as the equivalent to rich men standing in a shower tearing up hundred-dollar bills. 

Why the New Zealand taxpayer was fronting up to join in tearing up hundred-dollar dollar bills with the lingering number of few billionaires still interested in the non-contest is a mystery known only to our Prime Minister.

The Louis Vuitton Cup is a non-trophy. The America’s Cup has been so sullied for so long it is now little but a joke.

Despite the obvious thrill of a boat this spectacular flying under one of the world’s greatest bridges, it is hard get beyond the thought that what we are watching here is not so much a sport, but a welfare programme for sailors.

Hiding Haden’s comments doesn’t change the truth [updated]

So I’m curious now. What was it that Andy Haden actually said?

I'm of the mind that if women head out on the town with the purpose of being shagged by a sportsman, then they must bear some responsibility for their actions.
    Treating all women as victims infantilises them. If women want sexual freedom, they must accept sexual responsibility.
    Alcoholic comas, unwanted sex and remorse are occupational hazards for trollops on the prowl.”

Oops.  No, that was Kerre Woodham.

There are people who are really just there for a screw. They are the team bike. And that's really distasteful to me ... The players are just going to laugh at them the next day. They find them a nuisance. I think those people are in it not because they enjoy the game, but because they want to have sex with a football player."

Oops, no that wasn’t him either. That was a 22-year-old who “confesses to being a former football groupie but believes she has now moved into the inner sanctum of a Sydney-based club. ‘It's not about me wanting to sleep with them and kiss them any more, it's about me enjoying their company,’ says Jane (not her real name).” So what did Haden say that was so out of turn? Here it is—no fooling this time:

There's a bloke called Hugh Grant. He got into a bit of trouble like this and I think if the cheque bounces sometimes, they only realise that they've been raped, you know, sometimes," he said. Haden said there were two sides to every story. ‘It's an equal society now, some of these girls are targeting rugby players and they do so at their peril today, I think.’"

So, um, anyone care to tell me which part of that is incorrect? Anyone? So if it’s not wrong, then what was so wrong in saying it?  Nothing, says Lindsay Perigo, who reckons Haden is one of the few honest and courageous men in NZ public life:

Andy Haden's resignation as Ambassador for the Government's Rugby World Cup programme marks him out yet again as one of the very, very small number of people in New Zealand public life with integrity and courage…
     Mr. Haden is a hero. Lesser men—most men in New Zealand—would have gone on television, wept, apologised, begged forgiveness from all the people he supposedly had let down—and pleaded to be given another chance. Mr. Haden instead removed himself with great dignity from a situation where he would continue to be harassed by quacking dimwits masquerading as television reporters for the sin of speaking his mind, and reprimanded by moral pygmies like Murray McCully for the same reason.
     ”It is to be hoped Sky TV will not now lose its nerve as it did over the Murray Mexted affair, and will keep Andy Haden on as a fearless and robust commentator in a nation sadly lacking in fearless commentary in all fields.”

Not much to disagree with there, is there.  So does sacking him change the truth?  Or simply diminish debate.

UPDATE: 

Make Paul The Octopus Rugby Ambassador, says Libz leader Dr Richard McGrath   
    Libertarianz leader Richard McGrath today nominated the German octopus known as Paul as replacement for ex-All Black Andy Haden, whose utterances could not be kept under tight government control.
    "Paul is the sort of useful idiot Lenin would have loved," said Dr McGrath. "A spineless creature of subhuman intelligence who can only choose between options selected for him by his masters. Ideal fodder for the political ends of John Key and Murray McCully."
    "Andy Haden could not be relied on to stick to the script laid out for him by the National government who, as their name suggests, have nationalised the Rugby World Cup and would not hesitate to nationalise the rowing team ahead of the upcoming world championships. Their Labour predecessors were no better, forcing tax victims into funding local millionaires to compete in America's Cup yachting."
    "Unfortunately, John and Murray weren't prepared for the prospect of one of their appointees having a mind of his own and not being afraid to speak it," added Dr McGrath. "The 'psychic' octopus would be a much better choice, incapable of saying anything remotely controversial."
    "They could put his aquarium in one of those ugly sheds on the Auckland waterfront. Heaven knows no person in their right mind would want to party inside one of those architectural eyesores."  

Yet another reason to dislike Team New Zealand

• STUFF: Peter Montgomery, the voice of New Zealand yachting, was dropped from covering the current Louis Vuitton Pacific series at the request of Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton…

A few years back when we were seeking support from local businesses for our Walk For Capitalism, we approached Team New Zealand and were told to go away.  “We’re pretty much all socialists here,” we were told – which was certainly consistent with the amount of taxpayers’ money they were spending.  It was no surprise then when they started that year’s regatta by taking out on the water a boat whose main feature seemed that it needed to be bailed out to stay afloat.

Seems now that nothing’s changed.  They now seem to think they should be able to wield the big stick over who gets to commentate on them -– and Government TV has acquiesced by agreeing to replace the competent, plain-speaking and entertaining Peter Montcommentary with back-scratching place-holders Tasker and Lester.

Loyal?  You have to be kidding, Mr Dalton.

UPDATE:  Good on Radio Sport for telling the Muldoonist Mr Dalton to go piss up a stick.