Author Archives: thesentinel2012

This was meant to be a longer post about the New Zealand election, and how the MMP system might finally be working here. But it is shorter for two reasons. The first is that WordPress have changed the format for … Continue reading →

As certain publications celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Isle of Wight festival, one has to wonder whether we will ever see such musical gatherings again. They used to be all the rage, even here in New Zealand, where the … Continue reading →

Not a day seems to go by when some important figure from the music world, as it emerged in the 1960s and 70s, passes away. Following Peter Green, and of the most relevance to me was Martin Birch, not a … Continue reading →

Guitarist and songwriter Peter Green died in London a week ago, and I have been going back through my Fleetwood Mac records, and Peter Green CDs since then. I have tried to find an iconic photo, and have chosen this … Continue reading →

Back to politics again. But first, it is the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere today, and I woke up at 6am to a rumbling earthquake. It turned out not to be a big earthquake, by our … Continue reading →

New Zealand has gained some more publicity after the Prime Minister announced that the so-called Lockdown was over, and the coronavirus Covid-19 has been ‘eliminated’. Contrary to this public relations, the lockdown actually continues, and it is doubtful whether ‘community … Continue reading →

It is difficult to write, or even think about, anything apart from the current pandemic, and the so-called novel Corona-virus. I haven’t got much to say, other than that we have been lucky so far in New Zealand. But I … Continue reading →

Mike Moore was briefly the Prime Minister of New Zealand in late 1990, just before the Labour Party’s richly deserved loss in a landslide. Apparently he saved the Labour Party from completed annihilation under the previous leader, Geoffrey Palmer, a … Continue reading →

This is the first post of the year, and probably the last year of the blog. Hard not to be totally disheartened, firstly by events in the Northern Hemisphere, but mostly by the complete and utter ecological disaster in Australia. … Continue reading →

Everybody is still writing about the UK election. Didn’t he do well, that Boris. When he wasn’t hiding in a fridge, running down the clock, like the ice sculpture at the TV debate that the Conservatives didn’t see as a … Continue reading →