Aunt Sally or violence condoned by Susan Grimsdell
A crossword puzzle clue led me to discover a 17th century game still played in pubs in England. A model of the head of an old woman is put on a metal spike and players throw battens or sticks at it. The object is to knock the head off the spike. In France the game is called jeu de massacre (game of carnage), in England it’s known as Aunt Sally. With the blessing of the PM In 2011 the inaugural Aunt Sally Singles World Championship took place in West Oxfordshire, with the… Read More
My dream parliament by Susan Grimsdell
Sometimes we have to dream. My dream is that members of parliament would show up in the House with one purpose in mind: to work out a way to make New Zealand a better country. Bad behaviour By that I mean all of them, not divided into parties who in reality spend most of their time and energy trying to tear down each others’ ideas and make fools of one another. Anyone who has listened to Parliament Live comes away shocked at the stupid level of so-called “debate”. They’re like school kids,… Read More
Climate change in action by Susan Grimsdell
A survey of how kids get to school found that of the sample number of approximately 800,000 young people, about 580,000 get there by car, 450,000 of those driving themselves, which means they were unlikely to be able to take a passenger. About 100,000 took a public bus or train and just over 100,000 caught a school bus. Action not words I was interested in these numbers when I thought about the kids’ recent climate change march. “What do we want? Climate change action. When do we want it? NOW!” I’m all… Read More
The climate will change by Susan Grimsdell
By the time our children are grandparents, our world will be like nothing we can even imagine. The planet will have a climate not seen for hundreds of thousands of years. Oceans over a metre higher, flooding and rainfall like we’ve never experienced, together with severe drought and forest fires, and large numbers of migrants trying to get into New Zealand. These are the facts, this is what we are facing. But how many of us are taking climate change seriously? We give lip service to awareness that the climate is changing,… Read More
Get it together and get it right by Susan Grimsdell
Sometimes I think different parts of the NZ government live on different planets. One part is always warning of the risk to the economy of New Zealanders’ high level of indebtedness. We’re told we’re deeper in debt than almost anyone else in the world: Fitch Ratings (whoever that is) reports that this country has one of the world’s highest household debt levels, at 93% of GDP. Save or spend? By the same token, we’ve also been told time and again that we need to save more. Consumer advocates urge us not to… Read More
