News 
The Press-News column. May 20
Cameras the best way to tackle Red-light runners. For the past month I’ve been busy self-driving my way across Europe on a work trip – and I must apologise to the Italians. I had a pre-conception that their driving attitude would mirror the way they talk. Fast, fevered and frenetic. They certainly drive assertively, but… Read More ›
The Press-News column. May 13
The Street Sex Trade in Christchurch. How crass, how churlish, how crude that at a time when the city is facing a half a billion dollar financial hole over the rebuild, the council is splashing the cash on an open-air brothel facility in Manchester Street. Beyond establishing a needle receptacle, toilet block, lighting and security… Read More ›
The Press-News column. May 6
Don’t Give Up on Christchurch. Doom, despondency and discontent has dominated the local news headlines in the past week, with floods sinking the morale of thousands, and many others putting the boot in to the central city blueprint. It is imperative that the city council keeps the faith and delivers tangible solutions to the residents… Read More ›
The Press-News column April 29
Commuter Rail for Christchurch? As a train-spotter from way back, I’m stoked that Environment Canterbury has commissioned an investigation into the viability of commuter rail circuit-breaking the Northern Motorway’s commuter gridlock. I’m one of those typical Kiwi tourists who always enjoys exploring overseas cities via urban rail, lamenting the lack of such mass transit infrastructure,… Read More ›
The Press-News column. April 22
Flooding woes in Christchurch. It was anything but a good Friday in Christchurch, as 65mm of rainfall deluged the city, partially closing the award-winning Fitzgerald Ave bridge, once again. After the March storm, I dredged a very belated concession out of council that the bridge design was badly botched, and that mitigation work is being… Read More ›
The Press-News column April 15
Reforming the way councils are funded. Margaret Thatcher was probably right. Ideally, the cleanest, most efficient and equitable way to fund core council services is through a poll tax – a fixed charge per adult resident. But Local Government New Zealand ( LGNZ) is playing it safe, by ensuring that perceived stick of political gelignite… Read More ›
The Press-News column April 8
It was a bright February day, when I was unceremoniously plucked out of Paparoa St school, dressed in my Sunday best and bustled out to Lincoln for my first brush with royalty. It was 1977. I was 5. In classic stage-mother fashion, my 7 year old sister, Lisa, and I were shoved through the throngs… Read More ›
The Press-News column Mar 31
The Raf Factor. He’s the bolter, the bloodhound, the big-hitter. And he is fast stapling his presence onto the city’s consciousness. Cr. Raf Manji, the most impressive newcomer to council, wasn’t elected to office with a pasteurised set of opinions from party central or enslaved to a rigid ideology. He is an independently-minded raging pragmatist,… Read More ›
The Press- News column Feb 18
A Poisonous Wrong. As a ridiculously precocious and defiant young St. Albans boy, I smoked a cigarette for the first time in my life, on my fourth birthday. Seated in my grandfather’s car, after sneaking into it, I gave myself a rather rogue birthday gift, by helping myself to the packet on the dashboard, lighting… Read More ›
The Press-News column Feb 11
Cooking up a storm. It’s pretty staggering that one fire-brand feminist managed to cut a swath through every major newspaper on Saturday. Massey University taxation academic, Deborah Russell has lashed out at Air New Zealand’s “degrading, objectifying, sexualised” safety video, shot in the Cook Islands with Sports Illustrated swimwear models. Would this grizzling Grizelda be… Read More ›
Mike Yardley News and Travel 