Pundit

It was Winston Churchill who said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Like the names of loves long lost, we often forget, and so it is with politics.

Gaps remain in the new Auckland city structure, as do questions about just how much influence citizens will have over decisions that will affect their daily lives, but the importance of local boards is becoming increasingly clear.

Climate change fatigue has well and truly set in. This isn’t surprising. Despite all the hype, Copenhagen was little more than a talkfest that ignored what lies at the root of the issue - the fanciful notion that unlimited economic growth (premised on perpetual consumption) is somehow possible on a planet with finite resources and a limited capacity to absorb waste.

Pedro Almodóvar is a treasure of the screen, supremely sensitive to surfaces, characters, and the workings of the cinema itself. His devotion to the craft is unmistakable, demonstrated by constant hints, persistent allusions to past greats, and the mechanics of filmmaking.

Since December 2006, more than 13,000 people—police, soldiers, gangsters and civilians—have died across Mexico in shootouts, bombings, assassinations, kidnappings and torture.

I’m having trouble accommodating approaching old age. I rail against it. And yet I’m told (mostly by The Young, to whom old age is as remote as life insurance and superannuation) that I should think of the alternative and thank my lucky stars I’m still here.

In the aftermath of the civil war in Sri Lanka, New Zealand should re-examine the small but potentially incendiary role it may have inadvertently played in the conflict.

Jeanette Fitzsimons’ Sustainable Biofuel Bill began its first reading last week. She says it corrects mistakes in the government’s Biodiesel Grants Scheme, which commenced on 1 July.

During my short stay at grammar school I learned some Latin and French (as well as English). French was never much use to me but Latin, in later years, became more and more valuable because it is not only at the heart of much English but has also helped with what little Italian I’ve needed for several trips to that country.

The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Review Committee has finished hearing submissions. Peter Dunne says it aims to report “as soon as possible”. It’ll take more than common sense - is there a Solomon in the House?

Looking objectively at a distance of 20,000 km from the land of my birth I have always found it hard to believe that the EU will survive; that it will be more than an anomaly in a restless history of self-serving tribes.

Alain de Botton and I parted company a while ago. As he’s said himself, Essays in Love and The Romantic Movement are books for a certain age and stage.

In the modern drive to re-define and re-name entities, almost the first task of any new one is to commission a logo design.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) meets in Portugal next month, in the throes of delicate and difficult negotiations, which might be a metaphor. It has to save itself, before it can save the whales.

The story’s been around for years -- decades, actually. Sue Kedgley has repeatedly climbed in and out of sow crates and posed with bald startled chooks, patiently asking the questions and releasing the statements.

I am no great animal lover. Not that I’d do them any harm, mind you, but I always circumnavigate paddocks containing beeves that look the least aggressive and I’ve always thoroughly disliked zoos.

Meat-eating in Green circles is considered rude, and cruel. The received wisdom is that one can’t credibly plug animal welfare and the environment while trashing them. I was, for many years, convinced of the utter rightness and unassailable logic of being vegetarian and, more briefly, vegan.

Once upon a time there lived a little gardener in a little house with one too many cats. It seemed possible, thought the neighbourhood children, that she might be a witch.

Updated: In New Zealand we live in a self-delusory 'mouse-that-roared' world believing it within our power to lead while others follow. In reality, others hardly know what we're about or why we exist.

The statistics defy comprehension. All of them are shameful; some should make you weep.

I'm currently on holiday at home and enjoying the end of what I am reliably informed has been the best summer in years. I’m also enjoying observing what’s rattling the cages of New Zealand’s politicians.

In advance of making a maiden speech (I cannot remember when or where) I was once advised, by someone who knew about these things, to select a face from the crowd and to address myself to that face.

“I don’t want to wear a hemp shirt and hairy knickers, I want a 21st century lifestyle with a coffee machine.” —Dick Strawb

According to Gwynne Dyer , the era of cheap food is ending.

Apropos George Monbiot, I have been thinking about how to inculcate the necessary sense of urgency. In the eye of the perfect storm, not much seems to be happening.

The case for gardening for food is simply this: turning your lawn into vegetables saves money, saves the planet, tastes good, and is good for you.

With all the economic turmoil, everyone is talking about cutting staff.

The preferred mythology about academia goes something like this: innocent students arrive at university, largely untainted by politics, and are corrupted into radical views through the influence of their left-wing professors, who use the lecture theatre as a bully pulpit for postmodern relativism and