Narrow-minded interest groups opposing safe progress in medicine and food production have won the first round in the battle over Genetic Engineering, ACT Biosecurity Spokesman Owen Jennings said today.

“The Luddites have a lot to answer for – and not just to MS sufferers.

“The High Court ruling on Hamilton's Ruakura Research Centre reflects an application process that is so convoluted and complex that it seems almost impossible to negotiate.

“New Zealanders want – and deserve – a robust application process. This new ground in science demands caution and careful consideration. However, we have gone too far.

“Our application process is the most draconian and expensive in the world.

“The Luddites who have played on public fear and insisted on such irrational complexities must be reined in.

“The Government has staked its future on fostering hi-technology, ‘knowledge’ industries. They must now get control of the situation quickly and firmly.

“Sanity must prevail over dogmatic ideology,” MP Owen Jennings said.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>