PM confirms plane talk all hot air

National Party Finance spokesman John Key is relieved that Helen Clark has confirmed she was never serious about buying an exclusive Prime Ministerial jet.

“The Government’s answers to my written questions confirm the suspicion that the suggestion of a new Prime Ministerial jet was merely a convenient distraction to media pressure over her low-flying motorcade.

“The Prime Minister has confirmed, ‘there is no intention to change the existing arrangements whereby the Air Force makes transport available as appropriate’.

“Michael Cullen says neither he nor his department have done any work on purchasing a plane and ‘there is no intention to do so in the future’.

“It’s hard to reach any other conclusion, than the Prime Minister used the suggestion as a way to take the media focus away from her high-speed dash through Canterbury.

“Overtaxed New Zealanders don’t want the Government inventing new ways to spend their money. We’d all prefer a refund,” says Mr Key.

© Scoop Media

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>>