From Terry Dunleavy, national convener, Bluegreems:

The call by the Green Party for the killing of cows involved in a genetic modification experiment at Ruakura is yet another example of putting unreasoned prejudice ahead of human welfare, according to Terry Dunleavy, national convener of Bluegreens, an organisation that advises the National Party on environmental and heritage issues.

"With the Greens, it's people last", said Mr Dunleavy. "In the case of the Ruakura cows, it's the alleged bogey of GE before the welfare of people suffering from multiple sclerosis. The Green Party is determined to instill in New Zealanders an unreasoned fear of any genetic modification, whether or not the consequences have the potential to improve the quality of life for human kind.

"This is not surprising from a party which colluded with the Labour Party in condemning West Coasters to unemployment by stopping sustainable harvesting of a small fraction of West Coast indigenous forests on the false premise that this would save native trees. This in the face of evidence that human intervention and selective harvesting is necessary to ensure the long term survival of priceless indigenous forests under constant attack from a range of imported animal pests. In this, again, the Green Party demonstrated its belief that people have no place in their view of the environment.

"The Bluegreens view is that people are a vitally integral part of the environment, that our human management skills are necessary to defend indigenous forests against the depredations of imported noxious fauna, and that we are entitled to make intelligent and non-threatening use of science and nature to eliminate the scourge of diseases like multiple sclerosis for the alleviation of human suffering.

"The Green Party should be seen for what they really are: narrow-minded busy bodies interested only in a world of flora and fauna, in which people come a bad last, if they are to be tolerated at all," said Mr Dunleavy.

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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>>