Me too. Mallard is a lowlife.

the divincimode said – “What’s next? Big raps because Graeme Burton wins the prison hopscotch competition? Weatherston the biggest priz hairdo?”

LOL !

Plop plop.

Did you see Big Bruv there ?

(Yes, 5.34 on barely two rides a week of training a couple of years ago)

To bad he also ruined NZ’s education system.

Agreed. The spelling is atrocious.

On a serious note I would expect any male up to say 55 to beat a woman in a bike race if they are both of equal fitness and both amateurs.

David, I cannot for the life of me understand your preoccupation with publicising the cycling activities of one of the most disgraceful pieces of slime that ever crawled across the political landscape. You appear to be somewhat naively trying to separate Mallard the person from Mallard the politician. Whilst that is possible in principle where individuals are charged with making unpopular decisions that they consider to be the right thing to do for the public good, or where one disagrees with an individual regarding a political persective or leaning, there is a line to be drawn where the public person is a pretty good indication of the private person in terms of ethics and standards of behaviour.

Mallard was central to everything you railed against when Labour was in Government. He was up to his neck in some of the worst political behaviour in living memory. It is a very long list as we all know. There is nothing he has said or done in opposition to in any way contradict the very reasonable expectation that the private and public persons are indeed one. The same naivety is reflected in your calls for Goff to apologise for the former Government.

People are indeed only human but the behaviour of Mallard, Goff et al before and since the election provides an excellent indication of exactly which direction their moral compasses are pointed. How anyone could ever form the impression that Mallard was even remotely worth the respect implicitly accorded an individual when separating the private and the public persona is beyond me. If Mallard was indeed a man of sufficient principle to warrant that separation, then he wouldn’t have stayed there and remained party to everything they did.

What’s next? Big raps because Graeme Burton wins the prison hopscotch competition? Weatherston the biggest priz hairdo?

And yes I KNOW, Mallard isn’t a stumpy Burton or a Weatherston by any stretch. He didn’t cross the line nearly as far as they did. But he did cross the line by a healthy margin in the context in which he operated.

You may feel that you have to maintain a modicum of civility with the politcal spectrum in order to sustain your business and political networks. But it doesn’t follow that you need to indulge in this obsequious preoccuptation with Mallard’s cycling endeavours. You could just as easily say nothing.