BREAKFAST CLOWN

TVNZ presenter Paul Henry is a failed National Party candidate with some very right wing views. He's so right wing that he thinks that the ACT Party are too moderate.

Despite the fact that the neoliberal ideology that Henry subscribes to has zero credibility, Henry still thinks 'the free market' is just the greatest - the problem is that it isn't 'free' enough. We need even less government, more private enterprise! To this end, Henry (on a six figure salary) would like to see the axe taken to what remains of the welfare state. It's little wonder that libertarian loony Linsay Perigo regards him as a kind of 'comrade in arms'.

I'm speculating that his Breakfast producers try to make Henry tone down his comments on air, but the clown just can't help himself. He opens his mouth - and he's off.

Last week Henry went 'off' again , this time having a go at something he used to attack when he was a talkback host - climate change.

Henry dismissed Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth as "absolute rubbish" and then went on to say that "there is absolutely nothing New Zealand can do to help". In the past Henry has described climate change as ' a ruse' and 'not proven'. Interestingly these are exactly the same kind of viewpoint's that Linsay Perigo and the 'libertarian' crowd express as well.

In the space of a few sentences Henry contradicted himself. Having rejected An Inconvenient Truth's view that we are confronted with a climate crisis he then admitted there was such a crisis but that New Zealand couldn't do anything about it!

It's indicative of the dire state of television journalism that Henry gets away with this nonsense.

But he gets away with a lot of things, like, for example, suggesting that Arabs have no taste and that beneficiaries are 'just lazy'. He gets away with a lot of things because he's working for an organisation that has just re-employed a man who described a former United Nations Secretary General as 'a cheeky darkie'.

I'm not one who advocates workers losing their jobs but its a pity that Henry is not one of the ninety TVNZ employees being shown the door.

Of course, as I've mentioned before, Henry has in the past advocated that TVNZ should be sold off. He has gone quiet on this in recent times though. The man who thinks there should be 'less state and more private enterprise' is more than happy to work for a state organisation - especially since that state organisation is paying him a six figure salary.