Michael Laws

The more people keep trying to censure Michael Laws, the more I am tempted to revise upwards my opinion of him.

As even Nick Smith says, “If a mayor or a councillor has broken the law, that person should be prosecuted in a proper court. If the issue is about the behaviour or style of a mayor or councillor, the voters should be the judge.”

Michael is, to be blunt, a populist arrogant abusive bastard, and that is merely his good qualities. However he has been all of those for many decades and he got elected with people knowing that. If they did not, well tough.

The complaints are nonsense. As reported in the Herald some even relate to before he was elected Mayor.

The list of “offensive comments” from Michael are getting larger. To date they are:

* that the Exclusive Brethren should “be bred out of the human race”
* “journalists love getting pissed”
* described opera as “fat freaks warbling”
* referring to the Sarjeant Gallery collection as “crap”
* labelled some of his critics nutters, paranoid and lunatics
* described the nearby town of Raetihi as “genetically deficient”
* Wanganui COC (Concerned Ordinary Citizens) – which is the most unfortunate acronym in the history of lobby groups in this country … is a joke – obviously with that name it has to be.”

Finally today we have John Banks telling Wanganui people they are lucky to have Laws as Mayor as “Wanganui should otherwise not exist on merit”. Hey if Banks was still Auckland Mayor, they could complain about those comments also.