Should Key have stayed?

The Herald reports:

Prime Minister John Key’s decision to quit an overseas trade mission to attend the funerals of three Air Force servicemen has been criticised as “short-sighted and irresponsible”.

The comments were made by Cognition Education chief executive John Langley, who was one of 90 business men and women in the delegation to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

John Langley is, I presume, the former Dean of Education at Auckland University whom No Right Turn reports in 2005 defended David Benson Pope’s right to throw tennis balls at pupils. No Right Turn called him an “apologist for sadism”.

Dr Langley described the helicopter crash on Anzac Day as a terrible tragedy.

“But is that a reason for the Prime Minister to abandon his international obligations and rush back to New Zealand to do little more than pander to New Zealand public opinion and our moralistic and judgmental press?”

I am sure that some of those on the trip were disappointed that the PM had to leave them for a few days. But for my 2c I think it was absolutely the right call to return home for the funerals of the three servicemen.