I have a lot of sympathy …

They should all get down off their high horses, the Hone bashers I mean.

I have a lot of sympathy for the kids who skip school. I missed one or two days myself back in the 70s. It was a boredom thing. No really – how many supply and demand graphs and mitochondria and great expectations should a kid have to take?

I’ve also been to Brussels, almost. I walked some of the way from the train station into the city centre. It was overwhelming dull and dark and grim and not a Brussel Sprout Museum in sight. I skipped back to the train station and carried on through Wilfred Owen country to Luxembourg which proved far more interesting, cheerful and delicious. So I understand Hone throwing a sickie.

And Hone’s right about Paris too. It’s a very cool city. The Louvre of course with Lady Liberty leading the way, the river into which one can briefly step and so be called temporarily insane, les patisseries, more than a few vin rouges of course, tarte au citron, the Eiffel Tower… And if the rain decides to heave down you can shelter in L’Arc de Triomphe at the top of that Champ’s Street, which is pretty bon.

I’ve not been to Tasmania but if I was ever there I think a trip to Darwin would be definitely on the cards. It’d be a ‘while I was in the neighbourhood I thought I’d drop in for a cultural chinwag’ sort of a thing.

But here’s the thing – wasn’t he supposed to be at work? Throwing a sickie when you’re a kid and the class is doing yet another turgid Wilfred Own is one thing. But skipping off from representing all NZers to the EU – that’s rather another thing. And lying to your boss about it. That’s almost as bad as lying to your grandmother.

I know it’s difficult to compare Hone’s work trip to Tasmania and his trip to Brussels with my recent work trip to the basement of the Thames Hospital for a Economics thing. He wasn’t chauffeur driven for a start. And he probably didn’t have paint peeling from the walls in an artistic sort of way.

My work trip to the basement of the Thames Hospital was paid for by just the one taxpayer – me; while his trip was paid for by all taxpayers. The other difference was that I did the right thing and stayed, while he did the wrong thing – things actually – skipped off, lied about it, and then used very crude language at the people who dared to challenge him about it.

Ironic really. Paris. Marie Antoinette. Let them eat cake. The revolution. Out with royalty and in with democracy. Hone.

— Peter Giddens