Sideswipe

The technology moves ahead, but the attitudes stay the same. As seen in Wyndham St, Auckland.

Money must be getting tight at Act headquarters - the party is auctioning off political memorabilia on TradeMe to fund its election campaign. Political devotees can purchase the 1985 Budget Information Kit (current bid $1), a Roger Douglas speech (sitting on $1) or a 1996 election colour flyer (strangely also $1). But the current hit is a ride in the amphibious car Aquada, which was going for $225 when Sideswipe last checked. Being forced to run an online auction to raise funds is a huge change of fortunes for Act, which was the biggest-spending party at the last election when its bill totalled $1.6 million. Labour spent $1.4 million and National $1 million.

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Feel like a muffin and a coffee and a bit of time out from the electioneering in your ear every minute? Too bad. Even the muffin business is getting in on the gimmicks. Muffin Break is running a "bean poll" in which 12,000 people have voted. The results put Labour in the lead, but only just. Its share of the poll is 29.3 per cent. National sits close behind on 27.4 per cent. New Zealand First and the Greens are neck and neck on 14 per cent and 14.9 per cent respectively, and votes for the others make up the remainder. Coffee drinkers are voting nationwide via coffee bean, and the results may be no joke. In 2002 more than 65,000 people voted in the Muffin Break Bean Poll and the final tally closely mirrored the results on election night.

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From a reader: "How many police does it take to issue a traffic ticket? Well it seems if you live in Remuera, three: one to point/manage the hand-held radar gun, one to sit behind the wheel ready for the high-speed chase and the third to check on the other two. As seen on Friday at 11 to 12 am on the corner of Burwood Cres and Shore Rd. This level of policing says a lot for the security risk of living in Remuera these days."

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A Catholic priest repeatedly detained by airport security because his very common name appears on the US no-fly list has vowed never to fly again. John Smith, 64, an Irish citizen and Canadian resident, said airport officials first took a special interest in him in mid-July. Since then he has had to undergo thorough inspections before obtaining boarding passes. "It's degrading. I'm not flying ever again because I don't want to go through all this hassle," he said. "If it means I never go to the United States again, fine. I have no great desire to go there." A Transportation Security Administration spokesman said the priest, who travelled to the US each year to counsel couples, was targeted by mistake. It is quite a common name, they said ...