KEY POINTS:
Unlike most politicians who publish their memoirs, Tim Shadbolt has actually done a lot, as opposed to just said a lot. But his newly published book is disappointingly sanitised.
I - and many others - know stories about Tim which would make your neck hair stand up and applaud, but they don't appear.
It's a nervous publisher's once-over-lightly money-spinner, and doesn't do justice to Tim's warm-hearted and wacky character.
But I was amused to see a reviewer's snarky observation that former hippies in the book, such as Peter Verschaffelt and myself, turned into "right-wing libertarians".
The implication here is old hippies should end up supporting a party such as the Greens, but nothing could be more incorrect.
I can't talk for Verschaffelt. But though we might have been misguided hippies, taken too many mind-altering drugs and made lots of love, we just wanted to be left alone to do our own thing. Peace, love and brown rice, or Timothy Leary's "turn on, tune in, drop out" were just flower-power versions of the libertarians' non-initiation-of-force principle.
In other words, keeping government out of people's private lives - and wallets - unless they needed protection from violence.
About the only commonality between old hippies and the Green Party is the drive for self-sufficiency and, until Nandor Tanczos stepped down, a naïve attitude to cannabis.
Two co-leaders notwithstanding, the current Green MPs are a thoroughly nice bunch of people, with the best intentions in mind.
In Parliament, they don't engage in petty or personal attacks, despite MPs such as Sue Kedgley and Keith Locke having to endure unforgivable bullying from Act and National.
In general the Green campaigners are given a gentle ride in the media, which is not to suggest political reporters are all Green supporters.
But has anyone asked if the Scott Technologies listed by Jeanette Fitzsimons as a company in which she has a shareholding in the MPs' Register of Pecuniary Interests, is the same one that was given $4 million by the Government last year for research and development?
When actress/celebrity Robyn Malcolm launched the Greens' campaign, no one pointed out her ignorance when calling for less of everything except "wine, shoes, chocolate and sex".
If she sticks her nose in a vat of fermenting grapes she'll quickly learn the winemaking process produces substantial CO2 emissions.
Which is not a bad thing, since vineyards also provide big carbon sinks.
Malcolm and the Greens would show greater environmental intelligence if they called for carbon credits for grape-growers, farmers, orchardists, market gardeners - all who grow anything green.
Anyone who understands photosynthesis knows New Zealand's rapidly growing pastures, nurtured by dairy, beef and sheep farmers, are great carbon sinks. The Earth's blackness proves carbon is pulled down by the grass, and many scientists point to a net gain of carbon in our soil. That's why the Emissions Trading Scheme is grossly unfair.
Many of the Greens' policies are based on emotion.
Russel Norman photographs what he believes are cows breaching the Clean Streams Accord.
Sue Kedgley criticises food manufacturers and broadcasters for screening "junk food" ads during children's programmes.
She pinged Telecom for using children in its advertising campaigns, but which party is exploiting cute little children in an emotional plea for our votes to save the future?
Nonetheless, I support some Green issues. For instance, I made a submission in support of Sue Bradford's repeal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act, not that it will end child abuse but because children should receive the same protection as adults when an assault case comes to court.
And I compost, recycle, grow my own veggies and wine - generally do my bit for conservation.
But when it comes to environmental issues, their arguments are unscientific, resulting in legislation such as the Emissions Trading Act which reduces gross emissions by 1 per cent, and financially penalises the poor - those people Greens such as Bradford and Locke genuinely try to represent.
I guess this proves how complicated politics really is; that there's no natural political home for ageing hippies.
Shadbolt's done the rounds _ New Zealand First, Legalise Cannabis, and he recently aligned with John Key to save Invercargill's fee-free tertiary education status.
Don't care where, as long as I'm there. Meanwhile, is there anyone with the chutzpah to write a warts-and-all, unauthorised autobiography of New Zealand in the 1960s and 70s, or can they not remember it?
