Kerre Woodham: Key right to skip talk fest

Was it his throbbing haemorrhoids or a brutal case of jetlag after the long flight home?

Whatever it was, something was riling Dr John Langley when he churned out his mean-spirited, nasty little attack on John Key.

Langley was a member of New Zealand's 90-person trade delegation touring the Gulf Co-operation Council States.

FYI, the GCC are meant to be the rich good guys - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates among others.

The delegation was looking to hawk its goods and services to these member nations and, no wonder.

According to Langley, it's the wealthiest region in the world and furthermore, he said, the GCC appears to regard New Zealand as a favourable partner.

You could almost see the exporter of educational services licking his lips at the prospect of some whacking great contracts.

And then, he wrote petulantly, the Prime Minister "blew it" by returning home for the funerals of three Air Force servicemen who died in a helicopter crash on Anzac Day.

It was "a knee jerk reaction", wrote Langley, an abandonment of his international obligations to "pander to New Zealand public opinion and our moralistic and judgmental press".

Seems you're doing quite a bit of moralising and judging there yourself, Dr Langley.

Langley accuses the Prime Minister of "scuttling back to New Zealand" and "abandoning an incredibly important mission". The Prime Minister's actions, said Langley, were "short-sighted and irresponsible". On and on it went.

And yet surely Langley must have known that John Key was damned whatever course of action he chose.

Stay, and be accused of putting the almighty dollar before human life; leave the trade mission and risk disappointing the delegates - although I'm sure the Prime Minister never imagined attending a funeral service would have provoked such an ill-tempered response.

Langley is hoist by his own petard when he claims New Zealanders are unable to have adult conversations about important issues. He's hardly showing how it's done with this tirade.

Did the trade mission founder because of the absence of the PM? Surely it's important to gauge the efficacy of the mission before damning the Prime Minister.

And if the success or failure of the tiki tour through the Gulf depended on the presence of the PM, does that mean his role in the future will be reduced to little more than that of a travelling salesman? Will he dangle along on every overseas road show like a good luck charm swinging from the rear view mirror?

We can whip out a PM when we really want to impress - as we did when we won the rights to host the Rugby World Cup - but surely a prime ministerial trump card loses its value when it's overplayed.

I wouldn't expect John Key to return from Langley's incredibly important sales trip if I'd been bowled over on Ponsonby Rd - but then, unlike members of the defence forces, I'm not expected to give my life for complete strangers as part of my job description.

Trade is vital to our tiny country and I think exporters are to be admired. They make many sacrifices while building up their businesses.

For their own good, certainly, but we all benefit when local exporters are raking in the moolah.

There may well have been a debate to be had about the long-term significance of trade and export versus a very personal desire to farewell colleagues but Langley's intemperate response didn't generate that.

The emotive, overwrought language chosen by this educator and his ascribing to John Key the most base motives for attending the memorial service of three young men he'd worked with and known personally says much more about Langley's motives than it does about the Prime Minister's.