Editorial: While Winston dithers, the world keeps turning

Mark Dawson, editor, Wanganui Chronicle

It's like standing on the edge of a precipice and staring down ... into the darkness below.
Teetering on the brink, we're feeling giddy ... light-headed.

But is it only the media, the politically-intoxicated and assorted pundits who are on tenterhooks as Winston Peters and his cabal decide the form, shape and hue of the next New Zealand government?

Are we the only ones caught up in this must-watch soap opera cliffhanger?

I've been thinking of that season finale episode of Shortland Street where there's a wedding, then a bomb goes off, then there's the sound of machine-gun fire, an expanding pool of blood and distant sirens (maybe police, maybe ambulance, probably both) ... and then the credits roll.

We must wait and see who is still standing and whether our favourite characters have gone down the gurgler.

But the country has survived nearly a month without a government, and without much mishap. People have just got on with things as they do every day while the world turns inexorably. Is this soap opera over-rated?

So, in the continued absence of any political news of note, let's turn to some other news.
Today is Thank Your Cleaner Day. No, I'm not making it up and, appropriately, I was alerted to this fact by a public relations company called Shine.

We have an awareness day for just about everything and everyone else (the media and politicians excepted), so why not for cleaners?

Wednesday, October 18 - let's hear it for them, unsung and generally looked down on as they are. It's a $1 billion industry that employs 40,000 people across the country.

And they do an important job - they get rid of rubbish and they make things clean.

When I was a child, I was told if I didn't do well at school I would end up a road sweeper. How unfair - sweeping the roads is a noble and worthy job, and we should be grateful someone is out there doing it.

Some people might even say it's more important than whatever is unfolding in Wellington this week.