Bob McCoskrie: No, I won’t miss TVNZ’s Sunday programme

I have a confession to make. Despite the widespread wailing about the demise of TVNZ’s Sunday programme due to costs and restructures at the state broadcaster, I for one won’t miss it. Now to be clear, my sympathies are with the personnel who have lost their jobs. That’s always a major upheaval and stressful and I genuinely wish them the best in finding another job be it in the media sector or perhaps somewhere completely new.

Suze Wilson: Romantic heroes or ‘one of us’

How we judge political leaders is rarely objective or rational

Given the presidential style of modern politics, the intense media focus on party leaders is unavoidable. But this involves a degree of artifice. New Zealanders don’t vote directly for a prime minister, they vote for their preferred party and electorate candidate.

Technicalities aside, though, party leaders play a key role in shaping their party’s policies and soliciting public support. The upside of the attention they receive, therefore, is that voters get to scrutinise before they “buy”.