Penn Raine: Give us a smile, darling.

Is the demand that women smile for men still a thing? Are females still instructed by strangers in the lift to ‘Cheer up, it might never happen,’? This pervasive requirement for women to display performative amiability had, I thought been largely swept away in the roiling waters of last century’s feminism.

That feminist struggle that today sees female students outnumbering men at our universities, notably at medical schools. That sees 38% of parliamentarians as women, the highest ever percentage since we were first admitted to the chamber in 1919. Ideally, I suppose this figure should be higher - if the job could be seen as estimable, which is moot.

Mike Hosking: Cost not the only barrier to participation in sport

There is a group called "Affordable Sports for Greater Wellington".

That proves, apart from anything, there is clearly a group set up for everything and a weird name is no barrier to existence.

They have concerns over the councils charging for facilities. Their complaint appears to be, the more expensive you make sport, the less sport people will do, which appears to make perfect sense.

The deal in Wellington is the council charges 15 percent of the cost of providing sports fields and the ratepayer picks up the rest. On the surface seems perfectly fair, if not a little in favour of the sports. Not that Affordable Sports for Greater Wellington sees it that way.