Are we surprised? N&S must be getting worried: every time a hearse goes past, they lose another reader and they don't get that many ads because the ones they do have are a bunch of provincial humbugs who don't consume. So when they get nervous, N&S and Codders get shrill.

Over the course of her "career" Codders has fudged the stats on Maori, on child abuse, and on solo mothers. I'm just waiting for her to attack men. Surely you could make a great case out of masturbation leading to lowering fertility? then you could finish with a thundering conclusion about porn. Excellent.

And actually, I felt she could have gone further. What about the worry of miscegenation between Chinese market gardeners and Maori girls in Papakura. Oh no, wait, that was 100 years ago. Ah well, what's in a date?