2 posts tagged “memoirs”

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Guess who’s coming to dinner?

Feb 28, 2008
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During a visit by then-PM Robert Muldoon at New Zealand House, the following were present, as noted in one of his memoirs:

British prime ministers Callaghan, Wilson, Heath and MacMillan
Governors-General Porritt, Ballantrae, Cobham
The son of former Governor-General Freyberg
Gordon Jackson

Spot the odd one out. Gordon Jackson, the actor.
Perhaps he was doing research for his role as the head of CI5 in The Professionals? He always did seem rather chummy with the Home Secretary in the series, and it was mentioned that the PM thought highly of him.

‘It is enough to be a typical New Zealander’

Feb 27, 2008
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‘[S]urely it is a political philosophy to like what one sees of life in this country and to devote oneself to preserving and enhancing all that is good in our multi-cultural heritage, and to combating those influences which would seek to alter or destroy it. It is not necessary to be an obtrusive conservationalist or an obtrusive egalitarian or an obtrusive devotee of a simple lifestyle. It is enough to be a typical New Zealander, because by and large he is all of these, though unobtrustively.’—Rt Hon Robert Muldoon, Prime Minister of New Zealand, 1977*

* R. D. Muldoon: Muldoon. Wellington: A. H. & A. W. Reed 1977, p. 97.