I USED TO SNIGGER at the sort of conservatives who upheld “the family unit” as the “foundation-stone of our society”. On the one hand, it was tantamount to asserting that the Law of Gravity draws all things towards the centre of the Earth. On the other, it was conservative code for cracking-down ruthlessly on the contraception and abortion services that allowed women to commit carnal sins with impunity. More simply: it was either a statement of the bleeding-bloody-obvious, or a declaration of reactionary intent.

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Known principally for his political commentaries in The Dominion Post, The ODT, The Press and the late, lamented Independent, and for "No Left Turn", his 2007 history of the Left/Right struggle in New...