Realpolitik has real cost to New Zealand

On board, the anger at Key is palpable.
 
The young woman with the microphone urges us to sign a petition asking the Government not to legitimise commercial whaling and turn New Zealand into a pro-whaling nation when we get back to shore. Next to her on the wall is a brass plaque, informing passengers the Prime Minister had launched this boat only last November.
 
Key’s whaling and mining Realpolitik should knock a few percentage points off the 100 per cent pure manifesto. Or, to put it another way, if he doesn’t give his environmental policies a rethink, Key is about to deliver his countrymen his own version of the underarm bowl. Economically, it could be a grubber.