Free Tibet? Let's start with Fiji

John Key has nothing to gain by siding with the Dalai Lama. Photo / Kenny Rodger

As far as breaking election promises go, it's hardly a biggie.

So, John Key promised last year to meet the Dalai Lama and now, oh dear, his diary is full and it's not possible.

At least he's saying it up front, and not contriving meetings in airport lounges and behind the bike sheds like previous prime ministers have done.

The world's longest surviving political exile is back in town again, selling peace and religion at the Vector arena for $20 a seat.

In his spare time, he's again trying to stir up trouble against China, one of our largest trading partners.

If I were Prime Minister, I suspect I would also think the chance to swap pictures of Bronagh and the kids with this turbulent priest was not really worth the trouble.

Tibet was never the Shangri-La that his ageing hippy supporters make out.

It was a feudal theocracy run by a Buddhist hierarchy, who perpetuated themselves, not by family line, but by plucking unsuspecting youngsters from their families, spiriting them away to spooky monasteries and proclaiming them the reincarnation of dead high priests.

Whether the exiles want to reinstate this system is anyone's guess. And really, is it any of our business? Certainly, it's hardly a battle worth risking New Zealand's economic future over.

It's not as though John Key is the first of our leaders to bow to the reality of politics in the grown-up world.

The most obvious genuflection to a greater power came in 1986, when David Lange decided he couldn't risk French President Mitterand's threats to our trade with the Europe Economic Community if we didn't release the Rainbow Warrior bombers.

The two French government agents, Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart, had pleaded guilty to blowing up the Greenpeace ship in Auckland Harbour, killing a crewman in the process.

They were sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter, but in just over six months were given back to the French, in a deal stitched up with the aid of the United Nations Secretary-General.

To give him his due, Mr Lange did stand up to our ally, the United States, to veto nuclear ships visiting our ports.

That earned us a cold shoulder that still lingers. We got relegated down the queue as far as free trade deals were concerned.