NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • Deloitte Fast 50
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Right royal ruckus over NZ lamb

By Dominic George
NZME. regionals·
14 Apr, 2016 02:30 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Prince Charles has already been introduced to the merits of New Zealand sheep, so his support for Kiwi farmers should come as no surprise.

Prince Charles has already been introduced to the merits of New Zealand sheep, so his support for Kiwi farmers should come as no surprise.

As the champion of British farming forsakes his own in favour of colonial produce, I learn the masters want to tear down my wall; yes - it has been the week of the paradox.

Bonny Prince Charlie, aka the Prince of Wales, has raised the ire of Welsh farmers by selling New Zealand lamb under his Duchy Organic label.

How, they ask, can the Prince sell product from 20,000 kilometres away to UK supermarkets when they've been battling the elements lambing for the past two months?

Besides, they claim, the New Zealand product is overpriced and laden with fat and the Prince of Wales has always been a massive supporter of British farming.

It has been suggested by one or two prominent Kiwi farming commentators the story simply isn't one.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Organic lamb isn't readily available at the best of times and the Brits are out of season at the moment, so there's a natural shortage. Duchy Organic is simply using New Zealand lamb to meet the demand from its buyers.

It has also been suggested the Welsh farmers are simply moaning for the sake of it - they're under pressure and are venting their frustrations.

What better targets than their own Prince who has seemingly abandoned them in their time of need and that pesky colonial outpost with their inferior meat?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

I've also been assured by one of the aforementioned agricultural luminaries that it's virtually impossible to find New Zealand lamb in British supermarkets anyway. So, issue done and dusted.

The other paradoxical episode I've encountered this week runs much closer to home. I've heard through sporadic snippets of information that the Dommune (the office I share with Hanoi Jane at Farming Show HQ) is to be destroyed via the elimination of a wall.

'Perish the thought!' was my euphemistic reaction upon joining the sparse dots of intelligence I've gathered over recent months.

It's widely, yet incorrectly, accepted that the Dommune is a left-wing den of liberal iniquity, adorned with hammers and sickles as far as the eye can see, and a haven for the disaffected to conspire against the local illuminati.

Discover more

New Zealand

Booze, couch fires - must be uni

17 Mar 12:51 AM
New Zealand

Industry uniting in support to farmers

17 Mar 12:57 AM
New Zealand

Struggling farmers urged to speak up

07 Apr 02:45 AM
New Zealand

Dominic George: Off to Sydney for big winter test

11 May 10:49 PM

Of course it's nothing of the sort, merely a myth perpetuated by the odd ignoramus who feels threatened when the topic of conversation moves uncomfortably from the weekend's round of golf to something slightly more substantive.

The interesting part, of course, is the destruction of the wall. Usually they build walls to keep the riff-raff out, not expose them to the rest of the populace.

Prisons, camps, detention centres; they're all designed to enclose the undesirables, lest their evil little thoughts end up poisoning the minds and actions of the innocent populace.

So to knock the wall down and assimilate the Dommune into normal society is an odd move indeed. I for one cannot, and here's the great irony, work in a 'communal' space.

I've heard it's in vogue now for offices to be big sprawling, open-plan designs where privacy is essentially forbidden.

Such a work environment runs contrary to my genetic make-up and while I can foresee the potential for some sort of rebellion, the wise move it to let this idiocy run its course.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

As with most fads, it will reach a natural conclusion and a trend will emerge in a few years in which people will have their own private work space once again to increase productivity.

What was the first thing a teacher did at school when you were talking out of turn?

Remove you from the rest of the class to avoid disruption to the other students. It's natural for human beings to babble on about the details of their lives when put together with other human beings. To be human is to communicate and vice versa.

But the proletariat has always been subject to the whims of the bourgeoisie, no matter how nonsensical.

It is in this spirit I shall adopt a guerrilla mentality; moving from office to office, space to space, setting up for a while then disappearing into the corridors and storage cupboards of the office jungle.

That should appease those in their ivory towers with their fanciful notions of communal living! I will be no threat at all...

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

- Dominic George hosts Farming First, 5am-6am weekdays on Radio Sport.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

Young woman jailed for Connor Boyd's death to be released on parole

New Zealand

'A lot of fast food': Mum who stole $500k from employer blew most on takeaways

New Zealand

'Love you moko': Grieving grandma vows justice for 20yo killed after birthday celebration


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Young woman jailed for Connor Boyd's death to be released on parole
New Zealand

Young woman jailed for Connor Boyd's death to be released on parole

Kaiya Shute was sentenced to two years and two months' jail but will soon be released.

21 Jul 08:18 AM
'A lot of fast food': Mum who stole $500k from employer blew most on takeaways
New Zealand

'A lot of fast food': Mum who stole $500k from employer blew most on takeaways

21 Jul 08:03 AM
'Love you moko': Grieving grandma vows justice for 20yo killed after birthday celebration
New Zealand

'Love you moko': Grieving grandma vows justice for 20yo killed after birthday celebration

21 Jul 07:30 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP