From Into The River to Little Red Riding Hood, there's much to disapprove of, Toby Manhire finds. What should be banned next? There is a long list that isn't getting any shorter.

The shunned triangular concept is less annoying than stylised ferns and a marsupial's backside, writes Toby Manhire.

Notorious hacker Lambshank has been at it again, leaking Toby Manhire the contents of the 'Dreams' folder in the Prime Minister's Hotmail account.

Have you heard the one about the New Zealand sheep that flew to Saudi Arabia? Of course you have, but chances are your eyes glazed over, writes Toby Manhire.

The rock star is not well. Probably it's nothing to worry about, just that sniffle. But we can all do our bit to get it back on the road, writes Toby Manhire.

It is not for us to lead, says Tim Groser. Far from leading, however - apart from on emissions, where we're fifth per capita of developed countries - we're dragging our heels, writes Toby Manhire.

In the most recent Roy Morgan poll, the National Party was shown to be plummeting, all the way down to 49.5 per cent support, writes Toby Manhire.

Poets, wrote Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1821, "are the unacknowledged legislators of the world". "You would say that, you're a bloody poet," legislators have harrumphed ever since.

Three ministers is not enough, writes Toby Manhire. "To have a hope of slaying the many heads of the housing crisis hydra, there may need to be even more new ministers appointed."

The real blow for the primetime ratings of TV3 was to lose the rights to the Australian soap that led in to 3 News at 6, writes Toby Manhire.

With "quaxing" now a thing, Toby Manhire finds life in contemporary New Zealand rich with source material for other potential neologisms.

The British tabloid yesterday morning, drunk on metaphor juice, splashed with the coverline, "It's a Tory!"

Pity the Prime Minister, writes Toby Manhire. Imagine the poor fellow, having to make a humiliating apology during a layover in Los Angeles Airport.

A couple of years ago, Chris Finlayson, then culture minister, tooted his bugle and heralded "a golden age for the arts in New Zealand". It doesn't feel very golden today, writes Toby Manhire.

A couple of years ago, Chris Finlayson, then culture minister, tooted his bugle and heralded "a golden age for the arts in New Zealand". It doesn't feel very golden today.

What a madcap couple of months. The Northland byelection campaign has had all the infantile pranking, ill-discipline and personal baggage of an Auckland airport carousel at Maadi Cup time. Here, from....

Blame injustice, meddlers, wretched fortune, or just plain old karma, but the bell is ringing for Len Brown, writes Toby Manhire.

Equipped with an Apple Watch and a coathanger, the fugitive hacker Lambshank has probed parliamentary servers and published a trove of top secret internal documents, writes Toby Manhire.

Pretty much everyone (oh, all right, except Mike Hosking) had a casino-themed metaphor for why taxpayers shouldn't cover the centre's bloated budget, writes Toby Manhire.

As spill-prone as a pissed kangaroo pouring cocktails, Australia could soon see its fourth change of Prime Minister in four years, writes Toby Manhire.

The National and Labour leaders’ grandly titled annual “state of the nation” addresses were about as dynamic as dry rot, writes Toby Manhire.

Only fitting, really, for a spy boss to exit under a shroud of mystery. And so it is with Ian Fletcher, writes Toby Manhire.

About this time last year I generously put together a compendium of advice for international visitors.

Having some moron driving right up your rear bumper at high speed. If there were any real justice in this world, such tailgating boors would be personally deported by Chris Finlayson.

Oracle Team USA's defence of the America's Cup in a tiny tax haven in the Atlantic with the population the size of Southland is a joke, writes Toby Manhire.

The Roger Sutton case and some men's reaction to it show we still have to change attitudes to workplace harassment, writes Toby Manhire.

The big kids are having a party, and this year it's at Australia's place. New Zealand, as the host's little sibling, gets to come along, too. We're under strict instructions not to touch the buffet and to stay well away from the fruit punch.

'I accept," said Police Commissioner Mike Bush, in a classic bit of police-diplo-speak, "the decision not to lay charges will prompt a range of reactions."

In Britain, they get the Queen to hold her nose and announce - "my government will..." - the legislative programme. We get instead her guy in Wellington, writes Toby Manhire.