The Mike Hosking Breakfast

There are rumours the next America's Cup could be defended in the Northern Hemisphere.
Emirates Team New Zealand are one race away from victory, after winning race nine against Luna Rossa yesterday afternoon.
But it’s understood INEOS Team UK owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the defender boss Grant Dalton have been in negotiations to hold a one-off defence on the Isle of Wight next year.
Four-time America's Cup winner Brad Butterworth confirmed to Mike Hosking he'd heard those claims.
"There's some bizarre stuff going on. The ball's always bouncing in the America's Cup. They are talking about Ineos, I guess would be funding the whole thing. Both teams would go to the Isle of Wight and do an America's Cup like it was 200 years ago."
Butterworth says it'll be a case of history repeating itself if the race goes back to the UK.  
He says Ineos might be in a position to fund the event, and it would take place at the Isle of Wright just like it did two centuries ago.
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THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Wednesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) How Did You Not See This Coming?/Streamlining Streaming/The Trouble with Simba/Extending the Hype/Sorry, Ladies

Tenby Powell is keeping up the good fight.
He’s the former mayor of Tauranga. Having moved back to the region, he won the election only to find small town New Zealand at times, especially at council level, can be introspective and spiteful. He ended up quitting and such was the mess around the chamber, commissioners have been put in.
Looking on from the side-lines but still clearly passionate about his region, he  has made the appeal for those commissioners to consider merging local councils so they can then actually get on with running the place.
In the Powell plea is the plight of local body politics: we are hopelessly over governed.
Think about the Bay of Plenty: it’s not big, it’s a small region in a small country, and yet it has three councils. Tauranga City, Western Bay District, and Bay of Plenty Regional.
There are only 300,000 people in the whole region, 130,000 in Tauranga, which means two councils cover the other 170,000.
There are over 70 councils for the whole country. Numerically it’s absurd and goes along long way to explaining why so many communities have so many problems: you’ve stretched the talent pool to ridiculous proportions, you’ve got hobbyists running the place.
My great hope is that the commissioners do a sensational job and show that expertise actually beats democracy.
The trick to progress is realising what doesn’t work. Democracy is a wonderful thing, especially when you don’t have it, but like most things you can have too much, and that’s our plight.
Having a say is good in theory but the cold hard truth is it depends who is having that say.
We don’t run own lives on democratic principles. We don’t raise our kids that way. We hire experts for tax and building and legals and fixing our cars and educating ourselves and patching ourselves up medically - and yet we hand over our country and cities to whoever puts their hand up.
Run the list, north to south, east to west, towns and cities all over this country are buggered because of do-gooders out of their depth. Auckland to Invercargill, Wellington to Christchurch: acrimony, delays, cost blowouts, and stagnation.
Tenby is right: Merge, merge, and merge some more, and get some adults in charge.

Tighter restrictions aimed at reining in surging coronavirus infections took hold in much of Italy and parts of Poland on Monday, while in France, Paris risks being slapped with a weekend lockdown as ICUs near saturation with COVID-19 patients.
In line with an Italian government decision late last week, 80% of schoolchildren, from nursery through high schools, were locked out of classroom starting on Monday. Ever-mounting numbers of ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, steadily rising daily caseloads and infection transmission predominantly driven by a virus variant first discovered in Britain have combined to make Italian Premier Mario Draghi's new government apply “red zone” designation on more regions, including, for the first time since the color-tiered system was created last fall, on Lazio, the region including Rome.
In red-zone regions, restaurants and cafes can do only takeout or delivery, nonessential shops are shuttered and residents must stick close to home, except for work, health or shopping for necessities. Over the weekend, many hair salons extended hours to handle last-minute customers, and crowds thronged shopping streets, parks and seaside promenades before the crackdown took effect.
On Monday, reality sunk in.
In a country, where coffee is taken, properly, at a cafe counter or table, and not in some take-out paper cup, Alessandra Lorisa took off her mask and sipped hers in a Rome piazza. “By now, it's become part of our routine,'' she said. ”It's a lot more American, if we can say so,'' she added, expressing hope that after Easter “we can see some improvements, to get back to the routines that we were used to.”
Draghi on Friday promised an quick infusion of pandemic aid to shuttered businesses.
Beyond the commercial aspects, parents voiced concern for children shut out of classrooms. "They have little interaction now with their friends, they have to celebrate their birthdays alone,'' said Marco Pacciani as he strolled through a Rome park with his young son.
In Poland, amid a sharp spike in the number of new infections and of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, restrictions were tightened in two more regions, including the capital, Warsaw, and a western province that borders Germany. Two other provinces were already under restrictions.
Under the heightened measures, hotels and shopping malls have to remain closed, as do theaters, cinemas, fitness clubs and sports facilities. Schoolchildren ages 6-9 will have a combination of in-class and remote instruction.
An inexorable climb in the numbers of patients being treated in French hospital ICUs, particularly in the Paris region, is increasing pressure on the government of President Emmanuel Macron. As is the case elsewhere in Europe, virus variants are suspected of fueling increases in serious cases in France. Macron’s government has been trying to stave off another punishing nationwide lockdown in 2021, instead opting for a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. nationwide curfew.
Expected to be decided in a few days is whether the Paris region and its 12 million inhabitants will be locked down on weekends.
Last week, countries in the Western Balkans announced a tightening of measures amid a surge in cases in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro.
As they received first vaccines on Wednesday, doctors in Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, warned that the virus has exploded in the past several days. Bars, restaurants and nonessential shops in the Sarajevo canton will be shut for the upcoming weekend.
In Serbia, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic criticized the holding in past days of two concerts by a popular band at a Belgrade hall. The country of 7 million has vaccinated more than 1.5 million people, which is among the highest rates in Europe.
On the western edge of the continent, Portugal stood out as an outlier. It was emerging Monday from a two-month pandemic lockdown, with the country gradually reopening over the next seven weeks,...

Mathew Horne is a household name when it comes to British comedians.
He, of course, became a household name as the star of Gavin and Stacey, alongside James Corden.
And he's gone on to star in plenty of British comedies.
Now he's starring in a new show Agatha Raisin, which is on Acorn TV now and filming on a fourth season.
Matthew Horne joined Mike Hosking on the show this morning to talk about the show.
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Kiwi businesses want help to get to the start of supply chains to ensure there's no slavery or exploitation.
An open letter's being handed to Government today asking for an inquiry into whether we need a modern slavery act.
It's signed by 85 New Zealand companies including the Warehouse Group.
Chief product officer Tania Benyon told Mike Hosking they're able to look into the factories they have a direct relationship with, but it needs to go further than that.
"That's why legislation is important to help businesses get further and further down the supply chain to understand what's happening."
Benyon told Mike Hosking there's similar legislation in other countries and people will back it here.
She says the public are starting to care about where goods are purchased and that it's done in an ethical and safe way.
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A cascading number of European countries — including Germany, France, Italy and Spain — suspended use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine Monday over reports of dangerous blood clots in some recipients, though the company and international regulators say there is no evidence the shot is to blame.
AstraZeneca's formula is just one of three vaccines in use on the continent. But the escalating concern is another setback for the European Union's vaccination drive, which has been plagued by shortages and other hurdles and is lagging well behind the campaigns in Britain and the U.S.
The EU's drug regulatory agency called a meeting for Thursday to review experts' findings on the AstraZeneca shot and decide whether action needs to be taken.
The furor comes as much of Europe is tightening restrictions on schools and businesses amid surging cases of COVID-19.
Germany's health minister said the decision to suspend AstraZeneca shots was taken on the advice of the country's vaccine regulator, the Paul Ehrlich Institute, which called for further investigation into seven cases of clots in the brains of people who had been vaccinated.
“Today’s decision is a purely precautionary measure,” Jens Spahn said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his country will likewise suspend shots until at least Tuesday afternoon. Italy’s drug regulator also announced a temporary ban, as did Spain, Portugal and Slovenia.
Other countries that have taken similar action over the past few days include Denmark, the first to do so, as well as Ireland, Thailand, the Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Congo and Bulgaria. Canada and Britain are standing by the vaccine for now.
In the coming weeks, AstraZeneca is expected to apply for U.S. authorization of its vaccine. The U.S. now relies on Pfizer's, Moderna's and Johnson & Johnson's vaccines.
AstraZeneca said there have been 37 reports of blood clots out of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the 27-country EU and Britain. The drugmaker said there is no evidence the vaccine carries an increased risk of clots.
In fact, it said the incidence of clots is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is similar to that of other licensed COVID-19 vaccines.
The World Health Organization and the EU's European Medicines Agency have also said that the data does not suggest the vaccine caused the clots and that people should continue to be immunized.
“Many thousands of people develop blood clots annually in the EU for different reasons,” the European Medicines Agency said. The incidence in vaccinated people "seems not to be higher than that seen in the general population.”
The agency said that while the investigation is going on, “the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing COVID-19, with its associated risk of hospitalization and death, outweigh the risks of side effects.”
Blood clots can travel through the body and cause heart attacks, strokes and deadly blockages in the lungs. AstraZeneca reported 15 cases of deep vein thrombosis, or a type of clot that often develops in the legs, and 22 instances of pulmonary embolisms, or clots in the lungs.
The AstraZeneca shot has become a key tool in European countries' efforts to boost their sluggish vaccine rollouts. It is also pillar of a U.N.-backed project known as COVAX that aims to supply COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries. That program continues unaffected by the European suspension.
Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines are also used on the European continent, and J&J's one-shot vaccine has been authorized but not yet delivered.
Dr. Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton in England, said there is no data yet to justify suspending the AstraZeneca vaccine and called the decision “baffling."
“Halting a vaccine rollout during a pandemic has consequences,” Head said. “This results in...

Surely, even most conservative can see what the world is going to be doing in a few short months.
Qantas has started their digital app travel passport trial, and British Airways is calling for unfettered travel for vaccinated punters.
President Joe Biden has every adult offered a jab by May and life back to close to normal by July, Britain is well into their vaccination campaign, and everyone from Spain, Greece, to Portugal are falling over themselves to open the borders to vaccinated travellers.
Australia is looking to open a bubble with Singapore in July, and we haven't even got to the Chinese, the Israelis, or anyone else advancing down the path to normality.
All of those preclude us from taking part. July is when we think we still start our vaccine programme for the bulk of the population. July. And that doesn’t take into account delays in supply, and delays in rollout.
The argument has been, we don’t have Covid, so we didn’t need to hurry. Will they still be able to roll that argument out in September when Brits are back from their summer holidays and none of them came here? Or the Americans or the Australians?
The moment people can travel, they will. This is the critical bit for this country and its recovery, we need them here.
This is what we did as a country before we locked the place up. We grow stuff to feed people and invite people to stay and spend money. The latter and lack of it is now crippling us. And it's crippling specific areas like Central Otago, and it's crippling our balance sheet.
The GDP figures out this week will confirm what a miserable quarter the last part of last year was, and this year so far won't be any better. Most likely it will be worse, and it will be worse because of what Andrew Kelleher has quite rightly called the "lost summer of tourism."
Guess what? There are most lost seasons coming. At some point being locked away will dawn people as dangerous.
It's already dawned on the events industry, the tourist industry, and the business industry as they opened, then shut, then opened, then shut, or shut permanently or mothballed.
The calls for clarity on a timeline have resulted in nothing. But we have done it against a world struggling, and we've been able to feel proud if not a little bit smug.
But that’s ending, and it's ending in front of our eyes. Too many people all over the world are a combination of desperate and aspirational, and they're moving forward and on, whether we are with them or not.
Is it honestly still the best response? Especially when the bubbles are up, the planes are flying, the holidays are being had, the jabs are in arms, and we in May, June, and July and August are still waiting.

An immigration lawyer says a minor being deported from Australia to New Zealand is no mistake.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has asked for a briefing on the situation around the deportation of the teenager, reported to be a 15-year-old boy.
Ardern is questioning whether it's appropriate to deport a minor in this way, regardless of the circumstances.
Greg Barns SC told Mike Hosking it's part of a pattern by Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, which is to deport whenever he can.
"The fact this person is 15-years-old is irrelevant to Dutton, who also fails to take into account the inhumanity of it, as well as Australia's international obligations."
Last week, Peter Dutton described deporting New Zealanders as "taking the trash out".
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Immigration New Zealand has approved Covid-19 border exemptions to 126 foreigners, and their managed isolation spaces are booked, for Disney's The Lion King stage production.
It's being held at Auckland's Spark Arena and opens on June 24, 2021.
The overall production requires the employment of more than 300 locals, but on stage there would only be five local young performers, yet to be selected.
Border and visa operations general manager Nicola Hogg confirmed the visas are "under the 'other critical worker' category".
This category was how The Wiggles' were approved for their upcoming tour and RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under was approved to film. Those productions had 18 and 16 other critical workers, respectively.
Luxury expedition cruise ship Le Laperouse cancelled its sub-Antarctic tour after 61 of 90 crew were denied visas.
The border exemptions were granted under the "other critical worker" category. Photo / Supplied
When questioned why people in New Zealand could not fill some of the roles, Live Nation's Asia Pacific chairman, Michael Coppel, said the show needed continuity as it would hopefully go on and tour elsewhere in the world once its limited season here ended. The duration of the season is yet to be decided.
Coppel said it was a difficult show to learn and also needed to be "multi-national".
"Clearly, it's set in Africa so you need to have actors represented to you of which the culture is based.
This was echoed by Michael Cassel, whose Michael Cassel Group is presenting the show alongside Disney. "We have a cast from all around the world," he said.
The Lion King stage show. Photo / Supplied
Coppel said it was an existing cast who were touring parts of Asia before the pandemic and had been involved in the show for more than a year. He said they could work on "muscle memory" and get the show together in about six weeks, where it would take up to four months to train a local cast.
Coppel was aware of previous criticisms around international productions taking space in managed isolation when there were still New Zealanders trying to get home.
"The reality is we have to open up to the rest of the world. We can't maintain a Covid-existence forever."
He said the 126 were arriving "staged over a period of time", which would "minimise the impact on the MIQ availability… which we're sensitive to".
Cassel said they were thrilled to have a role in "the return of live entertainment, tourism and hospitality".
"The tour itself will generate a great deal of economic impact," he said.
Coppel and Cassel both said a key factor to bringing the show here was New Zealand's pandemic response.