Bill Ralston: Why apologise to Finland?

A Mexican stand-off with Helsinki could be just what John Key needs.

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7th April, 2012

Poor Gerry Brownlee. In Parliament recently he cracked what he seemed to think was a joke and suddenly he’s under torrid attacks from not only his political opponents but the entire Finnish nation. Besides proving he is not a humorist or satirist, Brownlee also managed to discover there is another country on Earth whose inhabitants have thinner skins than we do. Whenever someone on the planet utters a derogatory remark in the media about our country, we go into contortions of outrage. An obscure DJ in Britain makes a wisecrack, a British rugby writer curls an upper lip, an Aussie reaches ...

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