Talk:David Lange

New page

I've created this page in response to Lange's death recently. Still needs formatting, tidy-up and expansion. Also needs quotes from Lange's autobiography. -- FP ^{<talk><edits>} 21:01, August 16, 2005 (UTC) (previously editing as User:219.89.140.128)

Noticed throughout New Zealand

The following is one of the paragraphs from yesterday's newsletter to all subscribers to "Xtra" (one of the largest ISPs in the country):

• You can thank prolific blogger Russell Brown for this - he's the one who noticed that Wikipedia have devoted a page to quotes and anecdotes from David Lange. It'll be no surprise to hear they're terrific. My particular favourite (in reference to the Dairy Industry): 'What a friend we have in cheeses'... more>>

We can forgive them for confusing Wikipedia with this sister project... Robin Patterson 22:16, 21 August 2005 (UTC)

Muldoon and the IQ of New Zealanders and Australians

It was Sir Robert Muldoon who said, in the context of large numbers of New Zealanders moving to Australia for work, that every time a New Zealander moved to Australia, it increased the average IQ of both countries.

Unsourced

• Of his political colleagues: "If you took the glasses off some of them they'd be rendered dumb."

• Of Michael Bassett: "A man who could eat a banana sideways".

• Sir Robert Muldoon: "At last there is a member with a larger stomach than my own."

David Lange: "Yes, but mine is further from the ground."

• Asked about the Security Intelligence Service by an opposition MP, he responded: "I can understand the member's desire to have a passing connection with intelligence which seems to have by-passed him all his life. He has kept his secret for years."

• Commenting on the abilities of former National Party leader Jim McLay: "The performance of the leader of the opposition is now frantically, furiously, skitterishly, hopelessly, nervously, disastrously pathetic."

• While at a Cabinet retreat in Fiji the menu for the day was explained, "You can get Chinese food all day, however if you want anything else you'll have to make a specific order." Lange quipped, "So it's Wok around the clock?"

Extracts from Press conferences quoted in Gliding on the Lino:

• To a journalist who asked: "Prime Minister, can we go back to Ruatoria for a moment?": "Certainly, goodbye."

Lange: "Well I think that is a question which I would deem simply so stupid as not to be worth answering,"

Journalist: "Well I can't quite understand..."

Lange: "Well that confirms my assessment of the question."

• When asked: "Prime Minister, I wonder if we might have a brief word about Australia" by a journalist, Lange replied: "Wombat"

• Reacting to news that he had retained his Mangere seat in the 1990 election with a provisional majority of 3366: "Well, my majority might be of some interest to students of the Book of Revelation. It's thirty-three sixty-six."

• Enquiring about his youngest daughter Edith, a journalist asked "Do you worry about being an old dad?" Lange replied: "No, I worry about being a dead dad."