The Mike Hosking Breakfast

At the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all.
Two Paddocks: 8/10
Sales through the roof, a nice tribute, and good business. Here's to Sam.

NZ First: 3/10
Not their best week. $1 billion we don’t have to map an area that may or may not have anything in it? That's got "go nowhere” written all over it.

Golden Bay Cement: 6/10
Story of the week in terms of intrigue. There's no right or wrong answer, just a fascinating insight into the approach we now take to self-reliance.

The war: 1/10
He plays a good poker face when talking about it, but the Trump rhetoric is hollow, the results are non-existent, the cost is up, and the credibility is shot. This is a mess.

Ryan Fox: 10/10
Sports highlight of the year. The Open, a Kiwi, and the way he did it is dream come true stuff. A true fairy tale, pinch yourself, patriotic amazing-ness and could not have happened to a better bloke.

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Under normal circumstances, if I was a Prime Minister, I'd avoid the dumb brigade.
In general terms they preside in music radio and/or on podcast platforms.
It is the arena of numbnut behaviour, it's always a trap.
Anthony Albanese found this out a few weeks ago when he was offered an option of who to shag or marry and ended up bumbling through an answer that suggested he would shag Kylie Minogue and that the Rabbitohs were an aphrodisiac.
He almost immediately apologised, as he should have.
Paul Henry suggesting he would shoot Chris Hipkins is our new version as of yesterday.
This came off the back of the Stuart Nash mess (for the record, a completely different set of circumstances) and what appears to be a newfound desire to be “outraged”.
Labour is “outraged”.
My fear this election campaign is there is more where this came from.
Nash is an idiot with form and his comments weren't funny, or even in the entertainment realm.
Henry, who also has form but in the “this could be funny, or could be a bridge too far” category, gets away with it this time because of the setting i.e. a music radio station looking for giggles, and also because Labour need to be careful with their “outrage” habit.
Henry also gets away with it because he currently is merely a citizen. It will be different, potentially, if he is an MP and even more different if he is a Cabinet minister.
Albanese didn’t get away with it because he isn't funny at the best of times, just looked like a dirty old man and, more importantly, because he is a Prime Minister and Prime Ministers need to be beyond reproach.
Citizens can do what they like but MPs need to be one rung up from that. Cabinet ministers need to be pretty squeaky clean and Prime Ministers need to be saint-like, artificially so, hence we don’t attract normal people to represent us anymore.
Labour need a sense of humour and the ability to manufacture their outrage at opportune times, not anytime.
It is still only July and I'm over this election and it hasn’t even started.
Henry will be back for more of this, I wouldn't rule Michael Laws out of saying something random, Shane Jones is building a head of steam, and my bet is that before November 7th someone we haven't even thought of will end up doing something weird, creepy, or mental.
All I can say is, be patient. It's only just begun.
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The price of oil has surpassed US$100 a barrel for the first time since May.
It comes after Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted Saudi Arabian ships in the Red Sea – threatening to cut off a crucial route for the kingdom's oil exports.
Meanwhile, the US has carried out its 12th consecutive night of strikes on Iran.
US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking financial group Goldman Sachs is predicting the crude price might exceed $120 a barrel in the fourth quarter, and average at least $100 next year.
He says they’re already seeing price spikes and the pump, and it’s putting pressure on stocks – the Dow dropping by 0.97%.
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Friday has arrived, which means it’s time for Kate Hawkesby and Tim Wilson to Wrap the Week that Was with Mike Hosking.
They discussed the Commonwealth Games, which have officially gotten underway, Stuart Nash and the comments that lead to him resigning from NZ First, and Labour’s response to Paul Henry’s answer in a game of ‘shoot, shad, marry’ on Radio Hauraki.
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The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow are officially underway.
New Zealand's scaled back team of 114 athletes have been welcomed at an opening ceremony, led by flag bearing weightlifter David Liti and baton bearing judoka Moira de Villiers.
The country returned 50 medals at Birmingham four years ago, 20 of them gold.
Chef de Mission Nigel Avery told Mike Hosking he doesn’t have a medal goal – instead their goal is to make sure every athlete succeeds to their level.
He says they know some will get on the podium, and they hope there’s a lot of them, but they don’t think about specific numbers.
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