Don stuck to his guns, but how depressing that Closeup did not insist on less braying rudeness from the bully, and more testing of his fanciful claims.

Insisting on respect for the Treaty, on a colour-blind state, offered thousands of sensible questions the chair should have insisted on allowing Brash to put to Harawira. The history of the treaty and the race seats is enough to show Harawira as the racist fantacist, but Closeup did not have the strength or the preparation to impose order.

I suspect that I would have let the session run too, as Don did, in the same situation, in the hope that the debate chair would eventually insist on equal speaking rights so that we heard facts from the polite man, but the result was sadly the familiar outcome of wrestling with a pig –  mud smeared on both as people got sick of the rudeness.

But for those who could  –  Don standing up for our political inheritance of one person one vote. Harawira flowing with racist rhetoric.