Sorry is the hardest word to say

Further revelations about MP Hone Hereortherea have shocked parliament today, when a Herald investigation revealed he was in fact the son of legendary Tu Tai Takaway activist "Honkey" Hereorthera, exposed in 1977 as having no Mowri blood at all because he was in fact Dave Rudge, a recent emigre from the Isle of Dogs in London's East End.

Honkey, who at the time went by the name Huka Zifi'm Hereortherea, become famous after a series of vicious attacks on white European dominance in NZ, and fronted the now defunct White Assets for Mowri campaign, which proposed the sequestration of all assets owned by NZ Europeans, for the benefit of the Mowri State Gambling Fund.

Honkey's true identity was revealed when he inadvertently used his real passport to prove his age when buying a case of RTDs at a SuperCheep Licker store in Huntly. An overnight cause celebre, he quickly faded into obscurity after moving to Waiheke to take up a position as a parking warden.

As the only really vociferous Mowri rights campaigner in the 70's, his exposure and subsequent discreditation left the movement in tatters.

His successor and, as we now know, his son, who was christened "What'sittoTariana Ifi'm Hereortherea", is now expected to be dismissed as a charlatan on the grounds that his campaigning for Mowri rights is about as appropriate as Hendrik Verwoerd campaigning for the ANC.

Hone, who hit the headlines recently last week over a leaked , racially abusive email, appeared in Parliament to apologise for the email, but his statement, which read: "tell those white mother**ckers I'm sorry I called them white mother**ckers, the white mother**ckers" was considered by many to be inadequate, and lacking in remorse.

Prime Minister Don Key, who's coalition with the Mowri Party seems to have mellowed him, seemed relaxed about the whole affair. "That's just Hone", he said, "I was sharing a joint, er joint committee meeting with him yesterday, and I called him a Dorky Borstard and he took it in good part; like himself, he appreciates it when people call a spade a spade."