SaltyNZ:

surfisup1000: My point is that the context matters with respect to whether it is assault, but I suppose such complicated subtleties are lost on people with such black and white views. 

Thankfully some of the people here are not judges. You'd end up with 3/4 of the nation in jail and the other 1/4 fleeing the country. 

Did you read what I wrote? I said that he should privately apologise and that should be the end of it. But I do stand by my belief that the man who wants to represent New Zealand to the world shouldn't act like some idiot who thinks its a great giggle to pull women's hair in public.

Bill Clinton might have been able to pull it off, but I don't think JK's in quite the same league, personality-wise. :)

jonathan18:

Tinshed: The worst of this is the sanctimony of those piling on John Key simply because they don't like him or support his government. It is thinking the worst of someone you don't already like and not even trying to see the nuances of the situation. People are playing this as politics. There is very little concern for the victim in all of this. That tells you a lot about those criticising John Key.  Don't get me wrong, John Key has behaved inappropriately and it isn't OK what he did. But please, spare me the high-horse, sanctimonious hypocrisy of the self-righteous on display.

For me this isn't a left/right issue, and I'd be equally damning of any politician of any persuasion in this same situation.

That it is yet another example of this particular politician minimising his or his ministers' (demonstrably stupid) actions does, however, point towards a real lack of moral compass. Time will tell if these begin to snowball into meaningful public disillusionment with this government.