Alisdair Thompson – What To Make of Him?

I watched the news tonight and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Emma certainly wasn't laughing!

Alistair Thompson, the CEO of the Employers and Manufacturers Association (would you believe it!), says that a women's monthly 'sick problem' and maternity leave etc, causes women to take more sick leave than men. Then he was interviewed on TV3 and I have to say, aside from Monty Python, it was the best comedy I have seen in the last twenty years, magnificent! Check it out at http://www.3news.co.nz/Alasdair-Thompson-Sorry-but-its-true/tabid/369/articleID/216242/Default.aspx. If I may say so, what a plonka, a plank, a twat! The interview is a classic, 'don't interrupt me!' Classic! What about the 'cut!' What an utter loon.

He also showed how to give an apology, not! He had the gall to claim that he believes in equal pay – that would make a good Tooheys ad. He said he didn't mean to upset anyone – even better! He then apologised saying he did not want to cause offense – what was he trying to do then? As one women put it, he is a dinosaur – but actually that is dinosaurism, they are better than that. After all that he stuck to his guns, why, because it is true! When asked to back it up with data, he couldn't, except he just knows it is true. We once knew that the world is flat.

TV One checked out with the government departments that matter and they had no stats to back up his claim. Their own human resources department found that men took a bit more time off than women. http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/action-demanded-over-sexist-comments-4258057/video.

I am not surprised that TVNZ men need to take more time off than men, we have sport like the good football games and the US Open final day to watch.

Here are some thoughts for him. Perhaps men should be paid less because they think about sex every 7 seconds (supposedly), and so they must be less productive. Or perhaps men should be paid less because they can't multi-task, one of our sicknesses. We also have to play Virtual Rugby. We need to pee more often, because of our wonky prostates. I mean, come on. We have lower threshold for pain, so we need more time off. We have more heart disease, so we need more time off. The guy needs some serious sorting out.

As for women's periods being a 'sickness', far out! He sounds like he has been reading Leviticus.

If Paul Henry was essentially fired for his comments, how long does he now have? While I am not sure he should lose his job, I will be surprised if he is around long – watch the pressure on him grow.