Statesman told his family to journey as far away from Germany as possible. The New Zealand-born grandson of Ludwig Haas leader of the German Democratic Party in the 1920s and often described as the only politician who could have stopped World War 2 is assisting in a major biography of his ancestor. The biography sponsored by the Commission for the History of Parliament and Political Parties is being published by Droste Verlag of Dusseldorf, a general interest publishing house. Ludwig Haas (pictured above) died in 1930 while organising a broad based coalition to counter what he perceived would become the…

At large in the northern hemisphere Brent Marris of Waihopai Valley’s Marisco Vineyards answers Five Questions...... Brent Marris and his family have been part of Marlborough vineyards and wine making since the inception of the terroir and its associated appellation. In recent years the family has focused on developing in the Waihopai Valley its Marisco Vineyards and its marques The Ned & The Kings Series. We caught up with Brent Marris (pictured) in Europe........ What has been the impact of Brexit on your business? The Brexit effect is huge and is due to the weak pound. Because we trade in…

Five Questions for Dr Don Brash.............................. Nobody today in so many different roles and for quite so long has stood at the centre of public life so enduringly as Don Brash. Economist, businessman, banker, politician, the former Governor of the Reserve Bank and leader of the National Party has defied typecasting. At one and the same time severe yet extravagant, austere yet colourful, scholarly yet populist, he has contrived always to reconfigure himself around the times. Now he has stridently intervened in institutionally-fuelled separatism. Shrouded in a protective veneer of high-minded fashionable purpose that makes ordinary people fearful to question…

In the latest in our Five Questions For.....series we interrogate the West’s most seasoned operational intelligence officer on Russia...... Major General Peter Williams (pictured) is often considered the most experienced military specialist on Russia and its intentions. He was a member of the allied Cross Mission to the old USSR and this saw him for many years operationally involved in intelligence gathering within the Iron Curtain. At the conclusion of the Cold War he led the NATO mission to the new Russian Federation. Five questions now follow for General Williams:- What will be the nature of the US-Russia rapprochement under…