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Oh, my god.

David Lange died last night.

I was born under his Labour government. So to be honest, I barely remember anything about him as Prime Minister; but he was undeniably one of the most personally influential leaders NZ has ever had, and also my second-favourite former PM (Peter Fraser is my favourite). Also, his policies on nuclear weapons have really, they've shaped the country, it's part of our national identity.

Oh, my god. I'm just... stunned. Shocked.

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I no! :(
My daddy woke me up at 9 (early) to tell me, and for a change, I didn't mind.

Stunned? I mean...he was dying for months. That interview he did last week was reported with all the ominous "probably the last"s you need to know some famous person is not long for this world.

Of course, I am somewhat saddened, because he did define one of the most ~~controversial~~ well-known eras of NZ politics as well as being a charismatic and witty speaker. He will be missed. But I can't say I'm surprised at all.

I knew he was dying. But I didn't think it would be quite this soon (actually, I thought he'd hang on till after the election at least)- he did</i. just give that interview, which can't be the kind of thing you do when you think you only have, what three weeks to live? it might be interesting to see how this affects the polls. To be honest.

David Lange fucking rocked. My dad's pretty sad, they were buddies kinda. My older bro (who turns 21 today) was going to be named after him but the parents went for 'Duncan' instead!

he was pretty awesome, yeah. :)

Mum told me this morning, and I was like, "um...so?" WAIT for me to explain...okay, I got up this morning having a hypoglycaemic episode, as you do, and it was partly for that that I was feeling so odd - and also because in that state I thought "Lange...he was National, wasn't he?" But no, that was Bolger. SO, there I was, in my semi-nonsensical state, thinking, "and I'm supposed to be upset that some National twat is dead?"

So, yeah. It really is sad - but he was losing the battle for his health and life. He'll be remembered for many a year to come, me thinks.

Well, he's in the fifth form history syllabus. ;) I'm sure that's what he always wanted, er, not.

God, I know...the first thing I heard about it was I saw it on the cover of a newspaper some one was buying at work....It seemed really surreal to me, because he's one the NZ politicians I admire the most...I'd always wanted to meet him after reading asbout him in history...It seems so strange

It does, doesn't it? Half of me, even though I knew he was dying, sort of thought he'd go on forever, being so iconic.

What about Walter Nash?

Pity about Lange though. We'll just brush over Rogernomics, so as to not speak ill of the dead.

*snerk* That's right. That's also why he's my second favourite PM. :P

Walter Nash?

Nash was just a random former PM I chose to berate you with.

Norman Kirk was pretty cool. What makes you like Peter Fraser so much?

'cause he was all involved in the creation of the UN, and he looks funny in photos. ;)

Plus he did some intereting stuff with unions

Yeah. And I found a RW site earlier today that said he was kind of the creator of the welfare state. And you know how much I love the welfare state. :)

Well, that's one way of putting it :-D

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