A special thank-you to Richard Prosser

We've all been giving Richard Prosser such a hard time this week, but he's actually done us a favour.

Thanks to Prosser's intemperate language and offensive views on race and religion, bigots have been flushed out from all sorts of hiding places.  He has made a fool of his publisher, Ian Wishart, and left various knuckleheads who usually agree wholeheartedly with his views scrambling to defend themselves on blogs and other forms of social media.

He has also revealed New Zealand First's leader to be entirely without principles. Winston Peters' previous utterances on race are reasonably consistent with many of the comments made by Prosser, even if Peters was never foolish enough to call for flying-bans to be imposed on people who have that "Muslim" look about them. This history of race-baiting helps to explains why Peters' criticism of his own MP has been relatively mild. But criticise he must, because the political situation requires it of him. Prosser's only crime, as far as Peters is concerned, is that he was unsubtle.

I am delighted that Prosser's intolerance and bigotry is out in the open at last. It wasn't exactly hidden previously, but most people would not have even heard of the man before this week. Now they know what he stands for and which party harbours him.

So thank you, Mr Prosser, for all your efforts. The backlash against you has demonstrated that we are a nation of diversity and tolerance. If we are intolerant of one thing, it is ignorant lackwits who achieve political office.