Political Animal

First class by crate, Mr Minister?

A row has erupted between the environment minister, Edward Yau Tang-wah, and Greenpeace activists over a large wooden trunk the environmentalists sent to Mr Yau to ridicule his absence from a United Nations climate conference in Poland last week. Mr Yau told the South China Morning Post he wanted the activists to take back the 2-metre-high courier box now stranded in a Wan Chai government office tower. The minister said he should have been given an air ticket to Poland, instead of a trunk. Greenpeace campaigner, Prentice Koo, said the group was willing to offer Mr Yau an upgrade if he was able to set out carbon emission targets and a timetable for achieving them.

Never too grand for a handout

While it is quite common for lawyers from the pan-democratic camp to take up court cases for underdogs pro bono, even a statutory body has been receiving such help. Privacy Commissioner Roderick Woo Bun told a Legco constitutional affairs panel that on several occasions he had asked barristers and legal professionals to volunteer to represent people who had had their privacy infringed. 'My quota of favours is running out,' he said. 'Once I was given a HK$20 note from a friend whom I bumped into on the streets, who told me that he knew my office was skint and wanted to help.'

Monkey see, monkey (nearly) do...

Hours after US President George W. Bush suffered the indignity of having shoes thrown at him in Iraq, Stephen Lam Sui-lung, the constitutional affairs chief, almost suffered the same treatment. At a Legco panel meeting, Mr Lam made comments that inflamed Wong Yuk-man, chairman of the League of Social Democrats, who tried to shout him down. Despite being asked to stand down by panel chairman Tam Yiu-chung, Mr Wong - who famously threw bananas at Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen - threatened to take off his shoes, saying: 'It's no use following rules when dealing with these kind of people. Lam Sui-lung, you shut up otherwise I will throw my shoes at you.'