National MP Sandra Goudie has announced she will retire from politics at the next election. Good. As a backbencher, she was basically a waste of space, her sole claim to fame being the desecration of a protected area of native wetland (for which oddly she was never prosecuted). As chair of the Law and Order Select Committee, she's gained a reputation as a nasty little autocrat, censoring minority reports and preventing the normal practice of committee members from asking for advice from government departments. Her chairing has been so bad that she provoked an unprecedented walkout of Labour and Green MPs last year. Parliament will be well rid of her.