New Zealand PM sparks outrage with his tinned spaghetti pizza

"Any man who puts spaghetti on a pizza is not fit to run my country," wrote one Facebook user.

New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English with his tinned spaghetti pizza

New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English showed off his tinned spaghetti pizza on Facebook. Source: Facebook/Bill English

New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English took some time out to cook a family dinner this week - and sparked an online debate.

The father of six prepared homemade pizzas for his family, and shared photos of his culinary creations on his Facebook page.
"Cooked dinner for the family last night - like if you agree with tinned spaghetti on pizza!" he wrote on the post, which has so far attracted more than 9,500 reactions, 430 shares, thousands of comments and some very divided opinions. 

"Sorry Bill, any man who puts spaghetti on a pizza is not fit to run my country, you cannot count on my vote come election time," wrote one Facebook user.

Another said: "Can't believe you posted this. Not being a pizza snob or anything but assume that you have sampled real pizza at least once in your life?"
It turns out, tinned spaghetti and pineapple pizza is a Kiwi classic.

One woman wrote: "Yup, this is how we made pizzas growing up! Must be a Southland thing! Still make them like this for my kids and they love them. Sometimes we use baked beans - oops, maybe I've just opened another can of worms...."

In fact, some New Zealanders' main gripe was that English didn't go far enough with his tinned spaghetti pizza.
The Prime Minister defended his choice of pizza topping, saying he was dared by one of his kids to do it.

"You get those proper pizzas, they're not always satisfying because they don't always have enough stuff on them," he told radio station MoreFM.

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2 min read

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By Alyssa Braithwaite


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New Zealand PM sparks outrage with his tinned spaghetti pizza | SBS Food