I like it, closest thing i can compare them to is the old group b rally cars.
The technology involved and the skill level of the teams sailing them makes for great viewing.
You’re quite right James, now if you could point me towards your post rallying against Ted Nugent, also disgustingly threatening a President and a Contender for President with these quotes …
“Obama, he’s a piece of shit. I told him to suck on my machine gun,” Nugent said during an appearance in 2007. “Hey, Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch.”
… then I might not see your comment as faux outrage and a simple excuse to attack people who don’t like The Trumpster.
Never knew anything of it. But agree it’s disgusting.
But love how your more interested in comments I may have made about (as it turns out) some thing I didn’t know about as opposed to the incident itself.
Or is that just an easy way out attack the commenter as opposed to the issue.
“and a simple excuse to attack people who don’t like The Trumpster.”.
This is where some lefties like yourself lose all credibility.
I comment that a person in the media holds up a look a like decapated presidents head all covered in blood – and people like you try to make out it’s me who is using it as an attack.
If you look at my post – I have been consistently against forms of violence and disgusting comments make against people. Same cannot be said for all on here.
Haha, lucky my sense of self worth isn’t based on your opinion of my credibility then eh James. But then I’m not so thin skinned as the POTUS. I don’t see this as a Left/Right issue, perhaps your mentioning that proves the point you were using it as an attack of the left rather than some C grade celebrity. As I said I agree with you that Kathy Griffin’s stunt was awful as was the comment by Madonna at the Women’s March, as was the Ted Nugent comments (that I’m glad I got to educate you about, for your own credibility of course, as it had slipped passed you despite it being widely reported when Mr Trump welcomed him to the White House, ) and of course not to mention Mr Trump himself referring to a reporter bleeding from the whatever, and that he can grab women by the pussy. Please don’t see this as an attack, sweetie, I’m just highlighting the need for balance. Have a cracking day buddy.
“For various reasons, acceptance of climate science breaks down along ideological lines. First, a majority of people in every state in the US believes, for instance, that the Paris Accord is a good thing, that the USA should participate. It turns out, however, that there is higher acceptance of climate science and acceptance of the importance of action on the coasts (California, Oregon, Washington, New York, etc.).
There are exceptions to this rule but I am generalizing. It also turns out that the more liberal your politics are, the more likely you are to accept the science and the solutions. With respect to politics, the results are stunning. Vast majorities of Democratic and independent voters are supportive. Interestingly, small majorities of even conservative Republicans are supportive.”
And that’s why it’s crazy stuff to sell any of our land to them. If they don’t care enough about their own country to keep it livable why would they care two hoots about keeping our country livable.
Postcards from the brighter future from Anthony Robins is a sort of Blip’s list of unsatisfactory happenings that trend downwards for our standard of living for us all and need urgent remediation.
This one would interest Red Logix who has or had some rental properties. Others will disdain the thinking because they don’t agree with it, they will consider it wrong, even though it is legal and follows what have been found to be economic rules of supply and demand effect on prices. When they are operating on our necessities then we need to have government management to offset the simple economic answer to everything, housing at present in particular.
I think this item covers the economic argument well. Putting the price up also acts as a means of lessening demand, which can be argued as bringing efficiency and self-choice, rather than other means of sorting through applicants which can result in other form of unfair selection. Yet would putting names in a hat be more acceptable and effective?
Typically we look for long-term low risk tenants and we ‘reward’ them by keeping rent rises to a bare minimum.
But every-time we have a new vacancy the demand is crazy. We do use this as the chance to get the rent back up to market. Even then we’ve literally had bidding wars going on right under our noses. When this happens we both feel pretty damned uncomfortable … I’m not looking for sympathy, but the sense of letting down all the hopefuls we cannot place is real for us.
Our solution is a bit ad-hoc, we make a short-list and then delay making a decision for a week or so. In that time many will drop out and by then, after a few interactions, we usually find it fairly easy to make a decision.
What we don’t do is just ramp the price up to eliminate people, because that’s filtering for all the wrong attributes.
And for the past few years while we’ve been overseas we find good property managers will often be able to place excellent tenants, based on prior track record with them, without ever advertising.
I know there’ll be the usual crowd who’ll read this and it will trigger their “I hate all bastard landlords” button, but I’ll hit ‘Submit’ because I want to give gws an transparent answer.
I don’t know about “all bastard landlords”, I just think it’s daft that our housing legislation makes for a lottery where the prize is you (ie: a ‘legitimate’ landlord).
Hi Red Logix, letting people cool off and looking for good managers seem to work for you. I would like to see an agency that tenants bought into that would give them ratings for quality. The agency would phone the landlord when they left and file a report, but they would also know how fair each was and which were mean-minded. It would be a help to tenants to have some reliable background when looking for a new place, and people could work to up their rating, It would be a small operation possibly run from a solicitor’s office to keep costs down, not a real estate place as there would be risk of bias and advantage.
I remember in London in the 1970’s looking for a flat in a city area. You travelled by underground or bus, perhaps changing at some point and walked there to be 20 minutes before the set time and find a queue of dozen people there before you. Then some chap turned up at 10 minutes before and started to throw a panic attack and he got let through to the front. I have forgotten the rest.
This all comes back to me and is not relevant but hell while I still can remember I’d better do so.
I met a woman who was living an hour’s train ride away from London and wanted to move closer. She told me it was getting almost impossible because she was pregnant. When she started looking you couldn’t tell but as the fruitless months went by she got bigger and more definite noes. The government, trying to protect families from being asked to leave rentals and then not being able to find another home, had made a law that the landlord had to find alternative accommodation for them so no-one wanted to let to a family, to a to-be family, and even a married couple would be better to say they were just living together, as it seemed less likely that children would turn up.
I ended up finding a nice place in Kilburn, which had four flats mostly occupied by Iranian men. They always had girls around, seemed pretty laid back, but then the Ayotollah put out a call for all true-born men to come home and fight and they were gone back to a stricter society. I also remember this new CBD building 33 stories high called Centrepoint. There was a big demand for offices but the owner left it empty and revalued the rental for each floor each month which provided collateral or looked good on the balance sheets.
Interesting info about unintended consequence of the building. “On 19 June 2006 the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment pointed to the building as an example of bad design, where badly-designed pavements force pedestrians into the bus lane and account for the highest level of pedestrian injuries in Central London. ” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Point
In response to a comment in a Trump, planet climate discussion. The article quote about ragged trousered lefties and Corbyn, made me think of a great novel.
Thanks for that suggestion, I will definitely search that one out.
I know this is slightly different, but another very good book set of working class (or from peasant to working class) books are Maxim Gorky’s three autobiographies, My childhood, My apprenticeship and My universities, really quite painful and beautiful, my favourite Gorky.
As I do have a secondhand bookshop, I better try and find myself a nice old hard copy, actually I just can’t read books like that digitally, I don’t mind reading reports, and stats online or on a e reader, but not more ‘personal. books, I don’t know why, just one of my many idiocracies.
Carolyn-nth
Thanks for The Ragged …
I thought these paras resonated:
Clearly frustrated at the refusal of his contemporaries to recognise the inequity and iniquity of society, Tressell’s cast of hypocritical Christians, exploitative capitalists and corrupt councillors provide a backdrop for his main target — the workers who think that a better life is “not for the likes of them”. Hence the title of the book; Tressell paints the workers as “philanthropists” who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters.
The hero of the book, Frank Owen, is a socialist who believes that the capitalist system is the real source of the poverty he sees all around him. In vain he tries to convince his fellow workers of his world view, but finds that their education has trained them to distrust their own thoughts and to rely on those of their “betters”.
Much of the book consists of conversations between Owen and the others, or more often of lectures by Owen in the face of their jeering; this was presumably based on Tressell’s own experiences.
I particularly liked the apposite and alliterative inequity and iniquity of society.
I have read this book some years ago. Alongside Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London it shaped my political perspectives deeply.
Orwell himself wrote of it:
praised the Noonan’s ability to convey without sensationalism “the actual detail of manual work and the tiny things almost unimaginable to any comfortably situated person which make life a misery when one’s income drops below a certain level.”
He considered it “a book that everyone should read” and a piece of social history that left one “with the feeling that a considerable novelist was lost in this young working-man whom society could not bother to keep alive.”
I also read it many decades ago and it made a big impression. It was a set text on a stage 3 English Lit course I did – the lecturer was a Brit leftie.
1) Okay guys we need to talk about this Pittsburgh and Paris stuff. People are confused. It's about gender. (Thread below) https://t.co/AmR7yzl5V4— Michael Sweeney (@mtsw) June 2, 2017
Hmm, okay. So liberals in the US can’t sell liberalism. No loss.
Liberalism’s some dripping gooey inoculation that tries to sell itself as progressive…a soap or barrier cream that’s sold for fear of infectious germs, when we all know that the germs (progressive or “leftist” values) are what we actually all need.
Liberalism exorcised all of the dirt, blood and struggle of progressive or left politics… supplanting a brightly colored (sic) glossy magazine of pap in its stead. Liberalism is wringing hands, ringing representatives, writing letters to the editor and signing petitions.
So now “the right” can take all manner of images associated with defiance or bravery or of being staunch – everything that liberalism fearfully washed away – and twist it as it sees fit.
And on “the left” we can reject both and reclaim our heritage.
Disclaimer: don’t bother writing to tell me I read too much into that twitter column 😉
@Bill+1
“And on “the left” we can reject both and reclaim our heritage.”
I am with you there pal, reclaim our heritage and co opt anything that is useful from the right while we are at it.
I have been debating with some friends that we should (on the Left) start using the word conservative, my argument being that to be a socialist today is in part being conservative in a modern sense.
Conserving environment, communities, conserving human dignity for all citizens, conserving families, whatever that family might look like etc….
Had a bit of push back of course, and I am not entirely tied to the idea either, but it makes for a great debate (in certain circles).
This is also the first Poll to record Labour ahead in the Initial results (which are fully weighted demographically but still include the Undecideds and haven’t been weighted for turnout). Hence, this Initial ‘All Giving a Voting Intention’ result arguably provides the purest snapshot of the Party preferences of all UK adults entitled to vote, regardless of whether they do, in fact, turn up on June 8.
(2) Initial ‘All Giving a Voting Intention’ result
“Among people aged 35-54 there has been an even more dramatic switch.
Before the social care row they split 52-34 for the Conservatives. Now they divide 36 for the Conservatives and 46 for Labour. In other words, they have switched sides.”
This kind of change is unheard of. Corbyn might just do it.
“Among people aged 35-54 there has been an even more dramatic switch.”
Yep, noticed that 🙂 … just been looking through the Poll’s entrails.
Over recent days – far too much emphasis by naysayers on the idea that this swing to Labour is built solely upon weak foundations of (1) very young and (2) previous non-voters (who, of course, are historically less likely to vote).
The swing’s far more diverse than that.
I’ve even detected some movement in the latest YouGov among the solidly Tory Over-65s.
Tories still very much odds-on … but things are dramatically moving in the right direction (or do I mean the Left direction ?)
We should put up a discussion post too. Just making a note here for the times. That first exit poll would be 9am Friday NZT. Results might be in by 2pm or 3pm.
Thursday 8 June
Polling stations open in every town, city and village across the UK from 7am to 10pm.
Millions cast their vote in the general election.
An exit poll at 10pm gives the first indication of which way the wind is blowing.
Counting takes place overnight, with the first seat to declare usually Sunderland before midnight.
If it’s an easy victory for one side a result could be known by 3am or 4am.
If it’s close there could still be uncertainty when Britain wakes up on the morning of Friday 9 June.
WTF…The Guardian comes out for Corbyn.
Yes the Guardian has made a complete U-Turn and is now desperately trying to aline themselves on the right side of history, except it is to late for them, their credibility is already well and truly in the gutter, dirty filthy and soiled by the centrist neoliberal bullshit they have been trying to sell us so hard for so long.
Just read the comments on their ‘coming out’ and you will see that most critical thinkers already read anything political that The Guardian put out with an extremely high degree of suspicion, it’s both sad and hilarious.
Like all these fucking useless ‘centre lefties’ they have shown us yet again that the centre stands only for moral and principled ambiguity…no, you can be sure you will never find lines in the sand from these political prostitutes…and they want us to vote for Anna Lorck or Stuart Nash here in the Bay..what a joke.
Nash…
Let’s be clear about one thing: politics is about winning. There is no such thing as a ‘glorious defeat’, leaders who lose are not, as some may believe, ‘martyrs to the cause’, and ‘coming second but maintaining our principles’ is a ludicrous proposition. http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/10/31/tdb-guest-blog-project-stuart-nash-the-most-pressing-issue-in-nz-right-now/
This from a guy who has Just been bumped up the Labour list..but hey he is hard on crime.
I am just not that forgiving…so sorry to be rude, but fuck them.
It is my view that The Guardian and other so called ‘liberal’ MSM media organizations have got more culpability for the victory of Trump than the republican party itself.
They relentlessly undermined and belittled the only real progressive in the US during the primaries, and therefore split the Left, and in the UK The Guardian in particular have been obsessive in their open hostility to Corbyn, it is only that the ‘manufacturing consent’ media model is now for all intents and purposes practically defunct, that Corbyn is now doing so well…and he and the Left own NOTHING of that success to The Guardian or their contemporaries.
Saw that link to TDB and Stuart Nash. This from him – so patronising.
Our supporters have the same impact when they squabble, bitch and back-stab on so-called ‘left-friendly’ sites like The Standard (a dreadful 21st century bastardisation of a once proud Labour broadsheet). Criticising your favourite Labour MP is not the route to victory, no matter what you think of their philosophies, hair or politics.
Someone who groups philosophies, hair and politics as equally unsuitable for discussion on a political site is seriously lacking in gravitas and nous. And that comment is made without knowing just how his hair is arranged.
(Does Joyce dye his do you think? It looked like it on the recent close up image we had.) And that just shows how catholic I am in my interests. And by the way that has nothing to do with religion Stuart, in case you think of adding it to the list we shouldn’t discuss. I remember the social advice – never discuss sex, politics or religion at the dinner table, or everyone will make a meal out of it.
Love how they have another story about previous election endorsements – I kind of read it as. “The Guardian: Supporting Libourish Parties Since Forever”
‘Guardian reader’ has long been shorthand for ‘tourist’, ‘fairweather friend’ and ‘boring wanker who drones on sanctimoniously at dinner parties and turns into a rabid Tory once their property values are threatened’. They’re someone who when the going gets tough, gets going… back into the arms of authority (like Russell Brown).
I have said for a time that making unmarried mothers applying for benefits name the father so that the government can collect money from them, brings consequences on the woman and child that can far outweigh any support money that can be extracted. A woman trying to bring up a child in a good way, apart from some one-night stand of lust and thoughtlessness should be given every encouragement and support and be helped to stick to an achievable plan. Then she can decide if it is appropriate to include the man.
But the government has been ruled by prejudices against children and fertile women who don’t fit into their minimal plans to enable them to lead lives that encourage their potential and ready them for part-time work only, when the child is say, three.
If they have another baby then there is a choice, they have a long-term contraceptive device, or name the man with all that involves. It is fair for the government to set some rules, and I believe this should be what happens.
I support abortion after counselling, and offers of help so that the woman has a range of options, and these not to be carried out by some religious or other group pushing their own pushchair. But after a number, the matter would need to be reviewed for health reasons, including mental health.
If the mother is not married to the father then he must sign, therefore acknowledging paternity. If he chooses not to sign then technically the mother is deemed to have not named the father. I have talked to mothers told to get DNA tests to prove paternity but they are not compulsory and the alleged father can (and often does) refuse to co-operate. The cost of a DNA test is prohibitive. So it is not always a night of lust / one night stand but often a dead beat male unwilling to accept his responsibilities.
That’s the point Patricia. The woman hasn’t a good relationship with a guy, he is someone she has been unfortunate to meet and for some reason, had sex with, and that type is more likely to not ‘accept his responsibilities’. He may not be a dead beat male, just one that wanted sex and expected her to take care of the contraception, and would feel aggrieved at being landed with long-term paternity cares and costs.
As RedbaronCV says, contraception should be the concern of both but not all men are willing to use condoms if they can get away with it.
And condoms should be used as the latest news is that HIV is rising and just as the government cares so little for supporting the good progress of young NZs and their children, I presume it is not impossible for them to baulk at paying out large sums for life-long medication for careless people.
It’s not beyond bounds of the authoritarian state that it would ban sexual
interaction except under a health licence, because it is a vector for disease. Even kissing. The trend to efficiency and control of people by government proceeds in NZ already without any feeling of responsibility to use the power of government to enable people to have good lives. This can extend much further than anyone has yet thought to forecast. The wealthy are already dividing themselves from the poor with whom they do not insist that tax money should be shared. They are SEP and different, not one of us.
What I’m hearing is that some women seem to want their cake and eat it. For decades they have rightly demanded and fought for control of their bodies, their sexuality, their access to contraception and their reproductive rights.
I have not the slightest quibble with any of this.
At the same time men have been largely removed from the equation; beyond abstinence and using condoms, males have almost no rights in the matter at all. This is very much how women have wanted it.
Yet it’s clear most women expect that if they do choose to have a child, the father is expected to be responsible for 20 years of child support. If they dare object to this … to having greatly reduced rights and but an undiminished burden …. they’re shamed as ‘dead beats’.
A constructive discussion needs to move on from this; if we expect men to participate in parenting as equals, maybe their voices and experiences need to considered as well.
Contraception is more than a female responsibility no matter how one night the stand so why should the caregiver & child be “punished”.
And I’d believe in the economic argument a bit more if the identified fathers particularly the wealthy actually had to pay reasonable amounts for their kids.
To make that point – when asked a scant few years ago it appeared that in only 1 case was the child support assessment greater than the benefit with the extra being paid over.
There is also a strong economic case for the child money to be a separate benefit from the adult money. So child support collected or a child benefit could be paid over intact with the adult benefit a separate amount if only to stop money for the children being absorbed as an offset to an adult benefit that others get of right.
Red BaronCV
You are looking at the woman as a problem costing money which should be handled efficiently. If a lump sum could be got from a wealthy father then by all means, put the screws on and they would pay up to avoid having long years of payments. As for the others, they find it annoying to have some fun and then be lumbered. Having the father come round grudgingly or to make sure he gets his moneysworth can be injurious to the family relationship she is trying to build.
I would like to see the woman be given what she needs such as a home, and perhaps spending the time preparing for the baby with life training, cooking, learning how to do things not known before, sewing, putting up shelves, using a screwdriver and hammer, what a householder needs.
She would get transport with a group going to pre-natal classes and not drink alcohol. If she honestly couldn’t keep away from alcohol because of peer or family pressure, she might have a little holiday away from her home, if she wished. That sort of thing, asking and helping the woman with her needs has a much warmer sound than your careful, rather clinical approach.
Budgeting for two would be best, not separate bank accounts, and using the time for formal education, planning with achievable goals, NCEA in mothercare, getting a drivers licence, using a computer. What a fruitful time for her and she’d be ready to go with a positive attitude. And could fall back for advice on some reliable person she liked for free.
In Iceland I think, they have the habit of preparing a gift to the baby from the state, they like children apparently, unlike here where it has always seemed to me that a farming attitude is too often seen where some callousness and management approach arises too often. Even pushing women out of hospital on the day of birth instead of allowing rest and feeding to get under way.
50 words or less? Well how’s that for patronising sexism? That sort of crap usually appears in bullshit bingo grids as “educate me because I can’t be arsed listening to anyone and what you tell me will go in one ear and out the other anyway, so don’t bother, just shut up.”
OK, I’m not a woman, and it would be presumptuous to call myself a feminist, but show some basic respect when a woman relates her experience of sexism.
Usually when someone says ‘fact’ as a punctuation it means ‘according to my prejudices.’ And ‘PC’? Who uses that without irony now?
JanM: “apart from some one-night stand of lust and thoughtlessness” – really???
Yeah, amazing, isn’t it? It’s OK for men to do that, but it’s those wicked Jezebels who end up with the consequences. The pseudo-leftist’s idea of the rational individual without biology, race or gender is as fantastical as the neoliberal’s ‘rational consumer.’
Feminism is all about allowing women ‘to be people,’ not cherry-picked rhetorical examples. Feminists do not just ‘think up’ stuff but speak from their experience as women and put it in context. They are certainly not objects to be monitored and regulated by the state as you propose.
Try listening to what women have to say about their experience.
But after a number, the matter would need to be reviewed for health reasons, including mental health.
Interesting. So you pathologise female sexuality but not male and propose an authoritarian oversight. How about the same test for men who have been reckless with their use of contraception? Why is it the women who have to be regulated and checked by the state alone? ‘None of your fucking business’ would be a perfectly justified answer to that.
rhinocrates
Do you feel better now after thundering to me from your prominent height? You are full of prejudices which get in the way of caring about the person at hand who is a pregnant female with all the possibilities and problems of life for two ahead for her. I think she should have help and services to aid her. What would you give her – a tirade?
Which is exactly what you give her – a moralistic finger-wagging about how she should behave and how the state should regulate her behaviour. It’s not about me and you and your precious feelings about being told off, it’s about her rights as a woman and a human being. She is not to be ‘corrected’ if she doesn’t meet your moral standards.
Fuck you and your phoney white knighting. You’re not her champion, she’s her own. The state has no right to manage her vagina.
rhinocrates
hope you are not counselling women. They would go away full of anger and hopelessness. Having rights doesn’t feed you, it doesn’t help you manage your life better, it’s learning how to do it and getting assistance when needed that is the clincher for success and happiness. Not a toxic lot of negative opinion and theory about people who try and find practical ways to honour and advance the rights that you spout. That doesn’t result in happiness.
Manchester, Theresa May, Libya, Saudi Arabia and the petrodollar.
This article contains so much valuable information and explains a lot.
The section on the petrodollar.
Not many people will know this.
‘To the Americans and British, Gadaffi’s true crime was his iconoclastic independence and his plan to abandon the petrodollar, a pillar of American imperial power. He had audaciously planned to underwrite a common African currency backed by gold, establish an all-Africa bank and promote economic union among poor countries with prized resources. Whether or not this would have happened, the very notion was intolerable to the US as it prepared to “enter” Africa and bribe African governments with military “partnerships”.
And the bit about Manchester and May.
‘The alleged suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, was part of an extremist group, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, that thrived in Manchester and was cultivated and used by MI5 for more than 20 years.
The LIFG is proscribed by Britain as a terrorist organisation which seeks a “hardline Islamic state” in Libya and “is part of the wider global Islamist extremist movement, as inspired by al-Qaida”.
The “smoking gun” is that when Theresa May was Home Secretary, LIFG jihadists were allowed to travel unhindered across Europe and encouraged to engage in “battle”: first to remove Mu’ammar Gadaffi in Libya, then to join al-Qaida affiliated groups in Syria.’
Just appalling! Does the author ever wonder how people cope with Winz 13 week stand downs and other sanctions. What about the thousands who are neither on a benefit or in work?
Lisbon is a great city that became more not less open to outsiders after the crash. I like it enough to return soon. But did I learn much or emerge an improved person? No. On my travels, I seldom do, and I am not sure that anyone does.
The more of the world I see, the less confident I am that there is anything innately or even generally educational about travel.
I don’t have a subscription to FT and I’m not even signed in on my free account. They usually allow you to read one or two articles per month without bothering you about paying them.
Here’s another paragraph that rings true IME:
Imagine you are an employer staring at two job applications that are identical in all respects save one. Candidate A spent a year between school and university seeing the world, like a Regency fop on his Grand Tour. Candidate B spent the same year stacking shelves in a local supermarket. One of the hopefuls showed self-reliance, practical nous and a certain grown-upness. The other is Candidate A. Yet ours is still a world that rewards the gap-year itinerant — often funded or backstopped by parents — with the job, where “well-travelled” is still a synonym for “clever”, where sophisticates still cite that snide statistic about the percentage of Americans who have no passport, as though nothing could damn the global superpower more.
Travel has intellectual associations it no longer deserves. It is a hangover from a time when so few went abroad, and so little knowledge about the outside world was accessible to those who did not, that people with a few international excursions under their belt could claim a genuine cultural edge.
Surely if the Nats have forced Auckland City Council to bring in a congestion charge, Auckland people will punish them heavily in September.
That the ordinary workers of Auckland will have to pay for the years of infrastructure underspend while sitting in gridlock should make them very angry.
The Labour campaign team should be looking at this very closely.
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We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
“Our exporters should, therefore, be deeply concerned that the Fast-track Approvals Bill was not assessed for consistency with any of our free trade commitments prior to being introduced to the House,” says Gary Taylor, Chief Executive of the Environmental ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff is calling on all political parties to support the new Member’s Bill from Labour’s workplace relations and safety spokesperson Camilla Belich MP that would ensure negligent companies are held accountable when their employees ...
A historian with an uncanny track record of predicting US election winners tells RNZ's Sunday Morning that President Biden looks to be on track for another term, but things could still go very wrong for him. ...
A historian with a track record of predicting US election winners tells RNZ's Sunday Morning that President Biden looks to be on track for another term, but things could still go wrong for him. ...
Ngaio Marsh House is one of Christchurch’s best kept secrets – and contains more than a few mysteries of its own.Trust Ngaio Marsh to leave more than a few mysteries scattered through her house long after her departure. For a start, there’s the curious concrete portal in the garden, ...
Appointment viewing has been lost to the mists of time, but memories of Montana Sunday Theatre can still be conjured by hitting play on a particular piece of classical music. “You’re not going to be able to sell it.” Over 30 years on, Karen Bieleski still recalls how the task ...
Performance Review King Luxon sat behind His massive polished oak desk. It is Performance Review time. There is a knock on the door. “Enter!” says the King. In steps Minister of Disabilities and Carer Pedicures, Penny Simmonds. “I can explain everything …” she begins. “Fine,” says King Luxon, pressing the ...
The pair opened their first fully collaborative exhibition, Nina for Flowers, last Saturday. Gabi Lardies visited their studio to find out who Nina is and what working together was like.‘It didn’t start out like, ‘This is a show about Nina,’” says Josephine Jelicich, gripping a thermos of peppermint tea. ...
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Way to go Team New Zealand – superb effort this morning.
Looking like the on form team so far. Kiwi ingenuity does well on the world stage again.
Boring boys and their toys event now IMO made watchable by introducing speed and technology.
Used to be about yachts racing now it’s a dick measuring competition.
I like it, closest thing i can compare them to is the old group b rally cars.
The technology involved and the skill level of the teams sailing them makes for great viewing.
But should be FTA
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4566964/Kathy-Griffin-claims-Trump-family-ruined-life.html
She holds up a bloody severed trump head and then does the poor woe is me routine.
What the hell did she expect.
You’re quite right James, now if you could point me towards your post rallying against Ted Nugent, also disgustingly threatening a President and a Contender for President with these quotes …
“Obama, he’s a piece of shit. I told him to suck on my machine gun,” Nugent said during an appearance in 2007. “Hey, Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch.”
… then I might not see your comment as faux outrage and a simple excuse to attack people who don’t like The Trumpster.
Never knew anything of it. But agree it’s disgusting.
But love how your more interested in comments I may have made about (as it turns out) some thing I didn’t know about as opposed to the incident itself.
Or is that just an easy way out attack the commenter as opposed to the issue.
Love how you go straight for the poor me james, classy. Or is it because she a women that she can’t do it, but you as a male – have the right?
I’m pretty sure she didn’t read the standard.
Good to see you try to cover up your sexist puffer, with a glib comment james. Irony is dripping when you condone violence towards children as well.
“and a simple excuse to attack people who don’t like The Trumpster.”.
This is where some lefties like yourself lose all credibility.
I comment that a person in the media holds up a look a like decapated presidents head all covered in blood – and people like you try to make out it’s me who is using it as an attack.
If you look at my post – I have been consistently against forms of violence and disgusting comments make against people. Same cannot be said for all on here.
You just hang in there James.
We need more people like you here to stop it getting all moist and self-congratulatory.
But make sure you make us think.
Haha, lucky my sense of self worth isn’t based on your opinion of my credibility then eh James. But then I’m not so thin skinned as the POTUS. I don’t see this as a Left/Right issue, perhaps your mentioning that proves the point you were using it as an attack of the left rather than some C grade celebrity. As I said I agree with you that Kathy Griffin’s stunt was awful as was the comment by Madonna at the Women’s March, as was the Ted Nugent comments (that I’m glad I got to educate you about, for your own credibility of course, as it had slipped passed you despite it being widely reported when Mr Trump welcomed him to the White House, ) and of course not to mention Mr Trump himself referring to a reporter bleeding from the whatever, and that he can grab women by the pussy. Please don’t see this as an attack, sweetie, I’m just highlighting the need for balance. Have a cracking day buddy.
Bit like the Palinator gunsight thing.
“For various reasons, acceptance of climate science breaks down along ideological lines. First, a majority of people in every state in the US believes, for instance, that the Paris Accord is a good thing, that the USA should participate. It turns out, however, that there is higher acceptance of climate science and acceptance of the importance of action on the coasts (California, Oregon, Washington, New York, etc.).
There are exceptions to this rule but I am generalizing. It also turns out that the more liberal your politics are, the more likely you are to accept the science and the solutions. With respect to politics, the results are stunning. Vast majorities of Democratic and independent voters are supportive. Interestingly, small majorities of even conservative Republicans are supportive.”
https://skepticalscience.com/reflections-on-politics-of-cc.html
In China, the water you drink is as dangerous as the air you breathe
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/jun/02/china-water-dangerous-pollution-greenpeace
So that’s the state China has allowed their own country to get to…. what governance (sarc).
And that’s why it’s crazy stuff to sell any of our land to them. If they don’t care enough about their own country to keep it livable why would they care two hoots about keeping our country livable.
Postcards from the brighter future from Anthony Robins is a sort of Blip’s list of unsatisfactory happenings that trend downwards for our standard of living for us all and need urgent remediation.
This one would interest Red Logix who has or had some rental properties. Others will disdain the thinking because they don’t agree with it, they will consider it wrong, even though it is legal and follows what have been found to be economic rules of supply and demand effect on prices. When they are operating on our necessities then we need to have government management to offset the simple economic answer to everything, housing at present in particular.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/331952/auckland-agency-price-gouging-over-weekly-rent-rise
I think this item covers the economic argument well. Putting the price up also acts as a means of lessening demand, which can be argued as bringing efficiency and self-choice, rather than other means of sorting through applicants which can result in other form of unfair selection. Yet would putting names in a hat be more acceptable and effective?
I don’t have an easy answer.
Typically we look for long-term low risk tenants and we ‘reward’ them by keeping rent rises to a bare minimum.
But every-time we have a new vacancy the demand is crazy. We do use this as the chance to get the rent back up to market. Even then we’ve literally had bidding wars going on right under our noses. When this happens we both feel pretty damned uncomfortable … I’m not looking for sympathy, but the sense of letting down all the hopefuls we cannot place is real for us.
Our solution is a bit ad-hoc, we make a short-list and then delay making a decision for a week or so. In that time many will drop out and by then, after a few interactions, we usually find it fairly easy to make a decision.
What we don’t do is just ramp the price up to eliminate people, because that’s filtering for all the wrong attributes.
And for the past few years while we’ve been overseas we find good property managers will often be able to place excellent tenants, based on prior track record with them, without ever advertising.
I know there’ll be the usual crowd who’ll read this and it will trigger their “I hate all bastard landlords” button, but I’ll hit ‘Submit’ because I want to give gws an transparent answer.
I don’t know about “all bastard landlords”, I just think it’s daft that our housing legislation makes for a lottery where the prize is you (ie: a ‘legitimate’ landlord).
Hi Red Logix, letting people cool off and looking for good managers seem to work for you. I would like to see an agency that tenants bought into that would give them ratings for quality. The agency would phone the landlord when they left and file a report, but they would also know how fair each was and which were mean-minded. It would be a help to tenants to have some reliable background when looking for a new place, and people could work to up their rating, It would be a small operation possibly run from a solicitor’s office to keep costs down, not a real estate place as there would be risk of bias and advantage.
I remember in London in the 1970’s looking for a flat in a city area. You travelled by underground or bus, perhaps changing at some point and walked there to be 20 minutes before the set time and find a queue of dozen people there before you. Then some chap turned up at 10 minutes before and started to throw a panic attack and he got let through to the front. I have forgotten the rest.
This all comes back to me and is not relevant but hell while I still can remember I’d better do so.
I met a woman who was living an hour’s train ride away from London and wanted to move closer. She told me it was getting almost impossible because she was pregnant. When she started looking you couldn’t tell but as the fruitless months went by she got bigger and more definite noes. The government, trying to protect families from being asked to leave rentals and then not being able to find another home, had made a law that the landlord had to find alternative accommodation for them so no-one wanted to let to a family, to a to-be family, and even a married couple would be better to say they were just living together, as it seemed less likely that children would turn up.
I ended up finding a nice place in Kilburn, which had four flats mostly occupied by Iranian men. They always had girls around, seemed pretty laid back, but then the Ayotollah put out a call for all true-born men to come home and fight and they were gone back to a stricter society. I also remember this new CBD building 33 stories high called Centrepoint. There was a big demand for offices but the owner left it empty and revalued the rental for each floor each month which provided collateral or looked good on the balance sheets.
Interesting info about unintended consequence of the building. “On 19 June 2006 the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment pointed to the building as an example of bad design, where badly-designed pavements force pedestrians into the bus lane and account for the highest level of pedestrian injuries in Central London. ”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Point
In response to a comment in a Trump, planet climate discussion. The article quote about ragged trousered lefties and Corbyn, made me think of a great novel.
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is such a great reality based novel: a UK socialist document, portraying the true state of class exploitation, as written by one of the working class.
Ignored in its time, maybe it’s time has come with Corbyn?
Thanks for that suggestion, I will definitely search that one out.
I know this is slightly different, but another very good book set of working class (or from peasant to working class) books are Maxim Gorky’s three autobiographies, My childhood, My apprenticeship and My universities, really quite painful and beautiful, my favourite Gorky.
Thanks for the tip.
Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is available free online.
As I do have a secondhand bookshop, I better try and find myself a nice old hard copy, actually I just can’t read books like that digitally, I don’t mind reading reports, and stats online or on a e reader, but not more ‘personal. books, I don’t know why, just one of my many idiocracies.
I had a look at Trademe Adrian. Under Robert Tressell:
There are some of the books, all from UK IIRR.
This one has a cover with one supposes, the males of the era, all wearing caps and looking neat and decent. It’s about $17 with free shipping.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/books/nonfiction/other/auction-1338230217.htm
This one is the cheapest with a modern cover for $8.70.
It is used but good condition. Free shipping.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/books/nonfiction/other/auction-1338230217.htm
There were none in the expired listings.
We have two copies in the shop, free chocolate fish if you can figure out where…
On a shelf.
dv
Like it. There is often a simple answer overlooked.
Damn I guess I won’t be getting any chocolate then…..
Intriguing about the shop Siobhan. I guess it isn’t in Ireland despite your Irish name. How much, do you post?
Sorry greywarshark, turns out we’re down to one copy which Adrian gets seeing as he works here for free. He still has to find it though.
Adrian works there for free. Surely he’s worth gold. Was it one of the really old editions?
On the outward postage table? (ordered by B English}
Carolyn-nth
Thanks for The Ragged …
I thought these paras resonated:
Clearly frustrated at the refusal of his contemporaries to recognise the inequity and iniquity of society, Tressell’s cast of hypocritical Christians, exploitative capitalists and corrupt councillors provide a backdrop for his main target — the workers who think that a better life is “not for the likes of them”. Hence the title of the book; Tressell paints the workers as “philanthropists” who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters.
The hero of the book, Frank Owen, is a socialist who believes that the capitalist system is the real source of the poverty he sees all around him. In vain he tries to convince his fellow workers of his world view, but finds that their education has trained them to distrust their own thoughts and to rely on those of their “betters”.
Much of the book consists of conversations between Owen and the others, or more often of lectures by Owen in the face of their jeering; this was presumably based on Tressell’s own experiences.
I particularly liked the apposite and alliterative inequity and iniquity of society.
I have read this book some years ago. Alongside Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London it shaped my political perspectives deeply.
Orwell himself wrote of it:
I also read it many decades ago and it made a big impression. It was a set text on a stage 3 English Lit course I did – the lecturer was a Brit leftie.
Thread.
https://twitter.com/mtsw/status/870701731297935362
Great comedy there.
Off the mark, or dead wrong?.
It’s better illustrated as a breakdown of Fox News viewers.
Fox are the masters of precise gender targeting:
https://qz.com/738346/fox-newss-biggest-problem-isnt-the-ailes-ouster-its-that-its-average-viewer-is-a-dinosaur/
Choreographed and all.
https://medium.com/@tobinsmith_95851/how-roger-ailes-fox-news-scammed-americas-la-z-boy-cowboys-for-21-years-1996ee4a6b3e
Reminds me of a lament from a CEO or whatever of Cadillac some time back: “Pretty soon the average age of our buyers will be ‘deceased.'”
I was going to put it up as a post.
Hmm, okay. So liberals in the US can’t sell liberalism. No loss.
Liberalism’s some dripping gooey inoculation that tries to sell itself as progressive…a soap or barrier cream that’s sold for fear of infectious germs, when we all know that the germs (progressive or “leftist” values) are what we actually all need.
Liberalism exorcised all of the dirt, blood and struggle of progressive or left politics… supplanting a brightly colored (sic) glossy magazine of pap in its stead. Liberalism is wringing hands, ringing representatives, writing letters to the editor and signing petitions.
So now “the right” can take all manner of images associated with defiance or bravery or of being staunch – everything that liberalism fearfully washed away – and twist it as it sees fit.
And on “the left” we can reject both and reclaim our heritage.
Disclaimer: don’t bother writing to tell me I read too much into that twitter column 😉
@Bill+1
“And on “the left” we can reject both and reclaim our heritage.”
I am with you there pal, reclaim our heritage and co opt anything that is useful from the right while we are at it.
I have been debating with some friends that we should (on the Left) start using the word conservative, my argument being that to be a socialist today is in part being conservative in a modern sense.
Conserving environment, communities, conserving human dignity for all citizens, conserving families, whatever that family might look like etc….
Had a bit of push back of course, and I am not entirely tied to the idea either, but it makes for a great debate (in certain circles).
Garner goes full #covfefe at the Greens:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/93267043/duncan-garner-the-rub-of-the-greens-the-party-thats-become-labours-little-play-thing
The Right is very scared of the unified Left.
The Nats have had 9 years to reinvent themselves in a way the Greens might consider them possible coalition partners and have failed miserably.
I see that NZ citizen, Peter Thiel, is attending the 2017 Bilderberg meeting.
http://www.globaltruth.net/2017-bilderberg-meeting-final-list-of-participants/
If you have plenty of time, this is an interesting discussion on Bilderberg
Theresa May’s personal ratings fall as Labour reduces Conservative lead
.
IpsosMori Poll
(1) Headline figures
CON: … 45% (-4)
LAB: …. 40% (+6)
LDEM: … 7% (=)
So, Tories 15 point lead in previous IpsosMori slashed to 5 points.
__________________________________________________________________________________
This is also the first Poll to record Labour ahead in the Initial results (which are fully weighted demographically but still include the Undecideds and haven’t been weighted for turnout). Hence, this Initial ‘All Giving a Voting Intention’ result arguably provides the purest snapshot of the Party preferences of all UK adults entitled to vote, regardless of whether they do, in fact, turn up on June 8.
(2) Initial ‘All Giving a Voting Intention’ result
LAB: …. 43%
CON: … 40%
LDEM: … 9%
______________________________________________________________________________________
(3) Leader Satisfied / Dissatisfied ratings:
May: 43 / 50 . …… Net minus 7
Corbyn: 39 / 50 … Net minus 11
First time May’s found herself in negative territory.
(Compare with first IpsosMori after May called Election – 26 April 2017 =
May: 56 / 37 …….. Net plus 19
Corbyn: 27 / 62 … Net minus 35 )
Hey Swordfish looks at these numbers from MORI:
“Among people aged 35-54 there has been an even more dramatic switch.
Before the social care row they split 52-34 for the Conservatives. Now they divide 36 for the Conservatives and 46 for Labour. In other words, they have switched sides.”
This kind of change is unheard of. Corbyn might just do it.
“Among people aged 35-54 there has been an even more dramatic switch.”
Yep, noticed that 🙂 … just been looking through the Poll’s entrails.
Over recent days – far too much emphasis by naysayers on the idea that this swing to Labour is built solely upon weak foundations of (1) very young and (2) previous non-voters (who, of course, are historically less likely to vote).
The swing’s far more diverse than that.
I’ve even detected some movement in the latest YouGov among the solidly Tory Over-65s.
Tories still very much odds-on … but things are dramatically moving in the right direction (or do I mean the Left direction ?)
Agree all of that. Will be glued to live BBC feed on Friday.
We should put up a discussion post too. Just making a note here for the times. That first exit poll would be 9am Friday NZT. Results might be in by 2pm or 3pm.
Thursday 8 June
Polling stations open in every town, city and village across the UK from 7am to 10pm.
Millions cast their vote in the general election.
An exit poll at 10pm gives the first indication of which way the wind is blowing.
Counting takes place overnight, with the first seat to declare usually Sunderland before midnight.
If it’s an easy victory for one side a result could be known by 3am or 4am.
If it’s close there could still be uncertainty when Britain wakes up on the morning of Friday 9 June.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/when-general-election-uk-2017-10247953?service=responsive
Thanks for the times Weka-good idea on discussion post. Go the Corbynistas!
WTF…The Guardian comes out for Corbyn.
Yes the Guardian has made a complete U-Turn and is now desperately trying to aline themselves on the right side of history, except it is to late for them, their credibility is already well and truly in the gutter, dirty filthy and soiled by the centrist neoliberal bullshit they have been trying to sell us so hard for so long.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2017/jun/02/the-guardian-view-on-our-vote-its-labour
Just read the comments on their ‘coming out’ and you will see that most critical thinkers already read anything political that The Guardian put out with an extremely high degree of suspicion, it’s both sad and hilarious.
Here is The Guardian’s normal default position 19 July 2016
“Yes, Jeremy Corbyn has suffered a bad press, but where’s the harm?”
https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/jul/19/yes-jeremy-corbyn-has-suffered-a-bad-press-but-wheres-the-harm
Like all these fucking useless ‘centre lefties’ they have shown us yet again that the centre stands only for moral and principled ambiguity…no, you can be sure you will never find lines in the sand from these political prostitutes…and they want us to vote for Anna Lorck or Stuart Nash here in the Bay..what a joke.
Nash…
Let’s be clear about one thing: politics is about winning. There is no such thing as a ‘glorious defeat’, leaders who lose are not, as some may believe, ‘martyrs to the cause’, and ‘coming second but maintaining our principles’ is a ludicrous proposition.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/10/31/tdb-guest-blog-project-stuart-nash-the-most-pressing-issue-in-nz-right-now/
This from a guy who has Just been bumped up the Labour list..but hey he is hard on crime.
Hey Adrian, give The Guardian some, guarded, positives. We are hoping for change aren’t we? Better it happens, than not at all or overwhelmingly.
I am just not that forgiving…so sorry to be rude, but fuck them.
It is my view that The Guardian and other so called ‘liberal’ MSM media organizations have got more culpability for the victory of Trump than the republican party itself.
They relentlessly undermined and belittled the only real progressive in the US during the primaries, and therefore split the Left, and in the UK The Guardian in particular have been obsessive in their open hostility to Corbyn, it is only that the ‘manufacturing consent’ media model is now for all intents and purposes practically defunct, that Corbyn is now doing so well…and he and the Left own NOTHING of that success to The Guardian or their contemporaries.
Saw that link to TDB and Stuart Nash. This from him – so patronising.
Our supporters have the same impact when they squabble, bitch and back-stab on so-called ‘left-friendly’ sites like The Standard (a dreadful 21st century bastardisation of a once proud Labour broadsheet). Criticising your favourite Labour MP is not the route to victory, no matter what you think of their philosophies, hair or politics.
Someone who groups philosophies, hair and politics as equally unsuitable for discussion on a political site is seriously lacking in gravitas and nous. And that comment is made without knowing just how his hair is arranged.
(Does Joyce dye his do you think? It looked like it on the recent close up image we had.) And that just shows how catholic I am in my interests. And by the way that has nothing to do with religion Stuart, in case you think of adding it to the list we shouldn’t discuss. I remember the social advice – never discuss sex, politics or religion at the dinner table, or everyone will make a meal out of it.
Nash protesteth too much. When he can point to good behaviour in the House he can start bagging the mosh pit.
Love how they have another story about previous election endorsements – I kind of read it as. “The Guardian: Supporting Libourish Parties Since Forever”
Is that what passes for an Editorial at the Guardian? (opinion piece but can’t see a name)
‘Guardian reader’ has long been shorthand for ‘tourist’, ‘fairweather friend’ and ‘boring wanker who drones on sanctimoniously at dinner parties and turns into a rabid Tory once their property values are threatened’. They’re someone who when the going gets tough, gets going… back into the arms of authority (like Russell Brown).
I have said for a time that making unmarried mothers applying for benefits name the father so that the government can collect money from them, brings consequences on the woman and child that can far outweigh any support money that can be extracted. A woman trying to bring up a child in a good way, apart from some one-night stand of lust and thoughtlessness should be given every encouragement and support and be helped to stick to an achievable plan. Then she can decide if it is appropriate to include the man.
But the government has been ruled by prejudices against children and fertile women who don’t fit into their minimal plans to enable them to lead lives that encourage their potential and ready them for part-time work only, when the child is say, three.
If they have another baby then there is a choice, they have a long-term contraceptive device, or name the man with all that involves. It is fair for the government to set some rules, and I believe this should be what happens.
It is what feminists wanted, rights for single and solo parents, but women or men shouldn’t have to rely on someone who is going to be a destroyer of a stable family home and family.
https://blog.greens.org.nz/2017/06/03/social-security-bill-affecting-single-mothers-across-new-zealand/
Do you support abortion on demand?
I support abortion after counselling, and offers of help so that the woman has a range of options, and these not to be carried out by some religious or other group pushing their own pushchair. But after a number, the matter would need to be reviewed for health reasons, including mental health.
“apart from some one-night stand of lust and thoughtlessness” – really???
If the mother is not married to the father then he must sign, therefore acknowledging paternity. If he chooses not to sign then technically the mother is deemed to have not named the father. I have talked to mothers told to get DNA tests to prove paternity but they are not compulsory and the alleged father can (and often does) refuse to co-operate. The cost of a DNA test is prohibitive. So it is not always a night of lust / one night stand but often a dead beat male unwilling to accept his responsibilities.
That’s the point Patricia. The woman hasn’t a good relationship with a guy, he is someone she has been unfortunate to meet and for some reason, had sex with, and that type is more likely to not ‘accept his responsibilities’. He may not be a dead beat male, just one that wanted sex and expected her to take care of the contraception, and would feel aggrieved at being landed with long-term paternity cares and costs.
As RedbaronCV says, contraception should be the concern of both but not all men are willing to use condoms if they can get away with it.
And condoms should be used as the latest news is that HIV is rising and just as the government cares so little for supporting the good progress of young NZs and their children, I presume it is not impossible for them to baulk at paying out large sums for life-long medication for careless people.
It’s not beyond bounds of the authoritarian state that it would ban sexual
interaction except under a health licence, because it is a vector for disease. Even kissing. The trend to efficiency and control of people by government proceeds in NZ already without any feeling of responsibility to use the power of government to enable people to have good lives. This can extend much further than anyone has yet thought to forecast. The wealthy are already dividing themselves from the poor with whom they do not insist that tax money should be shared. They are SEP and different, not one of us.
@ Patricia
What I’m hearing is that some women seem to want their cake and eat it. For decades they have rightly demanded and fought for control of their bodies, their sexuality, their access to contraception and their reproductive rights.
I have not the slightest quibble with any of this.
At the same time men have been largely removed from the equation; beyond abstinence and using condoms, males have almost no rights in the matter at all. This is very much how women have wanted it.
Yet it’s clear most women expect that if they do choose to have a child, the father is expected to be responsible for 20 years of child support. If they dare object to this … to having greatly reduced rights and but an undiminished burden …. they’re shamed as ‘dead beats’.
A constructive discussion needs to move on from this; if we expect men to participate in parenting as equals, maybe their voices and experiences need to considered as well.
Contraception is more than a female responsibility no matter how one night the stand so why should the caregiver & child be “punished”.
And I’d believe in the economic argument a bit more if the identified fathers particularly the wealthy actually had to pay reasonable amounts for their kids.
To make that point – when asked a scant few years ago it appeared that in only 1 case was the child support assessment greater than the benefit with the extra being paid over.
There is also a strong economic case for the child money to be a separate benefit from the adult money. So child support collected or a child benefit could be paid over intact with the adult benefit a separate amount if only to stop money for the children being absorbed as an offset to an adult benefit that others get of right.
Red BaronCV
You are looking at the woman as a problem costing money which should be handled efficiently. If a lump sum could be got from a wealthy father then by all means, put the screws on and they would pay up to avoid having long years of payments. As for the others, they find it annoying to have some fun and then be lumbered. Having the father come round grudgingly or to make sure he gets his moneysworth can be injurious to the family relationship she is trying to build.
I would like to see the woman be given what she needs such as a home, and perhaps spending the time preparing for the baby with life training, cooking, learning how to do things not known before, sewing, putting up shelves, using a screwdriver and hammer, what a householder needs.
She would get transport with a group going to pre-natal classes and not drink alcohol. If she honestly couldn’t keep away from alcohol because of peer or family pressure, she might have a little holiday away from her home, if she wished. That sort of thing, asking and helping the woman with her needs has a much warmer sound than your careful, rather clinical approach.
Budgeting for two would be best, not separate bank accounts, and using the time for formal education, planning with achievable goals, NCEA in mothercare, getting a drivers licence, using a computer. What a fruitful time for her and she’d be ready to go with a positive attitude. And could fall back for advice on some reliable person she liked for free.
In Iceland I think, they have the habit of preparing a gift to the baby from the state, they like children apparently, unlike here where it has always seemed to me that a farming attitude is too often seen where some callousness and management approach arises too often. Even pushing women out of hospital on the day of birth instead of allowing rest and feeding to get under way.
There is such a thing JanM. It happens, fact. It’s just a matter of allowing people to be people not to follow some PC idea that feminists think up.
Right – that clears that up then! (sarc)
JanM
What are you on about? Care to relate it in 50 words or less.
50 words or less? Well how’s that for patronising sexism? That sort of crap usually appears in bullshit bingo grids as “educate me because I can’t be arsed listening to anyone and what you tell me will go in one ear and out the other anyway, so don’t bother, just shut up.”
OK, I’m not a woman, and it would be presumptuous to call myself a feminist, but show some basic respect when a woman relates her experience of sexism.
Usually when someone says ‘fact’ as a punctuation it means ‘according to my prejudices.’ And ‘PC’? Who uses that without irony now?
JanM: “apart from some one-night stand of lust and thoughtlessness” – really???
Yeah, amazing, isn’t it? It’s OK for men to do that, but it’s those wicked Jezebels who end up with the consequences. The pseudo-leftist’s idea of the rational individual without biology, race or gender is as fantastical as the neoliberal’s ‘rational consumer.’
Feminism is all about allowing women ‘to be people,’ not cherry-picked rhetorical examples. Feminists do not just ‘think up’ stuff but speak from their experience as women and put it in context. They are certainly not objects to be monitored and regulated by the state as you propose.
Try listening to what women have to say about their experience.
But after a number, the matter would need to be reviewed for health reasons, including mental health.
Interesting. So you pathologise female sexuality but not male and propose an authoritarian oversight. How about the same test for men who have been reckless with their use of contraception? Why is it the women who have to be regulated and checked by the state alone? ‘None of your fucking business’ would be a perfectly justified answer to that.
rhinocrates
Do you feel better now after thundering to me from your prominent height? You are full of prejudices which get in the way of caring about the person at hand who is a pregnant female with all the possibilities and problems of life for two ahead for her. I think she should have help and services to aid her. What would you give her – a tirade?
Which is exactly what you give her – a moralistic finger-wagging about how she should behave and how the state should regulate her behaviour. It’s not about me and you and your precious feelings about being told off, it’s about her rights as a woman and a human being. She is not to be ‘corrected’ if she doesn’t meet your moral standards.
Fuck you and your phoney white knighting. You’re not her champion, she’s her own. The state has no right to manage her vagina.
This is particularly egregious:
But after a number, the matter would need to be reviewed for health reasons, including mental health.
Because she just can’t think for herself and needs guidance from the state, right?
Why is it women who need regulation in particular?
Let me define white knighting for you. It goes like this: “women need to be protected… helped… guided… controlled.”
rhinocrates
hope you are not counselling women. They would go away full of anger and hopelessness. Having rights doesn’t feed you, it doesn’t help you manage your life better, it’s learning how to do it and getting assistance when needed that is the clincher for success and happiness. Not a toxic lot of negative opinion and theory about people who try and find practical ways to honour and advance the rights that you spout. That doesn’t result in happiness.
Being circulated on twitter: a UK Labour campaign vid by Ken Loach. Hard hitting socialist message.
Demand?! In the UK maybe. In NZ…yeah, not so much. 😉
Nice wee film though.
We’ve demanded things before and gotten them. I think we’re just at a different stage of the cycle.
Manchester, Theresa May, Libya, Saudi Arabia and the petrodollar.
This article contains so much valuable information and explains a lot.
The section on the petrodollar.
Not many people will know this.
‘To the Americans and British, Gadaffi’s true crime was his iconoclastic independence and his plan to abandon the petrodollar, a pillar of American imperial power. He had audaciously planned to underwrite a common African currency backed by gold, establish an all-Africa bank and promote economic union among poor countries with prized resources. Whether or not this would have happened, the very notion was intolerable to the US as it prepared to “enter” Africa and bribe African governments with military “partnerships”.
And the bit about Manchester and May.
‘The alleged suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, was part of an extremist group, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, that thrived in Manchester and was cultivated and used by MI5 for more than 20 years.
The LIFG is proscribed by Britain as a terrorist organisation which seeks a “hardline Islamic state” in Libya and “is part of the wider global Islamist extremist movement, as inspired by al-Qaida”.
The “smoking gun” is that when Theresa May was Home Secretary, LIFG jihadists were allowed to travel unhindered across Europe and encouraged to engage in “battle”: first to remove Mu’ammar Gadaffi in Libya, then to join al-Qaida affiliated groups in Syria.’
http://johnpilger.com/articles/terror-in-britain-what-did-the-prime-minister-know
Essential listening:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/201846255/jonathan-taplin-social-media-vs-democracy
He has recently published Move Fast & Break Things: How Facebook, Google and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy.
This was in yesterday’s Press,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/93218681/beggars-are-a-plague-on-our-house
Just appalling! Does the author ever wonder how people cope with Winz 13 week stand downs and other sanctions. What about the thousands who are neither on a benefit or in work?
I can’t decide who I would want to hear more of:
President Trump, or President Underwood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKe-8kpNVsU
Awesome work Frank.
No, travelling isn’t character-building — it’s just fun
An interesting take on travel.
Subscription required? Shame though because I think I’d disagree but without reading it …
I don’t have a subscription to FT and I’m not even signed in on my free account. They usually allow you to read one or two articles per month without bothering you about paying them.
Here’s another paragraph that rings true IME:
Surely if the Nats have forced Auckland City Council to bring in a congestion charge, Auckland people will punish them heavily in September.
That the ordinary workers of Auckland will have to pay for the years of infrastructure underspend while sitting in gridlock should make them very angry.
The Labour campaign team should be looking at this very closely.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/06/government-to-make-road-pricing-announcement-phil-goff.html