65 hours have passed since two anonymous high ranking Labour MP’s accused David Cunliffe of being “sneaky.” (Do you see the irony?)
They lied about the relationship between Shearer and Cunliffe. Shearer definitely DEMOTED Cunliffe from Finance Spokesperson (3 years with Goff) to Economic Development.
They accused this former Minister of Health (an exhausting portfolio job) of being “lazy.” In four months prior to his overseas trip he delivered three major speeches, each of which was well-covered in the press. (Note that only 2 of the 7 have ever been in cabinet. Parker had to resign as Attorney General. Jones had to resign as Minister for Immigration. 4 of the 7 failed to win electorate seats.)
Based on names discussed in the Standard, my list of suspects for this cowardly, dishonest attack is (in alphabetical order): Jacinda Arden (List MP), Andrew Little (List MP), Trevor Mallard, Shane Jones (List MP), David Parker (List MP), Grant Robertson, and David Shearer.
Each can clear their name by declaring they did NOT speak to Duncan Garner about David Cunliffe.
If you know about a crime and do not speak up, you are an accomplice. By their silence these seven are accomplices in a despicable act of treachery.
Whomever of these seven does not come clean is unfit to be in Parliament. What message does Labour send to the public?
“We are marginally less corrupt than National . . . . . maybe.”
Let me get this right… Duncan Garner claims that all the Labour politicians said that if Shearer was to be replaced, it would be by David Cunliffe over all their dead bodies? What a whopper!
Two very senior MPs have told me they would like an internal travel fund set up to keep Cunliffe out of the country for as long as possible. How nasty is this caucus? He is clearly not missed.
But Cunliffe is not only disliked by his caucus – he is not trusted. So many have told me he never delivers on his promises and is sneaky and lazy.
[…]
According to Shearer’s sources, the Labour leader no longer trusts Cunliffe. That view is shared by the majority of the caucus.
So two senior MPs told Garner exactly the same thing? Really! And then apparently a bunch of Labour politicians have all backstabbed Cunliffe… All saying the same thing as well?
If we’re to take the allegations seriously, although I’m at a loss as to why we should, you’re not trying to just pinpoint the source on one person… You’re saying that the entire Labour party is nasty, which just sounds like more bullshit from Nat spin-doctors.
that one in particular strikes me as ‘2 mps and garner out on the piss’. At the very least, it’s chummy informal banter mps are having with a media commentator.
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A bit like 2 sheep having a joke with a wolf – all very amiable, but sooner or later mr wolfy wants bar snacks.
Oh i see the irony alright, the Standard and us that comment in here regularly diss the mainstream media as being biased against the left in New Zealand politics and society, many of us here agree that a lot of what the mainstream publishes is utter bovine excrement,
In New Zealand we have as the core of our system of Justice the premise of innocence until guilt is proven, for you at least such a provision is meaningless,
Duncan Garner decides to please His masters to curry favor, dog whistles you all long and loud with a load of rubbish that if you tear away the blinkers is provably a load of s**t, and what do you all do,
Woof Woof, yap yap yap, hello Duncan Garner has quite a collection of poodles, and worse, Duncan Garner knows it, so anytime He feels like stirring up a political s**t-storm all’s He has to do is get out the dog whistle,
If you want rid of Shearer as the opposition Leader, and who could blame you, smearing half the Labour Caucus with Duncan Garners bulls**t allegations that havn’t a scrap of evidence attached to them is in my opinion not the way to accomplish this,
Emailing your wish for Him to be gone as leader to your nearest Labour Party electoral office might be more of a help…
“Mr Jaine said the council had a range of ways to identify sources of contamination.
They included having people walk ahead of collection trucks, opening up lids and leaving stickers to educate householders about what they should do”
–The words obey and comply followed by an article using various threats, should be motivational, encouraging, endear fear in those who are running this city???
Shearers right wing speech to grey power attacking the sickness beneficiary not pulling their weight as they were painting the roof of their house is good old fashioned bene bashing.
How can shearer cast aspersions on the beneficiary without knowing why that person is on a SB? There are a myriad of reasons why someone would be on that and not many would stop someone painting the roof of their house.
But like all stories its probably made up. A made up beneficiary to bash.
That speech annoyed me, too, no end. I agree, the beneficiary he was talking about probably came straight out of Shearer’s a*se.
If he was real, the man could have hired someone else to paint his roof and then added the cost to his next application for the Landlord’s benefit (aka Accommodation supplement), but he didn’t and saved the taxpayer money by doing it himself.
Also, I heard that the man who told Shearer about the beneficiary, owns a rental property. In fact, he has owned 3 of them over the last 10 years, never lived in any of them, but was able to charge high-end rent because his tenants were able to get the Accommodation Supplement anyway for whatever he asked. Then he sold each of the properties on for a profit after 2-3 years. Naturally, he failed to declare any of this on his tax return.
So if we want to talk about fairness in society, which rip-off do you think is more common? Which one should a Labour leader point out?
That speech annoyed me, too, no end. I agree, the beneficiary he was talking about probably came straight out of Shearerâs a*se.
Where can I find a report, or better still, a transcript of this speech? From what I know of Shearer, it’s just not the kind of thing he’d say! Standardistas seem (with two exceptions, one of whom is me) to hate Shearer worse than they hate Key! That makes me sceptical about this story.
Having just read it, I don’t think it’s as horrifying as it’s being portrayed. Shearer’s fault lies in not clarifying why it is he took the word of the guy about his neighbour’s situation… but ACT candidate in the making – give me a break!
I’ve never understood the widespread hatred for Shearer here.
I have previously got into trouble for expressing my loathing of Russel Norman and the middle class kiddies that make up the BLUE-green party.. but it’s okay, it seems to slander Shearer up and down and all around. I have not got over the sinking feeling I had, hearing Norman and Turei say on the TV news right after the election last year, that they were sure they could work happily with NACT in their ‘memorandum of understanding’ or whatever they call it.
The problem is that it has become acceptable to bash beneficiaries, and many people voted for National because of the perception that Labour gave too many hand-outs to the ‘undeserving’. Now that that attitude is firmly entrenched in our culture anyone trying to do right by everyone rather than giving more to the wealthiest few is seen as soft, bleeding-heart, gullible or, my personal favourite, jealous. Shearer is probably just saying what he thinks people want to hear. The thing that always amuses me (not a funny subject but let’s face it, if you don’t laugh you’ll cry) is how quick people are to criticize those on welfare while being ignorant to the fact that corporate welfare is a much bigger problem.
You have that right, i have been holding off on criticism of Shearer’s performance as Labour Party Leader until such time as He actually gave us (the electorate) some clues as to what we could expect from Him as Prime Minister,
The day a Labour Party Leader begins to speak the truth about those reliant on benefits will be the day that Labour again will have my vote which for Labour has been missing from their ballot count since Sir(spit)Roger Douglas,
My view on Shearer(spit) as Leader of the Labour Party is simply BYE BYE, perhaps He would be better stomping the hustings on behalf of ACT…
Off course it was made up. Nobody in the history of the world has ever tried to rip off the people of New Zealand by claiming a sickness benefit when they weren’t sick. No, never happens.
That lying “worker” who talked to Shearer should be forced to go and help his neighbour paint his roof. And they should put up his tax rate to the same as a rich prick and the extra given to his neighbour.. He should be happy to go to work to pay the tax that supports his neighbour. What a bastard.
Yesterday I posted an “employers” viewpoint, but stayed off the “unemployment” debate. One theme coming out of things was the impact of “corporate” NZ on the rest of the economy, especially the offshoring of profit.
A minor thought. Multinationals we are told provide the capital and IP we “so desparately need”. In return the profits flow out back to such places as the IBM Cayman Islands account. Quite obviously nobody invests without a profit motive, so ultimately more flows out than ever comes in. This is the wealth pump of the imperial system. Under this system we cannot help but lose more than we gain and gains are only relative. We are “colonized”.
The end result contributes significantly to the unemployment we face: if we had developed the businesses ourselves we would have kept the cash here in NZ and had a choice about how to use it, such as shorter working weeks thus employing more people. Instead we work those with jobs harder for less and less.
A minor thought. Multinationals we are told provide the capital and IP we âso desparately needâ.
And we don’t need it because, more often than not, the FDI we’re getting is just buying up NZ developed businesses any way. In fact, I don’t know of any Blue Sky start ups from FDI that used foreign knowledge or resources to get going. There may be some that used foreign money but money is nothing. We could, quite simply, have used our own by the simple expedient of printing it.
And various neolib governments over the years have been destroying NZ IP and institutional knowledge, to make us more dependent on foreign and private sector expertise.
The involvement of a secret Government organisation before the raid on Kim Dotcom’s mansion emerged during cross-examination of a police witness in the High Court at Auckland yesterday.
The witness, Detective Inspector Grant Wormald, refused to name the organisation when questioned about a meeting police attended before the raid.
Dotcom’s lawyer, Paul Davison, QC, asked him if an unidentified group of people at the meeting were from the Security Intelligence Service.
Mr Wormald replied that they were not. But asked where they were from, he declined to say, “because of the nature of the organisation”.
There are a couple of other NZ choices apart from the SIS. Apart from the obvious concerns about what âourâ spooks get up to, this is important because the trail has to lead to the Prime Minister at some point given the committees he is on and the briefings he receives.
The Prime Minister on TV3 denied personal knowledge of Kim Dotcomâs existence prior to the raid during the Banksie election donation affair. Yet Keyâs teapot chum certainly knew the eccentric
Dotcom well enough to visit him in ShonKeyâs very own electorate.
Could be GCSB? If there were questions about the interwebs and the technological capability of the equipment Dotcom had, then they might be a logical group to ask.
Although it does seem a bit of a wander from their normal remit.
Their website does, of course, claim that they have a “Mastery of Cyberspace” (see http://www.gcsb.govt.nz/ ) so I guess that could well make them PC Plod’s source of advice when dealing with Nefarious International Criminals of the Interwebs.
As an aside, I would have thought that proclaiming yourself “Masters of Cyberspace” was just asking for trouble. They may as well claim to be “Invulnerable to Hackers”…
Isn’t the plod in question under oath to the court, since when can a witness befor the High Court select what questions they will or will not answer,
If the ‘secret organization’ is neither of the known organs of espionage then what the f**k is going on here, secret Government organizations simply lead to the ‘disappearance’ of citizens,
Country’s such as Chile had ‘secret’ Government organizations back in the 70’s and 1000’s disappeared…
John Keys personal dirty tricks squad. Ready to be loaned out to foreign companies. IE RIAA and Hollywood against his own people. Oh and for when he does not want to get his hands dirty he lends them to the FBI.
This is really shite. Why are secret intelligence services helping American media corporates intimidate in NZ?
Also, it seems they are really shite at their job.
“works for the Govt”…works for the National Govt? Reminds me of the separate intelligence directorate that Rumsfeld and Cheney set up to bypass the traditional CIA and Army Intelligence, in order to run their own games.
The problem is that we don’t really know in what capacity the GCSB (or whomever it was) participated.
I suspect it was probably something very limited, effectively providing PC Plod with the answers to 20 dumb questions about how the physical hardware at Dotcom’s residence related to the “evidence” they were meant to be gathering, how long it would take Dotcom to wipe something incriminating, and whether a 1337 hacker / James Bond villain would have any capability to interfere in a police arrest operation.
Which on the one hand seems idiotic, but would hardly be a big drama — it would basically just involve some GCSB agents(?) going to a meeting. It is of perhaps equal idiocy to anticipating that Dotcom might flee in a fast car (to where? his secret volcano lair?).
We do develop successful businesses, but we allow them to be bought by overseas interests.
There are alternatives. The Swiss keep control of their successful businesses (Nestle, for example) by issuing two classes of shares, one for locals only and one for overseas buyers. The “locals only” shares carry greater voting power so the company remains under the control of the Swiss.
Another strategy is to declare classes of industries “strategic assets” which cannot be controlled by foreigners. We should never have let our news media fall into foreign hands. “Rupert Murdoch stay away from our editorial desks.”
I feel sad and embarrassed for the staff in the Labour offices in Parliament. They  have seen the shenanigans going on that lead to this stupid self inflicted wound. They, more often than not, know who has done what. They have heard Shearer being advised to ignore the crowd in The Standard and elsewhere. “It will all blow over, stick to the plan”. Â
During the Cunliffe/Shearer road show I suggested to both men that whomever won the leadership should make the other deputy leader. Shearer didn’t do it.
If we are going to heal this party, Shearer needs to step down ASAP and recommend the caucus elect Cunliffe the new leader. Then Cunliffe should give Shearer a significant position on the front bench. Anything less will exacerbate the blood feud.
There would be less disruption and lost face (party-wise) if, for the good of the party, Grant Robertson stepped back and allowed Cunliffe to be deputy.
I dunno,
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I would have thought that “all people who aren’t egotistical self-important linkwhoring trougher-wannabe vacuous mediocrities” Â would have been a good response to the trool.
Onnit Ama. The Parker pro-business toadying was one thing, but benny-bashing from a Labour leader (invented and repeated – see Gordon Campbell) is a viscious, inexcusable step far, far too far that will never be forgotten by his own progressive supporters and tory strategists alike.
And inexcusably politically dumb: revealing zero understanding of Sickness Benefit qualification, the effect of benny-bashing on the innocent, and even the make-up of his immediate audience – many of whom are “roof painters” themselves.
The current cancer could have been avoided by a co-leadership year; i.e. a de facto contest conducted openly that the media could not have ignored. Would have relished, in fact, and thus stymied the current white-anting metastasis, which as you note can now only be treated by amputation. But that depended on the courage and motivation to put principle ahead of the personal, and weakness prevailed.
The party will survive. It rests on the strong shoulders of millions who have gone before: strength that will always prevail over the spineless and dissipated. As the traitorous ACT cabal slowly seeps into the gutter of history, so too its current dregs.
Whats to know about the sickness benefit.
You are either physically stuffed – Not the case as this dude obviously could work as a roof painter.
Or you are mental – Probably shouldn’t be on the roof if that is the case.
Good on Shearer. Always championing the bludger over the guy slogging his guts out to do right by his family is a guaranteed losing strategy.
KK obviously belongs to the knuckle-scraping neanderthalic Tory turd race unwilling to admit that those reliant upon benefits are simply there to allow for the enrichment of the 40% who make up the Tory turds core vote…
“Hello I’m here about the job you have advertised for a roof painter”
“Can you paint roofs?”
“Yes in fact I was painting one the the other day untill some prick called David Shearer dobbed me into winz”
“Thats great however being able to paint a roof is not the same thing as being able to work as a roof painter. Have you read Houllebecqs latest book”
“Yes and I really noticed the continuation of the nihilistic subtext that weaves through all his work. Its a style that I believe really resembles Albert Camus”
“Your knowledge of modern French literature seems to be ok…you’ve got the job.
No, I’m simply and plainly asking you if you’d like me to explain what I meant in my first comment.
Let me know when you get bored with what you’re up to there and I’ll explain it for you.
You’re getting close though, what you described above isn’t a “ridiculous semantic argument”, it’s more or less the definition of a job painting roofs.
âHello Iâm here about the job you have advertised for a porn starâ
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âCan you have sex?â
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âYes, once every 10 years provided I’m careful not to do too much work at once, don’t move my back too much and stop immediately if I have a dizzy spellâ
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âThat’s great, however ‘being able to have sex’ is not the same thing as ‘being able to work as a porn star, maintaining an erection and reasonably strenuous physical activity for 6 hours a day and several days a week, depending on the amount of work we’ve been offered’. Good bye.â
Shearer, Labour is best rid of him, ACT is a party He would fit right at home in,
My view, David Cunliffe as Leader and future Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson as His deputy, both are telegenic and compared to Shearer who comes across like some hayseed 1950’s back-country farmer both can articulate the message not only in it’s long form but also have the gift of the 5 second soundbite…
My view, David Cunliffe as Leader and future Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson as His deputy, both are telegenic and compared to Shearer who comes across like some hayseed 1950âČs back-country farmer both can articulate the message not only in itâs long form but also have the gift of the 5 second soundbiteâŠ
So, are you actually a Labour supporter?
Cause is telegenic all we want? I don’t think so. Bill Rowling was less telegenic even that than the egregiously awful Jason Gunn, but was also a decent PM.
Helen Clark always came across on TV as if she had better things to do, but she was an awesome PM!
Nope i am a Green party supporter, Labour lost me at the point of Sir(spit)Roger Douglas who i incidently might have helped get elected by stuffing the letter-boxes of my home-town with Labour election material,
I wont use the word ‘stupid’ in a descriptive of your appraisal of my previous comment only because i think you have the intelligence to perceive more from that comment that such support for a Cunliffe/Robertson leadership of the Labour is based upon more than the telegenic nature of both of them,
Cunliffe at least seems to have some ‘vision’ for a New Zealand future that can unpick the threads sewing us into the present paradigm of global stupidity and in my view would need someone as His deputy to manage the politics of moving labour from Right to Left,
We obviously have differing views on Helen Clark,(and yes i do know Her personally),awesome is not what i would describe Her tenure as Prime Minister as,astute political management was what i would describe as Her forte,
However, Hers was the Social Democracy of,for, and,by the middle class and she was quite happy to give the bene’s a kicking and did so by not including the children dependent upon benefits in the working for families scheme,
Therein lies the difference, She being a Social Democrat the socialism of selling out to neo-liberal economics, Me being a Socialist,
We obviously have differing views on Helen Clark,(and yes i do know Her personally),awesome is not what i would describe Her tenure as Prime Minister as,astute political management was what i would describe as Her forte,
Actually, I have to agree with you about Helen Clark.. (my late brother worked on her campaign one year, so I knew her by extension, so to speak) and you are right…
But I absolutely can’t bring myself to trust the greens. Winnie Peters’ phrase about ‘baubles of power’ springs to mind.
It doesn’t help that I met so many pretty vacant middle class women last year who oozed that they’d voted for those lovely greens, because they trusted the greens to stick to conservation and not do anything radical on behalf of all those lazy bennys!
It doesnât help that I met so many pretty vacant middle class women last year who oozed that theyâd voted for those lovely greens, because they trusted the greens to stick to conservation and not do anything radical on behalf of all those lazy bennys!
That would just indicate that you were speaking to someone who didn’t know WTF they were talking about and took that ignorance as being symptomatic of the Greens in general.
That would just indicate that you were speaking to someone who didnât know WTF they were talking about and took that ignorance as being symptomatic of the Greens in general.
I think it’s pretty indicative of the reason for the green’s landslide last year… I spoke to not just someone, but many someones, all nice kiddies from Remmers and Freemans Bay, all the kind of girls/women/boys who don’t even realise that they’re born privileged. Shades of the Lady/Lord Bountiful about them, they shed crocodile tears about poor brown kids in South Auckland and maybe even give $5.00 to Canteen, but show them a threatened native bird or some conservation Dept land, and they quickly forget about the people…
Ah, people in need – they prefer the pretty photogenic brown kids with the cute 5 year old gap-toothed smiles, but when faced with a dirty smelly alkie on the streets, or a shabby 65 year old woman begging for change in K Road, they draw back their figurative skirts and mutter that ‘people like that’ need to be kept out of sight and preferably in secure care where they can’t bother nice inoffensive 20 somethings!
Its actually pretty hard to be a homeless person on the streets of any of our major cities,
There is even an ongoing attempt to set up a ‘wet’ house for the homeless alkies in Wellington only foiled by the ‘NIMBY’ attitude of neighbors wherever the attempt has been made,
In that i cannot really point a finger of blame at these neighborhoods that have and do object to having such a ‘wet’ house in their street as by definition homeless drunks are broken people from broken personal lives who just cannot abide by the mores of suburban life,
That is not to point the finger of blame at the alkies either despite being broken they are still human beings,
Most homeless people have other problems besides drug/alcohol/substance abuse usually being psychologically damaged and criminal recidivists,as well as on regular occasions being the victims of crime,
I know many of those who live on Wellington’s streets,and the only 65 year old i have recently seem begging there was doing so simply to gain the money necessary for His partner to stuff into a pokie machine at the local strip club,
Such people are extremely hard to ‘help’ even the night shelter is too confining for them and of course to confine them together anywhere without adequate security simply means that they have a propensity to damage each other,
Being wary of such people on the street is probably conducive to good personal safety and i would hardly denigrate the bright young things from Remmers for having done so,
Although in saying that, our slightly famous and recently deceased ‘blanket man’ received from such bright young things here in Wellington such a steady supply of burgers and stuff,(this on top of meals from the soupy’s), that i was occasioned more than once to muse upon such an agreeable lifestlye…
Being wary of such people on the street is probably conducive to good personal safety and i would hardly denigrate the bright young things from Remmers for having done so,
I was thinking specifically of Margaret Hoffman, the woman who used to sit in K Road, and beg cigarettes and change from passers-by.
The worst she ever did to anyone, was swear at them, and yet the ‘bright young tnings’ derided her, ridiculed her and sneered at her, as they trotted past to their clubs, bars and pizzerias.
She died in early 2011, and the people of inner city Auckland came over all Scots-Kiwi, and ‘don’t speak ill of the dead’, and all claimed she was a great ‘icon’ and they’d loved her. Such hypocrisy made me spit. (I’d seen them in action, as I gave her cigarettes and change, and got sneered at myself – as a scruffy old beneficiary with bad teeth, cos that’s how I look).
That idiot Cameron Brewer spoke of erecting a bronze statue of her to sit on the bench she always occupied – as the bronze woman would attract the shopper the real woman had repelled.
The masturbatory love-in the Herald gave for her after she died was sickening. The “old harridan, ugly old beneficiary, get a job, you loser old bag” was transformed into ‘beloved local identity’. Only people who’d actually known her as a person, such as the woman from the Baptist Tabernacle who performed her funeral, were realistic about her, and mofre importantly, had cared about her when she was alive! Even I tried to avoid her, although I thought ‘hell, that could be me in 10 years!’… (She was actually much younger than she looked I discovered, and more like me in 4 years!)
These people who said in the comments in the Herald that she was a beloved piece of local colour, were the same nice school, good university business course, professional parents people who I spoke to, and who voted greens to keep the scruffs and wasters in line! After all, Labour or Mana might let people like Margaret Hoffman spoil their view or get the help they needed!
(Margaret Hoffman turned out not to be homeless, just terribly lonely – so lonely she would rather be sneered at than ignored)
Indeed, besides thoughts of the idyll of life in a blanket, there is always that other little nag felt when with a need to go and fit to bust one finds to ones physical horror a recent migrant to the City from Christchurch, an incorrigible Alkie sent fleeing North by the closure of that CBD, has taken up residence in the only available toilet cubicle,
There but for the grace of God go i is the thought as a furtive pee is taken against the pigeon Park pohutukawa with one eye on the look out for roving plods lest ones ablutions land one in the wagon on the way to the cells,
Indeed again as Wellington’s ‘blanket man’ had a family in Tokoroa who really wanted him to go home as well as many attempts by those who work in the trenches with such people to house Him in Council flats and HousingNZ homes as well,
It’s hard to be homeless in Wellington, but those that are ground down by whatever to the level of our own ‘blanket man’ do have some modicum of support and some would say such support is in fact far greater than that which is gained by the hidden homeless, where whole families live in garages,sheds,vans, and, cars,not to mention the growing population housed but paying 50, 60, 70% of their total income just to meet rents,
Therein lies our country’s real problem of homelessness…
“It doesnât help that I met so many pretty vacant middle class women last year who oozed that theyâd voted for those lovely greens, because they trusted the greens to stick to conservation and not do anything radical on behalf of all those lazy bennys!”
Braindead urban hippies have bolstered the Greens popularity, this is true to an extent, but you are wrong to assume that it reflects Green’s policy, instead it reflects the normalisation of the green movement. It is cool to be green now. Look at the hollywood stars and they are all on some green/3rd world poverty crusade but never raise awareness regarding USA poverty, structural issues, or the way capitalism drives environmental degradation. I’d say that many Labour voters are idiots because they have always voted Labour and believe they can sort out our mess.
The Greens also take a more logical view of our problems. The unsustainable road that Labour and National have taken us down ruin our environment and it is poor people that bear the brunt of this disaster. The environment is tied in with unemployment, economy, well-being, inequality etc.
You are not being entirely fair about Margaret. She was on the street every day and had friends among those who are there on a regular basis. It’s true that she fell out with some people, but then she was often up for a fight herself. On the day she died, a young woman I know had booked both herself and Margaret in for a manicure at Posh Nails. Yes, there were scoffers, but locals often sided with Margaret against them. People did not treat her sentimentally, but many did treat her as a friend or a friendly presence, and did her shopping for her when she had her broken arm, etc. And a lot of people knew when her birthday was and some gave her presents.
People did not treat her sentimentally, but many did treat her as a friend or a friendly presence, and did her shopping for her when she had her broken arm, etc.
The sentiment I was referring to, was the gooey schmaltz in the media after she died.
I never actually knew her when she was alive, I met her occasionally on my way to work at a couple of language schools at the top of Queen Street.
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Really, the baubles of power, the Greens sat outside of the previous Labour Government for 9 years enabling it for all that 9 years,
If you know the pleasant smiling Meteria Turei at all you will see in Her someone uninterested in the price of Her principles, under the smile the woman is made of the same steel as Helen Clark but the principles are not about to be traded for a ride in a Beamer,
Hopefully after His little bout of Me Too in echoing Shearers ‘we are not buying back the assets’ comment, Co-leader Russel Norman has been given the polite message sent which read something like, ”us lot out here don’t do political activism on behalf of anyone to have them then turn around and spit in our f**king faces”,
Sure the Greens appear to have gone straight, but, their socialism is all over their web-site so if anyone after an election wakes up to suddenly find the Greens have forcefully negotiated the Labour/Green Government into a march by the left, i can only say don’t be suprised and get an education,
It’s a valid point tho, distrust of politicians to hold to the core of their values seems to have become a modern disease…
In New Zealand chavs would be defined as ‘the underclass’.These are the people that right wing talkback host Michael Laws says shouldn’t have children – the women, he says, who should be sterilised. He has discussed this abominable idea on air with the Minister for ‘Social Development’ Paula Bennett – who did not immediately reject it. Bennett herself has opined about young women having to take the pill while on the Domestic Purposes Benefit. We can’t have ‘the mongrels’ breeding, can we? Look what they get up to on Outrageous Fortune, for god’s sake!
When did it become the norm to simply dismiss the working class as lazy, criminally inclined, sexually promiscuous, drug addled, drunk? When did it become acceptable to turn the working class into caricatured objects for entertainment in such shows as Shameless and Outrageous Fortune? When did the working class suddenly become ‘STUPID’? When did the British working class suddenly into Vicki from Little Britain? When did the issues of poverty, and unemployment become not an economic question but a moral issue about how poor people should be treated? When did it become the poor’s own fault for being poor?
When I left school in the early 80s, there was little stigma about going on the dole. Being unemployed was seen as a consequence of the high unemployment rate not an individual failing. In the middle class circles I moved in there was some shame attached to not having a job (every conversation with a new person started with ‘what do you do?’ and then faltered if you said “I’m unemployed”), but there was not yet the outright condemnation of being a beneficiary. The Dept of Labour were operating with carrots not sticks.
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It changed shortly after that. Suddenly being unemployed was something to be derided, the term dole bludger became normal usage for a class of people who were denied work but trying to find work ie the term was used irrespective of individual circumstances. The DoL introduced increasingly draconian policies eg having one’s benefit cut if you refused a job.
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I wasn’t paying much attention to national party politics then, but in hindsight I have to wonder if that change in attitude wasn’t intentionally driven by either ACT/Labour or the Nats, rather than being a shift in the social norm over time. For me that is where the nasty streak gained ascendancy in NZ.
Yeah thats the result of turning humans against other humans with dirty tactics, to ensure that people are not looking at the govt asking questions like..
Does anyone know if there was a deliberate hate the dole bludger campaign in the mid 80s? Obviously Social Welfare policy changed, but I’m thinking more about things like how the media was used.
Not sure about the mid 80s, but there was an 0800 line in the early 90s, where you could dob in a dole bludger. Anonymous, no proof required, just pass on the goss and we’ll have a look, type thing. They had ads on TV with it for many months, if I remember rightly. Can’t find a link, sorry. I’m sure it was just after Ruth Richardson first budget. the mother of half the problems we have today.
In the eighties it was not at all uncommon for middle-class young adults to go on a dole-holiday, often while travelling around the countryside or living an alternative lifestyle for a while*. Often also, a passionate romance allowed no time for wage slavery for a period.
I have the teeshirt for this, however I got bored with unemployment after just a few months, and I think this was par for the course because unemployment even in ideal circumstances can be depressing for those not born to idle upperclass indolence.
Even these temporary unemployment breaks, which were effectively taxpayer-funded holidays attracted little disapproval in those days. Genuine unemployment didn’t seem to either, despite the fact ( ironically) that jobs were so much easier to come by, and the dole was extremely generous compared with the rates paid today.
The only recent comparable institution has been tertiary students going on the dole for the summer, something which was still prevalent in the late nineties and early this century, again amongst middle-class students.
*I often think that memories of these halcyon summer vacations affect middle-aged middle-class perceptions of unemployment today. Terms like “living the dream” and “lifestyle” could be further from the grim reality of being on a benefit today, and yet these illusions continue to prevail.
“The only recent comparable institution has been tertiary students going on the dole for the summer, something which was still prevalent in the late nineties and early this century, again amongst middle-class students.”
This still happens now, but it is really the result of neoliberalism, instead of students wanting to bum around in the summer. Much of the summer holiday work for students is within the service industry and focuses on xmas shopping. The students can get work till xmas, but rarely into Jan/Feb. Also the stand-down period after ending work is longer than the stand-down period if a student takes the summer dole straight away, therefore if a student chooses to work they will have a longer stand-down. Also, the shitty wages that are paid to temp workers and the ‘flexibility’ (hours get cut at short notice, etc) of holiday work means its not worth the effort for most students. Better to take the dole straight away and hit the beach…its a shame cause most students want to earn a stable income during their time off, but its not worth it.
When I left school in the early 80s, there was little stigma about going on the dole. Being unemployed was seen as a consequence of the high unemployment rate not an individual failing
When my sister  and I left school in 1970 and 1972, my father took us straight down to ‘sign on’, just in case (he’d grown up in the 1930s) As it happened, we both got jobs immediately, and never actually collected benefits – signing on was precautionary, and considered quite reasonable! Of course we were very lucky to have left school when we did – 10 or 15 years later, things might have been different, and definitely would have been in the 1990s, when my older son finished school…
It’s understandable that you wouldn’t want to turn up to a funeral with blood on your hands, but it is your fucking job you lazy self-obsessed cowardly piece of shit.
Oh and what a dick move hiding in shame behind your child, who is now part of the story. Real leader this guy.
Markm 12.2
Trouble is your lot have taken all the rocks. It upsets people and leaves them nothing to shelter under or to throw, whichever is the most appropriate.
I don’t think I have to judge the value John Key places on his family, and I don’t think I’ve done that. I think it’s a disgrace that he’s brought his child into this arena as a smokescreen for his own actions but beyond that I haven’t commented on it because it’s none of my business.
What is my business as a citizen of this country is whether he’s turning up to do his job or not.
ps come on weka, flying to the other side of the world to watch your kid play sport instead of going to work is by definition a holiday.
So do you think that the PM is never allowed to prioritise their family? That they should always cancel family things when the job requires it? Wouldn’t that mean they never get to spend time with their family?
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I’m not arguing the case for Key here (who doesn’t deserve and consideration), just the principle.
Like I said, it’s none of my business what he does with his family.
But let’s not pretend this is about time constraints. They guy can find time for all sorts of shenanigans when it suits him. Just so happens that this one don’t suit him so good.
So Key met with the families of the dead soldiers personally, but you’re not happy because you’d rather he did a public event in front of the cameras and news media?
I think itâs a disgrace that heâs brought his child into this arena as a smokescreen.
What’s the bet he isn’t even travelling to the US for is sons baseball game anyway… There are lots of things to discuss with the yanks at the mo. Despite what some think, a Prime Minister has an obligation to the country… Especially when it’s his decision to continue to deploy troops in an unjust war that leads to New Zealanders dying.
I don’t think felix is one to judge values, even if he was capable.
Mr Key visited the families of Lance Corporals Pralli Durrer and Rory Malone, who were killed in a clash with insurgents in Bamiyan province on Saturday, to explain why he would not be at the service.
The families can make their own judgements, as can Key.
felix is just using it as an excuse to run a cowardly piece of shite. Which is a very shitty thing to do in the circumstance, extremely disrespectful of the soldiers and families.
Funny, I think the shitty thing to do is play General and talk tough about the SAS and get photos taken with Apiata and take ‘hard calls’ to send troops into war and then disappear when the inevitable result of your actions and decisions comes home to roost.
And to use your kid as an exit strategy? That’s what you do when you want to leave a boring party, not when you want to avoid getting in the paper with dead bodies.
But of course according to tory t đ logic none of that is disrespectful of the dead people and their families. What’s disrespectful is mentioning it. Although I expect that doesn’t apply to you mentioning my mentioning for some twisted tory t đ reason which will never be explained or expanded on.
Now quickly Pete, fuck off to Kiwiblog and tell everyone what horrible things I’ve talked about and how horrible it all is and then write a big blog post full of quotes that no-one will ever read.
I’ve never been comfortable with politicians turning up to funerals and memorial services etc. seems deeply hypocritical to me. BUT, it is the accepted and expected norm.
If JK could abandon trade talks or whatever it was he jettisoned to return for the funerals of two helicopter pilots last year (or whenever it was – somebody attempted to link to it yesterday), then it just doesn’t quite gell that he’s putting his sons baseball game ahead of a funeral attendance.
I’ve no dooubt he will attend the baseball game. But I can’t get away from the thought that he’s been summoned by the whitehouse. But for what? Whatever it might be it’s obviously of such a nature that the public ought not to know of it. (So it ain’t trade related) And so my punt is that JK has had no option but take a hit on the whole thing.
Or then again, maybe he really is as disgusting and pathetically void as his ‘hard decision’ would have us believe.
It was probably all planned at the same time as the Mars landing. Obama himself may have organised the baseball tournament to divert attention from his birth certificate. A CIA plant would have orchestrated the team selection here in NZ.
This would all have had to have been started months ago, so I’m not sure who they got the dates to line up with what happened in Afghanistan, but I’m sure you’ll come up with a credible explanation for that too.
i was thinking aloud about the same thing down the bottom of yesterdays ‘Open Mike’,
* Event 1, the tragic death of 2 and wounding of 5 more Kiwi soldiers in Afghanistan, ( the 2 were flown back home this morning),
*Event 2, Slippery the New Zealand Prime Minister all but accuses Hungarian troops serving next to the Kiwi’s in Afghanistan of being cowards with what was in reality a sick joke worthy of a psychopath,
*Event 3, After having cancelled the upgrade to the National War Memorial in 2009, the Prime Minister is now falling all over Himself to have the expansion go ahead with what will be special empowering Legislation,
One thing about Slippery the Prime Minister that is a given, the urge to compulsively lie to the population of New Zealand is strong and ongoing,
i am left wondering if the Slippery one ‘sees’ a need for a National War Memorial that has very little use except for the yearly commemoration of world wars 1 and 2 to be expanded for future higher use,
The baseball trip to the US may just be to brief the Prime Minister about the expected future ‘sacrifices’ that ‘they’ expect from New Zealand…
The baseball trip to the US may just be to brief the Prime Minister about the expected future âsacrificesâ that âtheyâ expect from New ZealandâŠ
Sort of what I’ve been quietly thinking. The US Pacific build-up…it’s Chinese ‘concerns’. What role would NZ be expected to play?
The usual mindless sacrifice, a 10% mortality rate and a 45% injury rate for our troops in someone else’s conflict is what i would ‘guess’ as being a sufficient ‘sacrifice’
I can’t see a future conflagration as being Pacific based and believe the next ‘big’ war will be as usual centered on the European Continent,
Throughout history when Kings,Queens,Generals, and, latterly Politicians have destroyed their particular isms through financial mis-management War has been the final tool used to keep control and power over their citizens,
The debt bonds effectively turned into debt bombs will in my opinion again see the soils of Europe run red with the blood of a generation probably within the next 10-15 years…
Bill 12.4
The USA is going to ask for an extension of our troops time in Afghanistan until the US manages to introduce the high standards of US democracy there. Their men need relief as they are are going out of their minds being rotated continually to act in the never-ending stooooory.
+1 Bill. And how long is he away for? What else can he fit in in that time frame?
As for family, the son is 17, not 7 surely he’s old enough for an adult discussion about this sort of thing?
Also, how many doctors, nurses, police etc have leave cancelled in emergency situations that mean they have to give up family events. That’s what come with the job. The PM’s job is (should be) the same.
It has become common to criticise the use of Nazi analogies in political debate as examples of Godwin’s Law. Such analogies, commentators imply, are stale, call into question the validity of the underlying argument and the judgement of those making the comparison. Recently, there was widespread criticism/ridicule in the media of Nazi analogies made during NZ parlimentary debates over state asset sales.
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But where is the equivalent rhetoric condemning the use of Communist/Stalinist analogies in political debate?
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I wonder why media commentators see these as more acceptable? (e.g., “Helengrad”)
Because if you set a ridiculously high bar for what might be allowed to pass as fascism in ‘polite’ conversation – by equating it to it’s most extreme expression – of nazism, then it makes calling a spade a spade impossible in certain given situations.
There is no possible fascist dynamic in todays societies. Any such charge would require the trappings of nazism to be evident to have any merit. So fascist undercurrents become ‘invisible’ in any acceptable debate or analysis.
Communism, or communist dynamics on the other hand, really are absent from todays societies. So you’re permitted to draw communist comparisons whenever you like because, lets face it, if there was any communist undercurrent it would be flowing counter to any current the corporate world desired.
So set the bar very low for what might be allowed to pass for communism in any ‘polite’ conversation.
Both communism and fascism are heinous. But only one, if pursued, would undermine the power of current global elites.
Right, so let me get this straight:
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1) The outer trappings of fascism have to be present for the Nazi analogy to stick. And this is unlikely to occur in contemporary NZ politics (although that “blackshirt” Destiny Church march was probably getting close).
2) “Communism” is so absent from contemporary NZ politics, that it has no real meaning and therefore can be used to stand for anything you don’t agree with.
Erm, nah. What I was saying that in the interests of stifling criticism that would draw parallels with fascism, the trick is to banish talk of fascism altogether by setting a benchmark for fascism that equates with nazism…or nazism as popularily envisaged. So if no-one is piling minorities into concentration camps, invading neighbouring countries and exhibiting all those more extreme traits associated with nazism, then charges of fascism can’t hold…will be dismissed as ludicrous.
This allows for much in way of fascist doctrine to be developed and deployed (ie, corporatism) free from pesky historical comparisons. (It ain’t fascism if it ain’t nazism)
On the other hand, communism was never the doctrine of the current masters and sits in direct contradiction to their basis of power. And so ‘anything’ can be labelled communist because the knee jerk reaction that follows suits the interests of incumbent powers just fine.
It is because the manstream has a tendency to slide toward the authoritarian end of the spectrum in a well oiled but invisible manner. “Nice” National or Labour types like to give the illusion that their drift toward corporatism is “nothing” like drifting toward f@scism. To point it out using the correct terminology results in calls of Godwin….which is a crap bollocked brained thing. Lets call a spade a spade.
Yeah, this mass media invoking of Godwin’s Law seems like a classic anxiety formation. Deriding others becomes a way of reassuring oneself, of quelling the anxiety produced by such an analogy.
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It’s a pity NZers don’t know their history better, in particular about the cryto-f@scist New Zealand Legion that had some popularity in the 1930s. Sid Holland was a member, so was Keith Holyoake.
Teachers are being accused of petulance and having political agendas and yet the Governmentâs push for National Standards, league tables and charter schools are not considered ideological or political? Good grief!
More blind stupidity from Meat George…Key is wrong to go to see his boy and his framing of this as a ‘family choice’ is only acceptable to simpletons. Key’s economic and social policies have forced thousands of our children into poverty and stunted their opportunity of a bright future, Key is not family focused, Key is selfish and greedy…his actions could only be considered legitimate if he focused that kind of care and attention to all kiwi children. He abuses kiwi children.
Right, so if we had a PM who was doing good things about addressing poverty etc in NZ it would be acceptable for them to sometimes choose family over work?
Maybe, but most people make their own choices about attending funerals or spending time with their family.
I’m not making the PM a special case, you and others are. Apparently the PM has to be on call all the time. Maybe that’s fair, I’d just like to know if that’s applied to all PM’s or just Key.
“Right, so if we had a PM who was doing good things about addressing poverty etc in NZ it would be acceptable for them to sometimes choose family over work?”
I said…”his actions could only be considered legitimate if he focused that kind of care and attention to all kiwi children.”
I didn’t say it would be acceptable, I said it could only be considered legitimate if…
The legitimacy of his choice will always come down to personal ideals, but Key has proven time and again that he does not care about kiwi children, so his choice is not legitimate.
Personally, I would not consider Key’s choice as legitimate even if his concern over the welfare of children matched Mother Teresa’s. He can miss a game of whatever his son is playing.
My point is that this idea of Key being a family man does not correlate with his actions as PM…its bollocks. Key has once again framed his despicable actions in a positive light, he’s been doing it for years.
Sorry HS…I shouldn’t compare the way Key treats his own children, with the way he treats other people’s children.
You’ve really changed my thinking with your well reasoned argument.
…I am now in favour of Key imposing charter schools on those stupid poor children, while Key’s kids get private schooling. What was I thinking!
“Neither Goldman Sachs Group Inc nor its employees will face U.S. criminal charges related to trades they made during the financial crisis that were highlighted in a 2011 U.S. Senate report, the Justice Department said on Thursday.” – LINK
All good, if the political process is too weak at the knees to seize what are in effect the proceeds of criminal enterprise by organized criminal gangs in the form of major banking orgaizations they will simply be left to concoct even bigger scams which will in turn lead to even bigger world-wide financial,economic, and, social disasters,
Welcome to the slow motion train-wreck of the death of capitalism where the Beast in effect eats itself…
Welcome to the slow motion train-wreck of the death of FINANCIAL capitalism where the Beast in effect eats itself⊅minor correction, capitalism does just fine without financial capitalism, which is NOT to say that is a desirable scenario.
More importantly the above link shows that the rule of law in the financial capitals of the world is now a two tier system: absolute repression for scum like you and me, complete do as you will for the financial elite. Legal apartheid! We the 99% are black.
Financial capitalism seems to come about due to the collapse of physical capitalism which collapses due to over production and the declining rate of profit.
Minor correction if i may be so excused, TRADE can do just fine without either capitalism or its vicious half brother( the mongoloid), financial capitalism,
As butter can and was swapped for Lada’s presto the coin stays in each country that is trading therefor there is no real need for International Banking…
Something else for Pete to pretend to be horrified about:
When John Key attends a soldier’s funeral as PM it’s not because they were mates and he misses them. He’s there as our representative. Not the govt’s rep. Not the National party’s rep. Ours.
Now observe the way he framed this situation as a personal decision, as if the decision on whether to attend a funeral or a baseball game all came down to how it would affect him and his family.
It’s not about him. It’s his fucking job and he’s missing again.
I wasn’t explaining anything to you Pete, you’ve already shown you’re incapable of understanding much beyond your own nose.
And I’ve already told you I couldn’t care less what Shearer thinks. Why would I give a fuck what Turei, or you, or any other politician has to say about this?
But thanks for the mock-horror, I knew you wouldn’t disappoint. Will you be posting this to Kiwiblog as well?
Yep. We, as citizens of a democratic society, sent soldiers to their death. We did it through representatives but we ultimately hold the responsibility for that.
And similarly, as our representative, the PM should be attending such funerals on our behalf.
Or, and this is just an idea, we could elect someone to represent us as a collective to do things in our name that it would be obviously absurd for us all to do as individuals.
No. I’ve laid out my reasons for objecting to Key’s decision not to attend quite clearly and if you have any questions about what I’ve actually said I’ll be happy to chat.
Delegation of govt duties happen all the time. The govt as a whole represent us not just the PM. The GG is going representing the head of state. This appears nothing special as he’s not attended servicemen’s funerals before. What’s different apart from Key publicly saying he is doing something else?
Correct, he can fuck off to the U.S. for baseball anytime he likes, and I can criticise that decision for a number of reasons, which I have.
Problem?
Also note that one of my criticisms specifically addresses him publicly saying he’s doing something else, what I believe to be his motivation, and why I think he’s wrong to do so.
Selective in that the PMs absence from the two most recent Afghanistan death related funerals was never commented on, yet you apprantly strongly believe the PM should go to them all. If Key hadn’t said anything, would you really have cared?
Yeah we should have slammed him down for that too mate, thanks for correcting us and showing us that this is not John Key in a one time event, the many actually is repeatedly callous.
He was probably just following Helen clark’s example. She thought it more important to open a rugby ball in paris than go to the funeral of the sailor solomon killed on active duty due to the negligence of the navy and minstry of defence, or to sgt billy white’s funeral.
Up till now you’ve been saying it was all about the principle that PMs should be there, now it’s all about the optics as pascal nicely describes it. Like I said, you’re just being selective, much like Key.
Not sure why you think optics and principle are exculsive things. optics are important in and of themselves. As a matter of principle there are optics that a PM needs to get right. Things need to be both done, and seen to be done.
“Whatâs different apart from Key publicly saying he is doing something else?”
I can only tell what has rubbed me the wrong way about how he has done this.
He has framed it as a comparison of sacrifice. He used that word.
Now I fully acknowledge that being in a politicians family is a tough ask, even more tough for the PMs family. No argument. But that toughness does come with the territory, and Key asked for the job, just like soldiers sign up.
I’m not saying that his family must always come second. But I do think it has to be considered on a case by case basis.
This game will obviously be very important for his son. No argument. And no argument that being there would be important for Key, as it would for any loving parent.
But he drew the specific ballancing act here, one that says being at this game is more important than being at the funerals for those other sons. He explicitly drew that comparison, saying he had a tough decision and “had to disappoint someone” but he thinks he made the right choice (about who to disappoint). That ground my gears.
The thing is, and it comes back to the PMship being atough job, his son will play other games. there will be other big events in his life, many parents cannot make it to big events in their children’s lives due to other duties.
If his son was having surgery, or in an accident, or something else happened where it might reasonably said that he needs his family there, then I would be saying that his family should certainly, and obviously be there.
That’s how I feel anyway, and it’s a feeling that has come from the way the PM has expressed himself about this. the comparisons that he has made. He didn’t say he took advice, and said he fronted to tell the family why he wasn’t going to be there. I’d feel a lot different if I had the impression he had asked the family.
Thatâs how I feel anyway, and itâs a feeling that has come from the way the PM has expressed himself about this. the comparisons that he has made. He didnât say he took advice, and said he fronted to tell the family why he wasnât going to be there. Iâd feel a lot different if I had the impression he had asked the family.
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That I can agree with. Key is obviously a dick who doesn’t really give a shit and at the moment he often doesn’t even try and hide the fact. His comments about the soldiers not having much in the way of family are unbelievable.
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Asked the family… maybe they told him to fuck off. I know I would have in that situation.
Explaining might be losing if you are a pinhead but when you are a self proclaimed intellectual or have an iota of intelligence and can actually read the printed word then explanations are necessary.
If you want to swim in a soup of sound bites and haircuts then good for you but I prefer Felix’s explanations to your puerile exclamations anyday.
The latest Roy Morgan is out. The nats are down 3.5% to 44%. Labour is up 2 to 32% but the greens are up 3 to 14%.
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A green surge is the last thing that Shearer needs. This is good for the opposition’s chances of forming the next Governnment but not so good for Shearer’s chances of survival.
although technically when you’re talking about small percentages, the margin for error also reduces.
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The big issue though is that small percentages mean less people need to change their mind to swing the vote, so they bounce about quite a lot.Â
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You really only get consistency from which you can hypothesise fluctuation causes either with large proportions (e.g. 40 or 50%), or with flatlined parties like United Future or ACT.Â
Labour and Greens are usually complimentary – they share nat drops and DNR changes.Â
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I’m just worried that the short term trend (i.e a few months) might be indicating a plateau in Labour’s growth from the election. We’ll see – polls go up, polls go down…Â
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My opinion, the sooner the Beneficiary Bashing Shearer is given the Boot and replaced by Cunliffe as both Party Leader and next Minister of Finance the better,
Beneficiaries, all of them, with their low incomes and expectations are what keeps the interest rates of the comfortable middle class at levels which ensure their continued comfort,
That middle class and the politicians put in place on the behalf of that middle class should be thanking beneficiaries on a weekly basis for being willing to except a lowered standard of living so as to ensure that middle classes continuing comfort…
yes yes, but you can’t just have any class of bene. You have to have the ones that know their place, and daring to have a life while being on SB just doesn’t cut it I’m afraid. You’re supposed to not do anything while on SB, and then suck it up when people criticise you for being a malingerer. And be grateful.
The Beehive is buzzing with rumors that the two anonymous Cunliffe character assassins are joining John Banks to form a new party based on Machiavellian principles.
Wimp Walloping
The Wimp: DUNCAN WEBB; The Walloper: NEIL MILLER
“The Panel”, National Radio, Friday 10 August 2012
I’m listening to another horror show unfold. Once again, the ostensible “liberal” (Webb) is bending over backwards to find common ground with, and to please, a right winger (Miller). So whatever Miller says, no matter how bizarre and doctrinaire, Webb has obviously decided to agree with it.
Today, Miller announced that the New Zealand security services are “open” and that he feels “relaxed” about their conduct, or misconduct. Duncan Webb did not even so much as demur at this nonsense. And neither did the stand-in host Finlay McDonald. Instead, both of these “liberals” laughed insipidly at Miller’s wry and cynical comments.
Question: Why is Gordon Campbell never on this programme any more? He had the courage to confront Graham Bell, getting the tough old copper to admit he knew nothing about climate science, and on another occasion got Richard Griffin to backtrack and apologize for making some ignorant comments about Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. On another occasion, Bomber Bradbury angered Michelle Boag, when he demanded that she back up one of her wild statements with at least one piece of evidence. I would not be surprised if she had something to do with the eventual banning of Bradbury from the programme.
But Campbell and Bradbury are not on the programme any more. Instead, we get the likes of Duncan Webb playing the patsy. Neil Miller is a shallow and complacent commentator, but he gets an easy ride on this programme. As do other right wingers like Michael Bassett, Karl Du Fresne, Barry Corbett, Stephen Franks, John Bishop, and Deborah Hill Cone.
The pity of it is that “The Panel” is so much less interesting and stimulating than it could be. Is it too much to hope that Jim Mora gets a thoughtful and serious producer one day?
Maybe someone should ask RNZ how they pick the panelists.
It’s quite clear how they pick them: anyone who has anything interesting to say will probably not be asked on, and neither will anyone who “rocks the boat”, i.e., stands up to the likes of Boag, Bassett and Griffin.
I suggested it was simply an inadequate producer, but I think the real reason is the management at RNZ, headed by one, errrrr, Richard Griffin.
Morrissey 23 1 1
I think that it is Jim Mora’s preference, that he and his producer perhaps have approached the people who have the Right sort of opinions and can express them fluently. So I think that Stephen Franks et al get on, and Joanne Black who is now Press Secretary for some rightie, which is no surprise, and so on.
I think that it is Jim Moraâs preference, that he and his producer perhaps have approached the people…
I am pretty certain that it is the producers/managers, rather than Jim Mora himself, who make the decisions. Surely no decent person, and Jim does seem to be a nice guy, would actually choose to spend an hour in the company of people as overbearingly pompous and unpleasant as Messrs Franks, Bassett and Bishop.
Joanne Black who is now Press Secretary for some rightie
Morrissey
I know nuthing… but I have a feeling when I listen to Jim Mora that there is something false there and that puts me off, as well as the circumlocutions you refer to.
I have a feeling when I listen to Jim Mora that there is something false there and that puts me off, as well as the circumlocutions…
I know exactly what you mean. You’ve caught the essence of the problem very well. I’ve been analysing his style and modus operandi for a long time now, and I might soon post up some of the things that bother me, and obviously other people too.
Question: Why is Gordon Campbell never on this programme any more?
Jeepers Morrissey who is the clairvoyant? You or me? I was wondering exactly the same thing earlier today. I think you’re right. Campbell showed the rest of them up for the toadies they really are. That’s embarrassing all round. I’ve pretty much stopped listening to The Panel. It’s not worth it. I bet there listener numbers are falling…
There’s always the possibility Gordon Campbell chose not to go on the programme again. And if that is the case it’s easy to understand why!
Jeepers Morrissey who is the clairvoyant? You or me?
You and me both, I think.
I bet their listener numbers are fallingâŠ
I would not be surprised. It’s getting to be arch and self-referential, as well as vacuous. This dreadful “Complaints Choir” is almost always terrible, and about as amusing as toothache.
Thereâs always the possibility Gordon Campbell chose not to go on the programme again.
Yes, he seemed to be impatient with the inane chatter and the long, bloviating circumlocutions that Jim feels compelled to indulge in. He also declined to laugh dutifully at unfunny remarks by Jim or his fellow guests.
Tame and anxious-to-please “liberals” like Peter Elliott or Tim Watkin or Chris Trotter are much more reliable, always willing to flatter the host with laughter.
You and me both total cynics too methinks, and not without reason. Don’t mention the Complaints Choir ever again please. Life’s hard enough without being reminded of that travesty of the soul.
I don’t buy this theory that Key has got some other important business in the States. Don’t make no sense.
The guy clearly loves his son, and he likes going to sports events. that’s enough to explain this. He took his son out of school to go to see the All Whites play at the world cup, remember that? He loves going into the changing rooms and hanging out with sporting heroes. 3 way handshake anyone?
And going to discuss high faluttin secret policy with the masters of the universe? pfft.
What’s he gonna do? Tell them his secret plan to save the whales? Promise to get them a fricken Panda of the chinese? Sort it all out with a job summit? Bike trails! A financial hubblet!
Finally, the MSM asks question about what Stephen Joyce’s ‘intensification of agriculture’ means. I’m more worried about pressure on the environment from intensified dairying than I am about mining, and that’s saying something! Not to mention the animal rights aspects. Although I’m not a great animal lover, I do believe that if we’re going to use them we must at least treat them well.
Was he signalling that we had all better get used to the fact that agriculture will become more and more intensive, and stop being squeamish about animal welfare?
Was he suggesting that our reluctance to accept certain practices, such as locking up hens in cages, or fattening cows in cubicles or feedlots, is holding agricultural progress back, and will have to change?
Perhaps he was signalling that it’s time we dropped our resistance to genetic engineering, and embraced it enthusiastically?
Or was he simply signalling we need a huge boost in the number of dairy cows in New Zealand?
Certainly there are signs of a renewed push for genetic engineering in New Zealand, and for more intensive, irrigation-based dairy farming, and innovations such as “cubicle farming” to fatten up dairy cows.
But I believe Mr Joyce is dreaming if he thinks consumers will happily accept ever more intensive agriculture, as the price we must pay for more jobs.
And then I checked the byline – it’s Sue Kedgley. Thank you Sue.
Nice one rosy. Here’s the link if anyone wants it http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/7448874/Is-agriculture-NZs-golden-goose
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At least the regional councils are starting to step up and protect the land and water. Doubt they will look at animal welfare though.
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I agree, this is far more of an issue than mining. We can recover from mining, industrial diarying and other intensifications will damage the land and water for a long time.
ooops, sorry I forgot the link (hadn’t had my morning coffee ;-)). Thanks for putting it in.
I’d like to agree about the regional councils, but I fear this is what the ECan debacle is all about – allowing water rights for intensified farming, in particular, dairying.
Unless someone who knows how to get information picks this up I fear any dissension is all going to be far too late.
In Paris in 1789, in St. Petersburg in 1917, and in a great many other places and times, the people who thought that they held the levers of power and repression discovered to their shock that the only power they actually had was the power to issue orders, and those who were supposed to carry those orders out could, when matters came to a head, decide that their own interests lay elsewhere.
So, just how much legitimacy does our government still have? It’;s still has it ATM but it’s obviously declining.
“Intensified agriculture” means dairy cows take priority over households for water AND get used to cow manure run-off into streams and lakes because we’re not going to punish it.
It can mean the same for pig farms and chicken factories.
Water and animal sewage. Learn to love less of the first and more of the second.
Another Friday night in blighted impoverished NZ.
Currently I am seated in a deck chair, in front of a hot oven, bathed in the light from a sun lamp – sipping on Just Juice Pineapple juice made with 5% pineapple juice (& 95% apple concentrate imported from Germany).
I’m listening to the sound of waves & ukulele’s playing on a CD player and I have just sprayed the room with Glade Hawaiian Breeze.
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I’m calling this my John Key “You to” Aspirational Hawaiian Experience.
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I have never had it so good.
Yeah, I think Michelle Boag took them as part of the contract when they hired him. Supposedly they were served as finger food at a nat party conference. Rumour has it Gerry ate them (along with a pie, two sofa cushions and half of Christchurch).
William Joyce
You’re in such a good mood you should now read Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus – “Titus Andronicus is a play with “14 killings, 9 of them on stage, … He has captured Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her three sons, and Aaron the Moor.” (thanks google). All I can say about this one is that they don’t write like this any more.
Jim N 33 1 1 1
Trite I know but Shakespeare certainly has a way with words. And some of the well-known phrases just keep on. Maybe one day our own doughty leader will be wailing – ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’.
Isn’t there a great scene in one of the king plays where a body of archers set themselves to send a rain of arrows high in the air to down the enemy? Makes sitting tapping complaints at the keyboard seem very tame in comparison. But then it is an attempt to think our way to a solution that doesn’t involve privation and bloodshed.
Jim N
Didn’t Shakespeare give Richard 3 a bad rap? Now Jokey Hen… Didn’t Richard 3 die on Bosworth field? Perhaps Key should go and fight along with certain USA pollies and generals, in Afghanistan.
By the way USA is going to help Vietnam to counter the effects of Agent Orange at this late stage. What has happened about the Depleted Uranium in Iraq? Anyone been watching this?
That would ruin the buzz of pretending I am in Hawaii living off the profits from all the State Asset shares I purchased with my meagre discretionary dollars (plus the ones I get free, illegally paid for from all the other taxpayer saps).
I’m trying a more Zen approach – my therapist said that spray painting a “hit list” on my bedroom wall wasn’t working for me – besides, it was getting too long. Apparently, the police will not be so happy next time if our beloved leader wakes up and finds me sitting at the end of his bed again.
*sigh* As the song says, “….since I gave up hope I feel a lot better”.
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Just a minute, there’s a loud knock at the door………
Is it that obvious? Damn, Google Earth!
The NZ Police, Thought Crime Division – Free Speech Suppression & Evidence Fabrication Team are onto me. Gotta run, heading off to Tuhoe country…………..opps
he’s pobably going over their to checkon why his BofA ML shares are worth nothing now he going to ask Mitt the git Romney if he can pull the wool over the american publics eyes and bail out BofA a second time if he becomes president.
Romney is their John Key. A man from the financial industry that the people are told has the “economic skills” to fix the country, who smiles and waves, who has the “cred” of being wealthy i.e. successful (which people respect in our society of shallow values) but who has a murky past that they stonewall to protect from disclosure.
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Obama had to show his birth certificate – where the hell are Romney’s tax returns?
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mike e Sounds like Key is a bit of a bofver boy. I see that some investors here got the right to get something back from their Blue Chip investments. Perhaps he will be able to swing something in the States to make up his losses.
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund â When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayersâ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund â and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 âredesign of the welfare stateâ â which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty â various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being âWorking for Familiesâ, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing âon why Melissa is muteâ. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Leeâs ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from âserious populist discontentâ. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring âhard-working peopleâ. ...
Chris Trotter writes –Â MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling â or non-handling â of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealandâs two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from âserious populist discontentâ. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring âhard-working peopleâ. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to âdefend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.â To achieve this, they have pledged they âwill not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes –Â The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workersâ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
Itâs a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand mediaâs failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes –Â Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people â the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cassâs review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the âholiday highwayâ into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
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 ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes –Â Thereâs a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere â mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand mediaâs failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting MÄori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time. A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that wonât compromise Beijingâs plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi MÄori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
David Farrar writes –  The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, youâd think the public service was being eviscerated.  While the mediaâs view of the cuts is incomplete, itâs also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iranâs drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
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 Zealandâs good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National governmentâs 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. ...
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 TÄmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Governmentâs democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Governmentâs 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 thatâs great for the planet and great for consumers after her memberâs 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 countryâs books after Teanau Tuionoâs membersâ 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 memberâs bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Todayâs advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Governmentâs newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealandâs urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
MÄori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, MÄori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Governmentâs refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
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. âRecently 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 Teachersâ 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.  âThe 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. âScience, 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 todayâs 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. âThe Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in TaupĆ as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the TaupĆ International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. âAnticipation for the ITM TaupĆ 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. âThe 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. âThis project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sectorâs productivity,â Mr Jones says. âThe project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Governmentâs plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. âBenefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Governmentâs commitment to doubling New Zealandâs 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 Zealandâs 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. âOur 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. âNew 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 Governmentâs intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. âThe introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Todayâs announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Governmentâs plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. âInflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sectorâs role in the export-led recovery of the economy. âI am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Governmentâs support for the revitalisation the sector.  "New Zealandâs wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
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7 Cover-up Accomplices
65 hours have passed since two anonymous high ranking Labour MP’s accused David Cunliffe of being “sneaky.” (Do you see the irony?)
They lied about the relationship between Shearer and Cunliffe. Shearer definitely DEMOTED Cunliffe from Finance Spokesperson (3 years with Goff) to Economic Development.
They accused this former Minister of Health (an exhausting portfolio job) of being “lazy.” In four months prior to his overseas trip he delivered three major speeches, each of which was well-covered in the press. (Note that only 2 of the 7 have ever been in cabinet. Parker had to resign as Attorney General. Jones had to resign as Minister for Immigration. 4 of the 7 failed to win electorate seats.)
Based on names discussed in the Standard, my list of suspects for this cowardly, dishonest attack is (in alphabetical order): Jacinda Arden (List MP), Andrew Little (List MP), Trevor Mallard, Shane Jones (List MP), David Parker (List MP), Grant Robertson, and David Shearer.
Each can clear their name by declaring they did NOT speak to Duncan Garner about David Cunliffe.
If you know about a crime and do not speak up, you are an accomplice. By their silence these seven are accomplices in a despicable act of treachery.
Whomever of these seven does not come clean is unfit to be in Parliament. What message does Labour send to the public?
“We are marginally less corrupt than National . . . . . maybe.”
Labour look like they are hoping with Green help to lose less than National in 2014. Ambition and leadership don’t seem to figure in their strategy.
The spotlight is on Shearer regarding the Cunliffe clobbering, but removing him would fix little if anything of Labour’s core problems.
Tory T đ
Let me get this right… Duncan Garner claims that all the Labour politicians said that if Shearer was to be replaced, it would be by David Cunliffe over all their dead bodies? What a whopper!
Garner also writes:
So two senior MPs told Garner exactly the same thing? Really! And then apparently a bunch of Labour politicians have all backstabbed Cunliffe… All saying the same thing as well?
If we’re to take the allegations seriously, although I’m at a loss as to why we should, you’re not trying to just pinpoint the source on one person… You’re saying that the entire Labour party is nasty, which just sounds like more bullshit from Nat spin-doctors.
“Youâre saying that the entire Labour party is nasty,”
I didn’t say anything like that.
“Let me get this right⊠”
Well, try again, you got it all wrong.
I was replying to AmaKiwi Pete George, not you. Have you ever thought about getting some professional help?
LOL – that one might have sunk his battleshit
Have you? I think you’d really benefit from it. We can talk about over dinner if you keen? A then maybe a movie?
that one in particular strikes me as ‘2 mps and garner out on the piss’. At the very least, it’s chummy informal banter mps are having with a media commentator.
 Â
A bit like 2 sheep having a joke with a wolf – all very amiable, but sooner or later mr wolfy wants bar snacks.
Oh i see the irony alright, the Standard and us that comment in here regularly diss the mainstream media as being biased against the left in New Zealand politics and society, many of us here agree that a lot of what the mainstream publishes is utter bovine excrement,
In New Zealand we have as the core of our system of Justice the premise of innocence until guilt is proven, for you at least such a provision is meaningless,
Duncan Garner decides to please His masters to curry favor, dog whistles you all long and loud with a load of rubbish that if you tear away the blinkers is provably a load of s**t, and what do you all do,
Woof Woof, yap yap yap, hello Duncan Garner has quite a collection of poodles, and worse, Duncan Garner knows it, so anytime He feels like stirring up a political s**t-storm all’s He has to do is get out the dog whistle,
If you want rid of Shearer as the opposition Leader, and who could blame you, smearing half the Labour Caucus with Duncan Garners bulls**t allegations that havn’t a scrap of evidence attached to them is in my opinion not the way to accomplish this,
Emailing your wish for Him to be gone as leader to your nearest Labour Party electoral office might be more of a help…
People who refuse to comply with Auckland’s recycling and anti-litter code will risk being denied a civic kerbside collection or being fined under changes to waste management bylaws.
“Mr Jaine said the council had a range of ways to identify sources of contamination.
They included having people walk ahead of collection trucks, opening up lids and leaving stickers to educate householders about what they should do”
–The words obey and comply followed by an article using various threats, should be motivational, encouraging, endear fear in those who are running this city???
Shearers right wing speech to grey power attacking the sickness beneficiary not pulling their weight as they were painting the roof of their house is good old fashioned bene bashing.
How can shearer cast aspersions on the beneficiary without knowing why that person is on a SB? There are a myriad of reasons why someone would be on that and not many would stop someone painting the roof of their house.
But like all stories its probably made up. A made up beneficiary to bash.
How far labour have fallen.
That speech annoyed me, too, no end. I agree, the beneficiary he was talking about probably came straight out of Shearer’s a*se.
If he was real, the man could have hired someone else to paint his roof and then added the cost to his next application for the Landlord’s benefit (aka Accommodation supplement), but he didn’t and saved the taxpayer money by doing it himself.
Also, I heard that the man who told Shearer about the beneficiary, owns a rental property. In fact, he has owned 3 of them over the last 10 years, never lived in any of them, but was able to charge high-end rent because his tenants were able to get the Accommodation Supplement anyway for whatever he asked. Then he sold each of the properties on for a profit after 2-3 years. Naturally, he failed to declare any of this on his tax return.
So if we want to talk about fairness in society, which rip-off do you think is more common? Which one should a Labour leader point out?
Where can I find a report, or better still, a transcript of this speech? From what I know of Shearer, it’s just not the kind of thing he’d say! Standardistas seem (with two exceptions, one of whom is me) to hate Shearer worse than they hate Key! That makes me sceptical about this story.
http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/david-shearer-speech-grey-power/5/131125
Having just read it, I don’t think it’s as horrifying as it’s being portrayed. Shearer’s fault lies in not clarifying why it is he took the word of the guy about his neighbour’s situation… but ACT candidate in the making – give me a break!
I’ve never understood the widespread hatred for Shearer here.
I have previously got into trouble for expressing my loathing of Russel Norman and the middle class kiddies that make up the BLUE-green party.. but it’s okay, it seems to slander Shearer up and down and all around. I have not got over the sinking feeling I had, hearing Norman and Turei say on the TV news right after the election last year, that they were sure they could work happily with NACT in their ‘memorandum of understanding’ or whatever they call it.
The problem is that it has become acceptable to bash beneficiaries, and many people voted for National because of the perception that Labour gave too many hand-outs to the ‘undeserving’. Now that that attitude is firmly entrenched in our culture anyone trying to do right by everyone rather than giving more to the wealthiest few is seen as soft, bleeding-heart, gullible or, my personal favourite, jealous. Shearer is probably just saying what he thinks people want to hear. The thing that always amuses me (not a funny subject but let’s face it, if you don’t laugh you’ll cry) is how quick people are to criticize those on welfare while being ignorant to the fact that corporate welfare is a much bigger problem.
You have that right, i have been holding off on criticism of Shearer’s performance as Labour Party Leader until such time as He actually gave us (the electorate) some clues as to what we could expect from Him as Prime Minister,
The day a Labour Party Leader begins to speak the truth about those reliant on benefits will be the day that Labour again will have my vote which for Labour has been missing from their ballot count since Sir(spit)Roger Douglas,
My view on Shearer(spit) as Leader of the Labour Party is simply BYE BYE, perhaps He would be better stomping the hustings on behalf of ACT…
Off course it was made up. Nobody in the history of the world has ever tried to rip off the people of New Zealand by claiming a sickness benefit when they weren’t sick. No, never happens.
That lying “worker” who talked to Shearer should be forced to go and help his neighbour paint his roof. And they should put up his tax rate to the same as a rich prick and the extra given to his neighbour.. He should be happy to go to work to pay the tax that supports his neighbour. What a bastard.
Yesterday I posted an “employers” viewpoint, but stayed off the “unemployment” debate. One theme coming out of things was the impact of “corporate” NZ on the rest of the economy, especially the offshoring of profit.
A minor thought. Multinationals we are told provide the capital and IP we “so desparately need”. In return the profits flow out back to such places as the IBM Cayman Islands account. Quite obviously nobody invests without a profit motive, so ultimately more flows out than ever comes in. This is the wealth pump of the imperial system. Under this system we cannot help but lose more than we gain and gains are only relative. We are “colonized”.
The end result contributes significantly to the unemployment we face: if we had developed the businesses ourselves we would have kept the cash here in NZ and had a choice about how to use it, such as shorter working weeks thus employing more people. Instead we work those with jobs harder for less and less.
+1
And we don’t need it because, more often than not, the FDI we’re getting is just buying up NZ developed businesses any way. In fact, I don’t know of any Blue Sky start ups from FDI that used foreign knowledge or resources to get going. There may be some that used foreign money but money is nothing. We could, quite simply, have used our own by the simple expedient of printing it.
And various neolib governments over the years have been destroying NZ IP and institutional knowledge, to make us more dependent on foreign and private sector expertise.
It really really sucks a big one.
Just print our own money…?! Clearly you have a masters in economics then. Get me some while you’re at it.
What is this? A secret NZ intelligence group that is not SIS?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10825903
There are a couple of other NZ choices apart from the SIS. Apart from the obvious concerns about what âourâ spooks get up to, this is important because the trail has to lead to the Prime Minister at some point given the committees he is on and the briefings he receives.
The Prime Minister on TV3 denied personal knowledge of Kim Dotcomâs existence prior to the raid during the Banksie election donation affair. Yet Keyâs teapot chum certainly knew the eccentric
Dotcom well enough to visit him in ShonKeyâs very own electorate.
Could be GCSB? If there were questions about the interwebs and the technological capability of the equipment Dotcom had, then they might be a logical group to ask.
Although it does seem a bit of a wander from their normal remit.
That’s what I/S thinks.
Their website does, of course, claim that they have a “Mastery of Cyberspace” (see http://www.gcsb.govt.nz/ ) so I guess that could well make them PC Plod’s source of advice when dealing with Nefarious International Criminals of the Interwebs.
As an aside, I would have thought that proclaiming yourself “Masters of Cyberspace” was just asking for trouble. They may as well claim to be “Invulnerable to Hackers”…
Isn’t the plod in question under oath to the court, since when can a witness befor the High Court select what questions they will or will not answer,
If the ‘secret organization’ is neither of the known organs of espionage then what the f**k is going on here, secret Government organizations simply lead to the ‘disappearance’ of citizens,
Country’s such as Chile had ‘secret’ Government organizations back in the 70’s and 1000’s disappeared…
Hm! More New Zealanders disappear than are murdered each year.
John Keys personal dirty tricks squad. Ready to be loaned out to foreign companies. IE RIAA and Hollywood against his own people. Oh and for when he does not want to get his hands dirty he lends them to the FBI.
This is really shite. Why are secret intelligence services helping American media corporates intimidate in NZ?
Also, it seems they are really shite at their job.
“works for the Govt”…works for the National Govt? Reminds me of the separate intelligence directorate that Rumsfeld and Cheney set up to bypass the traditional CIA and Army Intelligence, in order to run their own games.
The problem is that we don’t really know in what capacity the GCSB (or whomever it was) participated.
I suspect it was probably something very limited, effectively providing PC Plod with the answers to 20 dumb questions about how the physical hardware at Dotcom’s residence related to the “evidence” they were meant to be gathering, how long it would take Dotcom to wipe something incriminating, and whether a 1337 hacker / James Bond villain would have any capability to interfere in a police arrest operation.
Which on the one hand seems idiotic, but would hardly be a big drama — it would basically just involve some GCSB agents(?) going to a meeting. It is of perhaps equal idiocy to anticipating that Dotcom might flee in a fast car (to where? his secret volcano lair?).
We do develop successful businesses, but we allow them to be bought by overseas interests.
There are alternatives. The Swiss keep control of their successful businesses (Nestle, for example) by issuing two classes of shares, one for locals only and one for overseas buyers. The “locals only” shares carry greater voting power so the company remains under the control of the Swiss.
Another strategy is to declare classes of industries “strategic assets” which cannot be controlled by foreigners. We should never have let our news media fall into foreign hands. “Rupert Murdoch stay away from our editorial desks.”
I feel sad and embarrassed for the staff in the Labour offices in Parliament. They  have seen the shenanigans going on that lead to this stupid self inflicted wound. They, more often than not, know who has done what. They have heard Shearer being advised to ignore the crowd in The Standard and elsewhere. “It will all blow over, stick to the plan”. Â
Have a good weekend away from the crap. Â
They must cringe when they see some of their bosses pushing the 67% rule to entrench their power.
During the Cunliffe/Shearer road show I suggested to both men that whomever won the leadership should make the other deputy leader. Shearer didn’t do it.
If we are going to heal this party, Shearer needs to step down ASAP and recommend the caucus elect Cunliffe the new leader. Then Cunliffe should give Shearer a significant position on the front bench. Anything less will exacerbate the blood feud.
There would be less disruption and lost face (party-wise) if, for the good of the party, Grant Robertson stepped back and allowed Cunliffe to be deputy.
đ Please ignore the Peter Dunne candidate from Dunedin, his interests are not ours.
Who is ‘ours’ felix? I thought you’d claimed to not be associated with any party.
đ
I knew you would avoid that one.
F off turd đ …
Don’t have to, it’s a patently nonsensical question.
You’ll also note that I’m not associated with any badminton clubs. Why don’t you bring that up next for no reason whatsoever?
I dunno,
 Â
I would have thought that “all people who aren’t egotistical self-important linkwhoring trougher-wannabe vacuous mediocrities” Â would have been a good response to the trool.
đ
What about water polo clubs?
Have you noticed the complete lack of waterpolo in prime’s coverage of the olympics, yet the ‘almost never played in NZ’ handball gets ages? Scandal
Onnit Ama. The Parker pro-business toadying was one thing, but benny-bashing from a Labour leader (invented and repeated – see Gordon Campbell) is a viscious, inexcusable step far, far too far that will never be forgotten by his own progressive supporters and tory strategists alike.
And inexcusably politically dumb: revealing zero understanding of Sickness Benefit qualification, the effect of benny-bashing on the innocent, and even the make-up of his immediate audience – many of whom are “roof painters” themselves.
The current cancer could have been avoided by a co-leadership year; i.e. a de facto contest conducted openly that the media could not have ignored. Would have relished, in fact, and thus stymied the current white-anting metastasis, which as you note can now only be treated by amputation. But that depended on the courage and motivation to put principle ahead of the personal, and weakness prevailed.
The party will survive. It rests on the strong shoulders of millions who have gone before: strength that will always prevail over the spineless and dissipated. As the traitorous ACT cabal slowly seeps into the gutter of history, so too its current dregs.
Whats to know about the sickness benefit.
You are either physically stuffed – Not the case as this dude obviously could work as a roof painter.
Or you are mental – Probably shouldn’t be on the roof if that is the case.
Good on Shearer. Always championing the bludger over the guy slogging his guts out to do right by his family is a guaranteed losing strategy.
Being able to paint a roof is not the same thing as being able to work as a roof painter.
But your third sentence pretty well demonstrates that you won’t understand what that means.
I thought the whole comment pretty well demonstrated that KK is a hairy T. All blathering ignorant and prejudicial hot air, no substance :yawn:
“Being able to paint a roof is not the same thing as being able to work as a roof painter.”
Fucking numbnuts.
Unless you are describing some sort of Schrodingers paradox type thing.
KK obviously belongs to the knuckle-scraping neanderthalic Tory turd race unwilling to admit that those reliant upon benefits are simply there to allow for the enrichment of the 40% who make up the Tory turds core vote…
No, it means exactly what it says. It all comes down to the idiocy in your third sentence, KK.
But did you see where I said I didn’t think you were going to understand any of this? Do you know how I knew that?
“Hello I’m here about the job you have advertised for a roof painter”
“Can you paint roofs?”
“Yes in fact I was painting one the the other day untill some prick called David Shearer dobbed me into winz”
“Thats great however being able to paint a roof is not the same thing as being able to work as a roof painter. Have you read Houllebecqs latest book”
“Yes and I really noticed the continuation of the nihilistic subtext that weaves through all his work. Its a style that I believe really resembles Albert Camus”
“Your knowledge of modern French literature seems to be ok…you’ve got the job.
Just say you don’t understand and I’ll explain it to you. Simple as that.
Are you running to one of your ridiculous semantics arguments again Felix?
“Ah, but you didn’t say being able to paint a roof continuosly for an 8 hour period for 5 days in a row over a prolonged period of time”
“Another falls at the feet of the brilliant Felix.”
No, I’m simply and plainly asking you if you’d like me to explain what I meant in my first comment.
Let me know when you get bored with what you’re up to there and I’ll explain it for you.
You’re getting close though, what you described above isn’t a “ridiculous semantic argument”, it’s more or less the definition of a job painting roofs.
âHello Iâm here about the job you have advertised for a porn starâ
  Â
âCan you have sex?â
  Â
âYes, once every 10 years provided I’m careful not to do too much work at once, don’t move my back too much and stop immediately if I have a dizzy spellâ
  Â
âThat’s great, however ‘being able to have sex’ is not the same thing as ‘being able to work as a porn star, maintaining an erection and reasonably strenuous physical activity for 6 hours a day and several days a week, depending on the amount of work we’ve been offered’. Good bye.â
Don’t bother felix. If you look at KK’s comments on TS they are completely devoid of any meaningful content. KK is a tr*ll.
Shearer, Labour is best rid of him, ACT is a party He would fit right at home in,
My view, David Cunliffe as Leader and future Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson as His deputy, both are telegenic and compared to Shearer who comes across like some hayseed 1950’s back-country farmer both can articulate the message not only in it’s long form but also have the gift of the 5 second soundbite…
So, are you actually a Labour supporter?
Cause is telegenic all we want? I don’t think so. Bill Rowling was less telegenic even that than the egregiously awful Jason Gunn, but was also a decent PM.
Helen Clark always came across on TV as if she had better things to do, but she was an awesome PM!
Nope i am a Green party supporter, Labour lost me at the point of Sir(spit)Roger Douglas who i incidently might have helped get elected by stuffing the letter-boxes of my home-town with Labour election material,
I wont use the word ‘stupid’ in a descriptive of your appraisal of my previous comment only because i think you have the intelligence to perceive more from that comment that such support for a Cunliffe/Robertson leadership of the Labour is based upon more than the telegenic nature of both of them,
Cunliffe at least seems to have some ‘vision’ for a New Zealand future that can unpick the threads sewing us into the present paradigm of global stupidity and in my view would need someone as His deputy to manage the politics of moving labour from Right to Left,
We obviously have differing views on Helen Clark,(and yes i do know Her personally),awesome is not what i would describe Her tenure as Prime Minister as,astute political management was what i would describe as Her forte,
However, Hers was the Social Democracy of,for, and,by the middle class and she was quite happy to give the bene’s a kicking and did so by not including the children dependent upon benefits in the working for families scheme,
Therein lies the difference, She being a Social Democrat the socialism of selling out to neo-liberal economics, Me being a Socialist,
hope that enlightens you…
Actually, I have to agree with you about Helen Clark.. (my late brother worked on her campaign one year, so I knew her by extension, so to speak) and you are right…
But I absolutely can’t bring myself to trust the greens. Winnie Peters’ phrase about ‘baubles of power’ springs to mind.
It doesn’t help that I met so many pretty vacant middle class women last year who oozed that they’d voted for those lovely greens, because they trusted the greens to stick to conservation and not do anything radical on behalf of all those lazy bennys!
That would just indicate that you were speaking to someone who didn’t know WTF they were talking about and took that ignorance as being symptomatic of the Greens in general.
I think it’s pretty indicative of the reason for the green’s landslide last year… I spoke to not just someone, but many someones, all nice kiddies from Remmers and Freemans Bay, all the kind of girls/women/boys who don’t even realise that they’re born privileged. Shades of the Lady/Lord Bountiful about them, they shed crocodile tears about poor brown kids in South Auckland and maybe even give $5.00 to Canteen, but show them a threatened native bird or some conservation Dept land, and they quickly forget about the people…
Ah, people in need – they prefer the pretty photogenic brown kids with the cute 5 year old gap-toothed smiles, but when faced with a dirty smelly alkie on the streets, or a shabby 65 year old woman begging for change in K Road, they draw back their figurative skirts and mutter that ‘people like that’ need to be kept out of sight and preferably in secure care where they can’t bother nice inoffensive 20 somethings!
Its actually pretty hard to be a homeless person on the streets of any of our major cities,
There is even an ongoing attempt to set up a ‘wet’ house for the homeless alkies in Wellington only foiled by the ‘NIMBY’ attitude of neighbors wherever the attempt has been made,
In that i cannot really point a finger of blame at these neighborhoods that have and do object to having such a ‘wet’ house in their street as by definition homeless drunks are broken people from broken personal lives who just cannot abide by the mores of suburban life,
That is not to point the finger of blame at the alkies either despite being broken they are still human beings,
Most homeless people have other problems besides drug/alcohol/substance abuse usually being psychologically damaged and criminal recidivists,as well as on regular occasions being the victims of crime,
I know many of those who live on Wellington’s streets,and the only 65 year old i have recently seem begging there was doing so simply to gain the money necessary for His partner to stuff into a pokie machine at the local strip club,
Such people are extremely hard to ‘help’ even the night shelter is too confining for them and of course to confine them together anywhere without adequate security simply means that they have a propensity to damage each other,
Being wary of such people on the street is probably conducive to good personal safety and i would hardly denigrate the bright young things from Remmers for having done so,
Although in saying that, our slightly famous and recently deceased ‘blanket man’ received from such bright young things here in Wellington such a steady supply of burgers and stuff,(this on top of meals from the soupy’s), that i was occasioned more than once to muse upon such an agreeable lifestlye…
I was thinking specifically of Margaret Hoffman, the woman who used to sit in K Road, and beg cigarettes and change from passers-by.
The worst she ever did to anyone, was swear at them, and yet the ‘bright young tnings’ derided her, ridiculed her and sneered at her, as they trotted past to their clubs, bars and pizzerias.
She died in early 2011, and the people of inner city Auckland came over all Scots-Kiwi, and ‘don’t speak ill of the dead’, and all claimed she was a great ‘icon’ and they’d loved her. Such hypocrisy made me spit. (I’d seen them in action, as I gave her cigarettes and change, and got sneered at myself – as a scruffy old beneficiary with bad teeth, cos that’s how I look).
That idiot Cameron Brewer spoke of erecting a bronze statue of her to sit on the bench she always occupied – as the bronze woman would attract the shopper the real woman had repelled.
The masturbatory love-in the Herald gave for her after she died was sickening. The “old harridan, ugly old beneficiary, get a job, you loser old bag” was transformed into ‘beloved local identity’. Only people who’d actually known her as a person, such as the woman from the Baptist Tabernacle who performed her funeral, were realistic about her, and mofre importantly, had cared about her when she was alive! Even I tried to avoid her, although I thought ‘hell, that could be me in 10 years!’… (She was actually much younger than she looked I discovered, and more like me in 4 years!)
These people who said in the comments in the Herald that she was a beloved piece of local colour, were the same nice school, good university business course, professional parents people who I spoke to, and who voted greens to keep the scruffs and wasters in line! After all, Labour or Mana might let people like Margaret Hoffman spoil their view or get the help they needed!
(Margaret Hoffman turned out not to be homeless, just terribly lonely – so lonely she would rather be sneered at than ignored)
Indeed, besides thoughts of the idyll of life in a blanket, there is always that other little nag felt when with a need to go and fit to bust one finds to ones physical horror a recent migrant to the City from Christchurch, an incorrigible Alkie sent fleeing North by the closure of that CBD, has taken up residence in the only available toilet cubicle,
There but for the grace of God go i is the thought as a furtive pee is taken against the pigeon Park pohutukawa with one eye on the look out for roving plods lest ones ablutions land one in the wagon on the way to the cells,
Indeed again as Wellington’s ‘blanket man’ had a family in Tokoroa who really wanted him to go home as well as many attempts by those who work in the trenches with such people to house Him in Council flats and HousingNZ homes as well,
It’s hard to be homeless in Wellington, but those that are ground down by whatever to the level of our own ‘blanket man’ do have some modicum of support and some would say such support is in fact far greater than that which is gained by the hidden homeless, where whole families live in garages,sheds,vans, and, cars,not to mention the growing population housed but paying 50, 60, 70% of their total income just to meet rents,
Therein lies our country’s real problem of homelessness…
What a load of nonsense, Vicky.
Try reading Green party policy instead of random neighbours.
Attending a few meetings would help to.
Not neighbours, colleagues, and what they do, matters much more than what they say they’ll do…
Yeah, read the policies of the Green Party.
“It doesnât help that I met so many pretty vacant middle class women last year who oozed that theyâd voted for those lovely greens, because they trusted the greens to stick to conservation and not do anything radical on behalf of all those lazy bennys!”
Braindead urban hippies have bolstered the Greens popularity, this is true to an extent, but you are wrong to assume that it reflects Green’s policy, instead it reflects the normalisation of the green movement. It is cool to be green now. Look at the hollywood stars and they are all on some green/3rd world poverty crusade but never raise awareness regarding USA poverty, structural issues, or the way capitalism drives environmental degradation. I’d say that many Labour voters are idiots because they have always voted Labour and believe they can sort out our mess.
The Greens also take a more logical view of our problems. The unsustainable road that Labour and National have taken us down ruin our environment and it is poor people that bear the brunt of this disaster. The environment is tied in with unemployment, economy, well-being, inequality etc.
You are not being entirely fair about Margaret. She was on the street every day and had friends among those who are there on a regular basis. It’s true that she fell out with some people, but then she was often up for a fight herself. On the day she died, a young woman I know had booked both herself and Margaret in for a manicure at Posh Nails. Yes, there were scoffers, but locals often sided with Margaret against them. People did not treat her sentimentally, but many did treat her as a friend or a friendly presence, and did her shopping for her when she had her broken arm, etc. And a lot of people knew when her birthday was and some gave her presents.
That was meant as a reply to Vicky
The sentiment I was referring to, was the gooey schmaltz in the media after she died.
I never actually knew her when she was alive, I met her occasionally on my way to work at a couple of language schools at the top of Queen Street.
Â
Really, the baubles of power, the Greens sat outside of the previous Labour Government for 9 years enabling it for all that 9 years,
If you know the pleasant smiling Meteria Turei at all you will see in Her someone uninterested in the price of Her principles, under the smile the woman is made of the same steel as Helen Clark but the principles are not about to be traded for a ride in a Beamer,
Hopefully after His little bout of Me Too in echoing Shearers ‘we are not buying back the assets’ comment, Co-leader Russel Norman has been given the polite message sent which read something like, ”us lot out here don’t do political activism on behalf of anyone to have them then turn around and spit in our f**king faces”,
Sure the Greens appear to have gone straight, but, their socialism is all over their web-site so if anyone after an election wakes up to suddenly find the Greens have forcefully negotiated the Labour/Green Government into a march by the left, i can only say don’t be suprised and get an education,
It’s a valid point tho, distrust of politicians to hold to the core of their values seems to have become a modern disease…
Unlike Labour, Green party members control the parliamentary wing. The party members who made the policies.
The ones Vicky should read.
Another Key PR disaster
Without his scriptwriters giving him the right things to say, Key is an ill-informed and therefore somewhat dangerous leader…
Will the pm personally pay for his protection to travel maine with him to the baseball? Can he “show me the money” for this?
An excellent blog from Steve Cowan at ‘Against the Current’ who likes to pretend he only has three readers.
On class hatred:
http://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/class-hate.html
…..
….
When I left school in the early 80s, there was little stigma about going on the dole. Being unemployed was seen as a consequence of the high unemployment rate not an individual failing. In the middle class circles I moved in there was some shame attached to not having a job (every conversation with a new person started with ‘what do you do?’ and then faltered if you said “I’m unemployed”), but there was not yet the outright condemnation of being a beneficiary. The Dept of Labour were operating with carrots not sticks.
Â
It changed shortly after that. Suddenly being unemployed was something to be derided, the term dole bludger became normal usage for a class of people who were denied work but trying to find work ie the term was used irrespective of individual circumstances. The DoL introduced increasingly draconian policies eg having one’s benefit cut if you refused a job.
Â
I wasn’t paying much attention to national party politics then, but in hindsight I have to wonder if that change in attitude wasn’t intentionally driven by either ACT/Labour or the Nats, rather than being a shift in the social norm over time. For me that is where the nasty streak gained ascendancy in NZ.
Yeah thats the result of turning humans against other humans with dirty tactics, to ensure that people are not looking at the govt asking questions like..
“why are all the jobs being shipped offshore”?
Does anyone know if there was a deliberate hate the dole bludger campaign in the mid 80s? Obviously Social Welfare policy changed, but I’m thinking more about things like how the media was used.
Not sure about the mid 80s, but there was an 0800 line in the early 90s, where you could dob in a dole bludger. Anonymous, no proof required, just pass on the goss and we’ll have a look, type thing. They had ads on TV with it for many months, if I remember rightly. Can’t find a link, sorry. I’m sure it was just after Ruth Richardson first budget. the mother of half the problems we have today.
In the eighties it was not at all uncommon for middle-class young adults to go on a dole-holiday, often while travelling around the countryside or living an alternative lifestyle for a while*. Often also, a passionate romance allowed no time for wage slavery for a period.
I have the teeshirt for this, however I got bored with unemployment after just a few months, and I think this was par for the course because unemployment even in ideal circumstances can be depressing for those not born to idle upperclass indolence.
Even these temporary unemployment breaks, which were effectively taxpayer-funded holidays attracted little disapproval in those days. Genuine unemployment didn’t seem to either, despite the fact ( ironically) that jobs were so much easier to come by, and the dole was extremely generous compared with the rates paid today.
The only recent comparable institution has been tertiary students going on the dole for the summer, something which was still prevalent in the late nineties and early this century, again amongst middle-class students.
*I often think that memories of these halcyon summer vacations affect middle-aged middle-class perceptions of unemployment today. Terms like “living the dream” and “lifestyle” could be further from the grim reality of being on a benefit today, and yet these illusions continue to prevail.
“The only recent comparable institution has been tertiary students going on the dole for the summer, something which was still prevalent in the late nineties and early this century, again amongst middle-class students.”
This still happens now, but it is really the result of neoliberalism, instead of students wanting to bum around in the summer. Much of the summer holiday work for students is within the service industry and focuses on xmas shopping. The students can get work till xmas, but rarely into Jan/Feb. Also the stand-down period after ending work is longer than the stand-down period if a student takes the summer dole straight away, therefore if a student chooses to work they will have a longer stand-down. Also, the shitty wages that are paid to temp workers and the ‘flexibility’ (hours get cut at short notice, etc) of holiday work means its not worth the effort for most students. Better to take the dole straight away and hit the beach…its a shame cause most students want to earn a stable income during their time off, but its not worth it.
When my sister  and I left school in 1970 and 1972, my father took us straight down to ‘sign on’, just in case (he’d grown up in the 1930s) As it happened, we both got jobs immediately, and never actually collected benefits – signing on was precautionary, and considered quite reasonable! Of course we were very lucky to have left school when we did – 10 or 15 years later, things might have been different, and definitely would have been in the 1990s, when my older son finished school…
Bad form, Johnny. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7450343/Key-defends-hard-call-to-miss-service
It’s understandable that you wouldn’t want to turn up to a funeral with blood on your hands, but it is your fucking job you lazy self-obsessed cowardly piece of shit.
Oh and what a dick move hiding in shame behind your child, who is now part of the story. Real leader this guy.
That’s about as low as it gets from you felix. Your comments are despicable, even by your standards.
Thats the right call from Shearer on this.
And I give a shit what you or Shearer think why?
đ
đ Shearer backs Key while Dunne is silent; PG unsurprisingly approves of the whole lot
You are what’s bad about this country Felix
Go and crawl back under your rock
Typical two-bit tory, can’t differentiate between something awful and someone talking about something awful.
Markm 12.2
Trouble is your lot have taken all the rocks. It upsets people and leaves them nothing to shelter under or to throw, whichever is the most appropriate.
It’s ok p, we’ve got the sticks and the opposable thumbs.
( đ ) Slither on back to your PG blogspot wont you, all 3 of you can then discuss how great you aint…
I don’t know felix, are we in any position to judge the relative values?
Of what? Work vs holidays?
No, work vs family.
I don’t think I have to judge the value John Key places on his family, and I don’t think I’ve done that. I think it’s a disgrace that he’s brought his child into this arena as a smokescreen for his own actions but beyond that I haven’t commented on it because it’s none of my business.
What is my business as a citizen of this country is whether he’s turning up to do his job or not.
ps come on weka, flying to the other side of the world to watch your kid play sport instead of going to work is by definition a holiday.
So do you think that the PM is never allowed to prioritise their family? That they should always cancel family things when the job requires it? Wouldn’t that mean they never get to spend time with their family?
Â
I’m not arguing the case for Key here (who doesn’t deserve and consideration), just the principle.
Like I said, it’s none of my business what he does with his family.
But let’s not pretend this is about time constraints. They guy can find time for all sorts of shenanigans when it suits him. Just so happens that this one don’t suit him so good.
weka – of course a PM is allowed to prioritise their family.
AFTER THEY HAVE LEFT THE FRAKING OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER
That’s the way it is. There are no days off even when you are on holiday. You do not get to turn your cell phone off or to ignore emails.
If you can’t do the job get out.
And when the people you sent to serve get KIA’d you better step up in a big way.
btw The main reason Key is going to the US is to meet hedge funds and major banks re Asset Sales.
So Key met with the families of the dead soldiers personally, but you’re not happy because you’d rather he did a public event in front of the cameras and news media?
Wow.
Appearance is obviously more important than substance.
It’s not about Key.
Baseball game and meeting with American bankers and hedge funds about asset sales more important than our soldiers funerals, eh boys?
felix
What’s the bet he isn’t even travelling to the US for is sons baseball game anyway… There are lots of things to discuss with the yanks at the mo. Despite what some think, a Prime Minister has an obligation to the country… Especially when it’s his decision to continue to deploy troops in an unjust war that leads to New Zealanders dying.
I bet he is going for a secret meeting with John Banks.
Probably shoulda picked someone who isn’t best known for having secret meetings and lying about them really.
Just, you know, to make your point.
I don’t think felix is one to judge values, even if he was capable.
The families can make their own judgements, as can Key.
felix is just using it as an excuse to run a cowardly piece of shite. Which is a very shitty thing to do in the circumstance, extremely disrespectful of the soldiers and families.
Funny, I think the shitty thing to do is play General and talk tough about the SAS and get photos taken with Apiata and take ‘hard calls’ to send troops into war and then disappear when the inevitable result of your actions and decisions comes home to roost.
And to use your kid as an exit strategy? That’s what you do when you want to leave a boring party, not when you want to avoid getting in the paper with dead bodies.
But of course according to tory t đ logic none of that is disrespectful of the dead people and their families. What’s disrespectful is mentioning it. Although I expect that doesn’t apply to you mentioning my mentioning for some twisted tory t đ reason which will never be explained or expanded on.
Now quickly Pete, fuck off to Kiwiblog and tell everyone what horrible things I’ve talked about and how horrible it all is and then write a big blog post full of quotes that no-one will ever read.
And felix can create song about it that no one will ever listen to
Why would I do that? I think you’ve rather missed the thrust of the discussion there, old fuck.
I’ve never been comfortable with politicians turning up to funerals and memorial services etc. seems deeply hypocritical to me. BUT, it is the accepted and expected norm.
If JK could abandon trade talks or whatever it was he jettisoned to return for the funerals of two helicopter pilots last year (or whenever it was – somebody attempted to link to it yesterday), then it just doesn’t quite gell that he’s putting his sons baseball game ahead of a funeral attendance.
I’ve no dooubt he will attend the baseball game. But I can’t get away from the thought that he’s been summoned by the whitehouse. But for what? Whatever it might be it’s obviously of such a nature that the public ought not to know of it. (So it ain’t trade related) And so my punt is that JK has had no option but take a hit on the whole thing.
Or then again, maybe he really is as disgusting and pathetically void as his ‘hard decision’ would have us believe.
That’s a long bow from you Bill, and a pretty crooked one.
F off scum ^ đ ^ …
I wonder if it relates at all to the rumour that Key wants out. One way to abandon the job is to simply not show up.
Perhaps he has a job interview.
As an aside, solidarity is good. Even among maggots.
It was probably all planned at the same time as the Mars landing. Obama himself may have organised the baseball tournament to divert attention from his birth certificate. A CIA plant would have orchestrated the team selection here in NZ.
This would all have had to have been started months ago, so I’m not sure who they got the dates to line up with what happened in Afghanistan, but I’m sure you’ll come up with a credible explanation for that too.
I wonder if an infinite number of maggots would eventually come up with the works of Pete George.
It only takes one according to the available data.
Nice. Meticulous evidence based thinking.
lol
KTH #12.4.2.1.1
It would be a fucks site easier and quicker, than waiting for Chimpanzee’s to type the complete works of Shakespeare.
Keep hoping KTH – If you believe in it hard enough it will happen.
No, it won’t. Are you religious?
i was thinking aloud about the same thing down the bottom of yesterdays ‘Open Mike’,
* Event 1, the tragic death of 2 and wounding of 5 more Kiwi soldiers in Afghanistan, ( the 2 were flown back home this morning),
*Event 2, Slippery the New Zealand Prime Minister all but accuses Hungarian troops serving next to the Kiwi’s in Afghanistan of being cowards with what was in reality a sick joke worthy of a psychopath,
*Event 3, After having cancelled the upgrade to the National War Memorial in 2009, the Prime Minister is now falling all over Himself to have the expansion go ahead with what will be special empowering Legislation,
One thing about Slippery the Prime Minister that is a given, the urge to compulsively lie to the population of New Zealand is strong and ongoing,
i am left wondering if the Slippery one ‘sees’ a need for a National War Memorial that has very little use except for the yearly commemoration of world wars 1 and 2 to be expanded for future higher use,
The baseball trip to the US may just be to brief the Prime Minister about the expected future ‘sacrifices’ that ‘they’ expect from New Zealand…
Sort of what I’ve been quietly thinking. The US Pacific build-up…it’s Chinese ‘concerns’. What role would NZ be expected to play?
The usual mindless sacrifice, a 10% mortality rate and a 45% injury rate for our troops in someone else’s conflict is what i would ‘guess’ as being a sufficient ‘sacrifice’
I can’t see a future conflagration as being Pacific based and believe the next ‘big’ war will be as usual centered on the European Continent,
Throughout history when Kings,Queens,Generals, and, latterly Politicians have destroyed their particular isms through financial mis-management War has been the final tool used to keep control and power over their citizens,
The debt bonds effectively turned into debt bombs will in my opinion again see the soils of Europe run red with the blood of a generation probably within the next 10-15 years…
Bill 12.4
The USA is going to ask for an extension of our troops time in Afghanistan until the US manages to introduce the high standards of US democracy there. Their men need relief as they are are going out of their minds being rotated continually to act in the never-ending stooooory.
+1 Bill. And how long is he away for? What else can he fit in in that time frame?
As for family, the son is 17, not 7 surely he’s old enough for an adult discussion about this sort of thing?
Also, how many doctors, nurses, police etc have leave cancelled in emergency situations that mean they have to give up family events. That’s what come with the job. The PM’s job is (should be) the same.
You are obviously what results when cousins fuck cousins Felix.
DJ Your saying that felix is royalty.Alah bush etc
I thought he might have been speaking from experience.
A disturbing insight into DJ’s family life.
I’m sure Felix will be delighted you think he is Royalty!
It has become common to criticise the use of Nazi analogies in political debate as examples of Godwin’s Law. Such analogies, commentators imply, are stale, call into question the validity of the underlying argument and the judgement of those making the comparison. Recently, there was widespread criticism/ridicule in the media of Nazi analogies made during NZ parlimentary debates over state asset sales.
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But where is the equivalent rhetoric condemning the use of Communist/Stalinist analogies in political debate?
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I wonder why media commentators see these as more acceptable? (e.g., “Helengrad”)
I think it’s because they don’t like people saying mean things about the N@zis actually.
The Bard summed up Nact nicely…”Lawless are they that make their wills their law”.
Because if you set a ridiculously high bar for what might be allowed to pass as fascism in ‘polite’ conversation – by equating it to it’s most extreme expression – of nazism, then it makes calling a spade a spade impossible in certain given situations.
There is no possible fascist dynamic in todays societies. Any such charge would require the trappings of nazism to be evident to have any merit. So fascist undercurrents become ‘invisible’ in any acceptable debate or analysis.
Communism, or communist dynamics on the other hand, really are absent from todays societies. So you’re permitted to draw communist comparisons whenever you like because, lets face it, if there was any communist undercurrent it would be flowing counter to any current the corporate world desired.
So set the bar very low for what might be allowed to pass for communism in any ‘polite’ conversation.
Both communism and fascism are heinous. But only one, if pursued, would undermine the power of current global elites.
Right, so let me get this straight:
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1) The outer trappings of fascism have to be present for the Nazi analogy to stick. And this is unlikely to occur in contemporary NZ politics (although that “blackshirt” Destiny Church march was probably getting close).
2) “Communism” is so absent from contemporary NZ politics, that it has no real meaning and therefore can be used to stand for anything you don’t agree with.
Erm, nah. What I was saying that in the interests of stifling criticism that would draw parallels with fascism, the trick is to banish talk of fascism altogether by setting a benchmark for fascism that equates with nazism…or nazism as popularily envisaged. So if no-one is piling minorities into concentration camps, invading neighbouring countries and exhibiting all those more extreme traits associated with nazism, then charges of fascism can’t hold…will be dismissed as ludicrous.
This allows for much in way of fascist doctrine to be developed and deployed (ie, corporatism) free from pesky historical comparisons. (It ain’t fascism if it ain’t nazism)
On the other hand, communism was never the doctrine of the current masters and sits in direct contradiction to their basis of power. And so ‘anything’ can be labelled communist because the knee jerk reaction that follows suits the interests of incumbent powers just fine.
Okay, thanks for the clarification. I hear what you’re saying.
It is because the manstream has a tendency to slide toward the authoritarian end of the spectrum in a well oiled but invisible manner. “Nice” National or Labour types like to give the illusion that their drift toward corporatism is “nothing” like drifting toward f@scism. To point it out using the correct terminology results in calls of Godwin….which is a crap bollocked brained thing. Lets call a spade a spade.
Yeah, this mass media invoking of Godwin’s Law seems like a classic anxiety formation. Deriding others becomes a way of reassuring oneself, of quelling the anxiety produced by such an analogy.
Â
It’s a pity NZers don’t know their history better, in particular about the cryto-f@scist New Zealand Legion that had some popularity in the 1930s. Sid Holland was a member, so was Keith Holyoake.
Is the failure of the NZ mission in Afghanistan a one off, or part of a pattern?
http://www.readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/the-real-reasons-for-mission-failure-in.html
Teachers are being accused of petulance and having political agendas and yet the Governmentâs push for National Standards, league tables and charter schools are not considered ideological or political? Good grief!
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/teachers-petulance-and-political-agendas.html
“But he is still right to support his boy.”
More blind stupidity from Meat George…Key is wrong to go to see his boy and his framing of this as a ‘family choice’ is only acceptable to simpletons. Key’s economic and social policies have forced thousands of our children into poverty and stunted their opportunity of a bright future, Key is not family focused, Key is selfish and greedy…his actions could only be considered legitimate if he focused that kind of care and attention to all kiwi children. He abuses kiwi children.
+1
Right, so if we had a PM who was doing good things about addressing poverty etc in NZ it would be acceptable for them to sometimes choose family over work?
Why are you making out that the pm is in a special category with regard to his work/family balance?
Everyone with a job and a family is under exactly the same constraint.
Maybe, but most people make their own choices about attending funerals or spending time with their family.
I’m not making the PM a special case, you and others are. Apparently the PM has to be on call all the time. Maybe that’s fair, I’d just like to know if that’s applied to all PM’s or just Key.
As I pointed out below, he appears at such funerals as our representative. It’s nothing to do with him as a person.
That’s why it’s a falsehood to pretend that he was making a choice between two personal events.
There is the small matter that Key doesn’t actually see himself as our representative, just his own and that of an elite 5%.
“Right, so if we had a PM who was doing good things about addressing poverty etc in NZ it would be acceptable for them to sometimes choose family over work?”
I said…”his actions could only be considered legitimate if he focused that kind of care and attention to all kiwi children.”
I didn’t say it would be acceptable, I said it could only be considered legitimate if…
The legitimacy of his choice will always come down to personal ideals, but Key has proven time and again that he does not care about kiwi children, so his choice is not legitimate.
Personally, I would not consider Key’s choice as legitimate even if his concern over the welfare of children matched Mother Teresa’s. He can miss a game of whatever his son is playing.
My point is that this idea of Key being a family man does not correlate with his actions as PM…its bollocks. Key has once again framed his despicable actions in a positive light, he’s been doing it for years.
Fair enough.
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Personally, I think it’s acceptable in principle for any politician to have family time. Except Key of course đ
Sorry, was someone denying him “family time”? Care to point out where?
All Key needs to do is order another pizza delivery home and he has family time.
What bombastic piffle.
Have a cup of tea and grow some perspective.
Sorry HS…I shouldn’t compare the way Key treats his own children, with the way he treats other people’s children.
You’ve really changed my thinking with your well reasoned argument.
…I am now in favour of Key imposing charter schools on those stupid poor children, while Key’s kids get private schooling. What was I thinking!
Who is being forced to attend a charter school ?
Have you got information to suggest the proposed charter school is going to be detrimental to children ?
“What was I thinking ”
In response to your question I’m uncertain what you were thinking, looks like a Friday afternoon bleat.
“Who is being forced to attend a charter school ?”
Those that live close to the schools, and those that can’t afford to get their kids to another school will be forced to use charter schools.
“Have you got information to suggest the proposed charter school is going to be detrimental to children ?”
http://her.hepg.org/content/k34475n478v43022/
http://epi.3cdn.net/b4b5f5e1cb94bc5659_zpm6bnbpb.pdf
I’m sure HS has taken that all to heart now.
đ
You quoted a twitter post from Turei. Guess you must be “fair and balanced” after all!
đ
US Justice Dept announced today….
Fuckity Fuck Fuck Fuck!
All good, if the political process is too weak at the knees to seize what are in effect the proceeds of criminal enterprise by organized criminal gangs in the form of major banking orgaizations they will simply be left to concoct even bigger scams which will in turn lead to even bigger world-wide financial,economic, and, social disasters,
Welcome to the slow motion train-wreck of the death of capitalism where the Beast in effect eats itself…
Welcome to the slow motion train-wreck of the death of FINANCIAL capitalism where the Beast in effect eats itself⊅minor correction, capitalism does just fine without financial capitalism, which is NOT to say that is a desirable scenario.
More importantly the above link shows that the rule of law in the financial capitals of the world is now a two tier system: absolute repression for scum like you and me, complete do as you will for the financial elite. Legal apartheid! We the 99% are black.
Financial capitalism seems to come about due to the collapse of physical capitalism which collapses due to over production and the declining rate of profit.
Minor correction if i may be so excused, TRADE can do just fine without either capitalism or its vicious half brother( the mongoloid), financial capitalism,
As butter can and was swapped for Lada’s presto the coin stays in each country that is trading therefor there is no real need for International Banking…
Not really surprised. The US is the biggest Rogue State and it seems you only get that way by having corrupt leaders.
Don’t be confused why Goldman Sachs will face no criminal charges. Explanation here.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/confused-why-goldman-will-face-no-criminal-charges-heres-why
Something else for Pete to pretend to be horrified about:
When John Key attends a soldier’s funeral as PM it’s not because they were mates and he misses them. He’s there as our representative. Not the govt’s rep. Not the National party’s rep. Ours.
Now observe the way he framed this situation as a personal decision, as if the decision on whether to attend a funeral or a baseball game all came down to how it would affect him and his family.
It’s not about him. It’s his fucking job and he’s missing again.
Explaining is losing. This doesn’t change the fact you chose to be an arsehole. It’s still there for everyone to see.
And I’d put a bit more credibility on Shearer’s and Turei’s opinions on this than on your’s.
I wasn’t explaining anything to you Pete, you’ve already shown you’re incapable of understanding much beyond your own nose.
And I’ve already told you I couldn’t care less what Shearer thinks. Why would I give a fuck what Turei, or you, or any other politician has to say about this?
But thanks for the mock-horror, I knew you wouldn’t disappoint. Will you be posting this to Kiwiblog as well?
Please, DNFTT
mkay sorry.
*yours
đ
Is it his job to go to every funeral of every serviceman killed on duty? No-one complained when he didn’t go to Kirifi Mila’s or Douglas Hughes’.
Yep. We, as citizens of a democratic society, sent soldiers to their death. We did it through representatives but we ultimately hold the responsibility for that.
And similarly, as our representative, the PM should be attending such funerals on our behalf.
If you feel so strongly why don’t you attend ?
Oh brilliant, maybe we should all go.
Or, and this is just an idea, we could elect someone to represent us as a collective to do things in our name that it would be obviously absurd for us all to do as individuals.
Yes, if one feels very strongly, I would encourage them to attend.
So you only feel strongly about Key not attending ?
No. I’ve laid out my reasons for objecting to Key’s decision not to attend quite clearly and if you have any questions about what I’ve actually said I’ll be happy to chat.
Fair enough, personally I think there’s plenty of reasons to bag Key, but in this instance I find myself OK with his decision.
Course you do.
Why do you say that ?
Because otherwise you’d be agreeing with me. Silly goose.
Your logic is impeccable.
It has to be. Otherwise I’d end up agreeing with you đ
Delegation of govt duties happen all the time. The govt as a whole represent us not just the PM. The GG is going representing the head of state. This appears nothing special as he’s not attended servicemen’s funerals before. What’s different apart from Key publicly saying he is doing something else?
Correct, he can fuck off to the U.S. for baseball anytime he likes, and I can criticise that decision for a number of reasons, which I have.
Problem?
Also note that one of my criticisms specifically addresses him publicly saying he’s doing something else, what I believe to be his motivation, and why I think he’s wrong to do so.
I think your criticism is reasonable but selective.
Selective in that you think think I’m only discussing things that are happening right now?
Selective in that the PMs absence from the two most recent Afghanistan death related funerals was never commented on, yet you apprantly strongly believe the PM should go to them all. If Key hadn’t said anything, would you really have cared?
Yeah we should have slammed him down for that too mate, thanks for correcting us and showing us that this is not John Key in a one time event, the many actually is repeatedly callous.
He was probably just following Helen clark’s example. She thought it more important to open a rugby ball in paris than go to the funeral of the sailor solomon killed on active duty due to the negligence of the navy and minstry of defence, or to sgt billy white’s funeral.
Good call insider, please feel free to apply the sentiments of my comments on this situation to all directly comparable situations.
As for “would I have cared”, a good deal of the problem I have with this is specifically due to what he said and how.
đ
Up till now you’ve been saying it was all about the principle that PMs should be there, now it’s all about the optics as pascal nicely describes it. Like I said, you’re just being selective, much like Key.
Nah, nothing to do with “optics”. Not sure where you got that from.
Not sure why you think optics and principle are exculsive things. optics are important in and of themselves. As a matter of principle there are optics that a PM needs to get right. Things need to be both done, and seen to be done.
“Whatâs different apart from Key publicly saying he is doing something else?”
I can only tell what has rubbed me the wrong way about how he has done this.
He has framed it as a comparison of sacrifice. He used that word.
Now I fully acknowledge that being in a politicians family is a tough ask, even more tough for the PMs family. No argument. But that toughness does come with the territory, and Key asked for the job, just like soldiers sign up.
I’m not saying that his family must always come second. But I do think it has to be considered on a case by case basis.
This game will obviously be very important for his son. No argument. And no argument that being there would be important for Key, as it would for any loving parent.
But he drew the specific ballancing act here, one that says being at this game is more important than being at the funerals for those other sons. He explicitly drew that comparison, saying he had a tough decision and “had to disappoint someone” but he thinks he made the right choice (about who to disappoint). That ground my gears.
The thing is, and it comes back to the PMship being atough job, his son will play other games. there will be other big events in his life, many parents cannot make it to big events in their children’s lives due to other duties.
If his son was having surgery, or in an accident, or something else happened where it might reasonably said that he needs his family there, then I would be saying that his family should certainly, and obviously be there.
That’s how I feel anyway, and it’s a feeling that has come from the way the PM has expressed himself about this. the comparisons that he has made. He didn’t say he took advice, and said he fronted to tell the family why he wasn’t going to be there. I’d feel a lot different if I had the impression he had asked the family.
That’s my 2c about what’s different. optics.
That I can agree with. Key is obviously a dick who doesn’t really give a shit and at the moment he often doesn’t even try and hide the fact. His comments about the soldiers not having much in the way of family are unbelievable.
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Asked the family… maybe they told him to fuck off. I know I would have in that situation.
It almost makes you want to open up his skull to see if there is a little alien running the controls inside.. He has’nt got a clue.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/features/7363893/Secret-Diary-of-Maggie-Barry
Something for a giggle.
Explaining might be losing if you are a pinhead but when you are a self proclaimed intellectual or have an iota of intelligence and can actually read the printed word then explanations are necessary.
If you want to swim in a soup of sound bites and haircuts then good for you but I prefer Felix’s explanations to your puerile exclamations anyday.
The latest Roy Morgan is out. The nats are down 3.5% to 44%. Labour is up 2 to 32% but the greens are up 3 to 14%.
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A green surge is the last thing that Shearer needs. This is good for the opposition’s chances of forming the next Governnment but not so good for Shearer’s chances of survival.
Of minor interest – Conservative support halved from 3 to 1.5 which could be related to Craig’s anti marriage equality campaign.
Up to 5 August (Sunday) which excludes this week of course.
Nothing under the margin of error means anything.
although technically when you’re talking about small percentages, the margin for error also reduces.
   Â
The big issue though is that small percentages mean less people need to change their mind to swing the vote, so they bounce about quite a lot.Â
   Â
You really only get consistency from which you can hypothesise fluctuation causes either with large proportions (e.g. 40 or 50%), or with flatlined parties like United Future or ACT.Â
Labour and Greens are usually complimentary – they share nat drops and DNR changes.Â
  Â
I’m just worried that the short term trend (i.e a few months) might be indicating a plateau in Labour’s growth from the election. We’ll see – polls go up, polls go down…Â
  Â
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My opinion, the sooner the Beneficiary Bashing Shearer is given the Boot and replaced by Cunliffe as both Party Leader and next Minister of Finance the better,
Beneficiaries, all of them, with their low incomes and expectations are what keeps the interest rates of the comfortable middle class at levels which ensure their continued comfort,
That middle class and the politicians put in place on the behalf of that middle class should be thanking beneficiaries on a weekly basis for being willing to except a lowered standard of living so as to ensure that middle classes continuing comfort…
yes yes, but you can’t just have any class of bene. You have to have the ones that know their place, and daring to have a life while being on SB just doesn’t cut it I’m afraid. You’re supposed to not do anything while on SB, and then suck it up when people criticise you for being a malingerer. And be grateful.
Tory Workfare a la UK is going to be next term, I bet you.
Key and Hungary.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10825896
These mutts are trashing our good name.
^^ Political, please move to Open Mike.
Done, thanks.
News Flash!
New Political Party forming as Labour Splinters!
The Beehive is buzzing with rumors that the two anonymous Cunliffe character assassins are joining John Banks to form a new party based on Machiavellian principles.
đ
Will they call it the Mad Haters’ Cup of Tea Party?
Wimp Walloping
The Wimp: DUNCAN WEBB; The Walloper: NEIL MILLER
“The Panel”, National Radio, Friday 10 August 2012
I’m listening to another horror show unfold. Once again, the ostensible “liberal” (Webb) is bending over backwards to find common ground with, and to please, a right winger (Miller). So whatever Miller says, no matter how bizarre and doctrinaire, Webb has obviously decided to agree with it.
Today, Miller announced that the New Zealand security services are “open” and that he feels “relaxed” about their conduct, or misconduct. Duncan Webb did not even so much as demur at this nonsense. And neither did the stand-in host Finlay McDonald. Instead, both of these “liberals” laughed insipidly at Miller’s wry and cynical comments.
Question: Why is Gordon Campbell never on this programme any more? He had the courage to confront Graham Bell, getting the tough old copper to admit he knew nothing about climate science, and on another occasion got Richard Griffin to backtrack and apologize for making some ignorant comments about Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. On another occasion, Bomber Bradbury angered Michelle Boag, when he demanded that she back up one of her wild statements with at least one piece of evidence. I would not be surprised if she had something to do with the eventual banning of Bradbury from the programme.
But Campbell and Bradbury are not on the programme any more. Instead, we get the likes of Duncan Webb playing the patsy. Neil Miller is a shallow and complacent commentator, but he gets an easy ride on this programme. As do other right wingers like Michael Bassett, Karl Du Fresne, Barry Corbett, Stephen Franks, John Bishop, and Deborah Hill Cone.
The pity of it is that “The Panel” is so much less interesting and stimulating than it could be. Is it too much to hope that Jim Mora gets a thoughtful and serious producer one day?
Probably. As it is, it’s a cringefest most of the time. Maybe someone should ask RNZ how they pick the panelists.
Â
Maybe someone should ask RNZ how they pick the panelists.
It’s quite clear how they pick them: anyone who has anything interesting to say will probably not be asked on, and neither will anyone who “rocks the boat”, i.e., stands up to the likes of Boag, Bassett and Griffin.
I suggested it was simply an inadequate producer, but I think the real reason is the management at RNZ, headed by one, errrrr, Richard Griffin.
Morrissey 23 1 1
I think that it is Jim Mora’s preference, that he and his producer perhaps have approached the people who have the Right sort of opinions and can express them fluently. So I think that Stephen Franks et al get on, and Joanne Black who is now Press Secretary for some rightie, which is no surprise, and so on.
I think that it is Jim Moraâs preference, that he and his producer perhaps have approached the people…
I am pretty certain that it is the producers/managers, rather than Jim Mora himself, who make the decisions. Surely no decent person, and Jim does seem to be a nice guy, would actually choose to spend an hour in the company of people as overbearingly pompous and unpleasant as Messrs Franks, Bassett and Bishop.
Joanne Black who is now Press Secretary for some rightie
It’s Bill English, actually.
Morrissey
I know nuthing… but I have a feeling when I listen to Jim Mora that there is something false there and that puts me off, as well as the circumlocutions you refer to.
I have a feeling when I listen to Jim Mora that there is something false there and that puts me off, as well as the circumlocutions…
I know exactly what you mean. You’ve caught the essence of the problem very well. I’ve been analysing his style and modus operandi for a long time now, and I might soon post up some of the things that bother me, and obviously other people too.
Question: Why is Gordon Campbell never on this programme any more?
Jeepers Morrissey who is the clairvoyant? You or me? I was wondering exactly the same thing earlier today. I think you’re right. Campbell showed the rest of them up for the toadies they really are. That’s embarrassing all round. I’ve pretty much stopped listening to The Panel. It’s not worth it. I bet there listener numbers are falling…
There’s always the possibility Gordon Campbell chose not to go on the programme again. And if that is the case it’s easy to understand why!
Jeepers Morrissey who is the clairvoyant? You or me?
You and me both, I think.
I bet their listener numbers are fallingâŠ
I would not be surprised. It’s getting to be arch and self-referential, as well as vacuous. This dreadful “Complaints Choir” is almost always terrible, and about as amusing as toothache.
Thereâs always the possibility Gordon Campbell chose not to go on the programme again.
Yes, he seemed to be impatient with the inane chatter and the long, bloviating circumlocutions that Jim feels compelled to indulge in. He also declined to laugh dutifully at unfunny remarks by Jim or his fellow guests.
Tame and anxious-to-please “liberals” like Peter Elliott or Tim Watkin or Chris Trotter are much more reliable, always willing to flatter the host with laughter.
You and me both, I think.
You and me both total cynics too methinks, and not without reason. Don’t mention the Complaints Choir ever again please. Life’s hard enough without being reminded of that travesty of the soul.
finlay is a fweep.
cross between a dweeb and a geek.
wallop that wimp.
When I hear Finlay McDonald, the word “toady” comes to mind.
I don’t buy this theory that Key has got some other important business in the States. Don’t make no sense.
The guy clearly loves his son, and he likes going to sports events. that’s enough to explain this. He took his son out of school to go to see the All Whites play at the world cup, remember that? He loves going into the changing rooms and hanging out with sporting heroes. 3 way handshake anyone?
And going to discuss high faluttin secret policy with the masters of the universe? pfft.
What’s he gonna do? Tell them his secret plan to save the whales? Promise to get them a fricken Panda of the chinese? Sort it all out with a job summit? Bike trails! A financial hubblet!
Not.Buying.It.
Agree Pb.
As if the masters of the universe are gonna discuss their high faluttin secret policies with him!
Finally, the MSM asks question about what Stephen Joyce’s ‘intensification of agriculture’ means. I’m more worried about pressure on the environment from intensified dairying than I am about mining, and that’s saying something! Not to mention the animal rights aspects. Although I’m not a great animal lover, I do believe that if we’re going to use them we must at least treat them well.
And then I checked the byline – it’s Sue Kedgley. Thank you Sue.
Nice one rosy. Here’s the link if anyone wants it http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/7448874/Is-agriculture-NZs-golden-goose
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At least the regional councils are starting to step up and protect the land and water. Doubt they will look at animal welfare though.
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I agree, this is far more of an issue than mining. We can recover from mining, industrial diarying and other intensifications will damage the land and water for a long time.
ooops, sorry I forgot the link (hadn’t had my morning coffee ;-)). Thanks for putting it in.
I’d like to agree about the regional councils, but I fear this is what the ECan debacle is all about – allowing water rights for intensified farming, in particular, dairying.
Unless someone who knows how to get information picks this up I fear any dissension is all going to be far too late.
Haven’t followed Ecan lately. ORC and Southland seem to be doing a bit better.
Â
http://www.orc.govt.nz/Publications-and-Reports/Regional-Policies-and-Plans/Regional-Plan-Water/Proposed-Plan-Change-6A-Water-Quality/
http://www.roymorgan.com/roymorgan/library/v13427_8.jpg
last time the country was this unhappy they chucked the government out.
Problem is, chucking a bad govt out is one thing, but who do you replace them with?
A good read from the Archdruid:
So, just how much legitimacy does our government still have? It’;s still has it ATM but it’s obviously declining.
Corporate lobbying – better ROI than adding real value to the economy
Why create something of new economic worth when you can spend your time and money lobbying for tax breaks and favours garnering 22,000% ROI and more!
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2012/08/Lobbying%20ROI.jpg
After the disgraceful abuse of the Prime Minister starting at http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10082012/comment-page-1/#comment-504964 – and the mugging mob abuse that followed is just par for the course here – it turns out that felix didn’t even have his facts right.
While there will be government representation at a joint memorial service the soldier’s families are having private funerals.
Hi Pete.
For every instance of “funeral” please read “joint memorial service”.
I trust this satisfies your interest in the matter and that you’ll amend any posts on other blogs to reflect this new understanding.
@Rosy
“Intensified agriculture” means dairy cows take priority over households for water AND get used to cow manure run-off into streams and lakes because we’re not going to punish it.
It can mean the same for pig farms and chicken factories.
Water and animal sewage. Learn to love less of the first and more of the second.
Poor old sad12, Are you worried Shearer might want to take your benefit away?
Another Friday night in blighted impoverished NZ.
Currently I am seated in a deck chair, in front of a hot oven, bathed in the light from a sun lamp – sipping on Just Juice Pineapple juice made with 5% pineapple juice (& 95% apple concentrate imported from Germany).
I’m listening to the sound of waves & ukulele’s playing on a CD player and I have just sprayed the room with Glade Hawaiian Breeze.
Â
I’m calling this my John Key “You to” Aspirational Hawaiian Experience.
Â
I have never had it so good.
đ
he is probably in Las Vegas with a couple of hookers.
Well he would be if he had any balls!
Yeah, I think Michelle Boag took them as part of the contract when they hired him. Supposedly they were served as finger food at a nat party conference. Rumour has it Gerry ate them (along with a pie, two sofa cushions and half of Christchurch).
William Joyce
You’re in such a good mood you should now read Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus – “Titus Andronicus is a play with “14 killings, 9 of them on stage, … He has captured Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her three sons, and Aaron the Moor.” (thanks google). All I can say about this one is that they don’t write like this any more.
“If one good deed in all his life he did,
he doth repent it from his very soul.”
(adapted) Act V, Scene iii
Dedicated to john or gerry
Jim N 33 1 1 1
Trite I know but Shakespeare certainly has a way with words. And some of the well-known phrases just keep on. Maybe one day our own doughty leader will be wailing – ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’.
Isn’t there a great scene in one of the king plays where a body of archers set themselves to send a rain of arrows high in the air to down the enemy? Makes sitting tapping complaints at the keyboard seem very tame in comparison. But then it is an attempt to think our way to a solution that doesn’t involve privation and bloodshed.
“His conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns him for a villain.”
(adapted) Richard III, Act V, Scene iii
dedicated to john key
Jim N
Didn’t Shakespeare give Richard 3 a bad rap? Now Jokey Hen… Didn’t Richard 3 die on Bosworth field? Perhaps Key should go and fight along with certain USA pollies and generals, in Afghanistan.
By the way USA is going to help Vietnam to counter the effects of Agent Orange at this late stage. What has happened about the Depleted Uranium in Iraq? Anyone been watching this?
That would ruin the buzz of pretending I am in Hawaii living off the profits from all the State Asset shares I purchased with my meagre discretionary dollars (plus the ones I get free, illegally paid for from all the other taxpayer saps).
I’m trying a more Zen approach – my therapist said that spray painting a “hit list” on my bedroom wall wasn’t working for me – besides, it was getting too long. Apparently, the police will not be so happy next time if our beloved leader wakes up and finds me sitting at the end of his bed again.
*sigh* As the song says, “….since I gave up hope I feel a lot better”.
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Just a minute, there’s a loud knock at the door………
WJ
Have they just found out that you have taken to painting your hit list on your roof you over-active decadent dissident?
Is it that obvious? Damn, Google Earth!
The NZ Police, Thought Crime Division – Free Speech Suppression & Evidence Fabrication Team are onto me. Gotta run, heading off to Tuhoe country…………..opps
William Joyce
That team has a mighty name – it should make a good acronym – something that would fit in with FESTER for instance?
he’s pobably going over their to checkon why his BofA ML shares are worth nothing now he going to ask Mitt the git Romney if he can pull the wool over the american publics eyes and bail out BofA a second time if he becomes president.
Romney is their John Key. A man from the financial industry that the people are told has the “economic skills” to fix the country, who smiles and waves, who has the “cred” of being wealthy i.e. successful (which people respect in our society of shallow values) but who has a murky past that they stonewall to protect from disclosure.
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Obama had to show his birth certificate – where the hell are Romney’s tax returns?
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mike e Sounds like Key is a bit of a bofver boy. I see that some investors here got the right to get something back from their Blue Chip investments. Perhaps he will be able to swing something in the States to make up his losses.