At it again with prejudicial remarks Jimmy? This is the second time in two days. Sometimes life is a little more complicated than 'a really nasty piece of work that couldn't handle his drink' as Magasiva's suicide suggests.
Anyone who beats their partner IS a nasty piece of work.
it’s not complicated at all.
[Your callous comment displays your lack of nuance and blindness to context and circumstances and whilst domestic violence cannot be excused, comments such as yours do nothing to help and only stoke anger and negative emotions, which polarises and demonises people who need help with their issues. The issue for me, as Moderator, is that comments such as yours may discourage others from commenting on this site on sensitive and complex issues such as domestic violence and suicide. Banned for two weeks – Incognito]
Again, I applaud your timely intervention, Incognito. James' dull provocations excite only him and his feckless kin and deter kind commentary from those who watch, hoping for encouraging debate. Two weeks? You're so kind
Oh dear, I must be a terrible person. However, I don't slap the partner around. Can't believe you defend him…….I pity your partner.
[You crossed the line by making a personal insult to another commenter on sensitive and complex issues such as domestic violence and suicide. Banned for a month – Incognito]
It’s a stupid thing to do-trying to bully the EU in the negotiations. Pathetic and meaningless showboating.
In a years time when negotiations turn to custard Johnson will be forced to ask for an extension, which will get through parliament no problem, or allow the UK to crash out which would be politically and economically dumb.
The situation has changed. The EU can’t game the UK parliament. There is no longer a prospect of the UK not leaving. The EU stands to loose as much as the UK if they fail to agree on an FTA.
So in my view a deal will be done in 12 months. If there is any extension it will be essentially technical. That is the actual deal for the FTA is done in December 2020, but will take a few months to be actually implemented.
I know a lot of the Left (including many Standardnistas) are willing and hoping that Boris will fail. It is a bad bet. He got a deal with the EU that many thought impossible. He then won a resounding victory. It wouldn’t pay to think that this time he will fail.
I recall a time from the Thatcher era when I was in the UK. Scargill thought he could beat Maggie, even though she had won in all previous big issues. I recall thinking he must be mad. There was no chance he would defeat her. He was actually offered a reasonable deal but rejected it. He went on to total defeat. Entirely predictable.
I suggest it will be the same here. Those betting on the EU being intransigent will be wrong.
The two words are pronounced differently. I'm not sure why the double 'o' gives rise to a different pronunciation, but it does. One feels that lose should be spelt with a 'z' like snooze.
English spelling is bloody ridiculous when you compare 'lose' and 'loose' with 'choose' and 'chose'. People who claim to see any consistent logic in standard English spelling are delusional.
Those betting on the EU being intransigent will be wrong.
Wanna bet? Aren't the EU mandarins leftist? Aren't they're the kind of people who believe they know best? It would surprise me if they demonstrated the ability to do realpolitik.
Plus there's the fact that united Europe is the prime Bilderberger project. No way will the ruling elite allow their servants to admit failure via compromise. To do so would send the signal that the elite will allow autonomy to other European countries too. They must stand firm. Punish the Boris.
Wayne-I didn't say Boris will fail in the negotiations. I'm sure some sort of deal with the EU will be cobbled together, it just won't be done in 11 months. That is why Johnson's deadline is daft.
Of course in the long-term, over the next 5 years, Johnson will fail. He was the worst foreign secretary the UK has ever had. He loves his banking mates and knows the price of a bottle of champagne but not milk.
The "red wall' will return with a vengeance. Scotland will leave. Chaos will ensue.
The message to the EU is clear – negotiate fast and well – or face a no deal.
Bizarre. It's reminiscent of "Hold it! The next man that makes a move, the ni**er gets it," with the Tories thinking the EU will say "Hold it men, he's not bluffing!"
Sorry, I must be missing something. Brexit, the actuality, is easy. It's keep everything as close to as it was. Sure over time drift will be work through. The hard part was the backstop, and border fees. Brexit is as business as usual is everyones goal. Boris cant do that, its becuase he wants to not achieve the normal business. why does he need a bargaining position, he was elected to get it done, do it already.
Boris has all the bargaining power… leave on my terms, or we'll hard Brexit.
People are under the impression that a hard Brexit leaves Great Britain in a void; it doesn't. They just revert to WTO rules, and keep calm and carry on.
Trade potential outside the EU is greater than on the inside, and with less restrictions.
The EU is a bit tired of Boris's shenanigans. A no deal Brexit isn't alarming to them, and Boris's crude grasp of negotiation is on a par with Muldoon's squid pro quo – achieves nothing but creates lasting distaste.
The next election should be a shoe-in for the Left – after Boris Attila the Hun would look good.
Nosher Powell as Brit PM in Eat the Rich knocks the Israeli and Palestinian guys heads together "now shake hands", that's pretty much what the right wingers are cheering.
I think Boris is something special – not just a cross between a polar bear and an unmade bed. The Poms turned out on the streets to oust Thatcher, they can do as much for Boris.
Thatcher won 3 elections. Her poll tax was a disaster, but it was after she had been in office for 10 years. Even then, once she was gone, Major won in 1994.
I expect that Boris will win the next election, but not the one after that. In fact he might not even stand. So expect two terms for Boris, say 8 to 10 years.
Those who think he will be an easy beat have already forgotten how well he did as London’s Mayor. Two substantial wins.
Thatcher had her shit together much more than Boris, Wayne. One need not even dig to find evidence he wasn't coping either as foreign minister or PM. The man hasn't changed – like Bridges, short of divine intervention there is nothing to keep him in power.
So notorious leftist Nigel Latta accuses the Nat leader of using trumpism. Simon accuses Nigel of being foreign. At least he didn't say immigrant.
"The problem is after 9 years you delivered a health system in disrepair, a housing crisis, a shameful record on mental health etc etc. You can't just keep pretending all the problems started in the last 2 years. They're just getting started cleaning it all up. Also, I'm a kiwi."
That is what TV3 should do to help get out of it's current doldrums:
hire all the well known commentators and celebrities who are not afraid to stand up and tell the truth and have been sidelined by the Nat. apologists in the media. Word would soon get around and before long their audience would be back again.
Takes time and resources to go from tabloid shock jock gooner/richo/paddy to a more integrity based approach and you assume the private equity owners give a toss.
Remember the treatment JC and others got by dropping Weldon in ? Leopards and spots.
Simon says. "Deep left". Think of it as a reputation-building saga. Alternatively, Nigel may be outing himself as a career move. Join the Greens, Nigel!
Key said it in the House. I was watching at the time. He was testing the waters. It will be used.
I've been fully engaged, weka. There's a lot happening at grassroot/flaxroot level, around agriculture and local body politics. I've never seen so much cooperation between science, First Peoples, those with reddened necks and townies. The pot's being stirred and a very pleasing colour is emerging
We talk about tipping points; we've just passed a few of them. Boris and Donald leave me completely uninterested; they are not on the crest of the wave. I read what's happening here (skim more) and am waiting…political animals might be the last to see it, who knows Presently, I'm decluttering like never before; it's amazing what I casually held to be significant,. when in fact, it isn't; many trips to the Op shops, only this time giving, not taking
My Christmas reading? (I know you didn't ask) "Thus spake the plant" Monica Gagliani. Best Watch? The forest garden
I'm decluttering too, and it feels different now, not so much a personal shedding of stuff (although that helps) but a clearing away of the unnecessary so my energy can be best focused on what really matters.
Today I'm watching a recent vid from Rupert Read who is talking about the importance of what we feel in response to CC, and how that affects what we do. A nice counterpoint to the jabby, in your face approach of Hallam (which I am torn about. My mind says his way is problematic, my body is cheering him on).
I have a post nearly done about the Country Calendar episode on the inspiring couple now landsharing the Fitzsimons' farm. It interests me that it is still easier to write the more mainstream argy-bargy political posts than the solutions-focused ones, and your comment about what political animals might be missing seems pertinent, will think on that.
You're welcome, weka. I watched the Country Calendar "Fitzsimons" programme a while back… very good and the young man now writes for NZGardener, as I do. He and his partner work hard and dig deep; I'm not a digger so our philosophies differ somewhat…I have a friend, Lily, who interns at Pakaraka and who visited us here in Riverton recently. In fact, she's the daughter of an old friend… placing me on the dog-eared side of the ledger, I reckon That said, Harry probably thinks of me (if he ever thinks of me) as a young upstart
Origin: "On November 15, 1964, the Chronicle printed the story, quoting Weinberg as saying "We have a saying in the movement that you can't trust anybody over 30.""
So here's the guts: "the upper middle-class cliques of journalists, academics, artists, intellectuals and activists (Thomas Piketty refers to it as “The Brahmin Left”, reflecting its 21st century transformation into a priestly caste primarily concerned with moral transgressions). They form the leadership and core constituency of leftwing political parties, and they still attempt to play a gatekeeper role around political debate. But instead of policing the window of debate – pretending to impartial objectivity while excluding what it feels should or cannot be said – it amplifies messages it believes lie outside the bounds of acceptability. The ruthless logic of the Attention Economy rules progressive online and media spaces; everyone competes for attention by demonstrating their moral and intellectual superiority, so any and every public statement that breaches progressive taboos or activates this class’s (very acute) sense of threat can easily earn massive media coverage."
"The incentive structure here is terrible. The worst ideas and most deceitful statements are often the most amplified and therefore the most successful. The sustained moral panic about “fake news” (but only on the right), incentivises the manufacture of fake news." So outraged liberals operate as a disinformation gang. Well, they have to, don't they? Rightists do it, so leftists must copy. Democracy was designed to be symmetric.
so any and every public statement that breaches progressive taboos or activates this class’s (very acute) sense of threat can easily earn massive media coverage."
So the dreadful messages to the threatened become the food for Right wing panic and control.
Not sure (from that summary) hes grasped exactly the main point of the argument Piketty (esp) is advancing…essentially it is a lack of representation of the disenfranchised by both left and right(although the right are not expected to) and the resulting disengagement.
"With the major parties on both sides of the political spectrum becoming captured by elites, it’s no wonder so many voters feel unrepresented. A 2016 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that more than six in ten Americans don’t feel that their views are being represented by either of the major political parties. A separate poll by Quinnipiac University found that 76 percent of Americans agree with the statement “Public officials don’t care much what people like me think.”
"None of the above two options seems likely to lead to a reduction in inequality, renew voters’ trust that democracy can address their problems, or overcome nativist sentiments. However, Piketty proposes a third possible trajectory, one in which left-wing parties (or nativist parties, though this is less than likely) return to their long-abandoned class-based politics and adopt a powerful progressive agenda focused on reducing inequality through redistribution. Without such an agenda, he argues, politicians would find it difficult to unite low-income, low-education voters and build a wide enough coalition able to counter inequality."
Good point, but the conclusion evident from those polls is that representative democracy is no longer fit for purpose. Piketty doesn't get that. I lack his faith in a return to class-based politics and wonder why he has that faith when everyone else has lost it. People mostly nowadays don't identify with a class. Identity politics took over.
Its no longer fit for purpose IN IT'S CURRENT FORM'….a point Piketty recognises and advances a solution.
There is a choice for the elites…they can give up a little or risk it all…currently they are employing a successful strategy and appear confident theres no need to give ground….like a sharemarket bull run they think they can pick the time to get out before the crash….we know how that works out.
DF Identity politics 'masked' the other matters, pushed them to the side, but class is still there only more anxious as everybody else seems to push ahead in the queue. We're still here, and we are getting really brassed off say those waiting with what they feel are the legitimate claims to be fairly heard and considered.
I vaguely recall reading social science research results that established it as fact, but dunno where I saw that. I agree that those made losers by the left/right collusion have a valid grievance. But I don't believe class-based political action has been produced as a result. If it had, we'd see Marxists trumpeting it as evidence that Marxism remains viable.
I'm not an aspiring pontiff. Marxism is actually a belief system, incredible though that may seem. If you peer determinedly into acadaemia you may discern a small priesthood there that uses the label for economic analysis, but since most political commentators nowadays agree that economists are mostly too divorced from reality to be politically relevant, so what?
Hey, why not demonstrate it's relevance to politics today? I'm all for identifying principles that tend towards universality. I accept residual class divisions exist – I just see no evidence that they produce political behaviour. What we seem to be getting nowadays is a resurgence of tribalism & nationalism.
I began to expect the left to bring their intellectual analysis up to speed in the early seventies. I agreed with Jeanette Fitzsimons that focus on the common good was the way to go & said so when necessary. Marx is all about being partisan. Holism is the opposite to the myopic focus on parts!
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
We need Marx's analysis more than ever, it is essential to understand why the neo-liberal lefts' appeal to identity over circumstances is so unpopular with those traditional left wing constituents, workers. Unions, and therefore class consciousness, have been successfully undermined by capital and regulatory capture since the mid 20th Century.
Democracy at Work is an organisation that 'analyzes capitalism critically as a systemic problem and advocates for democratizing workplaces as part of a systemic solution. We seek a stronger, fuller democracy – in our politics and culture as well as in our economy – based on workers’ equal collaboration and shared leadership inside enterprises and throughout society.'
This worker centred politics is precisely the type of Marxism that is producing the kind of 'political behaviour' that is needed to provide a real left alternative to the neolib/neocon consensus.
Eventually I realised that businesses originated by employee/owner/operators was the way to go. Mondragon being the historical model. So why don't workers head down that road? Marxism doesn't tell us.
Because they have been disempowered by capital and are 'represented' by a Labour party that has swung towards the right since 1984.
There are whole generations of workers who have never known the power in a vibrant Labour movement, how can they conceive of something that so many 'on the left' say is impossible? They have been told There Is No Alternative to the status quo.
Marx explicitly says that capital will do whatever it can to undermine worker power. In fact he actually underestimated how successful capital would be at that, thanks, in no small part, to 'left' politicians.
True. The Greens adopted the principle of true-cost accounting. I've never seen Labour adopt it. Plus Marxists always seemed to get lost in analysis, as if it were a swamp they were exploring and couldn't extricate themselves from. Solutions require moving out of analysis into synthesis.
One of my enduring grievances against postmodernism that – it can't produce synthesis. We're overdue for new one, and this one needs to bring in ecology and I think tikanga as well as the classical virtues brought together by the bloke who taught Smith & Hume.
"It was not just in their lifetimes that Hume’s renown outstripped Smith’s. Hume’s continuing impact on individual thinkers and broader fields of study is truly breathtaking. Kant, Darwin and Einstein (who credited him with inspiration for relativity theory) is a short list of great minds deeply influenced by Hume. And, in addition to the effect of his thought on economics, he is considered by some to be the father of modern cognitive science."
"What was a source of both shock and fury was a letter appended to every edition of the work from Adam Smith, describing the “cheerfulness and equanimity” of his dear friend’s final days. Even more infuriating was Smith’s overall conclusion that Hume approached “as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit.”"
"Smith had spent his life and career avoiding the kind of controversy and offense that Hume had reveled in. By associating his name and reputation with such a strong defense of Hume’s moral character, Smith risked not only his social and professional standing, but the fortunes of his long-gestating masterpiece, “The Wealth of Nations,” which had just finally been published."
Great stuff, which I'd never come across, thanks for the tip!!
The bloke who taught both Smith and Hume was Hutcheson – a fellow who produced a neoclassical synthesis arguably superior to Kant' s, and whose influence ultimately ended slavery first in England and later in the US – he was a major figure in the Scottish renaissance.
Not so much heroic as completely irrefutable and untestable. Which is why every communist says communism has never been tried: the states that called themselves communist were just verious stages of dictatorship of the proletariat that failed to achieve true communism.
Great analyses of the flaws of unrestrained capitalism, bunk predictions for "where to from here".
"in various parts of his works, he specifies, besides the five external senses commonly recognized :
consciousness
the sense of beauty
a public sense, or sensus communis, "a determination to be pleased with the happiness of others and to be uneasy at their misery"
the moral sense, or "moral sense of beauty in actions and affections, by which we perceive virtue or vice, in ourselves or others"
a sense of honour, or praise and blame, "which makes the approbation or gratitude of others the necessary occasion of pleasure, and their dislike, condemnation or resentment of injuries done by us the occasion of that uneasy sensation called shame"
a sense of the ridiculous.
Of these "senses," the "moral sense" plays the most important part in Hutcheson's ethical system."
I wonder if #6 refers to a sense of humour or a sense of disbelief. I think #3 refers to empathy. I also wonder why he features #4 & #5 as separate – they seem different aspects of the same ethical sense to me. Reputation, which is integral to politics, is diminished by shame. Morality is communal, whereas ethical conduct is personal.
It's a shame more of his writing isn't readily accessible. The Smith of the Theory of Moral Sentiments owed much to him, and that book was amazingly influential – referenced in the title of Sense And Sensibility and in Burke' s Reflections on the Revolution in France just off the top of my head.
I ran across Hutcheson in a book modestly called How the Scots Invented the Modern World and Everything in it.
Danyl is a pompous middle class blowhard whose chief talent consists of effortlessly absorbing right wing talking points then regurgitating them like he just thought them up himself.
Gosh, it's almost as if he might pontificate. Back when I was commenting on his blog he seemed to be Green. Well, in an urban liberal young person kind of way, I mean. In the old days we called it pale green.
Most, like getting on for all, wastewater spills around Queenstown are the result of someone flushing their undies down the loo, wet wipes are pretty good at bunging up the pumps too. Tourists get “Delhi belly” in New Zealand just as much as we do overseas, with the same consequences. And from time in other councils the cause was the same, just less frequent. Where’s the elected responsibility there. You can’t do much about stopping nickers from wrapping around sewage pumps.
Oh, he does actually have better things to do: "The multi-millionaire has been the director of a number of companies across Australia, New Zealand and the UK – and is a well-known stamp collector." Counting his stamps, and counting his money, apparently doesn't keep him busy enough…
'I was just looking Your Honour.' It is a physical example of a sick mind. What about the other people with the same sort of mind, who haven't got images about their person?
Arresting people for images is bottom of cliff stuff. Make him reveal all his connections, and give him some shock therapy, even if it just is sitting on an electrified whoopee cushion – that would give him some excitement, the old goat.
And of course fine him 1 million dollars, to be spent on helping people caught in poverty to learn a skill so they wouldn't have to sell their or their children's bodies to make a living.
if found guilty, justice here would be seizing his assets and putting them into a fund to support victims of child abuse over the course of their lives.
From the RNZ piece,
They said in August detectives from Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command commenced an investigation into the possession of child abuse material in the local area.
Is the subtext there that there was a group of people in one geographical area sharing materials? Or making them?
Looking at Scott GNs link above. This is telling it like it is I think. What do others say?
These are not privileged white men. They were the ones that emptied your garbage, dealt with your sewerage, built your machines, dug in dangerous mines, grew your food, lived hard but proud lives and had the privilege of fighting and dying on the frontline whenever we called a war.
On the other side of the divide are the city-based knowledge industry workers who are enjoying all the benefits of free-trade and the free movement of immigrants without having to bother with any of the downsides.
This divide was something the British Labour Party, with its deep roots in working communities, should have been able to recognise. Its historic project is to defend working people, so it should have pitched its tent with them and sought to address their very real concerns. And at their heart was a scream of rage against imperious, unreachable EU bureaucrats and a fear that the free movement of labour was an existential threat.
Indeed. "In August last year The Observertrumpeted that “more than 100 Westminster constituencies that voted to leave the EU have now switched to Remain, according to stark new analysis”. “The trend is starkest in the north of England and Wales – Labour heartlands in which Brexit sentiment appears to be changing.”
Yet the election result proved this analysis wrong. "A couple of paragraphs on we learned from where this world-class analysis had sprung. “The study was jointly commissioned by Best for Britain, which is campaigning against Brexit, and the anti-racist Hope Not Hate group.”
"The participation of Hope Not Hate in the exercise was a nod towards the suspicion that everyone who voted Leave was also probably a racist, because they railed against EU rules which allow the free movement of labour. Whenever working-class outsiders complain about how an immigration or economic policy blights their lives the response of the enlightened insiders is to brand them either “racist” or “stupid”."
Leftists calling their electoral support base names aren't really enlightened. Enlightenment doesn't produce abuse. Nor is the abuse progressive. Regressive, actually.
" You showed us a kinder, gentler politics, and stood strong for what is true and right. That’s what they hated you for. But that’s entirely why we stood with you and stand with you still "
Report out about the allegations of serious assault within the Labour Party:
Today we are releasing the findings of Maria Dew’s investigation, which concludes the most serious allegations of sexual assault were not established.
Some allegations that related to overbearing and aggressive conduct by the respondent were found to be established, but they did not meet the threshold of unlawful bullying.
It confirms that the party's view of the matter was correct. I agree it is not good news, it is a tragedy for all concerned. But it shows that National's attacks were despicable.
If Haworth had been doing his job properly Bennett wouldn’t have had any material on which to base her attacks. Thank God we have Claire Szabo running the party now.
Something stinks here. the complainant worked for the Labour Party. Her actions finished two senior LP officials careers, slandered the victim, essentially laid false sexual assault charges, smeared Jacinda Ardern for not firing people on trumped up charges, cost the LP a lot of money and hard won reputation, and lied to investigators and went to whom? Paula Bloody Bennett.
This is Dirty Politics orchestrated by possibly PB and even people on this site fell for it. It stunk to high heaven right from the start and one of the worst aspects was that those who urged caution and to wait for the facts were pilloried.
Bullshit, they knew the complaint was false all along. When you start saying it was a mans fault for being the victim of a false sexual assault claim then you on a pretty slippery slope.
The inability of a non-Police investigation to substantiate a claim of sexual assault doesn't make that claim "false." I shouldn't have to explain this because it's glaringly obvious, so why have you made it necessary to explain it?
I'd believe a Q.C in these circumstances over the Police any day.
And as for “inaction” if they had come out saying there was nothing to see here, they would have been crucified by everybody from you to Paula Bennett who has got blood all over her hands. Liars can’t tell when others are lying.
[You set a high hurdle with your assertions, especially about the allegations of the complainant being a liar from the outset. This is not a simple he-says-she-says situation, it is complex and sensitive. For some guidance, see Weka’s comment: https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-18-12-2019/#comment-1674402. In the meantime, please tone down your language and provide robust evidence to support your allegations – Incognito]
OK, now it's a little clearer why I'm having to explain the obvious. Let's make it really simple for you: the fact a woman can't prove that a sexual assault occurred means exactly that – she can't prove it happened. We as non-participants can't be certain it happened or didn't happen.
And that includes you. You can't be sure whether it happened or not either. So lay off the "false sexual assault claim" bullshit, it's libelous and I'm surprised the moderators let you away with it.
The ‘inaction of those guys’ was allowing the situation to deteriorate to the point where Ardern had to spend a week and precious political capital mopping up after after the hapless party admins. Have you forgotten the way some in the Press Gallery were openly suggesting she was lying about what she knew? And Garner et al speculating that she might have to resign over it? If the party had been doing its job properly things would never have got to that point.
Condolences to the 2 fire fighter whanau who were lost to the Australian Bush fires.
Flooding in Peru that is going to be the new norm.
With all the air travelers numbers boosting the faster we get electric planes the better.
I have heard that spray novavane was bad stuff let’s ban the crap
Play grounds for disabled tamariki is cool my mokopuna aroha the playgrounds.
Cool that Taramaki Makaru marae helping distributors of Kai donated for the poor people.
Yes some want to highlight the bad stuff about Maori and not talk about the positive things Awsome. the crossfit seen is growing fast my tama are into that.
We need more of our Rangatahi to run for Council some of these councilors have been on the council for many decades. I also think more Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa should run for Council we understand that with out a good environment we will not have good lives. These neanderthal are stuck in the past take there votes a push them out.
Tairawhiti Youth Environment group members Haylee Law and Sumita Singh presented the petition to councillors with a plea for them to respect the wishes of the 1200 people who had signed it.
There were tears in the Gisborne council chambers on Thursday morning as councillors stopped short of declaring a climate emergency despite an impassioned plea from local school students.
The chambers were packed with about 40 members of the public – young and old – as the Tairawhiti Youth Environment group delivered a petition calling for the council to make a climate emergency declaration following its decision in June not to do so.
"It's just tragic," said one man as he stormed out of the chambers while councillors debated the relevance to Tairawhiti of declaring a climate emergency.
"I can't listen to this stuff any more," he said. Ka kite Ano link below
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Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s 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. ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff is calling on all political parties to support the new Member’s Bill from Labour’s workplace relations and safety spokesperson Camilla Belich MP that would ensure negligent companies are held accountable when their employees ...
A historian with an uncanny track record of predicting US election winners tells RNZ's Sunday Morning that President Biden looks to be on track for another term, but things could still go very wrong for him. ...
Ngaio Marsh House is one of Christchurch’s best kept secrets – and contains more than a few mysteries of its own.Trust Ngaio Marsh to leave more than a few mysteries scattered through her house long after her departure. For a start, there’s the curious concrete portal in the garden, ...
Appointment viewing has been lost to the mists of time, but memories of Montana Sunday Theatre can still be conjured by hitting play on a particular piece of classical music. “You’re not going to be able to sell it.” Over 30 years on, Karen Bieleski still recalls how the task ...
Performance Review King Luxon sat behind His massive polished oak desk. It is Performance Review time. There is a knock on the door. “Enter!” says the King. In steps Minister of Disabilities and Carer Pedicures, Penny Simmonds. “I can explain everything …” she begins. “Fine,” says King Luxon, pressing the ...
The pair opened their first fully collaborative exhibition, Nina for Flowers, last Saturday. Gabi Lardies visited their studio to find out who Nina is and what working together was like.‘It didn’t start out like, ‘This is a show about Nina,’” says Josephine Jelicich, gripping a thermos of peppermint tea. ...
Thank you, Dr Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, for your brilliant invention. I’m another mid-20s Kiwi who had an OE last year. I hopped on my bicycle where France meets the Atlantic and cycled east. I pedalled through the Loire Valley, down rivers lined with willows and ancient wisteria-draped chateaus. I relished ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
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https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12226212
Shows how some people can have such a pleasant public face and be a complete bastard behind doors.
Yes sounds like he was a really nasty piece of work that couldn't handle his drink.
At it again with prejudicial remarks Jimmy? This is the second time in two days. Sometimes life is a little more complicated than 'a really nasty piece of work that couldn't handle his drink' as Magasiva's suicide suggests.
Anyone who beats their partner IS a nasty piece of work.
it’s not complicated at all.
[Your callous comment displays your lack of nuance and blindness to context and circumstances and whilst domestic violence cannot be excused, comments such as yours do nothing to help and only stoke anger and negative emotions, which polarises and demonises people who need help with their issues. The issue for me, as Moderator, is that comments such as yours may discourage others from commenting on this site on sensitive and complex issues such as domestic violence and suicide. Banned for two weeks – Incognito]
Simple is the new nuance.
See my Moderation note @ 11:20 AM.
Thanks for cleaning up the occasional mess here on The Standard, Incognito.
Again, I applaud your timely intervention, Incognito. James' dull provocations excite only him and his feckless kin and deter kind commentary from those who watch, hoping for encouraging debate. Two weeks? You're so kind
Oh dear, I must be a terrible person. However, I don't slap the partner around. Can't believe you defend him…….I pity your partner.
[You crossed the line by making a personal insult to another commenter on sensitive and complex issues such as domestic violence and suicide. Banned for a month – Incognito]
"the partner"?
Nice dehumanisation there, Jimmy!
Sorry…the miss'
Perhaps she refused to “cook him some eggs”
See my Moderation note @ 12:38 PM.
Good call, Incognito. That "interrupting cow" stuff can drag on and on. Well consigned, (to the bin).
More offensive assumptions that are very wide of the mark Jimmy! Hopefully you will learn something from Incognito's wise moderation.
https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2019/12/boris-johnson-attempt-outlawing-brexit-extension-2020-191217083501588.html
Boris is really moving on Brexit. The message to the EU is clear – negotiate fast and well – or face a no deal.
fantastic to see such action for the UK.
It’s a stupid thing to do-trying to bully the EU in the negotiations. Pathetic and meaningless showboating.
In a years time when negotiations turn to custard Johnson will be forced to ask for an extension, which will get through parliament no problem, or allow the UK to crash out which would be politically and economically dumb.
The situation has changed. The EU can’t game the UK parliament. There is no longer a prospect of the UK not leaving. The EU stands to loose as much as the UK if they fail to agree on an FTA.
So in my view a deal will be done in 12 months. If there is any extension it will be essentially technical. That is the actual deal for the FTA is done in December 2020, but will take a few months to be actually implemented.
I know a lot of the Left (including many Standardnistas) are willing and hoping that Boris will fail. It is a bad bet. He got a deal with the EU that many thought impossible. He then won a resounding victory. It wouldn’t pay to think that this time he will fail.
I recall a time from the Thatcher era when I was in the UK. Scargill thought he could beat Maggie, even though she had won in all previous big issues. I recall thinking he must be mad. There was no chance he would defeat her. He was actually offered a reasonable deal but rejected it. He went on to total defeat. Entirely predictable.
I suggest it will be the same here. Those betting on the EU being intransigent will be wrong.
Wayne, you really must learn the difference between loose and lose.
"Loose" is a loose belt round your middle.
Lose is to lose your wallet in the supermarket.
Hence the EU stands to lose……
He's doing postmodernism. An extra o makes no substantive difference because it's just a big fat zero.
The two words are pronounced differently. I'm not sure why the double 'o' gives rise to a different pronunciation, but it does. One feels that lose should be spelt with a 'z' like snooze.
English spelling is bloody ridiculous when you compare 'lose' and 'loose' with 'choose' and 'chose'. People who claim to see any consistent logic in standard English spelling are delusional.
The whoreson zed is an unnecessary letter.
Those betting on the EU being intransigent will be wrong.
Wanna bet? Aren't the EU mandarins leftist? Aren't they're the kind of people who believe they know best? It would surprise me if they demonstrated the ability to do realpolitik.
Plus there's the fact that united Europe is the prime Bilderberger project. No way will the ruling elite allow their servants to admit failure via compromise. To do so would send the signal that the elite will allow autonomy to other European countries too. They must stand firm. Punish the Boris.
Any reason why you're stating conspiracy theories as 'fact'?
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group
It just slipped out. I do have postmodern moments. It would only be a fact if their website stated it. It's really an inference based on their agenda.
Wayne-I didn't say Boris will fail in the negotiations. I'm sure some sort of deal with the EU will be cobbled together, it just won't be done in 11 months. That is why Johnson's deadline is daft.
Of course in the long-term, over the next 5 years, Johnson will fail. He was the worst foreign secretary the UK has ever had. He loves his banking mates and knows the price of a bottle of champagne but not milk.
The "red wall' will return with a vengeance. Scotland will leave. Chaos will ensue.
The message to the EU is clear – negotiate fast and well – or face a no deal.
Bizarre. It's reminiscent of "Hold it! The next man that makes a move, the ni**er gets it," with the Tories thinking the EU will say "Hold it men, he's not bluffing!"
Apt reference – Blazing Saddles a favourite movie.
Meant to add – Boris has no bargaining position.
Sorry, I must be missing something. Brexit, the actuality, is easy. It's keep everything as close to as it was. Sure over time drift will be work through. The hard part was the backstop, and border fees. Brexit is as business as usual is everyones goal. Boris cant do that, its becuase he wants to not achieve the normal business. why does he need a bargaining position, he was elected to get it done, do it already.
Boris has all the bargaining power… leave on my terms, or we'll hard Brexit.
People are under the impression that a hard Brexit leaves Great Britain in a void; it doesn't. They just revert to WTO rules, and keep calm and carry on.
Trade potential outside the EU is greater than on the inside, and with less restrictions.
About the efficacy of the WTO ……… https://www.dw.com/en/world-trade-organization-in-trouble-what-you-need-to-know/a-51592575
The EU is a bit tired of Boris's shenanigans. A no deal Brexit isn't alarming to them, and Boris's crude grasp of negotiation is on a par with Muldoon's squid pro quo – achieves nothing but creates lasting distaste.
The next election should be a shoe-in for the Left – after Boris Attila the Hun would look good.
Nosher Powell as Brit PM in Eat the Rich knocks the Israeli and Palestinian guys heads together "now shake hands", that's pretty much what the right wingers are cheering.
Yes, I can picture the coming scenario:
Ordinary citizen gets interviewed in street by TV reporter:
"If I'd known what Boris Johnson was really like I wouldn't have voted for him"
Repeated ad nauseam around the country.
He'll be on his best behaviour for a while but leopards etc….
I think Boris is something special – not just a cross between a polar bear and an unmade bed. The Poms turned out on the streets to oust Thatcher, they can do as much for Boris.
Thatcher won 3 elections. Her poll tax was a disaster, but it was after she had been in office for 10 years. Even then, once she was gone, Major won in 1994.
I expect that Boris will win the next election, but not the one after that. In fact he might not even stand. So expect two terms for Boris, say 8 to 10 years.
Those who think he will be an easy beat have already forgotten how well he did as London’s Mayor. Two substantial wins.
Thatcher had her shit together much more than Boris, Wayne. One need not even dig to find evidence he wasn't coping either as foreign minister or PM. The man hasn't changed – like Bridges, short of divine intervention there is nothing to keep him in power.
He'll've been stabbed by an enraged husband before then Wayknee.
So notorious leftist Nigel Latta accuses the Nat leader of using trumpism. Simon accuses Nigel of being foreign. At least he didn't say immigrant.
"The problem is after 9 years you delivered a health system in disrepair, a housing crisis, a shameful record on mental health etc etc. You can't just keep pretending all the problems started in the last 2 years. They're just getting started cleaning it all up. Also, I'm a kiwi."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12294626
The corporate hacks running TVNZ will be spluttering in their coffee this morning. Nigel may get relegated to TV3.
That is what TV3 should do to help get out of it's current doldrums:
hire all the well known commentators and celebrities who are not afraid to stand up and tell the truth and have been sidelined by the Nat. apologists in the media. Word would soon get around and before long their audience would be back again.
Takes time and resources to go from tabloid shock jock gooner/richo/paddy to a more integrity based approach and you assume the private equity owners give a toss.
Remember the treatment JC and others got by dropping Weldon in ? Leopards and spots.
Notorious leftist?
Simon says. "Deep left". Think of it as a reputation-building saga. Alternatively, Nigel may be outing himself as a career move. Join the Greens, Nigel!
National running Trumpian 'evil left' lines. Not that they haven't before, but the context is different now.
Key's, "Devil Beast" (Labour Party) is pretty hard to beat.
lol, I didn't know about that one.
How've you been Robert? Haven't seen you around much lately.
Key said it in the House. I was watching at the time. He was testing the waters. It will be used.
I've been fully engaged, weka. There's a lot happening at grassroot/flaxroot level, around agriculture and local body politics. I've never seen so much cooperation between science, First Peoples, those with reddened necks and townies. The pot's being stirred and a very pleasing colour is emerging
We talk about tipping points; we've just passed a few of them. Boris and Donald leave me completely uninterested; they are not on the crest of the wave. I read what's happening here (skim more) and am waiting…political animals might be the last to see it, who knows Presently, I'm decluttering like never before; it's amazing what I casually held to be significant,. when in fact, it isn't; many trips to the Op shops, only this time giving, not taking
My Christmas reading? (I know you didn't ask) "Thus spake the plant" Monica Gagliani. Best Watch? The forest garden
Too many smiley faces but that's how I feel.
Love the good news report, thank-you!!
I'm decluttering too, and it feels different now, not so much a personal shedding of stuff (although that helps) but a clearing away of the unnecessary so my energy can be best focused on what really matters.
Today I'm watching a recent vid from Rupert Read who is talking about the importance of what we feel in response to CC, and how that affects what we do. A nice counterpoint to the jabby, in your face approach of Hallam (which I am torn about. My mind says his way is problematic, my body is cheering him on).
I have a post nearly done about the Country Calendar episode on the inspiring couple now landsharing the Fitzsimons' farm. It interests me that it is still easier to write the more mainstream argy-bargy political posts than the solutions-focused ones, and your comment about what political animals might be missing seems pertinent, will think on that.
Thanks for the headups about the Keyism.
You're welcome, weka. I watched the Country Calendar "Fitzsimons" programme a while back… very good and the young man now writes for NZGardener, as I do. He and his partner work hard and dig deep; I'm not a digger so our philosophies differ somewhat…I have a friend, Lily, who interns at Pakaraka and who visited us here in Riverton recently. In fact, she's the daughter of an old friend… placing me on the dog-eared side of the ledger, I reckon That said, Harry probably thinks of me (if he ever thinks of me) as a young upstart
I love the good news report too – need similar progress in Westland!
It's coming, Matiri, like the swelling tide!
I loved seeing the bits of Jeanette and Harry's stories in there too, and so impressed that they made the landsharing work.
Yes, different philosophies. This example seems easy enough to present to the mainstream as 'workable' in conventional terms.
The Kono test may even be relevant to politics.
"Does it spark joy?"
This, to me, is funny:
https://www.facebook.com/PsychedelicClassWarfare/photos/a.1445885175735052/2486869891636570/?type=3&theater
Origin: "On November 15, 1964, the Chronicle printed the story, quoting Weinberg as saying "We have a saying in the movement that you can't trust anybody over 30.""
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Weinberg
Logan's Run (21 or 28, take your pick).
Love it Nigel. About time someone said it and said it strongly
Danyl McLaughlin explains why bullshit is winning with your help: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/18-12-2019/in-the-attention-economy-bullshit-wins-and-youre-helping-shovel-it-along/
So here's the guts: "the upper middle-class cliques of journalists, academics, artists, intellectuals and activists (Thomas Piketty refers to it as “The Brahmin Left”, reflecting its 21st century transformation into a priestly caste primarily concerned with moral transgressions). They form the leadership and core constituency of leftwing political parties, and they still attempt to play a gatekeeper role around political debate. But instead of policing the window of debate – pretending to impartial objectivity while excluding what it feels should or cannot be said – it amplifies messages it believes lie outside the bounds of acceptability. The ruthless logic of the Attention Economy rules progressive online and media spaces; everyone competes for attention by demonstrating their moral and intellectual superiority, so any and every public statement that breaches progressive taboos or activates this class’s (very acute) sense of threat can easily earn massive media coverage."
"The incentive structure here is terrible. The worst ideas and most deceitful statements are often the most amplified and therefore the most successful. The sustained moral panic about “fake news” (but only on the right), incentivises the manufacture of fake news." So outraged liberals operate as a disinformation gang. Well, they have to, don't they? Rightists do it, so leftists must copy. Democracy was designed to be symmetric.
So the dreadful messages to the threatened become the food for Right wing panic and control.
Not sure (from that summary) hes grasped exactly the main point of the argument Piketty (esp) is advancing…essentially it is a lack of representation of the disenfranchised by both left and right(although the right are not expected to) and the resulting disengagement.
"With the major parties on both sides of the political spectrum becoming captured by elites, it’s no wonder so many voters feel unrepresented. A 2016 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that more than six in ten Americans don’t feel that their views are being represented by either of the major political parties. A separate poll by Quinnipiac University found that 76 percent of Americans agree with the statement “Public officials don’t care much what people like me think.”
"None of the above two options seems likely to lead to a reduction in inequality, renew voters’ trust that democracy can address their problems, or overcome nativist sentiments. However, Piketty proposes a third possible trajectory, one in which left-wing parties (or nativist parties, though this is less than likely) return to their long-abandoned class-based politics and adopt a powerful progressive agenda focused on reducing inequality through redistribution. Without such an agenda, he argues, politicians would find it difficult to unite low-income, low-education voters and build a wide enough coalition able to counter inequality."
https://promarket.org/democracy-fails-reduce-inequality-blame-brahmin-left/
Good point, but the conclusion evident from those polls is that representative democracy is no longer fit for purpose. Piketty doesn't get that. I lack his faith in a return to class-based politics and wonder why he has that faith when everyone else has lost it. People mostly nowadays don't identify with a class. Identity politics took over.
Its no longer fit for purpose IN IT'S CURRENT FORM'….a point Piketty recognises and advances a solution.
There is a choice for the elites…they can give up a little or risk it all…currently they are employing a successful strategy and appear confident theres no need to give ground….like a sharemarket bull run they think they can pick the time to get out before the crash….we know how that works out.
DF Identity politics 'masked' the other matters, pushed them to the side, but class is still there only more anxious as everybody else seems to push ahead in the queue. We're still here, and we are getting really brassed off say those waiting with what they feel are the legitimate claims to be fairly heard and considered.
hey Pat,they are clever,however…they have identified NZ 'Godzone' as an appealing bolthole.
That's ..'insurance'.
It would seem so….and one 'they' actively advocate for the continuation of neo liberalism within….essentially a 'replacement policy'
People mostly nowadays don't identify with a class.
A middle class assumption – those impoverished by the unfortunate neoliberal experiment are acutely aware of the ground they have lost.
I vaguely recall reading social science research results that established it as fact, but dunno where I saw that. I agree that those made losers by the left/right collusion have a valid grievance. But I don't believe class-based political action has been produced as a result. If it had, we'd see Marxists trumpeting it as evidence that Marxism remains viable.
Marxism is a method of analysis of socio-economics, so of course is still 'viable'.
Is there any subject that you're unwilling to pontificate about?
I'm not an aspiring pontiff. Marxism is actually a belief system, incredible though that may seem. If you peer determinedly into acadaemia you may discern a small priesthood there that uses the label for economic analysis, but since most political commentators nowadays agree that economists are mostly too divorced from reality to be politically relevant, so what?
Perhaps not. But:
And to your assertion:
as I already stated:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism
Hey, why not demonstrate it's relevance to politics today? I'm all for identifying principles that tend towards universality. I accept residual class divisions exist – I just see no evidence that they produce political behaviour. What we seem to be getting nowadays is a resurgence of tribalism & nationalism.
I began to expect the left to bring their intellectual analysis up to speed in the early seventies. I agreed with Jeanette Fitzsimons that focus on the common good was the way to go & said so when necessary. Marx is all about being partisan. Holism is the opposite to the myopic focus on parts!
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
We need Marx's analysis more than ever, it is essential to understand why the neo-liberal lefts' appeal to identity over circumstances is so unpopular with those traditional left wing constituents, workers. Unions, and therefore class consciousness, have been successfully undermined by capital and regulatory capture since the mid 20th Century.
Democracy at Work is an organisation that 'analyzes capitalism critically as a systemic problem and advocates for democratizing workplaces as part of a systemic solution. We seek a stronger, fuller democracy – in our politics and culture as well as in our economy – based on workers’ equal collaboration and shared leadership inside enterprises and throughout society.'
This worker centred politics is precisely the type of Marxism that is producing the kind of 'political behaviour' that is needed to provide a real left alternative to the neolib/neocon consensus.
Tweedle dee and tweedle dum…democracy means people have a choice…so ostensibly give them one.
Perception always trumps ..reality.
Yes, I always advocated more democracy at work along with profit-sharing. https://www.equaltimes.org/ownership-should-not-equal-control
Eventually I realised that businesses originated by employee/owner/operators was the way to go. Mondragon being the historical model. So why don't workers head down that road? Marxism doesn't tell us.
Because they have been disempowered by capital and are 'represented' by a Labour party that has swung towards the right since 1984.
There are whole generations of workers who have never known the power in a vibrant Labour movement, how can they conceive of something that so many 'on the left' say is impossible? They have been told There Is No Alternative to the status quo.
Marx explicitly says that capital will do whatever it can to undermine worker power. In fact he actually underestimated how successful capital would be at that, thanks, in no small part, to 'left' politicians.
Marx's analysis was pretty good, problem was only that his solutions were a bit heroic.
It's not necessary to put the righties against the wall, only to make them pay their way. They will feel like Smaug losing his treasure anyway.
True. The Greens adopted the principle of true-cost accounting. I've never seen Labour adopt it. Plus Marxists always seemed to get lost in analysis, as if it were a swamp they were exploring and couldn't extricate themselves from. Solutions require moving out of analysis into synthesis.
One of my enduring grievances against postmodernism that – it can't produce synthesis. We're overdue for new one, and this one needs to bring in ecology and I think tikanga as well as the classical virtues brought together by the bloke who taught Smith & Hume.
Rousseau? https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691177014/the-infidel-and-the-professor
"If Smith was the ultimate establishment figure, Hume was the ultimate subversive." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/business/dealbook/infidel-professor-adam-smith-david-hume.html
"It was not just in their lifetimes that Hume’s renown outstripped Smith’s. Hume’s continuing impact on individual thinkers and broader fields of study is truly breathtaking. Kant, Darwin and Einstein (who credited him with inspiration for relativity theory) is a short list of great minds deeply influenced by Hume. And, in addition to the effect of his thought on economics, he is considered by some to be the father of modern cognitive science."
"What was a source of both shock and fury was a letter appended to every edition of the work from Adam Smith, describing the “cheerfulness and equanimity” of his dear friend’s final days. Even more infuriating was Smith’s overall conclusion that Hume approached “as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit.”"
"Smith had spent his life and career avoiding the kind of controversy and offense that Hume had reveled in. By associating his name and reputation with such a strong defense of Hume’s moral character, Smith risked not only his social and professional standing, but the fortunes of his long-gestating masterpiece, “The Wealth of Nations,” which had just finally been published."
Great stuff, which I'd never come across, thanks for the tip!!
The bloke who taught both Smith and Hume was Hutcheson – a fellow who produced a neoclassical synthesis arguably superior to Kant' s, and whose influence ultimately ended slavery first in England and later in the US – he was a major figure in the Scottish renaissance.
Not so much heroic as completely irrefutable and untestable. Which is why every communist says communism has never been tried: the states that called themselves communist were just verious stages of dictatorship of the proletariat that failed to achieve true communism.
Great analyses of the flaws of unrestrained capitalism, bunk predictions for "where to from here".
Key point that untestable – it was that flaw that led Popper to his breakthrough.
Smith and Hume sounds a bit dry. It's near Christmas – here is a bit of fun with Brexit in mind, Smith and Jones are in the planning stages.
Ah, clearly someone with insight into human nature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Hutcheson_(philosopher)
"in various parts of his works, he specifies, besides the five external senses commonly recognized :
Of these "senses," the "moral sense" plays the most important part in Hutcheson's ethical system."
I wonder if #6 refers to a sense of humour or a sense of disbelief. I think #3 refers to empathy. I also wonder why he features #4 & #5 as separate – they seem different aspects of the same ethical sense to me. Reputation, which is integral to politics, is diminished by shame. Morality is communal, whereas ethical conduct is personal.
It's a shame more of his writing isn't readily accessible. The Smith of the Theory of Moral Sentiments owed much to him, and that book was amazingly influential – referenced in the title of Sense And Sensibility and in Burke' s Reflections on the Revolution in France just off the top of my head.
I ran across Hutcheson in a book modestly called How the Scots Invented the Modern World and Everything in it.
Stuart Munro lol about the Scots. I note that Hutcheson was one of that lot himself.
I'm a bit simple-minded but have a slow but steady consciousness growing. The more I hear and see of them, the more I think that title holds water.
It almost sounds like you are channelling Margaret Thatcher: there’s no such thing as class.
Representative democracy is no longer being practised, I think you mean, franko.
Danyl is a pompous middle class blowhard whose chief talent consists of effortlessly absorbing right wing talking points then regurgitating them like he just thought them up himself.
Gosh, it's almost as if he might pontificate. Back when I was commenting on his blog he seemed to be Green. Well, in an urban liberal young person kind of way, I mean. In the old days we called it pale green.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/118199873/time-to-hold-individuals-to-account-for-council-effluent-spills-say-unlikely-allies
Mike Joy and fed farmers singing from the same sheet !!!!
Time to fine individual councillors and people at the top of waste water outfits.
Seems right to me.
"Allen believed elected councillors should be the individuals held responsible."
Come the next local body elections, no one put their hand up…
All care ( we wish) no responsibility a RG.
Must be a cushy ticket.
Pretty standard behaviour from those on the tax payers dime.
Most, like getting on for all, wastewater spills around Queenstown are the result of someone flushing their undies down the loo, wet wipes are pretty good at bunging up the pumps too. Tourists get “Delhi belly” in New Zealand just as much as we do overseas, with the same consequences. And from time in other councils the cause was the same, just less frequent. Where’s the elected responsibility there. You can’t do much about stopping nickers from wrapping around sewage pumps.
Sir Ron Brierley reportedly arrested on child pornography charges.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/12/sir-ron-brierley-reportedly-arrested-on-child-pornography-charges.html
At 82 years old, you'd think he'd have better things to do. "The Daily Telegraph says police allegedly found child abuse images on his laptop and other electronic devices in his carry-on luggage. NSW Police said they charged an 82-year-old man with six counts relating to possession of child abuse images, and they will next appear in court on 10 February 2020." https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/405755/sir-ron-brierley-charged-with-alleged-possession-of-child-abuse-material-australia-media
Oh, he does actually have better things to do: "The multi-millionaire has been the director of a number of companies across Australia, New Zealand and the UK – and is a well-known stamp collector." Counting his stamps, and counting his money, apparently doesn't keep him busy enough…
'I was just looking Your Honour.' It is a physical example of a sick mind. What about the other people with the same sort of mind, who haven't got images about their person?
Arresting people for images is bottom of cliff stuff. Make him reveal all his connections, and give him some shock therapy, even if it just is sitting on an electrified whoopee cushion – that would give him some excitement, the old goat.
And of course fine him 1 million dollars, to be spent on helping people caught in poverty to learn a skill so they wouldn't have to sell their or their children's bodies to make a living.
I agree with weka.
"The multi-millionaire is well-known as a corporate raider "
Sounds legit…
if found guilty, justice here would be seizing his assets and putting them into a fund to support victims of child abuse over the course of their lives.
From the RNZ piece,
Is the subtext there that there was a group of people in one geographical area sharing materials? Or making them?
Apparently a tip off.
Worth a read
https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-people-who-lost-the-election-for-british-labour-hate-the-working-class-20191217-p53kq3.html
Looking at Scott GNs link above. This is telling it like it is I think. What do others say?
These are not privileged white men. They were the ones that emptied your garbage, dealt with your sewerage, built your machines, dug in dangerous mines, grew your food, lived hard but proud lives and had the privilege of fighting and dying on the frontline whenever we called a war.
On the other side of the divide are the city-based knowledge industry workers who are enjoying all the benefits of free-trade and the free movement of immigrants without having to bother with any of the downsides.
This divide was something the British Labour Party, with its deep roots in working communities, should have been able to recognise. Its historic project is to defend working people, so it should have pitched its tent with them and sought to address their very real concerns. And at their heart was a scream of rage against imperious, unreachable EU bureaucrats and a fear that the free movement of labour was an existential threat.
Indeed. "In August last year The Observer trumpeted that “more than 100 Westminster constituencies that voted to leave the EU have now switched to Remain, according to stark new analysis”. “The trend is starkest in the north of England and Wales – Labour heartlands in which Brexit sentiment appears to be changing.”
Yet the election result proved this analysis wrong. "A couple of paragraphs on we learned from where this world-class analysis had sprung. “The study was jointly commissioned by Best for Britain, which is campaigning against Brexit, and the anti-racist Hope Not Hate group.”
"This single sentence neatly sums up everything that is wrong with loud, self-basting “progressive” insiders. It was propaganda masquerading as research that should have been punted to the kerb by the Sunday sister of The Guardian, a newspaper which published some brilliant work on the seething anger growing in working class communities in the UK prior to the Brexit vote."
"The participation of Hope Not Hate in the exercise was a nod towards the suspicion that everyone who voted Leave was also probably a racist, because they railed against EU rules which allow the free movement of labour. Whenever working-class outsiders complain about how an immigration or economic policy blights their lives the response of the enlightened insiders is to brand them either “racist” or “stupid”."
Leftists calling their electoral support base names aren't really enlightened. Enlightenment doesn't produce abuse. Nor is the abuse progressive. Regressive, actually.
God every threatened centrist is lining up to hit the pinata.
On the mark though eh? All those liberal Remainer elites in London started believing their own spin.
" You showed us a kinder, gentler politics, and stood strong for what is true and right. That’s what they hated you for. But that’s entirely why we stood with you and stand with you still "
Thank you, Jeremy Corbyn.
https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2019/12/13/thank-you-jeremy-corbyn/
He would have fucked the UK economy and significantly reduced the overall standard of living – "kinder, gentler" my arse.
……says someone who is obviously not an informed economist, like those who came to the contrary conclusion after assessing the numbers.
His own MPs have described his policies as economically illiterate.
You may not care for my view but when his own people are saying that, well…….
I think you will find that the vast majority of economists concluded that his policies were a recipe for disaster.
You mean the Blairites in the party.
Report out about the allegations of serious assault within the Labour Party:
That is good news.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12294999
Edit “”The investigation also found that [she] and the respondent had been in a consensual personal relationship for some eight months by February 2018.”
Ta for the link. Brief RNZ story: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/405772/sexual-assault-allegations-against-ex-labour-staffer-not-established
How is this good news?
It confirms that the party's view of the matter was correct. I agree it is not good news, it is a tragedy for all concerned. But it shows that National's attacks were despicable.
Agreed Micky; Bennett's attacks in particular were disgusting and unfounded.
Haworth took one for the team.
If Haworth had been doing his job properly Bennett wouldn’t have had any material on which to base her attacks. Thank God we have Claire Szabo running the party now.
But what does Paula Bennett reckon?
I reckon we'll get her reckons on the 6pm news.
Something stinks here. the complainant worked for the Labour Party. Her actions finished two senior LP officials careers, slandered the victim, essentially laid false sexual assault charges, smeared Jacinda Ardern for not firing people on trumped up charges, cost the LP a lot of money and hard won reputation, and lied to investigators and went to whom? Paula Bloody Bennett.
This is Dirty Politics orchestrated by possibly PB and even people on this site fell for it. It stunk to high heaven right from the start and one of the worst aspects was that those who urged caution and to wait for the facts were pilloried.
Well, no, technically their own actions finished those two careers. And the inaction of one of those guys led to the complainant going to Bennett.
Bullshit, they knew the complaint was false all along. When you start saying it was a mans fault for being the victim of a false sexual assault claim then you on a pretty slippery slope.
… a false sexual assault claim …
The inability of a non-Police investigation to substantiate a claim of sexual assault doesn't make that claim "false." I shouldn't have to explain this because it's glaringly obvious, so why have you made it necessary to explain it?
I'd believe a Q.C in these circumstances over the Police any day.
And as for “inaction” if they had come out saying there was nothing to see here, they would have been crucified by everybody from you to Paula Bennett who has got blood all over her hands. Liars can’t tell when others are lying.
[You set a high hurdle with your assertions, especially about the allegations of the complainant being a liar from the outset. This is not a simple he-says-she-says situation, it is complex and sensitive. For some guidance, see Weka’s comment: https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-18-12-2019/#comment-1674402. In the meantime, please tone down your language and provide robust evidence to support your allegations – Incognito]
OK, now it's a little clearer why I'm having to explain the obvious. Let's make it really simple for you: the fact a woman can't prove that a sexual assault occurred means exactly that – she can't prove it happened. We as non-participants can't be certain it happened or didn't happen.
And that includes you. You can't be sure whether it happened or not either. So lay off the "false sexual assault claim" bullshit, it's libelous and I'm surprised the moderators let you away with it.
See my Moderation note @ 7:26 PM.
But McFlock, there was no support for the complaint. It didn't happen. So what was the inaction of those guys?
The ‘inaction of those guys’ was allowing the situation to deteriorate to the point where Ardern had to spend a week and precious political capital mopping up after after the hapless party admins. Have you forgotten the way some in the Press Gallery were openly suggesting she was lying about what she knew? And Garner et al speculating that she might have to resign over it? If the party had been doing its job properly things would never have got to that point.
They did nothing about his
bullyingsoz “aggressive and overbearing” conduct .They failed to properly investigate the complaint.
They failed to formally document the process they followed when the complaint was made.
They failed to properly document communications with the complainant, leading to the farce of trying to individually prove a negative.
They failed to properly acknowledge the communications they did receive, which would have led to a clear conclusion to the email discussion.
Most importantly: they failed to learn from the Young Labour incident.
lol and some people think I'm a government apologist: I'd have to pull some serious overtime to get this bad…
https://twitter.com/gingerandmilo/status/1206781437657014272
Heh, JC's reply.
Can't ever remember a time when John Campbell did not do pieces on poverty. I guess Bonesy did not watch TV or listen to radio.
Bonesy got a bonesy head.
"chugging along"
And yes climate destructive industry in Australia keeps right on chugging along
https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/senator-matthew-canavan-cops-backlash-over-tone-deaf-tweet-during-bushfires/news-story/2efed2488ee3660cc6b556e9eb7ca75e
Have a nice day "Incognito". What happened to lprent ?
Thanks and you too.
I’d suspect Lynn is jet-lagged still. Do you miss him?
Yep, he had a good sense of humor.
You’ll be happy then to see Lynn’s returned to the land of the living 😉
Kia Ora Breakfast.
I think some people will back the law of the land from the other side.
A $50 carbon tax is a great start for Aotearoa moving to a carbon neutral society.
Happy Christmas to you all.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
Condolences to the 2 fire fighter whanau who were lost to the Australian Bush fires.
Flooding in Peru that is going to be the new norm.
With all the air travelers numbers boosting the faster we get electric planes the better.
I have heard that spray novavane was bad stuff let’s ban the crap
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Play grounds for disabled tamariki is cool my mokopuna aroha the playgrounds.
Cool that Taramaki Makaru marae helping distributors of Kai donated for the poor people.
Yes some want to highlight the bad stuff about Maori and not talk about the positive things Awsome. the crossfit seen is growing fast my tama are into that.
Great Waiata.
Ka kite Ano.
We need more of our Rangatahi to run for Council some of these councilors have been on the council for many decades. I also think more Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa should run for Council we understand that with out a good environment we will not have good lives. These neanderthal are stuck in the past take there votes a push them out.
Tairawhiti Youth Environment group members Haylee Law and Sumita Singh presented the petition to councillors with a plea for them to respect the wishes of the 1200 people who had signed it.
There were tears in the Gisborne council chambers on Thursday morning as councillors stopped short of declaring a climate emergency despite an impassioned plea from local school students.
The chambers were packed with about 40 members of the public – young and old – as the Tairawhiti Youth Environment group delivered a petition calling for the council to make a climate emergency declaration following its decision in June not to do so.
"It's just tragic," said one man as he stormed out of the chambers while councillors debated the relevance to Tairawhiti of declaring a climate emergency.
"I can't listen to this stuff any more," he said. Ka kite Ano link below
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-democracy-reporting/118374657/climate-plea-students-vow-to-fight-councils-refusal-to-declare-emergency
Kia Ora Newshub.
That's a good invention a device that continuing monitoring glucose levels for people with diabetes 1/3 the cost of other devices.
Awsome the Dutch government has been sued into lowering their greenhouse gas emissions times are changing.
That's is cool a house boat built in Auckland %25 of the cost one on whenua.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Happy Christmas Whanau.
Remember the system is bent keep out of trouble and go to Church.
Ka kite Ano.
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Kia Ora Newshub.
You have to respect Tangaroa and make sure you Waka is safe.
Let's hope not to much of that stuff leaks out of Wellington.
That's a dumb law.
I have just seen The Mclarn movie. It's the new age electric cars it's good to see Mclarn is starting
to building electric cars.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Kai Moana is very expensive now days I will have to go to the whare whenua and have a dive to get a good Kai.
I say that making Te reo composery for Māori students is needed to stop Te reo from being lost to our books.
Ka kite Ano.