Archive for March, 2011

Unemployment tsunami hits Chch

Written By: - Date published: 12:12 pm, March 5th, 2011 - 28 comments

3065 people have already claimed the special benefit for people left unemployed due to the Christchurch earthquake. Once that payment expires in a few weeks they’ll be on the dole, if they’re eligible. The quake killed and did physical damage in seconds but, without action, it will keep strangling the economy and taking jobs for […]

Another poll

Written By: - Date published: 7:34 am, March 5th, 2011 - 90 comments

Another Roy Morgan poll is out, and the results make for interesting reading.

Botany by-election

Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, March 5th, 2011 - 54 comments

For obvious reasons the Botany by-election has received very little attention on this blog, or anywhere else in the media.  Some are calling it “the byelection everyone forgot”.

Open mike 05/03/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 5th, 2011 - 34 comments

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

You know you’re from Christchurch when…

Written By: - Date published: 1:36 pm, March 4th, 2011 - 67 comments

Sometimes black humour is the only way to cope. These are doing the rounds…

Truly Stranded

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, March 4th, 2011 - 21 comments

One of the names that the self-inflated blogs who consider themselves to be the “taste police” give us is the unimaginative juvenile name of The Stranded. Typically this is when they are writing a silly post trying to tell us why we should think like them (I guess everyone is entitled to a unrealistic dream). Anyway I thought I’d give them some real bad taste to moan about in a Friday Fun post (warning – written in the Cactus Kate style).

Recovery phase

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, March 4th, 2011 - 5 comments

I know that the thoughts of the whole country are with those in Christchurch, especially the family and friends of the dead and missing.  And the thanks of the whole country are with the rescue teams and other workers, who have done everything humanly possible in very dangerous circumstances.  Thank you all.

Football news

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, March 4th, 2011 - 71 comments

New Zealand has won the rights to host the U20 Football World Cup in 2015.

Farrar illustrates WfF folly

Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, March 4th, 2011 - 46 comments

John Key has tidied up the confusion he caused yesterday and says that the quakes will cost the government $5 billion in rebuilding and $5 billion in lost revenue over the next 4 years. Big bikkies but easily covered by an emergency levy and canning the white elephant motorways. So, why are the Nats obsessed with tinkering with Working for Families?

Open mike 04/03/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 4th, 2011 - 91 comments

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

Lhaws’ lhabours lhost

Written By: - Date published: 12:14 am, March 4th, 2011 - 101 comments

Michael Lhaws has done more to hurt ethnic relations in this country than, arguably, anyone else in the past decade. He chose the most racially divided city in the land and cynically exploited those divisions to get the attention his pathetic ego craves. Now, one of his greatest ‘achievements’ has been ruled illegal.

Key: quakes to cost 125,000 jobs

Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, March 3rd, 2011 - 70 comments

We’ve heard figures of $20 billion damage from the Christchurch quakes, $5 billion uninsured for the government to cover. Now, Key has given an estimate of the lost economic output this year – $12 billion, 6% of GDP. He says that will mean $5 billion less government revenue – a hole the size of the defence and law and order budgets combined. updated

Anarchy to the rescue in Chch

Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, March 3rd, 2011 - 62 comments

Farrar says it’s ‘ghastly’ to discuss how to pay for rebuilding Christchurch, since the obvious answer is by reversing the tax cuts rich people like him have pocketed. Well, I think how the poor eastern suburbs of Christchurch have been ignored is ghastly. Fortunately, resilient communities are organising themselves, without government.

Drinking Liberally – Dunedin

Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, March 3rd, 2011 - 7 comments

The first Drinking Liberally for 2011 is to be held in Dunedin. Pete Hodgson Thursday March 3rd 7:30pm Circadian Rhythm (72 St Andrew Street) The speaker is Pete Hodgson MP for Dunedin North, giving a wrap on his time in the house and perhaps some insight into what election year has in store…

Christchurch rentals

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, March 3rd, 2011 - 47 comments

As the long haul gets under way in Christchurch there are going to be many flash points for conflict. One of the first to emerge is the tension between landlords and tenants, as the following selection of articles makes clear.

Open mike 03/03/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 3rd, 2011 - 69 comments

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

English on Working for Families

Written By: - Date published: 9:34 pm, March 2nd, 2011 - 81 comments

English on Working for Families cuts: “around 1,000 families earning over $100,000 receive WFF, and payments to those families total only $1.1 million …  Taking higher-income families out of WFF saves very little money …
In this uncertain economic climate, we want to give all families certainty about their incomes”

Christchurch Quake — More action needed in Eastern Suburbs right now

Written By: - Date published: 4:21 pm, March 2nd, 2011 - 53 comments

It’s 2am and, like many people in Christchurch, I am not sleeping too well just now. But at least we now have power, so I can use the time productively. My personal history of the past week will have to wait. It may be interesting to some, but it’s not important right now. What’s important is what is is NOT happening adequately in the acute post-quake period, because the official response is dwarfed by the size of the problem.

Powerless

Written By: - Date published: 1:56 pm, March 2nd, 2011 - 61 comments

The man tipped to be National’s next leader, Simon Power, has announced he will not be standing at the next election. The reasons are obvious. As a decent man and an old fashioned caring Tory, Power has no heart for the direction National want to take New Zealand. His resignation is a sign that within the party, the dry right have finally taken total control the idealogical reigns and there is no longer a place for liberal wets like Power.

Shock Retirement

Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, March 2nd, 2011 - 37 comments

Simon Power is not going to stand for re-election in November.

The knife edge

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, March 2nd, 2011 - 43 comments

To get enough oil for global demand requires expensive technologies, and expending more energy. If the price is too low those investments won’t be feasible, meaning not enough production. But too high and the world can’t afford it and we enter global recession. The ‘goldilocks’ in the middle is shrinking, to a knife edge. It’s the same story with food and metals.

The art of political prediction

Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, March 2nd, 2011 - 21 comments

Make enough predictions and some of them will turn out to be true.  Here are two fine examples of the art of political prediction which reach completely opposite conclusions.  Take your pick…

Open mike 02/03/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 2nd, 2011 - 59 comments

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

The Shock Doctrine

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 pm, March 1st, 2011 - 147 comments

I’m really pissed off that politics has come into the Christchurch earthquake so quickly. But make no mistake, the Nats are pursuing a strongly ideological agenda. They’re using the quake as cover for radically cutting important policies and making other extreme decisions, while preserving the tax cuts for the rich. It’s called the Shock Doctrine.

No-fly zone for Libya

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, March 1st, 2011 - 43 comments

NATO leaders are discussing a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent the crumbling Gaddafi regime bombing and strafing protesters. Gaddafi’s loyalists are tied up keeping Tripoli under control, and the opposition is preparing to send in troops. Meanwhile, the big question elsewhere in the Arab world is what will happen on Saudi Arabia’s March 11, ‘Day of Rage’?

Govt must lead Chch rebuild

Written By: - Date published: 12:20 pm, March 1st, 2011 - 44 comments

The government’s wage subsidy and universal redundancy for quake-affected workers is a start. But with 750 red-stickered buildings in the CBD alone and 200+ jobs already lost, it is just a start. The private sector won’t rebuild without demand, that will have to be supplied by the government upping its spending, and that needs to be paid for.

A Reassuring Rebuild: The Freiburg Parallel

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, March 1st, 2011 - 37 comments

Christchurch has been called “Victorian planning at its most remarkable”. It needs to be rebuilt in a style that retains or even amplifies as much of its formerly cosy, reassuring character as possible, for the sake of the tourism industry, the locals, and its cultural legacy. Germany’s Freiburg is a useful example of restoring a city to former glory.

Quarter of a million comments soon

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, March 1st, 2011 - 50 comments

As of Tuesday morning, we have had about 249,250 comments since The Standard launched three and a half years ago. We’re averaging a 317 comments a day since New Year’s. Although politics has rightly cooled in the past week due to the quake, the quarter of a million mark should still be reached on Thursday. Who will be the lucky commenter?

Two minutes silence

Written By: - Date published: 6:53 am, March 1st, 2011 - 25 comments

Today at 12:51 pm marks exactly one week since the earthquake struck, and probably around 300 people lost their lives.  PM John Key has called on the country to observe 2 minutes silence, starting at that time, to honour the victims of the quake.

Open mike 01/03/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, March 1st, 2011 - 52 comments

Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike…

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