Another 200 comments in the last hour (up to 3600 now).
You can always expect a few bad apples in government but it seems the whole damn apple cart is rotting
The local example I keep coming back to is the recent revelation that David Henderson, the Auckland property developer, paid a total of $17k tax over 17 years – less than a person on a minimum wage would have paid over that same time. And this is a guy who lived in penthouses and jet-setted around on a millionaires lifestyle and feted as a minor celebrity. That is just despicable when you think about the minimum wage factory worker who gets up at 5am and goes to work and contributes more to society than this guy.
Of course I know all the stats about how the bottom X% pay no net tax and the top Y% pay most net tax etc, and I know all about how the accounting works, and that this is just one example of many, and there are much worse examples etc etc etc, but this one really got me mad, and confirms that something is very corrupt and grossly unfair in the way we do things (regardless of who’s in power).
I guess we can only rejoice that even the right wing media are havingthe discussion. Are the old school conservatives prizing themselves away from the neo-liberals?
Only problem with this view is that this moral bankruptcy was there from the start. The original capitalist looting was the slave trade. Its nice that the descendants of the slaves are now revolting against the descendants of the old Etonian slave traders. But its true that capitalism today is manifestly morally bankrupt with no clothes and nowhere to hide except behind a baton, CS gas and tanks.
You are correct to identify the unearned wealth that was acquired through the slave trade but the original [British] capitalist looting took place before that when the colonists stole the [Native American] land to set up colonies; they found that the English ‘peasants’ they transported to the colomies died too quickly.
The moral bankruptcy commenced with the changing of interest on loans, and really took off when the money-lenders began creating loans out of thin air via fractioanl reserve banking.
I like that expression. Yes, the empire has no clothes and is hiding behind batons, CS and tanks.
As peak oil, population overshoot and unravelling of fiat currencies take their toll we must expect those who benefit the most from present arrangements to become ever more vicious in their use of ‘security forces’ the prevent a more equitable distribution of the ever-shrinking ‘cake’.
âThings got out of hand & weâd had a few drinks. We smashed the place up, and Boris set fire to the toilets.â
No, not the words of a looter, but of David Cameron about his fellow Bullingdon hooligan , the London Mayor, Boris Johnson in 1986.
HAHAHA ! Exactly⌠David and Boris are thugs too. Donât seem to see it mentioned anywhere in the press.
The young rioters are just a blue collar amateurish flock compared to the white collar organized professional syndicate of the filthy banksters, politicians in charge of the UK economy.
Morality comes from the example of those in charge. The kids CAN NOT be virtuous if the leaders are THUGS themselves and get away with it.
…………………………………….
The rejection of the ten commandments, moral absolutes and the gospel of Jesus Christ in our education system is coming back to bite us. What do we expect from this generation, or any other section of society, if we teach them that the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest reigns supreme. The New Age idea that we are all little gods precludes the imposition of any type of morality.
If it is not wrong to steal, why should these youths not take what they want from the people around them? Why shouldnât these bankers deal dishonestly with their clients and pocket whatever they can? Why shouldnât politicians fiddle their expenses?
If it is not wrong to kill why shouldnât the driver of that car plough into a crowd of people? Why shouldnât the futures marketeers cause the death of thousands by inflated food prices?
…………………………………………..
Letâs remember, this is in a country that has witnessed increasing dispossession of the masses over the past 30 years â something that is accelerating following the 2008 banking crisis? In this context, young people may very well become the neoliberal entrepreneurs that Max ironically alludes to. In form, their actions are not that different from those of the elite albeit at the âriskâ of pompous condemnation from the likes of posh twats like Cameron.
……………………………………………
.These neoliberal rioters are Thatcherâs legacy. She should be proud of herself.
the looters are also, in large part, doing what they are doing BECAUSE of the shit that has rolled down from the top. No opportunities, hope, future and more and more debt imposed upon them by the âstarsâ of the political and financial gangs.
LiKe Cameron’s days in the Bullingdon club the leader of the LIB DEMS has done some genteel property damage as have the young “rioters” some of whom are being sent to prison for quite trivial property offences but caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Cleggs criminal record! :
As a 16-year-old exchange student in Germany, Mr Clegg was convicted of arson and given a community service sentence after he and a friend set fire to two greenhouses of cacti belonging to a professor. He recalled the misdemeanour during the recent party conference.
A bit like when Boris set fire to the toilets on a Bullingdon rampage! EH CHAPPIES!
It is the height of hypocrisy to castigate Londonâs looters while simultaneously appeasing and coddling bank terrorists at Goldman, JP Morgan, HSBC, RBS, etc. Britainâs Got Riot Talent and hopefully many of these riot-preneurs will start hedge funds and investment banks and provide much needed competition. In other words, Cameron needs to decide if heâll continue to foster a UK economy driven by larceny in the banking sector â Or, try something else. Since he isnât doing anything about financial rape and apartheid in the the City, he should be aware that what goes around comes around.
I wonder what our banker leader think about all this?
Banker Fraud too big too sort out-and of corse they’re our chappies who cut us in on the lolly too, they deserve to get away with it-they have style and image.
UPDATE: Notice that due to PUBLIC wrath, the justice system is working overtime through the weekend to lock up rioters. The wheels of justice can move if the people demand it. So name me one single banker in London that has been arrested and tried for the fraud that saw TRILLIONS stolen from pension funds around the world? The fraud that directly caused the financial collapse that has resulted in millions losing their livelihood? London is THE beating heart of this global financial fraud, so why have none of those responsible been arrested? Why have the population not demanded their expenses-cheating politicians at least give us a whitewash inquiry? Even Lord Hutton will do! The fact is, however, that the British people are mindful of the fact that banker looting benefits them at the expense of hundreds of millions of other people around the world who have had their national wealth and sovereignty transferred to the safe haven of London. [News today: Russian banker steals billions and flees to . . . London, of course.]
More details about posh David Cameron’s Bullingdon Club
A little bit of Genteel rioting was quite acceptable at times old chap.
A number of episodes over many decades have become anecdotal evidence of the Club’s behaviour. Famously, on 12 May 1894 and again on 20 February 1927, after dinner, Bullingdon members smashed almost all the glass of the lights and 468 windows in Peckwater Quad of Christ Church, along with the blinds and doors of the building. As a result, the Club was banned from meeting within 15 miles of Oxford.
While still Prince of Wales, Edward VIII had a certain amount of difficulty in getting his parents’ permission to join the Bullingdon on account of the Club’s reputation. He eventually obtained it only on the understanding that he never join in what was then known as a “Bullingdon blind”, a euphemistic phrase for an evening of drink and song. On hearing of his eventual attendance at one such evening, Queen Mary sent him a telegram requesting that he remove his name from the Club.
Andrew Gimson, biographer of Boris Johnson, reported about the club in the 1980s: “I don’t think an evening would have ended without a restaurant being trashed and being paid for in full, very often in cash. A night in the cells would be regarded as being par for a Buller man and so would debagging* anyone who really attracted the irritation of the Buller men.”
Dinners in recent years, being relatively low key, have not attracted press attention, though in 2005, following damage to a 15th century pub in Oxfordshire during a dinner, four members of the party were arrested; the incident was widely reported. A further dinner was reported in 2010 after damage to a country house.
In the last few years the Bullingdon has been mentioned in the debates of the House of Commons in order to draw attention to excessive behaviour across the British class spectrum, and to embarrass those increasingly prominent MPs who are former members of the Bullingdon. These most notably include David Cameron (UK Prime Minister), George Osborne (UK Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Boris Johnson (Mayor of London). Hansard records eight references to the Bullingdon between 2001 and 2008.
*That’s a bunch of chaps ripping of the trousers of the offending party-“Teach you to be arty round real men!”
I thought this so meaningful I have copied all of it
Life In An Age Of Looting: “Some Will Rob You
With A Sixgun And Some With A Fountain Pen”
By Phil Rockstroh
12 August, 2011
Countercurrents.org
As the poor of Britain rise in a fury of inchoate rage and stock exchanges worldwide experience manic upswings and panicked swoons, the financial elite (and their political operatives) are arrayed in a defensive posture, even as they continue their global-wide, full-spectrum offensive vis-Ă -vie The Shock Doctrine. Concurrently, corporate mass media types fret over the reversal of fortune and trumpet the triumphs of the self-serving agendas of Wall Street and corporate swindlersâŚeven as they term a looter, in ill-gotten possession of a flat screen television, fleeing through the streets of North London, a mindless thug.
According to the through-the-looking-glass cosmology of mass media elitists, when a poor person commits a crime of opportunity, his actions are a threat to all we hold dear and sacred, but, when the hyper-wealthy of the entrenched looter class abscond with billions, those criminals are referred to as our financial leaders.
Regardless of the propaganda of “free market” fantasists, the great unspeakable in regard to capitalism is its wealth, by and large, is generated for a ruthless, privileged few by the creation of bubbles, and, when those bubbles burst, the resultant economic catastrophe inflicts a vastly disproportionate amount of harm upon those — the laboring and middle classes — who generate grossly inequitable amounts of capital for the elitist of the fraudster class…by having the life force drained from them by the vampiric set-up of the gamed system.
Woody Guthrie summed up the situation in these two (unfortunately) ageless stanzas:
“Yes, as through this world I’ve wandered
I’ve seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a sixgun,
And some with a fountain pen.
“And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won’t never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.”
–excerpt from Pretty Boy Floyd.
Although, at present, U.S. bank vaults contain little tangible loot for a Pretty Boy Floyd-type outlaw to boost. How would it be possible for an old school bank robber such as Floyd to make-off with a haul of funneling electrons?
Here’s the lowdown: The Wall Street fraudsters of the swindler class want to refill their coffers and line their pockets (that is, offshore accounts) with Social Security and Medicare funds. That’s the nature of the unfolding scam, folks. Oligarchic rule has always been a system defined by legalized looting that leaves a wasteland of want, deprivation, and unfocused rage in its wake.
Consequently, in the U.K. (and beyond): When poor people’s hopes dry up, cities become a tinderbox of dead dreams, and we should not be stricken with shock and consternation when these degraded places are set aflame, nor should we be surprised when the bribed, debt-beholden and commercial media propaganda-bamboozled middle class (who helped create the wasteland with their arid complicity) cry out (predictably) for police state tactics to quell the fiery insurrection.
There have been incidents in which a fire has smoldered for years in an abandoned, sealed-off mineshaft, and then the fire, traveling through the tunnels of the mine, and up the roots of dead, dried trees have caused a dying forest to bloom into flames. The rage that sparks a riot can proceed in a similar manner — and the insular, sealed-off nature of a nation’s elite and the willful ignorance of its middle class will only make the explosion of pent-up rage more powerful when it reaches the surface.
We exist in a culture that, day after day, inundates its have-nots with consumerist propaganda, and then, when the social order breaks down, its wealthy and bourgeoisie alike express outrage when the poor steal consumer goods — as opposed to going out and looting an education and a good job.
Under Disaster Capitalism, the underclass have had economic violence inflicted upon them since birth, yet the corporate state mass media doesn’t seem to notice the situation, until young men burn down the night. Then media elitists wax indignant, carrying on as if these desperate acts are devoid of cultural context.
A mindset has been instilled in these young men and boys that they are nothing sans the accoutrements of consumerism. Yet when they loot an i-Phone, as opposed to creating economy-shredding derivative scams, we’re prompted by the corporate media to become indignant.
When the slow motion, elitist-manipulated mob action known as our faux democratic/consumerist culture deprives people of their basic human rights and personal dignity — then, in turn, we should not be shocked when a mob of the underclass fails to bestow those virtues upon others.
The commercial mass media’s narrative of narrowed context (emotional, anecdotal and unreflective in nature) serves as a form of corporate state propaganda, promulgated to ensure the general population continues to rage against the symptoms rather than the disease of neoliberalism. The false framing of opposing opinions — of those who state the deprivations of neoliberalism factor into the causes of uprisings, insurrections and riots as being apologists for violence and destruction is as preposterous as claiming one is an apologist for dry rot when he points out structural damage to a house due to a leaking roof.
Because of the elements of inverted totalitarianism, inherent within the structure of corporate state capitalism, and internalized within the general population by constant, commercial media re-enforcement, one should not be surprised when a sizable portion of the general populace is inclined to support police state tactics to quell social unrest among the disadvantaged of the population.
Keep in mind: When watching the BBC or the corporate media, one is receiving a limited narrative (tacitly) approved by the global power elite, created by informal arrangements among a careerist cartel comprised of business, governmental and media personality types who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, even if, in doing so, they serve as operatives of a burgeoning police state.
Accordingly, you can’t debate fascist thinking with reason nor empathetic imagination e.g., the self-righteous (and self-serving) pronouncements of mass media representatives nor the attendant outrage of the denizens of the corporate state in their audience — their umbrage engineered by the emotionally laden images with which they have been relentlessly pummeled and plied — because their responses will be borne of (conveniently) lazy generalizations, given impetus by fear-based animus.
Through it all, veiled by disorienting media distractions and political legerdemain, we find ourselves buffeted and bound by the predicament of paradigm lostâŚthat constitutes the onset of the unraveling of the present order.
“The kings of the world are growing old,
and they shall have no inheritors.
Their sons died while they were boys,
and their neurasthenic daughters abandoned
the sick crown to the mob.”
–Rainer Maria Rilke, excerpt from The Kings of the World”
Yet, while there is proliferate evidence that, even as people worldwide are rising up against inequity and exploitation, the economic elite have little inclination to do so much as glimpse the plight of those from whose life blood their immense riches have been wrung, nor hear the admonition of the downtroddenâŚthat they are weary of life on their knees and are awakening to the reality that the con of freedom of choice under corporate state oligarchy is, in fact, a life shackled to the consumerism-addicted/debt-indenturement that comprises the structure of the neoliberal, global company store.
“The rotten masks that divide one man
From another, one man from himself
They crumble
For one enormous moment and we glimpse
The unity that we lost, the desolation
…Of being man, and all its glories
Sharing bread and sun and death
The forgotten astonishment of being alive”
–Octavio Paz, excerpt from “Sunstone”
Accordingly, the most profound act of selfless devotion (commonly called love) in relationship to a society gripped by a sociopathic mode of being is creative resistance. Submission is madness. Sanity entails subversion. The heart insists on it; otherwise, life is only a slog to the graveyard; mouth, full of ashes; heart, a receptacle for dust.
Most of the NZ right, and practically all of the online right, are intellectual pygmies who have abandoned the troublesome requirement of thought to some half arsed Russian women. The funny thing about a Tory article such as this is it belongs to another age of small c conservatism, hopelessly out of place in the world of right wing idiocy that makes up the right mainstream these days.
The two or three that I know are stunningly gorgeous…and can probably use an AK to get a three round grouping on a 50 cent coin at seventy five metres.
The fuckin amazing thing about this is that our own National government are going to continue regardless with their austerity measures, bashing the unions and beneficiaries rights and thinking that there is not going to be a backlash!
I hope that Key and Bennett are taking a good hard look at what went on in Britain over the last few days.
The tragedy is that the top banksters and swindlers will get away with impugnity while the looters who are cought will feel the full force of the law.
Socialist world had a good angle on this the large education cuts demonstrations a few months back could have had more backing from the unions if it had the backing and enough people went out on strike the Tories would be OUT!!
Looting only plays into the hands of the elite and will give them the perfect pretext to bring in a more totalitarian regime.
A nationwide strike where appox 1,500,000 workers stay in bed for a few weeks and not bother going to work will achieve more in halting the NAT/ACT in their tracks.
If a figure like 1,500,000 workers should stay in bed then how would the police deal with that?
The serious fraud office hasn’t got enough money to deal with all the fraudsters it says. But when it comes to the peasants THEY WILL FEEL THE FULL FORCE OF THE LAW
Very interesting. The historian was making good points in general; the other two guests seemed to rush to accuse him of pinning the blame on black culture.
I believe what he was doing was attempting to understand a group mindset and identity from a sociological perspective.
The game has indeed moved away from obvious superficial skin colour.
It explains again how the Mp and National can fit together so easily, hand in glove.
Certainly a rather amazing comentary from the Daily Telegraph. To give them their due they do have a few off (right wing) messages. I haven’t followed Mr Oborne’s career in depth but he has published a couple of columns lately that weren’t the usual sclerotic rghtist crap.
As for Cameron, how pathetic.
‘In his strongest comments yet on the perpetrators of the violence, Mr Cameron said: âThere are pockets of our society that are not only broken, but frankly sick it is a complete lack of responsibility in parts of our society, people allowed to feel that the world owes them something.â
He added: âThe sight of those young people running down streets smashing windows, taking property, looting, laughing as they go â the problem with that is a complete lack of responsibility, a lack of proper parenting, a lack of proper upbringing, a lack of proper ethics, a lack of proper morals. That is what we need to change.â ‘
âThere are pockets of our society that are not only broken, but frankly sick.”
“a lack of proper ethics, a lack of proper morals. That is what we need to change.â
How does that relate to your bankster mates Mr Cameron, or for that matter your dodgy journalistic mates? Or the entirety of your globalist coterie? Are you by any chance yet another hollow man? And doesn’t your finance minister have gangsta connections on yachts in the Med? Resign now.
‘
Here is another good commentary on the causes of the riots by British Labour MP John McDonnell.
Many of the media commentators were particularly struck the large number of very young looters.
This prompted the torys to go into lengthy diatribes in parliament about bad parenting and the teaching of proper moral values in the home – blah, blah, blah.
I thought that John McDonnell’s quote from the young woman who commented that she had never seen her parents together for months due to their working such long hours just to pay the bills, very telling.
Peter Oborne, the man that wrote this obsequious piece of flesh-crawling drivel recently?
David Cameron has the makings of a truly great prime minister
Many of those in No 10 end up as essentially irrelevant figures, but a small few attain genuinely heroic status, says Peter Oborne.
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The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of Historyâs clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.ITâS A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Actâs and NZ Firstâs extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country heâs described as âfragileâ, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of MÄori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz  from the Beehive The governmentâs official website â which Point of Order monitors daily â not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winterâs night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfatherâs house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of MÄori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary â including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal â that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealandâs media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been Nationalâs media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but heâs not ...
Chris Trotter writes –Â New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Keyâs flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMPâs five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as âits largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliffâ. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Governmentâs Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. Itâs important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the countryâs leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that âcorruptâ the nationâs ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealandâs growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesnât know or care about the frontline cuts sheâs making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. Â ...
Todayâs Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and itâs only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. âThis is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. âThe government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicineâ, said Ayesha Verrall âThis is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoonâs interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour childrenâs spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te PÄti MÄori 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 veteransâ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veteransâ affairs spokesperson Greg OâConnor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxonâs management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonightâs court decision to overturn the summons of the Childrenâs Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about MÄori without evidence, says Te PÄti MÄori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. âThe 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 yearâs 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, Labourâs 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 countryâs 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 Governmentâs Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a âget out of jail freeâ 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 PÄti MÄori Justice Spokesperson, TÄkuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, MÄori 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 Zealandâs good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National governmentâs lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te PÄti MÄori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. âThis act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.â Said Te PÄti MÄori 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. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today.  "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Councilâs Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today.  Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. âThese reforms are long overdue. New Zealandâs insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. âThree years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. âBeing able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canadaâs refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ânext moveâ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Childrenâs Commissioner. âThe Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says.    âThe coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. âOur Governmentâs thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening â  Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealandâs foreign policy, weâd like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. âCreating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northlandâs marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. âThis is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the countryâs total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. âThe beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ĺ-RÄkau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mĹ Ĺ-RÄkau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ĺ-RÄkau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Governmentâs plan to supercharge New Zealandâs EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four â and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Governmentâs plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. âI have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People â Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Governmentâs plan to restore law and order. âSpeaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealandâs human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). âNew Zealandâs goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. âIâm putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure âone stop shopâ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. âThe NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
WhÄnau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. âGiving these whÄnau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Governmentâs goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave OâSullivan (OBE). âOur sympathies are with the OâSullivan family with the sad news of Dave OâSullivanâs recent passing,â Mr Peters says. âHis contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmacâs largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff.  âAccess to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwisâ lives. Weâve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
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,â 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. âWe know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,â Dr Reti says. âEvery day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikoheâs new $14.7 million sports complex. âThe completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,â Mr Jones says. âThis facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Petersâ engagements in TĂźrkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges.  âReturning 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,â Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen â 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 â a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - Â 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. Â 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. Â 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. âOur 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 Zealandâs hydrogen future, with the opening of the countryâs first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. âI 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 Zealandâs own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealandâs energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. âDo not be travelling on the forest road,â warns a crusty old beak. âAnd why is that, antique peasant?â Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Woodâs address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following Nationalâs escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchiseâs return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because itâs time to say âI doâ to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV âsocial experimentâ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutorâs office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the âadministration of justiceâ by the worldâs permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A womenâs union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist ThĂŠrèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-CalĂŠdonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fijiâs ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fijiâs improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. Thatâs where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didnât feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when heâs in the great outdoors. âThe scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, âOh, thereâs that thing and thereâs another thing,â but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, âCool bush.ââ Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carterâs favourite way to unwind is⌠kicking goals. Why canât he get enough of it? And what itâs like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ĺtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling Iâve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNowâs new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNowâs new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, weâre finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff donât work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: donât ask him to adopt you. So, youâve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didnât know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions â the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapĹŤ, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are âgoâ for tonightâs launch of Chinaâs next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workersâ hostel. The partyâs 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day â May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. MÄtou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
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A kid comes on tv and says its about respect.
Murdoch papers tapped a kids phone, deleted text, led police to believe she was still alive.
Sorry, but all the harping on, its true, its about the moral decay of the elite.
Why would youth think police could not be trusted? Duh
Great article and I’m absolutely stunned that it appeared in the Telegraph.
Another 200 comments in the last hour (up to 3600 now).
You can always expect a few bad apples in government but it seems the whole damn apple cart is rotting
Brilliant and obvious.
The local example I keep coming back to is the recent revelation that David Henderson, the Auckland property developer, paid a total of $17k tax over 17 years – less than a person on a minimum wage would have paid over that same time. And this is a guy who lived in penthouses and jet-setted around on a millionaires lifestyle and feted as a minor celebrity. That is just despicable when you think about the minimum wage factory worker who gets up at 5am and goes to work and contributes more to society than this guy.
Of course I know all the stats about how the bottom X% pay no net tax and the top Y% pay most net tax etc, and I know all about how the accounting works, and that this is just one example of many, and there are much worse examples etc etc etc, but this one really got me mad, and confirms that something is very corrupt and grossly unfair in the way we do things (regardless of who’s in power).
Bit different from that arch lefty, Adam Smith, who reckoned that workers, and entrepreneurs, should not be taxed. “They produce the wealth”.
He said that taxes should be paid by landowners and owners of money capital. “To put it to more productive use”.
Most of the new right havn’t got past Machiavelli, or the Marque de Sade, in their economic education.
The wealthy realise that its more money faster if you break a country down and sell it off, not build it up over generations.
I too am stunned this appeared in the well known lefty rag The Telegraph. /sarc
I guess we can only rejoice that even the right wing media are havingthe discussion. Are the old school conservatives prizing themselves away from the neo-liberals?
Here’s another goodie..
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/75626
Only problem with this view is that this moral bankruptcy was there from the start. The original capitalist looting was the slave trade. Its nice that the descendants of the slaves are now revolting against the descendants of the old Etonian slave traders. But its true that capitalism today is manifestly morally bankrupt with no clothes and nowhere to hide except behind a baton, CS gas and tanks.
You are correct to identify the unearned wealth that was acquired through the slave trade but the original [British] capitalist looting took place before that when the colonists stole the [Native American] land to set up colonies; they found that the English ‘peasants’ they transported to the colomies died too quickly.
The moral bankruptcy commenced with the changing of interest on loans, and really took off when the money-lenders began creating loans out of thin air via fractioanl reserve banking.
I like that expression. Yes, the empire has no clothes and is hiding behind batons, CS and tanks.
As peak oil, population overshoot and unravelling of fiat currencies take their toll we must expect those who benefit the most from present arrangements to become ever more vicious in their use of ‘security forces’ the prevent a more equitable distribution of the ever-shrinking ‘cake’.
Yeah I was being poetic with history đ
âThings got out of hand & weâd had a few drinks. We smashed the place up, and Boris set fire to the toilets.â
No, not the words of a looter, but of David Cameron about his fellow Bullingdon hooligan , the London Mayor, Boris Johnson in 1986.
HAHAHA ! Exactly⌠David and Boris are thugs too. Donât seem to see it mentioned anywhere in the press.
The young rioters are just a blue collar amateurish flock compared to the white collar organized professional syndicate of the filthy banksters, politicians in charge of the UK economy.
Morality comes from the example of those in charge. The kids CAN NOT be virtuous if the leaders are THUGS themselves and get away with it.
…………………………………….
The rejection of the ten commandments, moral absolutes and the gospel of Jesus Christ in our education system is coming back to bite us. What do we expect from this generation, or any other section of society, if we teach them that the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest reigns supreme. The New Age idea that we are all little gods precludes the imposition of any type of morality.
If it is not wrong to steal, why should these youths not take what they want from the people around them? Why shouldnât these bankers deal dishonestly with their clients and pocket whatever they can? Why shouldnât politicians fiddle their expenses?
If it is not wrong to kill why shouldnât the driver of that car plough into a crowd of people? Why shouldnât the futures marketeers cause the death of thousands by inflated food prices?
…………………………………………..
Letâs remember, this is in a country that has witnessed increasing dispossession of the masses over the past 30 years â something that is accelerating following the 2008 banking crisis? In this context, young people may very well become the neoliberal entrepreneurs that Max ironically alludes to. In form, their actions are not that different from those of the elite albeit at the âriskâ of pompous condemnation from the likes of posh twats like Cameron.
……………………………………………
.These neoliberal rioters are Thatcherâs legacy. She should be proud of herself.
the looters are also, in large part, doing what they are doing BECAUSE of the shit that has rolled down from the top. No opportunities, hope, future and more and more debt imposed upon them by the âstarsâ of the political and financial gangs.
LiKe Cameron’s days in the Bullingdon club the leader of the LIB DEMS has done some genteel property damage as have the young “rioters” some of whom are being sent to prison for quite trivial property offences but caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Cleggs criminal record! :
As a 16-year-old exchange student in Germany, Mr Clegg was convicted of arson and given a community service sentence after he and a friend set fire to two greenhouses of cacti belonging to a professor. He recalled the misdemeanour during the recent party conference.
A bit like when Boris set fire to the toilets on a Bullingdon rampage! EH CHAPPIES!
It is the height of hypocrisy to castigate Londonâs looters while simultaneously appeasing and coddling bank terrorists at Goldman, JP Morgan, HSBC, RBS, etc. Britainâs Got Riot Talent and hopefully many of these riot-preneurs will start hedge funds and investment banks and provide much needed competition. In other words, Cameron needs to decide if heâll continue to foster a UK economy driven by larceny in the banking sector â Or, try something else. Since he isnât doing anything about financial rape and apartheid in the the City, he should be aware that what goes around comes around.
I wonder what our banker leader think about all this?
Banker Fraud too big too sort out-and of corse they’re our chappies who cut us in on the lolly too, they deserve to get away with it-they have style and image.
UPDATE: Notice that due to PUBLIC wrath, the justice system is working overtime through the weekend to lock up rioters. The wheels of justice can move if the people demand it. So name me one single banker in London that has been arrested and tried for the fraud that saw TRILLIONS stolen from pension funds around the world? The fraud that directly caused the financial collapse that has resulted in millions losing their livelihood? London is THE beating heart of this global financial fraud, so why have none of those responsible been arrested? Why have the population not demanded their expenses-cheating politicians at least give us a whitewash inquiry? Even Lord Hutton will do! The fact is, however, that the British people are mindful of the fact that banker looting benefits them at the expense of hundreds of millions of other people around the world who have had their national wealth and sovereignty transferred to the safe haven of London. [News today: Russian banker steals billions and flees to . . . London, of course.]
Hmmm. Putin is not going to be pleased, and Putin has ways of executing justice which does not rely on extraditions or the court system.
I couldn’t agree more with Mr Osborne. I particularly liked this bit:
Although I would argue that many politician’s are worse than animals.
More details about posh David Cameron’s Bullingdon Club
A little bit of Genteel rioting was quite acceptable at times old chap.
A number of episodes over many decades have become anecdotal evidence of the Club’s behaviour. Famously, on 12 May 1894 and again on 20 February 1927, after dinner, Bullingdon members smashed almost all the glass of the lights and 468 windows in Peckwater Quad of Christ Church, along with the blinds and doors of the building. As a result, the Club was banned from meeting within 15 miles of Oxford.
While still Prince of Wales, Edward VIII had a certain amount of difficulty in getting his parents’ permission to join the Bullingdon on account of the Club’s reputation. He eventually obtained it only on the understanding that he never join in what was then known as a “Bullingdon blind”, a euphemistic phrase for an evening of drink and song. On hearing of his eventual attendance at one such evening, Queen Mary sent him a telegram requesting that he remove his name from the Club.
Andrew Gimson, biographer of Boris Johnson, reported about the club in the 1980s: “I don’t think an evening would have ended without a restaurant being trashed and being paid for in full, very often in cash. A night in the cells would be regarded as being par for a Buller man and so would debagging* anyone who really attracted the irritation of the Buller men.”
Dinners in recent years, being relatively low key, have not attracted press attention, though in 2005, following damage to a 15th century pub in Oxfordshire during a dinner, four members of the party were arrested; the incident was widely reported. A further dinner was reported in 2010 after damage to a country house.
In the last few years the Bullingdon has been mentioned in the debates of the House of Commons in order to draw attention to excessive behaviour across the British class spectrum, and to embarrass those increasingly prominent MPs who are former members of the Bullingdon. These most notably include David Cameron (UK Prime Minister), George Osborne (UK Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Boris Johnson (Mayor of London). Hansard records eight references to the Bullingdon between 2001 and 2008.
*That’s a bunch of chaps ripping of the trousers of the offending party-“Teach you to be arty round real men!”
I thought this so meaningful I have copied all of it
Life In An Age Of Looting: “Some Will Rob You
With A Sixgun And Some With A Fountain Pen”
By Phil Rockstroh
12 August, 2011
Countercurrents.org
As the poor of Britain rise in a fury of inchoate rage and stock exchanges worldwide experience manic upswings and panicked swoons, the financial elite (and their political operatives) are arrayed in a defensive posture, even as they continue their global-wide, full-spectrum offensive vis-Ă -vie The Shock Doctrine. Concurrently, corporate mass media types fret over the reversal of fortune and trumpet the triumphs of the self-serving agendas of Wall Street and corporate swindlersâŚeven as they term a looter, in ill-gotten possession of a flat screen television, fleeing through the streets of North London, a mindless thug.
According to the through-the-looking-glass cosmology of mass media elitists, when a poor person commits a crime of opportunity, his actions are a threat to all we hold dear and sacred, but, when the hyper-wealthy of the entrenched looter class abscond with billions, those criminals are referred to as our financial leaders.
Regardless of the propaganda of “free market” fantasists, the great unspeakable in regard to capitalism is its wealth, by and large, is generated for a ruthless, privileged few by the creation of bubbles, and, when those bubbles burst, the resultant economic catastrophe inflicts a vastly disproportionate amount of harm upon those — the laboring and middle classes — who generate grossly inequitable amounts of capital for the elitist of the fraudster class…by having the life force drained from them by the vampiric set-up of the gamed system.
Woody Guthrie summed up the situation in these two (unfortunately) ageless stanzas:
“Yes, as through this world I’ve wandered
I’ve seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a sixgun,
And some with a fountain pen.
“And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won’t never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.”
–excerpt from Pretty Boy Floyd.
Although, at present, U.S. bank vaults contain little tangible loot for a Pretty Boy Floyd-type outlaw to boost. How would it be possible for an old school bank robber such as Floyd to make-off with a haul of funneling electrons?
Here’s the lowdown: The Wall Street fraudsters of the swindler class want to refill their coffers and line their pockets (that is, offshore accounts) with Social Security and Medicare funds. That’s the nature of the unfolding scam, folks. Oligarchic rule has always been a system defined by legalized looting that leaves a wasteland of want, deprivation, and unfocused rage in its wake.
Consequently, in the U.K. (and beyond): When poor people’s hopes dry up, cities become a tinderbox of dead dreams, and we should not be stricken with shock and consternation when these degraded places are set aflame, nor should we be surprised when the bribed, debt-beholden and commercial media propaganda-bamboozled middle class (who helped create the wasteland with their arid complicity) cry out (predictably) for police state tactics to quell the fiery insurrection.
There have been incidents in which a fire has smoldered for years in an abandoned, sealed-off mineshaft, and then the fire, traveling through the tunnels of the mine, and up the roots of dead, dried trees have caused a dying forest to bloom into flames. The rage that sparks a riot can proceed in a similar manner — and the insular, sealed-off nature of a nation’s elite and the willful ignorance of its middle class will only make the explosion of pent-up rage more powerful when it reaches the surface.
We exist in a culture that, day after day, inundates its have-nots with consumerist propaganda, and then, when the social order breaks down, its wealthy and bourgeoisie alike express outrage when the poor steal consumer goods — as opposed to going out and looting an education and a good job.
Under Disaster Capitalism, the underclass have had economic violence inflicted upon them since birth, yet the corporate state mass media doesn’t seem to notice the situation, until young men burn down the night. Then media elitists wax indignant, carrying on as if these desperate acts are devoid of cultural context.
A mindset has been instilled in these young men and boys that they are nothing sans the accoutrements of consumerism. Yet when they loot an i-Phone, as opposed to creating economy-shredding derivative scams, we’re prompted by the corporate media to become indignant.
When the slow motion, elitist-manipulated mob action known as our faux democratic/consumerist culture deprives people of their basic human rights and personal dignity — then, in turn, we should not be shocked when a mob of the underclass fails to bestow those virtues upon others.
The commercial mass media’s narrative of narrowed context (emotional, anecdotal and unreflective in nature) serves as a form of corporate state propaganda, promulgated to ensure the general population continues to rage against the symptoms rather than the disease of neoliberalism. The false framing of opposing opinions — of those who state the deprivations of neoliberalism factor into the causes of uprisings, insurrections and riots as being apologists for violence and destruction is as preposterous as claiming one is an apologist for dry rot when he points out structural damage to a house due to a leaking roof.
Because of the elements of inverted totalitarianism, inherent within the structure of corporate state capitalism, and internalized within the general population by constant, commercial media re-enforcement, one should not be surprised when a sizable portion of the general populace is inclined to support police state tactics to quell social unrest among the disadvantaged of the population.
Keep in mind: When watching the BBC or the corporate media, one is receiving a limited narrative (tacitly) approved by the global power elite, created by informal arrangements among a careerist cartel comprised of business, governmental and media personality types who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, even if, in doing so, they serve as operatives of a burgeoning police state.
Accordingly, you can’t debate fascist thinking with reason nor empathetic imagination e.g., the self-righteous (and self-serving) pronouncements of mass media representatives nor the attendant outrage of the denizens of the corporate state in their audience — their umbrage engineered by the emotionally laden images with which they have been relentlessly pummeled and plied — because their responses will be borne of (conveniently) lazy generalizations, given impetus by fear-based animus.
Through it all, veiled by disorienting media distractions and political legerdemain, we find ourselves buffeted and bound by the predicament of paradigm lostâŚthat constitutes the onset of the unraveling of the present order.
“The kings of the world are growing old,
and they shall have no inheritors.
Their sons died while they were boys,
and their neurasthenic daughters abandoned
the sick crown to the mob.”
–Rainer Maria Rilke, excerpt from The Kings of the World”
Yet, while there is proliferate evidence that, even as people worldwide are rising up against inequity and exploitation, the economic elite have little inclination to do so much as glimpse the plight of those from whose life blood their immense riches have been wrung, nor hear the admonition of the downtroddenâŚthat they are weary of life on their knees and are awakening to the reality that the con of freedom of choice under corporate state oligarchy is, in fact, a life shackled to the consumerism-addicted/debt-indenturement that comprises the structure of the neoliberal, global company store.
“The rotten masks that divide one man
From another, one man from himself
They crumble
For one enormous moment and we glimpse
The unity that we lost, the desolation
…Of being man, and all its glories
Sharing bread and sun and death
The forgotten astonishment of being alive”
–Octavio Paz, excerpt from “Sunstone”
Accordingly, the most profound act of selfless devotion (commonly called love) in relationship to a society gripped by a sociopathic mode of being is creative resistance. Submission is madness. Sanity entails subversion. The heart insists on it; otherwise, life is only a slog to the graveyard; mouth, full of ashes; heart, a receptacle for dust.
Phil Rockstroh is a poet, lyricist and philosopher bard living in New York City. He may be contacted at: phil@philrockstroh.com . Visit Phil’s website http://philrockstroh.com / And at FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100…
No less true hereâŚ
Most of the NZ right, and practically all of the online right, are intellectual pygmies who have abandoned the troublesome requirement of thought to some half arsed Russian women. The funny thing about a Tory article such as this is it belongs to another age of small c conservatism, hopelessly out of place in the world of right wing idiocy that makes up the right mainstream these days.
I’m struggling to see where the russian women are involved?
Me too, most Russian women I have seen could never be called “half arsed”
The two or three that I know are stunningly gorgeous…and can probably use an AK to get a three round grouping on a 50 cent coin at seventy five metres.
I think Sanctuary must have meant Ayn Rand (woman with an a), I hope there aren’t more than one of that ilk, Russian or otherwise.
Ah yes the plural threw me out there, thanks.
Ayn Rand. Surely a pseudonym?
‘Rand was born Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum . . . .
She was the eldest of the three daughters of Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum and Anna Borisovna Rosenbaum, largely non-observant Jews.’
see the wikip
Not a Slav as such. Not today’s Russian blonde beauty stereotype as email bride.
LET’S STAY IN BED ! ! !
That was a very good article by Peter Oborne another good one was by Laurie Panny at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
The fuckin amazing thing about this is that our own National government are going to continue regardless with their austerity measures, bashing the unions and beneficiaries rights and thinking that there is not going to be a backlash!
I hope that Key and Bennett are taking a good hard look at what went on in Britain over the last few days.
The tragedy is that the top banksters and swindlers will get away with impugnity while the looters who are cought will feel the full force of the law.
Socialist world had a good angle on this the large education cuts demonstrations a few months back could have had more backing from the unions if it had the backing and enough people went out on strike the Tories would be OUT!!
Looting only plays into the hands of the elite and will give them the perfect pretext to bring in a more totalitarian regime.
A nationwide strike where appox 1,500,000 workers stay in bed for a few weeks and not bother going to work will achieve more in halting the NAT/ACT in their tracks.
If a figure like 1,500,000 workers should stay in bed then how would the police deal with that?
Haha a general strike which isn’t a general strike.
It’d be better just to have a mass mental health day off, arrange some activities in the parks, picnics and a few concerts.
See how much actual ROI the “wealth producing” capitalists can make without the input of labour eh. My guess is sweet FA.
The serious fraud office hasn’t got enough money to deal with all the fraudsters it says. But when it comes to the peasants THEY WILL FEEL THE FULL FORCE OF THE LAW
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14513517
Very interesting. The historian was making good points in general; the other two guests seemed to rush to accuse him of pinning the blame on black culture.
I believe what he was doing was attempting to understand a group mindset and identity from a sociological perspective.
The game has indeed moved away from obvious superficial skin colour.
It explains again how the Mp and National can fit together so easily, hand in glove.
Certainly a rather amazing comentary from the Daily Telegraph. To give them their due they do have a few off (right wing) messages. I haven’t followed Mr Oborne’s career in depth but he has published a couple of columns lately that weren’t the usual sclerotic rghtist crap.
As for Cameron, how pathetic.
‘In his strongest comments yet on the perpetrators of the violence, Mr Cameron said: âThere are pockets of our society that are not only broken, but frankly sick it is a complete lack of responsibility in parts of our society, people allowed to feel that the world owes them something.â
He added: âThe sight of those young people running down streets smashing windows, taking property, looting, laughing as they go â the problem with that is a complete lack of responsibility, a lack of proper parenting, a lack of proper upbringing, a lack of proper ethics, a lack of proper morals. That is what we need to change.â ‘
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8694401/London-riots-water-cannons-to-be-used-on-sick-society.html
âThere are pockets of our society that are not only broken, but frankly sick.”
“a lack of proper ethics, a lack of proper morals. That is what we need to change.â
How does that relate to your bankster mates Mr Cameron, or for that matter your dodgy journalistic mates? Or the entirety of your globalist coterie? Are you by any chance yet another hollow man? And doesn’t your finance minister have gangsta connections on yachts in the Med? Resign now.
‘
Here is another good commentary on the causes of the riots by British Labour MP John McDonnell.
Many of the media commentators were particularly struck the large number of very young looters.
This prompted the torys to go into lengthy diatribes in parliament about bad parenting and the teaching of proper moral values in the home – blah, blah, blah.
I thought that John McDonnell’s quote from the young woman who commented that she had never seen her parents together for months due to their working such long hours just to pay the bills, very telling.
See McDonnell’s speech on youtube, here.
Peter Oborne, the man that wrote this obsequious piece of flesh-crawling drivel recently?
David Cameron has the makings of a truly great prime minister
Many of those in No 10 end up as essentially irrelevant figures, but a small few attain genuinely heroic status, says Peter Oborne.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/8514174/David-Cameron-has-the-makings-of-a-truly-great-prime-minister.html
While you’re at it, check out Deputy PM Nick Clegg getting quizzed about his “form” for arson
Delingpole’s article seemed to be well received too
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100101201/london-riots-cameron-has-learned-nothing-will-do-nothing/