Daily review 04/03/2021

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, March 4th, 2021 - 16 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

16 comments on “Daily review 04/03/2021 ”

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  1. joe90 1
    4 March 2021 at 6:06 pm

    Looks like a one party state, quacks like a one party state…Tories in their various incarnations have been running Britain since the seventeenth century.

    The Conservative Party’s main opposition, meanwhile, spends most of its time as just that: the opposition. Since the formation of the Labour Party in 1900—a source of existential anxiety for Conservatives at the time—only four of Labour’s 19 leaders have won an election. In the last 40 years, that number falls to one: Tony Blair, both Labour’s most successful leader and its most conservative. “The best centre-right option there is,” as The Economist quipped in 2005, as Blair accomplished his third straight win. Take away Blair’s victories, and Labour has only been in power for 18 of the last 100 years. The Tories, either alone or in coalition, have ruled for the rest.

    https://newrepublic.com/article/161328/successful-political-party-world-tories-conservatives-britain-boris-johnson

    • mikesh 1.1
      5 March 2021 at 9:12 am

      Weren't there actually five Labour prime ministers. Ramsay MacDonald, Clement Atlee, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan and Tony Blair. Gordon Brown was not an elected PM.

  2. Robert Guyton 2
    4 March 2021 at 6:51 pm

    Mike Joy's "Water" story – a "must-watch" 🙂

    https://play.stuff.co.nz/details/603ec9e91de1c4001bc4c2dc

    • Anne 3.1
      4 March 2021 at 8:08 pm

      What a coincidence this story of "bullying" should appear days before Meghan and Harry's chat with a famous friend of theirs – who also happens to be black – is aired on TV.

      I can just imagine what happened. Some toffee nosed toff talked down to Meghan so she responded in kind.

  4. Anker 4
    4 March 2021 at 8:51 pm
    • yep Anne. Complaints from 2018 and a few days out from the interview the palace decide to investigate"……………
  5. Sabine 5
    4 March 2021 at 9:23 pm

    what would people do if you give them 500 a week no strings attached?

    a whole lot of sensible things, it seems.

    this is a nice read of a project proving right the saying that sometimes money is the solution.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/stocktons-basic-income-experiment-pays-off/618174/

    • RedLogix 5.1
      4 March 2021 at 10:59 pm

      Sighs – I've been advocating for a UBI here since at least 2008:

      I’ve held back on this topic for a while now, but it remains my single biggest dissapointment with Michael Cullen (whom I very much admire in many respects) that he has failed to reform our tax system more radically. There is one major reform opportunity he knows about, but has failed to tackle.. that is the notion of Universal Basic Income.

      The idea has a long and very respectable intellectual heritage, and nothing I've ever said on the topic here is particularly novel. More recently the idea has bifurcated somewhat, the suggestion that a GMI (Guaranteed Minimum Income) that implements the 'basic' element of a UBI as a first step has gained traction. But I'm still convinced that the 'universal' component must not be discounted, because it directly addresses the question of class disadvantage without pre-conditions or prejudice.

      Instead in recent years I've found it's the extreme left that has become the most intransient opponent of a UBI – precisely because their ideology lies opposed to universality itself. The current fad for so called 'critical' theories mostly concerns itself with identity, division and the exercise of power.

      So no UBI round here I'm afraid.

      • Sabine 5.1.1
        5 March 2021 at 8:40 am

        I don't know where the extreme left is, but she ain't here nor in government. It was our very moderate and centrist PM who boldly and proudly declared no 'increases in benefits'. Put the blame where it belongs, on the feet of the centrists, moderates and conservatives in Parliament who must always attach strings to any tax funds that they may want to re-distribute to the poor in our country. And the only thing we have to a UBI are our various benefits.

        So no benefit increases, no UBI no nothing, cause Grant boy wants his surplus, and she who knows what she wants.

        • RedLogix 5.1.1.1
          5 March 2021 at 11:48 am

          We don't often agree, but can I sincerely say that it's a pleasure when we do. yes

  6. Incognito 6
    4 March 2021 at 10:21 pm

    Commissioner Andrew Coster says if people refuse to self-isolate or get tested, the police can only act if called in by health officials. However he says they do pursue alert level violations like illegal mass gatherings and regional border breaches. [my emphasis]

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/437610/covid-19-police-prosecute-nearly-1000-breaches

    • McFlock 6.1
      4 March 2021 at 11:31 pm

      In principle I'm pretty cool with that – health stuff is basically martial law-level powers. Even outside of pandemics, the Health Act has some scary, scary clauses.

      Cops should answer to authority, not dictate it.

      But it shouldn't just be oh me, oh my, there is nothing I can do about that. If the cops think something needs the local health officer's authority, they should call the health officer. They'd call a judge for a search warrant, ffs.

      • Incognito 6.1.1
        4 March 2021 at 11:38 pm

        Yes, it would be interesting to know how many prosecutions a health officer originally initiated. If it was in the piece, I missed it. I’m sure that info exists, somewhere …

        • McFlock 6.1.1.1
          4 March 2021 at 11:57 pm

          The interesting bit is that Pakeha account for a third of prosecutions, and Māori another third.

          Is that reflecting different standards of alert level compliance, different socioeconomic pressures making compliance more difficult, or differences in policing (or policing as normal), because it sure doesn't reflect the demogrphics of the nation.

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