NZ First conference – Saturday.

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, July 19th, 2014 - 70 comments
Categories: nz first, winston peters - Tags:

At the Alexandra Park racecourse for the NZ First conference.

Just listened to Paddy Gower in his interview with Winston Peters. The interesting bit was the questioning about Winston standing in East Coast Bays if Steven Joyce/John Key make a deal with the conservatives and Murray McCully stands aside. That will be interesting, and I suspect under those circumstances that he’d get a lot of votes. It is hard to see the people of East Coast Bays warming to Colin Craig. However I can see them getting charmed by a bellicose Winston Peters. But in any case, the publicity every day would be hell for National.

I’ll keep updating this post through the day. Cool media room. Overlooking the racecourse.

An early morning tea: It isn’t true that you get blinded by the sheen of light shining off  the silver tops and balding pates. There are younger people than me here.

A lot of them look like MPs and list candidates with that characteristic semiprofessional charming laugh. There are a few young Firsts clustered together in a protective group. But there are others. Compared to a Labour or Greens meeting of any kind, everyone without exception appears overdressed. Not a pair of jeans seen except for the odd journo.

10:55: Looking at the elections site about candidates and the enrolment dates.

Individual electorate candidate nominations

Nominations for individual electorate candidates open on Thursday 21 August 2014 and close midday on Tuesday 26 August.

To be nominated, two voters enrolled in the electorate can nominate a candidate by lodging an individual nomination paper with the Returning Officer for the electorate. You cannot nominate yourself. You cannot stand for more than one electorate. Nominations for electorate candidates will open on 21 August 2014. Nominations cannot be accepted before then.

Individual nominations must be lodged with the Returning Officer no later than noon on Tuesday 26 August 2014. Returning Officer contact details will be available here from 4 August 2014. A copy of the form for individual nominations can be found here.

Classic move by Winston. He can keep the speculation going about this for most of the next month.

See also Dim-Post: “Nah“. NZ First party vote in the East Coast Bays electorate in 2011 was 1,657. The Conservatives got 1,254. Neither stood a electorate candidate. It does pale against National party vote of 21,079 and Murray McCully’s 21,094 electorate vote. Hard to read anything into it.

11:42: Standup with Winston. In the background, there is a big 21.

Pretty standard for Winston, up until the speculation by media about East Coast Bays, post-election, Dover Samuels, and avoiding giving his opinion about John Key. Emphasing policy, like extra police. Reacting strongly against getting questioned about their opponents.

See also Adam Bennett at the NZ Herald – “Peters won’t rule out East Coast Bays”

14:30: Been listening to the public discussion of remits. Quite familiar to anyone who has spent considerable time in Labour conferences. People speaking for remits. People speaking against them. And of course people saying why in the hell are we discussing this? It is already in the manifesto/policy – do you want to change it? About the only differences are that the conference is smaller and the people speaking are less doctrinaire.

For all of the reputation of NZ First as being vehemently  nationalistic and populist, the remits are quite moderate, thought through, and well argued. I could imagine easily them in  Labour conference.

15:20: Reports by NZF MP’s. I’ve just been noting down the interests of the various MPs. It won’t be comprehensive. Just impressions

Tracey Martin talking about the ‘fun’ of learning the basics of becoming an MP. Getting private members bills drawn, in her case the suuport for grandparents raising their grand-kids. People banging down their doors now compared to 2011.

Andrew Williams talking about his pile of portfolios. Quite a lot of work on veterans, local government, and energy options. Emphasising that in many of his areas, NZF are the only people really working on some of these areas. Slags off the media for not being interested in most of the areas that NZF has been working on.

Richard Prosser started with pointing out he’d been very good this year. Emphasis on police and corrections. Nice story on his observer status on some of the other select committees about the Food bill in pushing for the primacy of food safety. Helping get recreational fishing support. The policy on the Castle policy about liability on injury of intruders in the home.

Barbara Stewart on being the party whip (and now having a stock whip). Described various issues on health including a drawn private members bill to give free doctors visits for gold card holders. She seems to have been looking at a pile of health issues and is quite passionate about it.

Denis O’Rourke started talking about the problems with the Christchurch earthquake derived issues. In particular the red zone outcasts who were only offered 50% of the value of their properties and the Port Hills people sitting in limbo. Has the housing portfolio which the National government managed to do nothing about over 5 years, and still hasn’t managed to get any houses built still. Wants the government to stop flogging off responsibility for social housing and state houses. Transport. A bit of Justice.

Asenati Lole-Taylor says that she spends a lot of time as a pasifika on immigration issues. She mostly works in South Auckland. A lack of jobs is major issue plus the working poor with lousy wages. Worried about prostitution / drugs and its effects on society and especially on kids. Has a private members bill drawn, but is worried about a deal between National and Labour.

The emphasis for all of the NZF MPs has been the workload. Pretty clear that they want more MPs to get into the house to help out with the workload.

 

 

See also

Adam Bennett: “NZ First to announce ‘game changing’ policies”

Hamish Rutherford: “Peters silent on who he’d back”

Occasionally erudite: “Winston Peters & East Coast Bays – National’s nightmare scenario”

 

70 comments on “NZ First conference – Saturday. ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. karol 1
    19 July 2014 at 10:29 am

    Thanks, Lynn. I’m with you on how the Peters’ toying with standing in East Coast Bays would impact.

    I disagree with The Nation’s panel who were backing Craig and saying this was a process of Peters’ position in politics being passed on to Craig.

    Also of interest in The Nation interview was Peters’ claim that he a pretty good idea (though not 100% sure), of what Kim Dotcom’s Sept 15 announcement would be about – something to do with Key meeting some people and who.

    • Colonial Viper 1.1
      19 July 2014 at 10:42 am

      I disagree with The Nation’s panel who were backing Craig and saying this was a process of Peters’ position in politics being passed on to Craig.

      Sure, like Ayrton Senna’s F1 torch being passed to Daffy Duck, unlicensed driver. Seriously where do they drag these misfits out in front of camera from.

      Peter’s is doing an excellent job of facing off the Conservatives/Nationals ridiculous playing around with the good burghers of East Coast Bays. The man is a professional with his finger tip right on the pulse, no doubt about it.

      • Lanthanide 1.1.1
        19 July 2014 at 10:56 am

        “The man is a professional with his finger tip right on the pulse, no doubt about it.”

        Except for his ‘bombshell’ about Collins.

        • anker 1.1.1.1
          19 July 2014 at 1:16 pm

          Lanthanide @ 1.1.1.

          Yes Peters “bombshell” about Collins, but also his big “expose” on Huka Lodge being sold to the Chinese.

          I am not hear to criticize Winston. I have come around to thinking he is more of the Lefts side. But these were two quite big clangers and David Cunliffe has been shot down for far far less.

      • lurgee 1.1.2
        19 July 2014 at 12:19 pm

        National win either way. If Craig wins, he’s going to be part of their coalition; if Winston wins, he’s going to be part of their coalition. I do not think he would go with a Labour / Green coalition He would feel obliged to “heed the will of the people” and reluctantly accept the baubles of ofice proffered.

        They might stand McCully down, encourage Craig and Peters to stand, and let them slug it out. If they are really cunning and ruthless.

        • tinfoilhat 1.1.2.1
          19 July 2014 at 12:50 pm

          I think you’ve hit it on the head lurgee, it is a win/win for the Nats.

        • finbar 1.1.2.2
          19 July 2014 at 1:03 pm

          It would be a resonable bet to lay money on Winston going with the Nats,its his natural play ground.

          A.C.T. are going to be gifted Epsom,and if needed in desporation they will cut a deal with Craig. Labour should be full focus on taking back Dunne!s seat.

          • Populuxe1 1.1.2.2.1
            19 July 2014 at 2:55 pm

            Really? Are the the Nats going to renationalise assets? That would appear to be Winston’s dealbreaker and he knows the party will lose most of its support on that one issue. Not to mention this amazing amnesia that certain people seem to have about 2005-2008.

            • finbar 1.1.2.2.1.1
              19 July 2014 at 4:23 pm

              Winston is to cunning to hang his hat on buying back ours.He like Labour,if it is fiscaly worth.Winston has a long dirge of promises forgoton.

              [lprent: Please settle on a single email address. It is a pain checking you out each time you forget what you used last time. I have to check in case someone is trying to do an identity hijack. ]

          • Draco T Bastard 1.1.2.2.2
            19 July 2014 at 4:41 pm

            It would be a resonable bet to lay money on Winston going with the Nats,its his natural play ground.

            Not any more. Just look at his policies some of which are totally the opposite of Nationals. You can’t get a coalition with that sort of disagreement.

            • DS 1.1.2.2.2.1
              19 July 2014 at 6:44 pm

              And he has probably learned from 1996 too. If you promise lefty policies, jumping into the bed with the Nats is a bad idea.

              I could imagine Winston joining the Nats on condition they meet his demands. Which will include something outrageous, like Jon Key being sacked as Tory leader.

            • lprent 1.1.2.2.2.2
              19 July 2014 at 6:54 pm

              Yep. The policies were socially conservative in some areas, but socially and economically progressive in others. The problem for National is that the areas that NZF are conservative in are the ones that National won’t want to go into because they all involve limiting the “free market”. They’re very Muldoonist and interventionist. They sure as hell won’t like some of the progressive policies.

              I also can’t see Winston being drawn into a coalition without a clear definition about what will be happening. He isn’t the gullible fools from the co-oped Maori party.

    • Anne 1.2
      19 July 2014 at 10:47 am

      …Peters’ claim that he a pretty good idea (though not 100% sure), of what Kim Dotcom’s Sept 15 announcement would be about – something to do with Key meeting some people and who.

      Remember Key wouldn’t delay his American holiday by one day so that he could attend the military funeral for the soldiers killed in Afghanistan? He said it was because he had promised his son he would be there in time to see him play in a soft ball tournament. It transpired the son wasn’t playing for another four days… and that Key actually stopped off in Los Angeles to attend a previously arranged “private” dinner with Hollywood moguls – something he omitted to mention at the time. August 2010 I think it was.

      It has always been my belief that was the real reason he wouldn’t change his scheduled fly-out time. He had a date with some very important people who were also going to be present at that dinner party.

      • ianmac 1.2.1
        19 July 2014 at 11:38 am

        Winston does seem to have inside knowledge about many things. Remember his inside knowledge of the Manning tea tape? If he is right re the mogul meeting then Key knows it too so he will set out to negate it by some sort of denial before the Sep 15. Watch this space.

        • lprent 1.2.1.1
          19 July 2014 at 12:14 pm

          That is always the issue. Sometimes he has stuff. Sometimes he thinks he has stuff. However whatever way it goes, he will always hype it up.

        • Tracey 1.2.1.2
          19 July 2014 at 12:46 pm

          rmember when peters said he had something to force collins to resign?

        • Tracey 1.2.1.3
          19 July 2014 at 12:48 pm

          remember when peters said he had something to force collins to resign?

        • karol 1.2.1.4
          19 July 2014 at 3:24 pm

          What Winston actually said about this on the Nation today (I wanted to see exactly how he worded it):

          You’re the one who went up to his mansion though.

          I did because I wanted to find that critical piece of evidence and I think that I know what he’s talking about. But of course he was trying to save it for a court case. My point was that I don’t believe for a moment that the Prime Minister could not have known. If he didn’t know, then he should have been firing a whole lot of people.

          So do you know what it is, that critical piece of evidence? Tell us.

          It’s evidence that points to who the Prime Minister saw and where those people came from that he did see.

          So you know Dotcom’s evidence?

          Well I think we’re about 99.9-percent there. It’s required us to do a lot of work because he wouldn’t give it over.

          • Tracey 1.2.1.4.1
            19 July 2014 at 4:54 pm

            thanks for posting this for those of us who dont see these things on saturdays

      • Tracey 1.2.2
        19 July 2014 at 12:44 pm

        good recall Anne. Also, if true, he was happy to use his son as a smokescreen, just as he uses his son to make those facebook and otger pictures of ordinary father son on holiday in hawaii in convertible sports car on wat to exclusive gold course, very ordinary bloke indeed.

      • karol 1.2.3
        19 July 2014 at 1:45 pm

        That visit to the US when Key’s son played baseball there, was much later: August 2012. This would be after the KDC mansion was raided. So, whatever evidence KDC has, it wouldn’t be to do with that visit.

        Whatever evidence KDC has, if it is some high level meeting Key went to, Team Key would long ago have considered it and how to defuse it being made public.

        I continue to doubt that KDC has any game-changing evidence.

      • karol 1.2.4
        19 July 2014 at 2:05 pm

        The August 2012 visit to the US was an act of plausible deniability for English signing a certificate as acting PM, to suppress some GCSB evidence.

        Aug 17: With Key out of the country on a family holiday, Bill English is called on to sign a ministerial certificate suppressing GCSB’s involvement in the Dotcom case.

        Sept 17: Fletcher advises Key that GCSB unlawfully spied on Dotcom and Van der Kolk.

        • Anne 1.2.4.1
          19 July 2014 at 4:40 pm

          Thanks for the correction karol.

          While you are probably right about the “plausible deniability” angle, I still firmly believe that “dinner engagement” is significant. I guarantee the turn of events re- the Dotcom case was being discussed in some detail.

          The following is Campbell Live’s release of the actual raid and Dotcom’s description of what happened inside. Well worth having another look at – Aug. 8th 2012 – and it was the first time the footage was seen by the public.

          http://www.3news.co.nz/VIDEO-What-really-happened-in-the-Dotcom-raid/tabid/817/articleID/264651/Default.aspx

          At the same time new information about the activities of the police and the GCSB was being revealed in the Justice Winkelmann High Court hearing. Key was under extreme pressure to reveal what he really knew about the Dotcom case. He ducked and dived and continued to claim it didn’t have anything to do with him – at least words to that effect.

    • phillip ure 1.3
      19 July 2014 at 2:28 pm

      i think watching peters gore craig could be fun blood-sport….

  2. bad12 2
    19 July 2014 at 10:31 am

    How true that is, having been recently discounting NZFirst’s ability to snare 5% of the Party Vote this mornings news that Winston Peters is fully prepared to contest East Coast Bays if National withdraw from that electorate in favor of Colon the Conservative has my mind doing an immediate flip,

    Should that particular set of circumstances occur i would expect the ongoing media frenzy this would create will give NZFirst all the political oxygen it needs to gather that crucial 5% of the Party Vote,

    A head to head, Winston Peters V Colon the Conservative, my view is Peters will use Craig as a floor mop and romp in,

    National now have an even bigger headache, wee Matty Hooton let slip at the Conservative’s Conference,being held at some unnamed hotel in Auckland at the same time as the NZFirst conference LPrent is reporting from, that National’s own internal polling has identified a 2% loss of support for National should they ‘gift’ Colon’s Conservatives a free ride in East Coast Bays,

    Winston’s announcement this morning just made election 2014 way more then just ‘interesting’…

    • swordfish 2.1
      19 July 2014 at 10:39 am

      “…a 2 percent loss of support for National…”

      That’s interesting. The Conservatives have been averaging just 1.4% over the last 3 month period, and trending down (1.9% average during first quarter of this year).

    • finbar 2.2
      19 July 2014 at 1:20 pm

      Winston,will for sure get minimum 10% of the vote come this election round.If Labours,efforts up North succeed Honi,will be left relying on Anneti, taking out Flavell,and that is going to be a toss of a dice come the ballot.

      Labours, strategy not to coat tail in my opinion is one they are going to rue,however,moral the high ground,a morality that will take out a possible three seat number partner when it comes to number crunching of who rules.

      The real dark horse is the Internet Party,i will state now they will get a minimum 3% come this electrol vote,and could do more.

      • Tracey 2.2.1
        19 July 2014 at 2:56 pm

        are u saying you think nzf will get 10% party vote?

        • Colonial Viper 2.2.1.1
          19 July 2014 at 5:26 pm

          Winston will have to pull some serious stuff out of his hat to get over 6% this time. IMP and Labour will both take some votes off him compared to last time.

          • Tracey 2.2.1.1.1
            19 July 2014 at 5:30 pm

            my thinking too…,thats why i question finbar about 10%

            • Colonial Viper 2.2.1.1.1.1
              19 July 2014 at 7:44 pm

              Only possibility to get close to 10% would be National collapsing in popularity close to polling day and NAT voters having no where else to turn. Winnie might get 7% to 8% in that circumstance.

    • Melb 2.3
      19 July 2014 at 7:33 pm

      Wouldn’t this make the decision easier for National?

      At best they would only gain as much as they lost in party vote (lose 2% in exchange for 2~% from the Conservs), would have to put up with Colin Craig in Parliament, and now they could risk giving a really safe seat (majority 14,000+) to Winston Peters.

      There’s no upside in it for them.

      • bad12 2.3.1
        19 July 2014 at 8:25 pm

        Melb, easy to see why Slippery the Prime Minister is away on holiday, trying to figure this out is the recipe for brain damage,

        Such damage just got worse for National with Winston Peters threat to enter the East Coast Bays contest,

        Is Peters bluffing??? Do National strategists dare call that bluff by gifting that seat to the Conservatives,

        One thing is becoming glaringly apparent, hog heaven for National, a coalition with NZFirst on one side and Colons Conservatives on the other would likely implode within 18 months,

        National now have even fewer options, cut Colon and the Conservatives adrift would seem a sensible choice, but what then, with an imploding Maori Party delivering at most one MP and ACT highly at risk IF Labour and the Green parties ‘get smart’ in the Epsom electorate,

        There’s a ‘might’ be able to form a Government there, BUT, to do so would require the same or a higher vote for National than 2011,

        Although all the published polls are screaming just that from the roof-tops, i call LIAR on that, i think National will hit 45% max this election,

        And whizz, the circle magically rotates back round to that wiley old campaigner Peters who’s NZFirst i was picking earlier in the week to be in danger of not making the 5% this election,

        While National’s headache of the East Coast Bays conundrum deepens and the longer it is dragged out, Peters and NZFirst get to reap political capital in the form of TV airtime and newspaper column inches being now mentioned in conjunction with East Coast Bays every time National’s Migraine makes a news story,

        While National dithers in uncertainty, and, excuse my crude analogy, NZFirst will be ringing in peoples minds, Winston Peters in other words has just told Slippery the Prime Minister to bend over and spread em, the more the PM complies by dithering the longer Peters will have His way…

  3. Sanctuary 3
    19 July 2014 at 10:53 am

    I see Danyl at the dimpost is utterly dismissive of this, but then he has got quite transparent lately about his dislike of anything that might somehow diminish the influence of the Greens post election.

  4. Ergo Robertina 4
    19 July 2014 at 11:09 am

    Winston gave National’s line (we already have one) when asked about a capital gains tax. Not that you’d expect a natural conservative to agree with Labour on tax – it means nothing in terms of who he will negotiate with – but parroting National’s disingenuous mantra on Labour’s flagship taxation policy is interesting.

  5. Kiwiri 5
    19 July 2014 at 11:18 am

    “Classic move by Winston. He can keep the speculation going about this for most of the next month.”

    So speculation about this for about a month (until around 21 Aug) and then Winston will talk about policies* and keep voters entertained for the month up to polling day.

    At the start of that final week in the lead-up to polling day, KDC will have his town hall meeting.

    Over that time, National will be spending their stash of funds to bombard the media?

    I hope Labour will get their policies out to the public and organise their publicity for strategic and strong impact.

    *One of my guesses is Winston’s version of CGT would not touch NZ citizens but will affect non-residents/citizens from buying houses.

  6. bad12 6
    19 July 2014 at 11:29 am

    The question now is IF the pieces of the East Coast Bays fall so that National feel it has no other choice than to ‘gamble’ that particular electorate by withdrawing Mccully in favor of Craig’s Conservatives AND Winston Peters does run for East Coast Bays,

    What do Labour do???,

    Does Labour simply leave Peters and Craig to fight over East Coast Bays, OR, does Labour parachute into the contest its highest profile list candidate, David Parker?, and make a real fight of it…

    • Kiwiri 6.1
      19 July 2014 at 11:50 am

      How about David Parker declare himself an Independent Candidate for East Coast Bays and campaign on his retirement age rise?
      ACT can definitely support that super policy.
      🙂

    • bad12 6.2
      19 July 2014 at 11:54 am

      Just to expand upon the above comment which some might well see as ludicrous given that the East Coast Bays electorate appears to be pretty much Dark Blue in nature, McCully in 2011 having dragged in 21,094 electorate votes ,

      The Labour candidate, you can be forgiven for uttering a big WHO at the name Vivienne Goldsmith, pulled in 6453 electorate votes in East Coast Bays in 2011 which you have to admit is no mean feat to have achieved against the high profile McCully a sitting MP and Cabinet Minister,

      Goldsmith did equally as well in that electorate at the 2008 election with 6100 and something votes so She has an established and committed support base within the East Coast Bays electorate,

      The big question then is ‘how many of the National Parties voters robbed of their favorite,(god only knows why any of them would vote for that devious little so and so), McCully will revolt when told they must vote for a candidate that in the normal course of events would be anathema to most of them,

      Add Winston Peters to this mix and i would suggest, Riii–iiip, the electorates loyalties are torn asunder,

      In such a situation i would again suggest that 10,000 votes is all that will be needed to ‘take’ the electorate,

      Vivienne Goldsmith with a rock solid 6000 votes across two elections must, if the jigsaw pieces fall into place, be the front runner…

      • swordfish 6.2.1
        19 July 2014 at 12:13 pm

        But is Colin Craig really anathema to the good burghers of ECB ?

        We’re not talking about liberal Labour supporters or Greenies, here, we’re talking about true-Blue Tories. It’s an overwhelmingly Blue seat (in both party-vote and candidate-vote), by all accounts choka-block with highly conservative white South African ex-pats (well OK, possibly a slight over-statement, but still…). Call me a pessimist but if Key gives them a broad hint that voting Craig (while party-voting National) is the best way to ensure a Tory government then my guess is they’ll do as instructed.

        Then again, they (or their forebears) did indeed revolt against National when Brash stood in 1978, swinging heavily to Social Credit, so I guess they do have some form on this. In which case, forget everything I just said (assuming you haven’t already).

  7. ianmac 7
    19 July 2014 at 11:56 am

    Interesting: “It isn’t true that you get blinded by the sheen of light shining off the silver tops and balding pates.”
    At the last National Team Key Conference the glimpse I had of the audience was almost total grey heads. A bit ironic if so given the nasty remarks Key made at his tea party with Banks about supporters of NZF “dying off.”
    (Disclaimer:I have grey head.)

    • lprent 7.1
      19 July 2014 at 12:12 pm

      At your age, I’m not surprised. I’m 55 now and very grey..

      • swordfish 7.1.1
        19 July 2014 at 12:15 pm

        About to hit 50 and just a slight peppering of grey. But, you know, give it another 10 years…

        • lprent 7.1.1.1
          19 July 2014 at 12:24 pm

          It comes on fast after 50.

          • Once was Tim 7.1.1.1.1
            19 July 2014 at 12:45 pm

            Not necessarily. I’m knocking 60 and no signs yet – despite mini-strokes, heart attacks and all that crap.
            (Might have something to do with getting out of IT and having one gigantic purge after realising re-inventing wheels wasn’t that productive and most ‘new things’ are at the App/Presentation Layers – some [luddites] might say the populuxe wipe-it-up, wipe-it-up-with-XLO-surface-wipe Superficial Layers).

            • lprent 7.1.1.1.1.1
              19 July 2014 at 4:23 pm

              While I’m grey, I like the hardcore code at every level – still mostly code c++. Just starting a new job on Monday with a mix of server, application, display, hardware devices and lot of networking.

              So far I have been lucky. Each project I have been on has a pretty steep learning curve with a mix of new areas caused by the business that the company is in, and a big tail of using my experience to make it happen. But I tend to take considerable care (ie being picky) with the jobs I take to make sure I’m not getting the same old, same old… This time around I was looking for 13 weeks. 5 weeks notice, 6 on my holiday pay, and just two without pay.

              • Jenny …
                19 July 2014 at 11:35 pm

                I.T. has its own health and safety issues. We may joke about working on our internet tans, But those who do it hard, pay a price. Snowden may be an exception, but look at Dotcom. Obesity is a sure sign of too much time coding, or being on line. Young people taking up IT must take seriously that a Gym membership be part of their contract.

                • lprent …
                  19 July 2014 at 11:54 pm

                  Or walk/bus to work. I found that I always put on weight when I was taking a car every day or when I was working at home for years and the commute was coming back from the bathroom.

          • JonoN 7.1.1.1.2
            19 July 2014 at 4:43 pm

            I’m disturbed by the number of grey hairs I keep finding in my beard, and I’m just a sprightly 32…

            • Kiwiri 7.1.1.1.2.1
              19 July 2014 at 6:36 pm

              I was very surprised, many months ago.
              I discovered two strands of grey somewhere while seated in a small, confined space.
              It took me a full second to think, OF COURSE, it goes grey down there too.

            • lprent 7.1.1.1.2.2
              19 July 2014 at 6:47 pm

              I started slowly turning grey when I was about 30 odd. But it wasn’t that apparent until my mid-40s. The thinning hair on top was quite apparent prior to that, but only when I remembered to get my hair cut. When I was deep in a project I’d forget such trivial matters for anything up to a year.

  8. Clean_power 8
    19 July 2014 at 12:42 pm

    Peters is a megalomaniac. NZF is his invention and it will disappear when the old politician goes, not a day earlier.

    • Colonial Viper 8.1
      19 July 2014 at 1:00 pm

      Peters is good to go for another 2 full terms, touch wood.

      • Anne 8.1.1
        19 July 2014 at 7:21 pm

        We’ll miss him when he goes. He’s at least colourful. Parliament without old Winnie will be boring.

        • Colonial Viper 8.1.1.1
          19 July 2014 at 7:24 pm

          Yep. Colourful, theatric, knowledgeable about procedure, gutsy in a face off/stare down, with a deft political and populist sense. They broke the mould with the guy.

          Still, this is not a obit., Winston has got a few political scalps and crowns to collect yet, if I’m not mistaken.

    • Populuxe1 8.2
      19 July 2014 at 2:44 pm

      Most politicians are, to varying degrees.

    • lprent 8.3
      19 July 2014 at 4:29 pm

      I don’t think so. The party organisation and members look pretty strong these days.

      • Populuxe1 8.3.1
        19 July 2014 at 6:22 pm

        It’s a shame people tend to disregard Tracey Martin – they do so at their own peril

        • lprent 8.3.1.1
          19 July 2014 at 6:43 pm

          She impressed me. However I found it difficult to extract points from what she talked about because she moved over them incredibly rapidly..

  9. Michael who failed Civics 9
    19 July 2014 at 6:46 pm

    What a great idea if Winston stands as MP for East Coast Bays. The Nats might even thank him.

  10. Once was Tim (but not even Tim 10
    19 July 2014 at 7:44 pm

    OIC – this will probly come with an EDIT: prefix …..

    I re-read my comment. I hope you didn’t misinterpret it – it’s just that I’ve seen too many failed projects from frikken ‘Datanet’ to IBIS (Abyss) to the Polis to Health to edgejakayshun to – well you get the idea. (Grand Designs …. Dangerous Enthusiasms … clip the ticket, move on, pop-up at the next fuckup)
    For me there is something fundamental with IT (now called ITC). It’s that people should drive technology, NOT that technology should drive people.
    It’s also that people (such as yourself) are better versed to make decisions on solutions than are corporate salesmen, the managerial class, (and many others). If you want evidence of that – just consider ‘DATANET’; IBIS (Abyss); The Polis; The Health; The IRD;
    They probably all watch ‘Grand Designs’ whilst wanking themsleves off – thinking of the legacy of their wonderfull aftermath whilst laying in their – whatever that bubbly bath thing is – a yea: jik-USE-yee laughing their very flabby arses off. (OWTim wonders whether Pagani’s got one yet – I’ll let you know next time I’m up her/his way if I can escape death avoiding her disastrous driving)

    I have to admire you – I couldn’t take the bullsh any longer (30 years – there’s more to life and living). What I do think is rather sad tho’ is that I know various gurus with their ‘specialty skillset’ who are unemployed, or UNDER-employed – mainly based on their age.
    So be it.
    Exiting it all is most likely what keeps me non-grey. BUT hey…. I know several people that just lerv a bit of grey (as long as it’s not a resurrection of the Auckland Pink, Grey, Stainless colour scheme of that Class of 87).
    Please tell me @ lprent – you’ll NEVER wear a pink shirt :p

    [lprent: I’d suggest getting rid of the punctuation of the ‘(‘. It will put you into moderation every time. A wee bug that seems to have crept into the system with a newish plugin hunting for spambots. ]

    • lprent 10.1
      19 July 2014 at 11:49 pm

      I was a late bloomer and got into programming at about 30 after I got out of doing tech sales and management jobs.

      First 5 years as a programmer were largely with two telcos and were two projects that went around and around to oblivion, and contracting on small fixups for other companies to see what was out there.

      After that I wised up and headed to export orientated SMEs where they couldn’t afford to do that kind of waste. Over the last twenty years, pretty much every project shipped after that. With one exception that had its finances get GFC’ed.

      I start my next job on Monday. This one is a bit different. Fixing and upgrading a code base rather than building it from greenfields. But the task it is used for looks pretty damn tricky which is what attracted me to it.

      However that is as much as I’m allowed to say about the new job. As usual I have a Cameron Slater condition in the contract. Since 2008, I’ve disclosed in new contracts that there was a useless lazy and quite nutty stalker with a blog who attacked one of my previous employers because I happened to have worked for them in the past. Curiously recently that has been helping me get jobs. Turns out a lot of people also don’t like Whaleoil.

      I never cared what I wore and nor did anyone else after I got into programming. But usually jeans, tee-shirt or old army shirts, whatever was warm in winter, and jandals or running shoes. For the last 6 years Lyn (my partner) has been selecting the clothes. So they changed to black and dark gray (after running black through the washing cycle a few times).

  11. Rupert 11
    20 July 2014 at 9:51 am

    I live in East Coast Bays, and am all for the theatre of having Winston Peters stand here, but don’t we already have a NZ First MP living in the electorate? Unless Andrew Williams has moved and I didn’t get the change of address note 😉

  12. Mike lynds 12
    2 August 2014 at 1:53 am

    Just caught up with this post and found it interesting about the younger folk there whilst everyone slags the party for being supported by only the oldies. This election will be about policies to restore the country base of business – CGT on non resident, 20% tax based on export sales, buy back of asset sales, immigration change of emphasis. NZ First by stating no coalition with either the Mana/Int or the Maori parties defines where he is aiming – if he does not get his way with the policies and I suspect with quite a few more to come he will sit on the cross benches and have his way from there. Difficult for the Nats to contemplate but could you imagine W P dealing with JK as the Nats digest that. What a series of meetings. Thats where it looks like he is heading if he achieve that 8% level. He would be close to that despite the polls saying otherwise. As some in the party said they are beating down the door compared to last time. You just need to read the facebook support. Its a hoot and entertaining. Going to be the most interesting election in years.

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