Open mike 01/05/2025

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, May 1st, 2025 - 26 comments
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Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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

Step up to the mike …

26 comments on “Open mike 01/05/2025 ”

  1. Bearded Git 1
    1 May 2025 at 8:21 am

    Tony Blair has been accused of gifting votes to Reform and the Greens with his vociferous criticism of the UK Labour Party's net zero by 2050 policy.

    "[Labour] government insiders said that Blair had undermined Starmer on a key issue, at a crucial moment. One Downing Street insider said: “Tony fucked up.”"

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/30/downing-street-forces-tony-blair-to-row-back-from-net-zero-strategy-criticism

    Reply
    • weka 1.1
      1 May 2025 at 9:03 am

      why would that push people to vote Reform? They're anti-climate action.

      Reply
      • Bearded Git 1.1.1
        1 May 2025 at 9:52 am

        One wonders why anybody votes Reform-Farage is a mate of Trump of course.

        Reply
        • weka 1.1.1.1
          1 May 2025 at 10:12 am

          it's an interesting development. Kind of like NZF I guess, in that people are sick of the duopoly but don't want to go left.

          Reply
        • joe90 1.1.1.2
          1 May 2025 at 12:47 pm

          One wonders why anybody votes Reform-Farage is a mate of Trump of course.

          Farage and his party are rotten to the core. Of course he's tRump's mate.

          .

          Nigel Farage has declared he has handed over Reform UK to its 200,000 members, but the party now appears to be owned by a not-for-profit company controlled by its leader and chair.

          Farage announced last year that he would “democratise” the party after receiving criticism for it being a private company majority controlled by the leader, not a members’ association like other parties.

          The company that owns Reform now appears to be owned by a new not-for-profit company, Reform 2025, which so far has just two members and two directors: Farage and Zia Yusuf.

          It was previously owned by a limited company majority controlled by Farage but with stakes also held by Yusuf, Richard Tice, the deputy leader, and Mehrtash A’zami, the party secretary.

          https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/20/not-for-profit-appears-to-own-reform-uk-nigel-farage

          Reply
      • SPC 1.1.2
        1 May 2025 at 10:14 am

        Blair said that because carbon emissions globally were still rising and the cost of moving to new tech was an impost on the economy, they should move away from zero net carbon to focus on carbon capture.

        Preaching despair, the give up inference music to the ears of the right – and focus on nuclear power (not cheaper) and carbon capture (unproven and not cheap and some might say* really flawed as a concept).

        here*

        https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30-04-2025/#comment-2032646

        Some think tank he has there.

        The irony is he and his TT were trying to support the Starmer investment in nuclear power and carbon capture – but because he also dissed their other actions he had to back down

        That a think tank in 2025 cannot note the importance of the EU exploring moving to carbon tariffs in trade is risible.

        The West exported jobs and production to places outside the Paris Accord and imported goods made with more carbon emissions.

        A carbon tariff would have both incentivised a move away from carbon and also financed green tech to the third world.

        Reply
  2. gsays 2
    1 May 2025 at 8:49 am

    This will have interesting ramifications.

    In a nutshell, an issue that sums up this government's attitude to tangata whenua, money over nature and it's gonna upset some skiers from outside of the region.

    It's unpleasant being taken for granted, let alone for over a century.

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/04/29/paramount-chief-seeks-govt-retreat-from-ruapehu-management

    Reply
  3. Ad 3
    1 May 2025 at 9:46 am

    Smash 'em Albanese.

    Great work Dutton bringing out an uncosted nuclear energy plan for Australia with 2 days to voting.

    Reply
    • tc 3.1
      1 May 2025 at 12:14 pm

      Yes Dutton's going down guns blazing as is his style with that trumpian double down on the BS, nuclear is doable blah blah he takes the average Oz's for chumps.

      Teals will make it interesting thanks to his blokey tone deaf performance.

      Reply
  4. Drowsy M. Kram 4
    1 May 2025 at 11:11 am


    https://community.scoop.co.nz/2014/09/martin-doyle-cartoon-long-suffraging-prisoners/

    Here we go again… why voting is not a privilege to be removed as punishment [1 May 2025]
    Honestly, the amount of parliamentary time and political energy spent on this particular issue in an era of collapsing everything is just a little bit silly.

    Isn't it though.

    Government to reinstate full prisoner voting ban [30 April 2025]
    The Independent Electoral Review called on the Government to open voting rights to all prisoners, instead the coalition is restricting them further

    “This is my [Duncan Webb's] question: What’s the problem you’re trying to fix? Which is question one for any policy initiative. There is no problem to fix. This is just a spiteful dig to try and appeal to some of our lower instincts; of a sense to want to take away the rights of others.”

    Reinstating a blanket ban on prisoners voting is retrograde and harmful
    [30 April 2025]
    It is an unjustifiable limit on the electoral rights of New Zealand citizens that shows this government’s contempt for the courts, the rule of law, internationally recognised human rights standards, and evidence-based policy. In other words, it is exactly what we have come to expect from the coalition government.

    Hmm, "exactly what we have come to expect from the coalition government."

    ‘Happy’ May Day (or should that be ‘mayday mayday mayday’) everyone, and (as Patricia Bremner wrote), "don't forget to support the Drs and Staff at your local Hospital" today.

    Senior hospital doctors strike in protest at stalled pay talks [1 May 2025]
    – Doctors say staff shortages already affecting thousands of patients every week.
    – Australian hospitals offering "two to four times" the salaries in New Zealand.

    Reply
    • AB 4.1
      1 May 2025 at 11:56 am

      I guess they've done the polling and focus grouping and know that law and order played well for them in 2023. And Mark Mitchell's now transparent bullshit that he (or any other Police Minister) actually has the ability to reduce crime in extremely short timeframes like a year or two, doesn't seem to have hurt them on this topic.

      And a point seldom mentioned – the disenfranchising of inmates who are predominantly poor and/or brown creates a perverse incentive for the political right to lock up increasing numbers of them. As everyone knows, the US has this voter suppression tactic down to a fine art by making the disenfranchisement of inmates life-long. If we routinely locked up tax evaders, would the current government still be equally keen on the policy?

      Reply
      • Drowsy M. Kram 4.1.1
        1 May 2025 at 2:37 pm

        I guess they've done the polling and focus grouping and know that law and order played well for them in 2023.

        sad Perhaps some Kiwis (not too many, I hope) are happy / happier / happiest whenever the 'other' is getting a 'good' kick in the guts.

        Aggression-based schadenfreude primarily involves group identity. The joy of observing the suffering of others comes from the observer's feeling that the other's failure represents an improvement or validation of their own group's (in-group) status in relation to external (out-groups) groups

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude#Psychological_causes

        Reply
        • Kay 4.1.1.1
          1 May 2025 at 3:34 pm

          Perhaps some Kiwis (not too many, I hope) are happy / happier / happiest whenever the 'other' is getting a 'good' kick in the guts.

          Regrettably there's a lot more than 'some' out there. Not that they would publicly admit it of course.

          Reply
  5. Dennis Frank 5
    1 May 2025 at 1:11 pm

    The Aussie Greens leader is wielding a large tool here: https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/04/30/2025-federal-election-the-greens-campaign-launch/

    Not sufficiently large to clean up the environment, but good to see them using symbolism in the media. That has always been a powerful influence on mass behaviour.

    just three sleeps before election day, the Greens have decided it’s finally time to “officially launch the Greens’ election campaign”, as it put it in an email to reporters this morning.

    That suggests their opening campaign announcement on March 28 cited in the report was a red herring designed to excite the news media. I presume this `keep them guessing' game is using the strategy that it's hard to hit a moving target…

    Reply
  6. joe90 6
    1 May 2025 at 1:54 pm

    masks off

    /

    @thejenniwren.teamlh.social‬

    Rep Eric Swalwell walked out in *shock*—and who could blame him?

    Every single GOP member on the House Judiciary Committee just voted to let Trump “deport” American citizens.

    This is illegal, authoritarian, and unforgivable 🤬

    Time to call, write, & protest before the full House votes.

    https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:quu4h7b5nl6ktn4cqq65b3ja/post/3lo2u6qqbts2w

    Reply
  7. Stephen D 7
    1 May 2025 at 2:07 pm

    It looks like the rule of law is breaking down in the USA. It won't be long before it spreads to the likes of Hungary, Italy.

    Anarchy is on its way.

    Reply
  8. Dennis Frank 8
    1 May 2025 at 2:43 pm

    The BSA, long a bastion of bullshit, finally got something right: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2025/04/30/psna-complaint-about-tvnz-reporting-upheld-by-the-broadcasting-standards-authority/

    TVNZ showed film which they claimed was of “anti-semitic violence” by Dutch football fans attacking Israeli football fans on the streets of Amsterdam last November… The film actually showed the opposite – violent attacks on Dutch fans by Israeli hooligans who had engaged in racist “Death to Arabs” chants and attacks on Palestinians and Palestinian flags prior to the game. We pointed out the error quickly but TVNZ refused to issue an apology and said it didn’t really matter because the mayor of Amsterdam had said there were anti-semitic attacks

    Well done John Minto. Simulating the truth has become integral to western civilisation and I'm surprised TVNZ didn't claim to be presenting an alternate reality a la Trump.

    Reply
  10. Ad 10
    1 May 2025 at 4:38 pm

    The Green Party has today announced a Ministry of Green Works that will spend billions on climate mitigation infrastructure and also to co-invest with Maori as part of fulfilling Treaty obligations:

    https://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/2505/PolicyDocembargoed.pdf

    It's near-identical to the NZFirst Provincial Growth Fund launched by Minister Jones in 2017 as part of the Coalition agreement … the Greens want $8b and Shane got $3b and spent it ….

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/budget-2019-shane-joness-3-billion-provincial-growth-fund-two-thirds-committed/76SOUIZSCK7BNKNOZ5UU7SMADE/

    … on climate-friendly sectors like rail, forestry, flood mitigation, and of course on Maori business in the regions which also fulfilled Treaty partnership obligations.

    https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/provincial-new-zealand-wins-big#:~:text=The%20Coalition%20Government%20has%20finalised,and%20Forestry%20Minister%20Shane%20Jones.

    I'm sure Jones will shortly find fault with the Green variant, but maybe Swarbrick could have a chat with Jones on a common economic development fund going into 2026, given they are pretty much identical.

    Reply
    • arkie 10.2
      1 May 2025 at 5:01 pm

      It is also a jobs guarantee:

      The Green Party has marked May Day with a pre-budget announcement in Tokoroa, detailing the party’s plan for a Green Jobs Guarantee.

      “New Zealanders should be in control of our economy, our jobs and our future. We don’t need to leave our fate to be decided by international shareholders,” says Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.

      “From the West Coast of the South Island, to Ohakune, to Tokoroa, in the last year alone, we’ve heard the same devastation driven by the same political decisions to let offshore companies decide the fate of regional communities.

      “No more.

      “Today, we launch our Green Jobs Guarantee, which will directly create at least 40,000 jobs across this country to rebuild our infrastructure, plant native trees and restore biodiversity, build homes and an economy that we, New Zealanders, own – and can genuinely be proud of.

      “We’ve done it before and we can do it again. Before politicians took their hands off the wheel of the economy 40 years ago and sold off the assets we all used to own, we had a Ministry of Works. Our Ministry of Green Works builds on that proud tradition but is future fit for the climate transition.

      “Our Future Workforce Agency, Mahi Anamata, will actively plan for the skills we need. We’ll revitalise and supercharge the roaring success of Jobs for Nature, and we’ll ensure everyone in this country who wants a good, decent, living-wage paying job will get one.

      “In a time of global volatility, after a forty-year economic experiment that’s failed regular people and is currently seeing record numbers leave the country, it’s time to take back control and build our resilience.

      “A better world is possible, and this is how we build it,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

      https://www.greens.org.nz/greens_mark_may_day_with_green_jobs_guarantee

      Reply
  11. Obtrectator 11
    1 May 2025 at 5:06 pm

    All very well to have RR complaining that too many authority figures in the US are not making themselves heard. But how do they achieve that when ol' 4-O's is sucking up all the bloody oxygen every hour of every day?

    Every American with any shred of authority must loudly and boldly explain the danger we are in.

    A few Democratic members and progressives in Congress (Bernie Sanders, AOC, Cory Booker, Chris Van Hollen, Chris Murphy) have expressed outrage, but most seem oddly quiet. Granted, they have no direct power to stop what is occurring but they cannot and must not appear to acquiesce. They need to be heard, every day – protesting, demanding, resisting, refusing.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/30/trump-next-100-days

    Reply

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