“I said at the time when Nick stood for the Wellington mayoralty that he wasn’t true Labour”
– Andrew Little
“They were eight core people and they’ve walked away. They expected us to help the Greens… we’re not going to work for the Greens, bugger that. It leaked out at the [annual] conference. One of the candidates was told by Andrew Little… people here are really angry.”
– Ex Labour member in Nelson who doesn’t like the deal Turei went public on and Little said wasn’t done on Tuesday.
The latest Roy Morgan has Labour on 23% and Labour+Greens on 37.5% – RM polls vary quite a bit but this is an awful way to finish the year.
What will it take for those remaining in Labour to wake up to the reality that spraying everyone who walks away with vitriol is not going to rebuild the party.
Would 19% be enough of a wake up call?
Or would that be blamed on the pollster, the media, and on all the ex Labour voters too?
Those Nelson members need a lesson in MMP. Nelson is conservative, some didn’t vote for Street when she stood here purely because she is a lesbian.
I’m going to take a leaf out of Peter Goodfellows book… it’s a smear campaign, yes that’s it, that’s the answer to any controversy, it’s a smear campaign by those whom are against us.
No. They want to work for the Labour party and want to be led by their local candidate. That is why National always stands a candidate in Epson. It is Labour who don’t understand MMP, the party vote elects the Government but it is the local committees and volunteers who do the work to make that happen. The Greens have finally woken up to the fact, if they are going to grow their vote to become more than a fringe party they need Electorate seats and the groundswell and legitimacy that brings.
Small parties have two options; behave like NZF and refuse to say which larger party they will support or sign a MOU, which signals to supporters of that party (Labour), that a vote for either is the same thing. I know the MOU finishes on election night, but that is not what voters expect.
The two main parties need to concentrate on their vote and protect the soft support from seeping to a smaller party. That is why National has made some movement on immigration in an attempt to stop the flow to NZF. Labour signing the MOU has helped that flow. Little showed he was a complete novice, when he signed up, and coupled with his own poor ratings this has turned into a disaster. He has lost control of the narrative, the Greens are just leaking what they want and because Little signed the MOU, people assume it is a done deal….perception is everything in politics.
Blaming local people for feeling that they have been abandoned won’t achieve anything, except piss them off even more.
The Greens are a main party now.
Anyone who thinks Green support is going anywhere else but up is delusional.
As are any Labour party members who think they will get back to the Labour/National cosy born to rule. club
“I said at the time when Nick stood for the Wellington mayoralty that he wasn’t true Labour”
– Andrew Little
A view confirmed by Leggett’s subsequent joining of the National Party. Why don’t you stop trying to push shit uphill with a fork?
– Ex Labour member in Nelson who doesn’t like the deal Turei went public on and Little said wasn’t done on Tuesday.
Ex-Labour member in Nelson still doesn’t understand MMP ten years’ later. Not exactly news – there are surprisingly many people who still don’t get it.
Edit: sorry, was meant to be reply to Pete George in comment 1.
‘True Labour’ seems to be a rapidly narrowing thing, and I haven’t seen any clear definition of what it even is.
A political expert says Labour gave Nick Leggett little choice but to jump ship.
Massey University Professor Claire Robinson said Andrew Little has been so vocal about Nick Leggett being disloyal to the party.
“What do you do? You can’t hang around waiting to be told or advised when you become loyal again, so actually I think he didn’t have much choice but to stand for another party.”
Someone who can easily jump to the opposition shouldn’t expect to go far within the Labour Party.
The fact that he did (at one stage) coupled with the fact he was being touted as a potential Party leader, highlights the mess and loss of direction the Party is in.
I did as well a couple of days ago when the rumors spread. Came up with nothing.
Who wrote the article? Perhaps they should explain from whom they received that wisdom. It sounds about as self-manufactured as Shane Jones self-promotion of the same future job opportunity.
I remember looking at Shane Jones a number of years ago displaying the self-love of his oratory, while I was lexxing his actual content down to what I determined to be the pea size of his intellect.
… I haven’t seen any clear definition of what it even is.
We’ve been here before, Pete. There’s a clue cleverly hidden in the name of the party – perhaps so cleverly hidden that only those who aren’t chronically obtuse can see it.
What’s notable about Leggett’s defection is that someone like him with political ambition saw no future with Labour.
An ambitious right-winger saw no future with Labour? Er, good. Anything else notable about it?
PG your still welded to FPP.
Labour is the largest opposition party.
The Greens and Winston first are the the left and right branches Labour middle.
Labour is being cleansed of Neo liberals like yourself.
Won’t that just mean people who support more business friendly policies but also wish to ensure a good level of social spending (e.g. Nick Leggett) are just going to go to National meaning National is more likely to hit 50% than they are now?
The Independent wrote that article. which roughly consigns Labour to the rubbish bin of history, when the Conservatives were on 44% and Labour on 28%.
I wonder what they would describe the New Zealand situation of 49.5% to 23% as?
Clearly New Zealand Labour are in far worse shape.
Incidentally I wonder if Trevor Mallard is trying to reverse his plan to retire gracefully to a cushy seat via the list? With the way the polls are going he will most ungracefully be retired completely. There won’t be any list seats available unless Labour lose a lot of their electorate seats.
I wonder what they would describe the New Zealand situation of 49.5% to 23% as?
I have no idea why you’d compare an apple with an orange. Or a first past the post electorate system (as the UK has) with a MMP system (as we have here).
Your senility or stupidity would seem to be the only options. Perhaps you could comment on that debate.
I’ll be charitable and suggest that alwyn is just being temporarily stupid. Of course that raises the debate about what the temporary effect is caused by?
Well you just stick to your beliefs.
MMP systems will see parties with low popularity gain more seats than they would under a FPP system.
It doesn’t affect the fact that if your popularity is such that you are sinking down to risible levels you aren’t going to be in Government.
If this poll is correct it says that a party that was the most popular one 10 (well 11 actually) years ago is now heading down to be on level pegging with the Green Party.
When Shearer got the push Labour were on about 34% weren’t they?
Why did you dump him for the useless Cunliffe and the even worse Little? No wonder the support is down to 23% and sinking.
MMP favours having a range of parties. They have a strong chance of getting into government because every government is a coalition.
Only a political relic would insist in viewing everything as if it was a head to head contest between two parties as if this was still 1975.
A political party has to represent it’s members and it’s long term supporters. Shearer certainly didn’t do the first and it is unlikely he was doing the second. Instead he was trying to drag the Labour party in directions that had been repeatably refuted in previous decades. So he got the same treatment that we gave Douglas and Moore.
It might be the vision of you and your like minded fair weather friends like Quinn, Leggett, and Pagani. So start your own blog or party rather than being parasites.
2 It has Labour at 23% which would see them get just 28 MPs in a House of 120. As they hold 27 electorates it means on that poll they would get just one List MP – their leader Andrew Little. If they drop just 1% more, then Little loses his seat. Alternatively if they pick up one more electorate seat then again Little loses his seat.
3 Other List MPs such as Jacinda Ardern and David Parker are toast on this result.
4 It is always useful to compare polls to the same time period in the previous election cycle. So how are National and Labour placed in November 2013 and November 2016?
• November 2013 – National 44.5% and Labour 34.0% for a 10.5% lead
• November 2016 – National 49.5% and Labour 23.0% for a 26.5% lead
5 A huge difference. This is the second lowest poll result ever for Labour in the history of the Roy Morgan poll.
paragon
ˈparəɡ(ə)n/
noun
a person or thing regarded as a perfect example of a particular quality.
“it would have taken a paragon of virtue not to feel viciously jealous”
a person or thing viewed as a model of excellence.
“After a decade in the wilderness, Wall Street’s most powerful firm, Goldman Sachs, is dominating the early days of the incoming Trump administration. The newly picked Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, spent 17 years at Goldman. Trump’s top incoming White House adviser, Steve Bannon, spent his early career at the bank. So did Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump’s top transition advisers.
Goldman’s president, Gary Cohn, spent an hour schmoozing with President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday and could be up for an administration job, possibly as director of the Office of Management and Budget, people close to Cohn and the transition said. Cohn, a long-time commodities trader, is friendly with Trump’s powerful son-in-law, Jared Kushner.”
For all the people who frequent this blog that supported Trump over Clinton in the US elections, I hope you see how absurd that is now. Goldman Sachs is getting into every major corner of the Trump Administration, a billionaire who wants to privatise public education is heading the Education Department, and a range of Republicans who are anything but populist/anti-establishment are taking a number of other Cabinet spots. Meanwhile, the GOP Congress is getting ready to rip up Medicare and Medicaid, along with Obamacare. Not to mention his national security appointments!
There are some on here who especially made egregious claims about how Trump would govern for the working class, how he’d bust the establishment, how he’d protect the welfare state, etc…it’s just a farce. If Hillary Clinton had won, we’d be arguing whether or not her carbon emissions reduction plan is aggressive enough, not over Trump possibly abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency. But for some reason people think that someone being ‘outside the establishment’, despite being a literal cartoon billionaire, is better than a woman with decades of experience who would likely just continue Obama’s policies roughly.
What were they thinking when they touted Leggett as a future Leader?
Maybe that they wanted someone electable? articulate? pleasant? A leader?
Maybe to lead a Party that had a policy platform that was left but not so far left to make it unattractive to all but 23% of NZ?
A “real estate agent, specialising in commercial and industrial sales”, has legged it back to his natural home on the right. People are surprised by this?
And their hard left stance has seen them rise to 23% .
Sorry drop to 23%.
The hard left is a much diminished and diminishing base as the internet has allowed people to better access information and compare the living standards of socialist utopias with they real world.
The infiltration by the right has resulted in Labour Party policy falling short. Which in turn has led to a fall in their support, hence increasing their need to work with the Greens.
To Pete George and others: If a National party MP was forced out of the party because they supported the public sector provision of health and education, opposed the sale of state owned assets, supported a high(er) minimum wage, a welfare state, social housing, and intervention in the power market to bring down prices, what would your opinion be? The fact is that if you wish to be part of a political party, you need to sign up to its values. And Labour’s values so happen to be public services, worker protections and state housing. If workers having 5 days of sick leave, cheap power bills and clean air to breathe is so repugnant to Legett then he should join National, whose sole purpose is to dismantle worker’s rights and replace them with contract law, as well as have us choke on LA style smog and impose US style health care.
And you are blind to the modern realities of MMP politics.
MMP was supposed to help the left as apparently the left are progressive and modern and will make the most of it. It’s just kind of came along and fucked the left up, as if you don’t know how to play the game and win votes?
Blaming everyone but yourself is not the way to learn in life. It just ostracizes you further. But hey, what would anyone but those on the “pure” left know right? it’s not like we are generally more successful at everything. Except caring, not actually doing something about caring, just caring and being loud enough about that everyone knows, you care. Well done on that.
Millsy you repeatedly have this rant regarding the NZ government wanting to replace our current health system with one akin to that in the US – yet fail to produce a shred of evidence to support such a position.
For the record both Labour and National strongly support PHARMAC which provides heavily (most often totally) subsidised pharmaceuticals. Governmental spend on health has increased year on year under the current National and previous Labour government and is projected to keep on doing so.
I agree that; “information”, needs to be informative. But when you are paying your budgeted Public Relations money to PR consultants every month, that just doesn’t seem to happen.
it was ”quite frankly, farcical” that the company blamed problems it faced on an ageing network, rather than ”lack of maintenance, lack of planning and the excessive profits creamed from the network for the last 26 years”…
Staff called on the Etu union to organise a meeting for union and non-union members to discuss the matter, and the resolution in the letter that was developed for the meeting.
The letter said the employees, who installed and maintained lines, cables and equipment in the network ”believe that much of the network is in a run-down state”.
That meant compromised safety for both workers and the public…suggested radio advertisements and full-page newspaper notices ”explaining the dangers and showing what gear and areas to avoid around poles etc”.
Information released to the media needed to be accurate and factual, ”something which has been sadly lacking so far”.
“may I ask, why do you think National regard, “WFF, interest free loans ect etc…” as “dead rats”?”
– I think National regard them as dead rats because its basically middle class welfare but they can’t get rid of it without suffering major voter backlash from the middle class voters
Doesn’t sound as though those things are part of National’s kaupapa, more that they are foreign objects that need to be swallowed in order to stay alive. Ne ra?
– Yes they are, I completely agree with this statement
However something else to note is that National, especially under john Key, is somewhat of a broad church, you have fundamentalists (probably) and atheists, blue Greens and dig it all ups, Nick Leggatt wants to bring in the living wage yet he’s standing for National
So I think that National has moved towards the centre and as Wayne put it yesterday its not likely the voters of NZ would vote for a hard right/far right party especially under MMP
There’s one huge difference between National and labour.
National runs it self like a business, Labour still runs it’self like a political party.
When you run your political party like a businesses you’re looking at what your “customers” want and adapting your “products” to suit and make them more attractive to existing and potential customers.
Part of being a successful business is to increase market share, for National that means appealing to both center left and center right, so a lot of the stuff Clark put in place stays because it has voter appeal and by doing so it locks in those center left voters.
Political Ideology has no place in National any more, it’s stifling and does more harm than good.
“No customers, no business.” – true, if you buy in to the business model. There are other models but, as you are perhaps saying, they have to compete with the consumption model which is a very hungry one. People, I contend, don’t have to be consumers. There are other models for us to chose from, however, we are in the thrall of business at this point in our history. More fool us, I say.
Run like a business all right.
Where the Managers make the short term profits look good so they can run off with the cream.
While a few years later the business fails because all the income earning assets have been sold and the staff have had enough.
BM’s pointing to how National treats the gaining and retaining of the Government benches as a business; the business of winning elections. His point is well made, I think. National’s other business, as described by KJT, has been well picked over here on TS but is a side-line to the business of winning votes.
Businesses that exploit for profit and diminish the trust with their customers have a natural end game. Be prepared for tanking sales. Just look at the Clintons. The Nats have gone down this path thus their fate is determined.
I agree, to a certain extant, yet if it were completely true the partial sell down of the power companies wouldn’t have happened nor would the GST increase gone ahead and NZ would be taking in more refugees
But certainly the message is much better presented by National
No, that shows an ideological party in action. A party that will go against the wishes of the people to implement the policy that they want that will enrich a few while making everyone else worse off.
An election was fought with asset sales as a major issue. The party proposing to sell the assets won the election. How can you then claim they went against the wishes of the people. Not voting is a tacit acceptance of the policies of the party that eventually wins, whether you like them or not.
How can you then claim they went against the wishes of the people.
Because polling and a referendum showed 70% of people against the sales.
I can only assume that some people voted for National despite their policy of selling state assets in the belief that they’d then listen to the public and not sell them. Just as they did with mining protected areas on Great Barrier.
Not voting is a tacit acceptance of the policies of the party that eventually wins, whether you like them or not.
It could be viewed that way. It can also be viewed as a vote of no confidence. The thing is, we don’t know.
Which is why I say we need to view voting as a duty not a right and make it compulsory.
And the 70% against asset sales is why I support policies being set by referenda and not by parliament. Why we should be getting rid of ‘government’ altogether. Elected dictatorship does not bring about the wishes of the people.
The Nats went into the election banging a drum and telling everyone they were selling the power companies and they romped home in the election, they SLAUGHTERED Labour who campaigned to keep the power companies.
People voted Nat because they wanted the power companies sold.
Just because a party wins the election doesn’t mean that they then, ipso facto, carry out the wishes of the people.
It was obvious from before the election happened through polling that people didn’t want to sell our state assets. Referendum after the election showed that to still be true.
National still sold those assets – against the will of the people.
And, no, they didn’t slaughter Labour – without the overhang seats of UF and Act they would not have been able to sell those assets.
We don’t have a democracy – we have an elected dictatorship. If we had an actual democracy the announcement of seeking a referendum would have stopped the sale until afterwards and the actual referendum would have stopped the sale altogether – because the people of NZ didn’t want to sell them.
yes National slaughtered Labour, wiped the floor with them and pissed all over them.
Nats got twice the vote of Labour.
Labour would have needed the support of four other parties to beat National.
The people voted for National knowing National would sell the assets and were happy to do so because the alternative was so appalling.
Labour would have needed the support of four other parties to beat National.
And National needed three.
The people voted for National knowing National would sell the assets and were happy to do so because the alternative was so appalling.
Nope. People voted for National and then tried to stop them selling the assets. That’s what the referendum was for – National continued with their failed ideology.
It is one thing to run a political party like a business (and in that I think your analysis re National is correct), however there are obvious problems with running a country as a business.
National runs it self like a business, Labour still runs it’self like a political party.
Labour runs itself like a government.
National (as you say) runs itself like a business. It considers that a long-range plan is no more than 4-5 years.
That is its problem. Kids take 20 years to raise. Victims of childhood abuse cost the country (one way or another) for 50+ years after the abuse stops. Moderately severe earthquakes (like Christchurch or Kaikoura) happen every 20-30 years on average. Severe ones happen about every 80 years on average. Defense forces and hospital systems take decades to get running properly. etc.
National may be fit to be a business with their short-term thinking. But they aren’t capable of being a government.
Who gives a flying fuck about how good their marketing is. BM are you really that shallow?
That folks is the ideology underpinning of this national government right there on display by BM. First it denies it’s ideological, then it proceeds like a Marxist on acid to steam roll anything which disagrees with it. Secondly it argues it’s just common sense, when it is anything but. Third, a complete lack of understanding of what ideology is to muddy the waters. And finally the ‘big lie’ if the lie is big most people believe it, if it small almost no one believes it…
Just for the record BM, the last person who said there were no place for ideology in a political party was a vain, short, sex addicted, snake tongue, and Italian…
Well, BM, either you’re extremely clever or you really believe your idea of the “business model”, if it is your idea. Is it?
National operates like a corporate, a global corporate for that matter, not a national one.
Here’s the thing that I don’t buy [no pun]: we, the people, the voters, are National’s “customers”.
There’s a famous quote – it is just a quote:
If you’re not paying for it; you are the product
Hang on, you say, we are paying, we are paying taxes!
Sure, we do, but we do regardless of who’s in government and we would get (most of) the services regardless. I could expand on this, and probably should, but it’s getting late and I want to get to my main point(s).
But but but, you say, we ‘pay’ with our votes, not in hard(-earned) dollars.
Indeed, and now you’re getting closer to the truth of the National Party.
National’s “business” is staying in power and maintaining status quo.
By making us believe we’re getting something in return National remains in power. However, are we the real beneficiaries of this ‘transaction’ or is there more to it?
To answer this question you’d need to follow the money, my dear fellow New Zealand taxpayer and law-abiding consumer.
Yes, we are customers and consumers in the literal sense, but not National’s, and, at a different level, we are the product or commodity that National uses to achieve its ‘target’.
Complete and utter nonsense, you say. Fair enough, please go to the National Party website and read it for yourself:
Less debt, more jobs, strong stable government
The National Party seeks a safe, prosperous, and successful New Zealand that creates opportunities for all New Zealanders to reach their personal goals and dreams.
You see, National ‘sells’ us dreams! It is pure make-belief, trickery magic, and mass hypnosis packed into one smooth political message. And it does the trick very well!
Meanwhile some people are laughing all the way to the bank, literally, and laughing at us, the poor suckers, who are buying this dream shit and day-in-day-out work at the coal-face to pay the bills and for our children’s education so that they can “reach their personal goals and dreams” because that’s our dream, isn’t it?
Now, before you shake your head in disbelief that I can be so stupid I’ll give you one more reason to do some head banging: the Labour Party is doing essentially the same …
The “we are all customers” concept is an interesting one and the analogy invites comment about how customer decisions are made; why buy this product and not that product, why buy at all, etc. The role of advertising is key (apologies there) and purchasers of products are famously plastic when it comes to their decisions. As well, there’s the deeper consume-like-a-consumer issue for those who think we are consuming our world and that the consumption model is our undoing on a global scale.
Chomsky on America’s Ugly History:
FDR Was Fascist-Friendly Before WWII AlterNet, Nov. 29, 2016
Before the Second World War, what view did the United States government have of fascism in Germany? What was the political and military relationship between Berlin and Washington?
Noam Chomsky: Well, it was a mixed story. Roosevelt himself had a mixed attitude. For example, he was pretty supportive of Mussolini’s fascism, in fact described Mussolini as “that admirable Italian gentleman.” He later concluded that Mussolini had been misled by his association with Hitler and had been led kind of down the wrong path. But the American business community, the power systems in the United States were highly supportive of Mussolini.
In fact, even parts of the labor bureaucracy were. Fortune Magazine for example, the major business journal I think in 1932, had an issue with the headline, I’m quoting it: “The wops are unwopping themselves.” The “wop” is a kind of a derogatory term for Italians and the “wops are finally unwopping themselves,” under Mussolini they’re becoming part of the civilized world. There was criticism of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, a lot of criticism. But basically pretty supportive attitude toward Mussolini’s fascism. When Germany, when Hitler took over, the attitude was more mixed.
There was a concern for a potential threat but nevertheless the general approach of the U.S., the British even more so, was fairly supportive. So for example in 1937, the State Department described Hitler as a kind of a moderate, fending off the dangerous forces of the right (and left). The State Department described Hitler as a moderate who was holding off the forces, the dangerous forces of the left, meaning the Bolsheviks, the labor movement and so on, and of the right, namely the extremist Nazism. Hitler was kind of in the middle and therefore we should kind of support him. This is a pretty familiar stance, incidentally like in many other cases.
Chomsky is talking about the shamelessness, the depravity and the boundless cynicism of the American and British political establishments, not about labels.
This has nothing to do with “left” and “right”—not that you even understand what you mean when you fling those labels about. You really do not have a clue.
Chomsky is talking about the shamelessness, the depravity and the boundless cynicism of the American and British political establishments, not about labels.
Well, yes. We can take that as read because that’s what he always talks about. I guess we can count our blessings that their shamelessness, depravity and boundless cynicism haven’t infected the political establishments of other countries… oh, wait…
Well, apart from his theory of transformational syntax being a big part of my undergraduate major in Linguistics back in the 80s, the various books of his I’ve read and the time I went to see him speak, you’re right, I know fuck-all about him. Those things don’t really constitute getting to know a person. I suspect you imagine you know plenty about him, on the other hand, with the emphasis being on the word “imagine.”
It’s a long read, but worth it to get a picture of what the super-rich do when just lowering taxes at home isn’t enough for them. Screwing (soon to be ex-) partners seems to be just an added benefit.
I fold. If I didn’t, this would escalate to the End of Days and I don’t want to be responsible for that. In a way, I’ve averted global catastrophy here today. I need no thanks, it’s just what I do.
*shuffles modestly
Oh my goodness! ANOTHER Public Servant doing their job.
Golly gosh, this could become a trend….an actual thing…
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier fronts up to the Education Select Committee and tells them…this legislation has the potential to allow schools to exclude children with disabilities (especially autism) from schools….by forcing them into one of the brandspanking new On Line Schools.
and oooh look! Its on Natrad….more publicly paid people doing their job!
I am starting to feel a tiny little bit of optimism for the future. These are high profile government appointees speaking out on some of the most important issue facing New Zealand’s most vulnerable.
lol….no Im saying that if polls are a true (within MoE) representation of voter intention then it would be reasonable to expect a non response that equates with real life participation……this poll states a non selection rate of 6.5% (unchanged) whereas the last election had a non selection rate of 23%…..obviously their sample is not representative.
Interesting that the shipping interests have taken the opportunity of the debacle of essential roads rendered impassable also train transport, to point out the bleeding obvious that sea transport is the new black. It may be the time to breach the wall of determined ignorance that the National government puts up to important faults in their choice of governance of the country which includes emphasis on roads which in a stretched out country, is very expensive and inefficient. Also they made the point about how sea transport would reduce our carbon footprint.
The New Zealand Shipping Federation says the government needs to take the resilience of ports seriously as the Kaikoura earthquake has shown the vulnerability of roading – and consider what their role is when auditing them. Annabel Young is the Executive Director of the NZ Shipping Federation. Canterbury University Professor of Geological Sciences Tim Davies, says improving and increasing the transport network through coastal shipping is essential. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201826002
Well I will take the opportunity to wish you (early) a Merry Christmas and good relaxing times with Lyn and some nice cool beers and time to do what you fancy for once.
🙂 relaxing. I wish.
Between now and the 4th on Jan when I head back to work to carry on the current project, I will be fitting in
1. One more day on the current project
2. Two weeks work in Italy.
3. 4 days work on the current project (and jetlag).
4. Family xmas in Auckland
5. Family Birthday in ChCh
6. Family New Years in Auckland.
7. Maybe a couple of days of downtime….
But I will have sometime in the evenings after I get to Italy…
And I suspect a good holiday when it starts cooling down again in March/April
Well all I can say is – that it doesn’t sound boring. And two weeks work in Italy sounds exotic but I fear that it might be like the period my son spent in Paris. In a narrow concrete room lined with computers and people facing the walls, opening out onto a grey concrete corridor – or that’s the picture in my mind. Not an ooh la la in sight. So hope you have time for a chianti – ciao and kia kaha.
“Because they [scientists] think they are so smarty-pants, they think they can say whatever they like and we should just take it.”
“The more educated you are in a field, the narrower your thinking becomes. I’m not hot on these academics…sitting on comfy chairs up on their hill. I’ve studied this subject for over 20 years, I know a little bit more than they do.”
. It seems that when there is insecurity within the populace people flock to Conservative Politicans. Looking tor the blanket. And the Rhetoric.
Trump in USA. Cameron in the UK. Both deep Conservatives
The wheel spins and it turns out that the Conservatives know only one thing – and that is how to look after their own income and glamour. They thank the voters who voted them into power by putting Austerity packages on the PAYE middle class and on the very poor.
While the Politicians blatantly fiddle with their Tax Avoidance schemes.
Conservatives always have the best rhetoric – full of empty promise. They also have ostentatious wealth. Glamour Glamour Glamour.
So in time, but always too late, the Voters disown the Conservative hoax and walk to the center left, because they know that Labour / Greens / and like minded, care for the Community.
All I can say is :
. With all the support that all the Main Stream Media gives to National Party hacks; with all the money Bill English borrows; with all the efforts of the wandering trolls who suck up to John Key …
With all that, why is New Zealand in a death spiral? Why will the present young generation from cradle to grave receive nothing but excessive burden from Mr Key?
Because Mr Key does exactly what the greed of Corporations and Media want. He is an actor; a hoax; a shallow wealthy being building up Casinos. As does Trump.
He and his mates simply do not care. They care not about our polluted water; not about our work or pay; not about our Education; not about our Health provision; not about our lack of infrastructure; not about our future.
New Zealand Conservatives have a lot to think over.
The normally excellent Lynn Freeman failed to do her job this morning.
RNZ National, Thursday 1 December 2016, 11:10 a.m.
I’m sure that many regular listeners will agree with me that Lynn Freeman is superior to the regular Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan. She’s more thoughtful, better and more widely read, and is prepared to challenge and refute the dodgy statements of people like Matthew Hooton. [1] But she’s not perfect: this morning she allowed “new technology expert” Andy Linton to repeat a bizarre and unfounded trope from a thoroughly discredited and unsuccessful election campaign. [2]
Disappointed, I sent her the following email…..
Andy Linton’s dismissal of Julian Assange
Dear Lynn,
I was disturbed to hear your technology correspondent Andy Linton recycling the Clinton campaign’s cynical propaganda against the dissident journalist Julian Assange. To compound his credulity, Andy Linton snickered when he suggested that “Assange’s agenda is to get out of the Ecuadorian embassy.”
I never fail to be appalled when I hear safe and complacent people deriving humour from the suffering of those who dare to tell the truth. Surely Andy Linton should be supporting Julian Assange, not laughing at his plight.
. I think that very few people have confidence in Polls nowadays. Because they rely on an ever reducing number of people who have landlines.
Also, the wide variety of polling results (consider USA recently) is disconcerting. Pollsters did not even correctly select who is the President to be.
If the recent CB or RM polls were favorable to Labour, it would have been headline news here. A little bit of discussion (denial) on the CB, but the disastrous – yes, 23% is a disaster- RM poll has passed through with merely a mention.
Some people are talking about it, but they seem to think the solution is for Labour to follow Corbynite UK Labour and lurch leftwards.
But if the UK polls are anything to go by, Corbyn is leading his party to a rout at the next General Election.
Yeah, yeah, I know his name is Andrew, but didn’t the Mayor of Kaikoura refer to him as David? It’s a mark of how poorly Little projects himself. You could argue that personalities shouldn’t matter, but the fact is that they do.
And you can choose to ignore Roy Morgan if you want, but the other polls don’t make things look much better for Labour.
Seems both the Colmar and the Roy Morgan under estimate the National vote – So I do no get where you are saying Morgans being wide of the mark – unless you think National is higher.
BTW OT – All the full stops?? – is your keyboard broken?
That Farrar chooses to test the efficacy of polls by comparing to the polls just before an election to the election result, and then somehow implying that they were just as effective a year earlier long before many people voting would have made up their mind – well that tells me:-
Either David Farrar is statistically a moron who doesn’t understand the maths of sample sizes and confidence
Or David Farrar is PR mouthpiece saying whatever is advantageous for his business
Or both.
That you choose to present this as something worth discussing, just makes you look ignorant and/or stupid.
. Why do you support so firmly National’s scandalous treatment of the ordinary person within New Zealand.
You know perfectly well that wages are too low for even doctors to purchase a house. And rents are too high for many people to afford anything but a hovel. Or even a shed.
You ram your wicked philosophy into the ordinary Kiwi by giving the Landords huge subsidies – taken from the Paye Tax Payers, minimum Wage Earners; Pensioners and Beneficiaries – while you use tax avoidance to live the life of Reilly.
The landlords of course get all manner of tax exemptions on top of their excessive exploitation.
You are great people MLPC. You truly are. I wonder why you disgust me to the core..
Your problem, OT, is that you obviously think the ordinary person is stupid, and that you know better than they do what is good for them.
You can’t understand why Labour is deeply unpopular, can you?
I can tell you. It is because the party has completely lost a connection with the ordinary person. It has a completely useless leadership. And it is so disparate that it has climbed into bed with another party whose policies are anathema to the interests of the ordinary working person.
I don’t care if I disgust you to the core. I care more about the ordinary working person than you do.
Joe Biggs is an Infowars reporter. This Pizzagate thing first sounded bizzare. Over the period of the last few weeks the information coming out is only reinforcing the idea that there is something very, very sinister to look into. At this point I’m actually trying to prove my normalicy bias correct, rather than the #Pizzagate. So far my attempts keep failing : (
Yesterday SGT Report had a video covering the disproportionate amount of childrening missing in Virginia. Now this:
Thankyou for your diagnosis of what you call my problem. Your certainty taints and swamps any discussion.
You don’t discuss. You just proclaim. – as if you were Almighty. Please turn your megaphone down. Right down to an angry endless Shout.
Your support for the ordinary man comes as a bit of a surprise mlpc. But I accept that you do everything better than me – and better than anyone anywhere.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
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Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
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Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
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The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
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The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
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New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
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Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
“I said at the time when Nick stood for the Wellington mayoralty that he wasn’t true Labour”
– Andrew Little
“They were eight core people and they’ve walked away. They expected us to help the Greens… we’re not going to work for the Greens, bugger that. It leaked out at the [annual] conference. One of the candidates was told by Andrew Little… people here are really angry.”
– Ex Labour member in Nelson who doesn’t like the deal Turei went public on and Little said wasn’t done on Tuesday.
The latest Roy Morgan has Labour on 23% and Labour+Greens on 37.5% – RM polls vary quite a bit but this is an awful way to finish the year.
What will it take for those remaining in Labour to wake up to the reality that spraying everyone who walks away with vitriol is not going to rebuild the party.
Would 19% be enough of a wake up call?
Or would that be blamed on the pollster, the media, and on all the ex Labour voters too?
Those members in Nelson could always be encouraged to work for, y’know, the party vote.
Why do they think they’d be working for the greens?
Those Nelson members need a lesson in MMP. Nelson is conservative, some didn’t vote for Street when she stood here purely because she is a lesbian.
I’m going to take a leaf out of Peter Goodfellows book… it’s a smear campaign, yes that’s it, that’s the answer to any controversy, it’s a smear campaign by those whom are against us.
No. They want to work for the Labour party and want to be led by their local candidate. That is why National always stands a candidate in Epson. It is Labour who don’t understand MMP, the party vote elects the Government but it is the local committees and volunteers who do the work to make that happen. The Greens have finally woken up to the fact, if they are going to grow their vote to become more than a fringe party they need Electorate seats and the groundswell and legitimacy that brings.
Small parties have two options; behave like NZF and refuse to say which larger party they will support or sign a MOU, which signals to supporters of that party (Labour), that a vote for either is the same thing. I know the MOU finishes on election night, but that is not what voters expect.
The two main parties need to concentrate on their vote and protect the soft support from seeping to a smaller party. That is why National has made some movement on immigration in an attempt to stop the flow to NZF. Labour signing the MOU has helped that flow. Little showed he was a complete novice, when he signed up, and coupled with his own poor ratings this has turned into a disaster. He has lost control of the narrative, the Greens are just leaking what they want and because Little signed the MOU, people assume it is a done deal….perception is everything in politics.
Blaming local people for feeling that they have been abandoned won’t achieve anything, except piss them off even more.
The Greens are a main party now.
Anyone who thinks Green support is going anywhere else but up is delusional.
As are any Labour party members who think they will get back to the Labour/National cosy born to rule. club
The Greens are not a main party. They cannot move their vote from the fringe.
They may become one, tho’, if Labour stick to their current terrible “strategy”
Good to have a link to those quotes please
Nick Leggett ‘wasn’t true Labour’ – Andrew Little
– http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/nick-leggett-wasnt-true-labour—andrew-little-2016112615
‘Bugger that!’ – Labour members leave party over proposed deal with Green Party in Nelson
– https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/bugger-labour-members-leave-party-over-proposed-deal-green-in-nelson
And now how about a quote of a Labour member or MP “spraying vitriol”.
It also begs the question: Did they move away from Labour, or has Labour moved away from them. I suspect the reality is that it may be a bit of both.
“I said at the time when Nick stood for the Wellington mayoralty that he wasn’t true Labour”
– Andrew Little
A view confirmed by Leggett’s subsequent joining of the National Party. Why don’t you stop trying to push shit uphill with a fork?
– Ex Labour member in Nelson who doesn’t like the deal Turei went public on and Little said wasn’t done on Tuesday.
Ex-Labour member in Nelson still doesn’t understand MMP ten years’ later. Not exactly news – there are surprisingly many people who still don’t get it.
Edit: sorry, was meant to be reply to Pete George in comment 1.
‘True Labour’ seems to be a rapidly narrowing thing, and I haven’t seen any clear definition of what it even is.
What’s notable about Leggett’s defection is that someone like him with political ambition saw no future with Labour.
Labour is not exactly over-endowed with new talent. Nor with old members.
I don’t think one dominant party is good for New Zealand, but that seems to be where we’re headed.
He could have got a job.
Someone who can easily jump to the opposition shouldn’t expect to go far within the Labour Party.
The fact that he did (at one stage) coupled with the fact he was being touted as a potential Party leader, highlights the mess and loss of direction the Party is in.
Leggett never appeared on my horizon as a potential leader.
I’d really like to know where this ‘touting’ came from? Leggett, Quin, and Pagani?
I did a bit of looking – I couldnt find anything.
I did as well a couple of days ago when the rumors spread. Came up with nothing.
Who wrote the article? Perhaps they should explain from whom they received that wisdom. It sounds about as self-manufactured as Shane Jones self-promotion of the same future job opportunity.
I remember looking at Shane Jones a number of years ago displaying the self-love of his oratory, while I was lexxing his actual content down to what I determined to be the pea size of his intellect.
… I haven’t seen any clear definition of what it even is.
We’ve been here before, Pete. There’s a clue cleverly hidden in the name of the party – perhaps so cleverly hidden that only those who aren’t chronically obtuse can see it.
What’s notable about Leggett’s defection is that someone like him with political ambition saw no future with Labour.
An ambitious right-winger saw no future with Labour? Er, good. Anything else notable about it?
“Professor Claire Robinson”
Yeah right. The only thing noticeable about her is that she really doesn’t like anyone left of a David Shearer or greener than John Key.
You really do know how to destroy your own argument.
PG your still welded to FPP.
Labour is the largest opposition party.
The Greens and Winston first are the the left and right branches Labour middle.
Labour is being cleansed of Neo liberals like yourself.
Won’t that just mean people who support more business friendly policies but also wish to ensure a good level of social spending (e.g. Nick Leggett) are just going to go to National meaning National is more likely to hit 50% than they are now?
And in the meantime the U.K. Labour Hard Left experiment has seen Labour drop to near record low levels of support.
Still a lot of enthusiasm here for NZ Labour going down the same route?
The NZ Labour Party centrist stance has seen their support drastically fall as well.
The current Labour stance is somewhere Left of HC’s govt. – Trade Union Leader etc., and cannot get within a very long barge poll of 2005 support.
So if Harder Left don’t work, and Center Left also ain’t doing it, that leaves shifting towards further Right?
“The current Labour stance is somewhere Left of HC’s govt”
I disagree. Despite Little coming from the Union, the Party’s position is still centrist. There has been no commitment to overturn past Labour policy.
Therefore, we’ve yet to see Labour move back to a left wing stance.
Get with the programme man – “Labour under Andrew Little has rejected neo-liberalism.”
https://thestandard.org.nz/labours-legacy-building-a-better-new-zealand/#comment-1267498
The problem being is that Labour haven’t gone Left. In fact, they’re still centre-right and they’re bleeding support because of it.
And I haven’t really seen anything from UK Labour that indicates that they’ve gone hard left from their Blairite position either.
The Independent wrote that article. which roughly consigns Labour to the rubbish bin of history, when the Conservatives were on 44% and Labour on 28%.
I wonder what they would describe the New Zealand situation of 49.5% to 23% as?
Clearly New Zealand Labour are in far worse shape.
Incidentally I wonder if Trevor Mallard is trying to reverse his plan to retire gracefully to a cushy seat via the list? With the way the polls are going he will most ungracefully be retired completely. There won’t be any list seats available unless Labour lose a lot of their electorate seats.
I have no idea why you’d compare an apple with an orange. Or a first past the post electorate system (as the UK has) with a MMP system (as we have here).
Your senility or stupidity would seem to be the only options. Perhaps you could comment on that debate.
I’ll be charitable and suggest that alwyn is just being temporarily stupid. Of course that raises the debate about what the temporary effect is caused by?
Well you just stick to your beliefs.
MMP systems will see parties with low popularity gain more seats than they would under a FPP system.
It doesn’t affect the fact that if your popularity is such that you are sinking down to risible levels you aren’t going to be in Government.
If this poll is correct it says that a party that was the most popular one 10 (well 11 actually) years ago is now heading down to be on level pegging with the Green Party.
When Shearer got the push Labour were on about 34% weren’t they?
Why did you dump him for the useless Cunliffe and the even worse Little? No wonder the support is down to 23% and sinking.
MMP favours having a range of parties. They have a strong chance of getting into government because every government is a coalition.
Only a political relic would insist in viewing everything as if it was a head to head contest between two parties as if this was still 1975.
A political party has to represent it’s members and it’s long term supporters. Shearer certainly didn’t do the first and it is unlikely he was doing the second. Instead he was trying to drag the Labour party in directions that had been repeatably refuted in previous decades. So he got the same treatment that we gave Douglas and Moore.
It might be the vision of you and your like minded fair weather friends like Quinn, Leggett, and Pagani. So start your own blog or party rather than being parasites.
2 It has Labour at 23% which would see them get just 28 MPs in a House of 120. As they hold 27 electorates it means on that poll they would get just one List MP – their leader Andrew Little. If they drop just 1% more, then Little loses his seat. Alternatively if they pick up one more electorate seat then again Little loses his seat.
3 Other List MPs such as Jacinda Ardern and David Parker are toast on this result.
4 It is always useful to compare polls to the same time period in the previous election cycle. So how are National and Labour placed in November 2013 and November 2016?
• November 2013 – National 44.5% and Labour 34.0% for a 10.5% lead
• November 2016 – National 49.5% and Labour 23.0% for a 26.5% lead
5 A huge difference. This is the second lowest poll result ever for Labour in the history of the Roy Morgan poll.
just link it instead of stealing it?
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2016/12/little_on_brink_of_losing_his_own_seat.html
Plagiarism is fine in a RWNJ’s world since they are all part of a Borg collective. What one says, they all say.
Selling other peoples work was the forte of that paragon of the hard Left, Kim Dot Con. No Righty him.
“paragon of the hard Left,”
excuse me?
paragon
ˈparəɡ(ə)n/
noun
a person or thing regarded as a perfect example of a particular quality.
“it would have taken a paragon of virtue not to feel viciously jealous”
a person or thing viewed as a model of excellence.
“a person or thing viewed as a model of excellence.”
so yeah – your talking rubbish
many liked KDC due to the events of the time, but at the same time, few trusted the guy further than they could throw him.
so no paragon of the hard left like you tried to claim
Please try not to pollute this site with propaganda from Kiwiblog, it brings the tone of debate down to a level that some find offensive
Thanks for the note from the censor, Comrade.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/goldman-sachs-power-white-house-231998?cmpid=sf
“After a decade in the wilderness, Wall Street’s most powerful firm, Goldman Sachs, is dominating the early days of the incoming Trump administration. The newly picked Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, spent 17 years at Goldman. Trump’s top incoming White House adviser, Steve Bannon, spent his early career at the bank. So did Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump’s top transition advisers.
Goldman’s president, Gary Cohn, spent an hour schmoozing with President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday and could be up for an administration job, possibly as director of the Office of Management and Budget, people close to Cohn and the transition said. Cohn, a long-time commodities trader, is friendly with Trump’s powerful son-in-law, Jared Kushner.”
For all the people who frequent this blog that supported Trump over Clinton in the US elections, I hope you see how absurd that is now. Goldman Sachs is getting into every major corner of the Trump Administration, a billionaire who wants to privatise public education is heading the Education Department, and a range of Republicans who are anything but populist/anti-establishment are taking a number of other Cabinet spots. Meanwhile, the GOP Congress is getting ready to rip up Medicare and Medicaid, along with Obamacare. Not to mention his national security appointments!
There are some on here who especially made egregious claims about how Trump would govern for the working class, how he’d bust the establishment, how he’d protect the welfare state, etc…it’s just a farce. If Hillary Clinton had won, we’d be arguing whether or not her carbon emissions reduction plan is aggressive enough, not over Trump possibly abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency. But for some reason people think that someone being ‘outside the establishment’, despite being a literal cartoon billionaire, is better than a woman with decades of experience who would likely just continue Obama’s policies roughly.
All those voters angry about a speech at Goldman Sachs sure showed America! .
“I said at the time when Nick stood for the Wellington mayoralty that he wasn’t true Labour” – Andrew Little.
And to think, Leggett had previously been touted as a potential future Labour Party leader.
What were they thinking?
Douglas, Jones, Leggett, etc… Labour have allowed themselves to be infiltrated by the right.
What were they thinking when they touted Leggett as a future Leader?
Maybe that they wanted someone electable? articulate? pleasant? A leader?
Maybe to lead a Party that had a policy platform that was left but not so far left to make it unattractive to all but 23% of NZ?
Liggett was hard right, and wanted to privatise everything.
A “real estate agent, specialising in commercial and industrial sales”, has legged it back to his natural home on the right. People are surprised by this?
Hard Right millsy?
Your head is so far up your arse you must see daylight.
“Maybe to lead a Party that had a policy platform that was left but not so far left to make it unattractive to all but 23% of NZ?”
Labour haven’t been left since 1984.
Therefore, their National lite position has contributed to their downfall.
And their hard left stance has seen them rise to 23% .
Sorry drop to 23%.
The hard left is a much diminished and diminishing base as the internet has allowed people to better access information and compare the living standards of socialist utopias with they real world.
Compare Denmark, Sweden and Norway to right wing paradises like Somalia, Haiti and Chicago. Fixed it for you.
Their hard left stance?
You must be joking. Labour don’t have a hard left stance.
More National-sponsored polling, it didn’t work for Hillary, it won’t work for Key and his cronies
I think the problem Labour should be more concerned about is the infiltration by the greens.
The infiltration by the right has resulted in Labour Party policy falling short. Which in turn has led to a fall in their support, hence increasing their need to work with the Greens.
To Pete George and others: If a National party MP was forced out of the party because they supported the public sector provision of health and education, opposed the sale of state owned assets, supported a high(er) minimum wage, a welfare state, social housing, and intervention in the power market to bring down prices, what would your opinion be? The fact is that if you wish to be part of a political party, you need to sign up to its values. And Labour’s values so happen to be public services, worker protections and state housing. If workers having 5 days of sick leave, cheap power bills and clean air to breathe is so repugnant to Legett then he should join National, whose sole purpose is to dismantle worker’s rights and replace them with contract law, as well as have us choke on LA style smog and impose US style health care.
millsy.
Dunno… it never happens. The Nats are so left of center these days anyone is welcome.
I mean FFS…Leggett is in favour of stealing money from unemployed poor people and gifting it to Council staff via the totally bullshit “living wage”
The man has no place in the Blue camp.
so thats why the nats help act in epsom – they need them to run all their hard left stuff they dont want to be seen handling ,
good grief man – your talking nonsense that ignores personal/party history, ideology and concepts of modern marketing
Huh wot?
Epsom is just a free seat. Be pretty dumb not to take it huh?
” The Nats are so left of center these days”
your talking nonsense that ignores personal/party history, ideology and concepts of modern marketing
you know what i said (i hope) yet your playing dumb games.
Please stop being this way – its really dull.
And you are blind to the modern realities of MMP politics.
MMP was supposed to help the left as apparently the left are progressive and modern and will make the most of it. It’s just kind of came along and fucked the left up, as if you don’t know how to play the game and win votes?
Blaming everyone but yourself is not the way to learn in life. It just ostracizes you further. But hey, what would anyone but those on the “pure” left know right? it’s not like we are generally more successful at everything. Except caring, not actually doing something about caring, just caring and being loud enough about that everyone knows, you care. Well done on that.
What the hell are you on about? Seriosuly – it makes zero sense as a reply
thats a weird response to me saying that…
“based on ideology and history national arent left of center”
do you think national are left of center?
Millsy you repeatedly have this rant regarding the NZ government wanting to replace our current health system with one akin to that in the US – yet fail to produce a shred of evidence to support such a position.
For the record both Labour and National strongly support PHARMAC which provides heavily (most often totally) subsidised pharmaceuticals. Governmental spend on health has increased year on year under the current National and previous Labour government and is projected to keep on doing so.
I agree that; “information”, needs to be informative. But when you are paying your budgeted Public Relations money to PR consultants every month, that just doesn’t seem to happen.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/dcc/deltas-explanations-farcical-staff-believe
To Robert
“may I ask, why do you think National regard, “WFF, interest free loans ect etc…” as “dead rats”?”
– I think National regard them as dead rats because its basically middle class welfare but they can’t get rid of it without suffering major voter backlash from the middle class voters
Doesn’t sound as though those things are part of National’s kaupapa, more that they are foreign objects that need to be swallowed in order to stay alive. Ne ra?
– Yes they are, I completely agree with this statement
However something else to note is that National, especially under john Key, is somewhat of a broad church, you have fundamentalists (probably) and atheists, blue Greens and dig it all ups, Nick Leggatt wants to bring in the living wage yet he’s standing for National
So I think that National has moved towards the centre and as Wayne put it yesterday its not likely the voters of NZ would vote for a hard right/far right party especially under MMP
There’s one huge difference between National and labour.
National runs it self like a business, Labour still runs it’self like a political party.
When you run your political party like a businesses you’re looking at what your “customers” want and adapting your “products” to suit and make them more attractive to existing and potential customers.
Part of being a successful business is to increase market share, for National that means appealing to both center left and center right, so a lot of the stuff Clark put in place stays because it has voter appeal and by doing so it locks in those center left voters.
Political Ideology has no place in National any more, it’s stifling and does more harm than good.
Hit the nail on the head, BM, and you know, the customer is always right, right?
Certainly is , they’re the people who keep a business/political party afloat.
No customers, no business.
“No customers, no business.” – true, if you buy in to the business model. There are other models but, as you are perhaps saying, they have to compete with the consumption model which is a very hungry one. People, I contend, don’t have to be consumers. There are other models for us to chose from, however, we are in the thrall of business at this point in our history. More fool us, I say.
There is more than a grain of truth to what you say there BM.
Run like a business all right.
Where the Managers make the short term profits look good so they can run off with the cream.
While a few years later the business fails because all the income earning assets have been sold and the staff have had enough.
Run like too many businesses are these days.
BM’s pointing to how National treats the gaining and retaining of the Government benches as a business; the business of winning elections. His point is well made, I think. National’s other business, as described by KJT, has been well picked over here on TS but is a side-line to the business of winning votes.
Businesses that exploit for profit and diminish the trust with their customers have a natural end game. Be prepared for tanking sales. Just look at the Clintons. The Nats have gone down this path thus their fate is determined.
It’ll happen no doubt but when do you think it’ll happen, before the next lection of before the 2020 election?
I agree, to a certain extant, yet if it were completely true the partial sell down of the power companies wouldn’t have happened nor would the GST increase gone ahead and NZ would be taking in more refugees
But certainly the message is much better presented by National
I agree, to a certain extant, yet if it were completely true the partial sell down of the power companies wouldn’t have happened
Which why only 50% was sold not 100%, 100% would have been politically disastrous for National and probably cost them the election.
50% was a best of both worlds compromise, appeals to both center left and center right.
I agree, it was definitely pragmatism at its finest
Meanwhile other asset sales, privatisations and running down of services, continue under the radar.
49% was sold. wasnt it?
and that shows a pragmatic Party in action, get some cash but its an easy message to sell to the punters, everyone understands what 49% means.
No, that shows an ideological party in action. A party that will go against the wishes of the people to implement the policy that they want that will enrich a few while making everyone else worse off.
An election was fought with asset sales as a major issue. The party proposing to sell the assets won the election. How can you then claim they went against the wishes of the people. Not voting is a tacit acceptance of the policies of the party that eventually wins, whether you like them or not.
Because polling and a referendum showed 70% of people against the sales.
I can only assume that some people voted for National despite their policy of selling state assets in the belief that they’d then listen to the public and not sell them. Just as they did with mining protected areas on Great Barrier.
It could be viewed that way. It can also be viewed as a vote of no confidence. The thing is, we don’t know.
Which is why I say we need to view voting as a duty not a right and make it compulsory.
And the 70% against asset sales is why I support policies being set by referenda and not by parliament. Why we should be getting rid of ‘government’ altogether. Elected dictatorship does not bring about the wishes of the people.
“How can you then claim they went against the wishes of the people. Not voting is a tacit acceptance”
referenda are also part of our democracy tool kit and are designed to focus on a single issue, which elections cant do
Yawn, still fighting 2012’s battles?
still denying that the public had a say on this at the referendum on the topic
Draco.
WFT are you on about?
Go against the wishes of the people???
The Nats went into the election banging a drum and telling everyone they were selling the power companies and they romped home in the election, they SLAUGHTERED Labour who campaigned to keep the power companies.
People voted Nat because they wanted the power companies sold.
Just because a party wins the election doesn’t mean that they then, ipso facto, carry out the wishes of the people.
It was obvious from before the election happened through polling that people didn’t want to sell our state assets. Referendum after the election showed that to still be true.
National still sold those assets – against the will of the people.
And, no, they didn’t slaughter Labour – without the overhang seats of UF and Act they would not have been able to sell those assets.
We don’t have a democracy – we have an elected dictatorship. If we had an actual democracy the announcement of seeking a referendum would have stopped the sale until afterwards and the actual referendum would have stopped the sale altogether – because the people of NZ didn’t want to sell them.
yes National slaughtered Labour, wiped the floor with them and pissed all over them.
Nats got twice the vote of Labour.
Labour would have needed the support of four other parties to beat National.
The people voted for National knowing National would sell the assets and were happy to do so because the alternative was so appalling.
And National needed three.
Nope. People voted for National and then tried to stop them selling the assets. That’s what the referendum was for – National continued with their failed ideology.
“The people voted for National knowing National would sell the assets ”
and then after that there was a referendum on the topic
How can you sit there and claim the election gives the policy approval – when a referendum held after the election rejected the policy?
It is one thing to run a political party like a business (and in that I think your analysis re National is correct), however there are obvious problems with running a country as a business.
Labour runs itself like a government.
National (as you say) runs itself like a business. It considers that a long-range plan is no more than 4-5 years.
That is its problem. Kids take 20 years to raise. Victims of childhood abuse cost the country (one way or another) for 50+ years after the abuse stops. Moderately severe earthquakes (like Christchurch or Kaikoura) happen every 20-30 years on average. Severe ones happen about every 80 years on average. Defense forces and hospital systems take decades to get running properly. etc.
National may be fit to be a business with their short-term thinking. But they aren’t capable of being a government.
Who gives a flying fuck about how good their marketing is. BM are you really that shallow?
National maybe fit to run the lemonade stand at the front gate but that’s about it and even that’s debatable.
That folks is the ideology underpinning of this national government right there on display by BM. First it denies it’s ideological, then it proceeds like a Marxist on acid to steam roll anything which disagrees with it. Secondly it argues it’s just common sense, when it is anything but. Third, a complete lack of understanding of what ideology is to muddy the waters. And finally the ‘big lie’ if the lie is big most people believe it, if it small almost no one believes it…
Just for the record BM, the last person who said there were no place for ideology in a political party was a vain, short, sex addicted, snake tongue, and Italian…
Well, BM, either you’re extremely clever or you really believe your idea of the “business model”, if it is your idea. Is it?
National operates like a corporate, a global corporate for that matter, not a national one.
Here’s the thing that I don’t buy [no pun]: we, the people, the voters, are National’s “customers”.
There’s a famous quote – it is just a quote:
Hang on, you say, we are paying, we are paying taxes!
Sure, we do, but we do regardless of who’s in government and we would get (most of) the services regardless. I could expand on this, and probably should, but it’s getting late and I want to get to my main point(s).
But but but, you say, we ‘pay’ with our votes, not in hard(-earned) dollars.
Indeed, and now you’re getting closer to the truth of the National Party.
National’s “business” is staying in power and maintaining status quo.
By making us believe we’re getting something in return National remains in power. However, are we the real beneficiaries of this ‘transaction’ or is there more to it?
To answer this question you’d need to follow the money, my dear fellow New Zealand taxpayer and law-abiding consumer.
Yes, we are customers and consumers in the literal sense, but not National’s, and, at a different level, we are the product or commodity that National uses to achieve its ‘target’.
Complete and utter nonsense, you say. Fair enough, please go to the National Party website and read it for yourself:
https://national.org.nz/about [I hope this link is not going to trigger some kind of TS alarm or Moderator alert]
You see, National ‘sells’ us dreams! It is pure make-belief, trickery magic, and mass hypnosis packed into one smooth political message. And it does the trick very well!
Meanwhile some people are laughing all the way to the bank, literally, and laughing at us, the poor suckers, who are buying this dream shit and day-in-day-out work at the coal-face to pay the bills and for our children’s education so that they can “reach their personal goals and dreams” because that’s our dream, isn’t it?
Now, before you shake your head in disbelief that I can be so stupid I’ll give you one more reason to do some head banging: the Labour Party is doing essentially the same …
Good morning, Pucky. Thanks for your response. I see what you mean.
Of course its completely unscientific and my opinion only so I could be completely wrong about…well everything
The “we are all customers” concept is an interesting one and the analogy invites comment about how customer decisions are made; why buy this product and not that product, why buy at all, etc. The role of advertising is key (apologies there) and purchasers of products are famously plastic when it comes to their decisions. As well, there’s the deeper consume-like-a-consumer issue for those who think we are consuming our world and that the consumption model is our undoing on a global scale.
Chomsky on America’s Ugly History:
FDR Was Fascist-Friendly Before WWII
AlterNet, Nov. 29, 2016
Before the Second World War, what view did the United States government have of fascism in Germany? What was the political and military relationship between Berlin and Washington?
Noam Chomsky: Well, it was a mixed story. Roosevelt himself had a mixed attitude. For example, he was pretty supportive of Mussolini’s fascism, in fact described Mussolini as “that admirable Italian gentleman.” He later concluded that Mussolini had been misled by his association with Hitler and had been led kind of down the wrong path. But the American business community, the power systems in the United States were highly supportive of Mussolini.
In fact, even parts of the labor bureaucracy were. Fortune Magazine for example, the major business journal I think in 1932, had an issue with the headline, I’m quoting it: “The wops are unwopping themselves.” The “wop” is a kind of a derogatory term for Italians and the “wops are finally unwopping themselves,” under Mussolini they’re becoming part of the civilized world. There was criticism of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, a lot of criticism. But basically pretty supportive attitude toward Mussolini’s fascism. When Germany, when Hitler took over, the attitude was more mixed.
There was a concern for a potential threat but nevertheless the general approach of the U.S., the British even more so, was fairly supportive. So for example in 1937, the State Department described Hitler as a kind of a moderate, fending off the dangerous forces of the right (and left). The State Department described Hitler as a moderate who was holding off the forces, the dangerous forces of the left, meaning the Bolsheviks, the labor movement and so on, and of the right, namely the extremist Nazism. Hitler was kind of in the middle and therefore we should kind of support him. This is a pretty familiar stance, incidentally like in many other cases.
Read more….
http://www.alternet.org/world/chomsky-americas-ugly-history-fdr-was-fascist-friendly-wwii
Kind of ironic that you’d post something about left-wingers getting sucked in to supporting right-wing authoritarian nationalist dictators…
Chomsky is talking about the shamelessness, the depravity and the boundless cynicism of the American and British political establishments, not about labels.
This has nothing to do with “left” and “right”—not that you even understand what you mean when you fling those labels about. You really do not have a clue.
Chomsky is talking about the shamelessness, the depravity and the boundless cynicism of the American and British political establishments, not about labels.
Well, yes. We can take that as read because that’s what he always talks about. I guess we can count our blessings that their shamelessness, depravity and boundless cynicism haven’t infected the political establishments of other countries… oh, wait…
I get the impression you don’t actually know much about Chomsky at all.
Well, apart from his theory of transformational syntax being a big part of my undergraduate major in Linguistics back in the 80s, the various books of his I’ve read and the time I went to see him speak, you’re right, I know fuck-all about him. Those things don’t really constitute getting to know a person. I suspect you imagine you know plenty about him, on the other hand, with the emphasis being on the word “imagine.”
The story of a super-rich divorce takes a deep dive into the cess-pool of foreign trusts, international tax arrangements…
http://www.msn.com/en-nz/money/markets/how-to-hide-dollar400-million/ar-AAkXWnR?li=BBqddE1&ocid=mailsignout
It’s a long read, but worth it to get a picture of what the super-rich do when just lowering taxes at home isn’t enough for them. Screwing (soon to be ex-) partners seems to be just an added benefit.
The rats are cocking a snook!
Responding to the Government’s audacious challenge to the rat community’s long-term well being, rats around the country are rising up, literally in some towns, and making themselves seen and heard in defiance, it seems, of the threats from the Beehive. Rats, begging for food from picnickers in our parks, multiplying where they should be succumbing to the attentions of the poisoners, flowing from the rivers in waves of whisker and bald tail – the revenge of the rats, Ben, has just begun;
here;
http://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/85947945/Brazen-rats-ruin-riverside-picnics
here;
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/87004923/rats-run-amok-in-historic-seaside-suburb-on-aucklands-north-shore
and here;
http://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/81133196/DOC-look-at-reshuffling-1080-drops-as-rats-not-behaving-as-predicted
It’s almost like rats don’t want to be exterminated…
I see your Ben and raise you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rats_(novel)
I see your James Herbert and raise you a Frank; sandworms trump rats!
I call: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremors_(film)
I fold. If I didn’t, this would escalate to the End of Days and I don’t want to be responsible for that. In a way, I’ve averted global catastrophy here today. I need no thanks, it’s just what I do.
*shuffles modestly
Oh my goodness! ANOTHER Public Servant doing their job.
Golly gosh, this could become a trend….an actual thing…
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier fronts up to the Education Select Committee and tells them…this legislation has the potential to allow schools to exclude children with disabilities (especially autism) from schools….by forcing them into one of the brandspanking new On Line Schools.
Interview here….http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201826003/online-schools-could-become-dumping-ground-ombudsman
and oooh look! Its on Natrad….more publicly paid people doing their job!
I am starting to feel a tiny little bit of optimism for the future. These are high profile government appointees speaking out on some of the most important issue facing New Zealand’s most vulnerable.
THIS…is how things will change.
Latest Roy Morgan has Labour’s support down at 23%. Lowest in 2 years, National at 49.5% matching the lastest CB poll.
I wonder what Labour’s UMR polling is showing? Will Andy release the numbers?
I doubt it. I don’t think little has commented on this one or the CB one.
Its been proven conclusively that the public polls are wrong and Labours private polls are correct 🙂
True fact
Yip David Little has an internal poll showing Labour to be at least 40%.
He will release that poll any moment now…
He should probably poll more then his own caucus if he wants a better figure 😉
Only 4 of his caucus voted for him so a lower than 23% result would be expected.
It could be argued this result assumes an unrealistic 92.5% turnout for the hypothetical election and therefore is not representative.
Lower turnouts favour the national party. are you saying 23% might be an overstatement of labours support?
lol….no Im saying that if polls are a true (within MoE) representation of voter intention then it would be reasonable to expect a non response that equates with real life participation……this poll states a non selection rate of 6.5% (unchanged) whereas the last election had a non selection rate of 23%…..obviously their sample is not representative.
“sell themselves” – perfect expression, framu. Makes you think though, about the buyers and their motivations.
edit – idjit – wrong button
Interesting that the shipping interests have taken the opportunity of the debacle of essential roads rendered impassable also train transport, to point out the bleeding obvious that sea transport is the new black. It may be the time to breach the wall of determined ignorance that the National government puts up to important faults in their choice of governance of the country which includes emphasis on roads which in a stretched out country, is very expensive and inefficient. Also they made the point about how sea transport would reduce our carbon footprint.
The New Zealand Shipping Federation says the government needs to take the resilience of ports seriously as the Kaikoura earthquake has shown the vulnerability of roading – and consider what their role is when auditing them. Annabel Young is the Executive Director of the NZ Shipping Federation. Canterbury University Professor of Geological Sciences Tim Davies, says improving and increasing the transport network through coastal shipping is essential.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201826002
Spot the difference.
lprent
Is it possible to again be able to search or does it take too much capacity?
The capacity issue is all my side. I simply haven’t had time to finish the code.
Looking forward to xmas.
Well I will take the opportunity to wish you (early) a Merry Christmas and good relaxing times with Lyn and some nice cool beers and time to do what you fancy for once.
🙂 relaxing. I wish.
Between now and the 4th on Jan when I head back to work to carry on the current project, I will be fitting in
1. One more day on the current project
2. Two weeks work in Italy.
3. 4 days work on the current project (and jetlag).
4. Family xmas in Auckland
5. Family Birthday in ChCh
6. Family New Years in Auckland.
7. Maybe a couple of days of downtime….
But I will have sometime in the evenings after I get to Italy…
And I suspect a good holiday when it starts cooling down again in March/April
Well all I can say is – that it doesn’t sound boring. And two weeks work in Italy sounds exotic but I fear that it might be like the period my son spent in Paris. In a narrow concrete room lined with computers and people facing the walls, opening out onto a grey concrete corridor – or that’s the picture in my mind. Not an ooh la la in sight. So hope you have time for a chianti – ciao and kia kaha.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/87030493/hamilton-city-councillor-siggi-henry-accuses-health-officials-of-fluoride-spin-brainwashing
“Because they [scientists] think they are so smarty-pants, they think they can say whatever they like and we should just take it.”
“The more educated you are in a field, the narrower your thinking becomes. I’m not hot on these academics…sitting on comfy chairs up on their hill. I’ve studied this subject for over 20 years, I know a little bit more than they do.”
Stick to your guns Siggi!
It sticks to your gums, Siggi!
.
.The wheel of Fortune
. It seems that when there is insecurity within the populace people flock to Conservative Politicans. Looking tor the blanket. And the Rhetoric.
Trump in USA. Cameron in the UK. Both deep Conservatives
The wheel spins and it turns out that the Conservatives know only one thing – and that is how to look after their own income and glamour. They thank the voters who voted them into power by putting Austerity packages on the PAYE middle class and on the very poor.
While the Politicians blatantly fiddle with their Tax Avoidance schemes.
Conservatives always have the best rhetoric – full of empty promise. They also have ostentatious wealth. Glamour Glamour Glamour.
So in time, but always too late, the Voters disown the Conservative hoax and walk to the center left, because they know that Labour / Greens / and like minded, care for the Community.
All I can say is :
. With all the support that all the Main Stream Media gives to National Party hacks; with all the money Bill English borrows; with all the efforts of the wandering trolls who suck up to John Key …
With all that, why is New Zealand in a death spiral? Why will the present young generation from cradle to grave receive nothing but excessive burden from Mr Key?
Because Mr Key does exactly what the greed of Corporations and Media want. He is an actor; a hoax; a shallow wealthy being building up Casinos. As does Trump.
He and his mates simply do not care. They care not about our polluted water; not about our work or pay; not about our Education; not about our Health provision; not about our lack of infrastructure; not about our future.
New Zealand Conservatives have a lot to think over.
.
If the MSM support National so much why isn’t the latest poll being trumpeted all over Stuff, the nzherald, the radio or TV?
The normally excellent Lynn Freeman failed to do her job this morning.
RNZ National, Thursday 1 December 2016, 11:10 a.m.
I’m sure that many regular listeners will agree with me that Lynn Freeman is superior to the regular Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan. She’s more thoughtful, better and more widely read, and is prepared to challenge and refute the dodgy statements of people like Matthew Hooton. [1] But she’s not perfect: this morning she allowed “new technology expert” Andy Linton to repeat a bizarre and unfounded trope from a thoroughly discredited and unsuccessful election campaign. [2]
Disappointed, I sent her the following email…..
Andy Linton’s dismissal of Julian Assange
Dear Lynn,
I was disturbed to hear your technology correspondent Andy Linton recycling the Clinton campaign’s cynical propaganda against the dissident journalist Julian Assange. To compound his credulity, Andy Linton snickered when he suggested that “Assange’s agenda is to get out of the Ecuadorian embassy.”
I never fail to be appalled when I hear safe and complacent people deriving humour from the suffering of those who dare to tell the truth. Surely Andy Linton should be supporting Julian Assange, not laughing at his plight.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
[1] https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14072015/#comment-1043304
[2] http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2016/07/glenn_greenwald_on_donald_trump_the_dnc_hack_and_a_new_mccarthyism.html
.
. Hello Puckish
. I think that very few people have confidence in Polls nowadays. Because they rely on an ever reducing number of people who have landlines.
Also, the wide variety of polling results (consider USA recently) is disconcerting. Pollsters did not even correctly select who is the President to be.
But if you believe them – well fair enough.
.
“Because they rely on an ever reducing number of people who have landlines.”
No they don’t. Sounds like you are clutching at at straws, hoping the polls are really concealing the fact that David Little is fabulously popular.
Roy Morgan uses both landlines and mobiles.
If the recent CB or RM polls were favorable to Labour, it would have been headline news here. A little bit of discussion (denial) on the CB, but the disastrous – yes, 23% is a disaster- RM poll has passed through with merely a mention.
Some people are talking about it, but they seem to think the solution is for Labour to follow Corbynite UK Labour and lurch leftwards.
But if the UK polls are anything to go by, Corbyn is leading his party to a rout at the next General Election.
Nothing to do with the blatent disloyalty and undermining by the UK equivalent of the ABC’s of course.
.
.Hi mlpc
. Anyone who clutches at straws is doing a lot more than nice people like you.
. Where did you get David from? Confused eh?
. can you put me onto a man or lady who can explain Morgan’s wide of the mark Polls ?
Thanks
.
Yeah, yeah, I know his name is Andrew, but didn’t the Mayor of Kaikoura refer to him as David? It’s a mark of how poorly Little projects himself. You could argue that personalities shouldn’t matter, but the fact is that they do.
And you can choose to ignore Roy Morgan if you want, but the other polls don’t make things look much better for Labour.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2014/09/how_the_pollsters_did-2.html
Seems both the Colmar and the Roy Morgan under estimate the National vote – So I do no get where you are saying Morgans being wide of the mark – unless you think National is higher.
BTW OT – All the full stops?? – is your keyboard broken?
That Farrar chooses to test the efficacy of polls by comparing to the polls just before an election to the election result, and then somehow implying that they were just as effective a year earlier long before many people voting would have made up their mind – well that tells me:-
Either David Farrar is statistically a moron who doesn’t understand the maths of sample sizes and confidence
Or David Farrar is PR mouthpiece saying whatever is advantageous for his business
Or both.
That you choose to present this as something worth discussing, just makes you look ignorant and/or stupid.
Hi mlpc
. Why do you support so firmly National’s scandalous treatment of the ordinary person within New Zealand.
You know perfectly well that wages are too low for even doctors to purchase a house. And rents are too high for many people to afford anything but a hovel. Or even a shed.
You ram your wicked philosophy into the ordinary Kiwi by giving the Landords huge subsidies – taken from the Paye Tax Payers, minimum Wage Earners; Pensioners and Beneficiaries – while you use tax avoidance to live the life of Reilly.
The landlords of course get all manner of tax exemptions on top of their excessive exploitation.
You are great people MLPC. You truly are. I wonder why you disgust me to the core..
Your problem, OT, is that you obviously think the ordinary person is stupid, and that you know better than they do what is good for them.
You can’t understand why Labour is deeply unpopular, can you?
I can tell you. It is because the party has completely lost a connection with the ordinary person. It has a completely useless leadership. And it is so disparate that it has climbed into bed with another party whose policies are anathema to the interests of the ordinary working person.
I don’t care if I disgust you to the core. I care more about the ordinary working person than you do.
sorry, that should be desperate (i.e. “feeling or showing a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with”)
Joe Biggs is an Infowars reporter. This Pizzagate thing first sounded bizzare. Over the period of the last few weeks the information coming out is only reinforcing the idea that there is something very, very sinister to look into. At this point I’m actually trying to prove my normalicy bias correct, rather than the #Pizzagate. So far my attempts keep failing : (
Yesterday SGT Report had a video covering the disproportionate amount of childrening missing in Virginia. Now this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsH5_nUFS70
Hi mlpc.
Thankyou for your diagnosis of what you call my problem. Your certainty taints and swamps any discussion.
You don’t discuss. You just proclaim. – as if you were Almighty. Please turn your megaphone down. Right down to an angry endless Shout.
Your support for the ordinary man comes as a bit of a surprise mlpc. But I accept that you do everything better than me – and better than anyone anywhere.