Paula Bennett was detained by Police this morning on her way Whenuapai Airport.
She was threatening to bash two English tourists, surnames Windsor, who are unashamed benefit rorters.
The one child family are know to claim millions in England and to live an extravagant lifestyle. Bennett was particularly enraged when she heard they would be claiming English benefit while on holiday and then claiming food, board and travel from NZ taxpayer. The Windsors are known to drink and watch flat screen TVs during the day.
Unfortunately Bennett will be released when the spongers leave the country to do nothing somewhere else.
Enjoyed Pagini’s disdain today for the ‘ God like’ Royals on Mora’s afternoon programme. His obvious discomfort with her disrespect. I wonder if her contract will be terminated.
A change from the obsequious fawning servility of the common media fearing for their jobs.
Unfortunately for the Woyals the weather in Wellington is dismal with fog/cloud down to sea level and there is a chance that they could be forced to land at Palmerston North…
A four way handshake with Key, William, Kate and George with a special lovely little Troty present for Key from George. Will help Key get some more votes for inviting them in an election year. How cool is that!
It just so happens that i have a good used asylum going cheap,the Woyals could spend years enjoying the comforts of its cells and straightjackets having spent years roll playing doing the doctors and nurses thing should come quite naturally to them…
Noticeably absent from our airwaves during this royal tour is the modern international youth anthem “We will never be Royals” by Lorde.
Instead of glorifying privilege, Lorde held up a light up to the nobility of those without money or privilege. But this not a message that John Key and his born to rule tories want us to hear in an election year, hence the need for this extravagant tax payer funded glittering royal tour. Where the modern kiwi MSM continue to grovel and tug its forelock in the traditional peasant way at this symbolic embodiment of enshrined privilege and inequality.
But that kind of love affair ain’t for us, we seek a different kind of buzz
But, seriously….I’m excited about the royals! Is nobody else feeling it?? They are the most level headed/sane of all of the bunch and they are gonna love it here : )
Are you sure you are not confusing ‘level headed’ with this pairs ability to adhere to the old adage ”better to keep the mouth firmly shut and be thought of as idiots than open it and provide proof”…
“But, seriously….I’m excited about the royals! Is nobody else feeling it??”
No Awww. I’m about as indifferent as that weather that bad12 is describing for Wellington today. Besides I descend from Irish and Scots, so the representatives of the English Crown are nothing to get excited about The only excitement they ever got in the past was fighting them.
The flat screen that Not a PS Staffer talks of though, may well be in their itinerary. During a tour of Government house we were informed by the tour guide that previously Wills had enjoyed being entertained in the whatever- it -was -called -room where there IS a large flat screen attached to a wall above a gas fire as well as billiard table and drinks cabinet. I think he was watching the world cup. I wasn’t really listening – I was more interested contemplating the future of the NZ wool industry having being inspired by the ultra plush carpet, made in Christchurch by Di Lana.
I don’t understand what you are looking forward to? Couldn’t you just read about them and others who make a career out of being themselves in the screeds of shallow magazines?
This is how to shut down the whole Royal nonsense .
In the 1930 the Irish Free State had not yet become a republic. DeValera won the 1932 election and when he had to appoint a new DG he appointed a shop keeper who remained behind his store counter!
“De Valera explicitly instructed Ua Buachalla as governor-general to keep a low public profile, and not to fulfil any public engagements. This was part of de Valera’s policy to make the governor-generalship an irrelevance by reducing it to invisibility. While he continued to give the Royal Assent to legislation, summon and dissolve Dáil Éireann and fulfil the other formal duties of the governor-generalship, he declined all public invitations and kept himself invisible, as advised by “his” Government. In fact in his period in office he performed only one public function: the receipt of the credentials of the French Ambassador in the Council Chamber, Government Buildings, 1933, on behalf of the King, George V. However, de Valera subsequently had that duty moved from the governor-general to his own post of President of the Executive Council. (One of the few other occasions Ua Buachalla was mentioned at all in public was when, in the aftermath of the death of King George V in January 1936, he had to reply to messages of condolence sent to the Irish people by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull.)
On de Valera’s instruction, Ua Buachalla did not reside in the official residence of the governor-general, the Viceregal Lodge (now called Áras an Uachtaráin, the residence of the President of Ireland). Instead a house was rented for his use. The official English title Governor-General was largely replaced by the official Irish title Seanascal or its direct translation, Seneschal; however, Governor-General remained the legal form used in official English-language documents and proclamations.” Wiki.
(Since an oil spill would not be a natural disaster, giving an assurance that a natural disaster won’t occur due to deep sea oil and gas drilling is a pretty meaningless statement.) That climate change resulting from chasing down every last possible and remote and difficult and risky source of oil would also be a disaster makes the above statement doubly ridiculous.
Simon Bridges the government minister for energy says he is more than 100 percent confident that that oil would not spill onto New Zealand beaches.
Speaking on TV One’s Q+A programme this morning, the Energy and Resources Minister said he was “confident” oil would not spill on to New Zealand beaches.
Asked if he was 90 per cent or 100 per cent confident, he said: “Well, I’m more than that.”
So how confident is the minister that oil won’t spill on our beaches?
101 percent?
200 percent?
110 percent?
What on earth does this mean anyway?
In other idiocy Simon Bridges said:
“If you look at the permitting process, this is a two-way street – in one way, yes, we need those companies to come here, we want them to spend their money on that, but remember when they do come, when they do put in their application, they must be at best practice, we assess their financial capability, their technical capability and their experience, and if they’re not good enough in New Zealand’s interests they don’t make the cut.”
“They don’t make the cut”, really Minister?
Did even one of the companies that put in an application, have their application declined, did even one, “not make the cut”?
My guess is that every single company that applied got approval, which if true would prove that every single utterance that passes this minister’s lips is pure gooblygook meant to mislead and confuse.
Pleasingly little ex-Crown prosecutor Simon is looking somewhat harried and tired. Unpleasingly that will probably go only to exponentially advancing his hubris and bullshit. Watch ShonKey Python’s recently anointed Minister of Pacific Island Affairs Sam Lotu-Iiga for a simiar effect. Such biddable wee bullshitters and trough-guzzlers.
Top toxic sites among thousands that are part of the $5.15 billion settlement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. with approximate amount of funding for cleanup efforts and details about the sites, as provided by the Justice Department:
—Henderson, Nev.: $1.118 billion for prospective cleanup costs.
Groundwater at a former chemical manufacturing facility in Henderson, Nev., has been impacted by hexavalent chromium and perchlorate, a chemical used to produce rocket fuel, due to the since the 1940s.
—Navajo Abandoned Uranium Mines: $985 million for prospective cleanup costs.
Kerr-McGee left abandoned uranium mine sites, including contaminated waste rock piles, in the Lukachukai mountains of Arizona and in the Ambrosia Lake area of New Mexico. The Lukachukai mountains are located immediately west of Cove, Ariz., and are a culturally significant part of the Navajo Nation; the Ambrosia Lake area is just outside the Navajo Nation. The mining occurred from the late 1940s through the 1960s in the Lukachukai area and from the 1950s to the 1980s in Ambrosia Lake.
—Manville, N.J.: $217 million for past response costs; $4.5 million in natural resource damage penalties to be paid to New Jersey as natural resources trustee.
The proceeds the Environmental Protection Agency will receive for this site cover EPA’s past costs expended at the site. While they will not address ongoing threats to human health and the environment, they will reimburse the significant response costs EPA spent at the site out of the Superfund. From 1910 until the mid-1950s, the site was used as a wood treatment facility, which occupied approximately 50 acres in the Borough of Manville.
—Riley Pass, S.D.: $179 million for prospective work.
The site is located in the North Cave Hills area of Harding County, S.D., primarily on a series of bluffs within the Custer National Forest where strip mining of uranium-bearing lignite took place in the 1960s.
—Chicago (Lindsay Light Removal Sites, Streeterville Rights-of-Way and DuSable Park): $119 million for prospective work.
Beginning in 1904 and continuing through the mid-1930s, the Lindsay Light Chemical Co. processed ore to extract radioactive thorium and manufactured gas mantles containing radioactive thorium at three locations in an area in downtown Chicago known as the “Streeterville Area.” Lindsay Light merged with American Potash & Chemical Corp., which was acquired by Kerr-McGee.
—Columbus, Miss.: $67 million for prospective work.
The site is a former wood treatment facility, which began operations in 1928. Kerr-McGee purchased the facility in 1964 and operated it until its decommissioning in 2003. At the facility, wood products were treated with creosote, coal tar, and, until 1976, pentachlorphenol. Open ditches were used by Kerr-McGee for years to transport surface water runoff from the site to Luxapilila Creek. Numerous floods throughout the years spread the creosote contamination and polyaromatic hydrocarbons into the neighboring yards of residents.
With the arrival today of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge batten down the hatches for days and days of terminally obseqious yet sly arse-licking from soon-to-be Sir ShonKey Python of Grossbee-Texter-Upon-Knees.
A display to trump the gold standard in the same set by Rowan Atkinson’s Sir Edmund Blackadder in the court of a royal personage past. Madness marries Merill Lynch.
No offence intended to a calculatedly vaunted sweet couple, fabulously privileged and mercifully immune from the sociopathy of Hurrah Henry Cameron and ATOS.
Announcer: Welcome to your seats, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed the buffet dinner, but even if you didn’t, I know you’ll enjoy our guest speaker tonight who’s taken time off from his rigorous parliamentary schedule to be with us. We are very honored to welcome Sir Marcus Browning MP. Thank you.
Sir Marcus Browning: My Lord Mayor, my Lady Mayoress. My lords, ladies and gentlemen. There comes a time when we must all stand up and be counted. I am therefore standing up now and can be counted. One. To each of you I say you are a one. And ones are about to become singularly important. Because Britain is facing the gravest economic crisis since 1380. And you know many of us still remember that day. The eternal torment, worry, exesperation and all manner of (?). And if we are to quit the lights go out on our lives once more (?), we must ask ourselves crucial questions. Where are we? How did we get here? Why did we come? Where do we want to go? How do we want to get to where we want to go? How far do we have to go before we get to where we want to be? How would we know where we were when we got there? HAVE WE GOT A MAP? Why did we leave places to get to where we are? Where were we before that we had to leave to get to where we before we knew we’re going to go to where we want to be? Where would we end up if we had the choice? Where would we end up if we didn’t have the choice? What would we choose given the choice? Do we have that choice to choose? Or indeed can we be choosy about the choice choosings? What are the choosings? Choices! Do we want to stop now? (Rhetorical.) Or do we want to go right back to the beginning and start all over again. Perhaps not. But surely you can see my point. Because what I’m talking about is life. Because life is one of those things that most of us find it very difficult to avoid. In the words of (?) “life is uncertain.” My life certainly has a certain uncertainty about it. And I’m certain yours does too. So with my uncertainty and your uncertainty there’s certainly a certain degree of uncertainty about, of that we can be quite sure. So let’s buckle down, shall we? Purpose is what we’re striving for. We must have purpose. We mustn’t be purposeless. We mustn’s exhibit purposnessless. We must be purposelessnessless. Because we don’t want to end up, do we? Because we don’t want to end up, do we? Like the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there.
How come simon bridges is 100%+ sure.
I can tell you the wheels have fallen off Nactionals drill it mine it at any cost policy.
Its dead in the water gone along with Anadarko no reoverable amounts of oil or gas have been found.
So bridges is desperate by expanding the exploration area is trying to rescue a Failed policy.
did you ctch the 6 billion payout anadarko is having to make for its fucking up of the environment in the US since about 1930? I would say they probably consider it money well spent…
Not a very good example given Anardarko was started in 1959 and only started activities outside of Texas in 1986. All those examples you listed earlier are historic superfund sites that Anardarko inherited through acquisitions. Your story is really more that “Anardarko owns sites they didn’t pollute in the first place, Anardarko pays to have the sites cleaned up under EPA settlement”. It ‘s likely that when Anardarko acquired a lot of these sites, they didn’t know the full potential liability. Interesting link here which kind of summarises how this generally works:
The real issue for allowing any entity foreign owned or not – to do anything in NZ is to have protections in place so they can’t pull a Union Carbide (or a Kerr-McGee from the above link) if something goes wrong. That’s where I think we need to be really careful. Anardarko is actually recognised as a pretty good corporate citizen – of course that may be relative praise rather than absolute.
It might have been an amount set for them to pay but now comes the extracting of the money, well, well, well that won’t be so simple – lot’s of delaying tactics will be resorted to. And probably some time meeting at resorts too.
And don’t be too nitpicky nadis. Andarko may not have owned them once, but now has them in its portfolio. The point is that An-ko is just a name and other firms doing their damage are just like Andarko and vice versa. The nature of the operation is destructive whatever company does it.
The only comment I would like to make about the visit by the Windsors is this. I understood a constitutional monarch was not allowed to get involved in politics. Black Rod and all that medieval crap. Why is it then they are opening the controversial Velodrome in Cambridge hosted by Wardell (he will get a knighthood for playing at life) where 80% of the ratepayers were against having rate payers money used to fund it, but the regional council aided and abetted by Keys pack of shits ignored what the ratepayers said and went ahead with it.
I think this sets a precedent, the Royals are being used politically by Key during an election year.
I assume “Keys pack of shits” = the New Zealand Government.
Just checking.
How are they being used politically? There are no conventions in New Zealand about royal visits in election year. Visits in 1981 and 2002 were both within 6 months of the elections in those years.
In 2002, the Queen visited Team New Zealand. Many on the Left and the Right had opposed funding for the Americas Cup. Was that the “royals being used politically” by the then Labour Government? No, of course not.
So stop drawing a long bow. Nobody cares much. Just enjoy Kate and the baby. It will take the bitter taste out of your mouth for a while. Maybe you can even enjoy life during the royal tour.
As ignorant of this topic as you are of real world economics, S Rylands.
In 2011 Prince William didn’t come to the Rugby World Cup because it was too close to the last election and while the Queen was in Australia that year she decided against crossing the Tasman.
I’m not drawing a line. I don’t care about the royal tour and I don’t see any reason why it should affect the election this year. Much fuss about something irrelevant to modern New Zealand.
Pete you should write for The Civilian. In fact whenever I see anything of yours longer than three lines I start thinking I am reading The Civilian. I particularly like this one although you can pretty much take your pick:
check the front cover of the womens weekly, mr & mrs key holding fluffy puppies (!!!) with the headline ‘john & bronaghs royal surprise’ & tell me again how this whole tour is not a publicity stunt for john key/national party.
(how can i ‘enjoy kate & the baby’ ‘enjoy?’ what a weird word in that context. celebrity culture, P.R, idiots gettting sucked in. i could not give a fuk about the royals, but i do give a fuk about the news being hijacked by this BS.)
@idlegus. Thought you were kidding about magazine cover until I went to buy the Woman’s Day and there they were!! That man has no class at all. What was the surprise? Was it a copy of steffi’s attempt at art of which mom and pop were so proud. Oh, and no, I did not buy the magazine, nor will I be in the near future, unless of course if it is featuring our new Prime Minister David Cunliffe.
I think this sets a precedent, the Royals are being used politically by Key during an election year.
We knew that from the day it was announced they were coming.
I was amused a few days ago to hear that John and Bronagh invited them to a “home cooked dinner” at their home but the D&D (very wisely) turned them down on the grounds “they wanted to get back to George in Wellington”. Can you imagine how he would have milked that little tete a tete for all it was worth. Fancy having the gall in election year to even issue the invitation.
is this the dinner key is cooking for John Campbell? After shopping at the market? Is that the Parnell market and la cigale or the Otara market?
I cringe whoever does it, Cunliffe, Hairdo anyone.
They say they dont want their private life as part of public scrutiny… unless it suits them…
IF politicians want to paint themsleves in a particulaar light through their private life then all bets are off imo. Children using class A drugs should be able to be written about. If going tot he market and letting cameras watch them cook dinner at home is ok, when it paints them as family and homely etc… then why not scrutinise their parenting via drugs and rinking transgressions of their kids?
Sycophancy to your betters and stepping on those below you, is all part of the National Party tory born to rule class culture that they are trying to stamp on the rest of us.
The sooner these agents of privilege and wealth leave our shores the better.
That wouldn’t be (Pete) George would it ? Wow Pete, you’re connected my bro’ ! Use that one well ya could probably squeeze a reasonable list placement outa ShonKey Python himself.
Nah, Wills and Kate couldn’t handle the prospect of a menu jam packed with the host’s ‘mince’ and “Georgie Pie tickle tickle tickle say hello to uncle”. Kid spews on that shit I’m told.
Seemingly though the final straw was the spot of preprandial tennis ShonKey planned for out the back at facsimile Gushing Meadows.
i havn’t got the link, but, someone on ‘open Mike’ as late as last week provided a link that showed far from the common perception the Queen does have power of veto over the English Parliament,
This power of veto has apparently been used numerous times, Yay for the good of society we all might think as the descendant of an Irish Piss Pot emptier refused to allow Legislation that would hurt the masses,
Hardly, it seems the only Legislated that attracts the Woyal veto is that which threatens the income stream of the Bludgers…
It appears that Her Maj was not consulted about the intentions of the Australian Governor General to dismiss the Whitlam Government, although appears may change in time as Government documents of a secretive nature become less secretive,
The claim is that after the ‘dismissal’ both Whitlam and the Australian Speaker of the House at the time contacted Buckingham Palace and were told the Queen would not intervene,(which begs the question why have a Queens representative if She will never either agree or disagree with such actions),
John Kerr, the Governor General who dismissed the Whitlam Government was on 30 March 1977 awarded the Knights Grand Cross an award only able to be bestowed by Her Maj, so She was obviously not displeased,
The constitutional arrangement is that the Queen doesnt intervene ever even though technically she is head of state. From memory the Whitlam situation was pretty cut and dried – his government could not pass matters of supply as they didn’t have a majority, and Whitlam being a complete cock refused to negotiate with any of the opposition. So the govt was dissolved. At the time I’m not sure anyone except his hard core supporters were offended. Wonnder what would have happened if he had continued to be recalcitrant. Trespass order banning him from parliament??
I attended a conference in Australia many years ago at which Whitlam spoke…and spoke and spoke. He came across to me as a self obsessed bore with very little social sensitivity. He argued at length that the behaviour of Australians towards Aborigines was evidence that Australians were not racist. An arse.
I would suspect thats hes already cooked his leadership goose. And as Mrs Collins doesnt have good long term prospects either, its either Jonny B Good staying on longer, or you get Steve Joyce.
And as the leader of the Nats is quite likely to also be the PM, who would you choose?
No it doesn’t. MANA was pretty unequivocal in rejecting an alliance last time. Gareth Morgan is also speaking at the AGM – don’t think he’s wanting to start a party. In any case I really can’t see MANA wanting to associate itself with a leering charicature of every egocentric arrogant rich prick capitalist ever. He’s basically just a larger version of John Key with more criminal convictions and less restraint.
Gareth might be looking for a political vehicle to promote His UBI theme, i can well imagine He could become a major donor to the Mana Party should they begin to openly campaign for such a major change to Welfare/Tax policy in New Zealand,
i would say the Mana/internet alliance is far from dead in the water, should DotCom cede welfare/housing/employment policy to Mana while Mana does the same adopting the Internet Parties internet policies then we have the foundations of a workable alliance of the two,
It then becomes a negotiation over how much resources DotCom and/or the Internet Party are willing to commit to such a Mana/Internet alliance and just as important WHEN,
Along with this will be the possibly more fraught negotiation over the divvying up of any electoral spoils after the election and just who the Internet Candidates who might enter the Parliament will be, as i doubt that the rules would allow both Mana and Internet to campaign as separate entities during the election and then combine their votes after the count,this will be the tough part of any negotiation,
I would suggest that Mana approach this part of the negotiation on a 2 to 1, 2 to 1 basis so that the first 2 seats would go to Mana the next one to the Internet Party and so on, so with four seats if that were the possible gain from this alliance Mana would have 3 seats and Internet 1 in the next Parliament,
Such an outcome would be one that i am very likely to vote for…
You only have a workable alliance of the two if MANA is going to completely chuck out the ideologies and values they are telling the voters they represent. I don’t have a problem with Labour doing that sort of thing because the shine came off their apple a long time ago and we urgently need rid of the Nats. MANA would look like they are cosying up to their token amoral capitalist cartoon for power over values, and that is entrely contrary to how they want to position themselves in the public view.
If mana had any self respect and internal consistency they should tell Dotcom we’ll do a policy deal but your guys come way down the list, like 10 at best. Do we really want individuals handpicked by Dotcom for their compliancy (to him) to potentially go into parliament. Lets not lose sight of the fact that the Dotcom party is a single issue party and that single issue is deportation.
Mind you #3 on the mana list is a low probability slot anyway.
I agree, I don’t see why a shallow flashy international multimillionaire with only a superficial connection to NZ should get to hand-pick mps based on their compliancy to him.
I’m getting a subtext here that its not ok for someone who has money to have any socialist leanings.
So following that line of thought David Cunliffe shouldn’t be in the Labour Party. So the Nats were right all along./sarc
“Do you believe in a welfare state?
yes. definitely.
Should a health system be free?
yes.
Should the rich pay a higher tax rate?
yes”
Given that the questions were from a left social democratic framework, then sure, not socialist. But a very long way away from unadulterated right wing tosh or even the pap fed us via mainstream media.
Yes, he prefers deregulation and decriminalisation of cannabis, with the former being arguably a right wing perspective and the latter…well, both a left and right perspective.
Mostly just the sources I was meaning to refer to felix 😉 The mainstream pap might not be as extreme as right wing tosh, but from my perspective, the difference is kinda irrelevant…they are on the same (to me, unacceptable) area of the traditional political spectrum.
the Queen HRH Elisabeth II is a Socialist, she lives very frugally and she hated Margaret Thatcher….. and her son Charles is a Greenie…not sure about the Duke though…he is a stirrer so he could be a Winnie type or a Trotskyite or a UFO expert ( say no more ) …under cover of course
really darhls !…money is such a burden …and having to be on your best behaviour ALL the time!!!!!….what a pain…no swearing in public ….no saying “sod off you bloody FUCKWIT”…no farting in public or picking your nose and …… it……and having to be polite about the IRA when they blew up your favourite uncle….no toe sucking at the beach, even if it is discreet …..or naughty conversations to your lover over the telephone…because the GCSB is sure to be watching with field glasses and listening in!!!!….but worst of all you may find your self on the front page of one of those scurrilous, disgusting rags that goes for British newspapers…
poor bastards….i feel sorry for them…..they earn their money as PR agents for the Realm and a certain order of ‘civilisation’ imo
….BUT THEY HAD BETTER NOT PUT A FOOT OUT OF LINE…or else
The MSM headlines next weekend will predictably be dominated with the boring going ons of the gilded royal couple, with some mention of the Mana conference on the inside pages. But just as sure as the odious grovelling of the MSM will be dominated by news of the royals, the alternative and social media will be white hot with the goings on at the Mana conference.
Asset sales and the TPPA and even deep sea oil drilling may not have mobilised the young as they may have past generations. But internet use is central to their lives. A freerer, cheaper, faster internet, with less government interference, surveillance and spying, and with whatever other youth friendly policy concessions for the low paid that Mana will wring out of Dotcom, I imagine it could be quite a heady mix. Especially if backed up with Dotcom’s money and Mana’s activists.
And for those whinging about lack of TIP policy–there is some on their website https://internet.org.nz–that looks pretty good compared to what the Key gang was originally elected on; a a few meagre A4 sheets of ‘bullet points’, barely a “policy” as we know it to be found. Thats how Crosby Textor and the Hollowmen operate.
Mana has already bumped TIP off supporting National, Te Mana Movement has had more publicity in the last month than the previous year. Mana members have even more reason to want to put the choker chain on the GCSB/SIS/Cops special ops etc than Kim does. And would support removing NZ from 5 eyes.
Hone has also spoken to some of the hard left in Mana about this initiative and a common position is a “sure talk, take it to the members, but no compromise on the social policies”. Sue Bradford may become an outlier on this one, and no disrespect to her being the only standard bearer for beneficiaries for years in parliament, but she is a leaver of organisations. She often leaves a group and then sets up a new one with her loyal coterie from People Centre days. Currently AAAP.
At the end of the day Mana members will determine this and it might not be via some kind of formal vote at Rotorua, may take a bit longer.
Gareth Morgan will also be at the Mana Rotorua conference and supports a form of UBI (though originator Keith Rankin imo seems to retreat further and obfuscate as time goes on http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/04/04/universal-basic-income/) and taxing the rich. Hone has no problem talking to rich white guys without wanting to become one.
“Gareth Morgan will also be at the Mana Rotorua conference and supports a form of UBI” Tiger Mountain
Gareth Morgan is also a noted advocate on promoting climate change issues, and I believe there is some policy motions to be voted on around climate change at this conference.
It is quite possible that Mana could steal the ground from under the Green Party on this issue as the Greens in line with the other mainstream parliamentary parties seem determined to do a repeat of their strategy at the last election, and play down climate change.
“The snake has swallowed the elephant in the room…..” election 2011
You know what really strikes me about climate change in the election? It’s the absence. It is as if climate change is nearly completely absent from the campaign. When climate change does pop up, it’s portrayed in simplistic soundbites.
.
The Greens say anthropogenic climate change is real and we have a detailed wonk-friendly exposition on our website, but for this election we are running with “jobs, kids, rivers”
No explicit talk of cutting back emissions, or stopping new coal mines, or deep sea oil.
Though fracking is mentioned this is all mute as the Green Party say they will have no bottom lines in their quest for cabinet positions.
In contrast to this, a motion to be voted at the Mana conference, and coming with the recommendation of the leadership, is that Mana will not seek to go into coalition with the Labour Party, leaving the Mana MPs free to push their issues and not bound by Labour’s majority in cabinet forcing them to go along with every issue that government imposes.
tiger mountain yes!!! & what bad12 said above, its makes sense that mana keep all the social & housing issues, & the internet party have some incredible & NEW ideas about the internet. & if anyone would cozy up to some rich guy & not get compromised imo it would be ppl like hone & annette sykes. i hope they go for it.
Odd broken link there Tiger. Try this https://internet.org.nz/mission On the face of it, given they’re a brand new party, the policy looks interesting.
“Hone has no problem talking to rich white guys without wanting to become one.”
Bear in mind who will be leading TVNZ’s election coverage this year and read and weep.
It’s less about bias than the awful combination of ego and lack of intelligence.
Generation Zero has given permission for their article to be reposted everywhere.
”
Is Mike Hosking the smartest man alive?
Apr 3, 2014 // by Jimmy Green // Uncategorized // No Comments
Did you see Seven Sharp on Tuesday?
Presenter Mike Hosking made a revolutionary announcement – that he doesn’t believe in science, and you shouldn’t either.
You can see it here – at 22:46
Referencing the recent IPCC report that outlines the current state of climate science, he said,
“That’s of course, if you believe them, which as it turns out I don’t.”
Mike went on to lay out his counter-argument, in an admirably bold attempt to overturn the entire global 20 year scientific consensus,
“I mean if Metservice struggles with the accuracy of a 5-day forecast I’m thinking a long range prediction that takes in 86 years might be a bit dodgy.”
What Mike apparently doesn’t know is that, believe it or not, short term weather forecasting and climate change science are two totally different things. People get this wrong a lot – check out these guys trying to dispel the myth using the powerful force of British humour! Scientifically, there’s as much certainty that humans are the main thing causing climate change as there is that smoking causes cancer. If a journalist just decided they didn’t believe that and told the people of New Zealand to go out and smoke to their hearts content, they’d probably get fired.”
Wow we agree on something. Yes it was fuckwited and shameful. We should debate the best response to climate change. But when some on the right simply say it is not happening, I shut down.
Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
Don’t criticize what you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
The old road is rapidly aging
So get out of the new one if you can’t lend a hand
For the times they are a changing
“Bear in mind who will be leading TVNZ’s election coverage this year and read and weep.” Tracey
All good Tracey. It will hasten their demise, and accelerate the rise of the alternative media. The sooner the better.
PUBLIC MEETING, TUESDAY, 8TH APRIL, 7 – 8.30PM: “GIVE US A BREAK!”
This is a public meeting to discuss The Employment Relations Amendment Act and how the proposed changes will affect union members and workers. There will be three guest speakers followed by an open discussion on the changes and what action may be taken to prevent this anti worker bill being passed.
As as so often been the case in recent years, Peter Dunne holds the critical vote.
The meeting is being hosted by People’s Power Ohariu and is being held at the Uniting Church, 18 Dr Taylor Terrace, Johnsonville, Wellington. All welcome!
Suppose it is a slow news day but Morning Report seem to drift aimlessly from one non-story to another non-story this morning. Even the Monday morning slot now dedicated to the flat sounding PM was a bit pointless. Tomorrow will be the weekly slot for David Cunliffe. Hope that is a bit sharper Guyon.
Maybe it is just me? Maybe I am so excited about the royal visit that everything else is so ordinary? Ha!
Luckily the dog was demanding his walk just as Espiner introduced the PM. I didn’t have to endure even a moment of the mangled whining that passes for comment from John Key.
You didn’t miss anything. The PM was maybe very tired having spent his sleepless night scheming of ways of getting his photos took multiple times – with those Windsor Beneficiaries. Baby kissing little George perhaps or a threeway handshake? That would work well.
Or he perhaps he had a hangover?
You have only a couple more hours to wait ianmac. The Royals arrive at noon and TV1 will be reporting it live – that is, if the blanket of fog lifts in time otherwise they’ll have to hot-foot it to Palmy? 🙂
In my day we kids were forced to line the streets and watch the Queen sweep past in a blur. We cheered but that was because we were given most of the day off school. Hooray! And then to curry favour NZ schools were given a Royal Public holiday as well. Hooray!
i heard that very boring rnz morning show too, def wasnt just you. seemed to be the same 3 stories over & over, & same information over & over. i turned off key, but heard some of the replays during the news, & he was all muffled. also a strange silence to the whole show, def needs some pepping up otherwise i might try some other monring station (i know radiolive sux but marcus lush at least puts a bit of effort into it).
Sixty years ago Grandad was a town councilor when he and Grandma were scheduled to greet Queenie at the local railway station. Reputedly Grandma refused saying – that woman’s family have already had two of my sons so I’ll be buggered if I’ll curtsey to the bitch.
Lolz, as kids we were all taken off to the local hall,an ex US army facility left over from world war 2, to watch the Saturday movie,
As they did in those long ago days, god Save the Queen was played befor the fillim got to roll, everyone including all the kids,obviously obeying their mum or dads instructions/example stood to attention while this drab dirge blared out of the speakers,
Except us four kids and 1 mum who kept their buttes firmly attached to their seats refusing to acknowledge there was any respect attached to the House of Windsor having not that many years previously dropped its German title in favor of the more English sounding one…
When we talk of the British royal family being German, aren’t we engaging in the very immigration bashing that liberals should despise (also for argument sake since I know what you’re like Bad12, I recognise that you didn’t actually call them German in that post but I’m speaking of several occasions on the Standard where I’ve seen people do this).
The current royal family are British. They were born in Britain. The last monarch who was actually born outside of Britain was George II in 1683. By the time George III came around, he was born in Britain, spoke English as his first language and never visited his ancestral homeland. The Royal Family have been British for nearly three hundred years. They’re no more German than every non-Maori person of New Zealand is the nationality of their European descent.
All this “they’re actually German” rubbish just reinforces the right-wing trope that immigrants can never truly become a part of their new country. Which leads to disquiet and unease and general negative attitudes towards immigration.
Words matter.
Also, even leaving out the immigration side of things, it is absolutely idiotic. They really aren’t German. The family has been British since before New Zealand was a country.
And Phillip, the grand-daddy of the current pair of bludgers arriving to sup at the New Zealand trough is the epitome of English breeding right Gallstone…
From 1714 to 1901 all those on the throne of Britain were German on the current seat warmers side of the family,
Obviously from both sides of His family the Husband of the current seat warmer was thoroughly German even if this was somewhat masked by His attachment to the Greek and Danish thrones,
The fact is that this ”oh so British royal family” celebrate Christmas not on the 25th of December as the masse of their ‘subjects’ do, instead as is the thoroughly German tradition they celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December,
Are they British, Pfft, they are British Germans just as Samoans born in New Zealand as a majority do not use the term New Zealander as a self descriptive preferring instead the term New Zealand Samoan…
Seriously? You’re saying that Queen Elizabeth and her children and grand-children are still German (albeit “British German”)?
If you are, I’m just flabbergasted. There’s no way I can even logically respond to such a stance. It’s absolute stupidity.
This is the entrenchment of national identities. When you’re having a dig at the Royals, it’s harmless. But when extended across society, this leads to all types of anti-immigration and xenophobia drivel.
And if you’re saying you only do it to the Royals, then it’s hypocritical.
Exactly Gallstone, they are Britons of German extraction, as i point out above they still retain at least one significant German custom,(and who knows how many more when ensconced behind closed doors),
Given a DNA test they all would show by genetics a strong line of German inheritance from the gene pool,
The fact that you are flabbergasted is of little surprise to me and since when has lack of logic prevented you from replying to anything,
Your illogic would include labelling me as a ‘liberal’, ask any of the Island Bay Italians for instance,(having already pointed out to you the New Zealand Samoans), they will happily describe themselves as Italian even where at least 3 generations have been born here in New Zealand and have never been to Italy…
My hybrid GB/NZ daughter, born here, considers herself to be 100% kiwi – Do I tell her she’s wrong, despite her passport and citizenship saying otherwise?
But that’s a straw man. It’s their right to culturally identify with what they culturally identify with.
That’s my whole point.
The Royal Family culturally identifies as British and have been born and lived in Britain for the past three hundred years. If they want to be British (and they do), then their British.
When you call them German, you’re removing the ability for them to determine what they feel most culturally akin to. Some immigrants (like myself) may regard ourselves still of the nationality we came from. Some other immigrants want to regard themselves of their new country.
All your talk of DNA and having the right grandparents is exceedingly xenophobic and conservative.
(Also, my family have opened one present on Christmas Eve. I guess I’m German as well now, even though I’ve never been there and have never identified with that part of my heritage (beyond opening a present on Christmas Eve).
Me, I’m English, for better or worse, ’til death do us part and all that, but my girl is as kiwi as the rest of yous 😉
As long as she doesn’t wear an all black jersey with it’s white feather logo in my house we’ll be good. At least she knows what to put on my headstone :smirk:
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Yes the Woyal family ‘claim’ to identify with all things British so as to ‘fit in’, that same family hastily changed their name from a German one to a British one in an attempt to hide that fact that two German Royal households, one in Germany and one in England were engaged in a war,
The English version of this German dynastic family are simply leeches bludging off of the fabric of the British people and have moved speedily to try and expunge any memory of their German Bloodlines….
@ bad
I can understand why they did that – it seems quite similar to highlighting a particular strand of whakapapa as opposed to another strand. Some of the nastiest fighting i can remember hearing/reading about were between relations – brothers, cousins and so on – all kin. All closely blood related.
The two statements are not contradictory. I couldn’t care less about the Royal Visit.
I would support keeping the monarchy. I know I’m an outlier being a Brit myself, but I suspect much like in Britain, there’s a fair few Kiwis who don’t buy into the personality cult of excitement of the royals daily lives while still supporting the system of the monarchy itself.
And to pre-empt the various arguments over how silly it is to keep the monarchy, I agree with you completely. But rather like my desire for Scotland to stay in the UK, it’s a heart over head matter.
I guess for me it comes down to why we need to have them here spending our money on hosting, travel, security. If they want to come, they can pay for everything.
They may be lovely people and every other nation that has become a republic remains int he Commonwealth. They attend the commonwelath games and the CW forum etc…
It’s merely a statement that we are our own nation.
I have no idea if it means Key would have to get s his knighthood or from Jerry or could still go to buckhouse to get it, like Doug Graham did.
I find the title system far more offensive than the queen as pretend head of state frankly.
I like the title system when it used correctly. Again, I’ll have to talk from my UK-centric perspective, but a while back the honours system was used to celebrate the unsung heroes of society. Sure, some celebrities and sports stars have always been honoured. But a lot of charity workers, community workers, authors and artists and so on were the recipients of honours. A small thanks for a life of service.
It’s only lately where it’s been given to bankers and footballers and so on that I feel the honours system has lost it’s way.
Again, heart over head matter. I like the trappings of history if we can avoid the baggage of it.
I don’t consider myself English or Scottish. I’m British. I was born in England. But my father was Scottish. A section of my ancestors were Scots. Another part was English. I spent time in both Scotland and England. I value both those culture together and regard myself as British. I love New Zealand, but Britain is still my home and my country. Ever since I was a little boy I was British. Despite the arguments in favour and against, I can’t really engage in the debate because all I can see is the tearing apart of my home.
It’s very much my heart taking charge of the debate.
I have empathy with Disraeli Gladstone’s viewpoint. My parents were English – born and bred. They arrived here the day NZ declared war on Germany in 1939. Despite the fact they spent most of their adult lives in NZ, they always regarded themselves as English. Its what you feel in your heart that matters, and there is no doubt that the generations of the British monarchy since George V at the least saw themselves as totally British.
Scottishness doesn’t have anything to do with it Tracy. I’m Scottish…born and bred there, both parents Scottish. But I don’t get to vote. Meanwhile, a woman born in Chelsea whose parents are Indian and English, but who lives in Scotland does get to vote. (Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh) And that’s how it should be.
It’s about economic and political power, not patriotism. And that principally affects only those who live there.
i have no reason to disbelieve what you say bill. i am surprised that born and bred scotts living in scotland see it as a political and economic decision only.
On 21 April 2008, New Zealand Republic released a poll of New Zealanders showing 43% support the monarchy should Prince Charles become King of New Zealand, and 41% support a republic under the same scenario.[76] A poll by the New Zealand Herald in January 2010, before a visit by Prince William to the country found 33.3% wanted Prince Charles to be the next monarch, with 30.2% favouring Prince William. 29.4% of respondents preferred a republic in the event Queen Elizabeth died or abdicated
The poll, by Curia Market Research, was commissioned by New Zealand Republic. It shows support for a New Zealand Head of State has risen to 44%. Support from people aged 18-30 is at now at 66%. Support for using the next British Monarch as our next head of state has fallen to 46%.
We might well laugh but sadly it is not too far from the reality. Have to get rid of those pesky teachers. All they seem to want to do is teach kids instead of balancing the books.
Mickey Mouse’s ears are freaky. Aside from being one of the most recognisable character icons ever created, did you know they are exactly the same in every image? This is regardless of Mickey’s posing. Be it a profile view, front of face or Mickey looking back over his shoulder at whatever mayhem Pluto is creating. They never change!
A photo in a 1999 USGS report on subsidence captures the drama vividly. It shows scientist Joseph Poland standing next to a utility pole outside Mendota. On the ground is a placard marked 1977. Twenty-eight feet overhead, another sign is nailed to the pole showing where crops once grew: It reads 1925.
As the land subsided, bridges slumped, levees sank and well casings failed. Canals sagged, too, inviting water to loiter in low spots and spill over banks. From 1955 to 1970, damages topped $1.3 billion (in 2013 dollars), according to a new report by the California Water Foundation. All kinds of water conveyance infrastructure was harmed, from pumping plants and canal berms in the Tulare-Wasco area to bridges, pipelines and drain inlets on the Delta-Mendota Canal west of Firebaugh. And then, thanks to massive volumes of surface water that arrived via state and federal aqueducts and canals, pumping slowed and subsidence largely stopped.
It’s amazing how people keep thinking that they can do whatever they like and there not be consequences despite those consequences having happened before. Oh well, I suppose it won’t be long before we see the end of Californian wine production.
Big question: Are we monitoring this stuff in NZ or are we doing the same as the Californians and just using it as if there’s no limit?
Okay, why do cyclists run reds? Well firstly they don’t
run reds, that would be quite legal as getting off the
bike and running carrying the bike over their heads is
quite legal.
Second, red light don’t detect cyclists and so cyclist
if they were to obey the rule would have to wait for
a car to drive up behind and flip the lights over.
Third, cyclists are slow, so not only do they have
more chance of being hit when slowing down (increase
cross sectional opportunity for a crash), but they
are also observed for long periods. Especially at lights and so
seen more often running them (even though car drivers
may well run lights more often). Fourth, cycle
lane turns left onto another cycle lane means
cycles only need worry about other cyclists, when red
and cyclist are slow moving and easily avoided,
so transition from lane to cycle lane without any
threat from cars.
Finally, cycle take longer to slow, take more effort
to get moving so cyclist have a predilection to not
stop, whereas red light car jumpers are just gunning
the lights (what cyclist would never do that since no way
could they win!!!)
And finally, finally, car drivers
who run lights are likely when they cycle themselves to also do,
so blame the culture of gunning lights by car drivers for cyclist
running reds.
Roads are designed for motor vehicles, cyclists have
no protection, are unstable at slow speeds (esp. on slopes),
roads have pot holes that effect them far worse,
and so cyclist should be given any benefit of the doubt.
A cyclist rides about twice as fast as a runner, its hardly
a competition between them and cars.
The idea that drivers have equal rights to cyclists is absurd and
abusive, since those disabled by using their own strength
without recourse to an engine, seat belts, power brakes, etc
are always going to come off worse, so drivers should always
err on their side, and be cautious.
And so when Moro again brings up the issue why is it so anti-cyclists,
why does Moro defend the strong against the weak and exposed?
1: that would be jaywalking
2: Press the button to cross, like I do on my motor scooter
3: But the percentage of cyclists observed seems to be quite high, in my experience. Compared to motor vehicles.
4: They don’t need to worry about the law? That’s how accidents happen.
finally1: gunning vs not stopping doesn’t make much difference when they’ve built up some downhill speed.
finally2: if car drivers jumped off a cliff, would cyclists? And as you point out, cars can brake quickly or gun the throttle if they misjudged while braking the law. Cyclists can’t. And cyclists are the least obvious and most vulnerable on the road. On a motor scooter, I have similar vulnerabilities – I choose to not take gambles.
Cyclists should also err on the side of caution, because they are the most vulnerable. And they’re choosing to take themselves into close proximity of heavy machinery that moves at speed and is often controlled by dickheads. If a car strikes a cycle, it’s usually the car driver at fault (or at least another vehicle driver that put the cyclist in front of the car), AFAIK. However, it’s the cyclist who always comes worse off. If you advocate for cyclists to break the road code, you’re opening the door (so to speak) for idiot vehicle drivers to use the same excuses for their illegal behaviour.
Cyclists who get off can walk their bike across any junction, lights or not. As long as they don’t cause an accident, which they wouldn’t since they would get hurt far worse than any car driver. And in that way cyclists are pedestrians, pedestrians cross roads, all the time, red lights or not. Put it another way, Cyclists, like pedestrians, are not motor vehicles that HAVE to OBEY red lights and can’t get out and push their vehicles through red lights.
I can do that on my motor scooter: a pedestrian with a 2 wheeled trolley.
But we’re talking about cyclists who just ride through the red lights. No walking involved.
If its safe its legal in my opinion because pedestrians do it all the time.
Its like noise. Its the source of the noise that has to turn it down. with respect of vehicles, its the source of engine power.
A Jogger can run as fast as a bike, its no different.
Child ride bikes on the pavement.
Posties do.
Its just a hangover from the motor industry using their abuse of power to deny
alternatives to their industry.
Its actually wrong to frustrate cyclists travel based on the false belief that somehow
someone has actually died from cyclist riding on the foot path. Its wrong because
forcing them into the road where that happens.
Cars have the power to stop, to speed, to evade, they have the safety, they have the technology, the have all the options. As long as a cyclist crosses safely I don’t see a problem. However its just political correctness gone mad to expect a cyclist to walk their cycle across a junction when they can ride across much more safely (quicker!).
As a cyclist growing up in Christchurch I assumed that every car was out to get me. That way I was alert to the potential of injury whenever a car in front or behind or across alerted my consciousness. As a small town NZ cyclist now, I still behave that way to stay alive if possible.
Have spent the day doing a bit of ‘royal watching’.
Wandering through various news sites, but mainly exploring the explosive multitude of Facebook pages that are covering the Tour, and reading the comments. The comments…. The comments…
I have witnessed clichés and melees, saw fracas and face offs and every page was rife with half-stated hate speech wallpapered over with carbon copy happy faces. My sincere and undeniable conclusion is an epidemic of cognitive dissonance is running rampant across New Zealand.
our friend Douglas Adams summed it up best
“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”
COINCIDENCE or INTUITION or DESTINY or KARMA?…An interesting Lotto story
A Takaka couple who won more than $7 million with Big Wednesday say it’s all thanks to trusting a woman’s intuition.
After doing the weekly shopping last week one of the winners had a sudden gut feeling that she should pick up a Big Wednesday ticket.
“As I walked to the car I thought, ‘I should get a Big Wednesday ticket’, but I couldn’t really be bothered. But as I walked away my intuition told me that I would regret not buying that ticket – so I popped back into the store and grabbed one,” said the winner, who wishes to remain anonymous. The couple watched Big Wednesday that night and soon knew they had won a big prize.
“I just started screaming,” said the winner. “I fell to my knees and shouted to my husband: ‘We’ve won!’ He grabbed the ticket, took one look and started screaming too.”
The winners double checked their numbers against the official results online before getting too excited.
“We jumped online to MyLotto and stared at the computer screen waiting for the results to come up. We were refreshing the page every couple of seconds . . . it was a painful wait.”
When their prize was confirmed, the couple say they got so excited that one of them hurt their leg jumping up and down.
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Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I don’t know Taupō well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, I’m always on the way to somewhere else. Usually Taupō means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK – following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
Lost Opportunity: The powerful political metaphor of the Maori Party leading the despised and marginalised from danger to safety, is one Labour could have pre-empted by taking the uprising at Waikeria Prison much more seriously. AS WORD OF Rawiri Waititi’s successful intervention in the Waikeria Prison stand-off spreads, the Maori ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. “The past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Year’s Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. “We are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Year’s Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Government’s investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. “COVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
Dairy prices increased by 3.9% across the board at the latest Fonterra global auction. The lift followed rises of 1.3% and 4.3% in the December auctions which took dairy prices to their highest level in 11 months, defying those analysts who believed Covid-19 had disrupted dairy markets. In the latest ...
America's Cup team American Magic has spoken publicly after their boat Patriot capsized when on its way to their first win of the Challenger Selection Series yesterday. Patriot dramatically capsized yesterday, becoming temporarily airborne before crashing back into the water and tipping. The boat, helmed by New Zealander Dean Barker, could not be ...
It’s a seemingly age old question: why do Auckland’s beaches become unswimmable after every single downpour? Stewart Sowman-Lund investigates.Ah, the beach. A staple of the New Zealand summer. Unless, of course, you’re based in Auckland and it’s raining. The start of 2021 has been a lot like every other New ...
We have opened a book, among members of the Point of Order team, on how long it will be before the PM offers to sort out the land dispute at Wellington’s Shelly Bay and (to win the double) how much the settlement will cost taxpayers. Just a few weeks ago ...
Breakfast TV news is back for 2021, and Tara Ward got up early to watch. “Thank god it’s almost Christmas,” John Campbell said during the opening minutes of Breakfast’s premiere episode of the year. “2021’s been rough so far. I’m buggered”. We’re all buggered, to be fair, but I’m worried that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Pearson, Professor of Journalism and Social Media, Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Griffith University The blame for the recent assault on the US Capitol and President Donald Trump’s broader dismantling of democratic institutions and norms can be ...
Despite a popular and unifying leader of the governing party, divisions both in policy and culture will test the progressive movement, writes Peter McKenzie.‘I think we’re confused.” Marlon Drake is an organiser for the Living Wage Movement. His job takes him all over Wellington, trying to convince businesses to increase ...
Covid-19 Recovery Minister Chris Hipkins says vaccinations should be available to the public by the middle of the year, but other countries are prioritised. ...
It’s as true now as it ever has been: nowhere else offers an education experience like that of Dunedin. But rather than resting on their laurels, the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic have plans to make the city an even more inspiring place for students.From high in the summit ...
Haggis, neeps and tatties and whisky may not be a traditional spread for a summer gathering in NZ, but trust Auckland city councillor and Kiwi-Scot Cathy Casey on this one. Gie it laldy! Rule one: Hold it on (or near) January 25Robert Burns was born on January 25, 1759. Since the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University It could be argued artificial intelligence (AI) is already the indispensable tool of the 21st century. From helping doctors diagnose and treat patients to rapidly advancing new drug discoveries, it’s our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University Through recent natural disasters, global upheavals and a pandemic, Australia’s political centre has largely held. Australians may have disagreed at times, but they have also kept faith with governmental norms, eschewing the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Holly Seale, Associate professor, UNSW Health workers are at higher risk of COVID infection and illness. They can also act as extremely efficient transmitters of viruses to others in medical and aged care facilities. That’s why health workers have been prioritised to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jim Orchard, Adjunct Lecturer, Monash University Last week, somewhat overshadowed by the events in Washington, the Democrats took control of the US Senate. The Democrats now hold a small majority in both the House and the Senate until 2022, giving President-elect Joe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mittul Vahanvati, Lecturer, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University Heatwaves, floods, bushfires: disaster season is upon us again. We can’t prevent hazards or climate change-related extreme weather events but we can prepare for them — not just as individuals ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mandie Shean, Lecturer, School of Education, Edith Cowan University Starting school is an important event for children and a positive experience can set the tone for the rest of their school experience. Some children are excited to attend school for the first ...
Some families in emergency housing are reporting their children are becoming emotionally distressed because of their living conditions. Demand for emergency accommodation has escalated this past year with the number of emergency housing grants increasing by half. Data showed nearly 10,000 people were given an Emergency Housing Special Needs Grant between ...
Summer reissue: Michèle A’Court, Alex Casey and Leonie Hayden are back for a second season of On the Rag, and where better to start than with the mysterious, exhausting world of wellness?First published June 23, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
With few Covid-19 infections and negiligible natural immunity, New Zealand faces being a victim of its own success when it is left till last to get the vaccines, argues Dr Parmjeet Parmar. ...
Steve Braunias reports on a literary cancelling. The Corrections department has refused to allow Jared Savage's best-selling book Gangland inside prison on the grounds that it "promotes violence and drug use". An inmate at Otago Corrections Facility in Dunedin was sent a copy of the book – but it was ...
New data from the CTU’s annual work life survey shows a snapshot of working people’s experiences and outlook heading out of 2020 and into the new year. Concerningly 42% of respondents cite workplace bullying as an issue in their workplace - a number ...
The dramatic capsize of American Magic brought out the best in the America's Cup sailing fraternity. But, Suzanne McFadden asks, what does it mean to the crippled New York Yacht Club campaign and to the Prada Cup? It was a scene as unreal as it was calamitous. Right at the moment the ...
An international player, selector and self-confessed cricket stats nerd, Penny Kinsella has now played a hand in recording the rich history of the women's game in New Zealand. Penny Kinsella’s cricketing career was perched on the cusp of change for the White Ferns. “My first tour to Australia, we ...
The current number of members of parliament is starting to get too low for the job we expect them to do, argues Alex Braae. As a general rule, with the possible exception of their families, nobody likes backbench MPs. But it’s nevertheless time we accepted that parliament should have more of ...
The experience in the Brazilian city of Manaus reveals how mistaken, and dangerous, the herd-immunity-by-infection theory really is. As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop ...
As New Zealand gears up to fight climate change, experts warn that we need to actually reduce emissions, not just plant trees to offset our greenhouse gases. ...
A nationwide poll has found majority support for the government to continue to closely monitor abortions in New Zealand and the reasons for it, despite the Ministry of Health recently suggesting that there is not a use for collecting much of this information. ...
The out-of-control growth in gangs, gun crime, and violent gang activity is exposing our communities to dangerous levels of violence that will inevitably end in tragedy, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The recent incidents of people being shot and ...
Successive governments have paid lip service to our productivity challenge but have failed to deliver. It's time to establish a Productivity Council charged with prioritising efforts. ...
Understanding the connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and ‘long Covid’ might be helpful in treating symptoms that doctors will find all too easy to dismiss.When people began to report signs of “long Covid”, characterised by a lack of full recovery from the virus and debilitating fatigue, I recognised their stories. ...
Nadine Anne Hura, who never considered herself an artist, reflects on what art and making has taught her.I couldn’t clean or cook or wash the clothes, but I could sew. That’s a lie, I’m a terrible sewer, but I left work early to fossick around in the $1 bin of ...
Summer reissue: In the final episode of this season of Bad News, Alice is joined by Billy T award winner Kura Forrester to look at how well we’re honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 2020.First published September 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The ...
Lucy Revill’s The Residents is a blog about daily life in Wellington that has morphed into a stylish, low-key coffee-table book featuring interviews and photographic portraits of 38 Wellingtonians. In this extract, Revill profiles Eboni Waitere, owner and executive director of Huia Publishers. The Residents features names like Monique Fiso ...
Pacific Media Watch correspondent The pro-independence conflict in West Papua with a missionary plane reportedly being shot down at Intan Jaya has stirred contrasting responses from the TNI/POLRI state sources, church leaders and an independence leader. A shooting caused a plane to catch fire on 6 January 2021 in the ...
“Last year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at Ihumātao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bay” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “The prosperity of all ...
Our kindly PM registered her return to work as leader of the nation with yet another statement on the Beehive website, the second in two days (following her appointment of Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council on Wednesday). It’s great to know we don’t have to check with ...
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past.Content warning: This article contains racist language and images.On a pub wall in ...
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that ...
You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide?In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on ...
Summer reissue: Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue?First published September 1, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago – some 124 days – since Mā’ohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planet’s lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governor’s apology and claim he will ‘own the issue’ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union said: “It’s been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools – from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing – have transformed the way we work. In many respects they’ve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. “We ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on England’s Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called “founding fathers” of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country – this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand’s Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, it’s not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authority’s Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If you’ve ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
“We may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Jackson, Program Director, Centre for Policy Development, and Associate Professor of Education, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Childcare centres across Australia are suffering staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Many childcare workers across Australia left when parents started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as “death ...
*This article was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission* Whoever leads the Republican Party post-Trump will need to consider how they will maintain the rabid support of his “base”, while working to regain more moderate voters who defected from the party in the 2020 election. In a historic ...
Paula Bennett was detained by Police this morning on her way Whenuapai Airport.
She was threatening to bash two English tourists, surnames Windsor, who are unashamed benefit rorters.
The one child family are know to claim millions in England and to live an extravagant lifestyle. Bennett was particularly enraged when she heard they would be claiming English benefit while on holiday and then claiming food, board and travel from NZ taxpayer. The Windsors are known to drink and watch flat screen TVs during the day.
Unfortunately Bennett will be released when the spongers leave the country to do nothing somewhere else.
Hehe.
It has been said of the Windsors that they are the best paid social welfare beneficiaries in the world …
Enjoyed Pagini’s disdain today for the ‘ God like’ Royals on Mora’s afternoon programme. His obvious discomfort with her disrespect. I wonder if her contract will be terminated.
A change from the obsequious fawning servility of the common media fearing for their jobs.
Unfortunately for the Woyals the weather in Wellington is dismal with fog/cloud down to sea level and there is a chance that they could be forced to land at Palmerston North…
No! No! Anywhere but Palmerston North !
I wonder if johnny will make his car go really fast to get there in time?
He can ring Helen for instructions on how to get the driver to speed while not noticing. Only other option would be to get Lundy to drive
no, surely he would never drive too fast, that would be too heinous
betcha he manages to get a photo op of him holding george or at least trying to get a handshake on or near him…betcha
A four way handshake with Key, William, Kate and George with a special lovely little Troty present for Key from George. Will help Key get some more votes for inviting them in an election year. How cool is that!
A gilded cage is a cage nonetheless. The only compassionate response is to offer them asylum.
It just so happens that i have a good used asylum going cheap,the Woyals could spend years enjoying the comforts of its cells and straightjackets having spent years roll playing doing the doctors and nurses thing should come quite naturally to them…
Noticeably absent from our airwaves during this royal tour is the modern international youth anthem “We will never be Royals” by Lorde.
Instead of glorifying privilege, Lorde held up a light up to the nobility of those without money or privilege. But this not a message that John Key and his born to rule tories want us to hear in an election year, hence the need for this extravagant tax payer funded glittering royal tour. Where the modern kiwi MSM continue to grovel and tug its forelock in the traditional peasant way at this symbolic embodiment of enshrined privilege and inequality.
But that kind of love affair ain’t for us, we seek a different kind of buzz
which political party is “courting” her for it as their campaign song….
@ Jenny
That is an extremely cool comment
loling at your comment.
But, seriously….I’m excited about the royals! Is nobody else feeling it?? They are the most level headed/sane of all of the bunch and they are gonna love it here : )
Are you sure you are not confusing ‘level headed’ with this pairs ability to adhere to the old adage ”better to keep the mouth firmly shut and be thought of as idiots than open it and provide proof”…
“But, seriously….I’m excited about the royals! Is nobody else feeling it??”
No Awww. I’m about as indifferent as that weather that bad12 is describing for Wellington today. Besides I descend from Irish and Scots, so the representatives of the English Crown are nothing to get excited about The only excitement they ever got in the past was fighting them.
The flat screen that Not a PS Staffer talks of though, may well be in their itinerary. During a tour of Government house we were informed by the tour guide that previously Wills had enjoyed being entertained in the whatever- it -was -called -room where there IS a large flat screen attached to a wall above a gas fire as well as billiard table and drinks cabinet. I think he was watching the world cup. I wasn’t really listening – I was more interested contemplating the future of the NZ wool industry having being inspired by the ultra plush carpet, made in Christchurch by Di Lana.
I don’t understand what you are looking forward to? Couldn’t you just read about them and others who make a career out of being themselves in the screeds of shallow magazines?
What, is there a royal tour this year? Who won the “holiday in Enzed” this time?
I want to know how many contenders played Paper, Sissors, Rock – we know who lost.
Lols Not a PS Staffer 🙂
and they can afford to travel overseas. Have they stopped receiving income while overseas?
This is how to shut down the whole Royal nonsense .
In the 1930 the Irish Free State had not yet become a republic. DeValera won the 1932 election and when he had to appoint a new DG he appointed a shop keeper who remained behind his store counter!
“De Valera explicitly instructed Ua Buachalla as governor-general to keep a low public profile, and not to fulfil any public engagements. This was part of de Valera’s policy to make the governor-generalship an irrelevance by reducing it to invisibility. While he continued to give the Royal Assent to legislation, summon and dissolve Dáil Éireann and fulfil the other formal duties of the governor-generalship, he declined all public invitations and kept himself invisible, as advised by “his” Government. In fact in his period in office he performed only one public function: the receipt of the credentials of the French Ambassador in the Council Chamber, Government Buildings, 1933, on behalf of the King, George V. However, de Valera subsequently had that duty moved from the governor-general to his own post of President of the Executive Council. (One of the few other occasions Ua Buachalla was mentioned at all in public was when, in the aftermath of the death of King George V in January 1936, he had to reply to messages of condolence sent to the Irish people by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull.)
On de Valera’s instruction, Ua Buachalla did not reside in the official residence of the governor-general, the Viceregal Lodge (now called Áras an Uachtaráin, the residence of the President of Ireland). Instead a house was rented for his use. The official English title Governor-General was largely replaced by the official Irish title Seanascal or its direct translation, Seneschal; however, Governor-General remained the legal form used in official English-language documents and proclamations.” Wiki.
While chumming up with the Nazis
Citation please.
Are you inferring that “neutrality” during WWII was tilted towards the Germans? It was not.
German submarines were allowed to use Irish ports – I don’t recall this privilege being extended to the Allies
Oh look, Pop1 going off half cocked about shit he knows not what of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_neutrality_during_World_War_II
Blimey, that’s one for the books.
A natural disaster will not occur as a result of deep sea oil and gas exploration: Govt.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11233306
(Since an oil spill would not be a natural disaster, giving an assurance that a natural disaster won’t occur due to deep sea oil and gas drilling is a pretty meaningless statement.) That climate change resulting from chasing down every last possible and remote and difficult and risky source of oil would also be a disaster makes the above statement doubly ridiculous.
Simon Bridges the government minister for energy says he is more than 100 percent confident that that oil would not spill onto New Zealand beaches.
So how confident is the minister that oil won’t spill on our beaches?
101 percent?
200 percent?
110 percent?
What on earth does this mean anyway?
In other idiocy Simon Bridges said:
“They don’t make the cut”, really Minister?
Did even one of the companies that put in an application, have their application declined, did even one, “not make the cut”?
My guess is that every single company that applied got approval, which if true would prove that every single utterance that passes this minister’s lips is pure gooblygook meant to mislead and confuse.
Pleasingly little ex-Crown prosecutor Simon is looking somewhat harried and tired. Unpleasingly that will probably go only to exponentially advancing his hubris and bullshit. Watch ShonKey Python’s recently anointed Minister of Pacific Island Affairs Sam Lotu-Iiga for a simiar effect. Such biddable wee bullshitters and trough-guzzlers.
it’s this Anadarko Bridges defends, right?
“Top toxic sites in Anadarko Petroleum settlement
The Associated Press
Top toxic sites among thousands that are part of the $5.15 billion settlement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. with approximate amount of funding for cleanup efforts and details about the sites, as provided by the Justice Department:
—Henderson, Nev.: $1.118 billion for prospective cleanup costs.
Groundwater at a former chemical manufacturing facility in Henderson, Nev., has been impacted by hexavalent chromium and perchlorate, a chemical used to produce rocket fuel, due to the since the 1940s.
—Navajo Abandoned Uranium Mines: $985 million for prospective cleanup costs.
Kerr-McGee left abandoned uranium mine sites, including contaminated waste rock piles, in the Lukachukai mountains of Arizona and in the Ambrosia Lake area of New Mexico. The Lukachukai mountains are located immediately west of Cove, Ariz., and are a culturally significant part of the Navajo Nation; the Ambrosia Lake area is just outside the Navajo Nation. The mining occurred from the late 1940s through the 1960s in the Lukachukai area and from the 1950s to the 1980s in Ambrosia Lake.
—Manville, N.J.: $217 million for past response costs; $4.5 million in natural resource damage penalties to be paid to New Jersey as natural resources trustee.
The proceeds the Environmental Protection Agency will receive for this site cover EPA’s past costs expended at the site. While they will not address ongoing threats to human health and the environment, they will reimburse the significant response costs EPA spent at the site out of the Superfund. From 1910 until the mid-1950s, the site was used as a wood treatment facility, which occupied approximately 50 acres in the Borough of Manville.
—Riley Pass, S.D.: $179 million for prospective work.
The site is located in the North Cave Hills area of Harding County, S.D., primarily on a series of bluffs within the Custer National Forest where strip mining of uranium-bearing lignite took place in the 1960s.
—Chicago (Lindsay Light Removal Sites, Streeterville Rights-of-Way and DuSable Park): $119 million for prospective work.
Beginning in 1904 and continuing through the mid-1930s, the Lindsay Light Chemical Co. processed ore to extract radioactive thorium and manufactured gas mantles containing radioactive thorium at three locations in an area in downtown Chicago known as the “Streeterville Area.” Lindsay Light merged with American Potash & Chemical Corp., which was acquired by Kerr-McGee.
—Columbus, Miss.: $67 million for prospective work.
The site is a former wood treatment facility, which began operations in 1928. Kerr-McGee purchased the facility in 1964 and operated it until its decommissioning in 2003. At the facility, wood products were treated with creosote, coal tar, and, until 1976, pentachlorphenol. Open ditches were used by Kerr-McGee for years to transport surface water runoff from the site to Luxapilila Creek. Numerous floods throughout the years spread the creosote contamination and polyaromatic hydrocarbons into the neighboring yards of residents.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/04/03/4037611/top-toxic-sites-in-anadarko-petroleum.html#storylink=cpy“
A very telling set of incidents Tracey which are not often told. Now are we to be for whom the bell tolls?
With the arrival today of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge batten down the hatches for days and days of terminally obseqious yet sly arse-licking from soon-to-be Sir ShonKey Python of Grossbee-Texter-Upon-Knees.
A display to trump the gold standard in the same set by Rowan Atkinson’s Sir Edmund Blackadder in the court of a royal personage past. Madness marries Merill Lynch.
No offence intended to a calculatedly vaunted sweet couple, fabulously privileged and mercifully immune from the sociopathy of Hurrah Henry Cameron and ATOS.
Lols at you too North:-)
A royal tour with Sir Edmund Blackadder as the guest of honour would surely restore our love for the monarchy
King Edmund of New Zild, has a nice ring to it
baldrick was in town a week or two ago…
or Rowan Atkinson’s Marcus Browning, MP
You need to listen to the audio to get the best impact. For some reason I am put in mind of Dunne.
Listen here
Sir Marcus Browning MP
Announcer: Welcome to your seats, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed the buffet dinner, but even if you didn’t, I know you’ll enjoy our guest speaker tonight who’s taken time off from his rigorous parliamentary schedule to be with us. We are very honored to welcome Sir Marcus Browning MP. Thank you.
Sir Marcus Browning: My Lord Mayor, my Lady Mayoress. My lords, ladies and gentlemen. There comes a time when we must all stand up and be counted. I am therefore standing up now and can be counted. One. To each of you I say you are a one. And ones are about to become singularly important. Because Britain is facing the gravest economic crisis since 1380. And you know many of us still remember that day. The eternal torment, worry, exesperation and all manner of (?). And if we are to quit the lights go out on our lives once more (?), we must ask ourselves crucial questions. Where are we? How did we get here? Why did we come? Where do we want to go? How do we want to get to where we want to go? How far do we have to go before we get to where we want to be? How would we know where we were when we got there? HAVE WE GOT A MAP? Why did we leave places to get to where we are? Where were we before that we had to leave to get to where we before we knew we’re going to go to where we want to be? Where would we end up if we had the choice? Where would we end up if we didn’t have the choice? What would we choose given the choice? Do we have that choice to choose? Or indeed can we be choosy about the choice choosings? What are the choosings? Choices! Do we want to stop now? (Rhetorical.) Or do we want to go right back to the beginning and start all over again. Perhaps not. But surely you can see my point. Because what I’m talking about is life. Because life is one of those things that most of us find it very difficult to avoid. In the words of (?) “life is uncertain.” My life certainly has a certain uncertainty about it. And I’m certain yours does too. So with my uncertainty and your uncertainty there’s certainly a certain degree of uncertainty about, of that we can be quite sure. So let’s buckle down, shall we? Purpose is what we’re striving for. We must have purpose. We mustn’t be purposeless. We mustn’s exhibit purposnessless. We must be purposelessnessless. Because we don’t want to end up, do we? Because we don’t want to end up, do we? Like the blind man in the dark room looking for the black cat that isn’t there.
audio
You would be a fan of How to Win an election or not lose by very much by lesley bricusse and co. I should think. And what I always say….
How come simon bridges is 100%+ sure.
I can tell you the wheels have fallen off Nactionals drill it mine it at any cost policy.
Its dead in the water gone along with Anadarko no reoverable amounts of oil or gas have been found.
So bridges is desperate by expanding the exploration area is trying to rescue a Failed policy.
tricledrown. I had forgotten how closely Simon Bridges words resemble the “Newspeak” of George Orwell’s novel.
Doubleplus good, for reminding me.
did you ctch the 6 billion payout anadarko is having to make for its fucking up of the environment in the US since about 1930? I would say they probably consider it money well spent…
Not a very good example given Anardarko was started in 1959 and only started activities outside of Texas in 1986. All those examples you listed earlier are historic superfund sites that Anardarko inherited through acquisitions. Your story is really more that “Anardarko owns sites they didn’t pollute in the first place, Anardarko pays to have the sites cleaned up under EPA settlement”. It ‘s likely that when Anardarko acquired a lot of these sites, they didn’t know the full potential liability. Interesting link here which kind of summarises how this generally works:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2014/04/03/anadarko-erases-silkwood-uncertainty-with-5-billion-tronox-settlement/
The real issue for allowing any entity foreign owned or not – to do anything in NZ is to have protections in place so they can’t pull a Union Carbide (or a Kerr-McGee from the above link) if something goes wrong. That’s where I think we need to be really careful. Anardarko is actually recognised as a pretty good corporate citizen – of course that may be relative praise rather than absolute.
thank you for the correction.
It might have been an amount set for them to pay but now comes the extracting of the money, well, well, well that won’t be so simple – lot’s of delaying tactics will be resorted to. And probably some time meeting at resorts too.
And don’t be too nitpicky nadis. Andarko may not have owned them once, but now has them in its portfolio. The point is that An-ko is just a name and other firms doing their damage are just like Andarko and vice versa. The nature of the operation is destructive whatever company does it.
i think he goes to the same speech coach as parata.
The only comment I would like to make about the visit by the Windsors is this. I understood a constitutional monarch was not allowed to get involved in politics. Black Rod and all that medieval crap. Why is it then they are opening the controversial Velodrome in Cambridge hosted by Wardell (he will get a knighthood for playing at life) where 80% of the ratepayers were against having rate payers money used to fund it, but the regional council aided and abetted by Keys pack of shits ignored what the ratepayers said and went ahead with it.
I think this sets a precedent, the Royals are being used politically by Key during an election year.
I assume “Keys pack of shits” = the New Zealand Government.
Just checking.
How are they being used politically? There are no conventions in New Zealand about royal visits in election year. Visits in 1981 and 2002 were both within 6 months of the elections in those years.
In 2002, the Queen visited Team New Zealand. Many on the Left and the Right had opposed funding for the Americas Cup. Was that the “royals being used politically” by the then Labour Government? No, of course not.
So stop drawing a long bow. Nobody cares much. Just enjoy Kate and the baby. It will take the bitter taste out of your mouth for a while. Maybe you can even enjoy life during the royal tour.
As ignorant of this topic as you are of real world economics, S Rylands.
In 2011 Prince William didn’t come to the Rugby World Cup because it was too close to the last election and while the Queen was in Australia that year she decided against crossing the Tasman.
The Rugby World Cup was much closer to the election than this tour is to this year’s election.
The cup final was on October 23rd. The election was just over a month later on 26 November.
This royal tour is over four months from the upcoming election.
Where are you drawing the line, Pete?
4 months? 3 months? 6 weeks?
I’m not drawing a line. I don’t care about the royal tour and I don’t see any reason why it should affect the election this year. Much fuss about something irrelevant to modern New Zealand.
pete
on this and the polls i think your are being very naive. of course journalists know they are cherrypicking polls, as do their editors.
you need to read more psychology and less politics to understand impact of winning rugby teams, royal visits and so on.
But Petey thinks the All Blacks have nothing to do with politics.
That must be why John Key doesn’t bother trying to associate himself with them, eh?
Key’s only interest in the Rugby World Cup was to touch the troty and do a three way handshake to make Nuzlind, and indeed the world, happy.
So you mean there is no time that would be too close to an election in your book?
If so then why compare the four months to the one month?
Pete you should write for The Civilian. In fact whenever I see anything of yours longer than three lines I start thinking I am reading The Civilian. I particularly like this one although you can pretty much take your pick:
i assume such a ‘pack’ includes you SSLands…
Nah, S Rylands is unelectable. He does his politics on the job.
True OAB, i was meaning more the inclusion in the ‘pack of shits’ for SSLands as 99% of what It writes here at the Standard is full of it…
check the front cover of the womens weekly, mr & mrs key holding fluffy puppies (!!!) with the headline ‘john & bronaghs royal surprise’ & tell me again how this whole tour is not a publicity stunt for john key/national party.
(how can i ‘enjoy kate & the baby’ ‘enjoy?’ what a weird word in that context. celebrity culture, P.R, idiots gettting sucked in. i could not give a fuk about the royals, but i do give a fuk about the news being hijacked by this BS.)
“tell me again how this whole tour is not a publicity stunt for john key/national party.”
Are you suggesting the royals are actively supporting John Key and National? That’s a long bow you are drawing.
id say it was the other way round. but i cannot think why else a royal celebrity would PR for NZ in an election year.
‘long bow’ … i love how our language is peppered with so many phrases from our history.
@idlegus. Thought you were kidding about magazine cover until I went to buy the Woman’s Day and there they were!! That man has no class at all. What was the surprise? Was it a copy of steffi’s attempt at art of which mom and pop were so proud. Oh, and no, I did not buy the magazine, nor will I be in the near future, unless of course if it is featuring our new Prime Minister David Cunliffe.
Labour has never been averse to the royal effect. Although Clark did break protocol and wear slacks to a dinner with the queen…
I hope Johnny is wearing incontinent pants when he meets them today, he will be so excited, they’r e like family to him.
We knew that from the day it was announced they were coming.
I was amused a few days ago to hear that John and Bronagh invited them to a “home cooked dinner” at their home but the D&D (very wisely) turned them down on the grounds “they wanted to get back to George in Wellington”. Can you imagine how he would have milked that little tete a tete for all it was worth. Fancy having the gall in election year to even issue the invitation.
is this the dinner key is cooking for John Campbell? After shopping at the market? Is that the Parnell market and la cigale or the Otara market?
I cringe whoever does it, Cunliffe, Hairdo anyone.
They say they dont want their private life as part of public scrutiny… unless it suits them…
IF politicians want to paint themsleves in a particulaar light through their private life then all bets are off imo. Children using class A drugs should be able to be written about. If going tot he market and letting cameras watch them cook dinner at home is ok, when it paints them as family and homely etc… then why not scrutinise their parenting via drugs and rinking transgressions of their kids?
Sycophancy to your betters and stepping on those below you, is all part of the National Party tory born to rule class culture that they are trying to stamp on the rest of us.
The sooner these agents of privilege and wealth leave our shores the better.
I am surprised that Key didn’t invite the queen for a game of golf.
(Or at least planking!)
That wouldn’t be (Pete) George would it ? Wow Pete, you’re connected my bro’ ! Use that one well ya could probably squeeze a reasonable list placement outa ShonKey Python himself.
Nah, Wills and Kate couldn’t handle the prospect of a menu jam packed with the host’s ‘mince’ and “Georgie Pie tickle tickle tickle say hello to uncle”. Kid spews on that shit I’m told.
Seemingly though the final straw was the spot of preprandial tennis ShonKey planned for out the back at facsimile Gushing Meadows.
i havn’t got the link, but, someone on ‘open Mike’ as late as last week provided a link that showed far from the common perception the Queen does have power of veto over the English Parliament,
This power of veto has apparently been used numerous times, Yay for the good of society we all might think as the descendant of an Irish Piss Pot emptier refused to allow Legislation that would hurt the masses,
Hardly, it seems the only Legislated that attracts the Woyal veto is that which threatens the income stream of the Bludgers…
The queens power of veto (as wielded by the governer general) was used in Australia in 1975 when the Whitlam Labour government was dissolved.
True, i must have a little look to see if She that wears the Crown and warms the seat had an actual involvement…
It appears that Her Maj was not consulted about the intentions of the Australian Governor General to dismiss the Whitlam Government, although appears may change in time as Government documents of a secretive nature become less secretive,
The claim is that after the ‘dismissal’ both Whitlam and the Australian Speaker of the House at the time contacted Buckingham Palace and were told the Queen would not intervene,(which begs the question why have a Queens representative if She will never either agree or disagree with such actions),
http://www.nationalobserver.net>No64-August2005
John Kerr, the Governor General who dismissed the Whitlam Government was on 30 March 1977 awarded the Knights Grand Cross an award only able to be bestowed by Her Maj, so She was obviously not displeased,
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerr_(governor-general)
The constitutional arrangement is that the Queen doesnt intervene ever even though technically she is head of state. From memory the Whitlam situation was pretty cut and dried – his government could not pass matters of supply as they didn’t have a majority, and Whitlam being a complete cock refused to negotiate with any of the opposition. So the govt was dissolved. At the time I’m not sure anyone except his hard core supporters were offended. Wonnder what would have happened if he had continued to be recalcitrant. Trespass order banning him from parliament??
I attended a conference in Australia many years ago at which Whitlam spoke…and spoke and spoke. He came across to me as a self obsessed bore with very little social sensitivity. He argued at length that the behaviour of Australians towards Aborigines was evidence that Australians were not racist. An arse.
They routinely interfere with the parliament.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/9801835/Queen-and-Prince-Charles-using-power-of-veto-over-new-laws-Whitehall-documents-reveal.html
Simon bridges is one of the few people who looks and sounds crap on Tv AND Radio.in fact he sounds worse on radio than he looks on TV.
he sounds like john key
They are talking about him as a future National leader.
Shit they are desperate.
He is even more of a lightweight than the fool they have in charge now. Will they ever learn what turns off New Zealanders.
Smug, rich aresholes.
I would suspect thats hes already cooked his leadership goose. And as Mrs Collins doesnt have good long term prospects either, its either Jonny B Good staying on longer, or you get Steve Joyce.
And as the leader of the Nats is quite likely to also be the PM, who would you choose?
Kim Dotcom to speak at Mana AGM….looking GOOD for Mana and Kim Dotcom !
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/04/06/tdb-breaking-exclusive-kim-dotcom-to-attend-and-speak-at-mana-agm/
No it doesn’t. MANA was pretty unequivocal in rejecting an alliance last time. Gareth Morgan is also speaking at the AGM – don’t think he’s wanting to start a party. In any case I really can’t see MANA wanting to associate itself with a leering charicature of every egocentric arrogant rich prick capitalist ever. He’s basically just a larger version of John Key with more criminal convictions and less restraint.
Gareth might be looking for a political vehicle to promote His UBI theme, i can well imagine He could become a major donor to the Mana Party should they begin to openly campaign for such a major change to Welfare/Tax policy in New Zealand,
i would say the Mana/internet alliance is far from dead in the water, should DotCom cede welfare/housing/employment policy to Mana while Mana does the same adopting the Internet Parties internet policies then we have the foundations of a workable alliance of the two,
It then becomes a negotiation over how much resources DotCom and/or the Internet Party are willing to commit to such a Mana/Internet alliance and just as important WHEN,
Along with this will be the possibly more fraught negotiation over the divvying up of any electoral spoils after the election and just who the Internet Candidates who might enter the Parliament will be, as i doubt that the rules would allow both Mana and Internet to campaign as separate entities during the election and then combine their votes after the count,this will be the tough part of any negotiation,
I would suggest that Mana approach this part of the negotiation on a 2 to 1, 2 to 1 basis so that the first 2 seats would go to Mana the next one to the Internet Party and so on, so with four seats if that were the possible gain from this alliance Mana would have 3 seats and Internet 1 in the next Parliament,
Such an outcome would be one that i am very likely to vote for…
You only have a workable alliance of the two if MANA is going to completely chuck out the ideologies and values they are telling the voters they represent. I don’t have a problem with Labour doing that sort of thing because the shine came off their apple a long time ago and we urgently need rid of the Nats. MANA would look like they are cosying up to their token amoral capitalist cartoon for power over values, and that is entrely contrary to how they want to position themselves in the public view.
Thats a ridiculous statement PoP’s and deserves no other answer than Ha–Ha,what a load…
Are you saying that Dotcom isn’t a cliche stereotype of the egocentric amoral capitalist?
Nah, i am saying what a load, nothing unusual as far as what you produce goes tho…
Sill me – I forgot I was dealing with a purile little creep
Yes i understand your loathing having to deal with yourself on a daily basis must be a real struggle…
If mana had any self respect and internal consistency they should tell Dotcom we’ll do a policy deal but your guys come way down the list, like 10 at best. Do we really want individuals handpicked by Dotcom for their compliancy (to him) to potentially go into parliament. Lets not lose sight of the fact that the Dotcom party is a single issue party and that single issue is deportation.
Mind you #3 on the mana list is a low probability slot anyway.
I agree, I don’t see why a shallow flashy international multimillionaire with only a superficial connection to NZ should get to hand-pick mps based on their compliancy to him.
But that’s the National Party List for you, eh?
you sir, are on fire today.
Pop you are too too old!!!!..in fact methinks you could be fossilised
…I like the look of Hone and Kim( look like the Blues Brothers)….almost tempted to VOTE for HONEY’SKIM
….but us CHOOKS love our greens……however the teenage son will be voting for them.
pics of Blue Brothers cf Hone and kim
https://www.google.co.nz/#q=blues+brothers+pictures
pics of Blue Brothers cf Hone and Kim
https://www.google.co.nz/#q=blues+brothers+pictures
lol
Populuxe1: “He’s basically just a larger version of John Key with more criminal convictions and less restraint.”
Ha, exactly right. As others have noted, if Key hadn’t ruined Dotcom’s life, he would’ve been Key’s biggest, most public, and richest supporter.
“Ha, exactly right. As others have noted, if Key hadn’t ruined Dotcom’s life, he would’ve been Key’s biggest, most public, and richest supporter.”
That wouldn’t have surprised me in the slightest
agree
I’m getting a subtext here that its not ok for someone who has money to have any socialist leanings.
So following that line of thought David Cunliffe shouldn’t be in the Labour Party. So the Nats were right all along./sarc
Can you point to examples of DotCom’s socialist leanings?
http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/watch-extended-kim-dotcom-interview-video-5879189
From about 10:25 on.
Examples please.
I just played it and I didn’t hear anything that suggests he’s particularly socialist. Certainly no more socialist than any ordinary kiwi.
certainly no more socialist than national.
i think dotcom mistakenly thought banks was a libertarian.
“Do you believe in a welfare state?
yes. definitely.
Should a health system be free?
yes.
Should the rich pay a higher tax rate?
yes”
Given that the questions were from a left social democratic framework, then sure, not socialist. But a very long way away from unadulterated right wing tosh or even the pap fed us via mainstream media.
Yes, he prefers deregulation and decriminalisation of cannabis, with the former being arguably a right wing perspective and the latter…well, both a left and right perspective.
“But a very long way away from unadulterated right wing tosh or even the pap fed us via mainstream media.”
There’s a distinction between the pap and the tosh?
Mostly just the sources I was meaning to refer to felix 😉 The mainstream pap might not be as extreme as right wing tosh, but from my perspective, the difference is kinda irrelevant…they are on the same (to me, unacceptable) area of the traditional political spectrum.
Bill
And you actually believed .com was telling the truth? Or that any politician does? Naive.
Well Rodel. Obviously I was only listening to what he said. And since people were asking what it was that he said that indicated ‘leftness’…
perhaps you misused socialist in your first comment.
he did say he thinks the rich should pay more tax but he also said the ip is for the “tax savy”.
he believes in welfare.
mostly he believes in nz having a data and internet industry within which he can be an entrepreneur.
i agree with someone else, dotcom is mostly libertarianz and kim dotcomz
“Follow me….”
I’m waiting for you to explain what Dotcom’s “socialist leanings” might be – Not respecting IP sounds more libertarian to me.
the Queen HRH Elisabeth II is a Socialist, she lives very frugally and she hated Margaret Thatcher….. and her son Charles is a Greenie…not sure about the Duke though…he is a stirrer so he could be a Winnie type or a Trotskyite or a UFO expert ( say no more ) …under cover of course
really darhls !…money is such a burden …and having to be on your best behaviour ALL the time!!!!!….what a pain…no swearing in public ….no saying “sod off you bloody FUCKWIT”…no farting in public or picking your nose and …… it……and having to be polite about the IRA when they blew up your favourite uncle….no toe sucking at the beach, even if it is discreet …..or naughty conversations to your lover over the telephone…because the GCSB is sure to be watching with field glasses and listening in!!!!….but worst of all you may find your self on the front page of one of those scurrilous, disgusting rags that goes for British newspapers…
poor bastards….i feel sorry for them…..they earn their money as PR agents for the Realm and a certain order of ‘civilisation’ imo
….BUT THEY HAD BETTER NOT PUT A FOOT OUT OF LINE…or else
The MSM headlines next weekend will predictably be dominated with the boring going ons of the gilded royal couple, with some mention of the Mana conference on the inside pages. But just as sure as the odious grovelling of the MSM will be dominated by news of the royals, the alternative and social media will be white hot with the goings on at the Mana conference.
Asset sales and the TPPA and even deep sea oil drilling may not have mobilised the young as they may have past generations. But internet use is central to their lives. A freerer, cheaper, faster internet, with less government interference, surveillance and spying, and with whatever other youth friendly policy concessions for the low paid that Mana will wring out of Dotcom, I imagine it could be quite a heady mix. Especially if backed up with Dotcom’s money and Mana’s activists.
And for those whinging about lack of TIP policy–there is some on their website https://internet.org.nz–that looks pretty good compared to what the Key gang was originally elected on; a a few meagre A4 sheets of ‘bullet points’, barely a “policy” as we know it to be found. Thats how Crosby Textor and the Hollowmen operate.
Mana has already bumped TIP off supporting National, Te Mana Movement has had more publicity in the last month than the previous year. Mana members have even more reason to want to put the choker chain on the GCSB/SIS/Cops special ops etc than Kim does. And would support removing NZ from 5 eyes.
Hone has also spoken to some of the hard left in Mana about this initiative and a common position is a “sure talk, take it to the members, but no compromise on the social policies”. Sue Bradford may become an outlier on this one, and no disrespect to her being the only standard bearer for beneficiaries for years in parliament, but she is a leaver of organisations. She often leaves a group and then sets up a new one with her loyal coterie from People Centre days. Currently AAAP.
At the end of the day Mana members will determine this and it might not be via some kind of formal vote at Rotorua, may take a bit longer.
Gareth Morgan will also be at the Mana Rotorua conference and supports a form of UBI (though originator Keith Rankin imo seems to retreat further and obfuscate as time goes on http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/04/04/universal-basic-income/) and taxing the rich. Hone has no problem talking to rich white guys without wanting to become one.
Gareth Morgan is also a noted advocate on promoting climate change issues, and I believe there is some policy motions to be voted on around climate change at this conference.
It is quite possible that Mana could steal the ground from under the Green Party on this issue as the Greens in line with the other mainstream parliamentary parties seem determined to do a repeat of their strategy at the last election, and play down climate change.
http://hot-topic.co.nz/a-snake-swallows-the-elephant-in-the-room-and-then-flogs-a-dead-horse-climate-change-politics-in-nz-election-2011/
And in this election as well….
https://www.greens.org.nz/issues
No explicit talk of cutting back emissions, or stopping new coal mines, or deep sea oil.
Though fracking is mentioned this is all mute as the Green Party say they will have no bottom lines in their quest for cabinet positions.
In contrast to this, a motion to be voted at the Mana conference, and coming with the recommendation of the leadership, is that Mana will not seek to go into coalition with the Labour Party, leaving the Mana MPs free to push their issues and not bound by Labour’s majority in cabinet forcing them to go along with every issue that government imposes.
Hopefully Gareth can convince Dotcom to build a wind and solar farm to power a server farm in NZ…
tiger mountain yes!!! & what bad12 said above, its makes sense that mana keep all the social & housing issues, & the internet party have some incredible & NEW ideas about the internet. & if anyone would cozy up to some rich guy & not get compromised imo it would be ppl like hone & annette sykes. i hope they go for it.
Odd broken link there Tiger. Try this https://internet.org.nz/mission On the face of it, given they’re a brand new party, the policy looks interesting.
“Hone has no problem talking to rich white guys without wanting to become one.”
A crucial point.
Here’s their new logo: http://www.mana.com/
Why the fuck would you want a progressive party to join forces with Dotcom.
Who is more important to the party, activists like Sue Bradford, or an overweight foreign capitalist thug??
Bear in mind who will be leading TVNZ’s election coverage this year and read and weep.
It’s less about bias than the awful combination of ego and lack of intelligence.
Generation Zero has given permission for their article to be reposted everywhere.
”
Is Mike Hosking the smartest man alive?
Apr 3, 2014 // by Jimmy Green // Uncategorized // No Comments
Did you see Seven Sharp on Tuesday?
Presenter Mike Hosking made a revolutionary announcement – that he doesn’t believe in science, and you shouldn’t either.
You can see it here – at 22:46
Referencing the recent IPCC report that outlines the current state of climate science, he said,
“That’s of course, if you believe them, which as it turns out I don’t.”
Mike went on to lay out his counter-argument, in an admirably bold attempt to overturn the entire global 20 year scientific consensus,
“I mean if Metservice struggles with the accuracy of a 5-day forecast I’m thinking a long range prediction that takes in 86 years might be a bit dodgy.”
What Mike apparently doesn’t know is that, believe it or not, short term weather forecasting and climate change science are two totally different things. People get this wrong a lot – check out these guys trying to dispel the myth using the powerful force of British humour! Scientifically, there’s as much certainty that humans are the main thing causing climate change as there is that smoking causes cancer. If a journalist just decided they didn’t believe that and told the people of New Zealand to go out and smoke to their hearts content, they’d probably get fired.”
Full story is here
http://blog.generationzero.org.nz/
remember herald columnist Rodney Hide also thinks weather is the same as climate.
Wow we agree on something. Yes it was fuckwited and shameful. We should debate the best response to climate change. But when some on the right simply say it is not happening, I shut down.
It had to happen eventually, statistically speaking 😉
Twice a day, metaphorically speaking…
LOL
Wow Mike Hoskings. Thats more face slam than face palm
Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
Don’t criticize what you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
The old road is rapidly aging
So get out of the new one if you can’t lend a hand
For the times they are a changing
All good Tracey. It will hasten their demise, and accelerate the rise of the alternative media. The sooner the better.
Speaking of the vile Simon Bridges…………………..
PUBLIC MEETING, TUESDAY, 8TH APRIL, 7 – 8.30PM: “GIVE US A BREAK!”
This is a public meeting to discuss The Employment Relations Amendment Act and how the proposed changes will affect union members and workers. There will be three guest speakers followed by an open discussion on the changes and what action may be taken to prevent this anti worker bill being passed.
As as so often been the case in recent years, Peter Dunne holds the critical vote.
The meeting is being hosted by People’s Power Ohariu and is being held at the Uniting Church, 18 Dr Taylor Terrace, Johnsonville, Wellington. All welcome!
Is Dunne attending?
He was invited Tracey, but we were informed he “had other engagements that evening”. There wasn’t a Party representative available to attend either.
Ah, Peter Dunne, the man of the people. I bet if he was suddenly asked to dine with kate and Wills, his diary would free up pronto.
yes he has a little sled pulled by a corgi pack. he should make it in time to palmy north. mush mush.
Suppose it is a slow news day but Morning Report seem to drift aimlessly from one non-story to another non-story this morning. Even the Monday morning slot now dedicated to the flat sounding PM was a bit pointless. Tomorrow will be the weekly slot for David Cunliffe. Hope that is a bit sharper Guyon.
Maybe it is just me? Maybe I am so excited about the royal visit that everything else is so ordinary? Ha!
Luckily the dog was demanding his walk just as Espiner introduced the PM. I didn’t have to endure even a moment of the mangled whining that passes for comment from John Key.
You didn’t miss anything. The PM was maybe very tired having spent his sleepless night scheming of ways of getting his photos took multiple times – with those Windsor Beneficiaries. Baby kissing little George perhaps or a threeway handshake? That would work well.
Or he perhaps he had a hangover?
You have only a couple more hours to wait ianmac. The Royals arrive at noon and TV1 will be reporting it live – that is, if the blanket of fog lifts in time otherwise they’ll have to hot-foot it to Palmy? 🙂
In my day we kids were forced to line the streets and watch the Queen sweep past in a blur. We cheered but that was because we were given most of the day off school. Hooray! And then to curry favour NZ schools were given a Royal Public holiday as well. Hooray!
i heard that very boring rnz morning show too, def wasnt just you. seemed to be the same 3 stories over & over, & same information over & over. i turned off key, but heard some of the replays during the news, & he was all muffled. also a strange silence to the whole show, def needs some pepping up otherwise i might try some other monring station (i know radiolive sux but marcus lush at least puts a bit of effort into it).
44% of repondents “not at all excited” by royal visit in today’s Herald poll (i.e. 50% plus in representative sample).
How does this stack up with Key’s “80% of population would support keeping the monarchy” reported on RNZ this AM?
Sixty years ago Grandad was a town councilor when he and Grandma were scheduled to greet Queenie at the local railway station. Reputedly Grandma refused saying – that woman’s family have already had two of my sons so I’ll be buggered if I’ll curtsey to the bitch.
Lolz, as kids we were all taken off to the local hall,an ex US army facility left over from world war 2, to watch the Saturday movie,
As they did in those long ago days, god Save the Queen was played befor the fillim got to roll, everyone including all the kids,obviously obeying their mum or dads instructions/example stood to attention while this drab dirge blared out of the speakers,
Except us four kids and 1 mum who kept their buttes firmly attached to their seats refusing to acknowledge there was any respect attached to the House of Windsor having not that many years previously dropped its German title in favor of the more English sounding one…
I have to ask.
When we talk of the British royal family being German, aren’t we engaging in the very immigration bashing that liberals should despise (also for argument sake since I know what you’re like Bad12, I recognise that you didn’t actually call them German in that post but I’m speaking of several occasions on the Standard where I’ve seen people do this).
The current royal family are British. They were born in Britain. The last monarch who was actually born outside of Britain was George II in 1683. By the time George III came around, he was born in Britain, spoke English as his first language and never visited his ancestral homeland. The Royal Family have been British for nearly three hundred years. They’re no more German than every non-Maori person of New Zealand is the nationality of their European descent.
All this “they’re actually German” rubbish just reinforces the right-wing trope that immigrants can never truly become a part of their new country. Which leads to disquiet and unease and general negative attitudes towards immigration.
Words matter.
Also, even leaving out the immigration side of things, it is absolutely idiotic. They really aren’t German. The family has been British since before New Zealand was a country.
And Phillip, the grand-daddy of the current pair of bludgers arriving to sup at the New Zealand trough is the epitome of English breeding right Gallstone…
So you’re saying that to be truly the part of a country, you must have four “pure” grandparents?
So you’re not a New Zealander unless all of your grandparents are also from New Zealand?
This is what you’re saying?
be fair, phillip is one of our twenty greatest living nzers, according to our leader.
http://www.germanabout.com/library/bltrivia_windsor.htm
From 1714 to 1901 all those on the throne of Britain were German on the current seat warmers side of the family,
Obviously from both sides of His family the Husband of the current seat warmer was thoroughly German even if this was somewhat masked by His attachment to the Greek and Danish thrones,
The fact is that this ”oh so British royal family” celebrate Christmas not on the 25th of December as the masse of their ‘subjects’ do, instead as is the thoroughly German tradition they celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December,
Are they British, Pfft, they are British Germans just as Samoans born in New Zealand as a majority do not use the term New Zealander as a self descriptive preferring instead the term New Zealand Samoan…
Seriously? You’re saying that Queen Elizabeth and her children and grand-children are still German (albeit “British German”)?
If you are, I’m just flabbergasted. There’s no way I can even logically respond to such a stance. It’s absolute stupidity.
This is the entrenchment of national identities. When you’re having a dig at the Royals, it’s harmless. But when extended across society, this leads to all types of anti-immigration and xenophobia drivel.
And if you’re saying you only do it to the Royals, then it’s hypocritical.
It’s incredibly sad.
(Furthermore, your link doesn’t even work.)
Exactly Gallstone, they are Britons of German extraction, as i point out above they still retain at least one significant German custom,(and who knows how many more when ensconced behind closed doors),
Given a DNA test they all would show by genetics a strong line of German inheritance from the gene pool,
The fact that you are flabbergasted is of little surprise to me and since when has lack of logic prevented you from replying to anything,
Your illogic would include labelling me as a ‘liberal’, ask any of the Island Bay Italians for instance,(having already pointed out to you the New Zealand Samoans), they will happily describe themselves as Italian even where at least 3 generations have been born here in New Zealand and have never been to Italy…
My hybrid GB/NZ daughter, born here, considers herself to be 100% kiwi – Do I tell her she’s wrong, despite her passport and citizenship saying otherwise?
But that’s a straw man. It’s their right to culturally identify with what they culturally identify with.
That’s my whole point.
The Royal Family culturally identifies as British and have been born and lived in Britain for the past three hundred years. If they want to be British (and they do), then their British.
When you call them German, you’re removing the ability for them to determine what they feel most culturally akin to. Some immigrants (like myself) may regard ourselves still of the nationality we came from. Some other immigrants want to regard themselves of their new country.
All your talk of DNA and having the right grandparents is exceedingly xenophobic and conservative.
(Also, my family have opened one present on Christmas Eve. I guess I’m German as well now, even though I’ve never been there and have never identified with that part of my heritage (beyond opening a present on Christmas Eve).
Me, I’m English, for better or worse, ’til death do us part and all that, but my girl is as kiwi as the rest of yous 😉
As long as she doesn’t wear an all black jersey with it’s white feather logo in my house we’ll be good. At least she knows what to put on my headstone :smirk:
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Yes the Woyal family ‘claim’ to identify with all things British so as to ‘fit in’, that same family hastily changed their name from a German one to a British one in an attempt to hide that fact that two German Royal households, one in Germany and one in England were engaged in a war,
The English version of this German dynastic family are simply leeches bludging off of the fabric of the British people and have moved speedily to try and expunge any memory of their German Bloodlines….
British? You mean , Scots, Welsh as well can strongly culturally identify with these German-Anglo-Saxon hybrids?
@ bad
I can understand why they did that – it seems quite similar to highlighting a particular strand of whakapapa as opposed to another strand. Some of the nastiest fighting i can remember hearing/reading about were between relations – brothers, cousins and so on – all kin. All closely blood related.
Karol, the Queen Mother was a Bowes-Lyon, a very old Scottish family, and amny Scotts identified closely with Victoria.
Aye. My Scottish father and the Scots on his side of the family were the ones who always identified with the monarch most of all.
It was the English side of my family that were more indifferent to the Royal Family.
The two statements are not contradictory. I couldn’t care less about the Royal Visit.
I would support keeping the monarchy. I know I’m an outlier being a Brit myself, but I suspect much like in Britain, there’s a fair few Kiwis who don’t buy into the personality cult of excitement of the royals daily lives while still supporting the system of the monarchy itself.
And to pre-empt the various arguments over how silly it is to keep the monarchy, I agree with you completely. But rather like my desire for Scotland to stay in the UK, it’s a heart over head matter.
I guess for me it comes down to why we need to have them here spending our money on hosting, travel, security. If they want to come, they can pay for everything.
They may be lovely people and every other nation that has become a republic remains int he Commonwealth. They attend the commonwelath games and the CW forum etc…
It’s merely a statement that we are our own nation.
I have no idea if it means Key would have to get s his knighthood or from Jerry or could still go to buckhouse to get it, like Doug Graham did.
I find the title system far more offensive than the queen as pretend head of state frankly.
I like the title system when it used correctly. Again, I’ll have to talk from my UK-centric perspective, but a while back the honours system was used to celebrate the unsung heroes of society. Sure, some celebrities and sports stars have always been honoured. But a lot of charity workers, community workers, authors and artists and so on were the recipients of honours. A small thanks for a life of service.
It’s only lately where it’s been given to bankers and footballers and so on that I feel the honours system has lost it’s way.
Again, heart over head matter. I like the trappings of history if we can avoid the baggage of it.
when you say you are British and you want Scotland to stay a part of the UK, are you English? Or Scottish?
Why is it important if you are not Scottish?
I don’t consider myself English or Scottish. I’m British. I was born in England. But my father was Scottish. A section of my ancestors were Scots. Another part was English. I spent time in both Scotland and England. I value both those culture together and regard myself as British. I love New Zealand, but Britain is still my home and my country. Ever since I was a little boy I was British. Despite the arguments in favour and against, I can’t really engage in the debate because all I can see is the tearing apart of my home.
It’s very much my heart taking charge of the debate.
thanks for the answer.
my heritage on both sides is scottish.my dads side leaving scotland not long after the clearances.
i cant recall a time when an unsung hero got knighted or damed.
I have empathy with Disraeli Gladstone’s viewpoint. My parents were English – born and bred. They arrived here the day NZ declared war on Germany in 1939. Despite the fact they spent most of their adult lives in NZ, they always regarded themselves as English. Its what you feel in your heart that matters, and there is no doubt that the generations of the British monarchy since George V at the least saw themselves as totally British.
Scottishness doesn’t have anything to do with it Tracy. I’m Scottish…born and bred there, both parents Scottish. But I don’t get to vote. Meanwhile, a woman born in Chelsea whose parents are Indian and English, but who lives in Scotland does get to vote. (Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh) And that’s how it should be.
It’s about economic and political power, not patriotism. And that principally affects only those who live there.
i have no reason to disbelieve what you say bill. i am surprised that born and bred scotts living in scotland see it as a political and economic decision only.
hmm…I wasn’t really claiming to second guess peoples’ perceptions or motivations as much as simply point out what the actual issue is.
So DG you would be happy with a monarchy that was never allowed to visit NZ then?
Monarchy of New Zealand
80% seems to be somewhat exaggerated.
john key exaggerated?
Ok, lied.
Latest poll:
Given that it was commissioned by New Zealand Republic and the questions were specifically leading, I’m not going to rush to anything.
on a non-royals related topic, here’s some (all too accurate) giggles
http://boonman.wordpress.com/2014/04/06/hekia-parata-speech-to-concerned-parents-of-unnamed-school/
LOL, but the language is far too simple and clear for Parata!
We might well laugh but sadly it is not too far from the reality. Have to get rid of those pesky teachers. All they seem to want to do is teach kids instead of balancing the books.
and from John Key’s FB page is an image that makes one wonder, is “YES WE CAN” next?
note: link is to the image only, I won’t expose you to the bile-inducing hysteria that oozes off the page itself
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/1524915_10152353263645429_1571805956_n.jpg
if you look inside the 3 it looks like mickey mouse ears on their side…
Mickey Mouse’s ears are freaky. Aside from being one of the most recognisable character icons ever created, did you know they are exactly the same in every image? This is regardless of Mickey’s posing. Be it a profile view, front of face or Mickey looking back over his shoulder at whatever mayhem Pluto is creating. They never change!
On a wall in suburban Auckland, a young Tongan artist has turned the Nazi flag into a symbol of anti-racism and anti-imperialism. Kim Dotcom could learn a thing or two from him…
http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2014/04/kim-dotcom-benjamin-work-and-tongan.html
On a wall in suburban Auckland, a young Tongan activist and artist has created a new, anti-imperialist Nazi flag:
http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2014/04/kim-dotcom-benjamin-work-and-tongan.html
Maybe Kim Dotcom could learn something about history and politics from Benjamin Work…
Lots of ground water used in Canterbury too.
/
.
A photo in a 1999 USGS report on subsidence captures the drama vividly. It shows scientist Joseph Poland standing next to a utility pole outside Mendota. On the ground is a placard marked 1977. Twenty-eight feet overhead, another sign is nailed to the pole showing where crops once grew: It reads 1925.
As the land subsided, bridges slumped, levees sank and well casings failed. Canals sagged, too, inviting water to loiter in low spots and spill over banks. From 1955 to 1970, damages topped $1.3 billion (in 2013 dollars), according to a new report by the California Water Foundation. All kinds of water conveyance infrastructure was harmed, from pumping plants and canal berms in the Tulare-Wasco area to bridges, pipelines and drain inlets on the Delta-Mendota Canal west of Firebaugh. And then, thanks to massive volumes of surface water that arrived via state and federal aqueducts and canals, pumping slowed and subsidence largely stopped.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2014/04/06/3008038/san-joaquin-valley-sinking-as.html?sp=/99/177/348//
It’s amazing how people keep thinking that they can do whatever they like and there not be consequences despite those consequences having happened before. Oh well, I suppose it won’t be long before we see the end of Californian wine production.
Big question: Are we monitoring this stuff in NZ or are we doing the same as the Californians and just using it as if there’s no limit?
Okay, why do cyclists run reds? Well firstly they don’t
run reds, that would be quite legal as getting off the
bike and running carrying the bike over their heads is
quite legal.
Second, red light don’t detect cyclists and so cyclist
if they were to obey the rule would have to wait for
a car to drive up behind and flip the lights over.
Third, cyclists are slow, so not only do they have
more chance of being hit when slowing down (increase
cross sectional opportunity for a crash), but they
are also observed for long periods. Especially at lights and so
seen more often running them (even though car drivers
may well run lights more often). Fourth, cycle
lane turns left onto another cycle lane means
cycles only need worry about other cyclists, when red
and cyclist are slow moving and easily avoided,
so transition from lane to cycle lane without any
threat from cars.
Finally, cycle take longer to slow, take more effort
to get moving so cyclist have a predilection to not
stop, whereas red light car jumpers are just gunning
the lights (what cyclist would never do that since no way
could they win!!!)
And finally, finally, car drivers
who run lights are likely when they cycle themselves to also do,
so blame the culture of gunning lights by car drivers for cyclist
running reds.
Roads are designed for motor vehicles, cyclists have
no protection, are unstable at slow speeds (esp. on slopes),
roads have pot holes that effect them far worse,
and so cyclist should be given any benefit of the doubt.
A cyclist rides about twice as fast as a runner, its hardly
a competition between them and cars.
The idea that drivers have equal rights to cyclists is absurd and
abusive, since those disabled by using their own strength
without recourse to an engine, seat belts, power brakes, etc
are always going to come off worse, so drivers should always
err on their side, and be cautious.
And so when Moro again brings up the issue why is it so anti-cyclists,
why does Moro defend the strong against the weak and exposed?
1: that would be jaywalking
2: Press the button to cross, like I do on my motor scooter
3: But the percentage of cyclists observed seems to be quite high, in my experience. Compared to motor vehicles.
4: They don’t need to worry about the law? That’s how accidents happen.
finally1: gunning vs not stopping doesn’t make much difference when they’ve built up some downhill speed.
finally2: if car drivers jumped off a cliff, would cyclists? And as you point out, cars can brake quickly or gun the throttle if they misjudged while braking the law. Cyclists can’t. And cyclists are the least obvious and most vulnerable on the road. On a motor scooter, I have similar vulnerabilities – I choose to not take gambles.
Cyclists should also err on the side of caution, because they are the most vulnerable. And they’re choosing to take themselves into close proximity of heavy machinery that moves at speed and is often controlled by dickheads. If a car strikes a cycle, it’s usually the car driver at fault (or at least another vehicle driver that put the cyclist in front of the car), AFAIK. However, it’s the cyclist who always comes worse off. If you advocate for cyclists to break the road code, you’re opening the door (so to speak) for idiot vehicle drivers to use the same excuses for their illegal behaviour.
The laws are different for cyclists, cyclists are more like pedestrians, the idea that they are the same is what is causing the angst.
cyclists are allowed to run red lights?
Cyclists who get off can walk their bike across any junction, lights or not. As long as they don’t cause an accident, which they wouldn’t since they would get hurt far worse than any car driver. And in that way cyclists are pedestrians, pedestrians cross roads, all the time, red lights or not. Put it another way, Cyclists, like pedestrians, are not motor vehicles that HAVE to OBEY red lights and can’t get out and push their vehicles through red lights.
I can do that on my motor scooter: a pedestrian with a 2 wheeled trolley.
But we’re talking about cyclists who just ride through the red lights. No walking involved.
If its safe its legal in my opinion because pedestrians do it all the time.
Its like noise. Its the source of the noise that has to turn it down. with respect of vehicles, its the source of engine power.
A Jogger can run as fast as a bike, its no different.
Child ride bikes on the pavement.
Posties do.
Its just a hangover from the motor industry using their abuse of power to deny
alternatives to their industry.
Its actually wrong to frustrate cyclists travel based on the false belief that somehow
someone has actually died from cyclist riding on the foot path. Its wrong because
forcing them into the road where that happens.
Cars have the power to stop, to speed, to evade, they have the safety, they have the technology, the have all the options. As long as a cyclist crosses safely I don’t see a problem. However its just political correctness gone mad to expect a cyclist to walk their cycle across a junction when they can ride across much more safely (quicker!).
As a cyclist growing up in Christchurch I assumed that every car was out to get me. That way I was alert to the potential of injury whenever a car in front or behind or across alerted my consciousness. As a small town NZ cyclist now, I still behave that way to stay alive if possible.
Same for any pedestrians. All the horse power and human making mistakes, makes for caution.
Have spent the day doing a bit of ‘royal watching’.
Wandering through various news sites, but mainly exploring the explosive multitude of Facebook pages that are covering the Tour, and reading the comments. The comments…. The comments…
I have witnessed clichés and melees, saw fracas and face offs and every page was rife with half-stated hate speech wallpapered over with carbon copy happy faces. My sincere and undeniable conclusion is an epidemic of cognitive dissonance is running rampant across New Zealand.
our friend Douglas Adams summed it up best
“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”
Banks application thrown out – nz herald
Hah, John is now ever closer to the day that he ends His career in exactly the same way as old Archy did,
How true the old saying that the apple never falls far from the tree…
Lucky he has nothing to hide then!!!
No, but lots to fear.
Banks loses bid to have prosecution thrown out
And I suspect that’s it for his defense – next stop jail.
We can only hope
COINCIDENCE or INTUITION or DESTINY or KARMA?…An interesting Lotto story
A Takaka couple who won more than $7 million with Big Wednesday say it’s all thanks to trusting a woman’s intuition.
After doing the weekly shopping last week one of the winners had a sudden gut feeling that she should pick up a Big Wednesday ticket.
“As I walked to the car I thought, ‘I should get a Big Wednesday ticket’, but I couldn’t really be bothered. But as I walked away my intuition told me that I would regret not buying that ticket – so I popped back into the store and grabbed one,” said the winner, who wishes to remain anonymous. The couple watched Big Wednesday that night and soon knew they had won a big prize.
“I just started screaming,” said the winner. “I fell to my knees and shouted to my husband: ‘We’ve won!’ He grabbed the ticket, took one look and started screaming too.”
The winners double checked their numbers against the official results online before getting too excited.
“We jumped online to MyLotto and stared at the computer screen waiting for the results to come up. We were refreshing the page every couple of seconds . . . it was a painful wait.”
When their prize was confirmed, the couple say they got so excited that one of them hurt their leg jumping up and down.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9913166/Seven-million-reasons-to-trust-a-womans-intuition
John Banks is going to trial for electoral fraud – case starting Monday 19 May 2014 in the Auckland High Court:
Judgment of Wylie J available here:
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com/uncategorized/john-banks-is-going-to-trial-starting-19-may-2014/
Banks loses bid to have prosecution thrown out
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11233854
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/john-banks-loses-bid-have-electoral-fraud-case-thrown-5889144
Penny Bright