She had a background in the sciences so would have been better able to comprehend the future problems related to the Greenhouse Effect. It’s the one thing for which she can be given some credit. Pretty much the only one as far as I am aware.
I have no problem believing that her ideology would have trumped any scientific training. At best, if she had seen an opportunity for English finance capital to make a few quid from it, she would have taken a position against global warming. I don’t think her attacks on the miners were a sign of environmental consciousness either, but I may be biased.
I think it is critical we understand the secret travesty of how this bill came into law in the US last week — and these are people and a government we are supposed to trust in a secret agreement like TPPA ?
Jon Stewart of The Daily Show has the full story — yes, told comedically obviously, but it is the most astute analysis I have seen of what happened. It is beyond unimaginable — it was not only secret, it was anonymous. Take a few minutes please and see how it worked and duped everyone …
We are sitting ducks to Monsanto’s GM plans for our food crops. Beware, here there be muilti-headed dragons ..
I know we should not speak ill of the dead but Thatcher is perhaps the strongest case there is against this. Single handedly she wrecked the UK and it is in a mess now because of what she did.
“Give her a state funeral – because a lot of people will want to pay their last respects, and a lot more people will want proof that she’s really dead”.
“It’ll be the first time that the 21 gun salute shoots the coffin.”
“What’s the point of holding the funeral in London? Surely if they held it up North there’d be a lot better turnout, because there’d be loads of people in the streets having a party.”
(The state funeral). “How much do you think it’s gonna cost? 3 million. For 3 million we could give everyone in Scotland a shovel and they would dig a hole so deep that we could hand her over to Satan personally.”
So you need it to be spelled out in a simpler fashion? OK.
There is no evidence whatsoever that Thatcher knew of any of Savilles crimes and to insinuate that Thatcher may have aided or abetted one of the most serious pedophiles in modern history based entirely on personal speculation is pretty low indeed.
I resent your insinuation toward me. There is no evidence whatsoever that I have insinuated any such thing about that horrible subhuman cretin Thatcher.
Homicidal psychopaths are pretty firm in their beliefs too,
does not make them right or good or worthy of the unending platitudes that will vomit forth from the chambers she ruled with that never tiring Iron Fist.
lol. Right about the Euro. fair enough, but that’s not the only things she believed.
laws passed on her watch banning councils from doing anything that might ‘support homosexuality’.
opposed the reunification of Germany.
and that’s without getting into the famous stuff about the Mandela, or South American despots.
She’s a complicated figure, but I find the defence of her that she was ‘strong’ to be an odd one. SFW? Lot’s of awful people are strong as well as good people.
To be fair to chris, there’s not a hell of a lot nice anyone can write about her without resorting to vague generalised value judgments about supposed character traits.
The nasty factual stuff is easy cos it’s all a matter of public record.
Dali Tambo, son of former ANC president Oliver Tambo.
My gut reaction now is what it was at the time when she said my father was the leader of a terrorist organisation. I don’t think she ever got it that every day she opposed sanctions, more people were dying, and that the best thing for the assets she wanted to protect was democracy.
Many lives were lost. It’s a shame that we could never call her one of the champions of the liberation struggle. Normally we say that when one of us goes, the ANC ancestors will meet them at the pearly gates and give them a standing ovation. I think it’s quite likely that when Margaret Thatcher reaches the pearly gates, the ANC will boycott the occasion.
and that big chair with the unpleasant aroma and the spiky cushions in the corners is for Kissinger when he finally shakes loose the mortal coil, the little stools surrounding it are reserved for the Bush family and their cohorts
And your reality check is she was leader for 11 years, for 11 years the public of Great Britain voted her in and irrespective of what some lazy miners “up north” and (admittedly quite talented) musicians said or say she was a great leader and the UK is better off because of her decisions
A minority supported her, and she left Britain more unequal and divided. Perhaps you may have heard that Scotland will hold a referendum on secession next year.
I do wonder, truely, if you have ever done a day’s hard labour in your entire life ?
Let alone day after day in conditions not fit for moles let alone human beings. Have you ever had to watch your entire industry get stolen by foreign profiteers as your daily wage shrinks and your communities crumble, all so a hegemony of hate can be dumped on you from above. (wow that sounds familiar) Maybe then you would begin to understand what all those people fought and died for. A livelihood. Self respect. Families and Communities. However faulted and mistaken the Industry was, coal built the Industrial Revolution and subsequently the tool that you now yield with the aplomb of a rabid meerkat.
A revolution that forever altered our world. Built on the broken backs of men women and children, enslaved by circumstance, but still proud enough to know that they were contributing to their Nation. Now when that Nation [ie some genetic inbreds who have their mates sit in silly wigs and spout meaningless bs to other twits who then lie to the people that asked them to represent them] decides that the industry that revolutionised the world can be run cheaper elsewhere, did they get thanks for the generations of sacrifice? Did they get new jobs? Whole communities were destroyed as severely as if the very bombs their coal had helped to build were used against them. You have the gall to call coal miners lazy.
All I know is I am glad The Standard has very clear rules because yet again, my self-restraint was most certainly tested by your ignorance. Chris73, I ask you to reconsider your foolish words, on this and many many topics. Maybe just spend some time thinking on this life you obvioulsy have no respect for, and the lives lost for you to have it.
Besides, chris lost any last glimmer of respectability when he admitted that his anecdotes, which he writes as if they’re true stories from his own life, may or may not be true.
Excellent work freedom! Excellent! now considering “work” anecdotes “chris”, I dare ya. Go on, I mutherfuckin wager you; (all this mornings comments by the rider shall be moderated from Belarus, CCCP)
dont forget she was never voted out by the public, never lost an election, so the people voting must have seen that the great policys of Thatcher were working.
All people like Thatcher, Key, and Douglas do is take the infrastructure and social benefits built up by generations of workers under conditions of union militancy and social democracy and destroy it to the advantage of the bank accounts of their own mates. They create nothing except division, bigotry, and hatred. There is no great talent to what they do apart from that needed to deceive the electorate. They contribute less to society than any of the beneficiaries or unionists they enjoy marginalising. They are truly scum.
I mourn their deaths as I would mourn the eradication of cancer.
Can’t believe you posted that chris. It shows her as either barking mad, ill-informed, or deliberately deceptive – depending on how charitable you feel.
Certainly didn’t “skewer” anyone in this clip, although her good mates Suharto and Pinochet did, as did many of her family’s clients around the world.
“With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend. As a grocer’s daughter who rose to become Britain’s first female prime minister, she stands as an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can’t be shattered.”
The proof is there, how the Ministry of Social Development has through the controversial Dr David Bratt, who is their “Principal Health Advisor”, and who follows a similar approach while interpreting and applying the perverted “bio psycho social model” for assessing and rehabilitating sick and disabled as Professor Mansel Aylward from Cardiff University, is INFLUENCING how DOCTORS assess and fill out WORK CAPACITY MEDICAL ASSESSMENTS for WINZ.
A look at a document found online, issued by the MEDICAL SERVICE of the AUCKLAND CITY MISSION for starters, exposes the result of intensive lobbying of GPs by so-called “Health and Disability Coordinators” that MSD and WINZ employ:
Doctors working for the Mission’s “Calder Centre” appear to willingly accept the “expectations” that MSD and hard line, indeed biased, Dr David Bratt impose on them, by even quoting comments made by him, that were published in a NZ Doctor article titled ‘Harms lurk for benefit addicts’ on 01 August 2012:
That article raised concern by a well educated, independent reader, whose partner is a doctor, but who like many doctors in NZ prefers not to “comment” on the conduct of colleagues:
Health and Disability Coordinators are special advisory and liaison staff that MSD use to “advise” GPs on expectations the Ministry and therefore also WINZ have of doctors, and they “inform” about policies, are involved in the selection process of GPs to work as “designated doctors” for WINZ, and naturally are managed, mentored and instructed by the Principal Health Advisor and the Principal Disability Advisor.
For years now, Health Work Force NZ (staffing and training agency as part of the Ministry of Health, headed by Dr Des Gorman, another “hard liner” in the medical profession), and the Medical Council and naturally the Royal NZ College of General Practitioners have worked, to bring about “changes” to the training program of GPs. One does not need to speculate too much, that there are also “messages” sent through the senior “trainers” and the heads of mentioned organisation, that impact on how training will be conducted, what it will include, and that certain “expectations” by government ministries will flow in.
(a summary of his back-ground, he will be a key senior speaker again at this year’s GP conference in Wellington, and his controversial past role as advisor and assessor for ACC is not forgotten).
Another likely speaker at this years GP conference, is also expected to be Dr Bratt in his role as “Principal Health Advisor” – from MSD, who is likely to once again present his “views” and pseudo scientific findings on the “benefits” of work, and the “harm of being on a welfare benefit” for his employer Work and Income:
But what is clear from the document issued by the doctors working for the Medical Service at the Auckland City Mission is, MSD do assert strong influence now on how doctors in general work with them, as most doctors will at some time have to complete medical certificates that WINZ expects from clients and doctors’ patients to establish benefit entitlement on health and work capacity grounds.
HOW INDEPENDENT ARE DOCTORS IN NEW ZEALAND – in view of such developents?
The draconian, in some ways almost “fascist”, “work sets you free” approach to illness, disability and welfare appears to become commonly accepted in the wider medical profession, due to very concerning developments!
Well said Xtasy. This goes directly to Karol’s post on Thatcher.
“…action, political will, and policies based in sound evidence and humane values is not enough. In order to work towards a more inclusive, fairer world without poverty and destructive divisions, there is a need to find a way to counter the extensive networks, power and reach of the “neoliberal” elites.”
For further info – or correction:
There appears to be another annual conference for GPs in Rotorua, at which Dr David Bratt from MSD is listed as speaker on health and welfare issues: http://www.gpcme.co.nz/speakers.php
Professor Mansel Aylward, former Chief Medical Officer for Department of Work and Pensions in the UK – under Maggie Thatcher’s government, by the way, will also speak at that Rotorua annual conference for GPs just mentioned, see the Sunday sessions, 23 June 2013, at the ‘Main Conference’ (click program on the website, for which the link is provided).
AND Dr Des Gorman will speak there also! Talk about all the “work ability” hardliners mixing and mingling at such places.
So under the radar, not mentioned by MSD, Paula Bennett, Tony Ryall and others, the highly controversial “Sir” Prof. Mansel Aylward is still doing his tours in NZ, lobbying hard for the work test approaches and regimes that have been introduced into the UK, and in 2011 led to over 1,100 deaths, due to people not coping with stress, work requirements while they could not work, and due to committing suicide.
The agenda is progressing, and NO public consultation is taking place, how damned revealing! ANY TRUST in welfare reforms, and how doctors and specialists in NZ operate, risking to breach their own professional codes???
I’m in favour of the legalisation of recreational drugs, except for the one which causes neoliberalism. I think your description of Bratt’s views as perverted is totally accurate. His followers in the UK are, in my opinion, already responsible for deaths among the disabled. The guy is an enemy of humanity.
In the article “Ex-spy boss lashes out at PM’s claims” by Adam Bennet there is a curious bit right at the end which I found interesting Senior sources have told the Herald that the person suspected of leaking information to Labour about that briefing – including claims Mr Key was not only briefed about the Dotcom surveillance, but joked about it – had been identified and had now “lawyered up”.
Sir Bruce Ferguson says Key “is smoking dope on that one.” Key’s statement is “outrageous.”
This former civil servant is not going to take any sh*t from the PM. He is fighting back. So far Ferguson has landed two hard right hooks. Key is looking wobbly.
He was a former fighter pilot based at Ohakea. Those fighter pilots were the creme de la creme of the Air Force. He rose to Squadron Leader and it’s my understanding he was a popular leader who put the safety and welfare of his pilots first. He became Commander of the Air force Base at Whenuapai in the early 1990s and the rest is history. A born leader.
With a background like that he out-classes John Key in every way. Key knows it and he’ll continue to discredit him at every turn. Good luck John. You’ll probably end up in a courtroom like your idol, Rob Muldoon.
I’d debate your definition of attack pilots as the “creme de la creme” of the RNZAF, Anne. My pedantic hat tells me that the Skyhawks were not fighters, but attack bombers. While the pilots undoubtedly were very skilled, they also needed tibia no longer than a certain length. Too long, and they couldn’t use the ejection seat and were therefore not eligible for Skyhawks. There well may have been helicopter, transport, or maritime reconnaissance pilots with equal skills, but a couple of cm taller. This is without thinking of the ground staff, navigators etc.
Skyhawks were multirole aircraft, and in the 1960’s and 1970’s were considered fairly capable air to air interceptors. For instance they were used for many years at TOPGUN as the main adversary aircraft. But yes, they were usually used in the ground strike role.
Margaret Thatcher and misapplied death etiquette
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Guardian, 8 April 2013
‘News of Margaret Thatcher’s death this morning instantly and predictably gave rise to righteous sermons on the evils of speaking ill of her. British Labour MP Tom Watson decreed: “I hope that people on the left of politics respect a family in grief today.” Following in the footsteps of Santa Claus, Steve Hynd quickly compiled a list of all the naughty boys and girls “on the left” who dared to express criticisms of the dearly departed Prime Minister, warning that he “will continue to add to this list throughout the day”. Former Tory MP Louise Mensch, with no apparent sense of irony, invoked precepts of propriety to announce: “Pygmies of the left so predictably embarrassing yourselves, know this: not a one of your leaders will ever be globally mourned like her.”
This demand for respectful silence in the wake of a public figure’s death is not just misguided but dangerous. That one should not speak ill of the dead is arguably appropriate when a private person dies, but it is wildly inappropriate for the death of a controversial public figure, particularly one who wielded significant influence and political power. “Respecting the grief” of Thatcher’s family members is appropriate if one is friends with them or attends a wake they organize, but the protocols are fundamentally different when it comes to public discourse about the person’s life and political acts. I made this argument at length last year when Christopher Hitchens died and a speak-no-ill rule about him was instantly imposed (a rule he, more than anyone, viciously violated), and…
This Sunday is North East derby day – Newcastle United will play Sunderland at St. James’ Park, a fixture that is usually overloaded with bile from both sets of supporters.
If the powers-that-be think that a minute’s silence for the Iron Lady will be appropriate, they’ll find that the fans are more unified in their response than they’ve ever been.
One of Christopher Hitchens’ unfunny little ongoing jokes was his his insistence that he had a powerful lust for Mrs Thatcher.
If only there was an infernal edition of Big Brother being livestreamed, we could sit back and enjoy the spectacle of the unspeakable in full pursuit of the insufferable.
I am quite concerned about the bad changes being pushed through our Parliament. This is no small matter and the changes will make our our people and country very much worse off.
Some comments from eminent and respected people on RNZ Morning Report:
yes, apparently there are some clear Human rights, democratic rights abuses in this surreptitious legislation; could be time for the rider to re-arm (ha ha ha P. shine a light on yourselves why don’t you). 😉
and an increased demand for “natural burials”; well thank the Lord for that; all that prime real estate… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49G1A1aw3A4
(thanks to Japan’s QE, TWI now 78.14)
Read em’ and weep
these “85” spied upon could have breached the Defense Act and the Privacy Act; (how much are people gonna take up the back door? hmmm? hmmm?)
meanwhile, Lester Levy (now that IS a funny handle); “decreased, increased, funding” in the health sector; while there is a general decrease in majority of OECD countries.
-however, in NZ, according to ASMS, there is lack of overall strategic direction in health.Do Not Worry says Lester, we are workin on the internal culture of DHBs.
But wait, there’s more; David Round (Independent Constitutional Review chairman) “putting principles of treaty into constitutional review will be “disasterous” “. Really! Is that right? well, te Mob may disagree wit chu. 🙂
The full enchilada – passwords, access to alter financial transactions, and access to sensitive personal information all wide open (apparently from the website).
I remember the haughty, hectoring old bag Thatcher for the hissing reaction she gave some poor journalist at the time of the French bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, when it was suggested the bombing as state-sponsored terrorism merited the same denunciation she gave other complicit states.
She was a mad control freak, liar, obssessive, and to come right down to it…….a cheap snob. That particularly despicable breed of Tory, the snob. No tears for her here. In her vainglory she was instrumental in the deaths of many, many, many. And in retirement she personally gave succour to Pinochet when the High Court confined him to some country estate in Surrey.
See YouTube “The Day Margaret Thatcher Dies” – Pete Wylie I think.
so, “if NZ is better than what we see in other parts of the world (La garde, you freakin mis-pronouncing idiots)” then who is BS-ing who we ask you.
must say, the Govt. appeared muted for a change; maybe a reality check going on; i.e. what a liability Key, English, Brownlee, Parata, Bennett et al are turning out to be for Noo Zillund.
do you think Amy Adams, and Katrina Shanks might have a touch of “Downs” themselves? Projection much, we ask you:
Cosgrove on MRP; “66 Thousand and 600 and 66 Dollars in fees per person?” you have to be pullin’ our legs…
David Carter-“I wonder whether…” (asks acting PM for more detail).
re this Kitteridge Report; Excellent questioning by Dr Russell Norman; apparently the “leaked” document was ‘locked” in the PM’s office…FFS
btw, DPS, when the rider has ridden over Bennett, he will then roll on down the road to that idiot fascist Sabin and on round the bend to the blonde bimbo Macindoe (where do we get these people from, some swamp?)
Brownlee: EQC staff cannot yet e-mail attachments and must stay back after school for sanding.
(shut-down of e-mail until some “certainty”; well, who is the tail, and who are the dogs..)
and to further the point Gareth Hughes on the supplementary leg. to the Crown Minerals Bill
“BOR breaches, International Law breaches and breaches of democratic rights! Baa.
National Party have a mock up of spoof news like a pop magazine. The blurb for Maggie Barry says she writes on Roses, Wisteria and Radical Welfare Reform. The flowers that most likely grow in that garden area would be Love-Lies-Bleeding.(Tassel flower or Amaranthus).
It appears that was the last debate and vote that occured a short time ago tonight in Parliament – on the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill!
Votes were 59 against and 61 in favour. Yes, that is IT!
The Maori Party voted with 2 votes against, so one of their MPs appears to have abstained or whatever.
The Na(t)zis have – with their “support” muppets Banks and Dunne – pushed throught he most mean spirited, draconian and senseless “welfare reforms”, which will from the time of introduction and implementation in mid July this year see to it, that many beneficiaries (most of whom have NO DAMNED CLUE what will hit them) will face radical changes, severe restrictions, harsh and firm expectations and sanctions if they do not cooperate.
This will change New Zealand, I am sure, and while this country has already become a rather divided, untrusting, competing and mean place, it will get even worse.
The damned SHIT MEDIA of this land has not even reported one damned bit about it, the political current affairs and news reporters have treated it as insignificant, and consequently the public has very little ideas what is involved.
So the last speaker, I think it was that stupid “cop” from up north, a Nat MP, even cheekily teased the opposition, what the problem was, he asked, as there was nobody protesting in the streets, nobody discussing it on talkback and nobody being opposed.
Hey, does anybody not realise yet? NZ is run like a DICTATORSHIP of sorts, where key powers are in the control of certain key decisionmakers and lobby-groups. Welcome to the Dictatorship of Aotearoa NZ.
Thank you “Dear Leader”, John The Shining Light and Key to Hell!
If that is anything to go by, perhaps we will see Shearer’s Labour “warm” to the newly passed “welfare reforms” pushed through by Na(t)zis here in NZ also, once they have been implemented and are running?
I am waiting with interest, to see how Labour will stand on welfare at the coming elections!
NO TRUST, I must say, despite of the odd good speech against the new bill in Parliament tonight. Thanks to Sua William Sio, though.
But the only truly great speech that an opposition MP held tonight, that was the one by Jan Logie, Greens!
Thank you Jan!
Stay firm on course in welfare matters, please, many of us need this and rely on you!!!
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The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
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Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
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Eighty-five. Who’s going to be miffed if they aren’t on the GCSB’s list?
That’s a pretty big fail, from Key and Clark. “Control”, says the law.
I note the release of the Kitteridge report has been brought forward.
Timing is everything.
it’s funny that a report which, among other things, deals with leaks from the GCSB is also leaked.
THE WITCH IS DEAD !
Your turn now Roger
Helen Clark is dead ?
Condolences to her family and friends.
“Mummy” has gone. Roger Douglas et al are in deep mourning.
She insisted something be done about the Greenhouse Effect. I suspect she saw it as competition.
She had a background in the sciences so would have been better able to comprehend the future problems related to the Greenhouse Effect. It’s the one thing for which she can be given some credit. Pretty much the only one as far as I am aware.
au contraire Anne, she was a woman of considerable talent:
http://au.businessinsider.com/margaret-thatcher-helped-invent-soft-serve-ice-cream-2013-4
Considerable talent she did have Chris 73, but she used it in a despotic and cruel way.
I have no problem believing that her ideology would have trumped any scientific training. At best, if she had seen an opportunity for English finance capital to make a few quid from it, she would have taken a position against global warming. I don’t think her attacks on the miners were a sign of environmental consciousness either, but I may be biased.
May God have mercy on her soul: I reckon at least 6 million years in Purgatory.
With her good friends Pinochet, Suharto and Hussein. Funny she wasn’t keen on Mandela apparently.
As long as the family are paying for the bloody funeral, I’m happy.
Nuclear reactor industry, American style!
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43556350/
***
**
*
Your opportunity to speak out against the TPPA – and we must use every opportunity!
❤ http://www.ourconstitution.org.nz/
errrr… it’s got nothing to do with it
TPPA will affect the way we make our laws in that we will have to consider outside corporate interests
question Roflcopter…
in your world does the recently passed ‘Monsanto is now above the Law’ Bill in the USA affect the TPP here in NZ ?
P.S. It is a trick question, because no-one knows what is in the TPP.
I think it is critical we understand the secret travesty of how this bill came into law in the US last week — and these are people and a government we are supposed to trust in a secret agreement like TPPA ?
Jon Stewart of The Daily Show has the full story — yes, told comedically obviously, but it is the most astute analysis I have seen of what happened. It is beyond unimaginable — it was not only secret, it was anonymous. Take a few minutes please and see how it worked and duped everyone …
We are sitting ducks to Monsanto’s GM plans for our food crops. Beware, here there be muilti-headed dragons ..
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-3-2013/you-stuck-what-where-now-
( Rosy .. hope you see this.)
(No edit button ?) I should have said that Jon Stewart’s is the ONLY astute analysis of what actually occurred last week. Please, watch if you can.
I know we should not speak ill of the dead but Thatcher is perhaps the strongest case there is against this. Single handedly she wrecked the UK and it is in a mess now because of what she did.
May she rest in peace.
https://mobile.twitter.com/jdpoulter/status/321337758574604289?p=p
RIP? Mozza says NO!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/08/morrissey-thatcher-was-a-terror-without-an-atom-of-humanity.html
“The Queen Is Dead”.
Yes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcXi-VYy_Yw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4BCUWopQQ4
Hahahaha – some gems here 🙂
“Give her a state funeral – because a lot of people will want to pay their last respects, and a lot more people will want proof that she’s really dead”.
“It’ll be the first time that the 21 gun salute shoots the coffin.”
“What’s the point of holding the funeral in London? Surely if they held it up North there’d be a lot better turnout, because there’d be loads of people in the streets having a party.”
(The state funeral). “How much do you think it’s gonna cost? 3 million. For 3 million we could give everyone in Scotland a shovel and they would dig a hole so deep that we could hand her over to Satan personally.”
Madame Medusa – UB40:
Fav line so far is the plans for her grave have been released and there’s concern the dancefloor isn’t big enough.
“Looking forward to hearing about who found all the horcruxes”
https://twitter.com/frankieboyle/status/321263969199345666
Elvis Costello interview and a solo performance of Tramp the Dirt Down.
nice. It’s been a great day to listen to the musicians that became my political tsachets..
*teachers. Note to self… Do not comment when using a tablet with autocorrect.
Aww, I thought I’d learned a new word!
Rosy … you might like to look at 5.1.2.1 above witht more on our previous chat …
Saw a great picture. It just had the Grim Reaper with one word – “GOTCHA!”
A brave woman, firm in her beliefs. Beliefs which weren’t massively changed by Blair or Major and she was right about the Euro.
Yeah, a lovely lady….
/
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/08/conservatives-outraged-over-cnn-photo-of-thatcher-with-pedophile-jimmy-savile/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jimmy-savile-letter-to-margaret-thatcher-1508069
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/dec/28/jimmy-savile-access-margaret-thatcher
Are suggesting she aidded and abetted Jimmy Saville? Thats pretty low even for a leftie.
Only if it’s not true.
Considering there is no evidence Thatcher was aware of Savilles behavior anymore than the next person then yes it is pretty low.
That depends entirely on who the next person is.
So you need it to be spelled out in a simpler fashion? OK.
There is no evidence whatsoever that Thatcher knew of any of Savilles crimes and to insinuate that Thatcher may have aided or abetted one of the most serious pedophiles in modern history based entirely on personal speculation is pretty low indeed.
I resent your insinuation toward me. There is no evidence whatsoever that I have insinuated any such thing about that horrible subhuman cretin Thatcher.
Very low, Contrarian, even for a contrarian.
Sure they will
Purple flakes on Friday.
Thatcher explained for the younger folks:
https://mobile.twitter.com/BeardedGenius/status/321377516902309888?p=v
Don’t be silly Felix, Friday is for apple walrus.
@PB: amazing.
If there’s one thing Thatcher hated, it was people taking low shots, we should respect that.
chris73
But only low lefties can get right down to dig up the dirt, such horrid manual labour wot!
Yes, and her son was a terrorist too.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4169557.stm
To be fair, at least he was kind of useless at it.
“firm in her beliefs”
That’s not actually a compliment if the beliefs are vicious, anti-human and abhorrent.
“Beliefs which weren’t massively changed by Blair or Major”
Further harsh condemnation of the dead from chris73.
Oops, should have written policies not beliefs
Why? The exact same criticism applies equally to either.
True but I like to make sure that what i write is what i mean otherwise i end up apologizing for something, which i don’t like doing
Homicidal psychopaths are pretty firm in their beliefs too,
does not make them right or good or worthy of the unending platitudes that will vomit forth from the chambers she ruled with that never tiring Iron Fist.
Hitlor had very firm views as well …
Goodwin’s law strikes again …
lol. Right about the Euro. fair enough, but that’s not the only things she believed.
laws passed on her watch banning councils from doing anything that might ‘support homosexuality’.
opposed the reunification of Germany.
and that’s without getting into the famous stuff about the Mandela, or South American despots.
She’s a complicated figure, but I find the defence of her that she was ‘strong’ to be an odd one. SFW? Lot’s of awful people are strong as well as good people.
To be fair to chris, there’s not a hell of a lot nice anyone can write about her without resorting to vague generalised value judgments about supposed character traits.
The nasty factual stuff is easy cos it’s all a matter of public record.
she did wear well tailored clothes and was only rarely witnessed skeet shooting puppies 🙂
and wrong about everything else. Really, beliefs should not be used to govern a country.
Even today Tony Blair agrees with her views on alot of policys.
So she supported, and is supported by, war criminals. You make a good case.
Welcome to Hell, Mrs Thatcher
We have a special chamber ready just for you.
Your infernal friends,
Saddam Hussein
Milton Friedman
General Pinochet
Ronald Reagan
General Suharto
Dali Tambo, son of former ANC president Oliver Tambo.
My gut reaction now is what it was at the time when she said my father was the leader of a terrorist organisation. I don’t think she ever got it that every day she opposed sanctions, more people were dying, and that the best thing for the assets she wanted to protect was democracy.
Many lives were lost. It’s a shame that we could never call her one of the champions of the liberation struggle. Normally we say that when one of us goes, the ANC ancestors will meet them at the pearly gates and give them a standing ovation. I think it’s quite likely that when Margaret Thatcher reaches the pearly gates, the ANC will boycott the occasion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2013/apr/08/miliband-clegg-local-elections-cameron-madrid
and that big chair with the unpleasant aroma and the spiky cushions in the corners is for Kissinger when he finally shakes loose the mortal coil, the little stools surrounding it are reserved for the Bush family and their cohorts
Little stools? Lovely.
Here she is skewering socialists
It’s time for your reality check.
Strawman ≠ skewer.
And your reality check is she was leader for 11 years, for 11 years the public of Great Britain voted her in and irrespective of what some lazy miners “up north” and (admittedly quite talented) musicians said or say she was a great leader and the UK is better off because of her decisions
Reality check No.2:
A minority supported her, and she left Britain more unequal and divided. Perhaps you may have heard that Scotland will hold a referendum on secession next year.
” irrespective of – some lazy miners “up north” ”
I do wonder, truely, if you have ever done a day’s hard labour in your entire life ?
Let alone day after day in conditions not fit for moles let alone human beings. Have you ever had to watch your entire industry get stolen by foreign profiteers as your daily wage shrinks and your communities crumble, all so a hegemony of hate can be dumped on you from above. (wow that sounds familiar) Maybe then you would begin to understand what all those people fought and died for. A livelihood. Self respect. Families and Communities. However faulted and mistaken the Industry was, coal built the Industrial Revolution and subsequently the tool that you now yield with the aplomb of a rabid meerkat.
A revolution that forever altered our world. Built on the broken backs of men women and children, enslaved by circumstance, but still proud enough to know that they were contributing to their Nation. Now when that Nation [ie some genetic inbreds who have their mates sit in silly wigs and spout meaningless bs to other twits who then lie to the people that asked them to represent them] decides that the industry that revolutionised the world can be run cheaper elsewhere, did they get thanks for the generations of sacrifice? Did they get new jobs? Whole communities were destroyed as severely as if the very bombs their coal had helped to build were used against them. You have the gall to call coal miners lazy.
All I know is I am glad The Standard has very clear rules because yet again, my self-restraint was most certainly tested by your ignorance. Chris73, I ask you to reconsider your foolish words, on this and many many topics. Maybe just spend some time thinking on this life you obvioulsy have no respect for, and the lives lost for you to have it.
Well said Freedom. That is the gist of it.
I wouldn’t mind betting I’ve done more hard labour and in worse conditions then you sunshine
And yet you’re happy to use the term, lazy towards workers under conditions, which in all liklihood you have never experienced.
that i sincerely doubt my good friend, I sincerely doubt
I’ve done more hard labour and in worse conditions then you sunshine
Nobody who has worked hard has such a contemptuous view of workers as you have expressed on this forum. You are a liar.
+1.
Besides, chris lost any last glimmer of respectability when he admitted that his anecdotes, which he writes as if they’re true stories from his own life, may or may not be true.
Excellent work freedom! Excellent! now considering “work” anecdotes “chris”, I dare ya. Go on, I mutherfuckin wager you; (all this mornings comments by the rider shall be moderated from Belarus, CCCP)
“she was a great leader and the UK is better off because of her decisions”
You’re an idiot. 😆
dont forget she was never voted out by the public, never lost an election, so the people voting must have seen that the great policys of Thatcher were working.
Also, she was ritually slaughtered and thrown on the heap by her own cabinet colleagues.
“the people voting must have seen that the great policys of Thatcher were working.”
You terminal fool, Thatcher’s great policies had nothing to do with working.
here’s a round up of some pommy fromt pages:
http://sandsmediaservices.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/thatcher-regionals-capture-mood.html?spref=tw
All people like Thatcher, Key, and Douglas do is take the infrastructure and social benefits built up by generations of workers under conditions of union militancy and social democracy and destroy it to the advantage of the bank accounts of their own mates. They create nothing except division, bigotry, and hatred. There is no great talent to what they do apart from that needed to deceive the electorate. They contribute less to society than any of the beneficiaries or unionists they enjoy marginalising. They are truly scum.
I mourn their deaths as I would mourn the eradication of cancer.
when maggie thatcher dies we,re all avin a party
And here she is saying good things about the Khmer Rouge.
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.number10.gov.uk/Page12166
And also saying not so nice things as well
As was so often her way.
Can’t believe you posted that chris. It shows her as either barking mad, ill-informed, or deliberately deceptive – depending on how charitable you feel.
Certainly didn’t “skewer” anyone in this clip, although her good mates Suharto and Pinochet did, as did many of her family’s clients around the world.
from Obama
“With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend. As a grocer’s daughter who rose to become Britain’s first female prime minister, she stands as an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can’t be shattered.”
and where does a shattered glass ceiling go ?
If I can quote myself, she didn’t shatter the glass ceiling, she was teleported above it.
“…there is no glass ceiling that can’t be shattered.”
Especially when you send your Air Force to Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and Iraq to bomb the houses with the glass ceilings in them.
The proof is there, how the Ministry of Social Development has through the controversial Dr David Bratt, who is their “Principal Health Advisor”, and who follows a similar approach while interpreting and applying the perverted “bio psycho social model” for assessing and rehabilitating sick and disabled as Professor Mansel Aylward from Cardiff University, is INFLUENCING how DOCTORS assess and fill out WORK CAPACITY MEDICAL ASSESSMENTS for WINZ.
A look at a document found online, issued by the MEDICAL SERVICE of the AUCKLAND CITY MISSION for starters, exposes the result of intensive lobbying of GPs by so-called “Health and Disability Coordinators” that MSD and WINZ employ:
http://www.aucklandcitymission.org.nz/uploads/file/Calder%20Centre/Sickness%20Benefit%20explanation.pdf
Background report, showing from where the Missions Medical Centre evolved:
http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/news/mission-possible/1036109/
Doctors working for the Mission’s “Calder Centre” appear to willingly accept the “expectations” that MSD and hard line, indeed biased, Dr David Bratt impose on them, by even quoting comments made by him, that were published in a NZ Doctor article titled ‘Harms lurk for benefit addicts’ on 01 August 2012:
http://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/in-print/2012/august-2012/1-august-2012/harms-lurk-for-benefit-addicts.aspx
(try to “google” it if it does not show)
That article raised concern by a well educated, independent reader, whose partner is a doctor, but who like many doctors in NZ prefers not to “comment” on the conduct of colleagues:
http://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/in-print/2012/august-2012/29-august-2012/questioning-the-direction-of-msd-policy.aspx
(“google” ‘Questioning the direction of MSD policy’ by Tim Walker Nelson, NZ Doctor 29 Aug. 2012 if not showing)
Health and Disability Coordinators are special advisory and liaison staff that MSD use to “advise” GPs on expectations the Ministry and therefore also WINZ have of doctors, and they “inform” about policies, are involved in the selection process of GPs to work as “designated doctors” for WINZ, and naturally are managed, mentored and instructed by the Principal Health Advisor and the Principal Disability Advisor.
A “summarised” job description for such a position recently advertised can be found here:
http://www.jobseeker.co.nz/job/Disability-Coordinator-0b3f38117d62c6a6d6a8471d26ca3c98
(I have a more detailed, official one in PDF file format at hand)
For years now, Health Work Force NZ (staffing and training agency as part of the Ministry of Health, headed by Dr Des Gorman, another “hard liner” in the medical profession), and the Medical Council and naturally the Royal NZ College of General Practitioners have worked, to bring about “changes” to the training program of GPs. One does not need to speculate too much, that there are also “messages” sent through the senior “trainers” and the heads of mentioned organisation, that impact on how training will be conducted, what it will include, and that certain “expectations” by government ministries will flow in.
Dr Des Gorman is holding high positions in many institutions:
http://www.conference.co.nz/gp13/speakers/panel_session_speakers/des_gorman
(a summary of his back-ground, he will be a key senior speaker again at this year’s GP conference in Wellington, and his controversial past role as advisor and assessor for ACC is not forgotten).
Another likely speaker at this years GP conference, is also expected to be Dr Bratt in his role as “Principal Health Advisor” – from MSD, who is likely to once again present his “views” and pseudo scientific findings on the “benefits” of work, and the “harm of being on a welfare benefit” for his employer Work and Income:
http://www.gpcme.co.nz/pdf/GP%20CME/Friday/C1%201515%20Bratt-Hawker.pdf
Of general info, but not revealing much here:
http://www.rnzcgp.org.nz/developments-in-general-practice-training
But what is clear from the document issued by the doctors working for the Medical Service at the Auckland City Mission is, MSD do assert strong influence now on how doctors in general work with them, as most doctors will at some time have to complete medical certificates that WINZ expects from clients and doctors’ patients to establish benefit entitlement on health and work capacity grounds.
HOW INDEPENDENT ARE DOCTORS IN NEW ZEALAND – in view of such developents?
The draconian, in some ways almost “fascist”, “work sets you free” approach to illness, disability and welfare appears to become commonly accepted in the wider medical profession, due to very concerning developments!
Well said Xtasy. This goes directly to Karol’s post on Thatcher.
“…action, political will, and policies based in sound evidence and humane values is not enough. In order to work towards a more inclusive, fairer world without poverty and destructive divisions, there is a need to find a way to counter the extensive networks, power and reach of the “neoliberal” elites.”
For further info – or correction:
There appears to be another annual conference for GPs in Rotorua, at which Dr David Bratt from MSD is listed as speaker on health and welfare issues:
http://www.gpcme.co.nz/speakers.php
His name is shown there, and for memory, last year he appears to have presented this PDF and verbal presentation to doctors at such a meeting:
http://www.gpcme.co.nz/pdf/2012/Fri_DaVinci_1400_Bratt_Medical%20Certificates%20are%20Clinical%20Instruments%20too%20-%20June%202012.pdf
(pages 3, 16 and 33 display his now well known “view” that benefit dependence has the same “dangers” as “drug dependence”)
This conference is apparently organised by the New Zealand Medical Association.
Professor Mansel Aylward, former Chief Medical Officer for Department of Work and Pensions in the UK – under Maggie Thatcher’s government, by the way, will also speak at that Rotorua annual conference for GPs just mentioned, see the Sunday sessions, 23 June 2013, at the ‘Main Conference’ (click program on the website, for which the link is provided).
AND Dr Des Gorman will speak there also! Talk about all the “work ability” hardliners mixing and mingling at such places.
So under the radar, not mentioned by MSD, Paula Bennett, Tony Ryall and others, the highly controversial “Sir” Prof. Mansel Aylward is still doing his tours in NZ, lobbying hard for the work test approaches and regimes that have been introduced into the UK, and in 2011 led to over 1,100 deaths, due to people not coping with stress, work requirements while they could not work, and due to committing suicide.
The agenda is progressing, and NO public consultation is taking place, how damned revealing! ANY TRUST in welfare reforms, and how doctors and specialists in NZ operate, risking to breach their own professional codes???
Revealing, all this, is it not?
http://www.whywaitforever.com/dwpatosbusiness.html
http://mikesivier.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/unum-atos-the-dwp-and-the-wca-who-gets-the-blame-for-the-biopsychosocial-saga/mansel_aylward/
http://mikesivier.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/unum-atos-the-dwp-and-the-wca-who-gets-the-blame-for-the-biopsychosocial-saga/
http://atosvictimsgroup.co.uk/2012/05/31/how-many-disabled-people-will-the-dwp-atos-kill-eventually-the-crematoriums-and-graveyards-will-be-overflowing-at-this-rate/
I’m in favour of the legalisation of recreational drugs, except for the one which causes neoliberalism. I think your description of Bratt’s views as perverted is totally accurate. His followers in the UK are, in my opinion, already responsible for deaths among the disabled. The guy is an enemy of humanity.
In the article “Ex-spy boss lashes out at PM’s claims” by Adam Bennet there is a curious bit right at the end which I found interesting
Senior sources have told the Herald that the person suspected of leaking information to Labour about that briefing – including claims Mr Key was not only briefed about the Dotcom surveillance, but joked about it – had been identified and had now “lawyered up”.
If the report establishes a leak, the GCSB’s legislation carries a penalty of up to two years in prison.
By Adam Bennett Email Adam
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10876297
What is “senior sources” usually journo code for?
GCSB’s legislation carries a penalty of up to two years in prison.
Yes spying on NZ citizens, is also a criminal offence providing for a couple of semesters at rock college.A very dangerous game for the plantiffs.
.
Read the article:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10876297
Sir Bruce Ferguson says Key “is smoking dope on that one.” Key’s statement is “outrageous.”
This former civil servant is not going to take any sh*t from the PM. He is fighting back. So far Ferguson has landed two hard right hooks. Key is looking wobbly.
Key may have met his match in Ferguson AmaKiwi.
He was a former fighter pilot based at Ohakea. Those fighter pilots were the creme de la creme of the Air Force. He rose to Squadron Leader and it’s my understanding he was a popular leader who put the safety and welfare of his pilots first. He became Commander of the Air force Base at Whenuapai in the early 1990s and the rest is history. A born leader.
With a background like that he out-classes John Key in every way. Key knows it and he’ll continue to discredit him at every turn. Good luck John. You’ll probably end up in a courtroom like your idol, Rob Muldoon.
I’d debate your definition of attack pilots as the “creme de la creme” of the RNZAF, Anne. My pedantic hat tells me that the Skyhawks were not fighters, but attack bombers. While the pilots undoubtedly were very skilled, they also needed tibia no longer than a certain length. Too long, and they couldn’t use the ejection seat and were therefore not eligible for Skyhawks. There well may have been helicopter, transport, or maritime reconnaissance pilots with equal skills, but a couple of cm taller. This is without thinking of the ground staff, navigators etc.
Skyhawks were multirole aircraft, and in the 1960’s and 1970’s were considered fairly capable air to air interceptors. For instance they were used for many years at TOPGUN as the main adversary aircraft. But yes, they were usually used in the ground strike role.
I see Ian Wishart has written a penetrating book on politics or apparently. Daylight Robbery – anyone read this?
The only people who read Ian Wishart books are people who do not read.
that is funny
No. I found some bamboo to grow under my fingernails instead.
If you pay me.
And provide a large bottle of fine whisky to numb the pain of Wishart’s fail.
Margaret Thatcher and misapplied death etiquette
by GLENN GREENWALD, The Guardian, 8 April 2013
‘News of Margaret Thatcher’s death this morning instantly and predictably gave rise to righteous sermons on the evils of speaking ill of her. British Labour MP Tom Watson decreed: “I hope that people on the left of politics respect a family in grief today.” Following in the footsteps of Santa Claus, Steve Hynd quickly compiled a list of all the naughty boys and girls “on the left” who dared to express criticisms of the dearly departed Prime Minister, warning that he “will continue to add to this list throughout the day”. Former Tory MP Louise Mensch, with no apparent sense of irony, invoked precepts of propriety to announce: “Pygmies of the left so predictably embarrassing yourselves, know this: not a one of your leaders will ever be globally mourned like her.”
This demand for respectful silence in the wake of a public figure’s death is not just misguided but dangerous. That one should not speak ill of the dead is arguably appropriate when a private person dies, but it is wildly inappropriate for the death of a controversial public figure, particularly one who wielded significant influence and political power. “Respecting the grief” of Thatcher’s family members is appropriate if one is friends with them or attends a wake they organize, but the protocols are fundamentally different when it comes to public discourse about the person’s life and political acts. I made this argument at length last year when Christopher Hitchens died and a speak-no-ill rule about him was instantly imposed (a rule he, more than anyone, viciously violated), and…
Read more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-death-etiquette
Ya gotta love football fans.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/margaret-thatcher-dead-saw-what-1818338
This Sunday is North East derby day – Newcastle United will play Sunderland at St. James’ Park, a fixture that is usually overloaded with bile from both sets of supporters.
If the powers-that-be think that a minute’s silence for the Iron Lady will be appropriate, they’ll find that the fans are more unified in their response than they’ve ever been.
well, Christopher Hitchens is putting out fires, continuously, as we write, so, he is unable to come to the phone right now…
One of Christopher Hitchens’ unfunny little ongoing jokes was his his insistence that he had a powerful lust for Mrs Thatcher.
If only there was an infernal edition of Big Brother being livestreamed, we could sit back and enjoy the spectacle of the unspeakable in full pursuit of the insufferable.
The original quote of the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible works very well if translated into Portuguese.
CRIMINALISING PROTEST AT SEA IS ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE IN A ‘FREE AND DEMOCRATIC’ COUNTRY AS NEW ZEALAND IS SUPPOSED TO BE!
Please SHARE SHARE SHARE!!!
Sign the Statement Now
http://www.greenpeace.org
Protect the right of New Zealanders to protest at sea: Reject the Anadarko Amendment!
This is important folks!
If you don’t know your rights – you don’t have any.
If you don’t defend the rights you’re supposed to have – you lose them.
New Zealand for multinational companies and overseas investors?
I don’t think so.
HUMAN RIGHTS – NOT CORPORATE RIGHTS!
Penny Bright
Thanks for pointing this out.
I am quite concerned about the bad changes being pushed through our Parliament. This is no small matter and the changes will make our our people and country very much worse off.
Some comments from eminent and respected people on RNZ Morning Report:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2551447/prominent-new-zealanders-fight-for-%27freedom-of-expression%27.asx
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/take-action/Take-action-online/reject-the-Anadarko-Amendment/
Simon Bridges believes Laws do not need scrutiny, this is one small way we can let him know what we think of that idea
yes, apparently there are some clear Human rights, democratic rights abuses in this surreptitious legislation; could be time for the rider to re-arm (ha ha ha P. shine a light on yourselves why don’t you). 😉
So who dreaded the thought of everyone going on about how wonderful MT was when they read about her death??
while i am here; for a freakin’ small country, we sure generate some news;
there is just too many people asking for money from the queen,
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10876345
while another judge hits out at “drinking culture”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10876295
could be Key is “smokin dope” himself; (brother John)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10876297
thank the Lord for whakapapa
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/maori/news/article.cfm?c_id=252&objectid=10875389
finally, the Reserve Bank makes some noise; how far shall we stretch the bubble?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10876259
and an increased demand for “natural burials”; well thank the Lord for that; all that prime real estate…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49G1A1aw3A4
(thanks to Japan’s QE, TWI now 78.14)
Read em’ and weep
furthermore, in the neo-lib paradise MICHAEL;
from ONE News, Key appears to have reverted to Denial mode now.
another ‘thin edge of the wedge’- FB charging to message those beyond ‘ friends of friends’.
Post Tenebras Lux
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754367/
(you are in the wrong League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Pop)
these “85” spied upon could have breached the Defense Act and the Privacy Act; (how much are people gonna take up the back door? hmmm? hmmm?)
meanwhile, Lester Levy (now that IS a funny handle); “decreased, increased, funding” in the health sector; while there is a general decrease in majority of OECD countries.
-however, in NZ, according to ASMS, there is lack of overall strategic direction in health.Do Not Worry says Lester, we are workin on the internal culture of DHBs.
But wait, there’s more; David Round (Independent Constitutional Review chairman) “putting principles of treaty into constitutional review will be “disasterous” “. Really! Is that right? well, te Mob may disagree wit chu. 🙂
for Ennui;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8wxj8dI5bQ
for louise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIPNBIwqZNY
for the non-drinkers amongst us…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFYOHrwi-W8
(some Hot Chocolate)
and, imho, the song of the month…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbQ0Cb6h3Ew
oops, stomp on that one, meant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kq0vPSadqU
(Glory, Glory, Hallelujah 🙂 )
or,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zufpr8BwY9U
…in HB, they like to keep things fresh and light, so bring your Big City weary arse down here.
Nice one Ghost, the voice of a goddess.
Oh wow, and this week’s government privacy breach comes from…. The Ministry of Justice.
The full enchilada – passwords, access to alter financial transactions, and access to sensitive personal information all wide open (apparently from the website).
Fuck sake.
Yep. The Technological Society- “the end of democracy”- Ellul.
concede?
nah.
Tory Governments and a depleted public service- “the end of confidentiality”. 🙂
you forward the fare, and I will come visit you in your “cubby hole”. 🙂
I remember the haughty, hectoring old bag Thatcher for the hissing reaction she gave some poor journalist at the time of the French bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, when it was suggested the bombing as state-sponsored terrorism merited the same denunciation she gave other complicit states.
She was a mad control freak, liar, obssessive, and to come right down to it…….a cheap snob. That particularly despicable breed of Tory, the snob. No tears for her here. In her vainglory she was instrumental in the deaths of many, many, many. And in retirement she personally gave succour to Pinochet when the High Court confined him to some country estate in Surrey.
See YouTube “The Day Margaret Thatcher Dies” – Pete Wylie I think.
Deranged.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/07/1831081/denier-delingpole-wishes-for-climate-nuremberg-says-hanging-is-far-too-good-for-climate-scientists/
well, observations from the Q.T.
so, “if NZ is better than what we see in other parts of the world (La garde, you freakin mis-pronouncing idiots)” then who is BS-ing who we ask you.
must say, the Govt. appeared muted for a change; maybe a reality check going on; i.e. what a liability Key, English, Brownlee, Parata, Bennett et al are turning out to be for Noo Zillund.
do you think Amy Adams, and Katrina Shanks might have a touch of “Downs” themselves? Projection much, we ask you:
Cosgrove on MRP; “66 Thousand and 600 and 66 Dollars in fees per person?” you have to be pullin’ our legs…
David Carter-“I wonder whether…” (asks acting PM for more detail).
re this Kitteridge Report; Excellent questioning by Dr Russell Norman; apparently the “leaked” document was ‘locked” in the PM’s office…FFS
btw, DPS, when the rider has ridden over Bennett, he will then roll on down the road to that idiot fascist Sabin and on round the bend to the blonde bimbo Macindoe (where do we get these people from, some swamp?)
Brownlee: EQC staff cannot yet e-mail attachments and must stay back after school for sanding.
(shut-down of e-mail until some “certainty”; well, who is the tail, and who are the dogs..)
and to further the point Gareth Hughes on the supplementary leg. to the Crown Minerals Bill
“BOR breaches, International Law breaches and breaches of democratic rights! Baa.
Freakin sleepy Hobbits, or what.
If they’re not freakin now, they will when they wake up.
Angelina (on Hauraki: sigh)
30,000 Greek households disconnected from power every month
None of this is going to end well.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-07/30000-greek-households-lose-electricity-each-month
This too.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/greek-commission-concludes-germany-owes-billions-in-war-reparations-a-893084.html
no clock here so ave a gander at these (while i peruse the Thatcher threads) 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC3KcX8eQ3c
(last night, another soldier)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFECyiPS9Tg
(Propaganda)
Eye Candy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUu0HUMJLPo
THE REAL THING budgies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9otg_Cm50RE
The Queen is Dead, Long Live The Queen!!!
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh6KCehWE8M )
2001 (for R.socrates)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3sqvxnJ3Cw
(who needs to eat; bananas anyone?)
Increased CO2 in oceans can cause crabs to grow bigger.
http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/6088/20130408/carbon-emissions-create-giant-crabs-oyster-industry-trouble.htm
And the potential to destroy export industries.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8256622/Acidic-oceans-threaten-shellfish-industry
National Party have a mock up of spoof news like a pop magazine. The blurb for Maggie Barry says she writes on Roses, Wisteria and Radical Welfare Reform. The flowers that most likely grow in that garden area would be Love-Lies-Bleeding.(Tassel flower or Amaranthus).
the best Sweet Jane, Ever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHRFZFmEq9o
yet, there is always The Cranberries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Kspj3OO0s
Night prism, keep on defracting.
So WE HAVE IT NOW!
It appears that was the last debate and vote that occured a short time ago tonight in Parliament – on the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill!
Votes were 59 against and 61 in favour. Yes, that is IT!
The Maori Party voted with 2 votes against, so one of their MPs appears to have abstained or whatever.
The Na(t)zis have – with their “support” muppets Banks and Dunne – pushed throught he most mean spirited, draconian and senseless “welfare reforms”, which will from the time of introduction and implementation in mid July this year see to it, that many beneficiaries (most of whom have NO DAMNED CLUE what will hit them) will face radical changes, severe restrictions, harsh and firm expectations and sanctions if they do not cooperate.
This will change New Zealand, I am sure, and while this country has already become a rather divided, untrusting, competing and mean place, it will get even worse.
The damned SHIT MEDIA of this land has not even reported one damned bit about it, the political current affairs and news reporters have treated it as insignificant, and consequently the public has very little ideas what is involved.
So the last speaker, I think it was that stupid “cop” from up north, a Nat MP, even cheekily teased the opposition, what the problem was, he asked, as there was nobody protesting in the streets, nobody discussing it on talkback and nobody being opposed.
Hey, does anybody not realise yet? NZ is run like a DICTATORSHIP of sorts, where key powers are in the control of certain key decisionmakers and lobby-groups. Welcome to the Dictatorship of Aotearoa NZ.
Thank you “Dear Leader”, John The Shining Light and Key to Hell!
So UK Labour seem to be warming to the adjusted Atos work capacity testing regime again, as atosvictimsgroup have detected:
http://atosvictimsgroup.co.uk/2013/04/07/liam-byrne-and-the-labour-party-finally-joins-up-with-the-nasty-party-did-we-really-expect-anything-else/
If that is anything to go by, perhaps we will see Shearer’s Labour “warm” to the newly passed “welfare reforms” pushed through by Na(t)zis here in NZ also, once they have been implemented and are running?
I am waiting with interest, to see how Labour will stand on welfare at the coming elections!
NO TRUST, I must say, despite of the odd good speech against the new bill in Parliament tonight. Thanks to Sua William Sio, though.
But the only truly great speech that an opposition MP held tonight, that was the one by Jan Logie, Greens!
Thank you Jan!
Stay firm on course in welfare matters, please, many of us need this and rely on you!!!