Open mike 11/08/2022

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 11th, 2022 - 87 comments
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87 comments on “Open mike 11/08/2022 ”

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  1. Jester 1
    11 August 2022 at 6:54 am

    Oh dear how low can the NZH go. Now a whole article on the student flat he lived in! I guess the next scoop with be Uffindell's kindergarten exclusive photos!

    Sam Uffindell stood down: National MP's student flat was one of filthiest in Dunedin – NZ Herald

    • Jimmy 1.1
      11 August 2022 at 7:37 am

      Yep I guess they want to keep it in the media as long as they can but surely the guys political career is over now.

      • Graeme 1.1.1
        11 August 2022 at 7:46 am

        Uphimself is all over rover. There's another political career in question now.

      • AB 1.1.2
        11 August 2022 at 11:19 am

        The Herald's purpose is to trivialise it – turn it into just another example of youthful, hard-case scarfie-ism. The sort of thing that happens but kids grow out of – no lasting damage done, no deeper implications to be examined. Pretty much the same tack you have been taking on here for a few days. Whatever – the Herald's gonna Herald – the paper copy is an anorexic sliver of imbecility.

        • Jimmy 1.1.2.1
          11 August 2022 at 12:06 pm

          I don't agree with that especially with the cartoon listing the last 8 candidates, I think the NZH are trying to do the exact opposite.

    • Jimmy 1.2
      11 August 2022 at 7:54 am

      Exclusive photo of Uffindell as a baby just released!

      Thumbnail

      • Robert Guyton 1.2.1
        11 August 2022 at 8:20 am

        Uffindell was a conjoined twin?

        What happened to the other half?

        Oh, please don't answer that!

      • mary_a 1.2.2
        11 August 2022 at 2:48 pm

        @ Jimmy (1.2) … Is that the Te Puke kid Luxie having a laugh at Uffie throwing a wee tantie?

    • Visubversa 1.3
      11 August 2022 at 8:31 am

      A flat with women's underwear up on a "trophy board".

    • Cricklewood 1.4
      11 August 2022 at 10:01 am

      Bout a low as it gets hard to believe an editor decided to lead the news with student lived in shit hole scarfie flat while in Dunedin…

      They'll be checking his rubbish bin next and writing an expose on his failure to properly sort his recycling…

    • roy cartland 1.5
      11 August 2022 at 10:14 am

      This is what will bring him down – he's a common punk.

      Gang bashing kids? Fine!

      Threatening and chasing women? Sweet!

      Being a grotty, no-good, doity punk? Not fit for the National Party! 🧐

  2. Sanctuary 2
    11 August 2022 at 8:29 am

    Martyn Bradbury on LOTR:

    "I'm no fan of Sauron, but here's why forming a woke fellowship to raid Mount Doom and destroy the one ring is going to enrage his base."

    • roy cartland 2.1
      11 August 2022 at 10:22 am

      🤣🤣🤣

      "As TDB has been saying for at last TWO YEARS, and the MSM have just only caught up, the morris-dancing, trans-philic, gender fluid Hobbits are very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very righteous when it comes to ring-destroying… but can we please talk about Smaug's gold profits now?"

  3. Ad 3
    11 August 2022 at 9:02 am

    Great environmental win for Australia and subantarctic birds and flora at Macquarrie Island.

    From 300,000 rabbits to none: a Southern Ocean island is reborn | Environment | The Guardian

    Macquarie Island: from rabbits and rodents to recovery and renewal (dcceew.gov.au)

    Surely this gives courage to Stewart Island to hurry up their own eradication project.

  4. pat 4
    11 August 2022 at 9:06 am

    "When governments are contractually incapable of solving their people’s problems, only one option remains: turning us against each other. This process is well under way: the purpose of culture wars is to distract us from inequality. But it will go much further. Truss and Sunak compete to promise ever greater retribution towards those seeking sanctuary from murderous regimes. Last week, Truss promised to legislate against “militant” trade unionists and environmental protesters, as if Johnson’s new laws were insufficiently draconian.

    The more corrupt and less representative government becomes, the longer must be its list of enemies, and the more extreme the rhetoric with which it denounces them. As our crises escalate, as the government absents itself from public service, violence bubbles ever closer to the surface. This is how a country falls apart."

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/10/crisis-britain-leaders-inflation-energy-wages-conservative

    Sound familiar?

    • Ad 4.1
      11 August 2022 at 9:10 am

      Should it?

      • pat 4.1.1
        11 August 2022 at 9:24 am

        Does it?

        • Ad 4.1.1.1
          11 August 2022 at 9:28 am

          What are you talking about?

          • pat 4.1.1.1.1
            11 August 2022 at 9:33 am

            read the article

            • Ad 4.1.1.1.1.1
              11 August 2022 at 9:47 am

              I've read the article.

              Why ought it sound familiar?

              • pat …
                11 August 2022 at 9:59 am

                The decades of abdication of responsibility, the syphoning off of much needed investment to dividends, the lack of ability to implement action, the deflection of cause to worker laziness, the lie that more of the same will solve the problems.

                The playbook is used by all the anglosphere governments (of all hues) the only difference being the area of emphasis….they have been reduced to figureheads.

                • Poission …
                  11 August 2022 at 10:46 am

                  Truss wants call in powers to over rule decisions by financial regulators,removing independence from the prudential regulation authority (BOE) oversight of the BOE, etc etc.

                  She has removed all doubt that she is a rambling idiot with tax cuts under a high inflation regime etc.

                  • pat …
                    11 August 2022 at 10:51 am

                    And yet apparently she leads….the elites have a self destructive streak a mile wide….all one can assume is they either think they can get out with their wealth intact or they are so unaware they dont understand the consequences.

                    • Poission …
                      11 August 2022 at 11:06 am

                      The UK only survives on having a stable financial system with independent regulatory institutions,political intervention has seen the destruction of the middle classes in South America,as high inflation destroyed accumulated wealth.

                    • pat …
                      11 August 2022 at 11:19 am

                      They all only survive with a functioning economy

    • GreenBus 4.2
      11 August 2022 at 11:03 am

      Pom's could move to Russia which is not having all theses problems. Ha!

  5. Sanctuary 5
    11 August 2022 at 9:32 am

    I see the Ukraine has managed to destroy a dozen Russian jets and utterly devastate the Russian airbase at Novofedorivka in Crimea. This is a significant development as this base is almost 250km from the nearest Ukrainian positions and – as video showing horrified Russians (mostly Moscovites) fleeing their nearby beach holiday spots show – means the Ukraine now has the ability to carry the war deep into the Russian rear, shattering the sense of invulnerability the Russian population has had up to now.

    Putin is discovering the truth of that old saying – "It ain't no fun if the rabbits got a gun."

    • Ad 5.1
      11 August 2022 at 9:49 am

      All power to them. But.

      Ukraine doesn't yet appear able to counter-attack and regain much lost territory.

      • Scud 5.1.1
        11 August 2022 at 2:39 pm

        It's all about timing Ad, it when the UkR Military attack in Sth'ern Ukraine.

        The fact that the UkR Military are now conducting long range Joint Fires & Deep Strikes in the Sth.

        Probably means we are not too far away from D Day? The more the UkR Military can degrade Russia's Airpower, Logistics, the various HQ's & Joint Fires?

        Then there is more chance of success for the UkR, especially if its Intelligence, Recon in Russia's rear area are providing real time information like Battle Damage Assessments & Targeting of the above.

        So far the UkR Military are making the Russians dance to their tune on the dance floor, while knowing when hold the poker chips & when to cash those chips in on the poker table.

        Been very impressed with the way Ukraine has conducted itself since the start of Tsar Poot's so-called Special Military Operation.

        Been a few hiccups (both Political & Military side of things largely due to FSU & GRU operations in the Sth prior to D Day) along the way, but that was a expected as "no plan excepts to survive 1st contact with the enemy" as the Great Prussia General Von Moltke the elder once said.

      • Barfly 5.2.1
        11 August 2022 at 11:03 am

        I have seen it suggested that anti-ship missiles may have been used (they have the range)

        • joe90 5.2.1.1
          11 August 2022 at 11:21 am

          Also, suggestions of a new supplier of weapons not previously seen in Ukraine. The field narrows if Iran is supplying Russia.

          • Sanctuary 5.2.1.1.1
            11 August 2022 at 12:39 pm

            Israel has indicated that any supplying of weapons from Iran to Russia will see them dropping their objections to equipping the Ukrainians with Israeli weapons. And I’d put a pretty sum on Ukrainian pilots secretly undergoing training on US F-16s, six months into this war more and more US Weapons will appear on the Ukrainian side.

            Everyday this war goes on, the chance of the war escalating to a wider conflict increases. For example, any Russian attempt to deliberately destroy the reactors at the Zaporizhzhia would be an act of war against Western Europe, given the fallout from these plants would be horrendous. The use ATACMS against the Crimea – according to the Russians their sovereign territory – when the Russians have issued all sorts of bloodcurdling nuclear threats about using nuclear weapons to protect their homeland is also a bit dicey.

            • joe90 5.2.1.1.1.1
              11 August 2022 at 1:16 pm

              any Russian attempt to deliberately destroy the reactors at the Zaporizhzhia

              Russia's theft of Zaporizhzhia's 5,700MWs (NZ 9,800MW from all sources) involves disconnection from the Ukrainian grid and reconnecting to the Russian grid.

              That would be a long, drawn out and enormously complex task during peace time. Right now, it's a recipe for disaster.

              https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/08/6/7362180/

      • Sanctuary 5.2.3
        11 August 2022 at 12:31 pm

        The secret arrival of ATACMS would explain why the Ukrainians have been so coy on how the attack was carried out. But I suspect on the basis of no concrete evidence so far the use of ATACMS – a system that the US has been reluctant to supply. However, to paraphrase Obi-Wan:

        "And these blast points, too accurate for Russian weapons. Only US ATACMS are so precise.”

        Anyway, if the Ruskies find bits of ATACMS in the wreckage we'll surely hear about it.

        The other piece of the puzzle has been the confirmed delivery of AGM-88D HARM anti-radar missiles to the Ukraine. The "D" model is significant because it has a passive mode that combined with a GPS means it doesn't need to be integrated into the host platforms ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) systems. That makes it viable for the Soviet era jets of the Ukraine to use them, and I see that they've knocked out several Russian radar sites in the Kherson region in the last 72 hours, creating a hole in the Russian radar net – this would mean the Russian S-300 & S-400 SAM systems would be blind to a surface to surface missile attack. If you add to the equation the near constant presence of RAF and USAF RC-135W Rivet & RQ-4 Global Hawks in the Black Sea providing sophisticated electronic surveillance data in real time to the Ukrainians and you've basically got Uncle Sam completely owning the Russians.

      • Francesca 5.2.4
        11 August 2022 at 12:51 pm

        How's that Kherson offensive working out?

        • Sanctuary 5.2.4.1
          11 August 2022 at 1:23 pm

          Don't know, I'm not there.

        • Scud 5.2.4.2
          11 August 2022 at 2:59 pm

          Slowly slowly catch the monkey

          As my old SQN 2ic, would say, as ex was an expat Kenyan & knew a thing or two about catching Monkey's.

          He's now in the RAAC here in Oz causing mayhem in the field & making his Duntroon Trained Peers look a bit average as he was trained at NZ Army OCS in Waiberia. But he is unlikely to get his Colonels due to the Australian Army snobbish attitude of those not trained by RMC Duntroon.

  6. Tony Veitch (not etc.) 6
    11 August 2022 at 11:04 am

    Don't know the background of this poll – just saw it on a twitter post – but hey, a better one than the Kantar!

    https://twitter.com/alpine_bruce/status/1557264997377806337

    • Ad 6.1
      11 August 2022 at 11:28 am

      31% for National is a big outlier.

      As is 3.5% for NZFirst.

      • Sanctuary 6.1.1
        11 August 2022 at 12:07 pm

        The difference is the Horizon poll is only of those who expressed a clear intention to vote – so if you hate Jacinda and love Luxo, but tell the interviewer they are all bastards and you don't vote it just encourages them then you won't be counted.

        • Ad 6.1.1.1
          11 August 2022 at 1:20 pm

          The trends are clear.

          No sign yet that Labour's fall has hit bottom.

          No sign yet that National has stabilised.

          • LibertyBelle 6.1.1.1.1
            11 August 2022 at 4:19 pm

            Spot on.

            And NZF at 4%, without W. Peters esq being particularly engaged.

            It's going to be a tight one.

        • swordfish 6.1.1.2
          11 August 2022 at 10:07 pm

          The difference is the Horizon poll is only of those who expressed a clear intention to vote

          Is that really all that different from the other, more established Polls ?

          For example … 1News-Kantar only includes those saying they are 'quite likely' or 'very likely' to vote in its Party Vote results.

          Indeed the New Zealand Political Polling Code explicitly suggests:

          Those who say they are ineligible or unlikely to vote should be excluded from the analysis

          Horizon’s point of difference appears to be that it only includes those who say they’re 100% certain to vote … which, in itself, may well skew their findings.

    • Sabine 6.2
      11 August 2022 at 1:40 pm

      these are people who intend to vote.

      • Tony Veitch (not etc.) 6.2.1
        11 August 2022 at 4:46 pm

        Therefore, all the more relevant. X% might not intend to vote and X% don't know, but those who intend to vote – well, there votes are countable.

        Labour/Greens ahead! Add in TPM!

        • Sabine 6.2.1.1
          11 August 2022 at 9:01 pm

          Today was not voting day, today was only pretend voting day for a few for a poll, keep that in mind.

          Labour can not be happy about this poll.

  7. Sacha 7
    11 August 2022 at 11:44 am

    Colonel Trotter will be choking on his Greggs.

    https://twitter.com/Publicwrongs/status/1557491202362003456

  8. Rosemary McDonald 8
    11 August 2022 at 11:51 am

    Why is Labour, and only Labour, so hellbent on getting rid of the Childrens Commissioner?

    The Beattie Report does not recommend getting rid of the Children's Commissioner as Sepuloni implies.

    Sepuloni would not consider slowing the bill's progress down, saying the Beatie report found the government needed to "act with some urgency".

    And only Natrad seems to think this is something we should be informed about.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/470739/oranga-tamariki-changes-risk-weakening-children-s-rights-and-protections-what-should-be-done

    Another major failing of this legislation is that it…

    … still does not incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic legislation. This would mean the convention rights would become part of the law of Aotearoa New Zealand.

    One of the clear benefits of this would be that children's rights – especially their rights to health, housing and food – would be more readily enforceable through the national courts. In other words, it would be easier to hold the government to account for its actions or inaction. (my bold)

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/470739/oranga-tamariki-changes-risk-weakening-children-s-rights-and-protections-what-should-be-done

    Perhaps the Labour Party flagwavers residing here on TS can explain this…because its looking increasingly like Labour has absolutely no commitment to improving the lives of vulnerable children at all.

    • Louis 8.1
      11 August 2022 at 1:28 pm

      Labour are not getting rid of the Children's commissioner.

      Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Again, this is why I am looking forward to the committee stage. I have been asked questions by the media and others that actually are not part of what is in this bill, questions like "Why are we dismantling the Children's Commission?" when that is clearly not happening; questions like "Why are we moving the monitoring mechanism out of the Children's Commission and into ERO?" when that's not happening, because the Independent Children's Monitor was established in the Ministry of Social Development and we're shifting that function to the Education Review Office from there. There are so many things that have been said about this bill that we need to be able to debate robustly in this House, and the committee stage will give us an opportunity to go through line by line and do that.

      https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansD_20220803_20220803

      • Sabine 8.1.1
        11 August 2022 at 1:41 pm

        " because the Independent Children's Monitor was established in the Ministry of Social Development and we're shifting that function to the Education Review Office from there"

        what does that mean in plain english?

  9. ianmac 9
    11 August 2022 at 12:07 pm

    Not very helpful but the guru Barry Soper reckons that the Uffindell story is "a hit job" and that he has a good idea by whom, "but he is not saying yet."

    ( Can't link to it but MariaSherwood2 knows.)

    • AB 9.1
      11 August 2022 at 12:36 pm

      Bazza's out of touch. The frontrunner for the "by whom" is widely known already: it's Sam Uffindell

    • Kiwijoker 9.2
      11 August 2022 at 12:53 pm

      I think Soper is more a soothsayer than a guru

    • weka 9.3
      11 August 2022 at 1:49 pm

      why can't you link?

    • Tiger Mountain 9.4
      11 August 2022 at 7:32 pm

      One persons “hit job” may be another’s “justifiably being held to account”–something Soper should be personally acquainted with.

      Natzos have been barrel scraping for candidates for years. The decline in mass public participation in political and community affairs during the neo liberal era has not just affected Labour.

  10. Poission 10
    11 August 2022 at 12:20 pm

    Median house prices fall on annual basis for the first time since 2011.This sees the capital gains of the last 12 months removed.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/real-estate/129528289/auckland-prices-down-200k-from-peak-another-soggy-month-for-market

    Lowest house sales by volume in 12 years,with interest rate increase to come to remove core inflation to affordable levels,the wealth destruction to curb animal spirits will continue into 2023.

  11. Visubversa 11
    11 August 2022 at 12:32 pm

    About time the dam broke. Suing the Tavistock Clinic over transing kids.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/4e7fc538-18dc-11ed-b1f4-627a202c7457

    • Sabine 11.1
      11 August 2022 at 1:42 pm

      yes, this is going to be quite interesting to watch.

      This might have been the reason for the closure?

    • weka 11.2
      11 August 2022 at 1:58 pm

      GIDS person telling porkies at the end there,

      “The service is committed to patient safety. It works with every young person on a case-by-case basis, with no expectation of what might be the right pathway for them, and only the minority of young people who are seen in our service access any physical treatments while with us.”

      paywall-free version https://archive.ph/5iwD9#selection-1035.172-1039.280

      The bit about only a minority of people get meds and surgery will be true, but I hope that some of the social transitioners join the lawsuit.

      Meanwhile,

      https://twitter.com/Kinnon_Ross/status/1556665369686843392

      What I want to know from that is how many people on the books of those services weren't followed up/couldn't be contacted?

      • Sabine 11.2.1
        11 August 2022 at 2:27 pm

        a guess?

        most.

        The question that i have, how many have we got here in NZ that were equally rushed into treatment and now regret it.

        edit: funny phrasing.

        • weka 11.2.1.1
          11 August 2022 at 2:38 pm

          most depends on if the research takes into account people that don't respond (and analyses that).

        • weka 11.2.1.2
          11 August 2022 at 2:39 pm

          The question that i have, how many have we got here in NZ that were equally rushed into treatment and now regret it.

          pre-question. Do NZ health services keep statistics on children and youth transitioning?

  12. Maurice 12
    11 August 2022 at 1:11 pm

    Is Luxon about to announce that should the Natz win the next election ….

    Trevor Mallard will be replaced by Sam Uffindell as Ambassador to Ireland?

  13. Tony Veitch (not etc.) 13
    11 August 2022 at 5:25 pm

    "This place doesn’t demand your respect. If it was a nice house we would treat it nice."

    So said Sam Upffendoff about the flat he occupied in Dunedin. (In the 2004 article on the disgusting state of one student accommodation).

    It sort of sums up the man, doesn't it – and surely qualified him to be a Natz MP.

    • weka 13.1
      11 August 2022 at 5:28 pm

      tbf, that standard of housing now would have progressives up in arms. I notice the landlord hasn’t been named. But yeah, scarfie culture then was entitlement weird.

      • Cricklewood 13.1.1
        11 August 2022 at 5:34 pm

        My first flat was a really old place super run down but super cheap at the same time. Was basically party central and the landlord didnt care given he was planning to demo it. There was competition with a decent prize for the nastiest flat run by the uni students association at the time, we entered somehow didnt win… in the end we were allowed to have a demolish the house party at end of the year…

        Good times really and not that unusual 25 years ago…

        • weka 13.1.1.1
          11 August 2022 at 6:58 pm

          I lived in a flat in the 80s with a hole in the floor in the bathroom so bad that we were never sure if the bath would collapse the floor when we filled it. I draw the line at not cleaning the toilet though.

  14. Ffloyd 14
    11 August 2022 at 6:37 pm

    TVNZ reporting that latest Poll , which one?, has NatAct can form a Govt on latest figures, and are going after the Greens to join Coalition. Which is true? I thought Labour Green were ahead.

    • alwyn 14.1
      11 August 2022 at 6:48 pm

      If it is TVNZ doing the reporting it is almost certainly their own poll which went to air on Monday.

      That had National/ACT with (I think) 62 seats and Labour/Greens/Maori Party with 58.

      The TV stations almost never mention any poll except their own. The keep their blinkers on very tightly as far as the existence of other stations go.

      When did you hear this item of news?

    • LibertyBelle 14.2
      11 August 2022 at 6:56 pm

      The recent poll showing Lab/Greens ahead is the Horizon Poll which has Lab/Greens on 42%, Nat/Act on 42%. Their headline is "Among registered, definite voters election too close to call"

    • weka 14.3
      11 August 2022 at 7:00 pm

      and are going after the Greens to join Coalition

      with NACT? Never ever going to happen. What that is is a Nact memo designed to stop people voting Green.

      There have been two polls this week, one said Nact could form gov, the said L/G. We're over a year from the general election, the trend matters but not as much as what happens next year.

    • AB 14.4
      11 August 2022 at 7:02 pm

      Yes it was their own poll – they like to drip feed bits of it over several nights as a form of self-promotion. Also in this case, maybe they see a Nat government as their only salvation from the RNZ merger and any unwelcome de-trivialisation of TV1 that might go with it?

      And of course the same old censorious crap – " a responsible 'environmental' party would not rule out coalition with National". Same crap as from 2017. Interesting that no-one tries to shame ACT into coalescing with Labour – though it's obvious why: it would be self-evidently bonkers and the whole purpose of the ‘story’ is to prevent Labour governments, not enable them.

  15. Ffloyd 15
    11 August 2022 at 7:18 pm

    Alwyn. Latest poll results showing Natact in front was on 6 o’clock news on One by the ever dapper Simon Callow.