Open mike 11/01/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, January 11th, 2011 - 30 comments
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30 comments on “Open mike 11/01/2011 ”

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  1. jcuknz 1
    11 January 2011 at 8:55 am

    While we in NZ are concerned about the 90 day dismissal law in the UK the one year law is being raised to two years by the Liberal Conservative Government … we don’t appreciate how lucky we are! Obviously such a law should have been promoted here and then reduced to 90 days and we would have all said thank god for small mercies..

    • Zorr 1.1
      11 January 2011 at 9:08 am

      I wonder how much Nick Clegg is loving those dead rats now? He hopped in to bed with Darth Cameron and has been getting completely screwed to the point that I doubt he will be able to seek reelection.

      • Lanthanide 1.1.1
        11 January 2011 at 9:49 am

        What choice did he make? Call for a re-vote?

      • the pink postman 1.1.2
        11 January 2011 at 2:30 pm

        Well this has happened here in Aotearoa has it not Zorr. Maori Party in with the Nats . The M/P is being crapped on much the same as the Lim-Debs in the UK. Tories are the same every-where . They are the nasty parties run by the rich to screw the workers as much as they can . That’s why they are hell bent on destroying unions, having said that it must be admitted that a large percentage of the working class are a bit thick when it comes to understanding politics .

    • ZeeBop 1.2
      11 January 2011 at 10:35 am

      Be careful. The UK scheme is different. The EU is different. They have a EU Human rights system!
      I heard that the UK system, I could be wrong, but that you can’t be fired on the spot, maybe the
      system is they have guarentee work for two years???

      For personal impression NZ is far-right on many issue involving basic social justice, you can tell by the numbers of youth suicides, child poverty, Bain not getting compensation, and the basic lack of integrity of media in providing truthful stories that don’t spin, i.e. give both quality and quantity of analysis rather than a pick and choose we end up getting. For example recent figures regarding spending don’t come with trend information (and if they do only trend up from the low a year ago) which gives everyone a false view that the economy is getting better when all that has happened is a bounce off the bottom – funded by US printing money which really is not a good news story.

      I pretty much have given up news – more snooze – mainstrem TV news is shit in NZ, in my opinion.

      • Colonial Viper 1.2.1
        11 January 2011 at 10:53 am

        everyone a false view that the economy is getting better when all that has happened is a bounce off the bottom

        Well, there was a recovery in the US, but it involved only very specific sectors of the economy.

        – Corporate and banking profits (the latter driven by free money from the US tax payer, the former from cutting staff and delaying expenditure).

        – Equity markets (the wealthy took their money out of real estate, causing the property asset bubble to pop, and put it into the stock market).

        For everyone else there has been no recovery. Just a long downward slide down a knife, with a slight flattening out through a salt water bath before resuming downwards again.

        Dec unemployment in the US fell from 9.8% to 9.4%, but this is actually not good news as a large part of the fall was due to more unemployed workers becoming “discouraged” and no longer being counted as unemployed and actively seeking work (i.e. total workforce participation dropped).

        Also the number of new jobs created was down 30% on estimates, and insufficient to soak up new workers entering the labour force.

      • higherstandard 1.2.2
        11 January 2011 at 10:59 am

        “NZ is far right on many basic issues”

        What like free healthcare, education, large social welfare spend ……… etc etc etc

        • Colonial Viper 1.2.2.1
          11 January 2011 at 11:29 am

          Demonising of unions
          Demonising of beneficiaries
          Reduction of worker rights
          Right to Fire
          Increases in regressive taxes
          Intergenerational theft
          Child poverty
          Concentration of wealth
          Half of NZ’ers earning less than $27500 p.a.

          etc etc

        • prism 1.2.2.2
          11 January 2011 at 11:37 am

          hs The comment from Zee Bop is about the way we run things which are far-right trending. The things you mention – free healthcare, education, large social welfare spend ……… etc etc etc are generally done on the lowest budget, with little long term commitment. When we get systems going, instead of tweaking them when Nats get in they eat away at it all like termites.

          The result would be Dickensian if they had their way. Modernism to them would be having laptops and iPods while the social structure, battered by their inept management, would crumble away to dust.

          There are a lot of assertions for you to give your bigoted uncaring views about and make your life happy. Enjoy!

          • higherstandard 1.2.2.2.1
            11 January 2011 at 11:54 am

            Grow up there’s so little difference between the Nats and Labour that in most countries they would be the same political party.

            NZ is committed to publically funded education and healthcare and support services and will continue to be so.

            The largest problem I see is the populations continued thirst for debt and willingness to live as a country beyond our means – this may be sustainable during boom times but not during bust.

            • prism 1.2.2.2.1.1
              11 January 2011 at 12:02 pm

              higherstandard – Get out of your hot air balloon and live amongst and with the ordinary people. Your assertions drift to the edge of reality but don’t venture any further.

              • higherstandard …
                11 January 2011 at 12:43 pm

                I think you might be surprised what ordinary people think and want prism – certainly it’s not the fantasies perpetuated on the political blogs like this and Kiwiblog.

                • Colonial Viper …
                  11 January 2011 at 2:39 pm

                  I think you might be surprised what ordinary people think and want prism

                  Decent increases in real incomes, a shot at good paying jobs where they will be treated well, and opportunities for their kids which don’t mean going into lots of debt, or moving to Australia.

                  So, how’s Bill and John doing on these counts so far?

            • logie97 1.2.2.2.1.2
              11 January 2011 at 12:31 pm

              Actually I wouldn’t be too certain about NZ being “committed” to publicly funded education and healthcare.
              Welfare State – anathema to the Right.
              (But currently they cannot survive without it…) Committed – no! “going along with for the time being…” is more apt.
              Health – the Right have never wanted the national health systems where they have been set up and have continuously sought to undermine them.
              Education – Bulk Funding – Performance pay – vouchers – individual choice – they are all noises in the move to privatization.
              And if you don’t believe it, the trolls that visit this site and dwell in the sewer blogs and a lot of callers to radio talkback might be some indication

              • higherstandard …
                11 January 2011 at 12:51 pm

                The figures are probably at the Treasury website – I’d hazard a guess that vote health, education and welfare have all increased steadily over time per head of population over the last few decades.

                • Colonial Viper …
                  11 January 2011 at 12:59 pm

                  Wrong measure.

                  Has vote health, education and social welfare increased steadily as a proportion of our GDP that’s the real question.

                  If we truly are a richer country as measured by GDP growth we should be spending more on services for our citizens, not less.

                  • The Baron …
                    11 January 2011 at 1:35 pm

                    So how will you make us richer then, Oh Wise One?

                    Let me guess – the answer is that “just print money” theory that you, Draco and ummm noone else believes in apart from Social Credit back in the 80s.

                    Slow clap.

                    Draco – I’m still struggling to understand it. Can you remind me what the phone number is for the reality hotline?

                    • Draco T Bastard …
                      11 January 2011 at 1:56 pm

                      noone else believes in

                      The banks believe in it – that’s why they do it.

                      Fuck you’re idiot and becoming an annoying idiot at that.

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      11 January 2011 at 1:57 pm

                      Let me guess – the answer is that “just print money” theory that you, Draco and ummm noone else believes in apart from Social Credit back in the 80s.

                      Slow clap.

                      Is the Right truly this monetarily illiterate?

                      Do you have any idea where bank cash comes from? Do you even realise that with the current core funding ratio requirements that banks still loan out far more money into circulation than they actually ever had on hand?

                      That is the ultimate funny money my man.

                      Slow clap.

                      Yeah for your economic handicrap.

                      This nation needs dollars to be Government issued into circulation which is not backed by debt, and which generates no debt bearing interest payable whatsoever.

                    • Draco T Bastard …
                      11 January 2011 at 2:03 pm

                      Is the Right truly this monetarily illiterate?

                      No, they know how the Fractional Reserve system works but they want to hide that from everyone else. If they didn’t then everyone would know that banks are making huge amounts of profit by ripping us off. Considering that they’re the ones that own the banks, and this the profits, they obviously don’t want people to know that.

                • logie97 …
                  11 January 2011 at 3:54 pm

                  That does not equate to commitment at all higherstandard. The only thing preventing the Right from “rolling back” the State is the 3 year parliamentary term. If a “weird” state of emergency were to be declared and Key was given an uninterrupted 15 years at the helm, you would not recognise New Zealand at the end of the term.

  2. mickysavage 2
    11 January 2011 at 9:33 am

    Hey the Herald is running a John Key slogan competition. The photo shows him passing a rugby ball and … smiling. It seemed to me he was sending a hospital pass to Phil Goff although Goff is not in the picture. The herald invites us to be creative …

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10698836

  3. Draco T Bastard 3
    11 January 2011 at 1:00 pm

    I/S on the 90 day bill and the governments direction to the state services commission.

    The problem for the government is that this would then have set the baseline for the rest of the employment market and created a large “safe haven” from the law which employers would have to compete with to gain workers. This would have undermined the bills real purpose: driving wages down by creating widespread employment insecurity. So instead we have public service managers ordered to impose unfair contractual conditions which they neither want to need, and which actively poison relations with their own workforce, in order to create worse employment standards for everyone else.

    This is what National does: use government to fuck over the many for the benefit of the few. If you don’t like it, you need to vote them out. And this year we’ll have an opportunity to do just that.

    • Colonial Viper 3.1
      11 January 2011 at 1:32 pm

      Yeah this better be a wake up call to all those public servants who thought that voting for National would be a fun change in 2008. Talk about making decisions to frak yourself up.

  4. Colonial Viper 4
    11 January 2011 at 5:55 pm

    Maggie Barry to seek National nomination Botany

    Hmmmmm.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10699097

  5. prism 5
    11 January 2011 at 9:29 pm

    The Baron –
    “So how will you make us richer then, Oh Wise One?
    Let me guess – the answer is that “just print money” theory that you, Draco and ummm noone else believes in apart from Social Credit back in the 80s. Slow clap”

    I thought that this policy is what the USA has resorted to under the trendy new name of Quantitative easing. This is all explained on Wikipedia, in case you are unaware of its more arcane points. The USA has the biggest unbalanced budget in the world and Social Credit wouldn't get a look in there.

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