Good to see an MSM article that focuses on the actual working poor. In comparison there’s been some articles (especially on the NZ Herald) where they use some of the middle-class and least precarious of the precariat to represent the least well off.
This Stuff article focuses on a couple of families struggling with little or no pay rises: “Rock stars or roadies?” – ref to NZ’s (alleged) rock star economy.
The article adds in some stats from Helen Kelly & the CTU:
Tairawhiti and Manson are not alone – almost half of workers did not receive a pay rise last year, according to the latest Fairfax Media-Ipsos poll.
For the majority (40 per cent) the increase was between 1 and 2 per cent. One in five got 3-4 per cent, and a quarter of us picked up 5 per cent or higher.
Despite forestry and dairying booming, driven by strong demand out of China, wages are low – and stagnant – in these industries, according to the Council of Trade Unions.
“Trickle down? Only the shit trickles down on a dairy farm,” says president Helen Kelly, who says it is “extraordinary” that 300,000 workers are on or near the minimum wage of $13.75 an hour.
“This excuse ‘that it is all we can afford’ . . . you can’t use it in dairy, forestry, supermarkets – who are making a fortune – and you can’t use it in banks. Some of our industries that pay the lowest wages are the most profitable. It is not a coincidence.”
Unfortunately the article then goes on to an optimistic note, with quotes from Phil O’Reilly and a focus on a graduate on the up.
Just had a read of that.
Let me guess, the families are union members Helen Kelly put forward to try and bad mouth National because It certainly reads like that.
I seriously doubt the level of “struggle” these people are “suffering”.
If the unions are going to do these stories of woe, don’t use the $5 a bottle of milk story, it’s nonsense.
i like the success story they include at the end, he gets help from his parents to make ends meet, but hes confident about the future. ok. & phil oreilly, who supports working for families topping up poor pay.
Reminds me of something i listened to on RadioNZ National a week or month ago, out of England the story was highlighting the fact that the young were leaving home in pursuit of the Uni degree as usual,
Having gained the degree tho, with the price of property over there, both to rent and to buy, more and more of them, even with good employment,were being forced back to live with mum and dad…
Big Mouth
BadMouthing
Your right wings effort at balanced News.
The very same polls you were crowing about yesterday has more information than you can handle Blinkered Monetarist.
World wide since the GFC the only people who have benefited are the top 10 or 20%.
These are Banksters Capital gaingsters(tax free of course) CEO’s
Have all done extemely well.
While the other 80% havehad to bite the bullet.
And the bottom 20% are doing it really tough as well as being used as a distraction by the sadistic elite blaming them for the ills creayed by the Ponzi scheming of the elite who put us in this situation.
Actually, it isn’t. I don’t buy milk myself, but, I checked around online: while there are some cheaper buys if you shop around, $5.00 for a 2 litre bottle of milk seems fairly average.
February 2014: 1 litre of milk average price – 2.42 NZ$
Bill english… rning and effectively acknowledge that Michael Cullen had done something right in his stewardship of the Government’s finances in the past nine years.
Having condemned his predecessor for many years for paying off debt too quickly, English said: “I want to stress that New Zealand starts from a reasonable position in dealing with the uncertainty of our economic outlook.”
“In New Zealand we have room to respond. This is the rainy day that Government has been saving up for,” he told reporters at the Treasury briefing on the state of the economy and forecasts.
English pointed to a graph of the debt track since 1972 and projected five years out from today.
The recent low was 17 per cent of GDP and the ghastly projection for 2013 is 33.1 per cent and possibly worse, under what Treasury calls a “downside scenario” – 38.6 per cent.
Unemployment is forecast to rise to 6.4 per cent in 2010 and deficits forecast to be $2.4 billion to $3.5 billion larger over the 2010 to 2013 years than forecast just before the election.
In the midst of the horrible outlook and depressing uncertainty about how bad it might get, English was forced to change his message about his inheritance from Labour because it was more important to inject some sense of positivity into the situation. He needed to do it for both political reasons and for real financial reasons.
As Labour finance spokesman David Cunliffe said yesterday, too much negativity could drive confidence down even further.
Of the plan that Cunliffe demanded of English today, the Finance Minister said: “The plan in essence is quite simple, that is to maintain significant short-term stimulus in the economy, to protect people from the sharp edge of recession and secondly to get on with the job of raising our longer term growth prospects…with some urgency.”
Tax cuts are on the way; decisions will be made in the New Year on which infrastructure projects will be brought forward and English and Prime Minister John Key will be meeting chief executives of Government departments this afternoon to give them the bad news: don’t ask for any more money in Budget 2009 because you won’t get it.
@ karol…as others have been saying on this site Labour is not preforming well in advocating for its core constituents………the working poor, beneficiaries, children…those struggling at the bottom of the economic heap…imo for what it is worth:
Labour needs to be taking serious professional advice from a top Advertising/PR Agency on how to get this message about the NACT poor across;
( no time now to be sweet and middle class…Labour needs to get mean and take the gloves off and punch out Nact)
The concept of Key as a REPTILE is brilliant!……it should be played for all its worth visually and verbally …ie concept /visuals/posters /talk of a Reptile leading a Reptilian Nact Party which is sucking NZ dry!!!! …
( one of those old fashioned 1950s muted colour posters)……….a Reptile octopus with many arms….eg. 1.) one arm squeezing the working poor to death 2) killing beneficiaries 3.) sucking the life blood from children 4.)another could be sucking the life out of NZ State education with Charter Schools …
Lets face it…..Sue Morroney ( Social Development ) and Jacinda Adern ( Children) are not cutting the mustard against Paula Bennett( and in comparison with Sue Braford and Metiria Turei)
…they may know a lot but Labour needs HIGH PROFILE SPOKESPEOPLE on these CORE issues of Labour ….not too late to change and get people who are not afraid to get nasty, get their hands dirty, swing the lead…. and are CREDIBLE to the struggling poor!!!!( ie look like they have been there or have relatives who are there!) ….Spokespeople who are CAPABLE of ATTRACTING MEDIA ATTENTION like Shane Jones has recently
…what about Louisa Wall ( Social Development ) and Poto Williams ( Children)…?….or any other Passionate MPS willing to take on and do what Shane Jones is doing?.
worth repeating this comment from Tombstone yesterday
Tombstone 25
15 February 2014 at 9:39 pm
… Labour’s brand is boring. It’s just National in red. Create a brand / visual campaign that really gets people excited and watch what happens. Suddenly people become interested in the message because they like what they see or they feel compelled to understand the message behind what they’re seeing. Like a photograph that speaks a thousand words – something that can’t be denied. Reality caught in a single shot. Powerful images without the need to cover them in statistics – the image speaks for itself. I live in Christchurch. I survived the quakes. I see the heartache every day that surrounds me and it’s not something that can be described in mere words but a single photograph can on the other hand be more powerful than the sum of all words combined. I work as a freelance graphic artist in my free time and do a lot of low brow art and so I guess I tend to see the world from a very visual perspective and the weak point I see in the National Party is Brand Key – that is the weak point in their armor. That is where you drive the spear home. Fuck the MSM. Let them gorge themselves on Key’s bullshit. What counts most is that you get the people excited and wanting more. Do that and the MSM will follow. Bye bye Key. Bye bye National.
NACT is Reptile Octopus with Many EYES…..which has and is sucking out the life blood of NZs economy…..STATE ASSETS!….WATER!….TOURISM!…BIG DEBTS ..unneccessary PRIVATISED MOTORWAYS
….it disguises itself and its real intentions by muddying the waters with its inky smoke screens and flag waving diversions
Bullshit, what high ground, do you think Key cares about the high ground – Key needs to be shown for what he is; how else do you do that without getting personal? The problem is Labour has NOT played the man enough. Hound him constantly until he breaks and shows more of his true colours.
The time for being nice to Key is long gone. Gloves off time.Time to get serious if you want to win the election.
Agree about the need for ‘street fighters’ as shadow ministers/portfolio holders.
“The problem is Labour has NOT played the man enough.”
If the left do this, they will lose the election. How can you not see that? John Key is immensely popular, and thoroughly likable. He is the kind of guy people just want to be around.
Focus on policies that will deliver prosperity. Otherwise this election is lost for you already. Ipredict stocks on “PM Labour” have been sliding again this week. And before someone tells me this is all a conspiracy by one rich guy to drive down the stock, the order book shows otherwise. The stock is being dumped by small traders in droves.
SSLands, ”stocks on PM Labour have been sliding”, you really are a fucking brainless fucking idiot aren’t you,
What was ex-PM Helen Clark’s polled popularity befor She became a 3 term Prime Minister, 3 or 6%, or something ridiculously s low,
If you place an ounce of faith in the ability of the gambling sit you refer to as being in any way accurate you would have to add that faith in accuracy to all the other gambles/predictions on that site,
Be a good little dear wont you and trot of back there and have a good read of the Party %’s which last time i had a squizz had National polling 42%, Labour 33%, Green 10% and for a gut-busting screamer DotComs Internet Party 8%,
Once you have had the little squizz over there SSLands, stay there, your masterbating all over these pages is at the least unseemly…
““The problem is Labour has NOT played the man enough.”
If the left do this, they will lose the election. How can you not see that? John Key is immensely popular, and thoroughly likable. He is the kind of guy people just want to be around”
…if you say this then the opposite must st be the case…i am encouraged this is the way to go
@ McFlock…not talking about lying with hogs ….rather ST George spearing an Octopus Reptilian NACT Party that has NZ in its grip
….could be wrong….but i do think Labour needs to get a professional Adevertisng/PR Agency to give professional independent advice on how to get their message out there…because it doesn’t seem as if it is working
btw ….i thought you were a rather good hog wrestler with Chris 73…..it was gobsmackingly awe inspiring the insults on yesterdays Open Mike
It’s on the level of traditional propaganda. Not something the next government should be doing, IMO – that’s why the nactoids use the cetacean for it, and why key admitting a connection between himself and the cetacean was an error.
Me, I’m not connected with labgrns. And I did like “fustilarian”.
Let’s say key is a reptilian overlord who eats babies. Currently, a whole chunk of people still like him. That means that they either don’t know or don’t care. But he’s pretty obviously a reptile (isn’t one for blinking too much), so the people who don’t know are in denial.
They won’t be persuaded by anyone else that key is a reptile.
They might see it for themselves and be revolted, though.
So keep applying pressure on issues and so on, so he gets stressed and the mask slips, but calling him a reptile would just A) make you as bad as the stalkers in the other camp; and B) make the deniers entrench further into their position.
@ McFlock…..i didnt know you were sweet with middle class refined sensibilities
….i am thinking more of an octopus style reptile with many eyes and arms crushing the living blood and spirit out of things…more visual than verbal ….eg old fashioned 1950s style monotone posters to be stuck to lamp posts and reach those who dont watch tv or read newspapers
Rino Tirikatene and Meke Whaitiri are other potential spokespeople for these crucial Labour campaign Spokesperson roles
…it is no use waiting until after the election …it important to get kicking with the toughest boots into the fracas now ( there are 800,000 votes to woo)
…it should approached professionally ( ie an outside agency should decide … like an actor casting agency ) …no cronyism in the hunt for the best charismatic spokespeople that the voters can IDENTIFY with.
( this is no bad reflection on policy making skills which are equally important ….but lets be frank they are completely different skills and it is rare to get them in the same person)
Chooky @ 9.59 am, I think maybe you’ve mistaken me for a Labour Party Member and/or voter or an election campaign strategist.
I’m none of those things, nor am I a member of any political party. I will leave it to the Labour Partyy – its members, and those able to provide excellent advice, to get their campaign in order.
Winning at all costs, to end up with just Nat lite in government is not a good prospect. There needs to be a multi-pronged approach, in diverse ways.
I’m with what Bill says on the front page of his “Positive Things” post today:
Change becomes embedded when it emanates from and across many quarters and traditions.
Grass roots change, changes in the media (entertainment as well as serious media) etc are needed. I am very much behind the kinds of grass roots actions that Sue Bradford has been involved in. And Turei is one of the few current MPs who have come from a workign class background – our parliament needs more from diverse low income backgrounds.
The media needs on-going critique and challenges – not just so they change, but so that more people become aware of the, often subtle, ways the media can be politically slanted.
That’s what I was doing with my comment on the above Stuff article. Highlighting that it was at least an improvement on too many other articles of seen on Stuff and the NZ Herald’s website – but also indicating one of its shortcomings.
no i did not mistake you for those…i know you vote Green
…i just saw an opportunity( presumptuous and forward of me i know) to help Labour with is PR…. ha ha….but seems like others here do not agree…although some do! …..that Labour is not doing well with its PR
Ah. Sneaky, Chooky. I’m more concerned about the overall focus of parliamentary Labour. Until they clearly have shifted away from soft neoliberalism, and have less managerial type MPs, I may consider voting for them again – the problems go deepr than their PR, I think.
Karol I seem to have mistaken you for someone who gives a shit..
[deleted]
[lprent: Don’t abuse the authors – that is policy and always a bad mistake.
I’d have to say that you remind me of a vicariously shared dose of thrush and about as useful to the left. Just a pain to have around because of frustrated scratching, and a lot of whining. I’d point out that I’ve been a member of Labour party for about 35 years and volunteered for them for even longer. So you’re getting the benefit of an opinion by a genuine Labour party member – in case you think that being a party member is still important after I’ve explained exactly how much of a jerk you look to me.
I’ve helped organise many moderately large campaigns for the NZLP. Typically usually less than a third of the volunteers have been NZLP members. I’d have to say that much of the time that many of the volunteers from outside the party are more useful than the ones who bore the hell out of me at NZLP meetings. That is why all parties play nice to people who are active even when they are not members. You never know when you might need them.
So having some moronic fuckwit like yourself coming along and acting holier than thou about people who are active just makes me want to kick your arse off this site as being just another useless jerkoff more concerned with pleasuring yourself than doing any actual work. Being more concerned about your own self-righteousness than doing anything of any use is a characteristic of a person that I’d prefer not to be in any organisation I’m helping. Basically you impress me as being a waste of bandwidth with a ego backed by shallow opinions and a skill at being supremely stupid.
Of course that is just my opinion. But it would also be the opinion of damn near every other activist from almost any political party or activist group that I have ever worked with.
Banned for 3 weeks for stupidity and I’d advise you to read the policy so I don’t have to notice you again. ]
ooops sorry to have caused trouble for ecossemaid…..i do think there are many people out there who are genuinely frustrated with Labour’s fighting PR image though
….however we can always vote Green or Mana…and it will have the same end result
Lowest paid is around $38K + free house + free meat/milk
Highest paid is $47K + free house + free meat/milk + 3 free yearling bulls reared
All of them have 1 hour breakfast breaks, + 1 & 1/2 hour lunch breaks.
They work the equivalent of 5 & 1/3 days a week, no more than 9 hours in a day (5 hours for week end days)
Can’t tell me that employment on dairy farms has no trickle down affect.
The couple we had working for us last season drove an 2005 Ford XR8 and bought themselves a nice 14ft boat and went fishing on most of their days off.
Our 2ic this year we are helping to step up into either managing or share milking next year (giving her financial and business backing in order to do this)
So perhaps Ms Kelly’s pushing of a dairying stereotype of rich farm owners and destitute workers is nothing more than propaganda to push her own political/union barrow.
Oh and yes, these conditions of employment were all negotiated between us and our staff – no union required.
Or – possibly – other farms are run differently from yours and so the workers with different experiences are those engaging with Helen Kelly?
Perhaps your workers – while living within their means – via free house/milk – are purchasing items they can afford instead of those they can’t? – their own house, farm etc. Whilst your support for your 2ic means that you are aware of this and is admirable, it is an acknowledgement that this is true.
You seem to be relating honestly your lived experiences as a farmer, but that does not automatically mean that those workers who report otherwise are dishonest.
You are probably also likely to be aware of others in your farming community who are not as scrupulous – those are the ones whose workers needs advocates such as Helen Kelly.
So you are trying to tell me that they chose to buy the XR8 and boat simply because they could never buy a house?
Rubbish. In this situation the money they put into the car and boat was more than enough to use as a deposit on a house.
That wasn’t their goal. They wanted to drive a V8 and go fishing all the time. Full stop.
I know coz they told me about it for the two years prior to buying them. I said to them they were better off buying a house and paying it off by renting it out while they lived rent free.
Jimmie, you sound like a hardworking and ethical businessman who has a good relationship with his staff and treats them with dignity and honesty. That’s really cool, and it’s very heartening to read. However, you know as well as I do that every profession (mine’s early childhood teaching, by the way) has the good, the bad and the ugly and farming is no exception. People working on farms are more isolated than most of the population and if they are poorly treated they need the support that a good union can give them. You don’t need to get defensive as though the whole farming industry is being damned – town/country relationships are bad enough as it is. 🙂
I agree with you. Just pisses me off when the like of Ms Kelly deliberately paint a negative picture of a whole industry to suit her own political agenda.
The same when the msm (and the greens) go on about dairy farmers polluting waterways when the reality is that probably around 99% of dairy farmers dispose of farm effluent in a legal and sustainable manner.
However when you have stories like the ferry in auckland discharging raw human effluent into the harbour nobody says anything or councils allow raw human effluent to discharge into the sea during rain storms – oh well can’t be helped.
“when the reality is that probably around 99% of dairy farmers dispose of farm effluent in a legal and sustainable manner.”
[citation needed]
I agree that it’s not good to damn all dairy farmers. But let’s not pretend that almost all are doing the right things, when all the evidence and our own eyes suggests otherwise.
The New Zealand media rarely feature stories about bad employers in the dairy sector, yet horror stories about poor treatment of farm employees are rife.
I have to say farmer Jimmie Brown, while I agree not all you cockys are lousy employers, actually have a healthy respect with people working the land. The figure of 99% of farmers being clean is a stretch. I see unfenced waterways each and every week. Had a enough of it to tell the truth as a responsible Kiwi might need to start complaining to Fonterra shortly. The beef guys are alot worst as the law allows them to flaunt it.
It’s high time it was a level playing field with buying meat too while I’m having a gripe. Why should you guys be allowed homekill, when the rest of us city folk can’t openly rock up buy a beast and get in processed the same as you, without having to jump thru hoops with the paddock holding blockade that is.
And those rental cottages that some farmers rent out, (and they do) cash in back pocket. If only this Country had some decent investigative reporters left to show up life on the farm for the true blue National rural supporter is.
Now you get back on here and give us some answers please cobber, as I know it will be the farm boy pulling tits, probably hosing the cow shit by now, while your setting up to BBQ those tender fat scotch fillets that we never get at pak’ n slave!
Yes, I think all pollutants need the hard word + put on them – it’s not ok. I live in the country in Northland and a few kilometres down the road from me there’s a dry stock farm, heavily populated, and most of the cattle have free access to a stream – it makes my blood boil. No worse, though, than when I lived in Auckland and my friend’s dog came home dyed blue because he’d been in a creek polluted by industry. Makes a joke of clean and green, doesn’t it!
I didn’t know about the ferry – that’s awful – mind you I’ve never liked Fuller’s business practices – I left Waiheke Island mainly because of them
Fonterra are well aware of Northland farmers polluting Jen, but hey Fonterra is just fArmers looking after farms, blind eye..wink wink. Anyway there are votes in it if Labour & the Green get their shit together. Nothing like a bit of ‘lucky farmer’ envy to get some city votes off National.
I am happy to admit there are many farmers who pay their employees fairly, allow them reasonable time off, fence their waterways and deal with effluent properly.
My son works for one.
Usually the same ones do both.
Good on you, for being one of them.
If all employers were fair and reasonable, we would not need Unions.
However from observation of a great many farms in our area, you are in the minority.
The reality is more like half a dozen underpaid and overworked Filipino migrants, cows in the streams and the effluent pond emptied into the river at midnight.
You should be pleased that people like Helen Kelly are holding dodgy operators feet to the fire. It prevents them from undercutting, and pricing out of business, the business’s of those, like you, who want to do things properly.
Some of my long gone farming relatives, who took pride in how they looked after the land and waterways, would be disgusted if they could see those same waterways, now.
Great to hear that you treat your workers well and dispose of waste in a way that is sustainable. (Not sure if that is in an environmentally sustainable way or not)
But I would encourage you to talk with your farming mates and find out what their practices are and encourage them to practice good labour and environmental management as well.
Jimme. And your cows still shit, and pollute our rivers and streams. Makes them unsafe for our children to swim in, whilst you just chase the mighty dollar, and blindly kiss Key’s arse.
Free housing and meat/milk FFS what a rort. That has to be worth what, at least 10k a year?
I hate to be mean Jimmie but your lowest paid worker then is on $14.61 per hour and the highest oon $18 which may just not be enough to save for a house even rent free. It is a great shame to me that this level of wage can now be defended as good in this country. On another point – the rent is not really “rent free” as I think it is part of the salary package but regardless, I have the Federated Farmers report which is an extensive survey of wages in the sector. $19.49 is the average hour rate (total value package inlcuding rent, meat, power, and other benefits included and even training) for the whole dairy farming workforce, with Dairy Assistant roles (the most common role) appearing to have stagnant wages since 2010 despite record milk prices and an average total value package of just $17.02 per hour. So maybe you pay a bit above the average but I wouldn’t go to bed feeling to smug about your generosity. The reality is that in one of our very productive sectors the wages are very low and expectations high. 54% of those surveyed had been in the job less than a year. I do hear from farm workers very distressed at their working conditions and I think the industry would greatly benefit from collective bargaining. No political or hidden agenda there my friend!
Jimmie your a gem but you are a rarity amongst dairy farmers I habe visited and worked on many dairy farms as well I have interviewed many dairy workers outside the work place 90% of those IN spoke to are being under paid made to work unpaid hours over and above hours contracted.
Wage theft.
Along with abusive treatment from sharemilkers.
Animals on these farms are also mistreated.
Wacked with alkathene pipes,left milking for to long on milking table damaging udders very common.
Not seperating antibiotic treated cows.
Not keeping rearing areas clean allowing cows to become infected with clyptosporidiam.
Workers not vaccinated for clyptosporidium.
Workets not provided with clean drinking water.
Cows not rotated the full 35 days of fresh grass
Pregnant cows left in paddocks without proper shelter and no feed.
The list goes on.
Don’t want to seem flippant after Karol’s more serious comment, but I got a good laugh from Steve Braunias’ latest on Stuff this morning. before focusing on more weighty issues.
Billy Bragg’s misplaced praise of Bruce Springsteen
Radio NZ National, Sunday 16 February 2014
Listeners to this morning’s Sunday programme no doubt enjoyed Richard Langstone’s interview with Billy Bragg. Most of it was actually very good, albeit a tad worshipful and slightly embarrassing because of that. Billy Bragg is a thoughtful and serious person, who has a lot of valuable things to say. However, one of his comments raises a question about his judgement of character. I sent the following email to Richard Langstone….
Billy Bragg’s misplaced praise of Bruce Springsteen
Dear Richard,
Billy Bragg praised Bruce Springsteen as “a hero of mine”, but noted that he was “no Pete Seegar”, because he had not stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee. This seems to imply that Springsteen would have stood up to HUAC if only he had had the opportunity.
In fact, if Springsteen had any of the courage and integrity of people like Pete Seegar and Woody Guthrie, he would not have done THIS…..
I trust/believe billy bragg more than you moz therefore his praise is not misplaced at all. i think springsteen has had a positive influence and he started young…
“In September 1979, Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden for two nights, playing an abbreviated set while premiering two songs from his upcoming album. The subsequent No Nukes live album, as well as the following summer’s No Nukes documentary film, represented the first official recordings and footage of Springsteen’s fabled live act, as well as Springsteen’s first tentative dip into political involvement.”
..’cos though disillusioned by them..myself and many others held onto the hope that once over the hurdle of re-election..that obama would go gangbusters..
..and do what he promised..
…(and tho’ a fucken drone-head killer..obama still has time..(some..!..)
..and romney was the other option..?..really..?
..and as an aside..i predict obama will announce full federal legalisation of cannabis..
..shortly after the mid-term elections..later this yr..)
..so..in/with that context..
..i reckon ‘harsh’ describes yr springsteen-condemnation..
Pete Seeger supported Obama, by the way, which kinda renders your email to RNZ a little null and void. He even shared the stage with Springsteen at Obama’s inauguration which makes your line about courage and conviction unintentionally funny. Close, but no Seegar.
Is that at the 2009 inauguration or the 2013 one? You could forgive people—naïve and poorly informed people like Hollywood “liberals” and TV talkback hosts—who obviously didn’t know anything about Obama, being full of hope in early 2009. But after four years of his administration, to sing that song is an exercise carried out in a spirit of deepest cynicism and darkest irony.
What’s the bet that if Seegar were younger and full of the energy he had in the 1950s, he would have spoken out against Obama’s war on dissent at home, and his campaign of terror abroad? He was in his 90s, and his activism was over by the time of this clip.
What excuse does Springsteen, much younger and much richer, have for this display of Obama worship? (The answer lies in the fact that he’s much richer.)
He later withdrew his ill-advised support for that blood-stained fraud, but his naïve comments about Springsteen show that he is still liable to misjudge people.
I think you “trust” your hero Billy Bragg in the same way his hero Springsteen “trusts” Obama—it’s blind, uncritical adulation. Springsteen joined in a cutely named “No Nukes” protest in 1979; so why is he supporting a politician who shamelessly promotes the use of nuclear power, as well as extrajudicial killing of American citizens and the persecution of political dissidents?
yeah yeah I know you hate them all with a vengeance moz – death, a slow excruciating painful and prolonged death to the fools who supported the fraudster!!! Do you know what fraud means? I’ve always liked billy bragg personally.
Marty, I like Billy Bragg too. I forgive him all his misjudgements, like supporting that fraudster, because I respect him. It’s just that I felt it was necessary to remind people that Bruce Springsteen—someone else I respect and admire—is also prone to misjudgements, and is certainly no Pete Seegar. When Billy Bragg stated that Springsteen had never confronted HUAC in 1954, many people might think he would have if he had been around then.
God save us from “Liberals” who think Obama, Gore and (Gor Blimey !!!) even Hillary “Rosie-the-Riveter” Clinton are the great progressives of our time.
Morrissey Springsteen was to young for that era.
Born in the USA an anti vietnam war song.
To more recently Banksters song .
Morrissey time to start reading some lyrics.
Certainly he was too young to speak out in a 1954 HUAC meeting, as Pete Seegar did. However, he is NOT too young to speak out against the regime that holds power in his country right now.
What has Springsteen said or done to support protestors and dissidents today?
Morrissey no relation to meat is murder Morissey who happens to be touring with Sir Cliff Richard.
Billy Bragg is more radical tha springsteen no doubt.
But springsteens message get to many times more people.
He’s My Home Town hero.
So don’t be Blinded by the Light.
Your insults hurt like a freight train runniing through the middle of my heart.
I’m On Fire.
Morrissey no relation to meat is murder Morissey who happens to be touring with Sir Cliff Richard.
Billy Bragg is more radical tha springsteen no doubt.
But springsteens message get to many times more people.
He’s My Home Town hero.
So don’t be Blinded by the Light.
Your insults hurt like a freight train runniing through the middle of my heart.
I’m On Fire.
It would be good for me to see a post that gives summary of what has been learned from this Dotcom, GCSB leaks, and so on that have dominated people’s thoughts here for, is it a week? There must be something to learn, that Labour can make use of either by drawing attention to, or avoiding or… I’m a bit confused. When will the revelations end?
It’s like watching Limmy’s Show. Have everyone else seen it? Revelations of the thought process emerge slowly, with a Scottish accent there. I prefer Philomena Cunk actually, such a seeker after truth, on Charlie Booker’s Show. But both as informative as any Herald jonolism.
I listened to Radionz this morning on Media Watch and am less anxious about the changes though still have a few questions in mind. Have to taste the pudding and check the flavour.
Just listening now and while it sounds ok?! I think he is being disingenuous is stating his reason for putting Mora in with Mary Wilson. It may well be that Mora has a longish contract and they had to bury him somewhere but surely we could have done that by giving him something like Hymns for Sunday.
No matter how you look at it Mora’s Panel Show is an event looking for excuses to publice right wing commentators. You could easily have a panel show that used people other than political hacks and it would be fine. I see Mora as watering down Checkpoint and introducing a political slant into a show that has in the past been scrupulously honest.
I am hoping that we do not see in a short time the resignation of Mary Wilson and the promotion of Mora to being the face of Checkpoint. Now that Ferguson has been moved to Morning Report RNZ has a serious lack of good journalists.
I never thought I would see it. A mainstream TV programme, this one made by Australian channel ABC, that shows the occupation in all its inhuman horror.
The 45-minute investigative film concerns the Israeli army’s mistreatment of Palestinian children. Along the way, it provides absolutely devastating evidence that the children’s abuse is not some unfortunate byproduct of the occupation but the cornerstone of Israel’s system of control and its related need to destroy the fabric of Palestinian society.
Omar Barghouti has spoken of Israelis’ view of Palestinians as only “relatively human”. Here that profound racism is on full show.
There are, of course, concessions to “balance” – in the hope of minimising the backlash from Israel – but they do nothing to dilute the power of the message.
This is brave film-making of the highest order.
It is an indication of quite how exceptional this film is that it has cornered Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, into expressing her “deep concern“. That’s the same Bishop who last month doubted that the settlements in the West Bank were illegal.
That first line says it all ABC
As a national Channel it really does try to present provocative intelligent overview of the news. It also manages to create some brilliant television.
Of course Abbott is now to set about dismantling ABC and doing what National has so successfully done in New Zealand.
If you want good television these days you will have to rely on the four great public services.
BBC, CBC, PBS and ABC.
I could maybe throw in DW as well.
I hope like hell if Labour gets in power that they will set about rebuilding not only our state broadcasters but resurrecting a state film industry like we had once with Nation Film. I think the rebuild should have one of the highest priority of all the tasks that Labour would have to do. If we don’t have a good public television service to inform and educate our people we may as well forget all the rest. What good a full stomach and a cheap house if all we get in the media is right wing propaganda
I never thought I would see it. A mainstream TV programme, this one made by Australian channel ABC,
Look closely, Ron: the BBC is also under attack. It’s never recovered from the Blair government’s furious attack on it after it had the temerity to point out that the case for attacking Iraq was completely false.
And PBS is, despite its grand sounding name, anything but a public broadcasting station.
If you want decent, intelligent reporting from the United Kingdom, read the BBC site, sure, but there are any number of better, more trustworthy sites.
Yes I am aware that BBC is being attacked, and also know about democracynow which also broadcasts on PBS channels just in case you are unaware, What I like about PBS is the wide variety of docos they provide some of which we pick up here. Unfortunately anything too touchy doesn’t get played here. They have some great investigations into money & medicine recently which could do with a play on NZTV
It is absolutely hopeless to attempt to minimise any backlash from Israel. They are on a full scale propaganda offensive, all over the world. I’m pretty sure they use at least some of the money they get from the US government to pay people to sit on Facebook full time, disseminating their propaganda. Their latest tactic, which almost makes me vomit, is to portray Zionist Israelis as indigenous people who have succeeded in reasserting their rights.
Unfortunately, a lot of the conspiracy theory crap about the Rothschilds and Bilderberg makes the task of anyone putting the Palestinian case disappear under a lot of white noise. It frustrates the crap out of me.
Go Matt McCarten you good thing, purveyor of the State’s propaganda par excellence, Matt’s taken to discussing health matters in His latest column,
Titillating us with the little ‘gem’ that using tobacco products kills half of those who partake, yes Matt heard it all befor, but, the problem with simply using the States Propaganda is given a deeper look into the facts an entirely different story can be told,
Fact: 29% of annual deaths in New Zealand are ’caused’ by cancer.
Fact: 40% of annual deaths in New Zealand are caused by heart disease.
Fact: 20% of the New Zealand population uses tobacco products*.
(the * is for a reason i will explain),
SO, fact: 69% of annual deaths in New Zealand are caused by cancer and heart disease, now for the purposes of a piece of blunt mathematics subtract the 20% of smokers from the 69% of deaths,
What this tells me is that at least 49% of us will die of cancer or heart disease who are not smokers, laughably when compared to the 50% of smokers who are supposed to die of the same disease solely upon the basis of the fact that they used tobacco products the diff is 1%,
Of course i could theorize that as smokers make up 20% of the population and the supposed data says that smoking will kill 50% of them, then the ‘real’ figure i should be calculating off of should be half that 20%, which would simply make the figures for those who do not smoke and die of cancer and heart disease look even worse coz if i only subtract 10%,(half of the population of smokers),from the total deaths annually from both cancer and heart disease the equation becomes 50% of smokers supposedly snuff it from the addiction as opposed to 59% of those who do not smoke going the same route by the same diseases,
And the asterisk*, Statistics NZ in a celebratory news release claim that 16% of the population are now smokers, yay what a victory for the anti tobacco zealots, or is it,
If you run the StatisticsNZ 16% figure through the blunt mathematical calculation i use above then the numbers for those who don’t smoke and die of cancer and heart disease climb even further above the supposed 50% of those who die from using tobacco products…
“SO, fact: 69% of annual deaths in New Zealand are caused by cancer and heart disease, now for the purposes of a piece of blunt mathematics subtract the 20% of smokers from the 69% of deaths,”
You are being ridiculous. The people who are dying of smoking related cancer now, are doing so as a result of smoking rates over the last three or four decades, when smoking rates were much higher. Yes your mathematics is “blunt” alright. It is stupid. There are many many more ex smokers than current smokers.
Smoking imposes costs on society. It also provides benefits to its users. But it is a classic public policy problem of all the benefits being private and all the costs being socialised (the main one is health costs but there is also the vileness of simply being near smokers). The excise raised is designed to do two things – 1. Compensate society for the socialised costs and 2. Bring smoking rates down.
I quite enjoyed watching an econofuck trying to do epidemiology.
Although in the end he continued the myth that smoking has a net monetary cost to the nation (which hasn’t been true for 20 years), I laughed at the idea that vileness should be taxed. SSpylands would be taxed into bankruptcy within a week.
Neoliberal economics imposes costs on society. It also provides benefits to a very small number of its users. But it is a classic public policy problem of all the benefits being private and all the costs being socialised (the main one is health costs but there is also the vileness of simply being near right wingers). The excise foregone is designed to do two things – 1. Compensate the filthy rich for being disgusting and 2. Destroy any sense of community and/or society.
Very poorly informed comment. 10 years off your life is the number to remember. Everyone used to love smoking – the problem was we found out it seemed to be killing people. A lot. Think about it – if the government’s plan was to keep raking in tax from cigarette sales then WHY ON EARTH would it celebrate smoking rates dropping?
Heart disease is our biggest and cancer our second biggest killer regardless of whether you smoke – we all have to die of something, right, RIGHT? The point is that smoking is associated with around 10 years less life overall – if you’ve made the decision that it improves your life enough to keep poisoning yourself then FINE but don’t spout that nonsense and try to convince other people to harm themselves in that way too.
Not only will it mean you die much SOONER but if you’re unlucky also much more painfully – think of chronic obstructive lung disease and being unable to breathe to the point where your body is chronically low on oxygen and you start to waste away and are in and out of hospital every other week and needing to leave with an oxygen tank.
There is obviously a cost to society with hospital bills but that’s exactly what hospitals are there for. The tax on cigarettes is mainly to discourage people from buying but also to balance those losses – and it seems to work somewhat. Although I don’t agree with targeting of certain groups (like prisoners) and saying that only those people cannot smoke.
My advice to you: talk to your family and your doctor about nicotine replacement therapy.
What a load of sanctimonious twaddle from one of the i want to live forever brigade, as if people who never smoke escape the indignity of the pain and suffering that goes along with death by cancer or heart disease,
You might want to live another 10 years having to be spoon fed your food with the excrement wiped off of your leaking arse by someone hired to do such a job, you might even get lucky and be one of the very small number who have good health until they die,
For 50+% of non-smokers though they will suffer just as much as those that smoke so climb down off of your high-horse,
Your comment is simply moralistic bullshit, your ten years of extra life is simply fantasizing bullshit, your replacement therapy for nicotine is simply bullshit i am not interested in,
And, do not start me on that ten years of extra life bullshit because it is simply arrived at by playing with %’s, what causes the supposed 5-10 years of extra life in the statistics is simply the lung cancer stats show a high amount of people dying of lung cancer, 20% of whom have been nowhere near tobacco products, at age 45 and under, those 1300 or so that do this very year simply distort the overall picture of longevity when applied across all cancers,
i have no fucking intention of quitting and the more bullshit i am force fed by the anti-amoking fanatics both paid and unpaid like i assume you to be the more i am determined to enjoy my use of tobacco….
I also urge you to talk to your doctor about nicotine replacement therapy. You sound in a bad way. Even if you reject the health arguments, smoking is disgusting.
SSLands, hang about a minute, i am just lighting another rolly, is that the best you can do SSLands, more moralistic nazism albeit shorter than that absolute twat above sprouts without a fact in sight in its whole weak diatribe,
Why would i stop, it cost me 5 or 6 bucks a week and there is as much chance of you getting cancer or snuffing it from heart disease as there is of me doing the same,
So all in all being a moralistic wanker gives you a 50% chance of snuffing it from the above mentioned diseases, i think i will take another puff and leave my fate in the hands of the various deity, same odds as you have got SSLands…
Lprent, fair comment, but such a fright is likely to bias your thinking in any direction, stressful job at the time???,
My point is this, and, i cannot say this with any certainty about the heart conditions that people survive as i havn’t dragged my tiny wee mind through the data, but, the rates of death scream out to me that 50% of those who do not/never smoke will die of cancer or heart disease, which makes the anti tobacco argument based around deaths of the same nature more than a little spurious,
Such is suggestive to me that there was a 50/50 chance of you having that heart attack whether you smoked or not…
My jobs are seldom stressful since I managed to sneak out of doing the management side of it (which I am really good at but find to be an appalling waste of my time). They certainly weren’t in 2010.
What deficiency in will power is this you speak of Phillis, laughably that accusation comes form an obvious poly-addict claiming to have quit Heroin only to take up various other drugs, now that i would call piss weak,
Yes four year olds have little toy tossing moments like claiming days ago that i am to be ignored only to be unable to resist having another look in the mirror by engaging bitterly and without an iota of fact in the following days,
Conclusion, a filthy fucking junky too piss weak to quit the habit so becomes a whining poly-addict who’s intellect has regressed to the point of equality with the average four year old…
Wheatbix tri. with all that is currently happening, great to see our youth in a positive manner and for many in Auckland giving their time freely. Thanks to all those volunteers.
Kiwi kids are Sanitorium (sic) kids… certainly lost in an ethnocentric silo, failing to learn languages other than their native tongues at an “alarming rate”; implications for ongoing international trade development; Wordly? Mate reckons that misunderstanding rests on the obligatory Kiwi OE…, before the return home to raise an Edmonds family…
I agree that seeing the community out running a sporting event is great, even though I have my doubts about corporate involvement. Sports clubs all over the country rely on the community and can foster a sense of organisation and action which we don’t see much in other areas. Well, except for the top Union clubs. They just get everything given to them by government, both local and national.
I have looked through the Standard’s archives to find a post I remember from the last couple of years analysing net profit outflows offshore from NZ by sector, and cannot find it. If the author of that post, or anyone else, could point me to it I would be very grateful.
In a related issue that might become of interest while hunting out various links to the figures i have used in the above comment i came across something really really interesting,
i first looked at the various web-pages detailing deaths from cancer and heart disease vis a vis the smoking issue about a year ago,
i did the trip again today starting afresh with a Google search asking the usual multiple questions so as to drag in the widest array of answers from the web,
In an ”It’s a modern miracle moment” i came across one page that claims the death rate from heart disease was down to 30%, go the Doctors and Nurses you good things, to have altered the upward spiral of heart disease by a full 10 or so % over the course of just 1 year would have to be truly a modern miracle,
Makes me wonder a couple of things, (1), being it seems a bit fucking strange that the rate of deaths from heart disease can fall 10% in a year and not a peep about such a miracle in the mass media???,
(2), of course has me wondering if our health authorities wishing to have the data reflect their zealism against the use of tobacco products would have them manipulating the figures???,
Nah couldn’t happen here in little old Noo Ziland right, the other 100 or so pages found on the web reporting a death rate for heart disease of 40% must have got it wrong, snigger…
“(2), of course has me wondering if our health authorities wishing to have the data reflect their zealism against the use of tobacco products would have them manipulating the figures???,
Nah couldn’t happen here in little old Noo Ziland right,”
No exactly it could not happen in New Zealand. So why are you raising it?
Bad 12 just about every smoker I know wants to quit but can’t because its highly addictive.
Your statistics are very dodgy you have grabbed a whole lot of percentages no hard numbers .
Percentages mean nothing without number.
Now since tariana turia has pushed for huge changes to tobacco taxes and and stopping marketing aimed at”Children” .
NZ’s smoking rates have dropped dramatically from 25% to lrss than 16%.
Those stats can’t be fudged or ignored.
Tricledown, please provide me and the other readers these other ‘numbers’ that proves what you are trying to impart is Fact and not some knee-jerk fiction,
The sum total of your comment is devoid of fact simply an emotive bluster, and where have i denied that the rate of those using tobacco products has not dropped,
Your spurious comment about ‘averages’ when applied to the annual % of those who die annually from both cancer and heart diseases is simply rubbish, if i were discussing the age at which these deaths occur then making a comparison would be based upon averages…
Ooooh look it’s Phillis… stalking me across the web…without a fact…nor a clue…just the normal filthy junkies whine…hardly bothering to address the comment…instead using snide low level abuse as the means of discourse…all the while unable to rise above the mediocre in ‘its’ chosen medium…
Phillis the filthy whinging junky has a certain ring to it…tell us all Phillis…your use of multiple drugs…ever heard of poly-addiction…that’s where the filthy whining junky aka you swaps one addiction for another depending on the availability of supply and whether the means of purchase is at hand…
You havn’t kicked the smack habit Phillis…you simply swapped it for dope which is easier to access and is affordable from your current income…i have seen this befor among many other junkies i know…given a suitably large wad of cash Phillis…you would be round at the nearest dealers place stocking up large on enough smack to ping up your arm to satisfy that craving that just wont go away…and…fucks up everything you say or do…that’s why Phillis…the sum total of originality in anything you have written in ten years…is totally zero…
Smoking tobacco Phillis…i fucken love it…can’t give up is only your latest of stupidly wrong comments…the truth is i have never bothered to try…the addiction cost me fuck-all except for rolly papers and lighters…so why would i want to give up…
You better stay impoverished Phillis for the reasons i point out above…and…with the purity of some of the shit going round these days i could well imagine you shooting up a spoonful which would seriously blow your mind…soon after tho…it would also stop what’s left of your heart…
Bad 12 just about every smoker I know wants to quit but can’t because its highly addictive.
Your statistics are very dodgy you have grabbed a whole lot of percentages no hard numbers .
Percentages mean nothing without number.
Now since tariana turia has pushed for huge changes to tobacco taxes and and stopping marketing aimed at”Children” .
NZ’s smoking rates have dropped dramatically from 25% to lrss than 16%.
Those stats can’t be fudged or ignored.
Actually Tricledown, your wee whine,laughable as you decry my use of %’s and then trot out a couple of your own, has just reminded me that my next large time consuming search through Google will be for the import/export figures for tobacco coming into and out of New Zealand,
Such figures might tell us all, by tonnage, just how much tobacco is currently being used in New Zealand, as apposed to that which is being imported, turned into cigarettes etc and then being re-exported…
PS, the current 16% figure for users of tobacco is from the census figures, i am pretty sure i accidently ticked the non-smoker box on my census form when i am in fact a heavy smoker, wonder how many other accidents occurred when others filled out theirs…
One More Time (don’t miss the bus, or the train) : No-Dig Gardening – mucho gracias Murray Olsen,
Building Depth, rather than remaining in The Shallows ; as competent as the Weather forecast
(memory being “the fundamental characteristic of life”- Samuel Butler). Where was he from ;).
Politicians aye?
Don’t
Even
Notice
I
Am
Lying
may be a fitting epaulette. Such are the questions addressed by the field of Theodicy …”the cravings of […] man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does”…, yet, it is The Year of The Snake!
On a related subject, we may notice the frequency the synonyms of catastrophic are being Heralded in the MSM…, conditions for beast and man becoming less favourable,
not back bad12, just a ‘birthday bash’, in tune one prays:
Simply put
Mow or Weed-spray
Cardboard or woolen carpet
Manure Fert Compost
Grass Clippings, Leaves, Hay or similar
Manure Fert Compost
Grass Clippings, Leaves, Hay or similar
and so on, reproducing forest floor texture.
For a number of reasons I prefer making own compost, collecting neighbor’s grass, NPK, Lime as required and chicken manure. Only ‘plants of joy’ out the window though 😉
Tah much Rogue, seems a lot of work, not necessarily for someone just starting a garden, but, i have all mine as raised boxes of soil, makes the digging that much easier,
i compost using the plastic bags that used to hold bought compost, stuff em full of weeds and clippings off of the plants, bush’s, and trees, wait awhile and hey presto ready to go into the soil,
Lolz, one of my neighbours throws all His weeding into a wheelie bin that He pays to have emptied once a week for 4 or 5 bucks, then moans about the soil being so poor in His garden , Lolz, He’s a redneck hypocrite so i have never bothered any attempt at enlightenment,
One of the other neighbor’s in the street has just started dropping off all His food scraps which go straight in the garden along with a suitable pile of my compost…
on to it bad12; I’m building up to improve soil, overcome oxalis, convolvulus, drainage issues, ease on back; no hurry, just a little at a time as materials are afforded. All the best, gonna be an interesting, yet sad year out there in the big wide world all media present to us spectator / visionaries.
Over, and, out!
Here’s a hint Rogue, don’t look at a garden as a whole area that has to be dug over at once, form a daily habit,
What i do is dig across one fork width of garden most days, the top foot of soil i dig out laying it on top of the rest of the garden, the bottom foot i just dig in place to make sure its nice and loose, then i throw in the compost and rake the dug out soil back into place,
i do tho have the luxury of only planting the one crop a year, but, the system still works well if you have multiple boxes and can leave a couple un-planted…
Solar power is one of the greenest forms of electricity generation we have. It gives families independence from the big electricty companies. With no fuel cost, it insulates families against future power price rises.
Under the Greens’ Solar Homes initiative, Kiwi families and households will be able to get low-cost loans from the government to pay for solar power installation, repay the loan via their rates, and enjoy free, sustainable power for decades.
The loans will be cost neutral to the Crown, with an estimated administration cost to Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) of less than a million dollars a year.
Once the low-interest loan is repaid, the family will own their solar power system outright. Families will be able to earn money by selling excess electricity back to the grid.
This is an example of smarter, greener economics in action.
Looks like a smart, well thought out policy. I can pick some holes in it (esp around solar batteries), but for the mainstream it’s a good start, and a good example of holistic thinking getting into mainstream politics (the policy works at multiple, interrelated levels across many areas).
Yes. A positive step but the battery storage problem has not been solved yet has it? I think that the cost of solar panels has been tumbling downwards as new technology comes into force. Sunny Marlborough might be a good place to be.
my view is that this is a big step in the right direction, But, i think that far far more ‘thinking’ need be done around solar energy,
(1), A standard solar power kit need be designed so that all installations are basically a carbon copy of each other, where it is made easy to simply plug in more solar panels should space allow and the initial installation proved a financial success
(2),i am of the belief that such solar installations should be without the capacity to store energy, i see the use of batteries as a means of storage when we have a National Grid as a total waste of resources,
The power from solar installations should just be fed straight though a smart meter into the grid with the proposed ‘kiwi-power’ scheme of the Government as the single buyer of wholesale electricity buying all the generated electricity from households generating solar energy at wholesale rates on a preferential basis ahead of the commercial generators, thus a smart meter would measure house-hold use against household solar generation and a discount at the wholesale rate would occur at the point of billing the household…
Good idea bad12. Straight into the grid and avoid the need for batteries. However the Electricity Providers might be unhappy as thousands and thousands of solar panels would undermine their strangle hold.
Seriously ianmac???, as far s the major generators go i would simply say ‘tough’, it’s our dams and grid that my parents and grandparents built off of the back of being taxed and some very hard labour,
If the retailers start to go broke again i say tough, the insertion of these retailers into the ‘market’ which has been the cause of the rising price of electricity in many instances,and, as many of these retailers are in fact owned by the major generators who ‘kaching’ demand two lots of profit from the same generation, there would be no sad loss, how long would it take for the state to set up an electricity retailer…
Not a bad idea, but like others have said the batteries are the main problem.
I read some where the batteries need replacing every 10 -15 years and they aren’t cheap and also where do you stick them.
Also the panels do not last for ever, 20 -25 years seem to be the life expectancy.
Having said that I do like Bad12 idea of selling electricity into the grid.
So you like the Green Party’s policy of selling power to the grid, good for you.
“also where do you stick them.”
Think about all that space used to installing heat pumps. Most houses have room to spare. You can put them outside (although there are frost issues). Installers will help solve these problems just like they do with other technologies.
The price of panels and batteries will drop once more people are buying them. That’s part of the GP plan, to boost the solar industry in NZ.
I’m a capitalist, being able to make a bit of money selling power appeals greatly.
Photovoltaic panels I’m fairly meh about, their efficiency is rather poor and return to cost ratio isn’t great.
The only really question I have is how the electrical grid would cope with 30,000+ people randomly injecting various amounts of power into the grid.
Would that be an issue?
Distributed input is much easier to handle than the current model where power from large South Island generators has to be transported the length of the country to Auckland.
BM, i will have you eating mung beans and lentils yet, the final straw will be when you go into the office that you sell yourself to as an indentured serf muttering peace, love, happiness, and joyful times for all while counting your hippy beads,
The Green Party can expect your vote this year then???, the switch wont be a lonely one, a 58% rise in the Green party vote from within the Auckland electorates held by National was apparent in the data from the 2011 election…
Unfortunately I’m not quite ready to go out there and purchase a Morris dancing outfit, as tempting as it is.
Seriously though this is where the greens really trip up, good idea but it’s only one idea and very few people(hopefully) cast their vote purely on one issue or idea.
This is why I think the Greens need to be a more neutral party, take a leaf out of Switzerland’s book and learn to work with every one.
The greens have been around a long time, yet they’re still considered extremist nut bars by a large proportion of kiwis.
Until they actually work with National they always will be the 10% mung bean , hippy party.
Greens need to get sharper, they’re a business and sometimes you have work with other businesses you don’t particularly like, but you do it because you get something good out of it.
The fact that they’re still political virgins with no track record after all these years speaks volumes about how poor the greens political strategy is.
“Seriously though this is where the greens really trip up, good idea but it’s only one idea and very few people(hopefully) cast their vote purely on one issue or idea.”
Dude, read Norman’s speech. The standard even published the whole thing so you don’t have to go looking. One idea, my arse. At least base your criticisms on something even half way real.
On the contrary, if the greens ever go into coalition with national, it would be proof that they elevate mung beans above child welfare, employment and human suffering.
That’s different to working with individual nats on individual legislation, but they already try that.
“Guess ACT need to learn to work with Labour then. Unless they want to carry on as the fringe extremist nut bar sub-1% party that is.”
Now that ACT has ejected Banks and they have an intelligent, thoughtful leader, their vote will progressively recover. They will have 2 MPs in the next Parliament.
BM, ummm, the most educated eloquent answer my tiny little mind can formulate in answer to that is, sorry, fuck off with your lolly pops save them for National after the election, another 9 in opposition means they will need cheering up…
“another 9 in opposition means they will need cheering up…”
Thankfully, that is looking increasingly unlikely.
And the foul mouthed language .. if you and CV are indicative (“shit head”) it is a worrying indicator of Your mindset and of Him. i wonder for Your future and His if You keep behaving in this way.
SSLands, you sound like you need cheering up, why not slither off to that wee gambling site and console yourself with a good long drool over the ”next PM gamble”,
What scares you off from sitting and spitting your rubbish into the forum over there SSLands is the fact that those with a couple of working neurons and actual money, as opposed to you pretending to have some, is the fact that they would see through your rubbish in 2 seconds right,
Or have they already given you the message to stop masterbating in their forum…
Human trafficking, loan sharking, it is a desperate and miserable situation – and what do the corporate sponsors and others care as long as the event makes them money.
A quick comparative analysis of 2008 and 2011 Opinion Polls suggests that a little more than 50% of the time, Fairfax results are skewered about 3-6 percentage points to the Right in comparison with other polls taken around the same time (the rest of the time their results closely align with the other polls. Fairfax never favours the Left in comparison to other polls).
The last Fairfax poll of 08 overestimated National support by 4 points (and underestimated Labour by 3) in comparison with the Election results while the last Fairfax poll of 11 overestimated National support by 7 points (and underestimated Labour by 2).
The February 2013 document shows that the Indonesian government had retained the law firm for help in trade talks, the Times reported in a story posted on its website Saturday. The law firm was not identified in the document, but the Chicago-based firm Mayer Brown was advising the Indonesian government on trade issues at the time, according to the newspaper.
The document itself is a monthly bulletin from an NSA liaison office in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The NSA’s Australian counterpart, the Australian Signals Directorate, had notified the NSA that it was conducting surveillance of the talks, including communications between Indonesian officials and the American law firm, and offered to share the information, the Times reported.
Liaison officials asked the NSA general counsel’s office, on behalf of the Australians, for guidance about the spying. The bulletin notes only that the counsel’s office “provided clear guidance” and that the Australian eavesdropping agency “has been able to continue to cover the talks, providing highly useful intelligence for interested U.S. customers,” according to the Times story.
“Part of my TEDx Queenstown talk next week is about mass surveillance online. How governments are building the modern Panopticon.
I was therefore quite surprised yesterday when Prime Minister John Key said he has no reason to believe the NSA has undertaken mass surveillance on New Zealanders. To help the Prime Minister, let’s look at what we know about it and whether an objective person should come to the same conclusion…”
@Karol. Just a small point and this probably does not irk others. Please when you start an article of yours do not dive straight into the acronym of MSM. I understand what it means, yet others may not or have an educated guess. Perhaps in future to start your MSM article, then give it a one line, name check as to what it means “Mainstream Media” then revert to acronymsville? Otherwise it can lead to confusion. Is MSM like BDSM yet a lite version of it? Am I meant to eat M&M’s whilst indulging in NeoLiberal BDSM whilst glancing at Shortland Street on The MSM? I like reading the posts on The Standard aka TS. I dont want to have to invest in an Enigma machine to unravel the gobbledegook under the assumption that because the author knows what something stands for, therefore all the readers do. I just want to read the articles. Rest In Peace. Rip Msm/BdsmLite/NeoM&M’s/Fubar!
BDSM is usually practised by more than one consenting adult at a time, unless it’s a Tory with an asphyxiation fetish. MSM is forced on us. The two should not be compared.
This short blog post and the linked PDF document is the result of a collaborative effort by Anne-Marie Blackburn, Dana Nuccitelli, Bärbel Winkler, Ken Rice and John Cook. When the climate change (mis)information briefs pushed by David Legates and others started to make the rounds in January 2021 we wondered whether ...
A part of this morning's transport announcement which hasn't got a lot of attention yet: biofuels are back: “Our Government has agreed in principle to mandate a lower emitting biofuel blend across the transport sector. Over time this will prevent hundreds of thousands of tonnes of emissions from cars, ...
After almost twenty years of ignoring the Māori vote, National may run in the Māori seats again: A former National MP is excited the party could stand a candidate in the Māori electorate seats for the first time since 2002. One News reported last night that National's leader Judith ...
If one stubbornly clings to the Elimination strategy (I don’t support it, but that will have to wait for another occasion) then try to get it right. You need secure borders. We have attempted this with a very large measure of success. It has not been perfect as the Covid-19 Response ...
Diaspora: perception departs from reality In this collection of articles are two papers currently captivating the attention of people following the science and emergence of climate change, especially the rapid variety we've accidentally unleashed and which is now unfolding around us. The synthesis and review article Earth's Ice Imbalance by Slater ...
The ultra-rich have done very, very well out of the pandemic. Globally, the wealth of the ten richest people rose by US$540 billion last year, enough money to pay for the pandemic in its entirity. And in New Zealand, local billionaire Graeme Hart saw his wealth increase by almost NZ$3.5 ...
Postmodernism has long been looked upon as an indecipherable ideology and a source of amusement. In 1996 Alan Sokal, a physics professor at New York University, had a hoax article published in ‘Social Text’ an academic journal of postmodern cultural studies. In ‘Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Anew study in Nature Sustainability incorporates the damages that climate change does to healthy ecosystems into standard climate-economics models. The key finding in the study by Bernardo Bastien-Olvera and Frances Moore from the University of California at Davis: The models have been underestimating the ...
In a recent interview with RNZ (14th of January), NZ Council of Civil Liberties Chair Thomas Beagle, in response to Simon Bridges condemnation of the post-Trump Twitter purge of local far Right and other accounts, said the following: “Cos the thing about freedom of expression is that it’s not just ...
Let’s be clear: if Trump is not politically killed off once and for all, he will become a MAGA Dracula, rising from the dead to haunt US politics for years to come and giving inspiration to his wretched family of grifters and thousands of deplorables well into the next decade. ...
Since its demise as an imperial power, and especially its deindustrialisation under Thatcher, the UK's primary economic engine has been its role as a money laundry, using its network of overseas territories as tax havens to enable rich people around the world to steal from the societies they live in. ...
Last month OMV quit the Great South Basin and surrendered its offshore exploration permits outside of Taranaki. This month, Australian-owned Beach Energy has done the same: Beach Energy Resources New Zealand has decided to abandon all of its oil and gas exploration permits off the South Island coast, including ...
The new Northland case has been linked to the South African strain of Covid-19, one of a number of new, more contagious Covid variants. Here’s how they emerge and why. Let’s start with the basics. The genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 is a strand of RNA ...
MARVIN HUBBARD, US citizen by birth, New Zealand citizen by choice, Quaker and left-wing activist, has been broadcasting his show, "Community or Chaos", on Otago Access Radio for the best part of 30 years. On 24 November last year, I spoke with him about the outcome of the 2020 General ...
This is a guest blog post by Daniel Tamberg, Potsdam, co-founder and director of SCIARA GmbH. The non-profit organisation SCIARA is developing and operating a flexible software platform for scientific simulation games that allows thousands of players to explore, design and understand possible climate futures together. Decision-makers in politics, business, ...
Yesterday's Gone: Cold shivers are running up and down the spines of conservatives everywhere. Donald Trump may have gone, but all the signs point to there being something much more momentous in the wind-shift than a simple return to the status quo ante. A change is gonna come. ONE COULD ...
Is it possible to live and let live in the post-Trump era? The online campaign to vilify Christopher Liddell, ex-White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to Trump, makes for an interesting case study. Liddell is a New Zealander whose illustrious career in corporate America once earned him plaudits ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 17, 2021 through Sat, Jan 23, 2021Editor's Choice12 new books explore fresh approaches to act on climate changeAuthors explore scientific, economic, and political avenues for climate action ...
This discussion is from a Twitter thread by Martin Kulldorff on 20 December 2020. He is a Professor at Harvard Medical School specialising in disease surveillance methods, infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety. His Twitter handle is @MartinKulldorff #1 Public health is about all health outcomes, not just a single ...
The Treasury forecasts suggest the economy is doing better than expected after the Covid Shock. John Kenneth Galbraith was wont to say that economic forecasting was designed to make astrology look good. Unfair, but it raises the question of the purpose of economic forecasts. Certainly the public may treat them ...
Q: Will the COVID-19 vaccines prevent the transmission of the coronavirus and bring about community immunity (aka herd immunity)? A: Jury not in yet but vaccines do not have to be perfect to thwart the spread of infection. While vaccines induce protection against illness, they do not always stop actual ...
Joe Biden seems to be everything that Donald Trump was not – decent, straightforward, considerate of others, mindful of his responsibilities – but none of that means that he has an easy path ahead of him. The pandemic still rages, American standing in the world is grievously low, and the ...
Keana VirmaniFrom healthcare robots to data privacy, to sea level rise and Antarctica under the ice: in the four years since its establishment, the Aotearoa New Zealand Science Journalism Fund has supported over 30 projects.Rebecca Priestley, receiving the PM Science Communication Prize (Photo by Mark Tantrum) Associate Professor ...
Nothing more from me today - I'm off to Wellington, to participate in the city's annual roleplaying convention (which has also eaten my time for the whole week, limiting blogging despite there being interesting things happening). Normal bloggage will resume Tuesday. ...
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weaponscame into force today, making the development, possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons illegal in international law. Every nuclear-armed state is now a criminal regime. The corporations and scientists who design, build and maintain their illegal weapons are now ...
"Come The Revolution!" The key objective of Bernard Hickey’s revolutionary solution to the housing crisis is a 50 percent reduction in the price of the average family home. This will be achieved by the introduction of Capital Gains, Land, and Wealth taxes, and by the opening up of currently RMA-protected ...
by Daphna Whitmore Twitter and Facebook shutting down Trump’s accounts after his supporters stormed Capitol Hill is old news now but the debates continue over whether the actions against Trump are a good thing or not. Those in favour of banning Trump say Twitter and Facebook are private companies and ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Democrats now control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time in a decade, albeit with razor thin Congressional majorities. The last time, in the 111th Congress (2009-2011), House Democrats passed a carbon cap and trade bill, but it died ...
Session thirty-three was highly abbreviated, via having to move house in a short space of time. Oh well. The party decided to ignore the tree-monster and continue the attack on the Giant Troll. Tarsin – flying on a giant summoned bat – dumped some high-grade oil over the ...
Last night I stayed up till 3am just to see then-President Donald Trump leave the White House, get on a plane, and fly off to Florida, hopefully never to return. And when I woke up this morning, America was different. Not perfect, because it never was. Probably not even good, ...
Watching today’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the United States’ 46th president, there’s not a lot in common with the inauguration of Donald Trump just four destructive years ago. Where Trump warned of carnage, Biden dared to hope for unity and decency. But the one place they converge is that ...
Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Michael Cowling, CQUniversity AustraliaWe’ve probably all been there. We buy some new smart gadget and when we plug it in for the first time it requires an update to work. So we end up spending hours downloading and updating before we can even play with our new toy. But ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Zero emission buses, cleaner cars and environmentally-friendly biofuels will soon be hitting New Zealand’s roads, as the Government delivers on its election promise to make our transport network more sustainable. ...
The Green Party is already delivering on its commitment for cleaner, climate-friendly transport through our Cooperation Agreement with the Government. ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
Prudence Steven QC, barrister of Christchurch has been appointed as an Environment Judge and District Court Judge to serve in Christchurch, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Ms Steven has been a barrister sole since 2008, practising in resource management and local government / public law. She was appointed a Queen’s ...
The Government is delivering on its first tranche of election promises to take action on climate change with a raft of measures that will help meet New Zealand’s 2050 carbon neutral target, create new jobs and boost innovation. “This will be an ongoing area of action but we are moving ...
The Government is investing up to $10 million to support 30 of the country’s top early-career researchers to develop their research skills. “The pandemic has had widespread impacts across the science system, including the research workforce. After completing their PhD, researchers often travel overseas to gain experience but in the ...
A Waitomo-based Jobs for Nature project will keep up to ten people employed in the village as the tourism sector recovers post Covid-19 Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “This $500,000 project will save ten local jobs by deploying workers from Discover Waitomo into nature-based jobs. They will be undertaking local ...
Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw spoke yesterday with President Biden’s Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. “I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak with Mr. Kerry this morning about the urgency with which our governments must confront the climate emergency. I am grateful to him and ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta today announced three diplomatic appointments: Alana Hudson as Ambassador to Poland John Riley as Consul-General to Hong Kong Stephen Wong as Consul-General to Shanghai Poland “New Zealand’s relationship with Poland is built on enduring personal, economic and historical connections. Poland is also an important ...
Work begins today at Wainuiomata High School to ensure buildings and teaching spaces are fit for purpose, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says. The Minister joined principal Janette Melrose and board chair Lynda Koia to kick off demolition for the project, which is worth close to $40 million, as the site ...
A skilled and experienced group of people have been named as the newly established Oranga Tamariki Ministerial Advisory Board by Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis today. The Board will provide independent advice and assurance to the Minister for Children across three key areas of Oranga Tamariki: relationships with families, whānau, and ...
The green light for New Zealand’s first COVID-19 vaccine could be granted in just over a week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. “We’re making swift progress towards vaccinating New Zealanders against the virus, but we’re also absolutely committed to ensuring the vaccines are safe and effective,” Jacinda Ardern said. ...
The Minister for ACC is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to join the Board of ACC on 1 February 2021. “All three bring diverse skills and experience to provide strong governance oversight to lead the direction of ACC” said Hon Carmel Sepuloni. Bella Takiari-Brame from Hamilton ...
The Government is investing $9 million to upgrade a significant community facility in Invercargill, creating economic stimulus and jobs, Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson and Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene have announced. The grant for Waihōpai Rūnaka Inc to make improvements to Murihiku Marae comes from the $3 billion set ...
[Opening comments, welcome and thank you to Auckland University etc] It is a great pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate such an historic occasion - the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is a moment many feared would never come, but ...
The Government is providing $3 million in one-off seed funding to help disabled people around New Zealand stay connected and access support in their communities, Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni announced today. The funding will allow disability service providers to develop digital and community-based solutions over the next two ...
Border workers in quarantine facilities will be offered voluntary daily COVID-19 saliva tests in addition to their regular weekly testing, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. This additional option will be rolled out at the Jet Park Quarantine facility in Auckland starting on Monday 25 January, and then to ...
The next steps in the Government’s ambitious firearms reform programme to include a three-month buy-back have been announced by Police Minister Poto Williams today. “The last buy-back and amnesty was unprecedented for New Zealand and was successful in collecting 60,297 firearms, modifying a further 5,630 firearms, and collecting 299,837 prohibited ...
Upscaling work already underway to restore two iconic ecosystems will deliver jobs and a lasting legacy, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “The Jobs for Nature programme provides $1.25 billion over four years to offer employment opportunities for people whose livelihoods have been impacted by the COVID-19 recession. “Two new projects ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The New Zealand public sector and judiciary has again been ranked the least corrupt in the world. The 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released today by global anti-corruption organization Transparency International ranks New Zealand first equal ...
New Zealand is again ranked first equal with Denmark in the Transparency International annual index of perceived levels of public sector corruption. Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has welcomed New Zealand’s position in the 2020 index. He says New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Kaufman, Research Fellow, Vaccine Uptake Group, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute The federal government’s A$23.9 million COVID-19 vaccination information campaign, launchedyesterday, aims to reassure the public about vaccine safety and effectiveness. It will also provide information about the vaccine rollout. We’ve ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he’s joined by Hongi Luo, brand director at TikTok.In terms of cultural reach and impact, the ...
After Covid devastated its 2020, Basement Theatre comes roaring into 2021 with its Summer Season. Here’s the rundown of shows in-store, with some comments from programmer Nisha Madhan.Pre-FringeLust IslandWhen’s it on: February 2-6, 8pmWho’s involved: The women of improv troupe Hearthrobs (McKenzie’s Daughters, Salem Bitch Trials), including Brynley Stent, Alice ...
The whānau of Te Ahikaiata Turei supported by Māori and non-Māori staff at Unitec will take back a portrait of the Tūhoe leader who led the establishment of Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae and the values that brought the institute back from the brink of ...
A poll across the Early Childhood Education community found 93% in favour of pausing the ‘lunchbox rules’, or the Ministry of Education’s new Food Safety/choking changes to the Licensing Criteria, which came into effect on 25 January. “The message ...
Cycling advocates are calling for the transformation of urban transport, as New Zealand races to cut carbon. The Climate Change Commission will release its initial advice on Sunday 31 January. “Bikes and e-bikes are perfect for many local trips, ...
Three Ministers, led by the PM, joined in chorus today to warble about a bunch of measures aimed at helping to meet New Zealand’s 2050 carbon neutral target, create new jobs and boost innovation. Mind you, the measures mentioned seem to be more matters of decisions yet to be made ...
Michelle Kidd defines her role at Auckland’s specialist family violence court as te kaiwhakatere – the navigator. It’s a one-of-a-kind job, helping guide defendants through the court system. And there’s no one better suited to it than Whaea Michelle.First published November 24, 2020.Whaea Michelle is part of Frame, a series of short ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sallie Yea, Associate professor & Principal Research Fellow, La Trobe University Each year, thousands of men and boys labour under extremely exploitative conditions on commercial fishing vessels owned by Taiwanese, Chinese and South Korean companies. The Taiwanese fleet, which operates in all ...
Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis believes the Crown should maintain responsibility for the care and protection of at-risk and vulnerable children, regardless of their race. Moreover, he is confident his all-Maori team of advisers will not be taking race into account as they help to improve Oranga Tamariki’s care and protection of ...
It’s easy to sacrifice John Banks. It’s a lot harder for brands, sports organisations and government to truly stop funding racism. Are they willing to try?Yesterday John Banks, the former Auckland mayor and MP, became subject to one of the fastest firings in media history when audio covering his approving ...
A community is outraged after Auckland Council granted consent for a row of trees planted by local kids to be removed along a revitalised waterway in South Auckland, reports Justin Latif. An Auckland Council decision to give contractors the all-clear to chop down 12 mānuka and kānuka trees shading Māngere’s Tararata ...
Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu hopes that the recent changes to Oranga Tamariki leadership present an opportunity for a long overdue paradigm shift that will place whānau at the heart of the child welfare sector. Pouārahi Helen Leahy says that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rice, Professor of Management, University of New England Elon Musk is now the world’s richest person, edging out previous title holder Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. His rocketing fortune is due to the booming share price of Tesla, the maker of electric vehicles ...
There are now three returnees who contracted the virus in the Auckland isolation facility then left into the community while positive. These are some of the questions that need to be resolved. At 10.20pm last night the Ministry of Health confirmed that the two cases they’d been treating as probable ...
Having a hard time remembering to scan in on the NZ Covid Tracer app when you’re out and about? Get this song stuck in your head and you’ll never forget again.Learn the lyrics:Aotearoa, it’s time to get scanning!I mean if you think about it, it never really wasn’t time we ...
We conclude our week-long examination of New Zealand writer Roderick Finlayson with a review of his stories by John Newton Roger Hickin’s Cold Hub Press is one of the small miracles of contemporary New Zealand publishing. Over the last decade, on what can only be a shoe-string budget, the ...
Thursday 28th January, AUCKLAND: Drive Electric, the not-for-profit with one mission – making electric vehicle uptake in New Zealand mainstream, welcomes the announcement by the Government today as a sign of what’s to come through 2021, and we are confident ...
The Government announced today key policy decisions on the proposed clean car policies. The MIA has stated on many occasions that we support well thought out and constructive policies that will lead to an increased rate in the reduction of CO2 emissions from ...
Get wild, get cultured, get fed and then get to bed: the essential guide to a perfect few days in the southern city. There’s one thing that preoccupies the staff of The Spinoff almost as much as arranging popular food items into arbitrary lists, and that’s Dunedin. A quite remarkable ...
John Banks’ racist exchange with a Magic Talk listener on Tuesday was the latest in nearly 50 years of talkback controversies. Donna Chisholm has the receipts.John Banks axed over Māori ‘stone age culture’ comments on Magic Talk1972: On Radio I, sports talkback host Tim Bickerstaff launches a “Punch a Pom ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission.Two new community Covid-19 cases have been identified as the more infectious South African variant, but Auckland Mayor Phil Goff sayit would be "premature to go into lockdown now". The two new cases of Covid-19 identified in the ...
Today, for the second time in two months Dunedin climate protectors have locked themselves to the railway tracks outside the Dunedin Railway station to stop the KiwiRail coal train from Bathurst Resources’ Takitimu mine in Southland to Fonterra’s ...
KiwiRail STOP Hauling COAL Today, for the second time in two months Dunedin climate protectors have locked themselves to the railway tracks outside the Dunedin Railway station to stop the KiwiRail coal train from Bathurst Resources’ Takitimu mine ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Dunn, Associate professor, University of Sydney The government is rolling out a new public information campaign this week to reassure the public about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, which one expert has said “couldn’t be more crucial” to people actually getting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Therese O’Sullivan, Associate Professor, Edith Cowan University The COVID vaccine rollout has placed the issue of vaccination firmly in the spotlight. A successful rollout will depend on a variety of factors, one of which is vaccine acceptance. One potential hurdle to vaccine ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bernard Walker, Associate Professor in Organisations and Leadership, University of Canterbury Kiwis know what it’s like when life throws curveballs. We’ve had major quakes, floods, fires, an eruption, a terrorist attack and now a pandemic. In those situations, it’s the ability to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Irwin, Emeritus professor, Murdoch University While we continue to be occupied with the COVID pandemic, another life-threatening disease has emerged in northern Australia, one that’s cause for considerable alarm for the millions of dog owners around the country. This disease — ...
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Good to see an MSM article that focuses on the actual working poor. In comparison there’s been some articles (especially on the NZ Herald) where they use some of the middle-class and least precarious of the precariat to represent the least well off.
This Stuff article focuses on a couple of families struggling with little or no pay rises: “Rock stars or roadies?” – ref to NZ’s (alleged) rock star economy.
The article adds in some stats from Helen Kelly & the CTU:
Unfortunately the article then goes on to an optimistic note, with quotes from Phil O’Reilly and a focus on a graduate on the up.
Just had a read of that.
Let me guess, the families are union members Helen Kelly put forward to try and bad mouth National because It certainly reads like that.
I seriously doubt the level of “struggle” these people are “suffering”.
If the unions are going to do these stories of woe, don’t use the $5 a bottle of milk story, it’s nonsense.
I also like to put my fingers in my ears and say ‘lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala!!!’, very loudly when I get told something I don’t want to hear.
i like the success story they include at the end, he gets help from his parents to make ends meet, but hes confident about the future. ok. & phil oreilly, who supports working for families topping up poor pay.
So its a good economic outlook if your parents can afford to bail you out until the econony gets… whT? Gooder?
Reminds me of something i listened to on RadioNZ National a week or month ago, out of England the story was highlighting the fact that the young were leaving home in pursuit of the Uni degree as usual,
Having gained the degree tho, with the price of property over there, both to rent and to buy, more and more of them, even with good employment,were being forced back to live with mum and dad…
And ceos never lie and bankers never get foung guilty of deceipt.
Do you play golf?
Big Mouth
BadMouthing
Your right wings effort at balanced News.
The very same polls you were crowing about yesterday has more information than you can handle Blinkered Monetarist.
World wide since the GFC the only people who have benefited are the top 10 or 20%.
These are Banksters Capital gaingsters(tax free of course) CEO’s
Have all done extemely well.
While the other 80% havehad to bite the bullet.
And the bottom 20% are doing it really tough as well as being used as a distraction by the sadistic elite blaming them for the ills creayed by the Ponzi scheming of the elite who put us in this situation.
BM I May get banned for this..
But why don’t you just FUCK OFF!
I am just so sick of your negativity!
+1
Would you like a tissue David H?
Now David don’t be so negative.
Expressing one’s honest feelings about obvious mendacity is not negative, it is liberating.
Actually, it isn’t. I don’t buy milk myself, but, I checked around online: while there are some cheaper buys if you shop around, $5.00 for a 2 litre bottle of milk seems fairly average.
February 2014: 1 litre of milk average price – 2.42 NZ$
This website has it a $2.65 per 1 litre.
And the example in the article was comparing milk prices with cheap fizzy drinks.
Go into any dairy in NZ, 2 liters for $3.50, or $6.50 for 2x 2 liters been like that for years.
Even supermarkets are doing their house brands for roughly the same price, the only milk around $5.00 is your expensive Anchor blends.
Bill english… rning and effectively acknowledge that Michael Cullen had done something right in his stewardship of the Government’s finances in the past nine years.
Having condemned his predecessor for many years for paying off debt too quickly, English said: “I want to stress that New Zealand starts from a reasonable position in dealing with the uncertainty of our economic outlook.”
“In New Zealand we have room to respond. This is the rainy day that Government has been saving up for,” he told reporters at the Treasury briefing on the state of the economy and forecasts.
English pointed to a graph of the debt track since 1972 and projected five years out from today.
The recent low was 17 per cent of GDP and the ghastly projection for 2013 is 33.1 per cent and possibly worse, under what Treasury calls a “downside scenario” – 38.6 per cent.
Unemployment is forecast to rise to 6.4 per cent in 2010 and deficits forecast to be $2.4 billion to $3.5 billion larger over the 2010 to 2013 years than forecast just before the election.
In the midst of the horrible outlook and depressing uncertainty about how bad it might get, English was forced to change his message about his inheritance from Labour because it was more important to inject some sense of positivity into the situation. He needed to do it for both political reasons and for real financial reasons.
As Labour finance spokesman David Cunliffe said yesterday, too much negativity could drive confidence down even further.
Of the plan that Cunliffe demanded of English today, the Finance Minister said: “The plan in essence is quite simple, that is to maintain significant short-term stimulus in the economy, to protect people from the sharp edge of recession and secondly to get on with the job of raising our longer term growth prospects…with some urgency.”
Tax cuts are on the way; decisions will be made in the New Year on which infrastructure projects will be brought forward and English and Prime Minister John Key will be meeting chief executives of Government departments this afternoon to give them the bad news: don’t ask for any more money in Budget 2009 because you won’t get it.
@ karol…as others have been saying on this site Labour is not preforming well in advocating for its core constituents………the working poor, beneficiaries, children…those struggling at the bottom of the economic heap…imo for what it is worth:
Labour needs to be taking serious professional advice from a top Advertising/PR Agency on how to get this message about the NACT poor across;
( no time now to be sweet and middle class…Labour needs to get mean and take the gloves off and punch out Nact)
The concept of Key as a REPTILE is brilliant!……it should be played for all its worth visually and verbally …ie concept /visuals/posters /talk of a Reptile leading a Reptilian Nact Party which is sucking NZ dry!!!! …
( one of those old fashioned 1950s muted colour posters)……….a Reptile octopus with many arms….eg. 1.) one arm squeezing the working poor to death 2) killing beneficiaries 3.) sucking the life blood from children 4.)another could be sucking the life out of NZ State education with Charter Schools …
Lets face it…..Sue Morroney ( Social Development ) and Jacinda Adern ( Children) are not cutting the mustard against Paula Bennett( and in comparison with Sue Braford and Metiria Turei)
…they may know a lot but Labour needs HIGH PROFILE SPOKESPEOPLE on these CORE issues of Labour ….not too late to change and get people who are not afraid to get nasty, get their hands dirty, swing the lead…. and are CREDIBLE to the struggling poor!!!!( ie look like they have been there or have relatives who are there!) ….Spokespeople who are CAPABLE of ATTRACTING MEDIA ATTENTION like Shane Jones has recently
…what about Louisa Wall ( Social Development ) and Poto Williams ( Children)…?….or any other Passionate MPS willing to take on and do what Shane Jones is doing?.
worth repeating this comment from Tombstone yesterday
Tombstone 25
15 February 2014 at 9:39 pm
… Labour’s brand is boring. It’s just National in red. Create a brand / visual campaign that really gets people excited and watch what happens. Suddenly people become interested in the message because they like what they see or they feel compelled to understand the message behind what they’re seeing. Like a photograph that speaks a thousand words – something that can’t be denied. Reality caught in a single shot. Powerful images without the need to cover them in statistics – the image speaks for itself. I live in Christchurch. I survived the quakes. I see the heartache every day that surrounds me and it’s not something that can be described in mere words but a single photograph can on the other hand be more powerful than the sum of all words combined. I work as a freelance graphic artist in my free time and do a lot of low brow art and so I guess I tend to see the world from a very visual perspective and the weak point I see in the National Party is Brand Key – that is the weak point in their armor. That is where you drive the spear home. Fuck the MSM. Let them gorge themselves on Key’s bullshit. What counts most is that you get the people excited and wanting more. Do that and the MSM will follow. Bye bye Key. Bye bye National.
Because attacking John Key worked so well for the left in the last two elections. Need smarter strategy than that.
@ Sacha …the NACTs hounded Helen Clark and Winston Peters mercilessly
….because they knew they were the Labour Governments greatest political assets…and if they could undermine them they could WIN
…there were no holds barred as they went out like a pack of ferocious dogs to destroy the Queen on the chessboard and her Knight
….Labour Party counter attack was a patsy in comparison…and a patsy protecting their Queen and Knight
Cunliffe just needs to keep on Message. Shonkey will (if left alone) just self destruct
hope so….you may be right…..i dont think Winnie will be going with John Key….after being followed by Key’s spies to MR Dotcoms house
NACT is Reptile Octopus with Many EYES…..which has and is sucking out the life blood of NZs economy…..STATE ASSETS!….WATER!….TOURISM!…BIG DEBTS ..unneccessary PRIVATISED MOTORWAYS
….it disguises itself and its real intentions by muddying the waters with its inky smoke screens and flag waving diversions
…it is a cunning REPTILIAN PREDATOR
As soon as labour plays the man rather than the ball by calling key a reptile, they lose the high ground.
Doesn’t stop individuals from helping to make it a meme, though.
Bullshit, what high ground, do you think Key cares about the high ground – Key needs to be shown for what he is; how else do you do that without getting personal? The problem is Labour has NOT played the man enough. Hound him constantly until he breaks and shows more of his true colours.
The time for being nice to Key is long gone. Gloves off time.Time to get serious if you want to win the election.
Agree about the need for ‘street fighters’ as shadow ministers/portfolio holders.
“The problem is Labour has NOT played the man enough.”
If the left do this, they will lose the election. How can you not see that? John Key is immensely popular, and thoroughly likable. He is the kind of guy people just want to be around.
Focus on policies that will deliver prosperity. Otherwise this election is lost for you already. Ipredict stocks on “PM Labour” have been sliding again this week. And before someone tells me this is all a conspiracy by one rich guy to drive down the stock, the order book shows otherwise. The stock is being dumped by small traders in droves.
SSLands, ”stocks on PM Labour have been sliding”, you really are a fucking brainless fucking idiot aren’t you,
What was ex-PM Helen Clark’s polled popularity befor She became a 3 term Prime Minister, 3 or 6%, or something ridiculously s low,
If you place an ounce of faith in the ability of the gambling sit you refer to as being in any way accurate you would have to add that faith in accuracy to all the other gambles/predictions on that site,
Be a good little dear wont you and trot of back there and have a good read of the Party %’s which last time i had a squizz had National polling 42%, Labour 33%, Green 10% and for a gut-busting screamer DotComs Internet Party 8%,
Once you have had the little squizz over there SSLands, stay there, your masterbating all over these pages is at the least unseemly…
@ srylands
““The problem is Labour has NOT played the man enough.”
If the left do this, they will lose the election. How can you not see that? John Key is immensely popular, and thoroughly likable. He is the kind of guy people just want to be around”
…if you say this then the opposite must st be the case…i am encouraged this is the way to go
unless it’s a double-psych 😉
SSLands, please do not confuse your creepy desires to be around Key, preferably on you knees, with any desire felt by most people.
If you lie with hogs, you get covered in shit.
@ McFlock…not talking about lying with hogs ….rather ST George spearing an Octopus Reptilian NACT Party that has NZ in its grip
….could be wrong….but i do think Labour needs to get a professional Adevertisng/PR Agency to give professional independent advice on how to get their message out there…because it doesn’t seem as if it is working
btw ….i thought you were a rather good hog wrestler with Chris 73…..it was gobsmackingly awe inspiring the insults on yesterdays Open Mike
It’s on the level of traditional propaganda. Not something the next government should be doing, IMO – that’s why the nactoids use the cetacean for it, and why key admitting a connection between himself and the cetacean was an error.
Me, I’m not connected with labgrns. And I did like “fustilarian”.
actually, let me expand on that for a bit.
Let’s say key is a reptilian overlord who eats babies. Currently, a whole chunk of people still like him. That means that they either don’t know or don’t care. But he’s pretty obviously a reptile (isn’t one for blinking too much), so the people who don’t know are in denial.
They won’t be persuaded by anyone else that key is a reptile.
They might see it for themselves and be revolted, though.
So keep applying pressure on issues and so on, so he gets stressed and the mask slips, but calling him a reptile would just A) make you as bad as the stalkers in the other camp; and B) make the deniers entrench further into their position.
Excellent lols McFlock 🙂
@ McFlock…..i didnt know you were sweet with middle class refined sensibilities
….i am thinking more of an octopus style reptile with many eyes and arms crushing the living blood and spirit out of things…more visual than verbal ….eg old fashioned 1950s style monotone posters to be stuck to lamp posts and reach those who dont watch tv or read newspapers
sensibilities have nothing to do with it.
A reptile is cold blooded… thats the important bit
Yes COLD BLOODED!..is the feeling
Rino Tirikatene and Meke Whaitiri are other potential spokespeople for these crucial Labour campaign Spokesperson roles
…it is no use waiting until after the election …it important to get kicking with the toughest boots into the fracas now ( there are 800,000 votes to woo)
…it should approached professionally ( ie an outside agency should decide … like an actor casting agency ) …no cronyism in the hunt for the best charismatic spokespeople that the voters can IDENTIFY with.
( this is no bad reflection on policy making skills which are equally important ….but lets be frank they are completely different skills and it is rare to get them in the same person)
Chooky @ 9.59 am, I think maybe you’ve mistaken me for a Labour Party Member and/or voter or an election campaign strategist.
I’m none of those things, nor am I a member of any political party. I will leave it to the Labour Partyy – its members, and those able to provide excellent advice, to get their campaign in order.
Winning at all costs, to end up with just Nat lite in government is not a good prospect. There needs to be a multi-pronged approach, in diverse ways.
I’m with what Bill says on the front page of his “Positive Things” post today:
Grass roots change, changes in the media (entertainment as well as serious media) etc are needed. I am very much behind the kinds of grass roots actions that Sue Bradford has been involved in. And Turei is one of the few current MPs who have come from a workign class background – our parliament needs more from diverse low income backgrounds.
The media needs on-going critique and challenges – not just so they change, but so that more people become aware of the, often subtle, ways the media can be politically slanted.
That’s what I was doing with my comment on the above Stuff article. Highlighting that it was at least an improvement on too many other articles of seen on Stuff and the NZ Herald’s website – but also indicating one of its shortcomings.
@karol
no i did not mistake you for those…i know you vote Green
…i just saw an opportunity( presumptuous and forward of me i know) to help Labour with is PR…. ha ha….but seems like others here do not agree…although some do! …..that Labour is not doing well with its PR
Ah. Sneaky, Chooky. I’m more concerned about the overall focus of parliamentary Labour. Until they clearly have shifted away from soft neoliberalism, and have less managerial type MPs, I may consider voting for them again – the problems go deepr than their PR, I think.
Karol I seem to have mistaken you for someone who gives a shit..
[deleted]
[lprent: Don’t abuse the authors – that is policy and always a bad mistake.
I’d have to say that you remind me of a vicariously shared dose of thrush and about as useful to the left. Just a pain to have around because of frustrated scratching, and a lot of whining. I’d point out that I’ve been a member of Labour party for about 35 years and volunteered for them for even longer. So you’re getting the benefit of an opinion by a genuine Labour party member – in case you think that being a party member is still important after I’ve explained exactly how much of a jerk you look to me.
I’ve helped organise many moderately large campaigns for the NZLP. Typically usually less than a third of the volunteers have been NZLP members. I’d have to say that much of the time that many of the volunteers from outside the party are more useful than the ones who bore the hell out of me at NZLP meetings. That is why all parties play nice to people who are active even when they are not members. You never know when you might need them.
So having some moronic fuckwit like yourself coming along and acting holier than thou about people who are active just makes me want to kick your arse off this site as being just another useless jerkoff more concerned with pleasuring yourself than doing any actual work. Being more concerned about your own self-righteousness than doing anything of any use is a characteristic of a person that I’d prefer not to be in any organisation I’m helping. Basically you impress me as being a waste of bandwidth with a ego backed by shallow opinions and a skill at being supremely stupid.
Of course that is just my opinion. But it would also be the opinion of damn near every other activist from almost any political party or activist group that I have ever worked with.
Banned for 3 weeks for stupidity and I’d advise you to read the policy so I don’t have to notice you again. ]
ooops sorry to have caused trouble for ecossemaid…..i do think there are many people out there who are genuinely frustrated with Labour’s fighting PR image though
….however we can always vote Green or Mana…and it will have the same end result
Seriously? What would Hellen Kelly know?
We have 4 staff on our dairy farm.
Lowest paid is around $38K + free house + free meat/milk
Highest paid is $47K + free house + free meat/milk + 3 free yearling bulls reared
All of them have 1 hour breakfast breaks, + 1 & 1/2 hour lunch breaks.
They work the equivalent of 5 & 1/3 days a week, no more than 9 hours in a day (5 hours for week end days)
Can’t tell me that employment on dairy farms has no trickle down affect.
The couple we had working for us last season drove an 2005 Ford XR8 and bought themselves a nice 14ft boat and went fishing on most of their days off.
Our 2ic this year we are helping to step up into either managing or share milking next year (giving her financial and business backing in order to do this)
So perhaps Ms Kelly’s pushing of a dairying stereotype of rich farm owners and destitute workers is nothing more than propaganda to push her own political/union barrow.
Oh and yes, these conditions of employment were all negotiated between us and our staff – no union required.
Or – possibly – other farms are run differently from yours and so the workers with different experiences are those engaging with Helen Kelly?
Perhaps your workers – while living within their means – via free house/milk – are purchasing items they can afford instead of those they can’t? – their own house, farm etc. Whilst your support for your 2ic means that you are aware of this and is admirable, it is an acknowledgement that this is true.
You seem to be relating honestly your lived experiences as a farmer, but that does not automatically mean that those workers who report otherwise are dishonest.
You are probably also likely to be aware of others in your farming community who are not as scrupulous – those are the ones whose workers needs advocates such as Helen Kelly.
Seriously?
So you are trying to tell me that they chose to buy the XR8 and boat simply because they could never buy a house?
Rubbish. In this situation the money they put into the car and boat was more than enough to use as a deposit on a house.
That wasn’t their goal. They wanted to drive a V8 and go fishing all the time. Full stop.
I know coz they told me about it for the two years prior to buying them. I said to them they were better off buying a house and paying it off by renting it out while they lived rent free.
But no fishing was calling them.
Jimmie, you sound like a hardworking and ethical businessman who has a good relationship with his staff and treats them with dignity and honesty. That’s really cool, and it’s very heartening to read. However, you know as well as I do that every profession (mine’s early childhood teaching, by the way) has the good, the bad and the ugly and farming is no exception. People working on farms are more isolated than most of the population and if they are poorly treated they need the support that a good union can give them. You don’t need to get defensive as though the whole farming industry is being damned – town/country relationships are bad enough as it is. 🙂
I agree with you. Just pisses me off when the like of Ms Kelly deliberately paint a negative picture of a whole industry to suit her own political agenda.
The same when the msm (and the greens) go on about dairy farmers polluting waterways when the reality is that probably around 99% of dairy farmers dispose of farm effluent in a legal and sustainable manner.
However when you have stories like the ferry in auckland discharging raw human effluent into the harbour nobody says anything or councils allow raw human effluent to discharge into the sea during rain storms – oh well can’t be helped.
“when the reality is that probably around 99% of dairy farmers dispose of farm effluent in a legal and sustainable manner.”
[citation needed]
I agree that it’s not good to damn all dairy farmers. But let’s not pretend that almost all are doing the right things, when all the evidence and our own eyes suggests otherwise.
Mud gets in their eyes! 😀
Rogue Trooper you are back!
Abusive dairy employers “all too common” in NZ
Jimmie is living in a fantasy world.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/opinion/columnists/lyn-webster/7028998/Abusive-employers-all-too-common-in-NZ-dairy-farming-sector
*Most* dairy farmers currently pollute nearby waterways according to Fonterra et al’s own statistics. Nice try, bud.
I have to say farmer Jimmie Brown, while I agree not all you cockys are lousy employers, actually have a healthy respect with people working the land. The figure of 99% of farmers being clean is a stretch. I see unfenced waterways each and every week. Had a enough of it to tell the truth as a responsible Kiwi might need to start complaining to Fonterra shortly. The beef guys are alot worst as the law allows them to flaunt it.
It’s high time it was a level playing field with buying meat too while I’m having a gripe. Why should you guys be allowed homekill, when the rest of us city folk can’t openly rock up buy a beast and get in processed the same as you, without having to jump thru hoops with the paddock holding blockade that is.
And those rental cottages that some farmers rent out, (and they do) cash in back pocket. If only this Country had some decent investigative reporters left to show up life on the farm for the true blue National rural supporter is.
Now you get back on here and give us some answers please cobber, as I know it will be the farm boy pulling tits, probably hosing the cow shit by now, while your setting up to BBQ those tender fat scotch fillets that we never get at pak’ n slave!
Yes, I think all pollutants need the hard word + put on them – it’s not ok. I live in the country in Northland and a few kilometres down the road from me there’s a dry stock farm, heavily populated, and most of the cattle have free access to a stream – it makes my blood boil. No worse, though, than when I lived in Auckland and my friend’s dog came home dyed blue because he’d been in a creek polluted by industry. Makes a joke of clean and green, doesn’t it!
I didn’t know about the ferry – that’s awful – mind you I’ve never liked Fuller’s business practices – I left Waiheke Island mainly because of them
Fonterra are well aware of Northland farmers polluting Jen, but hey Fonterra is just fArmers looking after farms, blind eye..wink wink. Anyway there are votes in it if Labour & the Green get their shit together. Nothing like a bit of ‘lucky farmer’ envy to get some city votes off National.
Jimmie.
I am happy to admit there are many farmers who pay their employees fairly, allow them reasonable time off, fence their waterways and deal with effluent properly.
My son works for one.
Usually the same ones do both.
Good on you, for being one of them.
If all employers were fair and reasonable, we would not need Unions.
However from observation of a great many farms in our area, you are in the minority.
The reality is more like half a dozen underpaid and overworked Filipino migrants, cows in the streams and the effluent pond emptied into the river at midnight.
You should be pleased that people like Helen Kelly are holding dodgy operators feet to the fire. It prevents them from undercutting, and pricing out of business, the business’s of those, like you, who want to do things properly.
Some of my long gone farming relatives, who took pride in how they looked after the land and waterways, would be disgusted if they could see those same waterways, now.
KJT +100
Great to hear that you treat your workers well and dispose of waste in a way that is sustainable. (Not sure if that is in an environmentally sustainable way or not)
But I would encourage you to talk with your farming mates and find out what their practices are and encourage them to practice good labour and environmental management as well.
Mainly I was trying to point out that your anecdote does not accurately describe a whole industry practice.
Also, good luck with your workers saving the required 20% deposit before even going looking for a mortgage on that income – and then being given one.
Jimme. And your cows still shit, and pollute our rivers and streams. Makes them unsafe for our children to swim in, whilst you just chase the mighty dollar, and blindly kiss Key’s arse.
Free housing and meat/milk FFS what a rort. That has to be worth what, at least 10k a year?
How is that a rort?
I hate to be mean Jimmie but your lowest paid worker then is on $14.61 per hour and the highest oon $18 which may just not be enough to save for a house even rent free. It is a great shame to me that this level of wage can now be defended as good in this country. On another point – the rent is not really “rent free” as I think it is part of the salary package but regardless, I have the Federated Farmers report which is an extensive survey of wages in the sector. $19.49 is the average hour rate (total value package inlcuding rent, meat, power, and other benefits included and even training) for the whole dairy farming workforce, with Dairy Assistant roles (the most common role) appearing to have stagnant wages since 2010 despite record milk prices and an average total value package of just $17.02 per hour. So maybe you pay a bit above the average but I wouldn’t go to bed feeling to smug about your generosity. The reality is that in one of our very productive sectors the wages are very low and expectations high. 54% of those surveyed had been in the job less than a year. I do hear from farm workers very distressed at their working conditions and I think the industry would greatly benefit from collective bargaining. No political or hidden agenda there my friend!
Jimmie your a gem but you are a rarity amongst dairy farmers I habe visited and worked on many dairy farms as well I have interviewed many dairy workers outside the work place 90% of those IN spoke to are being under paid made to work unpaid hours over and above hours contracted.
Wage theft.
Along with abusive treatment from sharemilkers.
Animals on these farms are also mistreated.
Wacked with alkathene pipes,left milking for to long on milking table damaging udders very common.
Not seperating antibiotic treated cows.
Not keeping rearing areas clean allowing cows to become infected with clyptosporidiam.
Workers not vaccinated for clyptosporidium.
Workets not provided with clean drinking water.
Cows not rotated the full 35 days of fresh grass
Pregnant cows left in paddocks without proper shelter and no feed.
The list goes on.
Don’t want to seem flippant after Karol’s more serious comment, but I got a good laugh from Steve Braunias’ latest on Stuff this morning. before focusing on more weighty issues.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/blogs/opinion/9701026/The-secret-diary-of-Kim-Dotcom
do you like yr laffs with a dash of politics..?
..bill maher is yr man..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/15/bill-maher-chris-christie_n_4794236.html?ref=topbar
phillip ure..
it’s later than previously promised..
..but here is that porridge-redux recipie..
(excerpt:..)
“….and this all adds up to a really healthy breakfast –
– that actually tastes/feels more like a comfort-dessert…
..and this is what makes it such a hit with kids..”
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/commentwhoar-porridge-redux/
(n.b..the instructions marked with an asterix..are v. important..(..and all guarantees/warranties are void..if ignored..)
phillip ure..
Billy Bragg’s misplaced praise of Bruce Springsteen
Radio NZ National, Sunday 16 February 2014
Listeners to this morning’s Sunday programme no doubt enjoyed Richard Langstone’s interview with Billy Bragg. Most of it was actually very good, albeit a tad worshipful and slightly embarrassing because of that. Billy Bragg is a thoughtful and serious person, who has a lot of valuable things to say. However, one of his comments raises a question about his judgement of character. I sent the following email to Richard Langstone….
Billy Bragg’s misplaced praise of Bruce Springsteen
Dear Richard,
Billy Bragg praised Bruce Springsteen as “a hero of mine”, but noted that he was “no Pete Seegar”, because he had not stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee. This seems to imply that Springsteen would have stood up to HUAC if only he had had the opportunity.
In fact, if Springsteen had any of the courage and integrity of people like Pete Seegar and Woody Guthrie, he would not have done THIS…..
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
I trust/believe billy bragg more than you moz therefore his praise is not misplaced at all. i think springsteen has had a positive influence and he started young…
“In September 1979, Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden for two nights, playing an abbreviated set while premiering two songs from his upcoming album. The subsequent No Nukes live album, as well as the following summer’s No Nukes documentary film, represented the first official recordings and footage of Springsteen’s fabled live act, as well as Springsteen’s first tentative dip into political involvement.”
Ahhh the summer of 79… remember that one moz.
@ morrissey..
that’s a bit harsh isn’t it..?
..mix in some historical-context..eh..?
..’cos though disillusioned by them..myself and many others held onto the hope that once over the hurdle of re-election..that obama would go gangbusters..
..and do what he promised..
…(and tho’ a fucken drone-head killer..obama still has time..(some..!..)
..and romney was the other option..?..really..?
..and as an aside..i predict obama will announce full federal legalisation of cannabis..
..shortly after the mid-term elections..later this yr..)
..so..in/with that context..
..i reckon ‘harsh’ describes yr springsteen-condemnation..
..(the song pretty much sucks tho’..
..springsteen-by-numbers..)
..phillip ure..
Yes Phillip, just like you did, I hoped for Obama to defeat the unspeakable alternative in 2012. It was very much a case of the lesser of two evils.
The evil of two lessers?
Pete Seeger supported Obama, by the way, which kinda renders your email to RNZ a little null and void. He even shared the stage with Springsteen at Obama’s inauguration which makes your line about courage and conviction unintentionally funny. Close, but no Seegar.
😎
Nice to see you back in town Roguey 🙂
Is that at the 2009 inauguration or the 2013 one? You could forgive people—naïve and poorly informed people like Hollywood “liberals” and TV talkback hosts—who obviously didn’t know anything about Obama, being full of hope in early 2009. But after four years of his administration, to sing that song is an exercise carried out in a spirit of deepest cynicism and darkest irony.
What’s the bet that if Seegar were younger and full of the energy he had in the 1950s, he would have spoken out against Obama’s war on dissent at home, and his campaign of terror abroad? He was in his 90s, and his activism was over by the time of this clip.
What excuse does Springsteen, much younger and much richer, have for this display of Obama worship? (The answer lies in the fact that he’s much richer.)
Close, but no Seegar.
😀
Good one, Te Reo.
I trust/believe billy bragg more than you moz therefore his praise is not misplaced at all.
Sorry to have to say this my friend, but that statement is the most lamentably illogical thing I’ve seen on this board for some considerable time.
You “trust” Billy Bragg? Did you trust him when he was hobnobbing with a bloke he called “Tony” in the late 1990s and still supporting him as late as 2005?
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Rockin-the-vote-Billy-Bragg-for/
He later withdrew his ill-advised support for that blood-stained fraud, but his naïve comments about Springsteen show that he is still liable to misjudge people.
I think you “trust” your hero Billy Bragg in the same way his hero Springsteen “trusts” Obama—it’s blind, uncritical adulation. Springsteen joined in a cutely named “No Nukes” protest in 1979; so why is he supporting a politician who shamelessly promotes the use of nuclear power, as well as extrajudicial killing of American citizens and the persecution of political dissidents?
yeah yeah I know you hate them all with a vengeance moz – death, a slow excruciating painful and prolonged death to the fools who supported the fraudster!!! Do you know what fraud means? I’ve always liked billy bragg personally.
Marty, I like Billy Bragg too. I forgive him all his misjudgements, like supporting that fraudster, because I respect him. It’s just that I felt it was necessary to remind people that Bruce Springsteen—someone else I respect and admire—is also prone to misjudgements, and is certainly no Pete Seegar. When Billy Bragg stated that Springsteen had never confronted HUAC in 1954, many people might think he would have if he had been around then.
He would not have.
God save us from “Liberals” who think Obama, Gore and (Gor Blimey !!!) even Hillary “Rosie-the-Riveter” Clinton are the great progressives of our time.
Spot on, Morrissey.
Morrissey Springsteen was to young for that era.
Born in the USA an anti vietnam war song.
To more recently Banksters song .
Morrissey time to start reading some lyrics.
Morrissey Springsteen was to young for that era.
Certainly he was too young to speak out in a 1954 HUAC meeting, as Pete Seegar did. However, he is NOT too young to speak out against the regime that holds power in his country right now.
What has Springsteen said or done to support protestors and dissidents today?
i kinda went off springsteen when this news was going round, tho i thinks hes an incredible song writer & gives a good live show, hes a greedy tax avoider unfortunately. http://www.humanevents.com/2012/03/12/bruce-springsteen-a-taxdodging-farmer/
Yeah, Jason ‘chickenhawk’ Mattera is fair and balanced.
/
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jason_Mattera#Attacks_on_Judy_Shepard
Morrissey no relation to meat is murder Morissey who happens to be touring with Sir Cliff Richard.
Billy Bragg is more radical tha springsteen no doubt.
But springsteens message get to many times more people.
He’s My Home Town hero.
So don’t be Blinded by the Light.
Your insults hurt like a freight train runniing through the middle of my heart.
I’m On Fire.
But springsteens message get to many times more people.
Correct. And the message of him singing in support of Obama, even after four years of Obama’s regime, is…. what, exactly?
Morrissey no relation to meat is murder Morissey who happens to be touring with Sir Cliff Richard.
Billy Bragg is more radical tha springsteen no doubt.
But springsteens message get to many times more people.
He’s My Home Town hero.
So don’t be Blinded by the Light.
Your insults hurt like a freight train runniing through the middle of my heart.
I’m On Fire.
“What has Springsteen said or done to support protestors and dissidents today?”
He asks them to buy his records and keep hope alive by voting for the war party that starts with the letter D.
It would be good for me to see a post that gives summary of what has been learned from this Dotcom, GCSB leaks, and so on that have dominated people’s thoughts here for, is it a week? There must be something to learn, that Labour can make use of either by drawing attention to, or avoiding or… I’m a bit confused. When will the revelations end?
It’s like watching Limmy’s Show. Have everyone else seen it? Revelations of the thought process emerge slowly, with a Scottish accent there. I prefer Philomena Cunk actually, such a seeker after truth, on Charlie Booker’s Show. But both as informative as any Herald jonolism.
I listened to Radionz this morning on Media Watch and am less anxious about the changes though still have a few questions in mind. Have to taste the pudding and check the flavour.
On Sunday mornings at Radionz Wallace Chapman will be starting about end of March.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
The HORROR, the HORROR…..
Wait till you get Israel’s official apologist on the morning show every weekday
Just listening now and while it sounds ok?! I think he is being disingenuous is stating his reason for putting Mora in with Mary Wilson. It may well be that Mora has a longish contract and they had to bury him somewhere but surely we could have done that by giving him something like Hymns for Sunday.
No matter how you look at it Mora’s Panel Show is an event looking for excuses to publice right wing commentators. You could easily have a panel show that used people other than political hacks and it would be fine. I see Mora as watering down Checkpoint and introducing a political slant into a show that has in the past been scrupulously honest.
I am hoping that we do not see in a short time the resignation of Mary Wilson and the promotion of Mora to being the face of Checkpoint. Now that Ferguson has been moved to Morning Report RNZ has a serious lack of good journalists.
Ron +1
😀 Hymns on Sunday. A slot with NZ music for the older person as well?
Aussie TV dares to show the real Israeli occupation
from JONATHAN COOK, in Nazareth, 11 February 2014
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1392193514.html
I never thought I would see it. A mainstream TV programme, this one made by Australian channel ABC, that shows the occupation in all its inhuman horror.
The 45-minute investigative film concerns the Israeli army’s mistreatment of Palestinian children. Along the way, it provides absolutely devastating evidence that the children’s abuse is not some unfortunate byproduct of the occupation but the cornerstone of Israel’s system of control and its related need to destroy the fabric of Palestinian society.
Omar Barghouti has spoken of Israelis’ view of Palestinians as only “relatively human”. Here that profound racism is on full show.
There are, of course, concessions to “balance” – in the hope of minimising the backlash from Israel – but they do nothing to dilute the power of the message.
This is brave film-making of the highest order.
It is an indication of quite how exceptional this film is that it has cornered Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, into expressing her “deep concern“. That’s the same Bishop who last month doubted that the settlements in the West Bank were illegal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz8_qzdDdM4
If the video above is removed, you can also watch the film here:
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2014/02/10/3939266.htm
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2014-02-11/aussie-tv-dares-to-show-the-real-occupation/
That first line says it all ABC
As a national Channel it really does try to present provocative intelligent overview of the news. It also manages to create some brilliant television.
Of course Abbott is now to set about dismantling ABC and doing what National has so successfully done in New Zealand.
If you want good television these days you will have to rely on the four great public services.
BBC, CBC, PBS and ABC.
I could maybe throw in DW as well.
I hope like hell if Labour gets in power that they will set about rebuilding not only our state broadcasters but resurrecting a state film industry like we had once with Nation Film. I think the rebuild should have one of the highest priority of all the tasks that Labour would have to do. If we don’t have a good public television service to inform and educate our people we may as well forget all the rest. What good a full stomach and a cheap house if all we get in the media is right wing propaganda
Look closely, Ron: the BBC is also under attack. It’s never recovered from the Blair government’s furious attack on it after it had the temerity to point out that the case for attacking Iraq was completely false.
And PBS is, despite its grand sounding name, anything but a public broadcasting station.
If you want decent, intelligent reporting from the United Kingdom, read the BBC site, sure, but there are any number of better, more trustworthy sites.
If you want decent, intelligent reporting from the United States, go here….
http://www.democracynow.org/
Yes I am aware that BBC is being attacked, and also know about democracynow which also broadcasts on PBS channels just in case you are unaware, What I like about PBS is the wide variety of docos they provide some of which we pick up here. Unfortunately anything too touchy doesn’t get played here. They have some great investigations into money & medicine recently which could do with a play on NZTV
It is absolutely hopeless to attempt to minimise any backlash from Israel. They are on a full scale propaganda offensive, all over the world. I’m pretty sure they use at least some of the money they get from the US government to pay people to sit on Facebook full time, disseminating their propaganda. Their latest tactic, which almost makes me vomit, is to portray Zionist Israelis as indigenous people who have succeeded in reasserting their rights.
Unfortunately, a lot of the conspiracy theory crap about the Rothschilds and Bilderberg makes the task of anyone putting the Palestinian case disappear under a lot of white noise. It frustrates the crap out of me.
Go Matt McCarten you good thing, purveyor of the State’s propaganda par excellence, Matt’s taken to discussing health matters in His latest column,
Titillating us with the little ‘gem’ that using tobacco products kills half of those who partake, yes Matt heard it all befor, but, the problem with simply using the States Propaganda is given a deeper look into the facts an entirely different story can be told,
Fact: 29% of annual deaths in New Zealand are ’caused’ by cancer.
Fact: 40% of annual deaths in New Zealand are caused by heart disease.
Fact: 20% of the New Zealand population uses tobacco products*.
(the * is for a reason i will explain),
SO, fact: 69% of annual deaths in New Zealand are caused by cancer and heart disease, now for the purposes of a piece of blunt mathematics subtract the 20% of smokers from the 69% of deaths,
What this tells me is that at least 49% of us will die of cancer or heart disease who are not smokers, laughably when compared to the 50% of smokers who are supposed to die of the same disease solely upon the basis of the fact that they used tobacco products the diff is 1%,
Of course i could theorize that as smokers make up 20% of the population and the supposed data says that smoking will kill 50% of them, then the ‘real’ figure i should be calculating off of should be half that 20%, which would simply make the figures for those who do not smoke and die of cancer and heart disease look even worse coz if i only subtract 10%,(half of the population of smokers),from the total deaths annually from both cancer and heart disease the equation becomes 50% of smokers supposedly snuff it from the addiction as opposed to 59% of those who do not smoke going the same route by the same diseases,
And the asterisk*, Statistics NZ in a celebratory news release claim that 16% of the population are now smokers, yay what a victory for the anti tobacco zealots, or is it,
If you run the StatisticsNZ 16% figure through the blunt mathematical calculation i use above then the numbers for those who don’t smoke and die of cancer and heart disease climb even further above the supposed 50% of those who die from using tobacco products…
“SO, fact: 69% of annual deaths in New Zealand are caused by cancer and heart disease, now for the purposes of a piece of blunt mathematics subtract the 20% of smokers from the 69% of deaths,”
You are being ridiculous. The people who are dying of smoking related cancer now, are doing so as a result of smoking rates over the last three or four decades, when smoking rates were much higher. Yes your mathematics is “blunt” alright. It is stupid. There are many many more ex smokers than current smokers.
Smoking imposes costs on society. It also provides benefits to its users. But it is a classic public policy problem of all the benefits being private and all the costs being socialised (the main one is health costs but there is also the vileness of simply being near smokers). The excise raised is designed to do two things – 1. Compensate society for the socialised costs and 2. Bring smoking rates down.
Masterbation in public is frowned upon SSLands, please refrain….
I quite enjoyed watching an econofuck trying to do epidemiology.
Although in the end he continued the myth that smoking has a net monetary cost to the nation (which hasn’t been true for 20 years), I laughed at the idea that vileness should be taxed. SSpylands would be taxed into bankruptcy within a week.
Neoliberal economics imposes costs on society. It also provides benefits to a very small number of its users. But it is a classic public policy problem of all the benefits being private and all the costs being socialised (the main one is health costs but there is also the vileness of simply being near right wingers). The excise foregone is designed to do two things – 1. Compensate the filthy rich for being disgusting and 2. Destroy any sense of community and/or society.
There, SSLands, I fixed it for you.
Nice m.o. MO
Very poorly informed comment. 10 years off your life is the number to remember. Everyone used to love smoking – the problem was we found out it seemed to be killing people. A lot. Think about it – if the government’s plan was to keep raking in tax from cigarette sales then WHY ON EARTH would it celebrate smoking rates dropping?
Heart disease is our biggest and cancer our second biggest killer regardless of whether you smoke – we all have to die of something, right, RIGHT? The point is that smoking is associated with around 10 years less life overall – if you’ve made the decision that it improves your life enough to keep poisoning yourself then FINE but don’t spout that nonsense and try to convince other people to harm themselves in that way too.
Not only will it mean you die much SOONER but if you’re unlucky also much more painfully – think of chronic obstructive lung disease and being unable to breathe to the point where your body is chronically low on oxygen and you start to waste away and are in and out of hospital every other week and needing to leave with an oxygen tank.
There is obviously a cost to society with hospital bills but that’s exactly what hospitals are there for. The tax on cigarettes is mainly to discourage people from buying but also to balance those losses – and it seems to work somewhat. Although I don’t agree with targeting of certain groups (like prisoners) and saying that only those people cannot smoke.
My advice to you: talk to your family and your doctor about nicotine replacement therapy.
What a load of sanctimonious twaddle from one of the i want to live forever brigade, as if people who never smoke escape the indignity of the pain and suffering that goes along with death by cancer or heart disease,
You might want to live another 10 years having to be spoon fed your food with the excrement wiped off of your leaking arse by someone hired to do such a job, you might even get lucky and be one of the very small number who have good health until they die,
For 50+% of non-smokers though they will suffer just as much as those that smoke so climb down off of your high-horse,
Your comment is simply moralistic bullshit, your ten years of extra life is simply fantasizing bullshit, your replacement therapy for nicotine is simply bullshit i am not interested in,
And, do not start me on that ten years of extra life bullshit because it is simply arrived at by playing with %’s, what causes the supposed 5-10 years of extra life in the statistics is simply the lung cancer stats show a high amount of people dying of lung cancer, 20% of whom have been nowhere near tobacco products, at age 45 and under, those 1300 or so that do this very year simply distort the overall picture of longevity when applied across all cancers,
i have no fucking intention of quitting and the more bullshit i am force fed by the anti-amoking fanatics both paid and unpaid like i assume you to be the more i am determined to enjoy my use of tobacco….
I also urge you to talk to your doctor about nicotine replacement therapy. You sound in a bad way. Even if you reject the health arguments, smoking is disgusting.
SSLands, hang about a minute, i am just lighting another rolly, is that the best you can do SSLands, more moralistic nazism albeit shorter than that absolute twat above sprouts without a fact in sight in its whole weak diatribe,
Why would i stop, it cost me 5 or 6 bucks a week and there is as much chance of you getting cancer or snuffing it from heart disease as there is of me doing the same,
So all in all being a moralistic wanker gives you a 50% chance of snuffing it from the above mentioned diseases, i think i will take another puff and leave my fate in the hands of the various deity, same odds as you have got SSLands…
“and there is as much chance of you getting cancer or snuffing it from heart disease as there is of me doing the same,”
The evidence to the contrary is extremely compelling.
SSLands, i see no production of this compelling evidence from you, masterbating in public is frowned upon, please refrain…
The correlation of decades of smoking with having early heart attacks is pretty compelling. It didn’t come home to me until I woke up in hospital.
Lprent, fair comment, but such a fright is likely to bias your thinking in any direction, stressful job at the time???,
My point is this, and, i cannot say this with any certainty about the heart conditions that people survive as i havn’t dragged my tiny wee mind through the data, but, the rates of death scream out to me that 50% of those who do not/never smoke will die of cancer or heart disease, which makes the anti tobacco argument based around deaths of the same nature more than a little spurious,
Such is suggestive to me that there was a 50/50 chance of you having that heart attack whether you smoked or not…
My jobs are seldom stressful since I managed to sneak out of doing the management side of it (which I am really good at but find to be an appalling waste of my time). They certainly weren’t in 2010.
the denial runs deep in that one..
..smokers’-excuses – 101…
phillip ure..
What denial Phillis…
didn’t you get the memo..
..you are on ‘ignore’..
..i can’t be fucked any more responding to the drivel you post..
..to try to defend how piss-weak you are in the area of will-power..
phillip ure..
What deficiency in will power is this you speak of Phillis, laughably that accusation comes form an obvious poly-addict claiming to have quit Heroin only to take up various other drugs, now that i would call piss weak,
Yes four year olds have little toy tossing moments like claiming days ago that i am to be ignored only to be unable to resist having another look in the mirror by engaging bitterly and without an iota of fact in the following days,
Conclusion, a filthy fucking junky too piss weak to quit the habit so becomes a whining poly-addict who’s intellect has regressed to the point of equality with the average four year old…
Wheatbix tri. with all that is currently happening, great to see our youth in a positive manner and for many in Auckland giving their time freely. Thanks to all those volunteers.
Kiwi kids are Sanitorium (sic) kids… certainly lost in an ethnocentric silo, failing to learn languages other than their native tongues at an “alarming rate”; implications for ongoing international trade development; Wordly? Mate reckons that misunderstanding rests on the obligatory Kiwi OE…, before the return home to raise an Edmonds family…
Kiwi kids are sanitorium (sick) kids….
Accurate
Pervasive
Terminal
I agree that seeing the community out running a sporting event is great, even though I have my doubts about corporate involvement. Sports clubs all over the country rely on the community and can foster a sense of organisation and action which we don’t see much in other areas. Well, except for the top Union clubs. They just get everything given to them by government, both local and national.
I have looked through the Standard’s archives to find a post I remember from the last couple of years analysing net profit outflows offshore from NZ by sector, and cannot find it. If the author of that post, or anyone else, could point me to it I would be very grateful.
In a related issue that might become of interest while hunting out various links to the figures i have used in the above comment i came across something really really interesting,
i first looked at the various web-pages detailing deaths from cancer and heart disease vis a vis the smoking issue about a year ago,
i did the trip again today starting afresh with a Google search asking the usual multiple questions so as to drag in the widest array of answers from the web,
In an ”It’s a modern miracle moment” i came across one page that claims the death rate from heart disease was down to 30%, go the Doctors and Nurses you good things, to have altered the upward spiral of heart disease by a full 10 or so % over the course of just 1 year would have to be truly a modern miracle,
Makes me wonder a couple of things, (1), being it seems a bit fucking strange that the rate of deaths from heart disease can fall 10% in a year and not a peep about such a miracle in the mass media???,
(2), of course has me wondering if our health authorities wishing to have the data reflect their zealism against the use of tobacco products would have them manipulating the figures???,
Nah couldn’t happen here in little old Noo Ziland right, the other 100 or so pages found on the web reporting a death rate for heart disease of 40% must have got it wrong, snigger…
“(2), of course has me wondering if our health authorities wishing to have the data reflect their zealism against the use of tobacco products would have them manipulating the figures???,
Nah couldn’t happen here in little old Noo Ziland right,”
No exactly it could not happen in New Zealand. So why are you raising it?
SSLands, please refer to my comment at 12.49pm, and refrain…
Bad 12 just about every smoker I know wants to quit but can’t because its highly addictive.
Your statistics are very dodgy you have grabbed a whole lot of percentages no hard numbers .
Percentages mean nothing without number.
Now since tariana turia has pushed for huge changes to tobacco taxes and and stopping marketing aimed at”Children” .
NZ’s smoking rates have dropped dramatically from 25% to lrss than 16%.
Those stats can’t be fudged or ignored.
Tricledown, please provide me and the other readers these other ‘numbers’ that proves what you are trying to impart is Fact and not some knee-jerk fiction,
The sum total of your comment is devoid of fact simply an emotive bluster, and where have i denied that the rate of those using tobacco products has not dropped,
Your spurious comment about ‘averages’ when applied to the annual % of those who die annually from both cancer and heart diseases is simply rubbish, if i were discussing the age at which these deaths occur then making a comparison would be based upon averages…
@ b12..
..the denialist-writhings/obfuscations of the tobacco-addict..
..weak as piss..
..can’t even give up the ciggies..
..’aww!!..paw me..!!.im adwicted..!..’.
..it;s more addwictive than hewoin..!..
..pity me..!
..i ‘can’t help it..!
..awww!!!!!)
phillip ure
Ooooh look it’s Phillis… stalking me across the web…without a fact…nor a clue…just the normal filthy junkies whine…hardly bothering to address the comment…instead using snide low level abuse as the means of discourse…all the while unable to rise above the mediocre in ‘its’ chosen medium…
Phillis the filthy whinging junky has a certain ring to it…tell us all Phillis…your use of multiple drugs…ever heard of poly-addiction…that’s where the filthy whining junky aka you swaps one addiction for another depending on the availability of supply and whether the means of purchase is at hand…
You havn’t kicked the smack habit Phillis…you simply swapped it for dope which is easier to access and is affordable from your current income…i have seen this befor among many other junkies i know…given a suitably large wad of cash Phillis…you would be round at the nearest dealers place stocking up large on enough smack to ping up your arm to satisfy that craving that just wont go away…and…fucks up everything you say or do…that’s why Phillis…the sum total of originality in anything you have written in ten years…is totally zero…
Smoking tobacco Phillis…i fucken love it…can’t give up is only your latest of stupidly wrong comments…the truth is i have never bothered to try…the addiction cost me fuck-all except for rolly papers and lighters…so why would i want to give up…
You better stay impoverished Phillis for the reasons i point out above…and…with the purity of some of the shit going round these days i could well imagine you shooting up a spoonful which would seriously blow your mind…soon after tho…it would also stop what’s left of your heart…
lozenges working for me; 2migs, PRN
Bad 12 just about every smoker I know wants to quit but can’t because its highly addictive.
Your statistics are very dodgy you have grabbed a whole lot of percentages no hard numbers .
Percentages mean nothing without number.
Now since tariana turia has pushed for huge changes to tobacco taxes and and stopping marketing aimed at”Children” .
NZ’s smoking rates have dropped dramatically from 25% to lrss than 16%.
Those stats can’t be fudged or ignored.
Actually Tricledown, your wee whine,laughable as you decry my use of %’s and then trot out a couple of your own, has just reminded me that my next large time consuming search through Google will be for the import/export figures for tobacco coming into and out of New Zealand,
Such figures might tell us all, by tonnage, just how much tobacco is currently being used in New Zealand, as apposed to that which is being imported, turned into cigarettes etc and then being re-exported…
PS, the current 16% figure for users of tobacco is from the census figures, i am pretty sure i accidently ticked the non-smoker box on my census form when i am in fact a heavy smoker, wonder how many other accidents occurred when others filled out theirs…
One More Time (don’t miss the bus, or the train) : No-Dig Gardening – mucho gracias Murray Olsen,
Building Depth, rather than remaining in The Shallows ; as competent as the Weather forecast
(memory being “the fundamental characteristic of life”- Samuel Butler). Where was he from ;).
Politicians aye?
Don’t
Even
Notice
I
Am
Lying
may be a fitting epaulette. Such are the questions addressed by the field of Theodicy …”the cravings of […] man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does”…, yet, it is The Year of The Snake!
On a related subject, we may notice the frequency the synonyms of catastrophic are being Heralded in the MSM…, conditions for beast and man becoming less favourable,
yes, that’s Disorder for ya’s.
-just a little from recent Back Catalogue
Many Kind Regards,
John. ( un- Licensed To Kill)
Rogue, welcome back, a good holiday???, No-Dig gardening, i am all ears, please enlighten us or point in the general direction of,
Of course if you are talking Indo, i is already well versed in that…
not back bad12, just a ‘birthday bash’, in tune one prays:
Simply put
Mow or Weed-spray
Cardboard or woolen carpet
Manure Fert Compost
Grass Clippings, Leaves, Hay or similar
Manure Fert Compost
Grass Clippings, Leaves, Hay or similar
and so on, reproducing forest floor texture.
For a number of reasons I prefer making own compost, collecting neighbor’s grass, NPK, Lime as required and chicken manure. Only ‘plants of joy’ out the window though 😉
Tah much Rogue, seems a lot of work, not necessarily for someone just starting a garden, but, i have all mine as raised boxes of soil, makes the digging that much easier,
i compost using the plastic bags that used to hold bought compost, stuff em full of weeds and clippings off of the plants, bush’s, and trees, wait awhile and hey presto ready to go into the soil,
Lolz, one of my neighbours throws all His weeding into a wheelie bin that He pays to have emptied once a week for 4 or 5 bucks, then moans about the soil being so poor in His garden , Lolz, He’s a redneck hypocrite so i have never bothered any attempt at enlightenment,
One of the other neighbor’s in the street has just started dropping off all His food scraps which go straight in the garden along with a suitable pile of my compost…
on to it bad12; I’m building up to improve soil, overcome oxalis, convolvulus, drainage issues, ease on back; no hurry, just a little at a time as materials are afforded. All the best, gonna be an interesting, yet sad year out there in the big wide world all media present to us spectator / visionaries.
Over, and, out!
Here’s a hint Rogue, don’t look at a garden as a whole area that has to be dug over at once, form a daily habit,
What i do is dig across one fork width of garden most days, the top foot of soil i dig out laying it on top of the rest of the garden, the bottom foot i just dig in place to make sure its nice and loose, then i throw in the compost and rake the dug out soil back into place,
i do tho have the luxury of only planting the one crop a year, but, the system still works well if you have multiple boxes and can leave a couple un-planted…
Greens announce their Solar Homes policy
Solar power is one of the greenest forms of electricity generation we have. It gives families independence from the big electricty companies. With no fuel cost, it insulates families against future power price rises.
Under the Greens’ Solar Homes initiative, Kiwi families and households will be able to get low-cost loans from the government to pay for solar power installation, repay the loan via their rates, and enjoy free, sustainable power for decades.
The loans will be cost neutral to the Crown, with an estimated administration cost to Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) of less than a million dollars a year.
Once the low-interest loan is repaid, the family will own their solar power system outright. Families will be able to earn money by selling excess electricity back to the grid.
This is an example of smarter, greener economics in action.
Full policy and announcements at https://www.greens.org.nz/solarhomes
intriguing
Looks like a smart, well thought out policy. I can pick some holes in it (esp around solar batteries), but for the mainstream it’s a good start, and a good example of holistic thinking getting into mainstream politics (the policy works at multiple, interrelated levels across many areas).
Yes. A positive step but the battery storage problem has not been solved yet has it? I think that the cost of solar panels has been tumbling downwards as new technology comes into force. Sunny Marlborough might be a good place to be.
my view is that this is a big step in the right direction, But, i think that far far more ‘thinking’ need be done around solar energy,
(1), A standard solar power kit need be designed so that all installations are basically a carbon copy of each other, where it is made easy to simply plug in more solar panels should space allow and the initial installation proved a financial success
(2),i am of the belief that such solar installations should be without the capacity to store energy, i see the use of batteries as a means of storage when we have a National Grid as a total waste of resources,
The power from solar installations should just be fed straight though a smart meter into the grid with the proposed ‘kiwi-power’ scheme of the Government as the single buyer of wholesale electricity buying all the generated electricity from households generating solar energy at wholesale rates on a preferential basis ahead of the commercial generators, thus a smart meter would measure house-hold use against household solar generation and a discount at the wholesale rate would occur at the point of billing the household…
Good idea bad12. Straight into the grid and avoid the need for batteries. However the Electricity Providers might be unhappy as thousands and thousands of solar panels would undermine their strangle hold.
Seriously ianmac???, as far s the major generators go i would simply say ‘tough’, it’s our dams and grid that my parents and grandparents built off of the back of being taxed and some very hard labour,
If the retailers start to go broke again i say tough, the insertion of these retailers into the ‘market’ which has been the cause of the rising price of electricity in many instances,and, as many of these retailers are in fact owned by the major generators who ‘kaching’ demand two lots of profit from the same generation, there would be no sad loss, how long would it take for the state to set up an electricity retailer…
Not a bad idea, but like others have said the batteries are the main problem.
I read some where the batteries need replacing every 10 -15 years and they aren’t cheap and also where do you stick them.
Also the panels do not last for ever, 20 -25 years seem to be the life expectancy.
Having said that I do like Bad12 idea of selling electricity into the grid.
So you like the Green Party’s policy of selling power to the grid, good for you.
“also where do you stick them.”
Think about all that space used to installing heat pumps. Most houses have room to spare. You can put them outside (although there are frost issues). Installers will help solve these problems just like they do with other technologies.
The price of panels and batteries will drop once more people are buying them. That’s part of the GP plan, to boost the solar industry in NZ.
I’m a capitalist, being able to make a bit of money selling power appeals greatly.
Photovoltaic panels I’m fairly meh about, their efficiency is rather poor and return to cost ratio isn’t great.
The only really question I have is how the electrical grid would cope with 30,000+ people randomly injecting various amounts of power into the grid.
Would that be an issue?
Distributed input is much easier to handle than the current model where power from large South Island generators has to be transported the length of the country to Auckland.
BM, i will have you eating mung beans and lentils yet, the final straw will be when you go into the office that you sell yourself to as an indentured serf muttering peace, love, happiness, and joyful times for all while counting your hippy beads,
The Green Party can expect your vote this year then???, the switch wont be a lonely one, a 58% rise in the Green party vote from within the Auckland electorates held by National was apparent in the data from the 2011 election…
Unfortunately I’m not quite ready to go out there and purchase a Morris dancing outfit, as tempting as it is.
Seriously though this is where the greens really trip up, good idea but it’s only one idea and very few people(hopefully) cast their vote purely on one issue or idea.
This is why I think the Greens need to be a more neutral party, take a leaf out of Switzerland’s book and learn to work with every one.
They’d have so much more success.
lols
Another desperate stab at a coalition partner for the party with no friends…
Seriously?
The greens have been around a long time, yet they’re still considered extremist nut bars by a large proportion of kiwis.
Until they actually work with National they always will be the 10% mung bean , hippy party.
Greens need to get sharper, they’re a business and sometimes you have work with other businesses you don’t particularly like, but you do it because you get something good out of it.
The fact that they’re still political virgins with no track record after all these years speaks volumes about how poor the greens political strategy is.
Greens are their own worst enemy.
“Seriously though this is where the greens really trip up, good idea but it’s only one idea and very few people(hopefully) cast their vote purely on one issue or idea.”
Dude, read Norman’s speech. The standard even published the whole thing so you don’t have to go looking. One idea, my arse. At least base your criticisms on something even half way real.
On the contrary, if the greens ever go into coalition with national, it would be proof that they elevate mung beans above child welfare, employment and human suffering.
That’s different to working with individual nats on individual legislation, but they already try that.
Hey shit head
This is about politics, not corporations. It’s about people, not corporations. It’s about communities, not corporations.
I know in your style of National led neolib politics it’s all about big corporations and all about big money. But your style of politics can fuck off.
“The greens have been around a long time, yet they’re still considered extremist nut bars by a large proportion of kiwis.
Until they actually work with National they always will be the 10% mung bean , hippy party.”
Guess ACT need to learn to work with Labour then. Unless they want to carry on as the fringe extremist nut bar sub-1% party that is.
“Guess ACT need to learn to work with Labour then. Unless they want to carry on as the fringe extremist nut bar sub-1% party that is.”
Now that ACT has ejected Banks and they have an intelligent, thoughtful leader, their vote will progressively recover. They will have 2 MPs in the next Parliament.
Whoosh
BM, ummm, the most educated eloquent answer my tiny little mind can formulate in answer to that is, sorry, fuck off with your lolly pops save them for National after the election, another 9 in opposition means they will need cheering up…
“another 9 in opposition means they will need cheering up…”
Thankfully, that is looking increasingly unlikely.
And the foul mouthed language .. if you and CV are indicative (“shit head”) it is a worrying indicator of Your mindset and of Him. i wonder for Your future and His if You keep behaving in this way.
SSLands, you sound like you need cheering up, why not slither off to that wee gambling site and console yourself with a good long drool over the ”next PM gamble”,
What scares you off from sitting and spitting your rubbish into the forum over there SSLands is the fact that those with a couple of working neurons and actual money, as opposed to you pretending to have some, is the fact that they would see through your rubbish in 2 seconds right,
Or have they already given you the message to stop masterbating in their forum…
Soccer World Cup blood: 400 Nepalese immigrant workers dead so for for Qatar event
This is beyond a disgrace; why the multi-millionaires who run global soccer allow this to continue is a question every NZ fan must ask.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/feb/16/qatar-world-cup-400-deaths-nepalese
That’s truly astounding
Human trafficking, loan sharking, it is a desperate and miserable situation – and what do the corporate sponsors and others care as long as the event makes them money.
Yeah, as a lifelong football fan who played competitive soccer well into my 30s, I’ve gotta say it’s a bloody disgrace. All-too-typical exploitation of migrant workers. See https://www.amnesty.org/en/news/qatar-end-corporate-exploitation-migrant-construction-workers-2013-11-17 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24980013
Meanwhile, the money-grubbing corruption at the heart of FIFA continues to be a stain on the game.
Further to the latest Fairfax poll.
A quick comparative analysis of 2008 and 2011 Opinion Polls suggests that a little more than 50% of the time, Fairfax results are skewered about 3-6 percentage points to the Right in comparison with other polls taken around the same time (the rest of the time their results closely align with the other polls. Fairfax never favours the Left in comparison to other polls).
The last Fairfax poll of 08 overestimated National support by 4 points (and underestimated Labour by 3) in comparison with the Election results while the last Fairfax poll of 11 overestimated National support by 7 points (and underestimated Labour by 2).
Winning hearts and minds.
The February 2013 document shows that the Indonesian government had retained the law firm for help in trade talks, the Times reported in a story posted on its website Saturday. The law firm was not identified in the document, but the Chicago-based firm Mayer Brown was advising the Indonesian government on trade issues at the time, according to the newspaper.
The document itself is a monthly bulletin from an NSA liaison office in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The NSA’s Australian counterpart, the Australian Signals Directorate, had notified the NSA that it was conducting surveillance of the talks, including communications between Indonesian officials and the American law firm, and offered to share the information, the Times reported.
Liaison officials asked the NSA general counsel’s office, on behalf of the Australians, for guidance about the spying. The bulletin notes only that the counsel’s office “provided clear guidance” and that the Australian eavesdropping agency “has been able to continue to cover the talks, providing highly useful intelligence for interested U.S. customers,” according to the Times story.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/report-document-shows-surveillance-us-law-firm
Let’s do the time warp
The Wall Street Journal’s advice to young women
Susan Patton: A Little Valentine’s Day Straight Talk http://on.wsj.com/1dLV3OS
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11203037
WoW
NSA’s mass surveillance of NZers online – by Vikram Kumar
http://internetganesha.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/nsas-mass-surveillance-of-nzers-online/
“Part of my TEDx Queenstown talk next week is about mass surveillance online. How governments are building the modern Panopticon.
I was therefore quite surprised yesterday when Prime Minister John Key said he has no reason to believe the NSA has undertaken mass surveillance on New Zealanders. To help the Prime Minister, let’s look at what we know about it and whether an objective person should come to the same conclusion…”
@Karol. Just a small point and this probably does not irk others. Please when you start an article of yours do not dive straight into the acronym of MSM. I understand what it means, yet others may not or have an educated guess. Perhaps in future to start your MSM article, then give it a one line, name check as to what it means “Mainstream Media” then revert to acronymsville? Otherwise it can lead to confusion. Is MSM like BDSM yet a lite version of it? Am I meant to eat M&M’s whilst indulging in NeoLiberal BDSM whilst glancing at Shortland Street on The MSM? I like reading the posts on The Standard aka TS. I dont want to have to invest in an Enigma machine to unravel the gobbledegook under the assumption that because the author knows what something stands for, therefore all the readers do. I just want to read the articles. Rest In Peace. Rip Msm/BdsmLite/NeoM&M’s/Fubar!
BDSM is usually practised by more than one consenting adult at a time, unless it’s a Tory with an asphyxiation fetish. MSM is forced on us. The two should not be compared.
Fair enough, Yossarian. Noted.
snafu
PO ecosse
lol