Woman sues ABC over Media Watch comments on her trip to United States
by RACHEL OLDING, Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 16 March 2015
A Sydney woman of American heritage is suing the ABC’s Media Watch for depicting her as a backer of, and a PR mouthpiece for, the brutal regime of President Barack Obama.
In a politically-sensitive case that will test alleged bias in media coverage of….
Media watch is an opinionated hosted critique by an established senior legal or journalist figure.
It has a history of controversy and I await some background on the piece, the woman and SMH angle as it may be more about getting at that pesky ABC than actual bias.
L Randall Wray – the evolution and instability of financialised money manager capitalism
Approx 21 mins. Wray is also an exponent of ‘Modern Monetary Theory’ which describes how governments can deficit spend to create money into an economy for households to use and save, quite independent of taxes and borrowing.
Why do people in NZ love to hate the middle class?
Why do those on the left in particular make such snide comments about middle class people?
Why do normally tolerant people who are all for liberal thinking and ethnic tolerance simply turn to shit when they see a bunch of middle class people?
I see it is Tahu Potiki’s turn to act in a prejudiced and bigoted manner against people based solely on photos of them appearing to be middle class, in having a crack at the kauri tree protestors. Tahu Potiki of course is maori and a some-time commentator from Dunedin-ways. He has likely experienced bigotry and prejudice and the like, yet he simple-headedly does the same himself. In his column this morning (no link yet sorry) he, on several occasions, ranted against these people on the basis of their middle classness alone. Tahu’s rant exposes in himself the same faults in humans that he has likely been subjected to himself – namely bigotry and prejudice.
Leave the middle class alone ffs. It is a failure in so very many ways to reference things to them in ways like Tahu Potiki has done.
The middle class want to save that kauri, or a kākāpō, or that mountain from having a windfarm put on it, but they don’t want to give up the affluence that threatens those things in the first place. They’re not alone in this of course (it seems to apply across all classes), but I think the idea is that the middle classes have more choice than the working class and underclass because of their assets and income and more sensibility for what’s right than the wealth class. Stuck in the middle.
Sure I can imagine how that might be imagined, however it is all conjecture and assumption on the part of the likes of Potiki. There is never any good argument put forward or evidnce provided for anything he intimated, not those matters you have highlighted above. Nothing. Just assumption.
It would actually be a good issue to dive into and evaluate properly – you know, comfortable in their jobs, nice 4wd, huge mortgage, provisional tax, pilloried and plied, ignorant and shallow, unknowing of anything but materiality, the list goes on …..
I can’t comment on Potiki until I read his article, and unfortunately you have a history of misrepresenting people’s word in situations like this.
I was more commenting on why some lefties in general have a downer on the middle class and from my perspective (others will tell it differently). I don’t think it’s what people imagine, it’s an analysis based on knowledge and experience (sure my comment was shorthanded and generalised).
“ignorant and shallow, unknowing of anything but materiality”
I’m less worried about those ones, than the ones that can think, who appreciate values other than possessions and consumption, who should know better but still aren’t willing to do what is needed to redress their privilege.
I would like to comment but need to read Tahu’s own words first rather than rely on your interpretation of what he may have written or have been quoted as saying.
It should turn up here eventually. I don’t know how long they take to put them up on the web though. Otherwise try the Press in hardcopy (was that today vto?)
Bought the Press, read the article, don’t entirely support vto’s perception of what the article in its entirety was saying.
That said, I don’t necessarily agree with his take on the Titirangi ‘save the trees’ event. My views are shaped from active involvement in resource management processes in the past and what I see as a flawed process that allowed a non-notified consent in the first place.
I took the article as a whole to reflect on the clashes of culture around resource use, management and preservation, conservation, restoration and how different groups place more or less emphasis on one idealised part.
Leaving out the ‘middle class’ references, what I read reminded me of my childhood experiences of going to catch whitebait with my father, uncle and grandparents and seeing hundred of very large eels rotting on the riverbank because the Acclimatisation Society wanted the trout to be predator free. It was horrific to see (and smell) but was an example to me of the lengths that the settler society would go to prioritise what was important to them.
One point that the article made, I thought, was that there is an element of hypocrisy in those who live on sections that were clear felled in the past, to deny to others the right to remove trees in order to enjoy their own section. I can see that viewpoint even if I disagree with it.
Suffice it to say, I neither agree nor disagree with the article in its totality and I found it an interesting read.
It is too long for me to type as a whole and, at the time of writing, is not up on the Press website but it is provocatively titled ‘A Grand Win for the Busybodies’.
hi vto,
what sticks in my craw with the middle class is the aspirations.
the idea of getting ahead.
i watched a ricardo semler ted talk (thanx felix) yesty.
he said if you get to a point in your life where you want to give back then you took too much in the first place.
had an interesting conversation with a self made man. he was ranting about the poor and how they should be saving to get their first property, leverage that to get a rental…(you get the picture), he could not see that for there to be a landlord there must be a tenant.
so as weka says below (or above), about an unwillingness to give up some affluence so all have enough.
its the ‘i’m alright jack’ or ‘blow the bridge i’m over’
I have yet to read Potiki’s opinion piece, but I take it from vto’s comment that he is attacking the middle class for the kind of safe activism that does not challenge the status quo – for engaging in their own little “rose revolutions” and congratulating themselves on “making a difference.”
As to the cry of “Why does NZ love to hate the middle class?” quite a few middle class people are either indifferent to the suffering of others or despise them for having gotten into that position in the first place. People you despise tend to despise you in turn. It is an aspect of what Stiglitz was talking about in an article RedLogix put up a few days ago, about the erosion of social trust.
Or you could see the middle class thinking of assets and income as being like lollies in a lolly scramble. They were out there and the people with the most were the hardest working and most motivated. Of course lolly scrambles have recently led to images of large young men scooping up the most amongst children that only came to their knees. Not cricket old man!
he could not see that for there to be a landlord there must be a tenant.
It’s more accurate to say that for there to be a landlord there must be many tenants. It is a question of support. Each landlord requires many tenants to support them.
While I haven’t read the article you’re referring to vto, I think you you make an interesting point:
“Why do normally tolerant people who are all for liberal thinking and ethnic tolerance simply turn to shit when they see a bunch of middle class people?”
I’ve seen this happen in conversations here at TS and heard it plenty in real life too. I find it a bit puzzling. It raises more questions for me than I have theories for as to why there is a dividing line where tolerance ends and spite begins
I wonder if it is hatred and mistrust that is intergenerational and so ingrained as if it has been handed down from our colonial past when we were Little Britain with it’s clear cut class groups (as much as settlers said they wanted to escape that but failed to do so).
Who are the middle class these days? We have shifting sands beneath the feet of society. Once people could be more upwardly mobile (and whether betraying/abandoning your class was scorned or applauded is another aside) but in very general terms, the effects of a Nat govt has bumped many once financially comfortable people harshly down the ladder whilst those below landed in a heap beneath them, finding themselves in an even more precarious living situation.
It’s often talked about, while many are being left behind the elite have increased their power control and wealth. So where are the middle classes in that? Are they the survivors?
Is middle class defined by wealth? Is it defined by the display of that wealth? Is it defined by the expression of taste? Lols, if taste comes into it then I wonder what my neighbours north of me in the higher priced houses end think they are achieving by trying to out do one another with the purchase of the latest shiniest largest luxury range SUV money can by. Are they trying to express their middle class-ness or are they just pathetic try hards?
So who are the middle class that folks criticise?
Or is it related to wealth and being rightly critical of the self serving behaviour of the wealthy who trample over others to get a bigger slice. for example, maybe an employer who has built a profitable business on the back of low paid, poorly treated workers?
In that case is the class group the employer belongs to seen as the oppressor, where in fact it is the boss being oppressive and who should be the focus of criticism? Is it wealth or class that oppresses in the case of the employer?
Should we not judge a person on their actions and behaviour rather than their class, what ever that is?
Gee Rosie, you are carrying this PC thing too far saying that the middle class should not be pointed at or criticised because they have feelings.
The middle class have willingly separated themselves off from struggling NZ as if that group were lepers. The women have got jobs where they often administer to the poorer class, rather patronisingly. And they feel entitled to their superior position and consequently don’t pay much attention to the structural side of the downward trend, aggravated by enabling policy.
The upper class live in a different planet and most rarely come down from the Ramtops to attempt to suss out what mayhem they are causing or enabling to the rest of NZ.
The middle class are still living the dream that they were brought up with and fully expect that their superior standards will be maintained for ever. All this talk about environment and climate is exaggerated and technology will deal with it. At present their task is to maintain their lovely home, educate their children to
ensure a well paid and fulfilling position, and keep their minds on higher things, such as art, healthy food. maintaining their looks and overseas holidays.
Is there any wonder that people who have the wide vision to take in all the classes, the whole range of NZers, get pissed off with the dopey, self-satisfied middle class who want it all without accepting citizen responsibility also.
Warbs, lols, please, I am not “carrying a PC thing”. You should know me better than that by now.
And I am definitely not saying they should not be criticised because they have feelings. I have never once mentioned the words feelings or expressed any sympathy for their feelings.
I am mainly asking who they are. How do we identify them? By their wealth, their taste, their level of wankiness?
The group you are referring to above are displaying attitudes and behaviours that are isolationist and excluding, anti the collective good and self promoting, potentially at the cost of the well being of others. I know these types and dislike them intensely for their selfish and cruel ways. (In fact I have had a run in with one of these sorts in recent days. The level of hatred for the concept of equality expressed by this person was truly gobsmacking).
So would you say middle class is defined by a set of behaviours and attitudes? (which comes back to wankiness)
The above behaviours you mention, I see belonging to the group within society that holds right wing views. I’m not sure that the entire spectrum of the middle classes is exclusively right wing, who ever this middle class are.
Hi Rosie
Middle class is a broad target. Which ones to shoot? I am thoroughly middle class myself without the necessary assets and liquidity to ponce about. So let’s keep on criticising the middle class as it’s a bit like throwing balls at a stall with moving faces in the fairground.
And it is hard to dent a middle class person’s self esteem. That’s how you know them. They just look at you with their eyebrows raised and either patronisingly smile or just turn away bored. There’s one of those rent-a-crowd rabble they say, just too too boring and repetitive. Always doing nothing and saying not fair. Of course they don’t like people who act vigorously to even up the fiscal balance either.
.
I usually mean what most people call “upper middle class” when I say “middle class” Which can lead to misunderstandings because it seems others mean a majority or large minority rather than this minority.
A particular cultural group rather than amount of money. Things that spring to mind are – highly socially connected; people who have influence, who have contacts, who have contacts who have contacts, which can cover a huge range of influence in a society, formally educated and qualified, use language very precisely but usually use effective subtext and nuance to express aggression, rank etc., who have particular social behaviours and understandings, who as a group are often unaware that their own behaviours and language can have very different meanings to those from other class cultures, people who tend to define, by their choices, what is considered “good taste” “good manners” “good ideas” etc.,
And heaps more but I don’t have time right now. People don’t control what class they are born into and it doesn’t determine goodness or badness, but middle-class is a variety of privilege. Like most privilege it is often either unrecognised or underrecognised and it is this that is often the source of most of the misunderstandings and occasional outright animosity imho.
Thank you just saying. I find that a very helpful beginning to understanding who the middle class are. I can envision this ‘class’ more clearly now as I know of people that belong to this particular grouping.
The people that I know that fit your definition I don’t find particularly offensive, and while there is an unspoken knowing between these folk and myself that a different level of privilege is enjoyed by them it doesn’t cause a tension.
On the hand, there are others I know of, like the person who I had a run in with, who fit some aspects of your definition, influential, with contacts / connections and formally educated and qualified, privileged in several ways but whose social skills are under developed, whose emotional intelligence is low and who are focused on the acquisition of wealth and property as a symbol of their success.
So if class doesn’t determine goodness or badness as you say perhaps it comes down to personality and behaviour, as to the source of division?
I’m just grappling and my head isn’t in the best place today.
I’m saying they are a a minority which has a big vested interest in the status quo. Some admit this and work hard to make their communities fairer anyway. Many don’t.
This might be a good place to mention a new book reviewed on Radionz this morning. It shows the nefarious ways that cunning pakeha managed to wangle land out of Maori hands. We ought to know this because it is behind Maori grievances which the Treaty of Waitangi is partly recompensing and the reason that it should not be too hurried and that Maori should be able to tell their histories.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20171204
Book review – At the Margin of Empire ( 6′ 16″ )
10:38 Paul Diamond reviews ‘At the Margin of Empire: John Webster and the Hokianga, 1842-1900’ by Jennifer Ashton. Published by Auckland University Press.
Tahu Potiki, by virtue of his whakapapa alone, was born a member of the iwi aristocracy if looked at through Eurocentric eyes. That he has worked hard to make himself a 21st century leader of his whanau, hapu and iwi is all his own doing and nothing at all to do with Treaty settlement processes.
As for his political views, I only know what he has published. If you see him as hard right you have either read things I haven’t or read into what was published what I didn’t. We are each entitled to our own views and perhaps mine are shaped by knowing the person and thus seeing an entirety, or as much as anyone may know another without being them!
Chur all comments above. Unfortunately as often seems to be the case I must away and have no time today to respond. Fwiw I see no difference in tolerance, willingness to protest the wrong, or anything like that, based on class. I do not see the lower classes doing more of this stuff (if anything I see them doing less and it aint because we have less). I do not see the upper classes doing more of this stuff at all either – they are too busy with the planning of their mid-winter escape-NZ hols looming now summer is at an end. I actually see most of the protesting of things wrong being carried out by so-called middle-class types.
Middle class types protested the kauris apparently. Good. It is they who protest the environment damagers mostly. It is the middle class who do most of the heavy lifting. That is what I see.
So in actual fact Mr Potiki has it completely arse-about. The reason he saw middle class people protesting at the kauris was because it is the middle class who do most of this stuff. They do the grunt. They get out on the street. They write to MPs.
The middle class should be supported in its efforts not vilified.
So in actual fact Mr Potiki has it completely arse-about. The reason he saw middle class people protesting at the kauris was because it is the middle class who do most of this stuff. They do the grunt. They get out on the street. They write to MPs.
The Waipoua Forest in Northland is a remnant Kauri Forest whose most famous inhabitant is Tāne Mahuta. Tāne is about 2,500 years old. The forest is riddled with Kauri Die-back Disease which is lethal to Kauri. The people trying to save the massive and ancient trees in this forest come from all walks of life.
People from all over Northland (hardly a bastion of middle-classness) consistently maintain a presence at the entrance to Waipoua to ensure people wash their footwear before entering the forest. This has been going on for a number of years. This is grunt work in action.
Was driving my old hot rod truck to work today, and noticed a couple of cyclists out in the Chch cold wearing their hi-viz gears and their helmets.
At the lights I pondered the general lack of cyclists on the road this morning, and the debate on cycle helmets, cyclist numbers and societal obesity aided by folk travelling to work in their old hot rod trucks instead of biking. (You can ponder these things if you dont turn the wireless on in the morning)
I have also seen the massive carnage of head injuries, but the simple truth is that most of those are alcohol related – auto accidents and assaults rather than bike accidents. And politicians have demonstrated over and over (regardless of who is in power) that they will not address our alcohol issues.
So should adults have the option of travelling helmetless if they are wearing hi-viz gear? More folk biking is good for the health of the nation
Im saying that that there may be some public health gains if adults didnt have to wear helmets, but wore safety vests instead.
The argument is out there saying that helmets put the vain of biking, (cant mess your hair up aye)
So any reduction in head injuries is the result of less adults biking, not in a similar number of cyclists having fewer serious head injuries due to wearing the helmets.
My take is that kids should wear the helmets because they arent necessarily as spatially aware as the average adult on a bike. I thought the vests I saw today stood out like dog nuts and gave us drivers fair warning of the cyclists ahead.
That makes sense, although from a public health or accident prevention perspective it might be a bit complex. We need to change the culture, and things like building every road with cyclists in mind would help.
Absolutely! For commuting, shopping and recreation it’s a pleasure to cycle in Europe in the sunshine, safely, with just a sunhat on.
Cycling for sport might still be a problem though.
It’s too difficult to cycle in relative safety in NZ and some of the cycleways that are being put in don’t meet cyclists needs. My favourite example is Karo Drive in Wellington where the planners had decided the cycleway on a brand new road should be built to end on one side of Karo Drive and start again on the other at the Cuba Street intersection. To swap sides they’ve put a diagonal cycle crossing on an intersection between two very busy pedestrian crossings. Chaos ensues.
Also the cycleway on the SH1 Taupo bypass – I do wonder how many tourists want to bypass Taupo. Or how many Taupo residents would use it.
Wiki summarises the cycle helmet debate quite well, I think, although this article doesn’t extend road design issues.
Do what I did, wake up in the middle of the road confused and combative with an ambulance officer standing over you, my thanks once again to Colin Slaughter, telling you you’ve had an accident and because you’ve been unconscious for quite some time he couldn’t just take you straight home so best he takes you to base hospital.
Thirty something stitches to sew an ear back on, another dozen to sew up scalp lacerations, an overnight stay to observe a serious concussion, cognitive impairments lasting several months and headaches that persist thirty years on and I reckon you’ll gladly wear a helmet.
Thanks for that joe 90. Your answer is what I have felt was needed to counter this drop your helmet macho stuff. They are a nuisance but the harm to the individual from head injuries can result in differing levels of loss of function but all of much concern.
In advanced cases of damage there is also the destruction of family life and happy relationships because of the need for lifelong care for the person who is not wholely well, perhaps with violent mood swings, and the cost in health care and rehabilitation to the nation is a good reason for everybody wearing a hemet. We block out how fragile we are on bikes on roads with metal tanks zooming at our side, and the bigger vehicles that have been foisted on the country are like tanks, and in my normal car I hate their great big wide backsides blocking my horizontal view and the high back window meaning I can’t see beyond them. Cyclists can’t either.
Mine is not a call to “drop your helmet” macho stuff as you so eloquently put it.
You could say I have a vested interest” in this subject, but regardless of this, what we are dealing with is the societal cost of serious brain injury (ACC, a few years back indicated it was a $2m per accident cost).
Beyond the societal financial costs, theres the massive mess it makes for the victims life, the victims family and the victims friends. Greywarshark is on the money with his/her comments. $2m per accident is about $0.50 per person, so at a Government fiscal level, not a big deal. (Especially since we pay levies to ACC so its not directly out of the tax war chest). But its a massive deal for the family of the victim.
We also have an obesity epidemic on the horizon. And that comes out of the health budget and is out of the tax war chest, so how to we make progress on that? Putting sugary foods back into school tuck shops as the Nats did as soon as they got back into power was one of the dopiest moves I have ever seen.
In terms of societal changes to health across the population, obesity isn’t a problem so much as diabetes and other Syndrome X diseases are. Obesity itself is not a disease (it’s possible to be fat and healthy, or thin and unhealthy).
Lots of really good reasons to get more people biking, and your point about whether helmets are a disincentive is worth considering.
I grew up next to a family (the parents, kids and quite a few of the cousins) who were fanatically mad-keen competitive cyclists – both road and track. It was the local “headquarters” of the cycling club at their place so there were cyclists everywhere on weekends. Talk to anyone of them and they were 100% behind helmets for all cyclists – they experienced the roads and traffic (and crappy NZ driving), they saw the consequences of being hit by motor vehicles.
So I say suck it up NZ and keep wearing your helmets – and get alongside the road planners and as OAB says get some decent separation for cyclists, pedestrians & motorists.
Used to cycle to work. When I didn’t wear a helmet, cars definitely gave me more room when overtaking etc. Never wore a helmet as a kid. Smashed my face up once by going straight over the handlebars, (know of others who have similar tales) wrecked knees and hands etc over and again, but never, ever landed on my head coming off a bike and don’t know anyone who did.
I’d actually be interested if cyclists head injuries are caused primarily by car impacts (likely given body trajectories and vehicle shape) and then have some info on what impact those helmets take. To overstate, if the impact is going to cause you serious injury or death, do the helmets actually offer any protection? I get that they will likely lessen the injuries caused by ‘moderate’ impacts, but at what speed of impact do they become pointless? I can’t really see them doing much to protect against a head being slammed by a hunk of metal moving at 50km/h…or should that be 70km/h…30km/h?
Yes, as I understand it, most of the serious injuries are when a car or other vehicle is involved. I don’t know what the optimal speed to injury ratio is but I would think that any protection is better than none when being hit by a car no matter what the speed. I’m thinking about the effect of not just the head being hit, but the body being hit and the force afterwards when the person bounces and hits their head on something. Don’t want to go into the grisly detail particularly, but I assume there are different ways that head injuries happen not just direct car to head trauma.
I do recall a coroner’s report in the paper about a cyclist who rode into the back of a stopped truck and died (in a unique twist on the “cyclist vs truck” story that almost always ends very badly).
Basically, the calculated speed at impact was I think in excess of 50km/hr (long downhill run). The coroner noted that at those speeds a bike helmet isn’t a lot of use, and really a full motorcycle helmet would have been needed to give the guy a chance.
But then I also saw a cyclist do a somersault over a car bonnet, when the driver had obviously been looking for oncoming cars, not bikes. Even though the speed was relatively low, I’m glad he was wearing a helmet – I suspect it seriously reduced the paperwork associated with the incident (I think the driver was in more shock than the cyclist – the first thing she said was “this is a new car” in a tone that strongly suggested concern over scratched paintwork. But the fact she was pale and shaking and took a minute or two to get with it made me put it down to “funny shit people say in extremis”).
Yeah, Bill, I whacked the top of my head against a gutter when I came off as an unprotected lad.
Later at Uni in the late sixties, a fellow student wore a pudding basin motorcycle helmet when cycling- when asked why, he said his father was a brain surgeon. I got that message.
And later, when teaching health at secondary, I’d ask the boys whether they’d like to run flat out head first into a concrete lamp post. They got that message.
Please fix the RSS feed. It was much better when it had the full story in it. Part of my day is spent outside of network access but if I cache the RSS feed I can keep up to date with the site. With it as excerpts I am behind and miss things.
One of the economic discussions now in NZ is about deflation. English is claiming the low to zero rate of inflation means that pay rises of 2% are really good pay rises.
Of course, if you’re one of the large number of low-paid living in the greater Auckland area paying rent and/or trying to save to buy a house, or paying a mortgage, that isn’t the case.
Deflation also presents problems of its own.
There always seems to be something going wrong in capitalism. Inflation is too high or too low. The dollar is too high or too low. We have a rock star economy, yet a mass of low-paid casualised workers and a chunk of workers who have zero-hour contracts. And still substantial levels of poverty.
Our primary production, our lifeblood keeping the nation ticking so we can have elections and afford a government. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20171199
Latest on our once thriving sheep and beef farming from Radionz.
Crunch time for sheep and beef farms: report ( 28′ 56″ )
09:08 Farmers say the 8 billion dollar sheep and beef industry is approaching crisis point, and a single cooperative business model similar to Fonterra is the only way forward. Meat Industry Excellence group chairman, John McCarthy and Murray Taggart is Chair of the Alliance Group.
That was an interesting discussion. What I’d be interested to know though is whether or not farmers felt better off when we had the old ‘meat producer’s’ board, before the dereg mantra kicked in during the 80’s, etc.
I’m thinking that at present, Alliance and ?? are merely gigantic ticket clippers and that a more co-op system would be better.
I’m no expert on this issue but it troubles me that the actual producers seem to be getting little return, and the NZ public generally are being ripped (with shit meat sold thru’ supermarkets, pumped with water, etc.)
What are your thoughts?
A sideline – an interesting thing is that the butchers in supermarkets in Nelson get most of their meat precutup in Christchurch. Just another way that food is being prepared using factory processes and trucked a long way.
I wonder too about the advantages of a co-op. It was tried a while ago, to have more synergy with companies but failed to get the big tick. I think it may be that some of the sheep farmers are doing all right and don’t give a rats arse about any other producers. Now that rudeness might be undeserved but that sort of thing happens. The magnetic attraction to one’s own interests entirely is often irresistible.
IMO the best way is probably to have two companies, one a farmer-owned co-operative, and the other a privately owned/listed company. Two competing systems.
NORTHLAND BY-ELECTION WATCH: [or is it BI/BRIBE/BUY/BYE election watch?]
Winston is trying to win this by-election ALL BY HIMSELF and his bus, while a bridgeload of mustered Nats have been continuously descending on Northland day after day at tax payer’s expense of travel and time to beat the wise old man.
It would be interesting to see how many Nat Cabinet ministers, MPs and others have been here or will be here in pathetic panic state to pump up their own O for awesome candidate and beat Winny.
Here is my list so far. Please add to this list if you know of others:
How many Nats does it take to beat an old man?
1. John Key
2. M Osborne
3. Steven Joyce
4. Simon Bridges
5. Maggie Barry.
6. ?
I know the PM was a big successful money trader and is super clever with numbers and knows this stuff better than I do, but I thought 15% of $1.29 was 20c not 2c 😕
“If you think about iTunes, you download a song and it’s $1.29, there’s no reason why GST shouldn’t apply to that.
“In reality, GST would be 2 cents. But actually, 2 cents over a massive number of transactions still add up.”
you will note from his second comment, it was not a typo by the reporter
What a shock! They have since edited the article. It now says this:
“While the GST on some online goods and services would be very small, such as on a $1.29 iTunes song download, it could still be worth pursuing because of the scale of such purchases, Mr Key said.”
(Forgot to do a screengrab of the original)
CR
I like this author of books about policy and procedure and colleges and skulduggery. She often writes about Ireland and comes up with good fiction. And in the way of the saying that ‘you couldn’t make this shit up’ about reality, she probably is very good with reality too.
I liked this from rawsharkyeshe No.15 article from The Guardian 16 March 2015 –
– Ed Miliband called Cameron the “Prime minister for Benson and Hedge funds”. –
This Crosby is a devious machine. And the comment on the hardness of Australian politics probably explains why Crosby and Mark Textor are both Australians.
Background to their start in Oz: Still in his 30s, Crosby was promoted to deputy director and then director of the national party. There he worked with another rising and aggressive Liberal player, Mark Textor. Textor had taken Rod Cameron’s innovations with voter data and focus groups further, creating two archetypal swing voters, an imaginary middle-income couple called Phil and Jenny. The concept became so influential that during the 1996 national election, Liberal candidates would be asked by the campaign managers: “Have you spoken to Phil and Jenny lately?”
After 13 years out of power, the Liberals won. They won again in 1998, in 2001, and 2004. Significantly for the current British election, the Liberals often attracted fewer votes than Labor, usually not much more than 35% of the total, but these were decisively concentrated in marginal seats. “At its absolute simplest, a campaign is finding out who will decide the outcome,” Crosby said in a rare public masterclass he gave for charity in London in 2013, “where are they, what matters to them and how do you reach them?”
He played a central role in all four Liberal victories. The Liberal leader, John Howard, was uncharismatic but shrewd, and listened closely to Crosby. “Elsewhere in the party,” says Mills, Crosby became “somewhat feared and disliked”….
In Britain:
The Australian’s energy and attention to detail, his air of conviction, and his emphasis on the traditional rightwing issues of crime and immigration all won him rave reviews in the Tory press…..
The item relates how he cut and hacked at Livintone ending by Boris Johnson winning as Mayor for London. It finishes by saying that Crosby has to prove himself in the coming British elections. For the sake of his business standing it seems more important for his own standing that David Cameron wins for the Tories.
The British general election is on May 7, 2015.
Is it possible sometime to have a discussion about the lamentable habit of some posters to The Standard bastardising other commenters noms de plume.
I don’t personally care how much I personally disagree with a commenter, I have to respect their right to comment and to reflect their chosen ‘nick’ in my comments. I do admit to using abbreviations from time to time.
This is just the latest comment to raise my ire and, I admit, I am perhaps being unfair to single this out but here is a response to Te Reo Putake
‘Another crap article from Pistake. The Standard eh well if this is supposed to be “the standard” of articles the that the standard will put up with then it might be time to instigate a new standard, actually that kinda has a ring to it, “The New Standard” Great diversion tactic Pistake and if you happen to read this and I’m sure you will as your MO seems to dictate such YOU know exactly what I mean.’
If I am old fashioned and out of step, so be it, but can’t we disagree courteously?
I’m with you on that Hateatea. Some, eg those aimed at Fisiani, get pretty tedious and just distract from what is being said (I also think denigrating people via certain body parts adds to our culture’s body hatred but that’s another conversation).
I haven’t noticed whether people do this with real life names or if it’s only the pseudonyms (I suspect the latter). I take people’s names (ID or pseudonym) as extentions of the person so being mean via bastardisation is just a low form of wit that takes us into macho shithead territory pretty fast. I’m sure the defense is that Fisi and others deserve it because of their politics, but I think it will be putting other people off from commenting here and just adds to the culture of meanness unnecessarily.
(the irony of the Pistake commenter was that their comment was almost completely devoid of anything useful).
Yes, the fisiani example is particularly unpleasant, IMO. Not that I am pretending to be prudish. I can be both coarse and vulgar but seldom in public and never, I hope, in print!
I think that some of the verbal put downs do detract from discussion and probably do put people off. I did have to think seriously before I returned to commenting here again because of some of the discussions I read while lurking.
I am glad you have returned. The place will only change if enough people practice communicating well, but I get that sometimes it’s just not worth it.
I know it’s a challenge for me, I find it easy to get into the rude bordering on mean stuff. One of the reasons I like being here at the moment is I get to practice being more tolerant in the face of sometimes extreme provocation 😉
I did however notice recently that in real life I am more likely to argue with people like I do on ts. I’m not sure what I think about this yet. Am steering away from the overly challenging, but am liking my increased capacity to be staunch.
It is similar to the electoral process : you have to participate and vote in order to be able to comment on the outcome, in my opinion. Likewise a person needs to articulate their viewpoint to the best of their ability and hope to receive affirmation or negation from a reasoned response. Sadly, sometimes we all of us post in haste and repent at leisure 😉
I am glad if you are finding your input here is helping you in the real world. I may not always see things the way you do but I respect the manner in which you articulate your thoughts.
@ hateatea
You are unlikely to get brash rudeness here because you are thoughtful about your subjects and you are not repeating provocative comments that cut across the heart of what most of us feel fervently about.
Some people don’t realise that this is a lively forum for people with progressive viewpoints which does not take kindly to them dissing all that the Standardistas believe. Those who do it are sooner or later going to be villified, insulted and unfortunately, not sent to Coventry. People get annoyed and write something to match, or they feel forced to try and present a reasonable argument to the BS they are reading.
Reasonable politeness is received usually but sometimes the comments can be challenging. It’s not a gentle, quiet, meditative retreat. President Putin wouldn’t have come here to relax. But if you want to be safe from the over-excited, the Friday post of the Weekend doings is nice. People talk about the soothing personally useful things they are doing, and smile.
Things have improved recently but I agree with you Hateatea that discussions should be respectful although I have perhaps in the past not lived up to that standard 😀
come on micky, you’d be one of the leading examples of tolerance and reasonable discussion 😛 I can’t imagine you doing rude or mean (although I feel you could cut a certain beigity less slack).
David Fisher is brave and an excellent journalist:
“Analysis: The questions the Government must answer about the Snowden revelations……Can we tell the public what the British public now know to be true about their own security agencies? asks David Fisher?”
And here is the foreign news – a small but important bit: http://rt.com/news/241069-putin-rumours-back-alive/
Dated 16 March 2015
‘It’s boring without rumors’: Putin appears in public after week of MSM hysteria
Lots of questions regarding where the heck he “disappeared” to. One which made sense to me said that he had decided to do a few days religious retreat and put matters of state on hold while he recharged and reviewed.
Are you sure you would describe it as a “religious retreat”?
It really is absurd when you think about it. He had a 10 day break. So bloody what? It isn’t a crime to decide you need a break unless of course you are the Russian president…
then you have to do it in secret because your opponents – particularly in the West – will have a collective heart attack and go into a hyperactive state of hysteria.
That Putin was on the way out, either feet first or by a coup of inner circle generals, was probably wishful thinking on the part of a few western opinion makers…
Green Party mail out for members on how the leadership selection process works (no online link, so a long cut and paste sorry).
We are getting a lot of interest in how the leadership elections work with
recent announcements from four Green Party members that they intend to put
their hat in the ring for the male Co-leadership of the Party.
In fact the election process has not yet started – the announcements are
that these men intend to seek nomination. Nominations do not open until the
20th of March, and will close on the 17th April. When Russel announced that
he would not seek re-election as Male Co-leader, it was thankfully early
and in good time so that other talented men could step up.
Importantly, the party elects/re-elects all of our leadership positions at
our Annual General Meeting (AGM) every year. This includes both male and
female Co-leaders, Co-convenors of the Party and Policy Co-convenors.
Georgina Morrison (female Party Co-convenor) has also announced that she
will not be seeking re-election, and so we enter this AGM with at least two
vacant positions.
Information about the leadership contest [2] and the AGM [3] will be kept
up to date on the membership section of the website (go to http://www.greens.org.nz and click log in in the top right corner). We will be
providing on-line forums on that website for you to ask the candidates
questions. There will also be provincial meetings held so members have a
chance to engage with the candidates. And we will link to videos of this,
so you can view wherever you are.
The Party is proud of our internal democracy and consensus-based
decision-making. This is demonstrated in our Co-leadership/Co-convenor
model, our annual election of all leadership roles by the party at large,
and the consensus process we use to conduct that election.
The consensus process of election involves a series of local meetings. The
Provincial meetings and on-line forums are to inform members. In May each
branch will host a meeting at which they will decide how they want their
electorate votes to be cast. The discussion at the branch level is
instrumental in members hearing each other’s opinions about why they think
a particular candidate is the best option for the party. This discussion is
useful in forming an appreciation of the value the contendors bring to the
party and an understanding of viewpoints that are different from yours.
Each electorate has a set number of votes allocated depending on the number
of current members they have. Those votes are ‘carried’ by delegates to the
conference. The delegates are current members selected at a
formally-advertised meeting, and are instructed as to how the electorate
members would like them to vote. An STV-like voting system is used at the
AGM.
The same branch-level and AGM process is followed for all leadership
positions.
In Question Time today Key lead a reply to Russell’s question with a smart list of the fiscal facts that the Green contenders messed up on. (He had to read the list though.) Okay then. He had a second swipe a little later. OK smarty pants.
But wait. When Key was questioned by reporters tonight about GST on imported goods he said that as an example it would be silly to claim GST off an ITune download costing $1.79 because GST would only be—–wait for it—- about 2 cents.
What!!! Expert smarty pants. It would be about 26cents!
Hope Question Time gets a dig at Key tomorrow re his slip up in view of his Green digs, and to ask about Osbourne deciding the 10 one way bridges for about $70million but unable to name them, though he knew the name of the one near his house.
What goes around comes around.
If slippery has his way on the TPP we’ll be in the same boat.
The U.S. economy is picking up steam but most Americans aren’t feeling it. By contrast, most European economies are still in bad shape, but most Europeans are doing relatively well.
What’s behind this? Two big facts.
First, American corporations exert far more political influence in the United States than their counterparts exert in their own countries.
In fact, most Americans have no influence at all. That’s the conclusion of Professors Martin Gilens of Princeton and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University, who analyzed 1,799 policy issues — and found that “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
Instead, American lawmakers respond to the demands of wealthy individuals (typically corporate executives and Wall Street moguls) and of big corporations – those with the most lobbying prowess and deepest pockets to bankroll campaigns.
The second fact is most big American corporations have no particular allegiance to America. They don’t want Americans to have better wages. Their only allegiance and responsibility to their shareholders — which often requires lower wages to fuel larger profits and higher share prices.
I’ve just caught up with Wilson’s emerging Kiwi Regional Airlines which will be hatching soonish.
Here’s a link about small airlines and this one, and has an intereting shot of a small plane coming into land in front of high rise housing fairly dense. http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/kiwi-regional-airlines.html
Anyone got an opinion as to whether this housing would be good to live in, seem close? Is it the type of housing that should be available for small families and singles near town and small manufacturing hubs with public transport running near, just one, two streets away.?
I think the quality of life experienced in housing (that is well built and healthy, rather than shoddy and damp) does not rely solely on density, but includes the strength of connections to others, services, amenities and vibrant community spaces (and in NZ, access to natural environments if possible).
An interesting programme to watch is Kevin McCloud’s Slumming It. He visits the slum of Dharavi in Mumbai, as it has recently been cited as a “model community” even though it is built on waste ground including dump sites, and raw sewage ponds.
Those that live there have created an amazingly diverse and resilient community in such a small area – according to Wikipedia, the most densely populated area in the world.
Yes Molly they might enjoy it and do well with it. But we come from a different culture and have different expectations. It is interesting to store the knowledge of the ability of providing necessities in dense communities and the residents can maintain basic standards and stability. They have shown resilience in their place. We need to design one that allows us to manage our lives in our country and culture.
There have been thoughts that have probably not been well developed by government about how we could manage our living conditions better. I remember Dr Morgan Williams when he was Commissioner for the Environment talking about the way that a South American city Curitiba had acted to keep their city a good livable place. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0207/S00050/master-plan-urged-for-urban-sustainability.htm
Curitiba improved the conditions in their slums by working with the people. If they collected garbage and handed it in, they were rewarded with food such as eggs not money. It made a big difference to the place, helped the nutrition of the poor and raised community concern for better, more pleasant surroundings. http://www.rnzih.org.nz/pages/AbstractMorganWilliams.htm
There are programmes in the Auckland Council re giving communities a say in how their locales are developed, but not every Local Board has adopted them.
Thriving Communities is one, a village planning programme is another.
I suspect that I am agreeing with you, that local knowledge and input creates a more resilient and connected community. Unless specific commitments to encouraging this happen in NZ, we will continue to have a patchwork approach to housing and community building.
I’d quite happily live in one of those. They look like they even have room for a garden, and there’s bush nearby. I really prefer to sharing communal space with others to having a huge private yard.
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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 ...
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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 commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Just as sexuality is a spectrum, so too is asexuality. In Ace of Hearts, members of New Zealand’s asexual community talk about the challenges and misconceptions of identifying as ace.First published November 17, 2020.Ace of Hearts is part of Frame, a series of short documentaries produced by Wrestler for The Spinoff.“A ...
Sam Brooks wasn’t allowed to watch kids TV as a kid. Now, as a 30 year old man, he watches it for the first time.My mother’s approach to parenting was unorthodox. I wrote weekly book reports on top of my actual homework, I did maths equations in Roman numerals and ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk More leading Indonesian figures have made racial slurs against Natalius Pigai, former chair of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) – and all West Papuans, says United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda. “Since the illegal Indonesian invasion in 1963, Indonesian ...
“The Government’s failure to even conduct a standard cost-benefit analysis for the most expensive infrastructure project in New Zealand’s history is mind-bogglingly arrogant,” says New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke. “A ...
The Ministry of Health is today drawing backlash from the local New Zealand vaping industry following its release of proposed regulations for the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act. Vaping Trade Association New Zealand (VTANZ) President, ...
Sophie Gilmour and Simon Day are joined by special guest Hugo Baird, co-owner of Grey Lynn’s Honey Bones and Lilian, to talk about opening new pub Hotel Ponsonby.Auckland is a city of many bars but few really good pubs – the kind of places you’d be just as comfortable going ...
The appointment of an advisory board for Oranga Tamariki is welcome and should be a step toward a total transformation of the care and protection system to a by Māori, for Māori approach, Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft said today. Minister ...
Taking control of your financial wellbeing can have cascading positive impacts for your life and it can also be fun. With the help of the team at Kiwi Wealth, we’ve compiled some simple tricks for balancing your books in 2021. There’s something about the beginning of a new year, especially after ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kris Gledhill, Professor of Law, Auckland University of Technology As we know, getting into New Zealand during the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult. There are practicalities, such as high airfare and managed isolation costs. And there are legal requirements, including pre-flight testing, mandatory ...
New Zealand faces the risk of a generation being locked out of the housing market unless land is freed up and more houses built, National Party leader Judith Collins says. ...
On Sunday, Stuff published a months-long investigation by Alison Mau detailing allegations of harassment and exploitation within the local music industry.The piece, ‘Music industry professionals demand change after speaking out about its dark side’, includes allegations of inappropriate behaviour and abuse of power by male artists, international acts and executives; ...
“The Government is all at sea on timelines for Australia and New Zealand’s respective vaccine roll-outs, with the worst news coming from the mouth of Pfizer Australia CEO Anne Harris,” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “Yesterday, under increasing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Claire Higgins, Senior Research Fellow, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden promised the US would demonstrate “global leadership on refugees”. Once elected, he pledged to vastly increase refugee resettlement in the US. If history is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Baumann, Casual Academic, School of Social Sciences & Psychology, Western Sydney University Among the many hard truths exposed by COVID-19 is the huge disparity between the world’s rich and poor. As economies went into freefall, the world’s billionaires increased their already ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jan Lanicek, Senior Lecturer in Modern European History and Jewish History, UNSW On January 27 communities worldwide commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz — the largest complex of concentration camps and extermination centres during the Holocaust. This is the first year the International ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lorinda Cramer, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Australian Catholic University The summer break is over, marking a return to the office. For some, this ends almost a year of working from home in lockdown. Some analysts are predicting it might also mark an enduring ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for January 27, keeping you up to date with the latest local and international news. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nzOur members make The Spinoff happen! Every dollar contributed directly funds our editorial team – click here to learn more about how you can support us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato New Zealand has a strong history of protecting and promoting human rights at home and internationally, and prides itself on being an outspoken critic and global leader in this area. So, when the most ...
Good morning and welcome to the Bulletin. In today’s edition: Collins outlines the plan forward for National, no spread of Covid spotted yet in Northland, and students return for climate protest.In front of a Rotary Club at the Ellerslie Racecourse in Auckland, National leader Judith Collins yesterday set out her ...
*This articlefirst appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. The tourism industry isn't holding its breath for a trans-Tasman travel bubble being in place after Australia temporarily closed its borders to New Zealand. New Zealanders could be waiting even longer for a full trans-Tasman bubble, with the ...
We continue our week-long examination of New Zealand writer Roderick Finlayson with an essay by Anahera Gildea on cultural appropriation Every night at 7pm sharp, my Irish Catholic father and his eight siblings would have to kneel on the carpet of the living room, facing the freshly polished nudity of ...
Children's Minister Kelvin Davis will have independent eyes and ears across Oranga Tamariki over the next five months as the Government tries to change the work and practices of the ministry. The Government has created a Māori-led watchdog to oversee how the children's ministry, Oranga Tamariki, deals with parents and ...
A Covid reset will force costly and inflexible cities to take a hard look at their planning systems, or people will vote with their feet. Broken urban planning systems make for misery even in the best of times. If land use and housing regulations prevent metropolitan areas from growing up or out as ...
Corrina Gage has represented New Zealand in a trio of water sports. But it's her love for waka ama - and the opportunities it gives paddlers from 5 to 85 - that keeps her racing and coaching around the world. Lake Karāpiro is quiet and still now. But last week, it was all noise ...
When an Auckland school classroom went up in flames in December last year, exploding asbestos over neighbouring houses, five separate government agencies were involved. Yet stressed residents dealing with the aftermath on their homes say the response felt chaotic and uncoordinated; even local MPs who got involved couldn't get the information they wanted. Hundreds of thousands of ...
The pandemic has accelerated the trend of doing our banking online instead of in person. This rapid digital embrace has, in turn, sped up the closure of many smaller bank branches. But, as Mark Jennings writes, there are new branches springing up with a different look and purpose. Auckland’s Wynyard ...
Telling a Rotary Club audience that housing is a serious problem and they should care deeply about it landed flat but took some daring from the National leader, writes Justin Giovannetti.Judith Collins’ level of control over the National Party is still a question best answered by a shrug.Elevated to her ...
A gang turf war gripped the South Auckland suburb in late 2020, forcing schools to lock down and armed police to patrol the streets. Community leaders are now warning the cycle of violent retribution could continue in 2021, unless radical interventions are made.The violent altercations that loomed large in Ōtara ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Véronique Duché, A.R. Chisholm Professor of French, University of Melbourne In this series, writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and on screen. When I first heard that Rowan Atkinson was to put on Maigret’s velvet-collared overcoat, I wondered ...
Auckland writer Olivia Hayfield* explains how she resurrected 16th-century playwright Christopher Marlowe to star in her new novel, Sister to Sister. Olivia Hayfield is a pen name. Real name: Sue Copsey. When I’m planning my modern retellings of historical tales, I read widely on the characters and see who leaps out at ...
The Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine could be approved as early as next week, Marc Daalder reports Medsafe will be asked to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 on February 2, the Government has announced. The Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee (MAAC) is an independent panel that provides advice on some medicine approvals in ...
COMMENT:By Bryan Kramer, PNG’s Minister of Police who has defended Commissioner Manning’s appointment today in The National My last article, announcing that I intend to make a submission to the National Executive Council (NEC) to amend the Public Service regulation to no longer require the Commissioner of Police to ...
The Point of Order Trough Monitor was triggered today by the announcement of a $9 million handout for Southlanders – sorry, some Southlanders. The news came from the office of Grant Robertson who, as Minister of Finance, prefers to invest public money rather than give it away – especially when ...
Few people outside of her campaign team gave Chlöe Swarbrick any chance of winning in Auckland Central this year – but the Green Party MP was too busy to listen. Here’s how they turned the electorate green.First published November 12, 2020.Three Ticks Chlöe is part of Frame, a series of short ...
Interactions between parents and healthcare providers could have a big impact on the wellbeing of our children, according to new research. The way parents and healthcare providers interact has lasting implications for children’s health, new research has found – and that includes immunisation uptake.Released today, the report is based on research ...
The Opposition starts the political year calling for emergency, temporary legislation to free up house building National leader Judith Collins has set five priorities for her party over the next three years - but excluded climate change, education and Crown-Māori relations. Giving her first 'state of the nation' speech as party ...
One of the biggest challenges facing the Ardern government is in public health. New Zealand may have escaped the pressures heaped on other health systems by the Covid-19 pandemic but its health service has had its problems, not least those exposed in the first report from Heather Simpson and her ...
New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has revealed that 14 close contacts of the Northland community case have returned negative test results. Yesterday he announced two close contacts – her husband and hair dresser – were negative. In his tweet, Hipkins described the news as “encouraging”. However, New ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the arbitrary and opaque experiments that Google is conducting with its search engine in Australia, with the consequence that many national news websites are no longer appearing in the search results seen by some users. The Australian, ABC, Australian Financial ...
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta says councils can take stronger action against companies dumping contaminated waste water, even though they have identified loopholes in the law on fines. ...
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For a long time, weighted blankets were considered a specialist device. Now they’re popular with even the most normal sleepers.Growing up, Temple Grandin spent time on her aunt’s cattle ranch in America, watching cow after stressed cow enter a squeeze chute and come out calm as the dead sea. She ...
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The latest fleeing driver statistics show the numbers of incidents sky-rocketing out of control through 2020 with Police deciding the only tactic is to give up on chasing altogether, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The inconvenient truth is ...
With new revelations of the appalling racism behind Israel’s refusal to provide Covid-19 vaccines to 4.5 million Palestinians under its occupation and control, PSNA has renewed our call for the government to speak out alongside the United Nations ...
The Youth of NZ will be standing up for climate action once again, on January 26th outside of Parliament for School Strike 4 Climate NZ’s 100 Days 4 Action campaign rally. “COVID-19 may have stopped us in our tracks in the past. However, I tend ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Parwinder Kaur, Associate Professor | Director, DNA Zoo Australia, University of Western Australia Koalas are unique in the animal kingdom, living on a eucalyptus diet that would kill other creatures and drinking so little their name comes from the Dharug word gula, ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Binoy Kampmark, Senior Lecturer in Global Studies, Social Science & Planning, RMIT University Since 2005, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has been one of the most stable and enduring of political forces, both in Europe and on the global stage. During her 16 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Véronique Duché, A.R. Chisholm Professor of French, University of Melbourne In this series, writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and on screen. When I first heard that Rowan Atkinson was to put on Maigret’s velvet-collared overcoat, I wondered ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. Experts are calling for hotels with sub-par ventilation systems to no longer be used as managed isolation facilities as health officials investigate how a Northland woman became infected with Covid-19 while staying at the Pullman hotel, Rowan Quinn reports. ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for January 26, keeping you up to date with the latest local and international news. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nzOur Members make The Spinoff happen! Every dollar contributed directly funds our editorial team – click here to learn more about how you can support us ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Questions to be answered about case in the community, major companies flagrantly breaching wastewater consents, and Tenancy Tribunal decisions harming abuse survivors.As of this morning, we’re still waiting on some crucial information about the situation in Northland, after a person travelled ...
With democracy what now separates the US from its adversaries, Wellington can bet on more continuity than change in Washington’s hardline view of China. ...
We continue our week-long examination of writer Roderick Finlayson. Today: his daughter Kate on his doomed love for Poti Mita, whose family inspired him to write short stories about Māori life in the 1930s We all knew of Poti Mita and how important Pukehina was to Dad. He wanted ...
Sleepyhead is chopping and changing its ambitious plan to build a super-factory and a community of 1100 medium density houses on a block of farmland in the north Waikato. Sydney Turner set his grandsons Craig and Graeme to work on the factory floor, building mattresses. Now Craig and Graeme Turner own ...
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Woman sues ABC over Media Watch comments on her trip to United States
by RACHEL OLDING, Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 16 March 2015
A Sydney woman of American heritage is suing the ABC’s Media Watch for depicting her as a backer of, and a PR mouthpiece for, the brutal regime of President Barack Obama.
In a politically-sensitive case that will test alleged bias in media coverage of….
Read more…
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/woman-sues-abc-over-media-watch-comments-on-her-trip-to-syria-20150315-1420yg.html
Media watch is an opinionated hosted critique by an established senior legal or journalist figure.
It has a history of controversy and I await some background on the piece, the woman and SMH angle as it may be more about getting at that pesky ABC than actual bias.
Looks like the Insurance industry is gearing up to turn disaster insurance into a public private partnership. I would appreciate an informed, independent analysis of this topic and the press release from the Insurance Council of NZ.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1503/S00161/insurance-council-signs-un-statement-on-disaster-resilience.htm
Widen that analysis to the entire corporate sector and govts who turn chaos and mayhem into opportunity and plunder.
Naomi Klein’s ‘The Shock Doctrine’ covers what she calls ‘disaster capitalism’ quite well.
There’s certainly no human tragedy which can’t be turned into a chance to make a buck or two – well, billions actually.
Ain’t capitalism great?
Phil F
L Randall Wray – the evolution and instability of financialised money manager capitalism
Approx 21 mins. Wray is also an exponent of ‘Modern Monetary Theory’ which describes how governments can deficit spend to create money into an economy for households to use and save, quite independent of taxes and borrowing.
Why do people in NZ love to hate the middle class?
Why do those on the left in particular make such snide comments about middle class people?
Why do normally tolerant people who are all for liberal thinking and ethnic tolerance simply turn to shit when they see a bunch of middle class people?
I see it is Tahu Potiki’s turn to act in a prejudiced and bigoted manner against people based solely on photos of them appearing to be middle class, in having a crack at the kauri tree protestors. Tahu Potiki of course is maori and a some-time commentator from Dunedin-ways. He has likely experienced bigotry and prejudice and the like, yet he simple-headedly does the same himself. In his column this morning (no link yet sorry) he, on several occasions, ranted against these people on the basis of their middle classness alone. Tahu’s rant exposes in himself the same faults in humans that he has likely been subjected to himself – namely bigotry and prejudice.
Leave the middle class alone ffs. It is a failure in so very many ways to reference things to them in ways like Tahu Potiki has done.
The middle class want to save that kauri, or a kākāpō, or that mountain from having a windfarm put on it, but they don’t want to give up the affluence that threatens those things in the first place. They’re not alone in this of course (it seems to apply across all classes), but I think the idea is that the middle classes have more choice than the working class and underclass because of their assets and income and more sensibility for what’s right than the wealth class. Stuck in the middle.
Sure I can imagine how that might be imagined, however it is all conjecture and assumption on the part of the likes of Potiki. There is never any good argument put forward or evidnce provided for anything he intimated, not those matters you have highlighted above. Nothing. Just assumption.
It would actually be a good issue to dive into and evaluate properly – you know, comfortable in their jobs, nice 4wd, huge mortgage, provisional tax, pilloried and plied, ignorant and shallow, unknowing of anything but materiality, the list goes on …..
I can’t comment on Potiki until I read his article, and unfortunately you have a history of misrepresenting people’s word in situations like this.
I was more commenting on why some lefties in general have a downer on the middle class and from my perspective (others will tell it differently). I don’t think it’s what people imagine, it’s an analysis based on knowledge and experience (sure my comment was shorthanded and generalised).
“ignorant and shallow, unknowing of anything but materiality”
I’m less worried about those ones, than the ones that can think, who appreciate values other than possessions and consumption, who should know better but still aren’t willing to do what is needed to redress their privilege.
It is my neighbourhood. It is very middle class. But god bless every single one of them they were all motivated to save that ancient Kauri.
Probably a bit of NIMBYism going on as well. Nicer for the Titirangi locals to have a few trees about rather than infill housing.
+tahi. I’m grateful too, both for the trees saved, and for the inspiration and flow on effects.
Where did you read the article in question, vto?
I would like to comment but need to read Tahu’s own words first rather than rely on your interpretation of what he may have written or have been quoted as saying.
It should turn up here eventually. I don’t know how long they take to put them up on the web though. Otherwise try the Press in hardcopy (was that today vto?)
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/columnists/tahu-potiki/
Myself, I find Potiki’s articles thought-provoking even where I disagree with him.
Looks as if I may have to toddle down the street in search of the Press unless, perish the thought, it was in the ODT!
I did a search of the Press website and failed to find it thus far.
vto is in Chch or thereabouts so I’m guessing this one is in the Press. I’m interested to read it now too.
Bought the Press, read the article, don’t entirely support vto’s perception of what the article in its entirety was saying.
That said, I don’t necessarily agree with his take on the Titirangi ‘save the trees’ event. My views are shaped from active involvement in resource management processes in the past and what I see as a flawed process that allowed a non-notified consent in the first place.
I took the article as a whole to reflect on the clashes of culture around resource use, management and preservation, conservation, restoration and how different groups place more or less emphasis on one idealised part.
Leaving out the ‘middle class’ references, what I read reminded me of my childhood experiences of going to catch whitebait with my father, uncle and grandparents and seeing hundred of very large eels rotting on the riverbank because the Acclimatisation Society wanted the trout to be predator free. It was horrific to see (and smell) but was an example to me of the lengths that the settler society would go to prioritise what was important to them.
One point that the article made, I thought, was that there is an element of hypocrisy in those who live on sections that were clear felled in the past, to deny to others the right to remove trees in order to enjoy their own section. I can see that viewpoint even if I disagree with it.
Suffice it to say, I neither agree nor disagree with the article in its totality and I found it an interesting read.
It is too long for me to type as a whole and, at the time of writing, is not up on the Press website but it is provocatively titled ‘A Grand Win for the Busybodies’.
hi vto,
what sticks in my craw with the middle class is the aspirations.
the idea of getting ahead.
i watched a ricardo semler ted talk (thanx felix) yesty.
he said if you get to a point in your life where you want to give back then you took too much in the first place.
had an interesting conversation with a self made man. he was ranting about the poor and how they should be saving to get their first property, leverage that to get a rental…(you get the picture), he could not see that for there to be a landlord there must be a tenant.
so as weka says below (or above), about an unwillingness to give up some affluence so all have enough.
its the ‘i’m alright jack’ or ‘blow the bridge i’m over’
I have yet to read Potiki’s opinion piece, but I take it from vto’s comment that he is attacking the middle class for the kind of safe activism that does not challenge the status quo – for engaging in their own little “rose revolutions” and congratulating themselves on “making a difference.”
As to the cry of “Why does NZ love to hate the middle class?” quite a few middle class people are either indifferent to the suffering of others or despise them for having gotten into that position in the first place. People you despise tend to despise you in turn. It is an aspect of what Stiglitz was talking about in an article RedLogix put up a few days ago, about the erosion of social trust.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/21/in-no-one-we-trust/?_r=0
Or you could see the middle class thinking of assets and income as being like lollies in a lolly scramble. They were out there and the people with the most were the hardest working and most motivated. Of course lolly scrambles have recently led to images of large young men scooping up the most amongst children that only came to their knees. Not cricket old man!
upon reflection i need to give myself an uppercut.
i see myself (socially) to the far left. by that we are all one.
bill hicks says it best: we are all one consciousness expressing itself subjectively.
with that in mind, i am criticizing myself with my words above.
if i grew up in their shoes (the middle class) and had thir experiences i would behave the same.
just need to express a bit more tolerance or as my nana said- if you cant say something nice dont say anything at all.
It’s more accurate to say that for there to be a landlord there must be many tenants. It is a question of support. Each landlord requires many tenants to support them.
While I haven’t read the article you’re referring to vto, I think you you make an interesting point:
“Why do normally tolerant people who are all for liberal thinking and ethnic tolerance simply turn to shit when they see a bunch of middle class people?”
I’ve seen this happen in conversations here at TS and heard it plenty in real life too. I find it a bit puzzling. It raises more questions for me than I have theories for as to why there is a dividing line where tolerance ends and spite begins
I wonder if it is hatred and mistrust that is intergenerational and so ingrained as if it has been handed down from our colonial past when we were Little Britain with it’s clear cut class groups (as much as settlers said they wanted to escape that but failed to do so).
Who are the middle class these days? We have shifting sands beneath the feet of society. Once people could be more upwardly mobile (and whether betraying/abandoning your class was scorned or applauded is another aside) but in very general terms, the effects of a Nat govt has bumped many once financially comfortable people harshly down the ladder whilst those below landed in a heap beneath them, finding themselves in an even more precarious living situation.
It’s often talked about, while many are being left behind the elite have increased their power control and wealth. So where are the middle classes in that? Are they the survivors?
Is middle class defined by wealth? Is it defined by the display of that wealth? Is it defined by the expression of taste? Lols, if taste comes into it then I wonder what my neighbours north of me in the higher priced houses end think they are achieving by trying to out do one another with the purchase of the latest shiniest largest luxury range SUV money can by. Are they trying to express their middle class-ness or are they just pathetic try hards?
So who are the middle class that folks criticise?
Or is it related to wealth and being rightly critical of the self serving behaviour of the wealthy who trample over others to get a bigger slice. for example, maybe an employer who has built a profitable business on the back of low paid, poorly treated workers?
In that case is the class group the employer belongs to seen as the oppressor, where in fact it is the boss being oppressive and who should be the focus of criticism? Is it wealth or class that oppresses in the case of the employer?
Should we not judge a person on their actions and behaviour rather than their class, what ever that is?
Gee Rosie, you are carrying this PC thing too far saying that the middle class should not be pointed at or criticised because they have feelings.
The middle class have willingly separated themselves off from struggling NZ as if that group were lepers. The women have got jobs where they often administer to the poorer class, rather patronisingly. And they feel entitled to their superior position and consequently don’t pay much attention to the structural side of the downward trend, aggravated by enabling policy.
The upper class live in a different planet and most rarely come down from the Ramtops to attempt to suss out what mayhem they are causing or enabling to the rest of NZ.
The middle class are still living the dream that they were brought up with and fully expect that their superior standards will be maintained for ever. All this talk about environment and climate is exaggerated and technology will deal with it. At present their task is to maintain their lovely home, educate their children to
ensure a well paid and fulfilling position, and keep their minds on higher things, such as art, healthy food. maintaining their looks and overseas holidays.
Is there any wonder that people who have the wide vision to take in all the classes, the whole range of NZers, get pissed off with the dopey, self-satisfied middle class who want it all without accepting citizen responsibility also.
Warbs, lols, please, I am not “carrying a PC thing”. You should know me better than that by now.
And I am definitely not saying they should not be criticised because they have feelings. I have never once mentioned the words feelings or expressed any sympathy for their feelings.
I am mainly asking who they are. How do we identify them? By their wealth, their taste, their level of wankiness?
The group you are referring to above are displaying attitudes and behaviours that are isolationist and excluding, anti the collective good and self promoting, potentially at the cost of the well being of others. I know these types and dislike them intensely for their selfish and cruel ways. (In fact I have had a run in with one of these sorts in recent days. The level of hatred for the concept of equality expressed by this person was truly gobsmacking).
So would you say middle class is defined by a set of behaviours and attitudes? (which comes back to wankiness)
The above behaviours you mention, I see belonging to the group within society that holds right wing views. I’m not sure that the entire spectrum of the middle classes is exclusively right wing, who ever this middle class are.
Hi Rosie
Middle class is a broad target. Which ones to shoot? I am thoroughly middle class myself without the necessary assets and liquidity to ponce about. So let’s keep on criticising the middle class as it’s a bit like throwing balls at a stall with moving faces in the fairground.
And it is hard to dent a middle class person’s self esteem. That’s how you know them. They just look at you with their eyebrows raised and either patronisingly smile or just turn away bored. There’s one of those rent-a-crowd rabble they say, just too too boring and repetitive. Always doing nothing and saying not fair. Of course they don’t like people who act vigorously to even up the fiscal balance either.
.
I usually mean what most people call “upper middle class” when I say “middle class” Which can lead to misunderstandings because it seems others mean a majority or large minority rather than this minority.
A particular cultural group rather than amount of money. Things that spring to mind are – highly socially connected; people who have influence, who have contacts, who have contacts who have contacts, which can cover a huge range of influence in a society, formally educated and qualified, use language very precisely but usually use effective subtext and nuance to express aggression, rank etc., who have particular social behaviours and understandings, who as a group are often unaware that their own behaviours and language can have very different meanings to those from other class cultures, people who tend to define, by their choices, what is considered “good taste” “good manners” “good ideas” etc.,
And heaps more but I don’t have time right now. People don’t control what class they are born into and it doesn’t determine goodness or badness, but middle-class is a variety of privilege. Like most privilege it is often either unrecognised or underrecognised and it is this that is often the source of most of the misunderstandings and occasional outright animosity imho.
Thank you just saying. I find that a very helpful beginning to understanding who the middle class are. I can envision this ‘class’ more clearly now as I know of people that belong to this particular grouping.
The people that I know that fit your definition I don’t find particularly offensive, and while there is an unspoken knowing between these folk and myself that a different level of privilege is enjoyed by them it doesn’t cause a tension.
On the hand, there are others I know of, like the person who I had a run in with, who fit some aspects of your definition, influential, with contacts / connections and formally educated and qualified, privileged in several ways but whose social skills are under developed, whose emotional intelligence is low and who are focused on the acquisition of wealth and property as a symbol of their success.
So if class doesn’t determine goodness or badness as you say perhaps it comes down to personality and behaviour, as to the source of division?
I’m just grappling and my head isn’t in the best place today.
I’m saying they are a a minority which has a big vested interest in the status quo. Some admit this and work hard to make their communities fairer anyway. Many don’t.
Ok, thanks js. Appreciate your input. It’s making sense to me.
It’s a fascinating sociological topic.
I found that a useful sub thread too, thanks.
I would add that a sense of entitlement exists within the middle class that I don’t see so much in the working or underclass.
Pitoki is a hard right tribal elitist who thinks the middle class should stick to worrying about property values.
He is part of the iwi aristocracy that the treaty settlement process has created.
This might be a good place to mention a new book reviewed on Radionz this morning. It shows the nefarious ways that cunning pakeha managed to wangle land out of Maori hands. We ought to know this because it is behind Maori grievances which the Treaty of Waitangi is partly recompensing and the reason that it should not be too hurried and that Maori should be able to tell their histories.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20171204
Book review – At the Margin of Empire ( 6′ 16″ )
10:38 Paul Diamond reviews ‘At the Margin of Empire: John Webster and the Hokianga, 1842-1900’ by Jennifer Ashton. Published by Auckland University Press.
Another book to buy! Thanks, greywarshark. 😀
And you base your opinion on what, exactly, Millsy. Citing references would be really good, if possible.
BTW, you spell his last name POTIKI.
Tahu Potiki, by virtue of his whakapapa alone, was born a member of the iwi aristocracy if looked at through Eurocentric eyes. That he has worked hard to make himself a 21st century leader of his whanau, hapu and iwi is all his own doing and nothing at all to do with Treaty settlement processes.
As for his political views, I only know what he has published. If you see him as hard right you have either read things I haven’t or read into what was published what I didn’t. We are each entitled to our own views and perhaps mine are shaped by knowing the person and thus seeing an entirety, or as much as anyone may know another without being them!
Hi articles have a right wing slant. Plus he is on the charter schools advisory committee.
Chur all comments above. Unfortunately as often seems to be the case I must away and have no time today to respond. Fwiw I see no difference in tolerance, willingness to protest the wrong, or anything like that, based on class. I do not see the lower classes doing more of this stuff (if anything I see them doing less and it aint because we have less). I do not see the upper classes doing more of this stuff at all either – they are too busy with the planning of their mid-winter escape-NZ hols looming now summer is at an end. I actually see most of the protesting of things wrong being carried out by so-called middle-class types.
Middle class types protested the kauris apparently. Good. It is they who protest the environment damagers mostly. It is the middle class who do most of the heavy lifting. That is what I see.
So in actual fact Mr Potiki has it completely arse-about. The reason he saw middle class people protesting at the kauris was because it is the middle class who do most of this stuff. They do the grunt. They get out on the street. They write to MPs.
The middle class should be supported in its efforts not vilified.
Kiaora vto
So in actual fact Mr Potiki has it completely arse-about. The reason he saw middle class people protesting at the kauris was because it is the middle class who do most of this stuff. They do the grunt. They get out on the street. They write to MPs.
The Waipoua Forest in Northland is a remnant Kauri Forest whose most famous inhabitant is Tāne Mahuta. Tāne is about 2,500 years old. The forest is riddled with Kauri Die-back Disease which is lethal to Kauri. The people trying to save the massive and ancient trees in this forest come from all walks of life.
People from all over Northland (hardly a bastion of middle-classness) consistently maintain a presence at the entrance to Waipoua to ensure people wash their footwear before entering the forest. This has been going on for a number of years. This is grunt work in action.
I can’t find that one, but I saw another column saying Maori should vote National. I’m glad the tree’s still there.
Was driving my old hot rod truck to work today, and noticed a couple of cyclists out in the Chch cold wearing their hi-viz gears and their helmets.
At the lights I pondered the general lack of cyclists on the road this morning, and the debate on cycle helmets, cyclist numbers and societal obesity aided by folk travelling to work in their old hot rod trucks instead of biking. (You can ponder these things if you dont turn the wireless on in the morning)
I have also seen the massive carnage of head injuries, but the simple truth is that most of those are alcohol related – auto accidents and assaults rather than bike accidents. And politicians have demonstrated over and over (regardless of who is in power) that they will not address our alcohol issues.
So should adults have the option of travelling helmetless if they are wearing hi-viz gear? More folk biking is good for the health of the nation
Do you mean that having to wear a helmet puts people off biking?
I think the stats to compare are % of head injuries in bike accidents from before helmets were compulsory and after.
Im saying that that there may be some public health gains if adults didnt have to wear helmets, but wore safety vests instead.
The argument is out there saying that helmets put the vain of biking, (cant mess your hair up aye)
So any reduction in head injuries is the result of less adults biking, not in a similar number of cyclists having fewer serious head injuries due to wearing the helmets.
My take is that kids should wear the helmets because they arent necessarily as spatially aware as the average adult on a bike. I thought the vests I saw today stood out like dog nuts and gave us drivers fair warning of the cyclists ahead.
That makes sense, although from a public health or accident prevention perspective it might be a bit complex. We need to change the culture, and things like building every road with cyclists in mind would help.
Plan and build separately for cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists.
Absolutely! For commuting, shopping and recreation it’s a pleasure to cycle in Europe in the sunshine, safely, with just a sunhat on.
Cycling for sport might still be a problem though.
It’s too difficult to cycle in relative safety in NZ and some of the cycleways that are being put in don’t meet cyclists needs. My favourite example is Karo Drive in Wellington where the planners had decided the cycleway on a brand new road should be built to end on one side of Karo Drive and start again on the other at the Cuba Street intersection. To swap sides they’ve put a diagonal cycle crossing on an intersection between two very busy pedestrian crossings. Chaos ensues.
Also the cycleway on the SH1 Taupo bypass – I do wonder how many tourists want to bypass Taupo. Or how many Taupo residents would use it.
Wiki summarises the cycle helmet debate quite well, I think, although this article doesn’t extend road design issues.
Do the stats show a significant improvement post helmet? I wear my helmet but reluctantly.
Do what I did, wake up in the middle of the road confused and combative with an ambulance officer standing over you, my thanks once again to Colin Slaughter, telling you you’ve had an accident and because you’ve been unconscious for quite some time he couldn’t just take you straight home so best he takes you to base hospital.
Thirty something stitches to sew an ear back on, another dozen to sew up scalp lacerations, an overnight stay to observe a serious concussion, cognitive impairments lasting several months and headaches that persist thirty years on and I reckon you’ll gladly wear a helmet.
Thanks for that joe 90. Your answer is what I have felt was needed to counter this drop your helmet macho stuff. They are a nuisance but the harm to the individual from head injuries can result in differing levels of loss of function but all of much concern.
In advanced cases of damage there is also the destruction of family life and happy relationships because of the need for lifelong care for the person who is not wholely well, perhaps with violent mood swings, and the cost in health care and rehabilitation to the nation is a good reason for everybody wearing a hemet. We block out how fragile we are on bikes on roads with metal tanks zooming at our side, and the bigger vehicles that have been foisted on the country are like tanks, and in my normal car I hate their great big wide backsides blocking my horizontal view and the high back window meaning I can’t see beyond them. Cyclists can’t either.
Mine is not a call to “drop your helmet” macho stuff as you so eloquently put it.
You could say I have a vested interest” in this subject, but regardless of this, what we are dealing with is the societal cost of serious brain injury (ACC, a few years back indicated it was a $2m per accident cost).
Beyond the societal financial costs, theres the massive mess it makes for the victims life, the victims family and the victims friends. Greywarshark is on the money with his/her comments. $2m per accident is about $0.50 per person, so at a Government fiscal level, not a big deal. (Especially since we pay levies to ACC so its not directly out of the tax war chest). But its a massive deal for the family of the victim.
We also have an obesity epidemic on the horizon. And that comes out of the health budget and is out of the tax war chest, so how to we make progress on that? Putting sugary foods back into school tuck shops as the Nats did as soon as they got back into power was one of the dopiest moves I have ever seen.
In terms of societal changes to health across the population, obesity isn’t a problem so much as diabetes and other Syndrome X diseases are. Obesity itself is not a disease (it’s possible to be fat and healthy, or thin and unhealthy).
Lots of really good reasons to get more people biking, and your point about whether helmets are a disincentive is worth considering.
Good call joe90.
I grew up next to a family (the parents, kids and quite a few of the cousins) who were fanatically mad-keen competitive cyclists – both road and track. It was the local “headquarters” of the cycling club at their place so there were cyclists everywhere on weekends. Talk to anyone of them and they were 100% behind helmets for all cyclists – they experienced the roads and traffic (and crappy NZ driving), they saw the consequences of being hit by motor vehicles.
So I say suck it up NZ and keep wearing your helmets – and get alongside the road planners and as OAB says get some decent separation for cyclists, pedestrians & motorists.
Used to cycle to work. When I didn’t wear a helmet, cars definitely gave me more room when overtaking etc. Never wore a helmet as a kid. Smashed my face up once by going straight over the handlebars, (know of others who have similar tales) wrecked knees and hands etc over and again, but never, ever landed on my head coming off a bike and don’t know anyone who did.
I’d actually be interested if cyclists head injuries are caused primarily by car impacts (likely given body trajectories and vehicle shape) and then have some info on what impact those helmets take. To overstate, if the impact is going to cause you serious injury or death, do the helmets actually offer any protection? I get that they will likely lessen the injuries caused by ‘moderate’ impacts, but at what speed of impact do they become pointless? I can’t really see them doing much to protect against a head being slammed by a hunk of metal moving at 50km/h…or should that be 70km/h…30km/h?
Yes, as I understand it, most of the serious injuries are when a car or other vehicle is involved. I don’t know what the optimal speed to injury ratio is but I would think that any protection is better than none when being hit by a car no matter what the speed. I’m thinking about the effect of not just the head being hit, but the body being hit and the force afterwards when the person bounces and hits their head on something. Don’t want to go into the grisly detail particularly, but I assume there are different ways that head injuries happen not just direct car to head trauma.
There are far too many stories like this one to make me even contemplate going without a helmet.
I do recall a coroner’s report in the paper about a cyclist who rode into the back of a stopped truck and died (in a unique twist on the “cyclist vs truck” story that almost always ends very badly).
Basically, the calculated speed at impact was I think in excess of 50km/hr (long downhill run). The coroner noted that at those speeds a bike helmet isn’t a lot of use, and really a full motorcycle helmet would have been needed to give the guy a chance.
But then I also saw a cyclist do a somersault over a car bonnet, when the driver had obviously been looking for oncoming cars, not bikes. Even though the speed was relatively low, I’m glad he was wearing a helmet – I suspect it seriously reduced the paperwork associated with the incident (I think the driver was in more shock than the cyclist – the first thing she said was “this is a new car” in a tone that strongly suggested concern over scratched paintwork. But the fact she was pale and shaking and took a minute or two to get with it made me put it down to “funny shit people say in extremis”).
Yeah, Bill, I whacked the top of my head against a gutter when I came off as an unprotected lad.
Later at Uni in the late sixties, a fellow student wore a pudding basin motorcycle helmet when cycling- when asked why, he said his father was a brain surgeon. I got that message.
And later, when teaching health at secondary, I’d ask the boys whether they’d like to run flat out head first into a concrete lamp post. They got that message.
That does appear to be the case.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/10154986/Bicycle-helmet-debate-reignited
http://helmetfreedom.org/888/2-4-million-australians-put-off-their-bikes-by-helmet-laws/
Please fix the RSS feed. It was much better when it had the full story in it. Part of my day is spent outside of network access but if I cache the RSS feed I can keep up to date with the site. With it as excerpts I am behind and miss things.
One of the economic discussions now in NZ is about deflation. English is claiming the low to zero rate of inflation means that pay rises of 2% are really good pay rises.
Of course, if you’re one of the large number of low-paid living in the greater Auckland area paying rent and/or trying to save to buy a house, or paying a mortgage, that isn’t the case.
Deflation also presents problems of its own.
There always seems to be something going wrong in capitalism. Inflation is too high or too low. The dollar is too high or too low. We have a rock star economy, yet a mass of low-paid casualised workers and a chunk of workers who have zero-hour contracts. And still substantial levels of poverty.
Anyway, here’s the always-excellent Michael Roberts on the problems of deflation in economies:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/what-does-deflation-mean-for-economies/
Phil
As for how capitalism works and why, ultimately it doesn’t, here’s my little contribution:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/how-capitalism-works-%E2%80%93-and-doesn%E2%80%99t-work/
Here’s something I did some years ago on capitalism’s currency craziness: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/420/
And excellent video of Michael Roberts on Marx’s crisis theory and the world economy today: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/08/18/marxism-2014-michael-roberts-on-world-economy-plus-discussion-session/
Phil
Our primary production, our lifeblood keeping the nation ticking so we can have elections and afford a government. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20171199
Latest on our once thriving sheep and beef farming from Radionz.
Crunch time for sheep and beef farms: report ( 28′ 56″ )
09:08 Farmers say the 8 billion dollar sheep and beef industry is approaching crisis point, and a single cooperative business model similar to Fonterra is the only way forward. Meat Industry Excellence group chairman, John McCarthy and Murray Taggart is Chair of the Alliance Group.
That was an interesting discussion. What I’d be interested to know though is whether or not farmers felt better off when we had the old ‘meat producer’s’ board, before the dereg mantra kicked in during the 80’s, etc.
I’m thinking that at present, Alliance and ?? are merely gigantic ticket clippers and that a more co-op system would be better.
I’m no expert on this issue but it troubles me that the actual producers seem to be getting little return, and the NZ public generally are being ripped (with shit meat sold thru’ supermarkets, pumped with water, etc.)
What are your thoughts?
A sideline – an interesting thing is that the butchers in supermarkets in Nelson get most of their meat precutup in Christchurch. Just another way that food is being prepared using factory processes and trucked a long way.
I wonder too about the advantages of a co-op. It was tried a while ago, to have more synergy with companies but failed to get the big tick. I think it may be that some of the sheep farmers are doing all right and don’t give a rats arse about any other producers. Now that rudeness might be undeserved but that sort of thing happens. The magnetic attraction to one’s own interests entirely is often irresistible.
IMO the best way is probably to have two companies, one a farmer-owned co-operative, and the other a privately owned/listed company. Two competing systems.
NORTHLAND BY-ELECTION WATCH: [or is it BI/BRIBE/BUY/BYE election watch?]
Winston is trying to win this by-election ALL BY HIMSELF and his bus, while a bridgeload of mustered Nats have been continuously descending on Northland day after day at tax payer’s expense of travel and time to beat the wise old man.
It would be interesting to see how many Nat Cabinet ministers, MPs and others have been here or will be here in pathetic panic state to pump up their own O for awesome candidate and beat Winny.
Here is my list so far. Please add to this list if you know of others:
How many Nats does it take to beat an old man?
1. John Key
2. M Osborne
3. Steven Joyce
4. Simon Bridges
5. Maggie Barry.
6. ?
I have just re-posted/transferred this comment to the new post below :
Saturday morning at Kaitaia Market with Maggie Barry were (6) Nikki Kaye and (7) Alfred Ngaro, all flanking Osbourne.
Supported by Ministers free accommodation and travel All on the taxpayers teet.
National digging a deeper hole by the day.
@Clem
When you look at that list Winston may as well stop campaigning now-it’s in the bag!
You can add Bill English to that list. Apparently he’s dropped everything to make a hurried visit.
Bureaucrats everywhere: http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/9741839/Parker-criticises-Dalziel-over-staff-spending
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/16/the-melting-of-antarctica-was-already-really-bad-it-just-got-worse/
What it means to discover that warmer ocean currents actually flow beneath Antarctica’s ice shelves and are melting them from beneath …. sigh.
Someone has been giving Chris Trotter the good Bikkies.
Two fine pieces from Chris I must say.
Enjoy
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2015/03/inflation-is-defeated-but-at-whose.html
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2015/03/empire-games-how-nicky-hagers.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11418586
I know the PM was a big successful money trader and is super clever with numbers and knows this stuff better than I do, but I thought 15% of $1.29 was 20c not 2c 😕
“If you think about iTunes, you download a song and it’s $1.29, there’s no reason why GST shouldn’t apply to that.
“In reality, GST would be 2 cents. But actually, 2 cents over a massive number of transactions still add up.”
you will note from his second comment, it was not a typo by the reporter
explains a lot about our current economy then !!!
What a shock! They have since edited the article. It now says this:
“While the GST on some online goods and services would be very small, such as on a $1.29 iTunes song download, it could still be worth pursuing because of the scale of such purchases, Mr Key said.”
(Forgot to do a screengrab of the original)
they protect him down to his undies, don’t they !!!
If a member of the opposition had said it, can you imagine what the NZH front page would look like right now 🙂
Instead of “Key Cocks Up Calculations” it would be “Labour Minister Fails Simple Math Tests and Costs Country Millions in Tax Take”.
oh dear, freedom .. wish this were not true !
lol, ok, but Key’s cockups and undies protection in close proximity is probably a bit much at this time of day. Or any time really.
@Freedom — but TV3 has just broadcast the full thing on 6 pm news .. and pointing out Key’s mistake !@!
Backgrounder in Guardian about Lynton Crosby .. The Lizard of Oz !
Seems for all his hard and dubious ( or do I mean odious?) work, Cameron is not a shoo in after all … shades of NZ …
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/16/lynton-crosby-win-election-conservatives-tories-political-strategist
good luck to the Scottish National Party. UK Labour, not so much.
CR
I like this author of books about policy and procedure and colleges and skulduggery. She often writes about Ireland and comes up with good fiction. And in the way of the saying that ‘you couldn’t make this shit up’ about reality, she probably is very good with reality too.
Ruth Dudley Edwards writes on the possibility if Scottish Nationalism wins of them going through a blue period as it sorts out allegiances and over-reacts to opposition.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11084603/Scotland-should-heed-a-harsh-lesson-from-across-the-Irish-Sea.html
Ahhh thanks for the link
and this .. he is owner of a Maltese tax haven company !!!
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/03/tory-lynton-crosby-linked-tax-haven
I liked this from rawsharkyeshe No.15 article from The Guardian 16 March 2015 –
– Ed Miliband called Cameron the “Prime minister for Benson and Hedge funds”. –
This Crosby is a devious machine. And the comment on the hardness of Australian politics probably explains why Crosby and Mark Textor are both Australians.
Background to their start in Oz:
Still in his 30s, Crosby was promoted to deputy director and then director of the national party. There he worked with another rising and aggressive Liberal player, Mark Textor. Textor had taken Rod Cameron’s innovations with voter data and focus groups further, creating two archetypal swing voters, an imaginary middle-income couple called Phil and Jenny. The concept became so influential that during the 1996 national election, Liberal candidates would be asked by the campaign managers: “Have you spoken to Phil and Jenny lately?”
After 13 years out of power, the Liberals won. They won again in 1998, in 2001, and 2004. Significantly for the current British election, the Liberals often attracted fewer votes than Labor, usually not much more than 35% of the total, but these were decisively concentrated in marginal seats. “At its absolute simplest, a campaign is finding out who will decide the outcome,” Crosby said in a rare public masterclass he gave for charity in London in 2013, “where are they, what matters to them and how do you reach them?”
He played a central role in all four Liberal victories. The Liberal leader, John Howard, was uncharismatic but shrewd, and listened closely to Crosby. “Elsewhere in the party,” says Mills, Crosby became “somewhat feared and disliked”….
In Britain:
The Australian’s energy and attention to detail, his air of conviction, and his emphasis on the traditional rightwing issues of crime and immigration all won him rave reviews in the Tory press…..
The item relates how he cut and hacked at Livintone ending by Boris Johnson winning as Mayor for London. It finishes by saying that Crosby has to prove himself in the coming British elections. For the sake of his business standing it seems more important for his own standing that David Cameron wins for the Tories.
The British general election is on May 7, 2015.
It also explains why we have the tobacco industry candidates here, doesn’t it ?
Some “left wing” politicians in NZ would be quite tempted to get campaign advice from these right wing spiders. Some already appear to have.
Is it possible sometime to have a discussion about the lamentable habit of some posters to The Standard bastardising other commenters noms de plume.
I don’t personally care how much I personally disagree with a commenter, I have to respect their right to comment and to reflect their chosen ‘nick’ in my comments. I do admit to using abbreviations from time to time.
This is just the latest comment to raise my ire and, I admit, I am perhaps being unfair to single this out but here is a response to Te Reo Putake
‘Another crap article from Pistake. The Standard eh well if this is supposed to be “the standard” of articles the that the standard will put up with then it might be time to instigate a new standard, actually that kinda has a ring to it, “The New Standard” Great diversion tactic Pistake and if you happen to read this and I’m sure you will as your MO seems to dictate such YOU know exactly what I mean.’
If I am old fashioned and out of step, so be it, but can’t we disagree courteously?
I’m with you on that Hateatea. Some, eg those aimed at Fisiani, get pretty tedious and just distract from what is being said (I also think denigrating people via certain body parts adds to our culture’s body hatred but that’s another conversation).
I haven’t noticed whether people do this with real life names or if it’s only the pseudonyms (I suspect the latter). I take people’s names (ID or pseudonym) as extentions of the person so being mean via bastardisation is just a low form of wit that takes us into macho shithead territory pretty fast. I’m sure the defense is that Fisi and others deserve it because of their politics, but I think it will be putting other people off from commenting here and just adds to the culture of meanness unnecessarily.
(the irony of the Pistake commenter was that their comment was almost completely devoid of anything useful).
Yes, the fisiani example is particularly unpleasant, IMO. Not that I am pretending to be prudish. I can be both coarse and vulgar but seldom in public and never, I hope, in print!
I think that some of the verbal put downs do detract from discussion and probably do put people off. I did have to think seriously before I returned to commenting here again because of some of the discussions I read while lurking.
I am glad you have returned. The place will only change if enough people practice communicating well, but I get that sometimes it’s just not worth it.
I know it’s a challenge for me, I find it easy to get into the rude bordering on mean stuff. One of the reasons I like being here at the moment is I get to practice being more tolerant in the face of sometimes extreme provocation 😉
I did however notice recently that in real life I am more likely to argue with people like I do on ts. I’m not sure what I think about this yet. Am steering away from the overly challenging, but am liking my increased capacity to be staunch.
It is similar to the electoral process : you have to participate and vote in order to be able to comment on the outcome, in my opinion. Likewise a person needs to articulate their viewpoint to the best of their ability and hope to receive affirmation or negation from a reasoned response. Sadly, sometimes we all of us post in haste and repent at leisure 😉
I am glad if you are finding your input here is helping you in the real world. I may not always see things the way you do but I respect the manner in which you articulate your thoughts.
@ hateatea
You are unlikely to get brash rudeness here because you are thoughtful about your subjects and you are not repeating provocative comments that cut across the heart of what most of us feel fervently about.
Some people don’t realise that this is a lively forum for people with progressive viewpoints which does not take kindly to them dissing all that the Standardistas believe. Those who do it are sooner or later going to be villified, insulted and unfortunately, not sent to Coventry. People get annoyed and write something to match, or they feel forced to try and present a reasonable argument to the BS they are reading.
Reasonable politeness is received usually but sometimes the comments can be challenging. It’s not a gentle, quiet, meditative retreat. President Putin wouldn’t have come here to relax. But if you want to be safe from the over-excited, the Friday post of the Weekend doings is nice. People talk about the soothing personally useful things they are doing, and smile.
Things have improved recently but I agree with you Hateatea that discussions should be respectful although I have perhaps in the past not lived up to that standard 😀
We are none of us perfect, mickey 😀
come on micky, you’d be one of the leading examples of tolerance and reasonable discussion 😛 I can’t imagine you doing rude or mean (although I feel you could cut a certain beigity less slack).
The problem for me Hateatea is some on the right just attack, or argue in a very disingenuous manner.
Those little epigone to the slug and his mate the lick-spittle propagandist from kiwiblog – have done nothing on this site to earn my respect.
Personally I do deteriorate to a personal attack. Especially in the face of fatuous individuals.
Also, Tory scum, need to reminded the left have a backbone and won’t tolerate – hate, racism, sexism and the sickening devotion to cupidity.
David Fisher is brave and an excellent journalist:
“Analysis: The questions the Government must answer about the Snowden revelations……Can we tell the public what the British public now know to be true about their own security agencies? asks David Fisher?”
If only!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11418653
“Fish” is one of NZ’s leading journalists on this subject matter, no doubt about that.
Yep and he did the mea culpa about Slater very early on. His stuff is always worth a read.
And here is the foreign news – a small but important bit:
http://rt.com/news/241069-putin-rumours-back-alive/
Dated 16 March 2015
‘It’s boring without rumors’: Putin appears in public after week of MSM hysteria
Lots of questions regarding where the heck he “disappeared” to. One which made sense to me said that he had decided to do a few days religious retreat and put matters of state on hold while he recharged and reviewed.
Are you sure you would describe it as a “religious retreat”?
It really is absurd when you think about it. He had a 10 day break. So bloody what? It isn’t a crime to decide you need a break unless of course you are the Russian president…
then you have to do it in secret because your opponents – particularly in the West – will have a collective heart attack and go into a hyperactive state of hysteria.
That Putin was on the way out, either feet first or by a coup of inner circle generals, was probably wishful thinking on the part of a few western opinion makers…
Green Party mail out for members on how the leadership selection process works (no online link, so a long cut and paste sorry).
Very informative thanks Weka for getting that together.
You’re welcome. I’m please to see the GP upping their game on transparency and process 🙂
Yes good to see. A Party to be proud of.
In Question Time today Key lead a reply to Russell’s question with a smart list of the fiscal facts that the Green contenders messed up on. (He had to read the list though.) Okay then. He had a second swipe a little later. OK smarty pants.
But wait. When Key was questioned by reporters tonight about GST on imported goods he said that as an example it would be silly to claim GST off an ITune download costing $1.79 because GST would only be—–wait for it—- about 2 cents.
What!!! Expert smarty pants. It would be about 26cents!
Hope Question Time gets a dig at Key tomorrow re his slip up in view of his Green digs, and to ask about Osbourne deciding the 10 one way bridges for about $70million but unable to name them, though he knew the name of the one near his house.
What goes around comes around.
If slippery has his way on the TPP we’ll be in the same boat.
The U.S. economy is picking up steam but most Americans aren’t feeling it. By contrast, most European economies are still in bad shape, but most Europeans are doing relatively well.
What’s behind this? Two big facts.
First, American corporations exert far more political influence in the United States than their counterparts exert in their own countries.
In fact, most Americans have no influence at all. That’s the conclusion of Professors Martin Gilens of Princeton and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University, who analyzed 1,799 policy issues — and found that “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
Instead, American lawmakers respond to the demands of wealthy individuals (typically corporate executives and Wall Street moguls) and of big corporations – those with the most lobbying prowess and deepest pockets to bankroll campaigns.
The second fact is most big American corporations have no particular allegiance to America. They don’t want Americans to have better wages. Their only allegiance and responsibility to their shareholders — which often requires lower wages to fuel larger profits and higher share prices.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/robert-reich-why-americans-are-screwed-and-europeans-are-not/
That would be a hilarious statement, if it wasn’t so tragic.
I’ve just caught up with Wilson’s emerging Kiwi Regional Airlines which will be hatching soonish.
Here’s a link about small airlines and this one, and has an intereting shot of a small plane coming into land in front of high rise housing fairly dense.
http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/kiwi-regional-airlines.html
Anyone got an opinion as to whether this housing would be good to live in, seem close? Is it the type of housing that should be available for small families and singles near town and small manufacturing hubs with public transport running near, just one, two streets away.?
I think the quality of life experienced in housing (that is well built and healthy, rather than shoddy and damp) does not rely solely on density, but includes the strength of connections to others, services, amenities and vibrant community spaces (and in NZ, access to natural environments if possible).
An interesting programme to watch is Kevin McCloud’s Slumming It. He visits the slum of Dharavi in Mumbai, as it has recently been cited as a “model community” even though it is built on waste ground including dump sites, and raw sewage ponds.
Those that live there have created an amazingly diverse and resilient community in such a small area – according to Wikipedia, the most densely populated area in the world.
Yes Molly they might enjoy it and do well with it. But we come from a different culture and have different expectations. It is interesting to store the knowledge of the ability of providing necessities in dense communities and the residents can maintain basic standards and stability. They have shown resilience in their place. We need to design one that allows us to manage our lives in our country and culture.
There have been thoughts that have probably not been well developed by government about how we could manage our living conditions better. I remember Dr Morgan Williams when he was Commissioner for the Environment talking about the way that a South American city Curitiba had acted to keep their city a good livable place.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0207/S00050/master-plan-urged-for-urban-sustainability.htm
Curitiba improved the conditions in their slums by working with the people. If they collected garbage and handed it in, they were rewarded with food such as eggs not money. It made a big difference to the place, helped the nutrition of the poor and raised community concern for better, more pleasant surroundings.
http://www.rnzih.org.nz/pages/AbstractMorganWilliams.htm
This is a very interesting range of Bills in Parliament today.
http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/00HOHOrderPaper_20150318/46bded522d1e4699f0448e89d8141b257533723a
There are programmes in the Auckland Council re giving communities a say in how their locales are developed, but not every Local Board has adopted them.
Thriving Communities is one, a village planning programme is another.
I suspect that I am agreeing with you, that local knowledge and input creates a more resilient and connected community. Unless specific commitments to encouraging this happen in NZ, we will continue to have a patchwork approach to housing and community building.
I’d quite happily live in one of those. They look like they even have room for a garden, and there’s bush nearby. I really prefer to sharing communal space with others to having a huge private yard.
Thought that this talk by Robert Reich on why the tax cuts for the rich and austerity economics is bad for society would be of interest to the Standard readers.
http://www.socialeurope.eu/2015/03/the-3-biggest-economic-myths/
Well spotted – I reckon you should repost on today’s open mike.
Very relevant and sadly so true irascible. Yes worth a wider audience.