Chief medical officer calls for review after statins and Tamiflu storm
Sally Davies writes to Academy of Medical Sciences in wake of negative press and public concern regarding the drugs
Chief medical officer Sally Davies has expressed concerns over statins and Tamiflu. Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex
Sarah Boseley Health editor
Tuesday 16 June 2015 18.00 BST Last modified on Wednesday 17 June 2015 11.27 BST
The chief medical officer, Sally Davies, has requested an expert review to shore up public confidence about the safety and effectiveness of medicines, in the wake of controversy around statins and Tamiflu.
Davies wrote to ask the Academy of Medical Sciences if it would undertake the work. “I am very concerned about the lack of resolution of the statins and side-effects issues in both the medical and general press,” she said.
“Coming on top of the debate about Tamiflu and the response to the ONS [Office for National Statistics] study on medication levels, there seems to be a view that doctors over-medicate, so it is difficult to trust them, and that clinical scientists are all beset by conflicts of interest from industry funding – and are therefore untrustworthy too. It cannot be in the interests of patients and the public’s health for this debate to continue as it is.”
She had “reluctantly come to the conclusion that we do need an authoritative independent report looking at how society should judge the safety and efficacy of drugs as an intervention,” she said in her letter to the academy’s president, Sir John Tooke.
There has been concern in some parts of the medical profession and the public about the widespread prescription of statins, which lower cholesterol. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recommended that anybody with a 10% risk of developing heart disease in the next 10 years should take them – guidance that led to a fierce public war of words between doctors over the interpretation of the evidence. Critics of statins say the benefits do not outweigh the potential harm of side-effects.
Other scientists have been investigating the trials used to license the antiviral drug Tamiflu. The Cochrane collaboration, together with the British Medical Journal (BMJ), campaigned for years to get access to the detailed trial results and last year published their findings, saying that the drug did not reduce hospital admissions or the complications of a flu bout.
The academy has appointed Sir Michael Rutter, a former vice-president and professor of developmental psychopathology at King’s College London to head the working group that meetson Wednesday to scope out the review.
News of Davies’ move comes ahead of a BBC Radio 4 programme looking at questions over the efficacy of alteplase, a clot-busting drug given to patients within hours of a stroke. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority has set up a working group to look at the evidence from trials of the drug. Concern was originally raised by Roger Shinton, a stroke specialist, in a letter to the Lancet medical journal.
The BMJ, which published the papers critical of both statins and Tamiflu, is campaigning against over-treatment of patients by their doctors. Its Too Much Medicine campaign is intended to draw attention to the potential for harm as well as the waste of resources involved in over-medicalisation.
This article was amended on 17 June 2015. The original referred to the Royal Academy of Science instead of the Academy of Medical Sciences. This has been corrected .
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Am I correct in remembering that Tamiflu was pushed onto governments after being fast tracked (perhaps) courtesy of Dick Cheney who had financial dealings with the company?
The real point of interest is the company in California who developed Tamiflu, Gilead Sciences, listed on the NASDAQ as (GILD). US Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, was Chairman of the Board of Gilead Sciences from 1997 until early 2001 when he became Defense Secretary.
A as-yet-unconfirmed report is that Rumsfeld recently purchased additional stock in his former company, Gilead Sciences, worth $18 million, making him one of its largest if not the largest stock owners today.
What has pissed me off for years is that the same bullshit regime that allows companies to cherry pick their own data to show efficacy also applies to psychotropic medicines (‘happy pills’). Unfortunately, the main critics – or the initial ‘whistleblower’ – hooked up with the scientologists to get info out there.
Maybe the effect of the dismissive knee jerk reaction that is applied to their arguments will be less now?
I think it’s safe to say by now that the whole drug trials process is so seriously flawed with cherry picking data that all medications should be understood in that light (not that all research is flawed, but that it’s so prevalent that it’s hard to know if any given trial is valid or not). There are two things holding drug companies to account to an extent. Peer review (itself seriously flawed), and science journalists. That’s pretty weak when it comes to something so serious, and often it takes years or even decades before changes can be made.
Statins are going to be the health scandal of our time. We’ve known for a long time that the effects claimed come from massaged data interpretation, but it’s only very recently that that’s breaking out into the mainstream. That coupled with the inaccurate fat is bad messaging (also based on bad science) from public health authorities means that huge numbers of people have been given poor to damaging advice about what they should be doing.
The biggest thing I see is the doctors are god meme that still exists so prevalently in society. Even here on ts, which let’s face is full of hyper critical commenters, there is still a strong theme of medical science is all good except for a few mistakes now and then, and so we often fail to look in depth at the fact that the problems are systemic and widespread.
(Psych meds should have been the scandal of our time. There’s a lot of good stuff in the anti-psychiatry and psych survivor movements, including from practicing psychiatrists, about the problems with psych med research and use that doesn’t rely on the Scientology stuff)
There has been a major reversal of fortunes overnight. It’s very bad for TPPA opponents.
Obama now has a good chance of getting TPPA because of a vote in the House of Representatives last night.
It is complicated to explain but the upshot is the decision for the critical fast track approval will now go to a House and Senate conference committee.
For details I suggest you read comments in the on-line Washington Post, NY Times, or other USA news sources.
Yes, over on “Stuff” (Quote)
“The US House of Representatives on Thursday reversed course, approving “fast-track” legislation central to President Barack Obama’s trade deal with Pacific nations, including New Zealand, and sending it back to the Senate.
The close vote in the House, which a week earlier rejected a related bill, kept alive Obama’s goal of bolstering US ties with Asia through the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, the economic element of a foreign policy shift aimed in part at countering the rising influence of China.
The House voted 218 to 208 to give Obama the fast-track authority to speed trade deals, including the TPP, to conclusion with reduced interference from Congress.
The TPP would encompass 40 percent of the global economy.”
The beginning of the end to NZ Sovereignty, as we move to bow down to the whims and wishes of the US. Multinationals.
All under ther guise of “Free Trade”. What utter bullshit!
this is because of their add-on process. BUT also last time the fast track got reversed a number of opponents turned supporters had their coffers boosted immediately prior to the vote by donors to their individual re-election campaigns. 1.15m is all it took
There has been a major reversal of fortunes overnight. It’s very bad for TPPA opponents.
Obama now has a good chance of getting TPPA because of a vote in the House of Representatives last night.
It is complicated to explain but the upshot is the decision for the critical fast track approval will now go to a House and Senate conference committee.
For details I suggest you read comments in the on-line Washington Post, NY Times, or other USA news sources.
As it stands NZ should be fully withdrawing from the TPPA talks. Signing should not be an option as it will be bad for NZ.
National, who seems to work for the benefit of corporations and especially US corporations and not NZ, will sign it as fast as they can. Thing is, I’m reasonably sure that Labour would as well.
Yes, in a Nat Lite way, Labour seemed to have agreed destroying the health system is bad in the TPPA, (but not willing to stand completely against TPP in public)
Sign their poll (better than nothing I guess – If anyone knows any better ones..)
Any public action from Greens or anyone else against TPPA?
On the economic front, the trade agreements’ defenders tend to talk with both sides of their mouth. Reducing trade barriers is said to promote economic efficiency and specialization; but it is also supposed to increase exports and create jobs by increasing access to trade partners’ markets. The first of these is the conventional comparative-advantage argument for trade liberalization; the second is a mercantilist argument.
The goals advanced by these arguments are mutually contradictory. From the standpoint of comparative advantage, gains from trade arise from imports; exports are what a country has to give up in order to afford them. These gains accrue to all countries, as long as trade expands in a balanced fashion. Trade agreements do not create jobs; they simply reallocate them across industries.
In the mercantilist worldview, by contrast, exports are good and imports are bad. Countries that expand their net exports gain; all others lose. Trade agreements can create jobs, but only to the extent that they destroy jobs in other countries.
Thing is, with productivity so high FTAs aren’t even translocating jobs and development. They’re destroying jobs in 1st world countries and pushing them and the development to the 3rd world.
Yep, the lowest of the low, apparently the cold damp house was not the problem for the death of the child, if the government could have spied on the family more, they MAY have saved her…
Not sure what happened to those letters that were sent to government asking for help. Maybe a ‘letter’ is now like ‘social bonds’ – you need to waste tax payers money on spying on the family rather than actually responding to a letter asking for help or doing their job.
Thanks – bad news indeed. Shows that traditional ‘party’ lines now are being destroyed by individuals within the party to an ideological neoliberal end. Happening everywhere, including Labour, which is why democracy and lobbyists are winning, seeking to recruit individuals across party lines to get legalisation through that is undemocratic. i.e.
Because many Republicans do not support the TAA program, it will likely only pass with Democratic support. In an rare role reversal, Republicans are working with Mr. Obama to pass the trade deal over the objections of Democrats.
“traditional party lines”? In the US you have a choice of the bankers’ party or the Other bankers’ party. Yes some elected officials and members of both parties still hold sincerely to the principles and roots of those parties, but in practice the hierarchies have long been bought out.
Obama is the perfect front face of that phenomenon.
what??? ….. and you want to turn the on money printing presses here in NZ and do a Kiwi version of Quantitative Easing. Idiot. The best way to give the dirty rotten scum banking industry more profit, is your (and Russell Norman’s) stupid idea, money printing. Adding digits to banks balance sheets with a computer entrys (today’s version of money printing) is how these banks are making billions, and their share prices are flying up. That money is not worth the paper it is not printed on, but there is still a price to pay for doing it, and who bears that cost? We do. The banking industry raping the world is not a left/right issue you complete fool. It is a money printing issue.
The best way to give the dirty rotten scum banking industry more profit, is your (and Russell Norman’s) stupid idea, money printing.
Ah, no. The private banks already create around 98% of money in circulation in NZ and they’re making a massive profit from it. Taking that ability off of the private banks will drop their massive down a notch or three.
That money is not worth the paper it is not printed on, but there is still a price to pay for doing it, and who bears that cost? We do.
Well, that’s the thing about having it so that only the government can create money – only the government benefits from its production. And it costs the country far less.
Amanda Atkinson: you have correctly identified the priority of the US ‘Quantitative Easing’ experiment – to pump money into the financial sector and to bubble up financial asset prices.
This is of course the classic ‘feeding Wall St’ and ‘starving Main St’ approach to (upwards wealth distribution).
NZ could do it better and do it differently – spend the money created in order to benefit ordinary people, benefit SMEs, while putting the fat cat financial sector on a strict diet.
Unfortuntely it’s a bit of vicious cycle. Oldies know damn well what they’ve done and what they’ve taught their kids to value, and it ain’t them. No way would they trust their kids to look out for them. You could have GenX or Y kill off their parents with poverty by following Morgan’s recipe, but millenials have no moral compass either. Effectively they’d be starting from scratch on their E.Q., spirituality, or whatever you want to call it, with no authoritative guidence or impetous to make any personal serious efforts. It’s a recipe for extended, avoidable, and unnecessary disaster in this post-modern age, where anything means whatever we like. Ethical voting relies on a collective moral awareness that NZ is going hard-out to wipe-out from living memory. The band of wealth would move once again to the centre, and age of extreme wealth would drop, with more older people living in poverty as Morgan’s The Party of Young took/stole/appropriated/re-applied/pre-invested their inheritance before the oldies died.
It’s all the worst of the bastardised left-wing redistribution slogans the right like to propagate. You can’t improve the vote by restricting the vote, can’t teach morality by acting immorally, can’t teach someone kindness by attempting to beat them to death as an example of “not kindness” and then asking them to guess what kindness is and which they prefer. (In fact you can’t teach kindness, period, but trying rarely makes the outcome worse.)
What would be easier, flawed, but less flawed? Extend the vote to younger people (15yo perhaps), political instruction in High Schools (difficult to avoid hi-jacking but try anyway) voting for prisoners, or anyone else currently excluded. If Morgan’s centralisation of the power to decide is the “solution”, then I say more views, not less, inclusion not exclusion, would be better.
Self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders has surged in the New Hampshire Democratic primary polls. Hillary Clinton now just has a 10 point lead on Sanders, despite having a 40-point lead before, and with Sanders taking no corporate funding.
Pretty impressive is Bernie Sanders. With aspirations like his wouldn’t we be in a much better place. And his effort is without the millions poured into the campaigns of others. Mind you the system typically will lynch him before long.
All old people are not necessarily senile nor lacking in faculties.
Just two examples for you;
[1] Joan Rivers, Born: June 8, 1933. Gone.
[2] David Murdock, Born: April 11, 1923. Still going.
The Billionaire (ones penniless!) Who Is Planning His 125th Birthday!
“I never have anything go wrong,” he said later. “Never have a backache. Never have a headache. Never have anything else.” This would make him a lucky man no matter his age. Because he is 87, it makes him an unusually robust specimen, which is what he must be if he is to defy the odds (and maybe even the gods) and live as long as he intends to. He wants to reach 125, and sees no reason he can’t, provided that he continues eating the way he has for the last quarter century: with a methodical, messianic correctness that he believes can, and will, ward off major disease and minor ailment alike.
So that sore throat wasn’t just an irritant. It was a challenge to the whole gut-centered worldview on which his bid for extreme longevity rests. “I went back in my mind: what am I not eating enough of?” he told me. Definitely not fruits and vegetables: he crams as many as 20 of them, including pulverized banana peels and the ground-up rinds of oranges, into the smoothies he drinks two to three times a day, to keep his body brimming with fiber and vitamins. Probably not protein: he eats plenty of seafood, egg whites, beans and nuts to compensate for his avoidance of dairy, red meat and poultry, which are consigned to a list of forbidden foods that also includes alcohol, sugar and salt.
“I couldn’t figure it out,” he said. So he made a frustrated peace with his malady, which was gone in 36 hours and, he stressed, not all that bad. ”
Yes they are and as we stopped exporting because we can’t guarantee humane slaughter there is a gapping hole in the “they are being exported for breeding” line.
Money is inherently destructive, period. Humanity has known it for thousands of years. Why no one has found a way to get rid of it is one of the great unsolved mysteries of the World.
The Pencilsword cartoon about privilege has had 1.5 million reads* around the world. Cartoonist Toby Morris is being interviewed on RNZ Sunday Morning 9.40am
These kinds of people are highly influential in Ukraine at the moment but the western power elite have no issues with them because they are our kind of bastards. For the moment.
I’ve not added a lot of links here to that issue Colonial Rawshark. Mainly because they are gut wrenching – but if you want try looking up “following fascist killing in the Ukraine”. Be warned the video’s are way beyond disturbing.
I’m no fan of Putin’s’ Russia, but that said, the extreme right wing scum from all over Europe are killing Russians in the Ukraine – For no other reason, than they are Russian. If we gave a rats we’d been sending our troops here to stop these scum bags rather than a Iraq. Just saying…
Yep. Putin’s Russia is highly corrupt and poverty rates are skyrocketing (partly due to western attacks on the ruble causing inflation to jump). But I have to respect them because they are not going to let the western bankster/military industrial complex oligarchs push their country into becoming yet another vassal state.
“But I have to respect them because they are not going to let the western bankster/military industrial complex oligarchs push their country into becoming yet another vassal state.”
Huh? Russia is a mafia state bankrolled by bankster/mic oligarchs as well. With a sideline in crypto fascist expansionist border excursions. You shouldn’t be hating on Ukrainian fascists and lovin’ the Russian version, CV. It’s a bit odd.
te reo putake is right Colonial Rawshark – side a are complete filth, and side b are complete filth. I still have friends/acquaintances locked up in Russian prisons. Still no trial date – been almost a year now.
It’s a loss, loss, I don’t know why there are people in the USA and Europe who want to go to war with Russia.
It’s like some sort of irrational desire to fight the cold war again, is coming to the fore.
“Russia is a mafia state bankrolled by bankster/mic oligarchs as well”
The same could be said about nearly all the countries in the old eastern bloc. And dont forget you now have the Catholic/Orthodox churches running things again. Sucks to be a woman in Poland because Solidarity gave their uteruses to the Holy See.
So there’s been this tragic shooting in the US by a white supremacist and what do Fox News presenter do?
Fox News contributor Alveda King, a conservative activist with the group Priests for Life, appeared on “Fox & Friends” this morning, where she linked the shooting to abortion rights: “You kill babies in the womb, kill people in their beds, shoot people on the streets so now you go into the church when people are praying.”
NRA board member Charles Cotton blamed Clementa Pinckney, a victim of the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, for his own death. He also blamed Pinckney, the pastor of Emanuel AME and a state senator, for the deaths of the other eight people killed.
As a state senator, Pinckney supported tougher gun regulations and opposed a bill that would have allowed people to carry concealed guns in churches. On TexasCHLForum.com, a message board, Cotton wrote that “Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.”
After Three Years, the Injustice Handed out to Assange Must End
by JOHN PILGER, 18 June 2015 The Assange case amplifies many truths, and one is the growing, global totalitarianism of Washington, regardless of who is elected president.
On June 19, Julian Assange, founder and editor of WikiLeaks has been a refugee in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for three years. The key issue in his extraordinary incarceration is justice.
He has been charged with no crime.
The first Swedish prosecutor dismissed the misconduct allegations regarding two women in Stockholm in 2010. The second Swedish prosecutor’s actions were and are demonstrably political. Until recently, she refused to come to London to interview Assange – then she said she was coming; then she cancelled her appointment. It is a farce, but one with grim consequences for Assange should he dare step outside the Ecuadorean embassy. The U.S. criminal investigation against him and WikiLeaks – for the “crime” of exercising a right enshrined in the U.S. constitution, to tell unpalatable truths – is “unprecedented in scale and nature”, according to U.S. documents. For this, he faces much of a lifetime in the hellhole of a U.S. supermax should he leave the protection of Ecuador in London.
The Swedish allegations are no more than a sideshow to this – the SMS messages between the women involved, read by lawyers, alone would exonerate him. They refer to the accusations as “made up” by the police. In the police report one of the women says she was “railroaded” by the Swedish police. What a disgrace this is for Sweden’s justice system.
Julian Assange is a refugee under international law and he should be given right of passage by the British government out of the UK, to Ecuador. The nonsense about him “jumping bail” is just that – nonsense. If his extradition case went through the British courts today, the European Arrest Warrant would be thrown out and he would be a free man. So what is the British government trying to prove by its absurd police cordon around an embassy whose refuge Assange has no intention of giving up? Why don’t they let him go? Why is a man charged with no crime having to spend three years in one room, without light, in the heart of London?
The Assange case amplifies many truths, and one is the growing, global totalitarianism of Washington, regardless of who is elected president.
I am often asked if I think Assange has been “forgotten.” It’s my experience that countless people all over the world, especially in Australia, his homeland, understand perfectly well the injustice being meted out to Julian Assange. They credit him and WikiLeaks with having performed an epic public service by informing millions about what the powerful plan for them behind their backs, the lies governments and their vested interests tell, the violence they initiate. The powerful and the corrupt loathe this, because it is true democracy in action.
Got about halfway through, Moz, but the rape apologist stuff made me want to chuck, so I stopped. I’m old enough to remember when John ‘Jon’ Pilger was a vocal supporter of women’s empowerment. Shame that he seems to have lost that commitment these days.
The defeat for the centre left in Denmark marks a further setback for Social Democrats in Europe, who have had a miserable time in recent years, losing elections in the UK and Germany while facing disastrous poll ratings in France and Sweden. Sweden’s Social Democrats are now the only labour party to hold power in Scandinavia, a historical bastion of social democracy.
Saw a headline on the Herald website this afternoon “JK resigns” and opened the link enthusiastically.
Was sorry to read that it was that JK.
The ex All Black great resigned on principle.
Now, if only the other JK had principles …
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This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
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Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
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1st?
2nd
BIG PHARMA will hate this UK development!
Time for New Zealand to do the same?
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/16/chief-medical-officer-calls-review-after-statins-tamiflu-storm
Chief medical officer calls for review after statins and Tamiflu storm
Sally Davies writes to Academy of Medical Sciences in wake of negative press and public concern regarding the drugs
Chief medical officer Sally Davies has expressed concerns over statins and Tamiflu. Photograph: Ken McKay/Rex
Sarah Boseley Health editor
Tuesday 16 June 2015 18.00 BST Last modified on Wednesday 17 June 2015 11.27 BST
The chief medical officer, Sally Davies, has requested an expert review to shore up public confidence about the safety and effectiveness of medicines, in the wake of controversy around statins and Tamiflu.
Davies wrote to ask the Academy of Medical Sciences if it would undertake the work. “I am very concerned about the lack of resolution of the statins and side-effects issues in both the medical and general press,” she said.
“Coming on top of the debate about Tamiflu and the response to the ONS [Office for National Statistics] study on medication levels, there seems to be a view that doctors over-medicate, so it is difficult to trust them, and that clinical scientists are all beset by conflicts of interest from industry funding – and are therefore untrustworthy too. It cannot be in the interests of patients and the public’s health for this debate to continue as it is.”
She had “reluctantly come to the conclusion that we do need an authoritative independent report looking at how society should judge the safety and efficacy of drugs as an intervention,” she said in her letter to the academy’s president, Sir John Tooke.
There has been concern in some parts of the medical profession and the public about the widespread prescription of statins, which lower cholesterol. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recommended that anybody with a 10% risk of developing heart disease in the next 10 years should take them – guidance that led to a fierce public war of words between doctors over the interpretation of the evidence. Critics of statins say the benefits do not outweigh the potential harm of side-effects.
Other scientists have been investigating the trials used to license the antiviral drug Tamiflu. The Cochrane collaboration, together with the British Medical Journal (BMJ), campaigned for years to get access to the detailed trial results and last year published their findings, saying that the drug did not reduce hospital admissions or the complications of a flu bout.
The academy has appointed Sir Michael Rutter, a former vice-president and professor of developmental psychopathology at King’s College London to head the working group that meetson Wednesday to scope out the review.
News of Davies’ move comes ahead of a BBC Radio 4 programme looking at questions over the efficacy of alteplase, a clot-busting drug given to patients within hours of a stroke. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority has set up a working group to look at the evidence from trials of the drug. Concern was originally raised by Roger Shinton, a stroke specialist, in a letter to the Lancet medical journal.
The BMJ, which published the papers critical of both statins and Tamiflu, is campaigning against over-treatment of patients by their doctors. Its Too Much Medicine campaign is intended to draw attention to the potential for harm as well as the waste of resources involved in over-medicalisation.
This article was amended on 17 June 2015. The original referred to the Royal Academy of Science instead of the Academy of Medical Sciences. This has been corrected .
———————————————————————-
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
THanks for this important update, Penny.
As most of us already realise, big medicine is not about science, it is about big money.
another michael sandel moment…
I enjoy his lecture series
Am I correct in remembering that Tamiflu was pushed onto governments after being fast tracked (perhaps) courtesy of Dick Cheney who had financial dealings with the company?
edit – Rumsfeld
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/04/27/725102/-Tamiflu-Rumsfeld-and-Cheney
The real point of interest is the company in California who developed Tamiflu, Gilead Sciences, listed on the NASDAQ as (GILD). US Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, was Chairman of the Board of Gilead Sciences from 1997 until early 2001 when he became Defense Secretary.
A as-yet-unconfirmed report is that Rumsfeld recently purchased additional stock in his former company, Gilead Sciences, worth $18 million, making him one of its largest if not the largest stock owners today.
Ministry of Health dumps 1.5M doses of Tamiflu; effectiveness and side effects questioned
Big pharma got several tens of millions of tax payer dollars for this non-evidence based debacle. More of the same.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/9768461/Mass-dump-of-Tamiflu-a-bitter-pill-to-swallow
The following link gives a bit of an insight to the smoke, mirrors of drug trials. Worth the read. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/apr/10/tamiflu-saga-drug-trials-big-pharma
What has pissed me off for years is that the same bullshit regime that allows companies to cherry pick their own data to show efficacy also applies to psychotropic medicines (‘happy pills’). Unfortunately, the main critics – or the initial ‘whistleblower’ – hooked up with the scientologists to get info out there.
Maybe the effect of the dismissive knee jerk reaction that is applied to their arguments will be less now?
I think it’s safe to say by now that the whole drug trials process is so seriously flawed with cherry picking data that all medications should be understood in that light (not that all research is flawed, but that it’s so prevalent that it’s hard to know if any given trial is valid or not). There are two things holding drug companies to account to an extent. Peer review (itself seriously flawed), and science journalists. That’s pretty weak when it comes to something so serious, and often it takes years or even decades before changes can be made.
Statins are going to be the health scandal of our time. We’ve known for a long time that the effects claimed come from massaged data interpretation, but it’s only very recently that that’s breaking out into the mainstream. That coupled with the inaccurate fat is bad messaging (also based on bad science) from public health authorities means that huge numbers of people have been given poor to damaging advice about what they should be doing.
The biggest thing I see is the doctors are god meme that still exists so prevalently in society. Even here on ts, which let’s face is full of hyper critical commenters, there is still a strong theme of medical science is all good except for a few mistakes now and then, and so we often fail to look in depth at the fact that the problems are systemic and widespread.
(Psych meds should have been the scandal of our time. There’s a lot of good stuff in the anti-psychiatry and psych survivor movements, including from practicing psychiatrists, about the problems with psych med research and use that doesn’t rely on the Scientology stuff)
Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)
There has been a major reversal of fortunes overnight. It’s very bad for TPPA opponents.
Obama now has a good chance of getting TPPA because of a vote in the House of Representatives last night.
It is complicated to explain but the upshot is the decision for the critical fast track approval will now go to a House and Senate conference committee.
For details I suggest you read comments in the on-line Washington Post, NY Times, or other USA news sources.
Obama’s not out of the woods yet.
Yes, over on “Stuff” (Quote)
“The US House of Representatives on Thursday reversed course, approving “fast-track” legislation central to President Barack Obama’s trade deal with Pacific nations, including New Zealand, and sending it back to the Senate.
The close vote in the House, which a week earlier rejected a related bill, kept alive Obama’s goal of bolstering US ties with Asia through the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, the economic element of a foreign policy shift aimed in part at countering the rising influence of China.
The House voted 218 to 208 to give Obama the fast-track authority to speed trade deals, including the TPP, to conclusion with reduced interference from Congress.
The TPP would encompass 40 percent of the global economy.”
The beginning of the end to NZ Sovereignty, as we move to bow down to the whims and wishes of the US. Multinationals.
All under ther guise of “Free Trade”. What utter bullshit!
this is because of their add-on process. BUT also last time the fast track got reversed a number of opponents turned supporters had their coffers boosted immediately prior to the vote by donors to their individual re-election campaigns. 1.15m is all it took
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-30/how-little-it-cost-bribe-senates-fast-tracking-obamas-tpp-bill
Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)
There has been a major reversal of fortunes overnight. It’s very bad for TPPA opponents.
Obama now has a good chance of getting TPPA because of a vote in the House of Representatives last night.
It is complicated to explain but the upshot is the decision for the critical fast track approval will now go to a House and Senate conference committee.
For details I suggest you read comments in the on-line Washington Post, NY Times, or other USA news sources.
Thanks – do you have a link?
Here are some articles about TPP from Guardian
The Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty is the complete opposite of ‘free trade’
Mark Weisbrot
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/19/trans-pacific-partnership-corporate-usurp-congress
UN calls for suspension of TTIP talks over fears of human rights abuses
http://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/may/04/ttip-united-nations-human-right-secret-courts-multinationals
Medicines forecast to cost taxpayers millions more in secret TPP trade deal
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/feb/23/medicines-forecast-to-cost-taxpayers-millions-more-in-secret-tpp-trade-deal
Mass spying: how the US stamps its supremacy on the Pacific region
Antony Loewenstein
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/09/mass-spying-pacific-prism
But hey, we can believe Mike Hosking, and Granny Herald, Nothing to see here… all good…. trust John Key…..
As it stands NZ should be fully withdrawing from the TPPA talks. Signing should not be an option as it will be bad for NZ.
National, who seems to work for the benefit of corporations and especially US corporations and not NZ, will sign it as fast as they can. Thing is, I’m reasonably sure that Labour would as well.
Yes, in a Nat Lite way, Labour seemed to have agreed destroying the health system is bad in the TPPA, (but not willing to stand completely against TPP in public)
Sign their poll (better than nothing I guess – If anyone knows any better ones..)
Any public action from Greens or anyone else against TPPA?
http://campaign.labour.org.nz
The Muddled Case for Trade Agreements
Thing is, with productivity so high FTAs aren’t even translocating jobs and development. They’re destroying jobs in 1st world countries and pushing them and the development to the 3rd world.
Data-share may have saved life, Tolley says…
Yep, the lowest of the low, apparently the cold damp house was not the problem for the death of the child, if the government could have spied on the family more, they MAY have saved her…
Not sure what happened to those letters that were sent to government asking for help. Maybe a ‘letter’ is now like ‘social bonds’ – you need to waste tax payers money on spying on the family rather than actually responding to a letter asking for help or doing their job.
Some links regarding my TPPA comment above in addition to the Washington Post and NY Times.
I am waiting for the Guardian to pick up the story. (The vote only happened 2 hours ago.)
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/bipartisan-rescue-bid-obamas-trade-agenda-31850003
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-tries-revive-obama-trade-agenda/
Thanks – bad news indeed. Shows that traditional ‘party’ lines now are being destroyed by individuals within the party to an ideological neoliberal end. Happening everywhere, including Labour, which is why democracy and lobbyists are winning, seeking to recruit individuals across party lines to get legalisation through that is undemocratic. i.e.
Because many Republicans do not support the TAA program, it will likely only pass with Democratic support. In an rare role reversal, Republicans are working with Mr. Obama to pass the trade deal over the objections of Democrats.
“traditional party lines”? In the US you have a choice of the bankers’ party or the Other bankers’ party. Yes some elected officials and members of both parties still hold sincerely to the principles and roots of those parties, but in practice the hierarchies have long been bought out.
Obama is the perfect front face of that phenomenon.
I am sure there will be an increase in political donations prior to the next vote.
what??? ….. and you want to turn the on money printing presses here in NZ and do a Kiwi version of Quantitative Easing. Idiot. The best way to give the dirty rotten scum banking industry more profit, is your (and Russell Norman’s) stupid idea, money printing. Adding digits to banks balance sheets with a computer entrys (today’s version of money printing) is how these banks are making billions, and their share prices are flying up. That money is not worth the paper it is not printed on, but there is still a price to pay for doing it, and who bears that cost? We do. The banking industry raping the world is not a left/right issue you complete fool. It is a money printing issue.
Ah, no. The private banks already create around 98% of money in circulation in NZ and they’re making a massive profit from it. Taking that ability off of the private banks will drop their massive down a notch or three.
Well, that’s the thing about having it so that only the government can create money – only the government benefits from its production. And it costs the country far less.
Amanda Atkinson: you have correctly identified the priority of the US ‘Quantitative Easing’ experiment – to pump money into the financial sector and to bubble up financial asset prices.
This is of course the classic ‘feeding Wall St’ and ‘starving Main St’ approach to (upwards wealth distribution).
NZ could do it better and do it differently – spend the money created in order to benefit ordinary people, benefit SMEs, while putting the fat cat financial sector on a strict diet.
The USA has the best political system money can buy.
We are trying to emulate them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11467418
Tell you what it’d be damn funny the reaction if this was ever seriously comtemplated
Unfortuntely it’s a bit of vicious cycle. Oldies know damn well what they’ve done and what they’ve taught their kids to value, and it ain’t them. No way would they trust their kids to look out for them. You could have GenX or Y kill off their parents with poverty by following Morgan’s recipe, but millenials have no moral compass either. Effectively they’d be starting from scratch on their E.Q., spirituality, or whatever you want to call it, with no authoritative guidence or impetous to make any personal serious efforts. It’s a recipe for extended, avoidable, and unnecessary disaster in this post-modern age, where anything means whatever we like. Ethical voting relies on a collective moral awareness that NZ is going hard-out to wipe-out from living memory. The band of wealth would move once again to the centre, and age of extreme wealth would drop, with more older people living in poverty as Morgan’s The Party of Young took/stole/appropriated/re-applied/pre-invested their inheritance before the oldies died.
It’s all the worst of the bastardised left-wing redistribution slogans the right like to propagate. You can’t improve the vote by restricting the vote, can’t teach morality by acting immorally, can’t teach someone kindness by attempting to beat them to death as an example of “not kindness” and then asking them to guess what kindness is and which they prefer. (In fact you can’t teach kindness, period, but trying rarely makes the outcome worse.)
What would be easier, flawed, but less flawed? Extend the vote to younger people (15yo perhaps), political instruction in High Schools (difficult to avoid hi-jacking but try anyway) voting for prisoners, or anyone else currently excluded. If Morgan’s centralisation of the power to decide is the “solution”, then I say more views, not less, inclusion not exclusion, would be better.
Not kids and not prisoners.
“not prisoners”.
I suppose in your cryptic way, Puckish Rogue, you are saying that prisoners should not be entitled to vote?
Now why is that. Is that loss of civic privilege for doing a crime? Or for getting caught?
Because if the proper punishment for having committed a crime includes loss of the vote, how many of us would be voting in 2017?
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” and all that, my self-admitted roguish friend. 🙂
The best comment by far on a Herald story ever. Talking about the drivel that replaced Campbell Live.
“jo-anne
“How do you get on Come Dine With Me NZ show?”
Have half of your brain surgically removed, then phone Mediaworks.”
Link? You all know where the Granny is.
Great column from Dita de Boni on health and safety and Talley’s.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11467424
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/06/16/bernie_sanders_new_hampshire_surge_vermont_senator_starts_to_close_the_gap.html
Self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders has surged in the New Hampshire Democratic primary polls. Hillary Clinton now just has a 10 point lead on Sanders, despite having a 40-point lead before, and with Sanders taking no corporate funding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7L9V7oGRv8 Good video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFAq-4Vv5c0
Yes, very impressive.
Seems like an ideal candidate for the modern mad world.
If he has Elizabeth Warren as his running mate, that would be even better, may be!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren
Pretty impressive is Bernie Sanders. With aspirations like his wouldn’t we be in a much better place. And his effort is without the millions poured into the campaigns of others. Mind you the system typically will lynch him before long.
And Bernie has to beat the same pro-war, pro-Israel drum as the rest of them. The minimum concessions to stay politically alive.
The bloke is going to be about 80 at the end of his first term
Don’t panic Chris he wants to make america a better place for all so he’s got no chance of winning
That’s about it.
All old people are not necessarily senile nor lacking in faculties.
Just two examples for you;
[1] Joan Rivers, Born: June 8, 1933. Gone.
[2] David Murdock, Born: April 11, 1923. Still going.
The Billionaire (ones penniless!) Who Is Planning His 125th Birthday!
“I never have anything go wrong,” he said later. “Never have a backache. Never have a headache. Never have anything else.” This would make him a lucky man no matter his age. Because he is 87, it makes him an unusually robust specimen, which is what he must be if he is to defy the odds (and maybe even the gods) and live as long as he intends to. He wants to reach 125, and sees no reason he can’t, provided that he continues eating the way he has for the last quarter century: with a methodical, messianic correctness that he believes can, and will, ward off major disease and minor ailment alike.
So that sore throat wasn’t just an irritant. It was a challenge to the whole gut-centered worldview on which his bid for extreme longevity rests. “I went back in my mind: what am I not eating enough of?” he told me. Definitely not fruits and vegetables: he crams as many as 20 of them, including pulverized banana peels and the ground-up rinds of oranges, into the smoothies he drinks two to three times a day, to keep his body brimming with fiber and vitamins. Probably not protein: he eats plenty of seafood, egg whites, beans and nuts to compensate for his avoidance of dairy, red meat and poultry, which are consigned to a list of forbidden foods that also includes alcohol, sugar and salt.
“I couldn’t figure it out,” he said. So he made a frustrated peace with his malady, which was gone in 36 hours and, he stressed, not all that bad. ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/magazine/06murdock-t.html?_r=0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Murdock
http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/69423366/Mexico-bound-livestock-cared-for-in-shipment
They really are very keen for us to believe its all above board .
One thing that know one has mentioned is that all these animals will be slaughtered in the end as no farmer I’ve heard of has a retirement home for ewes past there useful breeding age.
Of course they will be slaughtered in the end.
All sheep are
Yes they are and as we stopped exporting because we can’t guarantee humane slaughter there is a gapping hole in the “they are being exported for breeding” line.
As someone who is very much in favour of Medical Marijuana. This is very depressing to read.
Actually, as has been said on here over and over. Money in politics is a very evil thing indeed.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/06/18/17469/political-profiteers-push-ohios-pot-vote
Money is inherently destructive, period. Humanity has known it for thousands of years. Why no one has found a way to get rid of it is one of the great unsolved mysteries of the World.
Humanity has known no such thing. The love of money, on the other hand…
The Pencilsword cartoon about privilege has had 1.5 million reads* around the world. Cartoonist Toby Morris is being interviewed on RNZ Sunday Morning 9.40am
http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/the-pencilsword-on-a-plate
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday
*(gee, Fairfax).
*Sigh* This is bloody depressing reading.
Dirty Politics – FIGJAM
http://www.metromag.co.nz/current-affairs/carrick-graham-without-apologies/?utm_source=exacttarget&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=18132&utm_content=116024&user_id=0c91ae9221fdf3c5a87250c1f19988673cd40098
Then I think I really need to see if Clarke and Dawe can make the world more understandable. And wouldn’t you know it…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0l_UDUqpDE
Sorry more video’s. As kiwis we know the only terrorism we have had to deal with has come from the extreme right. Funny in the States it’s the same.
Rightwing terrorist kill more americans, than Islamic terrorists. The real kicker – they both extremely right wing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJiE6_xJ6Zk
These kinds of people are highly influential in Ukraine at the moment but the western power elite have no issues with them because they are our kind of bastards. For the moment.
I’ve not added a lot of links here to that issue Colonial Rawshark. Mainly because they are gut wrenching – but if you want try looking up “following fascist killing in the Ukraine”. Be warned the video’s are way beyond disturbing.
I’m no fan of Putin’s’ Russia, but that said, the extreme right wing scum from all over Europe are killing Russians in the Ukraine – For no other reason, than they are Russian. If we gave a rats we’d been sending our troops here to stop these scum bags rather than a Iraq. Just saying…
Yep. Putin’s Russia is highly corrupt and poverty rates are skyrocketing (partly due to western attacks on the ruble causing inflation to jump). But I have to respect them because they are not going to let the western bankster/military industrial complex oligarchs push their country into becoming yet another vassal state.
“But I have to respect them because they are not going to let the western bankster/military industrial complex oligarchs push their country into becoming yet another vassal state.”
Huh? Russia is a mafia state bankrolled by bankster/mic oligarchs as well. With a sideline in crypto fascist expansionist border excursions. You shouldn’t be hating on Ukrainian fascists and lovin’ the Russian version, CV. It’s a bit odd.
te reo putake is right Colonial Rawshark – side a are complete filth, and side b are complete filth. I still have friends/acquaintances locked up in Russian prisons. Still no trial date – been almost a year now.
It’s a loss, loss, I don’t know why there are people in the USA and Europe who want to go to war with Russia.
It’s like some sort of irrational desire to fight the cold war again, is coming to the fore.
“Russia is a mafia state bankrolled by bankster/mic oligarchs as well”
The same could be said about nearly all the countries in the old eastern bloc. And dont forget you now have the Catholic/Orthodox churches running things again. Sucks to be a woman in Poland because Solidarity gave their uteruses to the Holy See.
These kind of barstards?http://i.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/69528716/Denmarks-anti-immigration-party-surges-as-incumbents-falter-in-election
From the 1870’s to the 1960’s the US hosted probably the worlds biggest and most powerful terrorist organisaton – the Ku Klux Klan.
So there’s been this tragic shooting in the US by a white supremacist and what do Fox News presenter do?
If only the Pastor had been armed …
A case for Praise the Lord and pass the Ammunition.
If only….
NRA board member Charles Cotton blamed Clementa Pinckney, a victim of the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, for his own death. He also blamed Pinckney, the pastor of Emanuel AME and a state senator, for the deaths of the other eight people killed.
As a state senator, Pinckney supported tougher gun regulations and opposed a bill that would have allowed people to carry concealed guns in churches. On TexasCHLForum.com, a message board, Cotton wrote that “Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.”
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/06/18/3671649/nra-board-member-blames-charleston-victim-death/
Ports of Auckland and Auckland Council just got their reclamation consents completely overturned. See NZHerald.
Winner: Urban Auckland, and all their supporters.
And now the question: how much force will be brought to bear by Council Mayor and politicians to the Executive branch not to appeal?
This story will have quite some legs.
After Three Years, the Injustice Handed out to Assange Must End
by JOHN PILGER, 18 June 2015
The Assange case amplifies many truths, and one is the growing, global totalitarianism of Washington, regardless of who is elected president.
On June 19, Julian Assange, founder and editor of WikiLeaks has been a refugee in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for three years. The key issue in his extraordinary incarceration is justice.
He has been charged with no crime.
The first Swedish prosecutor dismissed the misconduct allegations regarding two women in Stockholm in 2010. The second Swedish prosecutor’s actions were and are demonstrably political. Until recently, she refused to come to London to interview Assange – then she said she was coming; then she cancelled her appointment. It is a farce, but one with grim consequences for Assange should he dare step outside the Ecuadorean embassy. The U.S. criminal investigation against him and WikiLeaks – for the “crime” of exercising a right enshrined in the U.S. constitution, to tell unpalatable truths – is “unprecedented in scale and nature”, according to U.S. documents. For this, he faces much of a lifetime in the hellhole of a U.S. supermax should he leave the protection of Ecuador in London.
The Swedish allegations are no more than a sideshow to this – the SMS messages between the women involved, read by lawyers, alone would exonerate him. They refer to the accusations as “made up” by the police. In the police report one of the women says she was “railroaded” by the Swedish police. What a disgrace this is for Sweden’s justice system.
Julian Assange is a refugee under international law and he should be given right of passage by the British government out of the UK, to Ecuador. The nonsense about him “jumping bail” is just that – nonsense. If his extradition case went through the British courts today, the European Arrest Warrant would be thrown out and he would be a free man. So what is the British government trying to prove by its absurd police cordon around an embassy whose refuge Assange has no intention of giving up? Why don’t they let him go? Why is a man charged with no crime having to spend three years in one room, without light, in the heart of London?
The Assange case amplifies many truths, and one is the growing, global totalitarianism of Washington, regardless of who is elected president.
I am often asked if I think Assange has been “forgotten.” It’s my experience that countless people all over the world, especially in Australia, his homeland, understand perfectly well the injustice being meted out to Julian Assange. They credit him and WikiLeaks with having performed an epic public service by informing millions about what the powerful plan for them behind their backs, the lies governments and their vested interests tell, the violence they initiate. The powerful and the corrupt loathe this, because it is true democracy in action.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/After-Three-Years-the-Injustice-Handed-out-to-Assange-Must-End-20150618-0026.html
Free the Rapey One! Je suis Rapey! I’m Sparapacus! I’d go on, but, well, bored now …
Okay, that’s your rant over. Now would you like to read the article?
Got about halfway through, Moz, but the rape apologist stuff made me want to chuck, so I stopped. I’m old enough to remember when John ‘Jon’ Pilger was a vocal supporter of women’s empowerment. Shame that he seems to have lost that commitment these days.
Your abuse of Pilger is almost as darkly comical as your abuse of his friend and compatriot Assange.
Have you ever thought of joining the ACT Party?
Gee, even the good citizens of Leftist icon Denmark have shifted to Center Right?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/19/denmark-swings-right-centre-left-coalition-faces-defeat
The defeat for the centre left in Denmark marks a further setback for Social Democrats in Europe, who have had a miserable time in recent years, losing elections in the UK and Germany while facing disastrous poll ratings in France and Sweden. Sweden’s Social Democrats are now the only labour party to hold power in Scandinavia, a historical bastion of social democracy.
Saw a headline on the Herald website this afternoon “JK resigns” and opened the link enthusiastically.
Was sorry to read that it was that JK.
The ex All Black great resigned on principle.
Now, if only the other JK had principles …