My big evening of watching Television
Wednesday 24 April 2013
I try not to watch too much television. It’s partly the advertising barrage, but it’s also the empty and drained feeling that I almost always have after watching a couple of hours of stuff on screen. I almost always feel stupider, and that I have wasted the time; it’s exactly the opposite feeling I have after reading a book for several hours.
I try to always watch Everybody Loves Raymond and any comedy with David Spade in it. I usually try to watch the Letterman show, and a bit of sport occasionally. Otherwise, the television is something best avoided, I believe.
However, when I saw that there was going to be a new Annie Goldson documentary, about New Zealand’s unhappy and deceitful decade-long adventure in Afghanistan, I just had to put the books aside and settle down for an hour. After that, I watched The Vote: Is New Zealand a Racist Country? on TV3’s Plus One channel, and then I stayed on to watch Backbenches on Prime.
I will eventually post up my reviews for each of these programmes, but here are the quick verdicts:
Annie Goldson’s NZ in Afghanistan….. A++ (Exceptionally good documentary.)
The Vote….. E (Bomb. Lowest rating)
Backbenches…. C (Toe-curlingly cringe-inducing, with occasional redemptive bits)
The Vote : New Zealand IS a racist country; imagined all I’d need to write is “we’ll I’ll be f&cked” yet nonetheless scrambled for two pens with the Dixie Chicks “Travelin’ Soldier playing on the radio (wrote this our twice; faceless to watch the impending ugliness).
to continue…
JT: gave the facts; quetsion: “equity” “failures are in the mainstream services which themselves are held up and protected from failing.”
Mae Chen (for the negative); passionate, hasty, aroused.could not help supporting the affirmative;
-acknowledged phenomena of peoples being “shut down” by what practices do occur.
-acknowledged the impact of Key and Prosser blurts; “showed cognisance of what racism is there”.
-essentially Chen asserted that it is all a matter of “degree”
(Nightline ad: “Does the Labour / Greens (NZPower) deal really add up?”; for goodness sake, they pretend balance yet the dominant narrative (people remember the negative) is bad; So “roll up, roll up, see the propaganda show in motion!
Phil Goff; once again, a relativist position to other countries; (at least our minorities are not being shot); yet “sure, there are things that are wrong.”
-on the “maori question”; “an unequal, an unfair society” =? Hello?; “discrimination from unequal beginnings”. Well, when will there be a new beginning?
(people argue from their own perspectives, yet these are demonstrated statistics.
-then it was “we are unique in the world” re redress. Whatever! (not very bright some-times these pollies).
Dunne; “no doubt we are a racist society”.
National poll results re Chinese Investment;
Opposed-82%
Not Opposed-13%
UD-5%
From the affirmative chap next to JT; “we have concentrated (dormitories) of brown skin that cannot be explained away by socio-economic analyses alone.”
On the question “Are Maori too privileged?”
from the national poll results across the four mediums, FB, website, text etc;
Yes-76%
No-24%
Don Brash; “building into law racial preference” then concedes that racism exists.
John Minto; weak question
Garner-“it takes time” Well, I been watching the decline of maori and pasifika s/e, health and education stats for 40 freakin’ years now, so if not Now, then when?
Devoy; (sigh)
-results show “NZers care about race relations”
-“some very serious issues”
-“I think the people have spoken”
-“PEOPLE SHOULD FEEL ASHAMED THAT THEY BELIEVE WE ARE A RACIST COUNTRY”.
(please re-read above statement of causality from Dame Susan Devoy).
Move along , nothing out of order to see here citizens.
yet Mae Chen, again “(racism) not born out by efforts”
hope this is a close-enough approximation; was fairly messy 😉
Well done Helen Kelly for getting this fatal business the kind of attention it deserves – well some attention anyway, as it’s in the main headlines. Jonathan Carson article on Stuff this morning about deaths in the forestry industry:
She knows her father had an accident at work. She knows he never came home.
“Her biggest thing is she doesn’t understand why Daddy couldn’t die when she was bigger,” Ms Frater said.
Shane Frater, 28, was killed instantly when falling tree debris struck his head on a forestry block near Te Pohu on May 1, 2009.
Mr Frater’s death wasn’t an isolated incident in the forestry business. Since 2008, the industry has seen 33 deaths and 874 serious injuries, said New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) president Helen Kelly.
“Despite industry claims that the long-term trend is improving, the figures show there are more people being killed working in our forests now than at any time in the last twenty years.”
New Zealand has twice the death rate of Australia and six times that of the United Kingdom, Ms Kelly said.
This week the Frater family relived their horror when another young man died on the job near New Plymouth – the fourth forestry death in as many months.
Also notifies that it is Workers Memorial Day on Sunday:
Deborah Frater, pictured with daughter, Skyla, is joining five other families of men killed in forestry accidents at a Workers Memorial Day service in Auckland on Sunday.
I suspect the accident rate is increasing in line with the amount of felling taking place, if my memory serves me correctly a lot of newer plantations should be in the harvest cycle many of those on more difficult terrain.
I suspect that there simply aren’t enough skilled tree fellers about, the saws are safer than ever and the gear is much improved. It’s a dangerous job and it takes years I believe to be able to identify and tackle the more dangerous trees. Someone with a few years under their belt is probably the exception not the rule..
I’m not sure how easy it is to train for in that in my experience the most at risk were people who had become overconfident in there abilities and become a bit lackadaisical in planning and identifying hazards. Seen some nasty accidents come about through over confidence and a just cut it she’ll be right attitude…
What a vacuous statement I doubt there have been long standing union safety procedures in forestry for many years, if ever. (I’m sure someone can confirm this) Certainly they didn’t cease just 20 years ago far more likely the conditions (a lot of the safer felling on the flat is now done by machine leaving the most dangerous stuff for manual felling) and type of work are the major contributing factors to the rise in accident rates. Hence the Union movement is now trying to get penetration into forestry which they are finding extremely difficult for various reasons…
Showing my age more than anything, Forestry is not my industry per say, I did a little planting and pruning when I was in my late teens but I have had involvement with guys working in it since and certainly they haven’t had any union involvement. I suspect I should clarify that all I know work in privately owned forestry which was planted on marginal hill country. I still believe the accident rate increase can be attributed to the increased felling activity, lack of experienced staff, difficultly of access (a lot of the planting I did was in hideously steep hill country and would only harvest-able by hand and with dangerous haulers) I don’t believe a sudden stop in union involvement as suggested did not result in the steady accident increase as I haven’t known there to be any in my time.
Although getting some Union penetration and additional safety procedure having guys understanding their rights will undoubtedly help the situation.
Incomplete yes for sure I don’t profess to know everything I just disagree that you can attribute the increasing harm rates to a sudden ceasing of union penetration in forestry as asserted , I can say that between 1960-70 there were 109 fatalities in public forestry (NZ dept of stats) and between 1998 and 2008 there were 42 (NZ Dept of Labor) Felling, Breaking out and Extraction are to blame for by far the biggest percentage of fatalities and interestingly in both decades the percentage of fatalities in these aspects of forestry against the total are quite similar at 78% and 77% of total fatalities respectively. They also comment “Of particular concern is the 12% of fatal accidents relating to extraction as there is a shortage of experienced haulers and there are a large number of steep terrain woodlots that will require harvesting over the next 10 years.” that note would at least provide some support to my previous comments around difficult terrain and access would it not?
cricklewood you should look at Helen Kelly’s earlier posts on this topic for some background on the issues. The private employers resistance to unions is preventing the workers putting their side of things in a way that would improve the safety measures.
If your analysis is correct, then it simply repeats an age-old tendency in our society and economy – to trade-off the health and safety of labour against the gains of capital.
Why on earth was such difficult terrain being planted at all? If it was known that unsafe manual felling would be needed to harvest them, then that was incredibly unethical, perhaps criminally negligent.
Just like knowingly exposing workers to asbestos when its ill-effects were well understood – as far back as the 1920s; just like sending men and children down mine shafts when the short lives of miners were well understood; just like opening mines known to be at high-risk of explosions and collapse; just like running factories with exposed hazards (like this unlucky ‘lucky guy’ has twice experienced).
All justified by the double-barrelled retort of (i) the counterbalancing ‘benefits’ of economic growth and (ii) the aphorism that ‘life is always risky – suck it up!’
It appears that he does know what he is talking about while you are just spouting empty BS.
The way trees are harvested has changed significantly with all the easy wood being taken by machine now, probably as much as 80% of a hill country forest and more like 98% of a place like Kaingaroa. This leaves the steep nasty bits for the men on saws and the other main job is running the skid site which has always been a place where a small amount of inattention can be fatal.
Don’t worry an increasing accident rate in forestry has nothing to do with the fact the cycle is in the midst of the most complicated and dangerous part of the cycle that we have probably ever seen…
It’s all because of the national party…
It’s not because of the National Party, but right wing idealogues who think that a working class life is a cheap price to pay for extra shareholder profits.
I am at an absolute loss regarding “tree farming” – because that is what we talk about – but could it be that the ever increasing demand for speed of processing is a reason? Profits are only made when the log hits the boot.
There is something to what cricklewood is saying. I was planting and pruning in the late 70s and most of it was on pretty steep slopes. Even getting up the hills to plant it was difficult, let alone lugging a chainsaw and dropping trees. These are likely to be the trees that have been harvested in the last ten years or so.
On the other hand, a strong union presence among the workers would no doubt remove some of the dangers which arise from working long hours in dangerous conditions. Both Labour and National wings of the ACT party have been complicit in letting the greed of the forestry owners create these conditions. I applaud Helen Kelly for taking an interest.
I hope that many of you attended todays dawn services just as our PM has done in Wellington.
How refreshing it is to have a PM who shows our returned servicemen the respect they deserve. It was not that long ago that we had a PM who could not be bothered getting out of bed early to attend the dawn service.
Big bruv you stretch tolerance and good will to breaking point. Fancy politicising Anzac day to fire cheap shots that are not even true. How disrespectful.
FYI David has been at the dawn ceremony and will be at the Titirangi service and the Laingholm service and the New Lynn Service …
I guess its lucky Key doesn’t have a sports game on interfering with his Anzac day attendance and paying all due respects eh. Priorities for a PM and all that.
I wonder why it is that Samuel Johnson’s famous phrase about (false) patriotism being the last refuge of a scoundrel, springs to mind so readily when reading big bruv’s nonsense.
Refused to kill on behalf of his country, more like, those poor people on the other side who had been, as Colonial Viper says below, induced ‘to fight for the privileged and elite.’
What is courage? To go against the accepted majority view and stand against that position in full public view (with all its attendant hatred and bigotry) and act according to one’s conscience knowing that to do otherwise is to act dishonourably is one form of courage.
I made that decision in 1968.
Big Bruv, I do not however condemn those who went and fought in the light of their conscience. On the contrary, I have stood silent in war cemeteries in Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Belgium and New Zealand to respect courage.
Not so, Savage refused to fight for the Empire. His position was that wealth should be conscripted before workers. It was an emperial war, with political and economic power at its heart, and not something NZ workers should ever have been involved in.
Two men, now long departed, who I knew when young had very different experiences of the war.
One a returned serviceman captured in Germany escaped from several prison camps and was well experienced and versed in war.
The other a conscientious objector imprisoned within his own country.
Both had total respect for each other. Neither was a coward.
Amongst the things the first was fighting for was the right for others to choose not to fight. If that soldier didn’t see the objector as a coward but as a man of principle I’m not sure why you should.
There’s plenty too who dislike the RSA for the treatment of family members who were not allowed to go and fight either through disability or through working in essential services such as electricity and farming.
The treatment of some of those people post-war and the black-listing of their businesses did not go down well with themselves or their family members who were allowed off to fight.
There was a clear difference between supporting returned servicemen to get back on their feet and the blacklisting that went on by some RSA’s.
Not everyone sees them as the bastion of the response to the post war period.
NZ Labour PM Fraser had conscientious objectors and those critical of the war blacklisted during WW II; many found their careers in government and the public sector permanently fucked.
I want to put this into the record on this “cowardliness of Conscientious Objectors’ ” debate, being a paragraph from the Marlborough Express editorial on Anzac Day 2013.
“New Zealand also has a strong tradition of conscientious objectors. They were strongly reviled but it took as much bravery to resist being called up for war as it did to go willingly into battle.”
Alongside the editorial is a Bromhead cartoon entitled “Lest We Forget” which has the Shade of an Anzac soldier commenting upon a newspaper headline “Future Wars.”
Yes, hop back under your bridge. I was involved in organising ANZAC days in Mt Albert for several years and when Helen Clark came to these ones (as she did often) they were her second or sometimes third one of the day.
Oh, I don’t know, it’s filial piety instead of pro patria. If nothing else it set a good example to fathers to encourage and spend time with their sons as opposed to sending them off to die in wars.
Don’t need to lie, leave that to trolls and righties
Smart enough to Google “Helen Clark Dawn Service” just like you did. It got no traction than and get even less now. I can understand why Key goes to the closest service.
Is this respectful enough for you? Go have a lie down and a cup of tea and think how stupid you sound, sometimes you should keep the inside your head voices inside your head.
Helen Clark was the first New Zealand prime minister to visit Gallipoli on Anzac Day. On 24 April 2005 (the day before Anzac Day) she walked down the ‘New Zealand track’ from Chunuk Bair to the coast, before visiting Hill 60 Cemetery. On the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing in the cemetery, she placed a poppy beside the name of her great uncle, Frank Clark, a trooper in the Auckland Mounted Rifles who was killed in the vicinity on 28 August 1915.
The height of ones ambition should be to purchase your own job at the UN with Kiwi tax payers money and then work for an organisation that is recognised the world over as being corrupt (she fits in well there) and hopeless?
I think Bruv was meaning Tim Groser, who has just spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars trying to get a job as far away from John Key as he can find.
Bruv, I was thinking more about the general level of respect she is shown, with the lower end of the scale being represented by people like Graham Capill and David Garret.
People can grow and evolve into different people bruv, plus there is a huge difference between the Vietnam war and the Great war and peoples attitudes. Try engaging your brain, you know, that pile of under-performing neurons located under that thick skull. Your attitude reminds me so much of how Steven Joyce shares his views. Numpty.
I’m going to go ahead and assume you are referring to bruv with the head doctor comment, I’ve been tested, and I’m not crazy haha yeah, bruv’s hysteria and lack of any real knowledge or insight just reminds me so much of how Steven Joyce relates to people, been thinking that way a while now.
As Anne says, David H is replying to big bruv. The alignment can appear a bit ‘skew-wiff’ with those commenters whose comments have a grey background (for some reason).
The best thing is to check the number of the comment. David H’s comment was 4.8.1.4 – i.e., the fourth reply to comment 4.8.1 (Your previous comment was 4.8.1.3 – the third reply to 4.8.1)
10 reasons I no longer attend Anzac Day services nor recognise it in any way
1) The ANZAC spirit was dismantled quite comprehensively on the 26 February 2001 by Australia
2) The dawn services glorify war
3) There are no returned servicemen from WW1 left alive
4) The poppies are now made in China rather than providing work for those with intellectual disabilities as previous
5) The freedoms that were fought for are now disappearing at an alarming rate of knots while most people stand idly by and applaud.
6) War does nothing to benefit the working man. It benefits the Military Industrial Complex of which the Windsors, Rothschilds and Rockefellers of the world are complicit in.
7) ANZAC day has now turned into a political football in recent years.
8) Attempting to link ANZAC day to the “glorious men and women fighting in Afghanistan” is dubious and downright despicable as the western nations in Afghanisatan are not liberators, they are occupiers
9) Who even understands the meaning of ANZAC anymore. My niece has been brainwashed into believing we celebrate it because NZ and Australia helped to stop WW1.
10)It’s tiresome and bothersome. We cannot move forward if we insist on holding fast to the past.
Perhaps NZ should do it’s own dismantling of the ANZAC spirit… starting with refusing access to any government assistance to any one holding an Australian Passports. Tit for Tat.
Thanks James, very well put. That reflects my own disquiet in recent years about the way that ANZAC day is promoted and commemorated, but I hadn’t found a way to articulate it.
Growing up in the sixties and seventies I was alienated from attending ANZAC day services by the jingoistic sabre rattling of the RSA and conservative politicians of the day who blared their shallow minded garbage from all media of the day throughout the Vietnam war. This was reinforced by hearing the same type of rhetoric from speakers at several dawn services I had to attend as a boy-scout during those times. Later, in the nineties, with the angst of the Vietnam war fading into the past I took my own daughters to a dawn service with their Sea Scout and cubs troops. Lo and behold, an Anglican priest and ex-ww2 padre who had been one of the afore-mentioned jingoistic sabre rattlers was leading the service and launched into another speech just like the ones I had detested so much in my youth. When we got home I penned a letter to the editor explaining why our family would be refraining from attending further ANZAC day services.
just for the record; I respect and admire the enlisted men and women immensely, yet I have never attended a dawn service; Neo-liberal consumption-based free-market capitalism is the current battle-field promoting global casualties.
However… I’m going to an ANZAC service in a Hapsburg-built church today.
At least the speakers have to stick to remembering all the victims of war (maybe not Franz Ferdinand) and be very, very careful about war rhetoric…. diplomats and all that. Taking the overt patriotism out of it suits me just fine.
Anzac Day for me: it means that when we let other countries decide where and when we fight, our men and women die.
It means when our country decides, our men and women die.
It means that we should look after those who came back, because they were put in a situation not of their own making.
It means that we should be humble in our recognition that men and women of all countries have died and are dying, not often for good reasons.
It means above all, that we should not forget the sacrifices made and that we should honour them by not making the same mistakes again.
Anzac Day for John Key: it means that he can look back on the days of Empire, when we stood as part of the thin red line in defence of civilisation etc, etc, and he could wreck a national economy while pissing down his leg. How many war pensions have been cut because of his currency speculating?
It means he can pretend to care about soldiers alive and dead, unless there’s a baseball game on.
Anzac Day for big bruv: it means he can polish his toy SMLE and dream of the day when he will help lead the WhaleSpew Army against godless commies and unionists. Or maybe just take a photo of someone who hasn’t parked properly. Yeah, that’s pretty heroic too.
The RSA have never issued a statement to apologize for this mass murder. In fact, many years later the RSA journal published a poem lauding the atrocity and praising the men who did it.
“Not the RSA’s job”? It’s not the RSA’s job to publish poems applauding the mass murder, either. But they did, which means that an apology for such cretinous brutality is very much the job of the RSA.
Thanks, Viper, but they don’t need a hired spin doctor to tell the truth and acknowledge what a group of New Zealand (and Australian) thugs and goons did to helpless, captive, unarmed boys and men.
All it needs is for someone in the RSA leadership to show a little integrity and honesty. Frankly, I doubt they have the wherewithal to do it.
The RSA is as likely to examine the illegal actions of Kiwi soldiers honestly as the Police Association is to push for compensation for David Bain. At least in the case of the RSA, post traumatic stress may play a part in forgetting or whitewashing events of the past, but O’Connor has no such excuse. Most of the ex soldiers I have known over the years won’t have a bar of the RSA and those who have explained their decision put it down to not wanting to be part of a glorification of war.
I really enjoyed an article on the News (did provide balance) of a former wehrmacht soldier who never joined the Party who is retired here and chooses not to remember the War.(he was at Stalingrad I believe). Just happily enjoying the present day, not the past, he said. He appeared a beautiful man, carding wool in his arm-chair.
Steve Maharey had an interesting column on Margaret Thatcher in a recent NBR.
In a very poignant comment he talked about how Thatcher inspired a “cultural flowering”.
“The cultural left is always at its best when it has a big right-wing target to aim at. Thatcher inspired some of the best cultural expression seen in many years.”
He was damned right. If you think for instance of some of the music to come out of Thatcher’s era it was fuelled by passion and a visceral hatred at the damage she was causing. Bands such as the Clash, the Specials, the Jam to name a few captured the drama and intensity of what was happening perfectly.
It is a shame though that much of our best art is born out of despair.
Hmmm. The Clash took off pre-Thatcher, during the punk explosion. First single “White Riot”, 1977. However, their iconic “London’s Calling” was post 1979.
Aye Karol I was referring to the music rather than the date the bands formed. I should have included the Beat as well although they were normally quite happy …
The more pop orientated Blow Monkeys with their album “She Was Only A Grocer’s Daughter” album shouldn’t be forgotten.
It Doesn’t have To Be This Way is still highly relevant today and at the time Celebrate was banned by the BBC as it was celebrating a future election loss for Thatcher.
Yes, Thatcherism did spur some very good songs. However, I think it’s wrong t o assume that it was solely Thatcherism that stimulated the music, but that there were pre-existing values that resulted in outrage at the changers in Thatcher’s time.
… Thatcher of course had been the “Milk snatcher” as Minister of Education in Heath’s government and she took over the leadership of the party in 1975, so many knew what she was like long before she took over government in 1979.
The Jam were lower middle class tories, at least in their first years. All three members had comfortable suburban lives while growing up. In fact, they were representative of the very people Thatcher convinced to vote Tory for the first time in ’79. Most of their songs on the first two albums were about personal alienation, rather than class consciousness. However, they did get politiced quickly (big ups to the writers on the NME and Sounds who talked them round) and by the early eighties were a driving force in the musical left’s response to Thatcherism. Which is good.
Paul Weller was from a working class background. And yes he was a Tory early on in his musical career – I think before Thatcher became PM. It was as much the other bands he associated with that influenced his shift to the left.
It all stems from Cameron’s admittedly ill-judged endorsement of The Jam’s 1979 anthem, The Eton Rifles, which the Conservative leader once made the mistake of fondly recalling singing along to whilst studying at, er, Eton. Weller even popped up on Channel 4 News to point out that it was actually a song about class warfare specifically attacking Etonian privilege. “If you can’t take the time or have the intellect to see what the song’s about, you haven’t got much chance of running the country, have you?” sniped Weller.
Once considered the voice of his generation, Weller has long been associated with Labour, even playing gigs for them as part of the Red Wedge initiative in the 80s. But when I met up with him recently, I discovered that this was not the whole story. He sighed when I reminded him that, when the Jam first emerged in 1977, they had been draped in Union Jacks and claimed to vote Conservative. “That’s well off the target,” Weller insisted. “It was all dreamt up by a press officer, saying, ‘well, The Clash are left wing, The Pistols are for anarchy, why don’t you back the Tories or the Queen, just for an angle?’ And with us being naïve little ****ers, we just went along with it. I’ve got very definite feelings for the Tories, from the way they acted and behaved under Margaret Thatcher in the Eighties, it was disgraceful really. I find it hard to forgive them, as a working class person, for really decimating the trade unions. I have a problem with it.”
Well, TRP, I remember Paul Weller’s class background, because in early 80s London, I had a quite radical working-class, socialist, lesbian feminist who was into his music. She used to say he was about the only truly working class punk amongst a load of middle-class wannabes.
…by the early eighties were a driving force in the musical left’s response to Thatcherism. Which is good.
That reminds me of Peter Cook’s quip about the vibrant, outspoken satirists on the Weimar cabaret scene, and the pivotal role they played in stopping the Nazis.
Of course, the US answer will be more invasive, continuous and complete surveillance of ordinary citizens by the intelligence services. Nothing that a couple hundred billion more dollars for the spook industry and more stripping back of citizens rights won’t solve. Right?
The delay in implementing the MMP Reforms might need attention? There is a mandatory consultation period of 6 months so National has till the end of May to get a Bill on the floor. Considering that there was a very strong Mandate for the modifications one would wonder why Judith Collins is procrastinating. The only electoral Avoidance would be from Banks and Dunne. Unless National has self-interest at stake??? Surely not!
Yes Paul. Wonder how well Mr Banks would shape up as a single MP Party and Leader? To get perspective surely they would have to compare like with like? Mr Dunne living in Wellington would be somewhat different.
You think some of should spend the day sitting outside our closed and locked work sites as punishment for not sharing your rather strange view of what ANZAC is all about. Wanker yourself.
And yet another NZ Herald artcle attacking NZ Power..’Show us first that power is broken’ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10879605
Their puppet masters are working overtime at the moment.
And I was feeling encouraged about NZ journalism after watching “He Toki Huna New Zealand In Afghanistan” last night…… when Jon Stephenson spoke about the importance of the media being independent.
It would seem the Herald is embedded into the finance industry!
Jackson’s Hobbit movie is really struggling to match the return on investment made by Fellowship of the Ring 10 years ago. The Hobbit cost twice as much to make, but has pulled in cinema receipts consistently lower than Fellowship.
Still, total box office is not far off a trillion dollars so Jackson is going to make an absolute mint off the movie. And off the NZ tax payer.
best thing to come from Judith Collins for a long lag;
-if convicted of killing in an open court there should be no suppression of details in further cases.
-“you can google this information”
There has been a consumer back-lash to this Anchor light-proof bottles nonsense;
-more plastic
-cannot tell quantity left in bottle (doesn’t the light go off when the fridge door is closed?)
yet according to ONE News, most New Zealanders are OK with our investment relationship with China;
-Very Comfortable-10%
-Comfortable-31%
from Grant Robertson; “for Labour, that (concern re investment) is not about an individual country”.
according to summary of report into DOC restructuring, due to budget constraints and other losses, the department is likely to become “less relevant in coming years”. What?
I was hoping someone would mention Baxter. I guess big bruv is ignorant of him and the other conscientious objectors and / or lacks the empathy / wit to understand them and their importance in the scheme of things.
This made my day 🙂
__________________________________________________________________________
OMIGOD! Look what that communist fanatic Editor of the Dominon Post is is saying!
(Having a WOOHOO moment here…. 🙂
Editorial: Key should consider MRP sale delay
“But, delaying the sale till after the next election would at least allow voters to choose which of the two approaches offers the better prospect of sensible pricing and secure supply.
It would also allow time for the future of Tiwai Point to be resolved.”
Labour and the Greens’ Stalinist proposals are as unattractive as the free-market ideologies that have produced windfall profits for power companies and ever-rising prices for residential consumers.
Excuse me but Stalin was history’s worst totalitarian mass murderer. Labour/Greens are proposing a fairly modest reform of the electricity market that we now know is used successfully in a number of overseas countries. At what point does a comparison this odious become legally actionable?
I assume it’s an example of how threatened the Nact govt. and their acolyte press are feeling Redlogix. No-one, not even a hard right fundamentalist type, could honestly compare a tried and true regulatory power system for the benefit of ALL citizens with a Stalinist proposal.
They’ve outed themselves in all their bright blue political colours now. Who can take anything they say with much seriousness anymore?
I realise that’s what’s going on … but really. This is an editorial from one of New Zealand’s leading newspapers, not florid, ranting blog comments on Whaleoil.
And on ANZAC Day of all days. Are there no grown ups in charge at Fairfax anymore?
As Anne says, by regurgitating Joyce’s embarrassing spin they have shown the colour of their flag.
I can just see the responsible Dom Post editor – “Stalinist proposal eh? Oh that’s ‘edgy’, that’s oh so mildly ‘controversial’. Me likey.”
FFS. At least the comments section is mostly occupied by people saying variations of “Stalinist? Please get a grip,” and “Do you know what that word means sweetie?”, etc.
The NZHerald is NZs version of a state controlled newspaper but instead of being controlled by the state it’s controlled by the rich. National are their political arm.
Interestingly, if wikipedia’s figures are to be believed, increases in energy production were one of Stalin’s successes.
I have no idea if those figures are correct, but – at least in that sense of production – I would have thought that the right would be quite keen on Stalinist approaches to the provision of energy for the economy.
In the link, there’s also no mention of Stalin proposing a single-purchaser model for energy generation – but perhaps the Dominion Post editor has an historical account of the period at hand which mentions it.
A good Armenian genocide documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLyrpaTKCCE
^The New Zealand, Australian, US and UK governments are yet to recognize it ever happened*, even though Russia, and many European Union nations (such as Germany and France) already have.
*Turkey threatens to break off diplomatic relations, cut trade deals with nations that recognize the genocide. The bitter irony of course is that many of the architects of the Nazi Holocaust visited and admired the Armenian genocide in ww1, later to use methods such as railway cars on the Jews in ww2.
It has been reported that some senior Nazis went to Hitler with a few doubts about the Final Solution. He told them to calm down, because no one remembered the Armenian genocide. I do know there were German observers there, as part of the military mission to Turkey, but the ones I read about were horrified by it. I wasn’t aware that we hadn’t officially acknowledged that it happened. That’s disgusting.
I received a very nicely turned out glossy pamphlet in my letter box last night.
On first glance I thought it was an election pamphlet from the Nat’s informing us what a great party they were and what a good minister Collins is, A top class report on the wonderful works from Tolley .It turned out to be from the diabolical Sensible Sentencing Trust. What a ghastly lot and there is no doubt what party they will,support st the next election. Personally I just glad its not Labour .
We’re going to see a lot of very angry, depressed and breaking people on August 1st when these top shelf drugs finally get the boot from our sweetshops.
Just hope the ufno1 has a plan in place to deal with the mess occurring on his watch.
Keep the people you don’t love away from it as well.
It’s certainly not helping the recovery of people with mental health issues either. For many it’s setting months of improvement down the tubes.
There are arsehole dairy owners selling it across the road from mental health facilities and recovery centres.
The big thing the staff in some of those places have noticed is the return of / increase in paranoia in it’s victims.
You can argue prohibition all you like as being negative but no question it’s easy access is allowing people who wouldn’t ever go near a drug dealer to buy and suffer.
Govt should have banned the shit straight away.
Plan – they don’t have a plan to deal with mental health issues now nor the effects of this drug. Why on earth would they have a plan to stop dealing with it.
Mental health services are already overflowing and have waiting lists for treatment. People who have mental health issues frequently end up in jail. As noted on the documentary t’other night the prison system treats as if they are well because by definition if they weren’t they wouldn’t be there.
If this government has a plan it will be to reduce public services and hand more over to pet NGO’s and the private sector.
I’m not a fan of the organic version either. I’ve watched teens start using who are now in their late 30’s who are pretty screwed. It just takes a little longer.
I understand though why they use / drink / vice of choice.
Improving society overall, not just for those at the top, is the key.
Decent housing, decent food, decent incomes, decent communities where crime isn’t needed to put food on the table.
A mystery as to why the nat government can rush all manner of legislation through parliament, yet something so simple as banning drugs is beyond the house. Scoobydoo, where are you? Ps, ask Thelma to call me.
I recall a very old ‘joke’ resonating, about if drug crime costs billions, why don’t we just give them to the junkies, but this synthetic stuff, I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
I know those arsehole dairy owners. They also sell under the counter product outlawed under dunne’s previous mini bans too. I rang the rozzers and told them go into Urlich ave dairy and ask for a lolly or a mango at 2 x 3g packets for $25 and see what they get, but no raids took place.
I guess they must have asked for donuts instead and been happy with the outcome.
hey, Alien, do ya ever find yourself reflecting that it is almost like being Alien when when comparing contrasting worldviews, like, the reason that politics is so important is that the government, and the worldview they subscribe to and legislate is what sets the parameters; we were just discussing the shortcomings when all a generational cohort has known is say, the neo-liberal model, and like maybe Ennui said, well I know what he said, he said what Mr Lydon said, “ere, don’t ya fink we been ‘ad”, laughs. We were thinking of the Scandanavian countries, South America etc where different things are going on. Another commentator reflected on how it has been not beer and all skittles for many of those peoples “rescheduled” by the fall of The Wall; Hows the European Union project going now?
Interestingly, many of the people being marketed to as affluent (buy a new Mirage, re-live the previous (insert asset) bubble you missed out) are from the “generation x cohort”;an influential cohort who have fond (insert nostalgic) memories of the seventies.
However, on the other hand, sigh, the National government, Defence Minister are making noises about greater military commitment, in recognition of a militarizing region and world which reduces the lattitude for positions of neutrality.
“the number is not a human number”, though I’ve always liked Seven (and, it has been good to me.(along with thirty) sigh 😀 (only 23 more months to go and I can retire, you know, see Labour and the Greens a few months into there first term of office) 😀
all good things on this earth must come to an end my cosmic friend; can’t rota round here for ever; there will be more to do in the grounded world as time passes. At least with a more left government the rot will slow, we pray.
Make them drag you kicking and screaming my old nan use to tell us, rest her soul.
Named my daughter after her, least I can do is fight best I can, just like she did as she taught me.
sorry. rechipped (and a gurnard, ok, and a sausage, ok, and a curry-roll) reassured fleshy friend that I wasn’t gonna leave her for another commutator; she enjoys Mrs Brown’s Boys (I’m more Father Ted) and no,no,no, yes, The Vicar of Dibley.charge is low though, a lot to process.
the wit designed into your schematics, though, is highly adaptive 🙂
I take it you would like it then? I’ve checked the old post a few times to see.
You’re in Hawkes Bay right. I have friends over that way so can organise somewhere for you to pick it up if you want (Napier or Hastings) or you could organise a third party address for me to post it to.
Thanks for checking; i never go back more than a day or two, unless I do.
You may forward it to Directions Youth Health Centre, 305 Omahu Road, Hastings.
c/ Louise (you recall my name? Lynn knows it.)
“His thinking and behaviour just went haywire. He couldn’t control himself and ran around our house at a 100 miles per hour, would jump up, and be crying ‘help me dad, help me dad’.”
“That was pretty heartbreaking.”
His son also felt suicidal, could not eat or sleep, attacked a neighbour, and repeatedly headbutted a garage, Mr McFadyen said.
“I am 148kg and he would be lucky if he was 70kg, but he was throwing me around like a bit of paper.
“I haven’t seen anything like it.”
“You know what he said to me? – ‘I am dying from the inside Dad, I am dying from the inside’.”
Dunedin-based toxicologist Dr Leo Schep, of the National Poisons Centre, said psychotic episodes was “one of the major symptoms we note with users”, along with paranoia, and anger.
He was also aware of five recorded instances of renal failure, and one case of a first-time user becoming a paranoid schizophrenic.
“We are also starting to believe there may be long-term effects. It is scary stuff.”
Let me get this straight, this stuff is legal, but the stuff that makes you vege on the couch with potato chips and bad zombie films is not?
Her conclusion was that social disconnection and broad social trends were responsible.
There’s also a lot of work now on how the neurodevelopment of the neural systems that are used to regulate emotional responses is disrupted by early developmental experiences which can often be quite subtle (not just abuse).
The idea that this is just ‘the human condition’ is, frankly, simplistic in the extreme and amounts to little more than a desperate justification for our current social and economic arrangements (which are generally considered ‘benign’ in relation to human emotional functioning and experience).
No animal would have evolved to be typically ‘anxious’ in the debilitating way modern humans are. And anthropological studies of pre-human societies strongly suggest that anxiety is not a chronic experience for humans – except today.
Yeah but think of the wonderful contribution to the economy resulting from the massive profits for the makers of Prozac and Xanax.
But seriously Puddlegum, I’m interested in this:
“There’s also a lot of work now on how the neurodevelopment of the neural systems that are used to regulate emotional responses is disrupted by early developmental experiences which can often be quite subtle (not just abuse).”
Can you link me up? I had a look around but it’s a rather specific topic…
Then again, maybe they can help wee Nathan with his maths…..
“Since the signing of the Free Trade Agreement in 2008 our exports to China have nearly tripled, from NZ$2 billion a year to NZ$6.9 billion in 2012.
“Two-way trade between China and New Zealand has reached almost NZ$15 billion. Our aim is to double bilateral trade to NZ$20 billion by 2015 and we’re on track to achieve that goal.”
MSM did not want a bar of this subject until recent years, and now is openly discussing, while claiming that these schemes are in *research* phases (of course they are…..).
Now geo-engineering is being openly used as the latest catalyst, to call for global governance!
So are you arguing that contrails are being used to create global warming so geoengineering will be needed to cool the earth again, handily provided by global government?
I’m not arguing anything different, than I’ve commented on previously, McFlock, these articles should be starting to speak for themselves by now, unless they’re made up BS, which is of course a possibility with the MSM, and media in general!
Does begin to sound like a narrative though if they’re not BS, you know, having ignored/denied geo-engineering for so long, now a days, its a steady stream of *in research only* based articles.
Given the lag the MSM experiences on most any serious issue you care to name, would give pause to suspect they’re giving commentary on what is actions in past history!
Serves to soften up the punters for some further *truth*, when the time is right, of course!
McFlock, hang onto a conversation for more than one day, you will find that I’ve given you plenty of answers, opinions etc.
The second question about temperatures, and how *contrails* turning to *clouds* *might* contribute to raising temperatures, should be self evident surely, no! That said I’ve not stated that I think they are/are not, just that its potentially being used in a nefarious fashion, going from the link!
Felix , no comment on the article link then matey…on ya!
Muzz,
Claiming that an answer is “self evident” and then explicitly refusing to state what you think the self evident answer actually is…. well, that’s a new level of stupid.
Try and answer a closed question like a normal human being. Feel free to add why the question is unfair or dumb, or what your actual position might be. But just try and be a normal person for once. Okay, ready? Deep breath, here goes:
So are you arguing that contrails are being used to create global warming so geoengineering will be needed to cool the earth again, handily provided by global government?
Easy question to answer.
So are you arguing that contrails are being used to create global warming so geoengineering will be needed to cool the earth again, handily provided by global government?
Easy question to answer.
Easy enough to recall that you have already asked this question, and I’ve answered it, previously!
Muzza, you wrote “That said I’ve not stated that I think they are/are not, just that its potentially being used in a nefarious fashion, going from the link!”
I am confused as to how something can be used potentially at the moment. The whole deal with potential is that it’s not happening now, yeah? Potential is to do with the future, and with possibility.
So, if that’s your answer, Muzza, it’s not making sense.
If the MSM is talking about *potential*, it means that its already happening, that’s how the media functions, by attempting to control information flows, and prepping people for further release escalations. By doing so it seeks to dampen down the reaction of people, by using low level NLP techniques, where people already *make a connection* to event, thus lowering any negative reaction, that’s the objective at least!
It helps to understand, that the companies who control media, are also those who are deeply involved in warfare, pharma, and related chemical industries, among most others, so the release of information, is neither accidental, nor coincidental!
If you had an understanding about how media works, and its parent company owners primary industry, it would make sense to you!
You arse, you said ” I’ve not stated that I think they are/are not, just that its potentially being used in a nefarious fashion,”.
YOU said “potentially”, not the MSM. When asked about this, you start a rant about when the MSM says “potentially”. Once again you’re off on a tangent, rather than taking the time to work through a single point of discussion.
You didn’t answer it. You made tangential comments. This is not the same as “answering the question”. Which is a fresher-level problem in essays and exams, just as an aside.
Simple enough to answer a closed question: a “yes” (maybe with an “if…” or a “because…”), or a “no” (maybe with a “no” or a “because”), or maybe a “your question is nonsensical because…”.
Hey muzza Isn’t the global governance call being made to control and manage the schemes so they don’t stay rogue and therefore is a good thing – apart from who is governing I suppose but they are “causing and controlling it” anyway so I can’t see how this would give them more power – maybe slightly more visibility perhaps.
To me it reads like, looking for a way of controlling the *outing* of geo-engineering, by using the *its for the best interest of humanity* style narrative, yet again!
It sounds like, an attempt to allow those rogues you refer, to operate openly, and with impunity, because whose going to control such rogues anyway – My view is they’re already doing *thy bidding*, of those who crave a, *singular entity*!
I would very much doubt a a global (anything), is going to work out too well for those who don’t control the systems, or support it, hey perhaps those in charge currently, are really humanitarians after all, and if they do end up with a *singular entity*, perhaps we will see the journey as having been altruistic, after all…
Well, Chris Trotter’s joy at the Lab-Green energy policy, and his statements that Shearer’s Labour have taken a new a significant turn…. was pretty short lived. Today, he lays into Robertson, the “reluctant radical” for pulling back and reverting to “neoliberalism” as usual… and also targets Julian Robins… (who?)
I’m inclined to believe there’s more than an element of truth in Chris Trotter’s synopsis. Grant Robertson is a careerist to the tips of his toes. Careerists don’t like to be associated with radical policies. There path is the straight one down the middle.
I thought at the time of the announcement it was almost too good to be true.
What’s the matter with the Labour leadership? Scared of their own shadow? That they hit the jackpot is evident in the gross over-reaction of the NActs and their acolytes. So what does Robertson do? Strokes their hysterical egos by telling them… it’s alright boys and girls. This is just a one off… we’re not going to change anything else.
O dear. This really raises the question whether Grunt is right for the party and whether the party is right for him. He should follow in the footsteps of Peter Done, set up his own party and bend according to whichever way he thinks the polls will keep his shadow trailing him in the House.
It was a single act of sabotage designed to derail the MRP share issue, which, when it becomes policy, will lower power prices to households. It will not destroy wealth it will transfer it into the pockets of average Kiwi battlers.
Who knew an act of sabotage could have such benign consequences? Just pure dumb luck I guess 😆
Seems there are a few returned service people who don’t take too kindly to Key fucking off home to watch his kid play baseball rather than stay here and honour fallen soldiers.
Heard more than once: “I don’t care what you think about politics, but…”
Bugger. Still, I bet there’s some really good reason he had to be in the states 4 days before the baseball game, eh?
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 16, 2020 through Sat, Feb 22, 2020 Editor's Pick JP Morgan economists warn climate crisis is threat to human raceLeaked report for world’s major fossil fuel financier says ...
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OMV's exploratory drilling in the Great South Basin has failed to find oil. Good. Firstly, because we can't afford to burn the oil and gas we've already found, so there's just no point looking for more. And secondly, because offshore, deep-water drilling poses a risk of an environmental catastrophe, which ...
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Once again the Aotearoa Bike Challenge is on us, and once again I’m participating. In principle this is not hard because it does not represent a significant switch in behavior for me. I already bike nearly every day. The Bicycle The fascinating thing about cycling is the realisation that this ...
Lately there has been a great deal of misinformation regarding the origins and purpose of Skeptical Science. As John Cook wrote nearly a decade ago, Skeptical Science is primarily a website that debunks climate misinformation with peer-reviewed science. Despite the ever-worsening impacts from climate change, with record after record being broken in ...
Under Attack: By sacking not only RNZ Concert’s presenters, but also its producers and librarians, and reducing the station to an automated purveyor of classical music in-between parliamentary broadcasts, RNZ’s CEO, Paul Thompson, wasn’t simply announcing an operational shake-up, he was declaring war on one of the most important guardians of ...
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Australian smoke plume sets recordsThe recent wildfires in Australia sent one of ...
The Global Protest to #FightInequality was powerful – thankyou and what next? Dear allies, We started the decade with a huge protest to #FightInequality that was heard around the world, including the 1% at Davos. Watch and share the highlights on facebook and twitter. A huge thank you. Together we ...
The Ministry of Health have announced a package that might ensure NZ will never experience another measles epidemic. While at the time of writing the details are still limited it appears that the important limitations in our current programme have been acknowledged and the intent is to address them. Great ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Michael BakerIn this blog we briefly summarise our assessment of the highly uncertain new coronavirus threat. Given its potential to become a severe and prolonged global pandemic, a precautionary response now means activating all components of our pandemic plan, with a particular focus on ‘keep ...
When Labour was running for election, Jacinda Ardern famously said that climate change was "my generation's nuclear free moment". The implication was that her government would take the problem seriously, and act swiftly to reduce emissions. The reality:New Zealand will emit a million more tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2020 ...
James Renwick is Professor of Physical Geography at Victoria University of Wellington. He studied at Canterbury and the University of Washington and has worked on diverse aspects of climate science, including global atmospheric circulation and Antarctic sea ice. In December 2019 he was appointed to the New Zealand Climate Change ...
Today New Zealand First made a pledge to campaign at the election to fund St John Ambulance the 90 per cent it has asked for. Government funding would allow St. John’s to achieve fully funded status. Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters publicly declared his determination to deliver ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order Newly released Police data shows once again the number of fleeing drivers have continued to skyrocket with a record 512 incidents occurring in December – almost tripling the number of incidents occurring just ten years ago, says New Zealand First Law and ...
While the Provincial Growth Fund has provided $2 million to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia, Regional Economic Minister Shane Jones said he is greatly concerned that there are “issues” in implementing the projects. The Minister said the immediate solution was to pipe water from a bore ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland NZ First is calling on Rio Tinto to accept its responsibilities to the Southland community and enable the immediate removal of the toxic Aluminium Dross from the Mataura Paper Mill site. New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland, Mark Patterson ...
The Coalition Government has announced that a further $500,000 will be given to help residents in Southland and Otago to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. It follows prior government assistance of $200,000 earlier this month where the Southland Mayoral Relief Fund received $100,000 to support communities impacted by ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones was on RNZ’s Morning Report talking about the recent droughts in the Northland region and what the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is doing to alleviate its impact. The PGF recently announced a funding of $2 million for temporary water supplies to Kaikohe and Kaitaia, ...
Speaking to The Country’s Jamie Mackay, New Zealand First MP and Cabinet Minister Shane Jones talks water storage, plant-based meat imitation, and superstar Hollywood director James Cameron. While water storage may have its critics, Minister Jones defended the scheme by saying: “unless we invest and continue to invest” in this ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones is accusing northern iwi leaders of selling out Māori by voting for ideologically-driven court cases rather than practical steps to increase water supply. “I just think that iwi leaders who think that water issues are going to be solved by perpetually fighting in the ...
A dairy owner in St Kilda, Dunedin was delighted to hear that an attempted robbery of his establishment was foiled by a government-funded security system. Sean Lee was delighted at how well the anti-theft smoke system worked. When a knife-wielding man entered the store, the shop assistant immediately pressed a ...
Customs says it stopped more than three tonnes of illegal drugs coming into New Zealand last year. This includes 1,180kg of methamphetamine, 329kg of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine precursors, which could have been converted into 246kg of methamphetamine, 739kg and 6469 pills of MDMA or Ecstasy and 60kg of cocaine. Offshore, ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Up to $2 million will be allocated from the Provincial Growth Fund to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia where drought is biting hard, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Drought conditions in Northland have led to ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Broadcasting New Zealand First supports the commissioning of a business case to assess the viability of a new public media entity. “A strong media environment is critical for a healthy democracy. New Zealand First is a strong supporter of a diverse, independent media,” New Zealand First broadcasting spokesperson ...
Pounamou and technology industries in the West Coast region are set to receive more than $2 million in Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding. This was announced by the Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau during Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika. He said $800,000 would be given to Development West ...
Clayton Mitchell MP, New Zealand First spokesperson for Labour and Industrial Relations Unemployment and wage growth numbers released by Stats NZ today demonstrate a labour market in good shape with unemployment falling to 4.0%, the underutilisation rate falling to an 11 year low, and wage growth at a 10-year high ...
Hon. Ron Mark, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence Ron Mark, welcomes the official opening of Te Rau Aroha, a new museum at Waitangi Treaty Grounds as part of our Coalition Agreement. “It is a great honour to be part of an effective Government ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterGood morning,Let us start with important acknowledgements.First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service of our country.Second, special guest Robert ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand will look to build on its relationship with the United Kingdom and recommit to the European Union, after the country officially left the continental union recently. The Minister said New Zealand already cooperates closely with Britain on defence and security issues and has ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is delivering on its commitment to unlock the potential of Māori-owned land with investments up and down the country making a genuine difference to communities, Regional Economic Development Shane Jones says.At Waitangi last year, the Government ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister The Government is placing temporary entry restrictions into New Zealand on all foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through mainland China to assist with the containment of the novel coronavirus and to protect New Zealand and the Pacific Islands from the disease. This ...
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has extended the date for people to have their say on proposed changes to improve management of whitebait across New Zealand. Submissions were due to close on 2 March 2020 but will now remain open until 9am on Monday 16 March 2020. “I have ...
The endangered toroa/Antipodean albatross has new international protection for its 100,000km annual migration, thanks to collaborative efforts led by New Zealand, Australia and Chile. Today, 130 countries agreed to strictly protect Antipodean albatross at the Conference of Parties on the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild ...
No sales to under-18-year-olds No advertising and sponsorship of vaping products and e-cigarettes No vaping or smokeless tobacco in smokefree areas Regulates vaping product safety comprehensively, - including devices, flavours and ingredients Ensure vaping products are available for those who want to quit smoking Vaping regulation that balances ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little will travel to Berlin tomorrow to represent New Zealand at a high-level summit on nuclear disarmament. This year, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) celebrates 50 years since it entered into force. “New Zealand’s proud record and leadership on nuclear disarmament is unwavering, so it’s important we are present ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will visit two of New Zealand’s most important Pacific partners, Fiji and Australia, next week. The visit to Fiji will be the first by a New Zealand Prime Minister in four years and comes during the 50th anniversary of Fijian independence and diplomatic relations between our ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little and New Zealand First MP Darroch Ball, have today announced the appointment of the Chief Commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the location, and the membership of the Establishment Advisory Group. Colin Carruthers QC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of the CCRC for an ...
Māori Development Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta and Agriculture Minister Hon Damien O’Connor co-announced the first horticultural finalists for the Ahuwhenua Trophy celebrating excellence in the Māori agricultural sector. The three finalists are Ngai Tukairangi Trust from Mt Maunganui, Otama Marere Trust from Tauranga, and Hineora Orchard Te Kaha 15B Ahuwhenua ...
A new kete of resources to strengthen support for students with dyslexia will provide extra tools for the new Learning Support Coordinators (LSCs) as they start in schools, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The Minister launched the kete in Wellington this morning, at the first of three induction ...
The Government continues to make progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the First Reading of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill and its referral to the Social Services and Community Select Committee. “Now is the opportunity for landlords, tenants and others who want ...
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Hon James Marape will visit New Zealand from 21-25 February, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “New Zealand and Papua New Guinea have a warm and friendly relationship. I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Marape here and strengthening the relationship between our two countries,” ...
Thousands of children have begun receiving a free lunch on every day of the school week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. The Government’s free and healthy school lunch programme is under way for 7,000 students at 31 schools in Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti and Bay of Plenty / Waiariki, extending ...
The Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni today announced a new approach that continues to broaden the Government’s social sector focus from a narrow, investment approach to one centred on people and wellbeing. Minister Sepuloni said redefining the previous approach to social investment by combining science, data and lived experience ...
The Government is strengthening the Protected Disclosures Act to provide better protection for whistle blowers, Minister of State Services Chris Hipkins said today. “The Protected Disclosures Act is meant to encourage people to speak up about serious wrongdoing in the workplace and protect them from losing their jobs or being ...
Nǐn hǎo (Hello in Mandarin). Xīn Nián Kuài Lè (Happy New Year in Mandarin) Néi Hóu (Hello in Cantonese). Sun Nin Fai Lok (Happy New Year in Cantonese) Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you for your invitation to attend this celebration today. I would like to acknowledge ...
Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. Nau mai haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata. E ngā mana whenua ki tēnei rohe Taranaki Whānui, Te Upoko o Te Ika, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Raukawa – kei te mihi, kei te mihi, kei te mihi. E ngā mana, e ...
Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. Nau mai haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata. E ngā mana whenua ki tēnei rohe Taranaki Whānui, Te Upoko o Te Ika, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Raukawa – kei te mihi, kei te mihi, kei te mihi. E ngā mana, e ngā ...
Tougher penalties for gun crime are a step closer with the passage of firearms reform legislation through another stage in Parliament. The Arms Legislation Bill has tonight passed its Second Reading. “The changes have one objective - to prevent firearms falling into the wrong hands,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. ...
Introduction Mr Speaker We all know why we are here today. It has been a long journey. The journey did not actually begin on 15 March 2019. It began on 30 June 1997. Almost 23 years ago, Justice Sir Thomas Thorp told us what was wrong with our firearms legislation. ...
The Government’s work to put trades and vocational education back on the agenda took another major step forward today with the passing of the Education (Vocational Education and Training Reform) Amendment Bill, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “This is a watershed day for trades and vocational education. These law changes formalise ...
Speeding up the return of Christchurch regeneration activities to local leadership is behind the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament today by Minister Megan Woods. “As we approach nine years since the February 2011 earthquake in Canterbury, and with the transition to local leadership well underway, the time ...
Hundreds of New Zealanders and international visitors will be able to get back out into nature with the Milford Track partially reopening next week, after extensive assessments and repairs, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. The popular Great Walk has been closed since 3 February after an extreme ...
Up to 110 new EV chargers nationwide in cities and regions 50 electric vehicles for ride-sharing The Government is helping deliver more infrastructure and options for low emissions transport through new projects, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods says. Tauranga, Nelson, Levin, New Plymouth and Oamaru are just some ...
New Zealanders are increasingly better off under this Government as wages rise and families have more disposable income, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ reported today that average household disposable incomes after housing costs rose 4.9% in 2019. This was the highest rise in four years and came as ...
All New Zealanders need to have their voices heard at work to ensure we have an inclusive and productive economy. Today we introduce a Bill to do this for workers in the New Zealand screen industry, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “The Screen Industry Workers Bill will ...
The Government has announced further help for the Southland and Otago regions to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. “I’ve approved Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG), making $500,000 available to help with the clean-up in Fiordland, Southland, and the Clutha district in Otago,” Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said. ...
Following the announcement that more than 340 schools will be funded to run events promoting vocational education, the Government has announced it will fund a further 257 events to be run by employers and industry. “These industry-run events will allow more than 30,000 students to connect with more than 2,000 ...
Today the Government is making progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in Parliament. “This Bill includes a series of reforms to improve the wellbeing of the 609,700 households that live in rented homes, and ...
A Government programme to wipe out pea weevil has achieved a world first, with Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor today announcing the successful eradication of the noxious pest from Wairarapa. This means the nearly four-year ban on pea plants and pea straw was lifted today. Commercial and home gardeners can again grow ...
Southland residents hit by flooding caused by heavy rainfall can now access help finding temporary accommodation with the Government activating the Temporary Accommodation Service, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to help ...
“Is that it?” That’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s response to Simon Bridges’ much-hyped economic speech today. “Simon Bridges just gave the most over-hyped and under-delivered speech that I can remember during my time in politics,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s not surprising. Simon Bridges literally said on the radio this morning ...
A trial deployment of the Police Eagle helicopter in Christchurch will test whether the aircraft would make a significant difference to crime prevention and community safety. “The Bell 429 helicopter will be based in Christchurch for five weeks, from 17 February to 20 March,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. “The ...
The Government has kept up the pace of its work to promote New Zealand’s trade interests and diversify our export markets, with visits to Fiji and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker. Building momentum to bring the PACER Plus trade and development agreement ...
The Coalition Government’s investment in a strong border and disrupting transnational organised crime produced record results for stopping drugs in 2019, says Minister of Customs Jenny Salesa. The illegal drugs were seized at the New Zealand border by Customs, and overseas by Customs’ international border partners before the drugs could ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off construction of a separated cycleway alongside Tamaki Drive. A two-way separated cycleway will be built along the northern side of Tamaki Drive, between the Quay Street Cycleway extension and Ngapipi Road. There will be a separate walking path alongside. Phil Twyford said giving ...
Owner-occupiers of unit and apartments living in earthquake-prone buildings will have certainty about the financial support they’ll be eligible for with the release of criteria for an upcoming assistance scheme, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. The Residential Earthquake-Prone Building Financial Assistance Scheme will help unit owners facing ...
Temporary restrictions on travel from China will remain in place as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The restrictions which prevent foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through, mainland China from entering New Zealand have been extended for a further 8 days. This position ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today that Tairāwhiti rangatahi will benefit from an investment made by the Government’s He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) scheme. The funding will go to the Tautua Village, Kauneke programme and the Matapuna Supported Employment Programme which will fund 120 rangatahi over two years. “Both programmes work ...
All parents and caregivers need to ensure that their children go to school unless they are sick, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin said today. “The school attendance results for 2019 show, across the board, a drop in the number of students going to school regularly,” the Minister says. “Apart from ...
A Deed of Settlement agreeing redress for historical Treaty claims has been signed by the Crown and Moriori at Kōpinga Marae on Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) today, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Moriori have a tradition of peace that extends back over 600 years. This settlement ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today with Māori King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII officially opened the country’s newest road, the $384 million Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway. The 15km four-lane highway with side and central safety barriers takes State Highway 1 east of Huntly town, across lowlands and streams ...
Details of the Government's newly-announced vaping crackdown may keep New Zealanders smoking and paying exorbitant excise taxes, says the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union. Taxpayers' Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, "We welcome the decision not ...
News that the Government is set to regulate vaping is welcomed. However, heavily restricting where most vape flavours can be sold is a step too far and could lead to rising smoking rates, says the Vaping Trade Association of New Zealand (VTANZ). ...
Tala Pasifika is applauding Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa’s Vaping Amendment Bill announcement and hopes that all parties will support the bill as a positive move for Pacific peoples trying to quit smoking. The Smoke-free Environments ...
Rawiri Waititi will stand for the Maori Party in Waiariki at September’s General Election. The 39-year-year old’s candidacy was today confirmed in Rotorua. Waiariki Maori Party Electorate Chair Verna Ohia-Gates said Waititi was an outstanding choice ...
ASH NZ congratulates Minister Salesa on the introduction of legislation to regulate vaping. ASH NZ Chair, Prof Robert Beaglehole said, “It is wonderful that a Bill will be introduced next week and we congratulate Minister Salesa on balancing the ...
Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa has announced, after an anxious wait, the proposed Vaping Amendment Bill. CEO of Hāpai Te Haora, Selah Hart wants to congratulate the Minister and is encouraging all parties to help bring the bill home. The Smoke-free ...
ALRANZ president Terry Bellamak and HELP Chief Executive Conor Twyford respond to the news that medical practitioners may keep the right to refuse to provide contraception to sexual assault survivors. Approximately 1 in 4 New Zealand women experience a serious sexual assault. That’s a lot of suffering. How do we care for ...
The Cancer Society calls for cross-party support to ensure vaping regulations are introduced. The Cancer Society is pleased to see the vaping Bill introduced by Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa and urges for a speedy process, supported by all political ...
Host Duncan Greive is joined by The Spinoff editor Toby Manhire to discuss the dramatic events surrounding RNZ this month on The Spinoff’s media podcast, The Fold.It’s an institution whose major point-of-difference is its stability – while the rest of media is slashing and pivoting, RNZ has shows which run ...
The government will introduce laws to further regulate vaping and e-cigarettes, including tightening age restrictions, barring advertising, and regulating where they can be sold and used. ...
If you’re not the foraging type, fear not: supermarket berries will work just fine (but imagine how wholesome you’ll feel if you pick your own!)This is one of my favourite times of the year, when we pile the kids in the car and head east, over the hills to where ...
It’s called ‘CANZUK’, and it’s a bad idea. New Zealand should not be suckered in by dreams of Empire 2.0, writes Lewis Holden.The clock struck 11 on January 31, 2020 and it was all over. Britain was out of the European Union after 47 years. Under the much-maligned Brexit deal ...
As a rising Hindu nationalism exerts itself in India, online Indian communities in New Zealand are also seeing a growth in Islamophobic sentiment.It was the scariest night of his life.Mohammad still remembers hiding in a shallow ditch with his family. He remembers covering his one-year-old brother’s mouth each time the ...
Being a new parent is scary and overwhelming and you can forget that it’s also full of happiness. Simon Day shares the moments of joy that have pulled him through the first eight weeks of being a new dad to twins. It’s 3:36am and I’ve just fed, changed, burped, and put ...
The Labour Party says it has received money from two of the people facing charges in relation to National Party donations but says they were above board. ...
New Zealand First’s action to halt the introduction of a ‘feebate’ scheme designed to support the nation’s transition to low-emission vehicles is a leap back into the industrial age, says Drive Electric Chairman Mark Gilbert. “While ...
Staff expenses at the Reserve Bank – which have increased by an average 4.4% a year since 2009/11 – surged by 14.8% in the 12 months to 2018/19. Total staff numbers increased by an average 3.4 a year during those nine years but shot up by 19 in 2018/19 from ...
The Socialist Equality Group is holding a protest rally on Sunday February 23 in Wellington to demand freedom for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Sunday 23 February, 3:00pm Cuba Street (Left Bank intersection) ...
By Felipe F. Salvosa II in Manila ABS-CBN president and CEO Carlo Lopez Katigbak has broken his silence amid the controversy over renewal of the Philippine TV giant’s broadcast franchise, which expires in one month. Katigbak, in a video posted on the ABS-CBN News site and aired over flagship ...
RNZ management wants to grow a youth audience without having to build a costly new platform. Anna Dean offers a bunch – none of which involves scrapping RNZ Concert.Over the next few weeks RNZ National Concert staff are set to take part in strategy workshops focused on “growth in audience reach, ...
Today LockerRoom brings you the first episode of Pure As, a mini documentary series on the Silver Ferns' personal journeys to World Cup glory. So much of the magic and composure Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio brings to the netball court today was learned from years of sitting on the ...
"He was an energy vacuum, a shit magnet, a waste of skin": a black comedy by Nelson writer Grant Smithies. The stars he saw were blue, green, golden. Little lights swam around slowly, then went out one by one. His face felt hot. His left eye wasn’t working. And ...
Yes, it’s still summer and, en route to that final festival or beach bolt-hole, the season of the road trip. Here Spinoff Art co-editor Mark Amery runs down some of the best North Island contemporary art stopovers, and the mavericks behind them. We cross the Cook Strait next year, promise.Back ...
The Star Wars prequels are universally regarded as the nadir of the franchise, but at least they gave us spinoff series The Clone Wars, writes Sam BrooksNobody likes the Star Wars prequels. Though that statement is slightly hyperbolic, it’s not far from the truth. Even if you can make a ...
Jai Breitnauer on what happens when male role models start disappearing from a child’s life.Recently, we saw a ghost from the past. Once a regular visitor to our home, there just after the birth of our first child and a constant presence for more than a decade, this individual disappeared ...
Dragon Quest: Your Story feels like an hour-and-a-half-long highlight reel of an adventure spanning dozens of hours, but it’s damn fun, writes Felix Walton.One of Netflix’s current hustles seems to be grabbing movies with little to no hope of a wide release and publishing them as “Netflix Originals.” The latest ...
The Ministry of Education is proposing a number of changes to NCEA Level One, including the merging of several subjects to be phased in over the next five years. Felix Walton looks into how, and why, these changes are happening.Why are they changing things now?They aren’t changing things now, per ...
Pacific Media Centre Chinese authorities are systematically harassing Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups even after they have left the country, according to new testimonies gathered by Amnesty International. Uyghur New Zealanders were among those interviewed, despite the threat of further intimidation. The case studies, published online today, reveal ...
A victim of the Generate KiwiSaver hack is considering legal action to seek compensation for stress and the risk of identity theft. One of the 26,000 KiwiSavers who had personal information, including their physical address, IRD number, bank statements and identification, stolen by an unknown third party has sought advice ...
Healthcare appliance manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has upped its profit forecasts for the third time this year, with increased sales off the back of the coronavirus. The company now expects a full year net profit of between $260 and $270 million, up 1.9 percent on its previous forecast. Chief ...
Power company Genesis Energy has taken a significant financial hit and lowered its guidance, because of lower hydro generation and gas shortages. Net profit for the six months ended December fell 81.4 percent to $9.2 million, from slightly lower revenue of $1.3 billion. Lower inflows for its hydro power stations ...
Kiwibank's first half profit is down on flat revenue growth and increased operations and compliance costs. The New Zealand-owned bank's net profit fell 18 percent to $51 million in the six months to December, compared with the year earlier's $62m. "As expected the bank faced rising operating costs due to ...
The New Zealand Bar Association has urged Parliament to balance carefully the need to reform legislation in respect of sexual violence with the need to ensure that only the guilty are convicted. The Association told the Justice Select Committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Michelle Grattan talks with Assistant Professor Caroline Fisher about the week in politics, including the extension of the coronavirus travel ban, the royal commission into the bushfires, and labor’s stance on a compulsory superannuation guarantee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Steen, Professor of Midwifery, University of South Australia In a new parenting podcast, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, said she used hypnobirthing techniques to help her get through severe morning sickness – a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum. She also used the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Alexander, Research fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne This article is the first in a three-part series on radical ideas to solve the environmental crisis. As the Productivity Commission confirmed this week, Australia’s economy has enjoyed uninterrupted growth for ...
The Nats are accusing Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor of being slow to act on a tuberculosis outbreak in Hawke’s Bay. Is it a fair cop? OSPRI confirmed an outbreak in Hawke’s Bay in April last year, but a disease management response wasn’t put in place until October, National agriculture spokesman ...
Porirua City Council is scratching its head on how it's going to meet the costs of a $2 billion bill to bring its water network up to scratch over the next two to three decades. ...
The sentencing of Grace Millane’s killer to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years marks the end of a judicial process that can only have been extremely harrowing for her family. They had already experienced the loss of their daughter, ...
Twenty years ago, Auckland’s streets were ruled by diesel-hating narcs. Josie Adams looks back at the short-lived 0800 SMOKEY campaign.For five chaotic weeks in 2000, the Auckland Regional Council experimented with extreme, multi-level peer pressure. The goal: to get cleaner-burning fuel into Auckland cars. The method: turning citizens against each ...
The National Party donations scandal that had nothing to do with the National Party was the big news of the week. James Elliott has some thoughts on that. Simon Bridges has climbed into double digits as preferred Prime Minister in the latest political polling which is significant for two reasons. ...
He thought he’d moved on, but the news the Holden brand was being killed off hit Trevor McKewen harder than he expected. Here he reminisces about a youthful infatuation that never quite burned out.A part of me died this week and I didn’t see it coming.Holden has shut up shop ...
Today the unnamed man found guilty of murdering Grace Millane was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 17. “One person has been locked away but are New Zealand women any safer?” asks White Ribbon Manager Rob McCann. “We certainly ...
Pacific Media Watch An Australian federal court decision upholding the legality of the police raid on the Sydney headquarters of the national public broadcaster ABC last June has dealt a major blow to the protection of journalists’ sources and poses a grave danger for the future of public interest ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Picador, $20)What is going on, Auckland? Is it just ...
A poem by US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.The FightThe rising sun paints the feet of night-crawling enemies. And they scatter into the burning hills. I have fought each of them. I know them by name. From before I could speak. I’ve used every weapon. To make them retreat. Yet they ...
A string of toy companies are facing legal action for selling unsafe toys that pose choking hazards for young children. Yesterday, Cinevan International was fined $81,000 and another four companies are before the courts. Businesses have been using a sticker on the packaging saying 'not suitable for children under three' ...
The Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee, Gareth Hughes, is calling for public submissions on the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, which was referred to the committee on 20 February 2020. The Residential Tenancies Act ...
ANALYSIS:By Johnny Blades of RNZ Pacific Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has embarked on a state visit to New Zealand. It is the first visit to New Zealand by a sitting PNG prime minister since Marape’s predecessor Peter O’Neill’s trip in 2013. Marape, who rolled O’Neill ...
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LIARS OF OUR TIME
No. 2: Colin Craig
“Oh, I have a GREAT sense of humour.”
TV3 News, 24 April 2013
See also…..
No. 1: Barack Hussein Obama….
My big evening of watching Television
Wednesday 24 April 2013
I try not to watch too much television. It’s partly the advertising barrage, but it’s also the empty and drained feeling that I almost always have after watching a couple of hours of stuff on screen. I almost always feel stupider, and that I have wasted the time; it’s exactly the opposite feeling I have after reading a book for several hours.
I try to always watch Everybody Loves Raymond and any comedy with David Spade in it. I usually try to watch the Letterman show, and a bit of sport occasionally. Otherwise, the television is something best avoided, I believe.
However, when I saw that there was going to be a new Annie Goldson documentary, about New Zealand’s unhappy and deceitful decade-long adventure in Afghanistan, I just had to put the books aside and settle down for an hour. After that, I watched The Vote: Is New Zealand a Racist Country? on TV3’s Plus One channel, and then I stayed on to watch Backbenches on Prime.
I will eventually post up my reviews for each of these programmes, but here are the quick verdicts:
Annie Goldson’s NZ in Afghanistan….. A++ (Exceptionally good documentary.)
The Vote….. E (Bomb. Lowest rating)
Backbenches…. C (Toe-curlingly cringe-inducing, with occasional redemptive bits)
The Vote : New Zealand IS a racist country; imagined all I’d need to write is “we’ll I’ll be f&cked” yet nonetheless scrambled for two pens with the Dixie Chicks “Travelin’ Soldier playing on the radio (wrote this our twice; faceless to watch the impending ugliness).
Advertisement: Mad Season :Slip Away :
to continue…
JT: gave the facts; quetsion: “equity” “failures are in the mainstream services which themselves are held up and protected from failing.”
Mae Chen (for the negative); passionate, hasty, aroused.could not help supporting the affirmative;
-acknowledged phenomena of peoples being “shut down” by what practices do occur.
-acknowledged the impact of Key and Prosser blurts; “showed cognisance of what racism is there”.
-essentially Chen asserted that it is all a matter of “degree”
(Nightline ad: “Does the Labour / Greens (NZPower) deal really add up?”; for goodness sake, they pretend balance yet the dominant narrative (people remember the negative) is bad; So “roll up, roll up, see the propaganda show in motion!
Phil Goff; once again, a relativist position to other countries; (at least our minorities are not being shot); yet “sure, there are things that are wrong.”
-on the “maori question”; “an unequal, an unfair society” =? Hello?; “discrimination from unequal beginnings”. Well, when will there be a new beginning?
(people argue from their own perspectives, yet these are demonstrated statistics.
-then it was “we are unique in the world” re redress. Whatever! (not very bright some-times these pollies).
Dunne; “no doubt we are a racist society”.
National poll results re Chinese Investment;
Opposed-82%
Not Opposed-13%
UD-5%
From the affirmative chap next to JT; “we have concentrated (dormitories) of brown skin that cannot be explained away by socio-economic analyses alone.”
On the question “Are Maori too privileged?”
from the national poll results across the four mediums, FB, website, text etc;
Yes-76%
No-24%
Don Brash; “building into law racial preference” then concedes that racism exists.
John Minto; weak question
Garner-“it takes time” Well, I been watching the decline of maori and pasifika s/e, health and education stats for 40 freakin’ years now, so if not Now, then when?
Devoy; (sigh)
-results show “NZers care about race relations”
-“some very serious issues”
-“I think the people have spoken”
-“PEOPLE SHOULD FEEL ASHAMED THAT THEY BELIEVE WE ARE A RACIST COUNTRY”.
(please re-read above statement of causality from Dame Susan Devoy).
Move along , nothing out of order to see here citizens.
yet Mae Chen, again “(racism) not born out by efforts”
hope this is a close-enough approximation; was fairly messy 😉
Well done Helen Kelly for getting this fatal business the kind of attention it deserves – well some attention anyway, as it’s in the main headlines. Jonathan Carson article on Stuff this morning about deaths in the forestry industry:
Also notifies that it is Workers Memorial Day on Sunday:
I suspect the accident rate is increasing in line with the amount of felling taking place, if my memory serves me correctly a lot of newer plantations should be in the harvest cycle many of those on more difficult terrain.
I suspect that there simply aren’t enough skilled tree fellers about, the saws are safer than ever and the gear is much improved. It’s a dangerous job and it takes years I believe to be able to identify and tackle the more dangerous trees. Someone with a few years under their belt is probably the exception not the rule..
I’m not sure how easy it is to train for in that in my experience the most at risk were people who had become overconfident in there abilities and become a bit lackadaisical in planning and identifying hazards. Seen some nasty accidents come about through over confidence and a just cut it she’ll be right attitude…
The accident rate is due to the removal of long-established union safety procedures. Another gift from the ideologues in the National Party.
What a vacuous statement I doubt there have been long standing union safety procedures in forestry for many years, if ever. (I’m sure someone can confirm this) Certainly they didn’t cease just 20 years ago far more likely the conditions (a lot of the safer felling on the flat is now done by machine leaving the most dangerous stuff for manual felling) and type of work are the major contributing factors to the rise in accident rates. Hence the Union movement is now trying to get penetration into forestry which they are finding extremely difficult for various reasons…
You’re showing your extreme ignorance, NZ forests were planted, operated and felled by the public sector for decades before they were privatised.
Learn a bit of your own industry’s history eh?
Showing my age more than anything, Forestry is not my industry per say, I did a little planting and pruning when I was in my late teens but I have had involvement with guys working in it since and certainly they haven’t had any union involvement. I suspect I should clarify that all I know work in privately owned forestry which was planted on marginal hill country. I still believe the accident rate increase can be attributed to the increased felling activity, lack of experienced staff, difficultly of access (a lot of the planting I did was in hideously steep hill country and would only harvest-able by hand and with dangerous haulers) I don’t believe a sudden stop in union involvement as suggested did not result in the steady accident increase as I haven’t known there to be any in my time.
Although getting some Union penetration and additional safety procedure having guys understanding their rights will undoubtedly help the situation.
Your asserted facts are incomplete, and your exposure to the industry both brief and scant.
Incomplete yes for sure I don’t profess to know everything I just disagree that you can attribute the increasing harm rates to a sudden ceasing of union penetration in forestry as asserted , I can say that between 1960-70 there were 109 fatalities in public forestry (NZ dept of stats) and between 1998 and 2008 there were 42 (NZ Dept of Labor) Felling, Breaking out and Extraction are to blame for by far the biggest percentage of fatalities and interestingly in both decades the percentage of fatalities in these aspects of forestry against the total are quite similar at 78% and 77% of total fatalities respectively. They also comment “Of particular concern is the 12% of fatal accidents relating to extraction as there is a shortage of experienced haulers and there are a large number of steep terrain woodlots that will require harvesting over the next 10 years.” that note would at least provide some support to my previous comments around difficult terrain and access would it not?
Dude, you’re just looking bits and pieces up as you go along, you don’t actually have any insight here.
Big call mister stay at home and what has been your forestry working record , for the record.
cricklewood you should look at Helen Kelly’s earlier posts on this topic for some background on the issues. The private employers resistance to unions is preventing the workers putting their side of things in a way that would improve the safety measures.
From 4 March 2013 Kelly’s “The silence is Killing Them”
From 13 March 2013 “Unionists Under the Bed”
Hi cricklewood,
If your analysis is correct, then it simply repeats an age-old tendency in our society and economy – to trade-off the health and safety of labour against the gains of capital.
Why on earth was such difficult terrain being planted at all? If it was known that unsafe manual felling would be needed to harvest them, then that was incredibly unethical, perhaps criminally negligent.
Just like knowingly exposing workers to asbestos when its ill-effects were well understood – as far back as the 1920s; just like sending men and children down mine shafts when the short lives of miners were well understood; just like opening mines known to be at high-risk of explosions and collapse; just like running factories with exposed hazards (like this unlucky ‘lucky guy’ has twice experienced).
All justified by the double-barrelled retort of (i) the counterbalancing ‘benefits’ of economic growth and (ii) the aphorism that ‘life is always risky – suck it up!’
Fool, you have no idea of what you’re talking about.
My turnip has confirmed you are the font of all wisdom Captain Morrissey.
It appears that he does know what he is talking about while you are just spouting empty BS.
The way trees are harvested has changed significantly with all the easy wood being taken by machine now, probably as much as 80% of a hill country forest and more like 98% of a place like Kaingaroa. This leaves the steep nasty bits for the men on saws and the other main job is running the skid site which has always been a place where a small amount of inattention can be fatal.
Logging in inappropriate terrain using inappropriate techniques with inappropriately trained staff.
What do you expect other than fatalities and serious injuries.
What is inappopriate terrain to grow a tree?
Don’t worry an increasing accident rate in forestry has nothing to do with the fact the cycle is in the midst of the most complicated and dangerous part of the cycle that we have probably ever seen…
It’s all because of the national party…
Yes because in a hundred years of organised forestry we’ve never been in this part of the “cycle” before.
No one has said that. Except you.
As above…”Another gift from the ideologues in the National party”
It’s not because of the National Party, but right wing idealogues who think that a working class life is a cheap price to pay for extra shareholder profits.
Nothing, it appears that the inappropriateness is in the cutting it down.
I am at an absolute loss regarding “tree farming” – because that is what we talk about – but could it be that the ever increasing demand for speed of processing is a reason? Profits are only made when the log hits the boot.
It appears that he does know what he is talking about…
Clearly he doesn’t. Neither, clearly, do you.
There is something to what cricklewood is saying. I was planting and pruning in the late 70s and most of it was on pretty steep slopes. Even getting up the hills to plant it was difficult, let alone lugging a chainsaw and dropping trees. These are likely to be the trees that have been harvested in the last ten years or so.
On the other hand, a strong union presence among the workers would no doubt remove some of the dangers which arise from working long hours in dangerous conditions. Both Labour and National wings of the ACT party have been complicit in letting the greed of the forestry owners create these conditions. I applaud Helen Kelly for taking an interest.
I hope that many of you attended todays dawn services just as our PM has done in Wellington.
How refreshing it is to have a PM who shows our returned servicemen the respect they deserve. It was not that long ago that we had a PM who could not be bothered getting out of bed early to attend the dawn service.
Stop lying bruv.
If he had any respect for our servicemen, he would have pulled them out of Afghanistan as soon as he took office.
“I hope that many of you attended todays dawn services ”
Why is that?
Pants on fire big bruv?
What, no baseball game for him today?
No baseball game Viper.
Mind you, at least Key is not in the USA to count his hidden UN bank account as Shearer is.
Did we ever find out how much Shearer has hidden away?, is it two or three million?
And I wonder how that “man of the poor” David (silent t) Cunliffe is spending the day from his Herne Bay mansion?
Big bruv you stretch tolerance and good will to breaking point. Fancy politicising Anzac day to fire cheap shots that are not even true. How disrespectful.
FYI David has been at the dawn ceremony and will be at the Titirangi service and the Laingholm service and the New Lynn Service …
Micky.
http://tvnz.co.nz/content/1078896/411361/article.html
Not true?
Tell me Micky, will silent t be using his “bro” accent today or will he use his Herne Bay accent?
Does he need GPS to find the western suburbs?
I guess its lucky Key doesn’t have a sports game on interfering with his Anzac day attendance and paying all due respects eh. Priorities for a PM and all that.
I wonder why it is that Samuel Johnson’s famous phrase about (false) patriotism being the last refuge of a scoundrel, springs to mind so readily when reading big bruv’s nonsense.
“When the way is forgotten
Duty and justice appear;
then knowledge and wisdom are born
Along with hypocrisy.
When harmonious relationships dissolve
Then respect and devotion arise;
When a nation falls into chaos
Then loyalty and patriotism are born.
-Chapter 18 : Hypocrisy.
David (silent t) Cunliffe…
Hey, fellas, it looks like this halfwit is trying to be funny!
Well there’s the problem.. he needs the other half to be funny.
The spirit of Anzac Day.
Bruv’s still bumming out that his side lost WWII.
The Generals, bankers and the Economic Elite did just fine from the big wars.
What about grubby little creeps?
Ideally, ordered up and first over the top.
Viper
Speaking of which, you do of course remember how the coward Micky Savage refused to fight for his country don’t you?
There is a current economic battle happening in this country and the real coward refuses to suspend the sale of the people’s asset.
Refused to fight for the privileged and elite? Luck for us you have no such principles.
Refused to kill on behalf of his country, more like, those poor people on the other side who had been, as Colonial Viper says below, induced ‘to fight for the privileged and elite.’
What is courage? To go against the accepted majority view and stand against that position in full public view (with all its attendant hatred and bigotry) and act according to one’s conscience knowing that to do otherwise is to act dishonourably is one form of courage.
I made that decision in 1968.
Big Bruv, I do not however condemn those who went and fought in the light of their conscience. On the contrary, I have stood silent in war cemeteries in Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Belgium and New Zealand to respect courage.
Last time I looked, NZ has never been in a war where it was fighting for itself. We’ve been in wars where we were fighting for Britain.
And the US
“refused to fight for his country”
Not so, Savage refused to fight for the Empire. His position was that wealth should be conscripted before workers. It was an emperial war, with political and economic power at its heart, and not something NZ workers should ever have been involved in.
Blood for butter and beef.
Two men, now long departed, who I knew when young had very different experiences of the war.
One a returned serviceman captured in Germany escaped from several prison camps and was well experienced and versed in war.
The other a conscientious objector imprisoned within his own country.
Both had total respect for each other. Neither was a coward.
Amongst the things the first was fighting for was the right for others to choose not to fight. If that soldier didn’t see the objector as a coward but as a man of principle I’m not sure why you should.
There’s plenty too who dislike the RSA for the treatment of family members who were not allowed to go and fight either through disability or through working in essential services such as electricity and farming.
The treatment of some of those people post-war and the black-listing of their businesses did not go down well with themselves or their family members who were allowed off to fight.
There was a clear difference between supporting returned servicemen to get back on their feet and the blacklisting that went on by some RSA’s.
Not everyone sees them as the bastion of the response to the post war period.
NZ Labour PM Fraser had conscientious objectors and those critical of the war blacklisted during WW II; many found their careers in government and the public sector permanently fucked.
“Last time I looked, NZ has never been in a war where it was fighting for itself. We’ve been in wars where we were fighting for Britain.”
When’s the last time you looked, 1946?
I want to put this into the record on this “cowardliness of Conscientious Objectors’ ” debate, being a paragraph from the Marlborough Express editorial on Anzac Day 2013.
“New Zealand also has a strong tradition of conscientious objectors. They were strongly reviled but it took as much bravery to resist being called up for war as it did to go willingly into battle.”
Alongside the editorial is a Bromhead cartoon entitled “Lest We Forget” which has the Shade of an Anzac soldier commenting upon a newspaper headline “Future Wars.”
“Trouble is, we do forget…”
Ha ha ha, it’s funny because his name sounds slightly like a derogatory term for vagina! 🙄
Yes, hop back under your bridge. I was involved in organising ANZAC days in Mt Albert for several years and when Helen Clark came to these ones (as she did often) they were her second or sometimes third one of the day.
I note that you did not say she attended dawn service Lindsey. Of course if you were to say that it would mean that you are telling lies.
Fancy that….a lefty caught telling lies.
try and keep up with Key preferring to go to sports games instead of paying respects to fallen soldiers.
Oh, I don’t know, it’s filial piety instead of pro patria. If nothing else it set a good example to fathers to encourage and spend time with their sons as opposed to sending them off to die in wars.
Yeah you would have a point except Key is the one quite willing to send other parents’ sons off to die.
And then not attend their funerals.
Slight difference between trained career soldiers who know what they’re enlisting for and conscripted naive canon fodder
You credited Key with setting a good example, that of not sending sons to die. So you were talking about just his own son.
I was being sarcastic *rolls eyes*
“I note that you did not say she attended dawn service Lindsey. Of course if you were to say that it would mean that you are telling lies.
Fancy that….a lefty caught telling lies.”
bruv, you can’t simultaneously accuse Linsdey of lying and of not lying.
Pick one.
Don’t need to lie, leave that to trolls and righties
Smart enough to Google “Helen Clark Dawn Service” just like you did. It got no traction than and get even less now. I can understand why Key goes to the closest service.
Oh look a righty spouting excrement!
You’re using Anzac Day to tell lies, you nasty little troll.
BigBruv is just playing follow the leader
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8596303/PM-defends-spy-boss-breakfast-meeting
”
Asked why he had not been upfront earlier about the date of the breakfast meeting, Key said: “I wasn’t asked about it; I was asked about what meetings I had.” ” Liar Liar Liar
You are a very odd person!!!
Is this respectful enough for you? Go have a lie down and a cup of tea and think how stupid you sound, sometimes you should keep the inside your head voices inside your head.
Helen Clark was the first New Zealand prime minister to visit Gallipoli on Anzac Day. On 24 April 2005 (the day before Anzac Day) she walked down the ‘New Zealand track’ from Chunuk Bair to the coast, before visiting Hill 60 Cemetery. On the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing in the cemetery, she placed a poppy beside the name of her great uncle, Frank Clark, a trooper in the Auckland Mounted Rifles who was killed in the vicinity on 28 August 1915.
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/34146/helen-clark-at-gallipoli
Is that the same Helen Clark (along with Goff) who once spat at returning soldiers?
You should send your fantasies in to Republican Penthouse.
Nah Bruv, it’s the same Helen Clark who’s risen higher than you could ever dream of.
Ha ha ha..
You’re kidding right?
The height of ones ambition should be to purchase your own job at the UN with Kiwi tax payers money and then work for an organisation that is recognised the world over as being corrupt (she fits in well there) and hopeless?
“purchase your own job at the UN with Kiwi tax payers money”
lolz how does that work bruv?
I think Bruv was meaning Tim Groser, who has just spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars trying to get a job as far away from John Key as he can find.
Bruv, I was thinking more about the general level of respect she is shown, with the lower end of the scale being represented by people like Graham Capill and David Garret.
Which PM introduced the Prime Minister’s essay competition when she took office and raised the profile of ANZAC day amongst the children …?
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/prime-minister-announces-gallipoli-essay-contest-winners
“Graham Capill and David Garret.”
Lordie, wouldn’t be great to have both those kiddyfiddlers double bunked in the same cell?
Probably been there, done that.
Garret is not a paedophile, and calling him such is not fair. He is a criminal who stole a dead babies identity.
Ha, thanks for the correction, andy. I’m sure Garrett consoles himself with the fact that [r0b: yeah that was over the top].
That comment deserves a ban.
How about it LPrent, or do some have special dispensation?
Yes I have a screenshot
Key will rejoin a big bank or central bank within a year of having left the PMship.
People can grow and evolve into different people bruv, plus there is a huge difference between the Vietnam war and the Great war and peoples attitudes. Try engaging your brain, you know, that pile of under-performing neurons located under that thick skull. Your attitude reminds me so much of how Steven Joyce shares his views. Numpty.
You really are a sick individual. Maybe you need to go and see a psychologist/psychiatrist/head doctor to see if there’s anything that can be saved.
I’m going to go ahead and assume you are referring to bruv with the head doctor comment, I’ve been tested, and I’m not crazy haha yeah, bruv’s hysteria and lack of any real knowledge or insight just reminds me so much of how Steven Joyce relates to people, been thinking that way a while now.
I’m going to go ahead and assume you are referring to bruv.
Yes he is. It’s how the reply function works sometimes. Best to quote what/who you’re referring to…
It is really quite astounding how little insight and intellect he shows. Makes me wonder how he ties his shoelaces in the morning.
Bruv is an intellectual cretin. He’s heading fast towards another permanent ban and the sooner the better.
As Anne says, David H is replying to big bruv. The alignment can appear a bit ‘skew-wiff’ with those commenters whose comments have a grey background (for some reason).
The best thing is to check the number of the comment. David H’s comment was 4.8.1.4 – i.e., the fourth reply to comment 4.8.1 (Your previous comment was 4.8.1.3 – the third reply to 4.8.1)
I thought Helen Clark went in 2000 when she took a bunch of school students who had won a school competition about Gallipoli.
The competition she introduced when coming to office and maintained throughout her Premiership.
big bruv big bullshit
big respect when boy’s baseball
came before soldiers’ funerals
oh yeah so respectful
RIP Lance Corporal Luke Tamatea
10 reasons I no longer attend Anzac Day services nor recognise it in any way
1) The ANZAC spirit was dismantled quite comprehensively on the 26 February 2001 by Australia
2) The dawn services glorify war
3) There are no returned servicemen from WW1 left alive
4) The poppies are now made in China rather than providing work for those with intellectual disabilities as previous
5) The freedoms that were fought for are now disappearing at an alarming rate of knots while most people stand idly by and applaud.
6) War does nothing to benefit the working man. It benefits the Military Industrial Complex of which the Windsors, Rothschilds and Rockefellers of the world are complicit in.
7) ANZAC day has now turned into a political football in recent years.
8) Attempting to link ANZAC day to the “glorious men and women fighting in Afghanistan” is dubious and downright despicable as the western nations in Afghanisatan are not liberators, they are occupiers
9) Who even understands the meaning of ANZAC anymore. My niece has been brainwashed into believing we celebrate it because NZ and Australia helped to stop WW1.
10)It’s tiresome and bothersome. We cannot move forward if we insist on holding fast to the past.
Perhaps NZ should do it’s own dismantling of the ANZAC spirit… starting with refusing access to any government assistance to any one holding an Australian Passports. Tit for Tat.
Thanks James, very well put. That reflects my own disquiet in recent years about the way that ANZAC day is promoted and commemorated, but I hadn’t found a way to articulate it.
Growing up in the sixties and seventies I was alienated from attending ANZAC day services by the jingoistic sabre rattling of the RSA and conservative politicians of the day who blared their shallow minded garbage from all media of the day throughout the Vietnam war. This was reinforced by hearing the same type of rhetoric from speakers at several dawn services I had to attend as a boy-scout during those times. Later, in the nineties, with the angst of the Vietnam war fading into the past I took my own daughters to a dawn service with their Sea Scout and cubs troops. Lo and behold, an Anglican priest and ex-ww2 padre who had been one of the afore-mentioned jingoistic sabre rattlers was leading the service and launched into another speech just like the ones I had detested so much in my youth. When we got home I penned a letter to the editor explaining why our family would be refraining from attending further ANZAC day services.
just for the record; I respect and admire the enlisted men and women immensely, yet I have never attended a dawn service; Neo-liberal consumption-based free-market capitalism is the current battle-field promoting global casualties.
Thanks James for saying what I have thought for years.
Another who can see through all the bullshit.
+1
However… I’m going to an ANZAC service in a Hapsburg-built church today.
At least the speakers have to stick to remembering all the victims of war (maybe not Franz Ferdinand) and be very, very careful about war rhetoric…. diplomats and all that. Taking the overt patriotism out of it suits me just fine.
enjoyed your evocation of human geography the other day rosy; we both did. 😉
Anzac Day for me: it means that when we let other countries decide where and when we fight, our men and women die.
It means when our country decides, our men and women die.
It means that we should look after those who came back, because they were put in a situation not of their own making.
It means that we should be humble in our recognition that men and women of all countries have died and are dying, not often for good reasons.
It means above all, that we should not forget the sacrifices made and that we should honour them by not making the same mistakes again.
Anzac Day for John Key: it means that he can look back on the days of Empire, when we stood as part of the thin red line in defence of civilisation etc, etc, and he could wreck a national economy while pissing down his leg. How many war pensions have been cut because of his currency speculating?
It means he can pretend to care about soldiers alive and dead, unless there’s a baseball game on.
Anzac Day for big bruv: it means he can polish his toy SMLE and dream of the day when he will help lead the WhaleSpew Army against godless commies and unionists. Or maybe just take a photo of someone who hasn’t parked properly. Yeah, that’s pretty heroic too.
“A regrettable incident occurred…”
“The Bedouins resented the treatment, and small knots of them made attempts to defend themselves.”
Read this before you praise our “brave” ANZAC troops….
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1366745575.html
Yep, we certainly have our own share of atrocities in the past.
The RSA have never issued a statement to apologize for this mass murder. In fact, many years later the RSA journal published a poem lauding the atrocity and praising the men who did it.
Not the RSA’s job.
“Not the RSA’s job”? It’s not the RSA’s job to publish poems applauding the mass murder, either. But they did, which means that an apology for such cretinous brutality is very much the job of the RSA.
You’re a clever lad, why don’t you write an apology for them and see if they will publish it.
Thanks, Viper, but they don’t need a hired spin doctor to tell the truth and acknowledge what a group of New Zealand (and Australian) thugs and goons did to helpless, captive, unarmed boys and men.
All it needs is for someone in the RSA leadership to show a little integrity and honesty. Frankly, I doubt they have the wherewithal to do it.
The RSA is as likely to examine the illegal actions of Kiwi soldiers honestly as the Police Association is to push for compensation for David Bain. At least in the case of the RSA, post traumatic stress may play a part in forgetting or whitewashing events of the past, but O’Connor has no such excuse. Most of the ex soldiers I have known over the years won’t have a bar of the RSA and those who have explained their decision put it down to not wanting to be part of a glorification of war.
I really enjoyed an article on the News (did provide balance) of a former wehrmacht soldier who never joined the Party who is retired here and chooses not to remember the War.(he was at Stalingrad I believe). Just happily enjoying the present day, not the past, he said. He appeared a beautiful man, carding wool in his arm-chair.
Steve Maharey had an interesting column on Margaret Thatcher in a recent NBR.
In a very poignant comment he talked about how Thatcher inspired a “cultural flowering”.
“The cultural left is always at its best when it has a big right-wing target to aim at. Thatcher inspired some of the best cultural expression seen in many years.”
He was damned right. If you think for instance of some of the music to come out of Thatcher’s era it was fuelled by passion and a visceral hatred at the damage she was causing. Bands such as the Clash, the Specials, the Jam to name a few captured the drama and intensity of what was happening perfectly.
It is a shame though that much of our best art is born out of despair.
The article is at http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/so-whats-your-alternative-ck-138973
Hmmm. The Clash took off pre-Thatcher, during the punk explosion. First single “White Riot”, 1977. However, their iconic “London’s Calling” was post 1979.
The Jam also came out of the 1970s punk scene.
The Specials formed in 1977. However, their 1980s “Ghost Town” was a haunting response to Thatcherism.
Such bands formative years and values were in the 1970s when socialism was seen as a positive thing and as the way to a better future.
The most interesting thing about Maharey’s article is the (kind of) recant on his previous support of the third way.
Aye Karol I was referring to the music rather than the date the bands formed. I should have included the Beat as well although they were normally quite happy …
The more pop orientated Blow Monkeys with their album “She Was Only A Grocer’s Daughter” album shouldn’t be forgotten.
It Doesn’t have To Be This Way is still highly relevant today and at the time Celebrate was banned by the BBC as it was celebrating a future election loss for Thatcher.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=y_ra8X_8waA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dy_ra8X_8waA
Not forgetting of course it has one of those classic late 70’s early 80’s sax solos.
“I’ve just about had enough of the sunshine”could easily refer to National’s Brighter Future.
I was under the impression that the Blow Monkeys should be forgotten. So I did!
lol
Some eclecticism in musical taste is allowed. They are still touring and will be in Auckland soon.
http://www.songkick.com/metro_areas/31442-new-zealand-auckland
Did you sulk when Paul Weller left the Jam and formed The Style Council as well?
Not that I’m suggesting that Blow Monkeys are anywhere near the class of The Style Council.
The variety in music in the UK during this period was great there was plenty to enjoy.
Yes, Thatcherism did spur some very good songs. However, I think it’s wrong t o assume that it was solely Thatcherism that stimulated the music, but that there were pre-existing values that resulted in outrage at the changers in Thatcher’s time.
… Thatcher of course had been the “Milk snatcher” as Minister of Education in Heath’s government and she took over the leadership of the party in 1975, so many knew what she was like long before she took over government in 1979.
encouraging to see Maharey write better than he interviews; still no Daryl Le Grew though.
The Jam were lower middle class tories, at least in their first years. All three members had comfortable suburban lives while growing up. In fact, they were representative of the very people Thatcher convinced to vote Tory for the first time in ’79. Most of their songs on the first two albums were about personal alienation, rather than class consciousness. However, they did get politiced quickly (big ups to the writers on the NME and Sounds who talked them round) and by the early eighties were a driving force in the musical left’s response to Thatcherism. Which is good.
Paul Weller was from a working class background. And yes he was a Tory early on in his musical career – I think before Thatcher became PM. It was as much the other bands he associated with that influenced his shift to the left.
Oh, but look, the truth is even more complicated, according to a 2010 Telegraph article:
Cheers, karol, I must have bought the PR spin back in 78!
Well, TRP, I remember Paul Weller’s class background, because in early 80s London, I had a quite radical working-class, socialist, lesbian feminist who was into his music. She used to say he was about the only truly working class punk amongst a load of middle-class wannabes.
Whoops: should be:
I had a quite radical working-class, socialist, lesbian feminist friend who was into his music.
I noticed that, but was too polite to say!
I had a quite radical working-class, socialist, lesbian feminist who was into his music.
I had one of those once too.
What like a pet
…by the early eighties were a driving force in the musical left’s response to Thatcherism. Which is good.
That reminds me of Peter Cook’s quip about the vibrant, outspoken satirists on the Weimar cabaret scene, and the pivotal role they played in stopping the Nazis.
In no particular order.
Specials – Maggie’s Farm
The The – Heartland
Angelic Upstarts – Brighton Bomb
Robert Wyatt – Shipbuilding
Crass – Sheep Farming In The Falklands
The Mekons – Abernant 1984/1985
The Pop Group – Justice
Thanks.
Few there I had missed at the time.
My favourite band of the era. Skids – Working For The Yankee Dollar.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=LCiWXktdyTQ&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DLCiWXktdyTQ
…play it again joe
Russia previously contacted US authorities “multiple times” regarding Temerlan Tsarnaev
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/04/23/russia-contacted-fbi-multiple-times-concerns-about-alleged-boston-marathon-bomber/ND0bhUdq1Tp1mRuC8xlb8N/story.html?s_campaign=sm_tw
Of course, the US answer will be more invasive, continuous and complete surveillance of ordinary citizens by the intelligence services. Nothing that a couple hundred billion more dollars for the spook industry and more stripping back of citizens rights won’t solve. Right?
The delay in implementing the MMP Reforms might need attention? There is a mandatory consultation period of 6 months so National has till the end of May to get a Bill on the floor. Considering that there was a very strong Mandate for the modifications one would wonder why Judith Collins is procrastinating. The only electoral Avoidance would be from Banks and Dunne. Unless National has self-interest at stake??? Surely not!
Some Anzac music: Dominion Road
Like. A lot and I haven’t heard it for ages. Thanks.
And, one or two from the other side of the ditch:
Gobetweens (the greatest Queensland song ever):
Triffids, WA in the house:
The New Five, cheesy but always reminds me of DJ Johnny Topper and wet Melbourne days.:
Nick and Kylie, just coz:
Thanks for that. Go-Betweens reminded me a little of The Church with those guitar strums. Particularly From the Skins And Heart album.
More Anzacy though would be:
Under The Milky Way – The Church
Great Oz band.
Droving Woman – Kevin Carmody, Missy Higgins and Paul Kelly:
Spine tingling – if you can listen all the way to the end
Added bonus – live version of Missy Higgins ‘This is How it goes’
yes, The go betweens; Cattle and Cane
I see the Herald trying to do a hatchet job on Harawira. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10879636
Maybe if they had covered Mana’s big breakfast, then their readers would be aware of what he is doing at the moment!
Yes Paul. Wonder how well Mr Banks would shape up as a single MP Party and Leader? To get perspective surely they would have to compare like with like? Mr Dunne living in Wellington would be somewhat different.
He’s doing fuck all as usual or is he still bagging the other “house niggers”.
What do the bouncy giggling heads who sit behind Key actually do in Parliament, dumbarse? Tits on a bull are more useful than anything you contribute.
Well said, I envy you guys with the quick intelligent wit.
And your contribution about ANZAC Day says it all. How dare you take a day off you wanker.
You think some of should spend the day sitting outside our closed and locked work sites as punishment for not sharing your rather strange view of what ANZAC is all about. Wanker yourself.
And yet another NZ Herald artcle attacking NZ Power..’Show us first that power is broken’ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10879605
Their puppet masters are working overtime at the moment.
And I was feeling encouraged about NZ journalism after watching “He Toki Huna New Zealand In Afghanistan” last night…… when Jon Stephenson spoke about the importance of the media being independent.
It would seem the Herald is embedded into the finance industry!
Not embedded in it, owned by it.
Peter Jackson trys to rebuild his shitty image using Anzac Day and his dead grandfather: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/last-post-first-light/anzac-day-2013/8594015/Sir-Peter-Jacksons-Anzac-Day-family-ties
Get’s repimped by Farrar: http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2013/04/jackson_and_anzac_day.html
Probably involves the PM’s office as his ministry is also pushing Jackson-related PR agenda today: http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/new-zealand/8596008/Hobbit-stars-reveal-Kiwi-crush
I’ve no doubt all of this has been done today to cash in on ANZAC day patriotism. What a bunch of cynical fuckers.
My Granddad (a good leftie who fought at Cassino) will be turning in his grave.
Jackson is pathetic. He once made interesting movies, then he went to Hollywood.
He is as corrupt and sad an individual as it is possible to find outside of party politics.
Jackson’s Hobbit movie is really struggling to match the return on investment made by Fellowship of the Ring 10 years ago. The Hobbit cost twice as much to make, but has pulled in cinema receipts consistently lower than Fellowship.
Still, total box office is not far off a trillion dollars so Jackson is going to make an absolute mint off the movie. And off the NZ tax payer.
taking it easy soldier?
Mix of work and play today, Mr GR888. Early start, afternoon of work, now some play 🙂
another unconscious coincidence I just f0und.(it is a strange old world, thanks for pointing it out) 😉
RNZ – re Boston; “US Intelligence slipped up”
best thing to come from Judith Collins for a long lag;
-if convicted of killing in an open court there should be no suppression of details in further cases.
-“you can google this information”
There has been a consumer back-lash to this Anchor light-proof bottles nonsense;
-more plastic
-cannot tell quantity left in bottle (doesn’t the light go off when the fridge door is closed?)
yet according to ONE News, most New Zealanders are OK with our investment relationship with China;
-Very Comfortable-10%
-Comfortable-31%
from Grant Robertson; “for Labour, that (concern re investment) is not about an individual country”.
according to summary of report into DOC restructuring, due to budget constraints and other losses, the department is likely to become “less relevant in coming years”. What?
a little ANZAC Day light reading
Let us pray that that day never comes pointlessly
(as a Variation, an article about Archibald Baxter is on RNZ this evening)
I was hoping someone would mention Baxter. I guess big bruv is ignorant of him and the other conscientious objectors and / or lacks the empathy / wit to understand them and their importance in the scheme of things.
at your service 😀
Ok folks!
This made my day 🙂
__________________________________________________________________________
OMIGOD! Look what that communist fanatic Editor of the Dominon Post is is saying!
(Having a WOOHOO moment here…. 🙂
Editorial: Key should consider MRP sale delay
“But, delaying the sale till after the next election would at least allow voters to choose which of the two approaches offers the better prospect of sensible pricing and secure supply.
It would also allow time for the future of Tiwai Point to be resolved.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/8587747/Editorial-Key-should-consider-MRP-sale-delay
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption / anti-privatisation campaigner’
2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
😀
Yet lower down in the same article we get:
Excuse me but Stalin was history’s worst totalitarian mass murderer. Labour/Greens are proposing a fairly modest reform of the electricity market that we now know is used successfully in a number of overseas countries. At what point does a comparison this odious become legally actionable?
I assume it’s an example of how threatened the Nact govt. and their acolyte press are feeling Redlogix. No-one, not even a hard right fundamentalist type, could honestly compare a tried and true regulatory power system for the benefit of ALL citizens with a Stalinist proposal.
They’ve outed themselves in all their bright blue political colours now. Who can take anything they say with much seriousness anymore?
I realise that’s what’s going on … but really. This is an editorial from one of New Zealand’s leading newspapers, not florid, ranting blog comments on Whaleoil.
And on ANZAC Day of all days. Are there no grown ups in charge at Fairfax anymore?
Not for a long time, now. And certainly no one who actually understands the history of the Soviet Union.
As Anne says, by regurgitating Joyce’s embarrassing spin they have shown the colour of their flag.
I can just see the responsible Dom Post editor – “Stalinist proposal eh? Oh that’s ‘edgy’, that’s oh so mildly ‘controversial’. Me likey.”
FFS. At least the comments section is mostly occupied by people saying variations of “Stalinist? Please get a grip,” and “Do you know what that word means sweetie?”, etc.
“And on ANZAC Day of all days. Are there no grown ups in charge at Fairfax anymore?”
No
The NZHerald is NZs version of a state controlled newspaper but instead of being controlled by the state it’s controlled by the rich. National are their political arm.
I would frame it as the NZ Herald being the National Party’s PR arm.
Interestingly, if wikipedia’s figures are to be believed, increases in energy production were one of Stalin’s successes.
I have no idea if those figures are correct, but – at least in that sense of production – I would have thought that the right would be quite keen on Stalinist approaches to the provision of energy for the economy.
In the link, there’s also no mention of Stalin proposing a single-purchaser model for energy generation – but perhaps the Dominion Post editor has an historical account of the period at hand which mentions it.
Stalin also liked his eggs lightly poached, but the NZ Herald doesn’t call the menu of every Newmarket cafe “Stalinist”
in stalinist russia, eggs poach you
Oh CV that’s mean. You know you just put a bunch of our right wing friends off poached eggs for life.
Gotta luv the sounds of pig snouts hitting the bottom of the empty trough.
Still is the Dom post running a flyer so that Nact can wind back the sale? They are up to something.
A good Armenian genocide documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLyrpaTKCCE
^The New Zealand, Australian, US and UK governments are yet to recognize it ever happened*, even though Russia, and many European Union nations (such as Germany and France) already have.
*Turkey threatens to break off diplomatic relations, cut trade deals with nations that recognize the genocide. The bitter irony of course is that many of the architects of the Nazi Holocaust visited and admired the Armenian genocide in ww1, later to use methods such as railway cars on the Jews in ww2.
It has been reported that some senior Nazis went to Hitler with a few doubts about the Final Solution. He told them to calm down, because no one remembered the Armenian genocide. I do know there were German observers there, as part of the military mission to Turkey, but the ones I read about were horrified by it. I wasn’t aware that we hadn’t officially acknowledged that it happened. That’s disgusting.
there was an article in The Herald concerning where all the anti-matter went, or didn’t, matter to me.
Here is another Collision Course
I received a very nicely turned out glossy pamphlet in my letter box last night.
On first glance I thought it was an election pamphlet from the Nat’s informing us what a great party they were and what a good minister Collins is, A top class report on the wonderful works from Tolley .It turned out to be from the diabolical Sensible Sentencing Trust. What a ghastly lot and there is no doubt what party they will,support st the next election. Personally I just glad its not Labour .
Keep the people you love away from this crap
We’re going to see a lot of very angry, depressed and breaking people on August 1st when these top shelf drugs finally get the boot from our sweetshops.
Just hope the ufno1 has a plan in place to deal with the mess occurring on his watch.
Keep the people you don’t love away from it as well.
It’s certainly not helping the recovery of people with mental health issues either. For many it’s setting months of improvement down the tubes.
There are arsehole dairy owners selling it across the road from mental health facilities and recovery centres.
The big thing the staff in some of those places have noticed is the return of / increase in paranoia in it’s victims.
You can argue prohibition all you like as being negative but no question it’s easy access is allowing people who wouldn’t ever go near a drug dealer to buy and suffer.
Govt should have banned the shit straight away.
Plan – they don’t have a plan to deal with mental health issues now nor the effects of this drug. Why on earth would they have a plan to stop dealing with it.
Mental health services are already overflowing and have waiting lists for treatment. People who have mental health issues frequently end up in jail. As noted on the documentary t’other night the prison system treats as if they are well because by definition if they weren’t they wouldn’t be there.
If this government has a plan it will be to reduce public services and hand more over to pet NGO’s and the private sector.
Yes, ban this shit, regulate the availability of organic natural versions.
(As an aside I see a lot of fucked up kids on the synthetic crap, memory, concentration, personality, all toast)
I’m not a fan of the organic version either. I’ve watched teens start using who are now in their late 30’s who are pretty screwed. It just takes a little longer.
I understand though why they use / drink / vice of choice.
Improving society overall, not just for those at the top, is the key.
Decent housing, decent food, decent incomes, decent communities where crime isn’t needed to put food on the table.
A mystery as to why the nat government can rush all manner of legislation through parliament, yet something so simple as banning drugs is beyond the house. Scoobydoo, where are you? Ps, ask Thelma to call me.
I recall a very old ‘joke’ resonating, about if drug crime costs billions, why don’t we just give them to the junkies, but this synthetic stuff, I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
I know those arsehole dairy owners. They also sell under the counter product outlawed under dunne’s previous mini bans too. I rang the rozzers and told them go into Urlich ave dairy and ask for a lolly or a mango at 2 x 3g packets for $25 and see what they get, but no raids took place.
I guess they must have asked for donuts instead and been happy with the outcome.
hey, Alien, do ya ever find yourself reflecting that it is almost like being Alien when when comparing contrasting worldviews, like, the reason that politics is so important is that the government, and the worldview they subscribe to and legislate is what sets the parameters; we were just discussing the shortcomings when all a generational cohort has known is say, the neo-liberal model, and like maybe Ennui said, well I know what he said, he said what Mr Lydon said, “ere, don’t ya fink we been ‘ad”, laughs. We were thinking of the Scandanavian countries, South America etc where different things are going on. Another commentator reflected on how it has been not beer and all skittles for many of those peoples “rescheduled” by the fall of The Wall; Hows the European Union project going now?
Interestingly, many of the people being marketed to as affluent (buy a new Mirage, re-live the previous (insert asset) bubble you missed out) are from the “generation x cohort”;an influential cohort who have fond (insert nostalgic) memories of the seventies.
However, on the other hand, sigh, the National government, Defence Minister are making noises about greater military commitment, in recognition of a militarizing region and world which reduces the lattitude for positions of neutrality.
Hey Rogue, is the answer 42?
“the number is not a human number”, though I’ve always liked Seven (and, it has been good to me.(along with thirty) sigh 😀 (only 23 more months to go and I can retire, you know, see Labour and the Greens a few months into there first term of office) 😀
I’ve always liked Seven of nine, but not enough to turn a red eye blue.
Wow! Tertiary Adjunct Unimatrix Zero One, and, you got my number. 😀 deepest longingful sigh…
Would be better with an instruction manual for my translater chip, but it’s good to talk.
“only 23 more months to go and I can retire, you know”
Logan? “She keeps running out, and she runs like girls run. All arms and legs hanging out, lashing out as she goes.”
all good things on this earth must come to an end my cosmic friend; can’t rota round here for ever; there will be more to do in the grounded world as time passes. At least with a more left government the rot will slow, we pray.
Make them drag you kicking and screaming my old nan use to tell us, rest her soul.
Named my daughter after her, least I can do is fight best I can, just like she did as she taught me.
“running-out” came back with “Sorry, we can’t find that song”: l1nks.
Still way too poo to view, save for the chorus.
I’ll do a clip in a minute.
https://soundcloud.com/theal1en/running-out-chorus
sorry. rechipped (and a gurnard, ok, and a sausage, ok, and a curry-roll) reassured fleshy friend that I wasn’t gonna leave her for another commutator; she enjoys Mrs Brown’s Boys (I’m more Father Ted) and no,no,no, yes, The Vicar of Dibley.charge is low though, a lot to process.
the wit designed into your schematics, though, is highly adaptive 🙂
Thirty minus twenty three is seven. Spooky!
thanks for the offer of Office 97.
I take it you would like it then? I’ve checked the old post a few times to see.
You’re in Hawkes Bay right. I have friends over that way so can organise somewhere for you to pick it up if you want (Napier or Hastings) or you could organise a third party address for me to post it to.
Keeps things anonymous.
Thanks for checking; i never go back more than a day or two, unless I do.
You may forward it to Directions Youth Health Centre, 305 Omahu Road, Hastings.
c/ Louise (you recall my name? Lynn knows it.)
Nah didn’t know who you were. Just occasionally you reference Hawkes Bay.
If I can get one of the kids to find it I’ll get them to send it off otherwise I’ll do it in a few weeks or so when I’m next home.
Happy to pass it on. I’ve upgraded to 2010,
Wow.
Let me get this straight, this stuff is legal, but the stuff that makes you vege on the couch with potato chips and bad zombie films is not?
The Age of Anxiety?; think that black dog has bolted (depression and anxiety are frequently co-morbid)
No mention in the article of the research by Jean Twenge on the 1SD shift towards a more anxious youth since the 1950s.
Her conclusion was that social disconnection and broad social trends were responsible.
There’s also a lot of work now on how the neurodevelopment of the neural systems that are used to regulate emotional responses is disrupted by early developmental experiences which can often be quite subtle (not just abuse).
The idea that this is just ‘the human condition’ is, frankly, simplistic in the extreme and amounts to little more than a desperate justification for our current social and economic arrangements (which are generally considered ‘benign’ in relation to human emotional functioning and experience).
No animal would have evolved to be typically ‘anxious’ in the debilitating way modern humans are. And anthropological studies of pre-human societies strongly suggest that anxiety is not a chronic experience for humans – except today.
Yeah but think of the wonderful contribution to the economy resulting from the massive profits for the makers of Prozac and Xanax.
But seriously Puddlegum, I’m interested in this:
“There’s also a lot of work now on how the neurodevelopment of the neural systems that are used to regulate emotional responses is disrupted by early developmental experiences which can often be quite subtle (not just abuse).”
Can you link me up? I had a look around but it’s a rather specific topic…
Anyone wonder why Evil Communist China wasn’t included in the latest toryfear list?
Damned socialist cockies cuddling up to commos…..
.http://www.interest.co.nz/rural-news/64167/trade-links-deepen-china-rural-sector-building-fta-which-tripled-exports
Then again, maybe they can help wee Nathan with his maths…..
“Since the signing of the Free Trade Agreement in 2008 our exports to China have nearly tripled, from NZ$2 billion a year to NZ$6.9 billion in 2012.
“Two-way trade between China and New Zealand has reached almost NZ$15 billion. Our aim is to double bilateral trade to NZ$20 billion by 2015 and we’re on track to achieve that goal.”
Excellent links.
US Sequestration
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/31/earth-cooling-schemes-global-signoff
MSM did not want a bar of this subject until recent years, and now is openly discussing, while claiming that these schemes are in *research* phases (of course they are…..).
Now geo-engineering is being openly used as the latest catalyst, to call for global governance!
So are you arguing that contrails are being used to create global warming so geoengineering will be needed to cool the earth again, handily provided by global government?
How do contrails increase global temperatures?
I’m not arguing anything different, than I’ve commented on previously, McFlock, these articles should be starting to speak for themselves by now, unless they’re made up BS, which is of course a possibility with the MSM, and media in general!
Does begin to sound like a narrative though if they’re not BS, you know, having ignored/denied geo-engineering for so long, now a days, its a steady stream of *in research only* based articles.
Given the lag the MSM experiences on most any serious issue you care to name, would give pause to suspect they’re giving commentary on what is actions in past history!
Serves to soften up the punters for some further *truth*, when the time is right, of course!
That didn’t answer either question.
Oh I don’t know. I think it answered a couple.
McFlock, hang onto a conversation for more than one day, you will find that I’ve given you plenty of answers, opinions etc.
The second question about temperatures, and how *contrails* turning to *clouds* *might* contribute to raising temperatures, should be self evident surely, no! That said I’ve not stated that I think they are/are not, just that its potentially being used in a nefarious fashion, going from the link!
Felix , no comment on the article link then matey…on ya!
Muzz,
Claiming that an answer is “self evident” and then explicitly refusing to state what you think the self evident answer actually is…. well, that’s a new level of stupid.
Try and answer a closed question like a normal human being. Feel free to add why the question is unfair or dumb, or what your actual position might be. But just try and be a normal person for once. Okay, ready? Deep breath, here goes:
So are you arguing that contrails are being used to create global warming so geoengineering will be needed to cool the earth again, handily provided by global government?
Easy question to answer.
Easy enough to recall that you have already asked this question, and I’ve answered it, previously!
Get digging perhaps!
Muzza, you wrote “That said I’ve not stated that I think they are/are not, just that its potentially being used in a nefarious fashion, going from the link!”
I am confused as to how something can be used potentially at the moment. The whole deal with potential is that it’s not happening now, yeah? Potential is to do with the future, and with possibility.
So, if that’s your answer, Muzza, it’s not making sense.
Hi Mac,
If the MSM is talking about *potential*, it means that its already happening, that’s how the media functions, by attempting to control information flows, and prepping people for further release escalations. By doing so it seeks to dampen down the reaction of people, by using low level NLP techniques, where people already *make a connection* to event, thus lowering any negative reaction, that’s the objective at least!
It helps to understand, that the companies who control media, are also those who are deeply involved in warfare, pharma, and related chemical industries, among most others, so the release of information, is neither accidental, nor coincidental!
If you had an understanding about how media works, and its parent company owners primary industry, it would make sense to you!
Good luck!
You arse, you said ” I’ve not stated that I think they are/are not, just that its potentially being used in a nefarious fashion,”.
YOU said “potentially”, not the MSM. When asked about this, you start a rant about when the MSM says “potentially”. Once again you’re off on a tangent, rather than taking the time to work through a single point of discussion.
You didn’t answer it. You made tangential comments. This is not the same as “answering the question”. Which is a fresher-level problem in essays and exams, just as an aside.
Simple enough to answer a closed question: a “yes” (maybe with an “if…” or a “because…”), or a “no” (maybe with a “no” or a “because”), or maybe a “your question is nonsensical because…”.
Go on, you can do eeett!
Hey muzza Isn’t the global governance call being made to control and manage the schemes so they don’t stay rogue and therefore is a good thing – apart from who is governing I suppose but they are “causing and controlling it” anyway so I can’t see how this would give them more power – maybe slightly more visibility perhaps.
Hey Marty, that’s one way to look at it I guess.
To me it reads like, looking for a way of controlling the *outing* of geo-engineering, by using the *its for the best interest of humanity* style narrative, yet again!
It sounds like, an attempt to allow those rogues you refer, to operate openly, and with impunity, because whose going to control such rogues anyway – My view is they’re already doing *thy bidding*, of those who crave a, *singular entity*!
I would very much doubt a a global (anything), is going to work out too well for those who don’t control the systems, or support it, hey perhaps those in charge currently, are really humanitarians after all, and if they do end up with a *singular entity*, perhaps we will see the journey as having been altruistic, after all…
Peace
Well, Chris Trotter’s joy at the Lab-Green energy policy, and his statements that Shearer’s Labour have taken a new a significant turn…. was pretty short lived. Today, he lays into Robertson, the “reluctant radical” for pulling back and reverting to “neoliberalism” as usual… and also targets Julian Robins… (who?)
that is hilarious karol…i was just saying the other day 😉
I’m inclined to believe there’s more than an element of truth in Chris Trotter’s synopsis. Grant Robertson is a careerist to the tips of his toes. Careerists don’t like to be associated with radical policies. There path is the straight one down the middle.
I thought at the time of the announcement it was almost too good to be true.
What’s the matter with the Labour leadership? Scared of their own shadow? That they hit the jackpot is evident in the gross over-reaction of the NActs and their acolytes. So what does Robertson do? Strokes their hysterical egos by telling them… it’s alright boys and girls. This is just a one off… we’re not going to change anything else.
What’s more, it’s not even radical policy!
O dear. This really raises the question whether Grunt is right for the party and whether the party is right for him. He should follow in the footsteps of Peter Done, set up his own party and bend according to whichever way he thinks the polls will keep his shadow trailing him in the House.
You are dead right about it not being policy. It was a single act of sabotage designed to derail the MRP share issue. Spare me any other tripe.
gee. that was a quick dump.
It was a single act of sabotage designed to derail the MRP share issue, which, when it becomes policy, will lower power prices to households. It will not destroy wealth it will transfer it into the pockets of average Kiwi battlers.
Who knew an act of sabotage could have such benign consequences? Just pure dumb luck I guess 😆
It’s a very small country, karol.
Bit of cursing at the club today.
Seems there are a few returned service people who don’t take too kindly to Key fucking off home to watch his kid play baseball rather than stay here and honour fallen soldiers.
Heard more than once: “I don’t care what you think about politics, but…”
Bugger. Still, I bet there’s some really good reason he had to be in the states 4 days before the baseball game, eh?
that man is AWOL frequently.
They still remember now? Interesting.
Lest we forget.
what do you make of this rhetorical whip-cracking by Chris Trotter; is that just what he writes to make a dollar, like The Truth?
I heard it mentioned on the bus back from the Cenotaph this morning too.
“Still, I bet there’s some really good reason he had to be in the states 4 days before the baseball game, eh?”
You know very well that he had an excellent reason felix. How else could he get English to sign the GCSB suppresion order that he knew nothing about?
😀
This Public Address article, PUBLIC ADDRESS article about COLIN CRAIG is hilarious, too, or as well, or along with!
oops http://publicaddress.net/southerly/false-claims-that-colin-craig-and-his-defamation/ ; (horse is slower than motor-cycle.
‘
Heh! Gone. Still shows in a google search but, alas, no cache.