“On NZ becoming a republic”.
It will no doubt happen someday. I can remember Jim Bolger, in an Address in Reply debate when he was Prime Minister, suggesting that it would (or perhaps it was should) happen before 2001. Jim had the characteristics of someone from the Irish Republic of course.
Hardly a question of urgency when she suggests it will happen in her lifetime considering that her life expectancy is probably another 60 years. Still, it’s a squirrel.
The full interview covers more than the Womans Weekly garbage.
Somewhere I read she will meet Corbyn for breakfast? when she’s in the
UK
Hope we won’t be treated to her favourite muesli recipe. No doubt there will be cat talk, and El Gato will be photographed smooching up to Jacinda
*sigh* Accusations of anti-semitism have become the last refuge of the scoundrel.
These charges against Corbyn are nonsense. No one in the UK really believes them, not even his accusers. The charges have made very little impression on British voters, who know a smear campaign when they see one.
The anti-semitism charges against Corbyn are useful to study though, because they show two things.
The first is how successful Israel has been with infiltrating the UK political establishment and bribing neoliberal politicians via the LFI (Labour Friends of Israel) (https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Labour_Friends_of_Israel). Effectively, anyone who questions current Israeli policies of violent repression of the Palestinians in mainstream UK politics can be practically guaranteed they will be smeared by a powerful fifth column of pro-Jewish voices in the UK media and political elites.
Secondly, the anti-semitism accusations how quickly middle class liberals will start slinging around accusations of racism when they lose. It was literally the first thing the Blairiites went for when Corbyn won the UK Labour party leadership.
That there is an intersection between the utterly corrupt and hopelessly entitled Blairite extremists and the cash sloshing around from right wing LFI donors is undeniable – and they have powerful friends in the liberal media. Repeaters and morons like James find it convenient to parrot politically motivated and vile lies and smears for completely dishonest reasons, what a complete dropkick and arsehole you are James.
Can’t wait for reselection of Labour candidates to get underway.
Corbyn’s surge in the last UK elections shut the Guardian up for a bit, but they’re back to their old ways.
Currently anti-semitism is the rack they hope to break him on
CarolynNorth, I have noticed a concerted effort by the right in all areas to undermine Jacinda. The article in Stuff follows several in the same vein giving the impression she has “Lost control”
This is a build up before Winston takes over, trying to destabilize the coalition, and make it look mismanaged by emphasising unrelated issues as symptomatic. IMO
I see three rather right wing commentators arrive to swiftly add fuel to the fire. As if being an echo makes it right.
“Repeaters and morons like James find it convenient to parrot politically motivated and vile lies and smears for completely dishonest reasons, what a complete dropkick and arsehole you are James.”
Harsh.
But true.
I don’t think there will be any political will toward becoming a Republic any time soon. It would, I think introduce a three way brawl between politicians, the senior level of the Judiciary in the Supreme Court and the public.
There will need to be a Head of State, other than the British Monarch.
The current set of politicians around at the time will want it to be an appointment by them. The Public will want to elect him or her. An election will give the person chosen a major claim to power. They will be the only person elected by the whole of the country and will be able to claim moral authority over parliamentarians. No Politician will want to accept that.
There will be a brawl between the senior judges and the politicians. The Judges, led by our current Chief Justice will claim the right to decide all the questions of a Constitutional manner. They will claim the right, in the absence of our traditional system and without a formal Constitution to lay down the rules and to override the Parliament. Again the politicians won’t like it.
Personally I am quite happy with the present situation. They keep out of the way, don’t try and interfere and don’t cost us very much. In fact I think we ought to go back to choosing British Peers as the GG as well. When they were in Office they tended to give us things. Think Ranfurly Shied, Plunket Shield, Bledisloe Cup, Waitangi Grounds, Treaty House etc.
Then when they leave office they bugger off back to Britain. Look at the number we have of the local lot who still demand their perks long after they have become relics from History? Crown Limo to go to the ball, anyone?
Do you realise that we don’t just have the current one to worry about? There are, if my counting is right, no fewer than 5 ex’s swanning around. Plus a bunch or spouses of deceased ones who are also still feeding at the trough.
Away with them.
And a pretty comprehensive interview in Good Weekend magazine that goes out with the Fairfax papers on a Saturday in Australia.
I like the bit where Clarke goes out every Friday evening to get the briefcase of Cabinet Papers and judges by the weight of it whether or not they are going to any fun that weekend.
You have to wonder in the light of the Cambridge Analytics scandal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=KKJMp_O0f7E why the UK is not having a second referendum on BREXIT to see whether it was democratically legitimate to the British people and is what the British people wanted, not what a small corporation funded by a US billionaire, spent a lot of money to influence the result of.
Gareth Morgan on Coleman’s resignation and the need for a by-election.
“while we have high expectations of our politicians, they are in turn very well looked after by the NZ taxpayer, and have an obligation to their constituents. Dr Coleman, being an Electorate rather than a List MP, is the latest to thumb his nose at this social contract he has with his constituents”.
He goes on to say that “Electorate MPs that resign for pecuniary reasons during their term should forfeit all of their taxpayer-funded post political benefits which include inflated Super payments. After all, at the election they undertook to represent the people of their region. To turn around after the event and say ‘too bad, I’m not in government anymore and that’s all it was about for me, it was never about representing you, my electorate’ is the ultimate insult an electorate representative can inflict’.
I’m thinking Gareth has never seen written or signed a social contract. No doubt the courts will enforce what ever provision has been written into Colemans one.
” “Electorate MPs that resign for pecuniary reasons during their term should forfeit all of their taxpayer-funded post political benefits which include inflated Super payments. After all, at the election they undertook to represent the people of their region. To turn around after the event and say ‘too bad, I’m not in government anymore and that’s all it was about for me, it was never about representing you, my electorate’ is the ultimate insult an electorate representative can inflict’.”
Your quote is out of context. That relates to the ‘ultimate insult’ – not pecuniary reason.
The pecuniary reason is:
a. The earlier reference to Coleman deciding to step down to take up a position in the private sector, and maintaining it was a hard decision, “ But when you get offered opportunities like this, you just got to take them”; and
b. The paragraph following your quote that “To add insult to injury, the taxpayer then has to turn around and spend $1 million on a by-election, simply because they took the candidate at their word. Politicians who undertake to represent an electorate should have to pay the costs of a by-election or forgo all their post political perks, if they move on for the money before fulfilling their pledge”.
I doubt it would be hard to prove that Coleman’s move will result in pecuniary gain from the salary etc from his new job compared to his current income as an Opposition MP; especially since he himself has made public statements to that effect.
Remember the screams of protest on this site when some other MPs resigned and forced a By-election?
Don’t you remember the screams of outrage on this site when Winnie Laban quit for another job? And the same when Lianne Dalziel jumped ship to be Christchurch Mayor, or when Phil Goff did the same in Auckland and David Shearer also quit in mid-term?
No, neither do I.
I think that anyone, Electorate or List who runs for Parliament should serve out their full term unless medical problems preclude it or they are kicked out.
The only exception should be PMs whose party ceases to be the Government. Clark and English come into that category. Everyone else should fulfil their contract.
So what if the Skripal’s themselves were the ones with the nerve agent? The daughter had just flown back from Moscow a few days before. The container or whatever bursts as she’s rummaging for the front door keys. (hence shit on the door handle) They then run around all those cordoned places – the kids park, the cemetery etc, in those cordoned vehicles, as they look to get rid of the stuff. They feel fine. They think they might have dodged a bullet. They go for lunch. It hits. And the rest is unfolding history.
Makes for a better film script than anything I’ve heard so far 🙂
Ah! Well, you see, the reason May was so sure of the Russian connection was because the daughter had just been to Moscow. May didn’t specify whether it was the Kremlin or a private source. Which is good for the plot line and allows for the Kremlin to be blamed regardless (loss of control of nerve agents/ not full stock destroyed etc) 😉
Did she know she was carrying nerve agents? Who was she carrying nerve agents for? What was the intended purpose and who was the intended recipient or victim?
Or did May just jump the gun with the Moscow connection?
,,, A good black and white, ..Artistically showing Mays long shadow . ……. cast as shes Stepping up to the podium to speak at some Legatum jig … among friends
Actually Bill, the Novichok series has already been made The british public had just finished watching their first introduction to the notion of Novichoks
“So where is the ‘Novichok’ talk coming from? Well, someone in the British government propaganda staff watched the current seasons of the British-American spy drama Strike Back. Nina Byzantina points to the summaries of recent episodes:
Episode 50 ran in the U.K on November 21 2017 and in the U.S. on February 23 2018:
Meanwhile, General Lázsló shuts down Section 20, forcing Donovan to work in secret. She discovers that Zaryn is in fact Karim Markov, a Russian scientist who allegedly killed his colleagues with Novichok, a nerve agent they invented.
Episodes 51 ran in the U.K on November 28 2017 and in the U.S. on March 2 2018:
Section 20 track Berisovich’s meth lab in Turov where Markov is making more Novichok and destroy it, though Berisovich escapes with Markov.
Episodes 52 ran in the U.K on January 31 2018 and in the U.S. on March 9 2018:
Section 20 track down Maya, a local Muslim woman Lowry radicalised, to a local airport. When she attempts to release the Novichok, Reynolds shoots her. The Novichok is fake however, as Berisovich does not want an attack committed in his country. … By the time Section 20 arrives, Berisovich had already called in the FSB to extract Markov and confiscate the Novichok. Yuri resurfaces to kill McAllister and Wyatt. However they turn the tables and strangle him to death. They then manage to engage the FSB and contain the gas. But in the process Reynolds is exposed. Markov works on an antidote but is killed by the Russians before he can complete. McAllister improvises and saves Reynolds, before Novin blows up the lab. Lowry uses the remainder of the gas to kill Berisovich for trying to betray her.”
Hollywood’s Warner Bros. will be knocking on your front door any day now bill. Play your cards right and you could make a tidy packet out of that script. It’s about on a par for H.w. 😉
Bill, at 5 and 5.1.1. you say
“The daughter had just flown back from Moscow a few days before.” and “because the daughter had just been to Moscow.”
My understanding is that Yulia Skripal lives in Moscow and just visits her father in the UK from time to time. Also I read some time ago that she works in Moscow at either the UK Embassy or the US Embassy. I am not sure which and am not about to search back for the articles.
However, if you want a good film script you could not go past this Daily Mail article that claims that the poison was aimed at Yulia, not her father, because of her impending marriage in Moscow.
The father continues his involvement in the shady underworld of Russian ex-pats and…oh, I know!
Bill Browder has another target in mind! One of the London based oligarchs is getting close to uncovering his scamming, murderous ways. So he instructs the daughter to pick up a wee package from Moscow….
I guess that should all unravel at the end of the final episode though as a passable surprise ending 🙂
Politkovskaya lives. Litvinenko died of natural causes. Nemtsov strolled home intact without begin gunned down by Putin’s thugs. And Daphne Caruana Galizia is still alive. It’s all just nasty western propaganda.
Happy day – lectured by a dupe so backward he swallows the RT line whole.
I have a fair idea what’s involved. It’s well beyond the average petty criminal.
“Thinking like a spy or a hitman” – is neither here nor there.
Nerve agents are principally made by state actors, who can recruit people capable of deploying them. Russia has made a habit of using them, and has a large pool of people available to use them.
The thousand lies of whataboutery have yet to fly a plausible kite.
That you’ve taken my obvious statement as a lecture and come back with such a bizarre comment is of no surprise..
Resplendent with the RT mention thrown in…I’ve not mentioned RT , Stuart…that makes you a projection dupe…
You see , Stuart. It’s a good thing to understand ones own boundaries… You appear not to….that’s all too common an affliction…
No-one on this site has anything other than speculation based on what might be 1% of information provided by other entities…
It’s a fundamental failing to take a postion and believe it in the espionage arena….you are not part of that world…
Take a position, sure but appreciate you have NFI about the levels and angles that are in play, because it’s espionage Stu…….just acknowledge that to yourself if you can….
It is a world that your imagination wouldn’t get close to…
[Cut out the pointless chest puffery personal stuff, aye? Both of you. Cheers.] – Bill
So as usual – the propaganda troll claims intellectual superiority for entertaining unsupported (and unsupportable) bilge.
You are not a spy.
You are not a hitman.
You know little or nothing about Russian intelligence.
Your imagination is neither here nor there.
You’re not even properly informed.
Not bad Bill, I like it and why not? The UK pension doesn’t amount to much these days
but wouldn’t she just wipe the mess up with baby wipes?
Nope apparently not, and the mess is still there on the doorknob, actually its a handle in the photos but I like the word knob, after 4 weeks of rain and snow
As part of his consultancy work in cybersecurity, Skripal travelled all over the place ,Dubai for one
False flag in the ME?
Skripal was still meeting with Pablo Miller, his original recruiter, every week .
And Miller was working for Christopher Steele at Orbis
Like a lot of ex M16 agents, they go on to do private consultancy work
Maybe Skripal contributed to the Steele dossier, knowing it was a load of bullshit but the money was ok
Maybe his monthly visits(according to an expat Russian friend)roused the suspicion that he’d flipped once again , and knew too much ….
Or maybe he’s just been using out of date organophosphate pesticides he found in the garden shed
Personally, I’m going with the theory that Putin at heart just wanted to be caught, he wanted to out the whole secretive Novichok program he’d been beavering away at for the last 10 years
And he wanted to send a message, to the US/EU that their beleaguered ally the UK needed to be rallied around and propped up
Firstly, that requires Julia to have access to the poison, and be sure thet she (as daughter of a traitor toi russia) will be able to get it through customs. Big hole needs filler.
Secondly, the exposure needs to be unknown to them, because otherwise they would have presented immediately to hospital with some convoluted story. Time is survival.
Thirdly, she smuggled a substance internationally and they didn’t immediately check it when she arrived, they went to lunch? Doesn’t match with the second.
Fourthly, why the front door? They would have gone inside and looked at the package, so that’s where the main contamination would be, surely?
It’s possible, maybe, but really doesn’t scan so simply as “assasination attempt”.
She doesn’t know what she’s picking up for Browder. It’s in some make-up thang – a compact case! (All spy movies should be 60s 🙂 ) Maybe the compact case comes as a “side package” to the main package which isn’t nerve agent. No suspicion at customs for innocuous object.
There’s a meeting. The compact case is in her bag. Meeting gets rescheduled. They go home. Compact opens by accident. Door handle.
They quickly contact Browder. He says they’ll be okay, wash hands and dump the shit somewhere.
They go where they went. They dump it somewhere along the way…or pass it off. And lunch. And think they’re okay, but…
Don’t know whether you should be a script editor or never allowed to go to the pictures with anyone McFlock. Maybe both 🙂
Ok, assuming she decidied to take something through customs for Browder, you’re on the one hand saying she doesn’t know what it is, but on the other hand “calls him quickly” when it breaks. And why would he use as a mule someone who’ll raise flags on both Russian and British immigration/customs computers?
And there’s still the source in Russia to cover, and whomever Browder wants to give it to.
I mean, you’ve got a possible explanation of events there, but not really plausible, let alone likely.
Whereas on the flipside we have Russia being the source, transporter, and deliverer of a lethal weapon in order to get revenge for treason and intimidate other prospective assets.
Do you think we should have a scene where daughter and father discuss what to do before deciding that maybe it would be best to make a call? I think you might be right on that. Good idea.
I’m actually not altogether happy with the burst package in bag getting contents on hands and that then coating the door handle. As with the case of the door handle being the source of contamination by some other route, it would generally only be touched by one of two people entering a place.
Anyway. Do you think we can let that one slide? Or should we concoct some little scene to explain two people using the one door handle?
I don’t think we need to bother ourselves with “flags” at Russian/UK customs etc seeing as how the daughter was a fairly frequent flyer. Maybe we could also shoot a scene where the faux package is subjected to some scrutiny? What should that be? Some papers? Computer related drives? Hmm – thinking 🙂
The full identity of the source doesn’t really matter for our purposes. Establishing a private entity as the source is all that’s required which, given that Skripal senior was a double agent and so unlikely to be used by the Russian state, isn’t a problem.
Bill O have been away for a couple of weeks.
In that time, my research on this topic has taken me to Craig Murray as a very interesting source of information
Have you heard of him?
Do you have a view on his viewpoint?
Thing is, that’s the closest anyone’s come to coming up with some other even vaguely reasonable explanation as to how two people were poisoned by nerve agents in the middle of an English town. As as you point out it still has big holes that would make William of Occam suspicious. Whereas having one or both of them as targets of the Russian state fills up most of those holes.
BTW, you’re looking for cross-contamination to explain the doorhandle thing. Person A touches door, then touches person B with the same hand. But you’d expect the person with the initial exposure to have a greater dose and therefore greater symptoms.
It has been quite cold in the UK so weren’t they wearing gloves?
How come so many people ended up in hospital with symptoms of alleged poisoning? Simple precaution or were they truly ill? Did they all touch that door handle or did they all shake hands with the couple when they were found slumped on a park bench?
The basic questions are often overlooked. Cops entering the house would have worn gloves and not touched things with their bare skin unless they are clueless & incompetent …
I kinda liked these pertinent questions. (I’ve reproduced a few) But then, I know I’m apparently bias, besides knowing for certain that I’m in a growing minority of people who view “the west” as being the belligerents on the global stage these days.
2) What specific antidotes were administered to Mr and Ms Skripal, and in which form? How were those antidotes available for the medical staff on the site of the incident?
3) On what grounds has France been involved in technical cooperation with regard to the investigation of an incident in which Russian nationals had suffered?
12) On the basis of which characteristics (“markers”) has it been ascertained that the substance used in Salisbury “originated from Russia”?
13) Does the UK possess reference samples of the military-grade poisonous substance that British representatives identify as “Novichok”?
14) Has the substance identified by British representatives as “Novichok” or analogous substances been researched, developed or produced in the UK?
Not all that interesting, really. What purpose do they serve? How would any answers to any of those questions change the debate? Seems to me that it still comes down to “Putin is killing traitors” vs “Putin’s enemies are killing his other enemies in order to make him look bad, but they keep killing his most powerful enemies so that’s a bit of a weird strategy”.
As to people who view the West as belligerants, that’s actually a pretty big group of people. The people who automatically think the the West must bethe only group of belligerents, that’s a very small group of people.
The usual antidotes for poisoning with nerve agents apparently don’t work with Novichok, if that’s what they were poisoned with. In any case, they have to be given within minutes of exposure to be effective; any later and they’re largely ineffective and require different antidotes/treatment. The inhibition of one of the biological targets, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), leads to severe acute symptoms and potentially followed by rapid death. The longer-lasting effects of nerve agents are nerve damage particularly of but not limited to the function of the legs.
Jesus christ now the russians want the doctors done for malpractise.
25 is wrong, btw. Nerve agents don’t act “immediately”. But then someone might accuse the Russians of trying to muddy the waters with bullshit questions, as if they have something to hide.
Look through all the CCTV on March the 4th for the guy decked out in the hazmat suit to protect himself from contamination
He’ll be the one
Or maybe he’ll be the one in the army fatigues because they seem to give immunity too
Onset
Novichok is reported to be 5–8 times more lethal than VX nerve agent and effects are rapid, usually within 30 seconds to 2 minutes.
Major symptoms
Symptoms are the same as those of other nerve agents as shown in Table 5.11 (p. 257). Local effects are thought to be immediate, while systemic effects may be delayed up to 18 hours.
For inhalation, it would be immediate/seconds.
Yeah fair call, they don’t necessarily act immediately. Which is the point – lack of immediate onset doesn’t rule out any nerve agent.
The chapter has significant differences in time between skin exposure and symptoms vs inhalation. Because it says inhalation of the powder was thought to be the main route of exposure, they theorised onset in seconds. If the Skripals had a skin exposure, the delay is anyone’s guess.
As a side note, reading the chapter basically puts paid to the “where did they get the antidotes from” question – literally every nerve agent has the same treatment as organophosphate exposure:
So any rural area fit to treat farmworkers soaked in pesticide would be able to treat a nerve gas attack.
Not to mention other uses of those medications.
Reading the interview made me realise how partisan and right wing our media is.
The agenda is to paint Labour an accidental government, unready and accident prone and the onslaught is relentless – and it isn’t helped by the pile on of immature and hysterical left wing snowflakes who toss their toys because Jacinda hasn’t waved a magic wand and fixed everything in three months.
“Reading the interview made me realise how partisan and right wing our media is”
You then go onto a puff piece in the Guardian ?
The main difference is in NZ the media is discussing her actions (or lack there of) of her government.
It dosnt make them partisan or right wing.
The government or labour should be held up for what they are doing.
There have been some commentators on here who voted for labour who have said they wont again – does that make them right wing? No – its that some people just are not happy how this government is working out and media may be a reflection of this view for many.
Example you have stated as fact that labour did nothing wrong about the sexual assaults at the labour camp (despite concessions from labour for not providing a safe space).
So for you it’s a non-event.
Others disagree and believe it’s a item that is newsworthy.
There is a lot of personal bias that comes into ones perception of the media.
Example you have stated as fact that labour did nothing wrong about the sexual assaults at the labour camp (despite concessions from labour for not providing a safe space).
They didn’t. Shit happens no matter how many protections you put in place and expecting everything to be perfect is delusional at best.
And what they did after shit did as a matter of fact happen, was spot on according to those who know a bit about these things which counts a great deal.
Considering National’s systemic victim blaming if this had happened at a National Party function the victims would either have thrown under the bus or paid off if the parents were rich.
There is a lot of personal bias that comes into ones perception of the media.
That’s not perception – that’s bias and people looking for reports that confirm their bias.
Exactly…+1, the editors of The Guardian have made it plainly obvious that they would rather eat their own arms off than have a real Left Wing Progressive alternative in the UK.
“and it isn’t helped by the pile on of immature and hysterical left wing snowflakes who toss their toys because Jacinda hasn’t waved a magic wand and fixed everything in three months.”
I so agree with you there – they remind me of the worst of ‘terrible two’ behaviour. It beggars belief that they have no understanding of the amount of effort that’s going to have to be put into turning around the horrors that have developed, especially in welfare, health and education. We haven’t had 6 months yet, and a goodly portion of that was taken up with settling into government and then the long holiday. Adding to the feeding frenzy of the trolls and twits is not helpful or sensible.
Perhaps some of us have long memories and recall how enthusiastically Labour embraced neo liberal free market ideologies, and we accept that they literally smoothed the path so the real right wing could consolidate.
Perhaps we terrible twos need some sort of a sign from this so-called progressive government this could be that the very first task should be a systematic rout of the bureaucrats who have held power at certain ministries for way too long.
Because when this snowflake heard that the new Minister of Health was going to take advice from staff at the Ministry about disability issues and family carers I actually wept with despair.
Rosemary your position and perspective is entirely appropriate (not that you need endorsement) but I’ve followed your posts, and have nothing but support for all who have been maligned and abused by successive governments and their departments…
The current government could have unequivocally cleared house by now in a number of key areas, but have not even made the ‘right noises’..instead they are playing along with the dominant ideology of which they represent and are gatekeepers of..
Those who ask for more time or make excuses for inaction, are establishment apologists who sound as though they have memory failure…
Waiting and wishing that the Westminster System will change its spots is head in the sand denial…
The system is rotten…and requires complete rebuild…
My heartfelt sympathies for all who are being abused by state and private establishments…
Far from being a ‘Labour fundy’ I more often vote Green than Labour. Labour this time though, because I was desperate to get National out and, living in the Far North, voted tactically.
However, feeding a National opposition, who will stop at nothing to undermine Labour, on an open forum will, in practical terms, help to bring down this government within one term. Then you will have a National government back – yippee!
There may be an awful lot to do, and it might not be enough for many, but coming from an education background, I am thrilled to bits that they have got rid of National Standards already. That’s huge, for those that understand it.
If there are specific things that some think are not going well, spell it out – do a post so we can all understand so maybe the rest of us can support and help you. There seem to be major issues about the treatment of people with permanent disabilities that are not going according to plan and I know myself how appalling WINZ can be. However, it would be helpful to know, in more detail, what people who are dissatisfied now think that Labour should do that they have turned their backs on.
Thanks Jan, that’s very helpful. I agree with that, that we need solid posts* on what the actual problems are, and we need posts on what Labour (and the GP/NZF) are getting right. I’d also like to see some discussion about what to do in the areas where Labour are failing from a LW perspective, and that leads into a bigger conversation about how to criticise the centre left when the risk is supporting a RW narrative.
btw I wasn’t calling you a Labour fundy 🙂 I was making an exaggerated comment to mimic the generalisations that are being thrown around at the moment that are loaded with implications but not specific enough to easily address. I’d like to see that conversation get more nuanced.
*anyone who wants to have a go at writing a Guest Post, please let me know.
Reading the interview made me realise how partisan and right wing our media is.
Yep. And happy to wittingly formulate lies and half truths in the process. Like TV3 who
continued to claim the young Labour victims of sexual abuse were only 15 years of age. This, despite the fact they were 16 years years old. What’s the difference of one year? Well at 15 they’re still under-age but at 16 they are considered old enough to make their own decisions. Important distinction in the scheme of things, but hey… why let the truth get in the way of a good Labour bashing.
Duncan Garner for starters. I also read it online in more than one of their news items. Contemplated emailing them and hauling them over the coals for their ‘subterfuge’ but decided I had far better uses for my time.
And btw, I’m taking about the victims of the sexual assaults. From memory there were 4 of them.
Also the bracketed comments apply to you as well as they are in relation to hip ops. Sorry, to hear you may have to wait. I had heard that waiting times for hips were shorter now but probably dependent upon DHB etc. But do give thought to the spinal if available. The same day as me, there were three other hip ops and one other had spinal like me and the other two general anesthesia The other spinal and I were up and walking in the corridor five or so hours after our ops, dressed in casuals and walking up and down stairs the next morning, cleared by the physio the following day and wanting to go home, but had to wait til the next morning for the surgeon and his clearance. The ‘general anesthesia’ two were bedridden for two days, only just walking by day three, and still in bedclothes when I went home, and expected to be in hospital for a further two days at least.
Thanks Veutoviper. I will discuss that with the surgeon when I get an appointment…. when being the operative word!!
There sadly may be other issues for me, being a “post Poliomyelitis” patient, as some sedatives and muscle relaxants are not suitable. Further I have a double scoliosis of the spine… always did do things the hard way!!
I have heard what you say from others regarding op times. Quite a difference.
Understand the limitations on some sedatives etc as I was/am in the same situation (heart murmur and ultra sensitivity to many drugs) – hence the anesthetist wanting to go with spinal at the time. And so glad he did from the experience, plus I have since been diagnosed with one autoimmune disease and being tested for more, and this further limits things.
Well said, Sanctuary. And I am pleased you started a new thread on the Guardian article, because I was trying to avoid the covert cattiness under 1 above and getting my own claws out.
As a softish article, I did not consider the Guardian article too bad. And I totally agree with your snowflakes comments which match my own of yesterday on OM which sparked some reaction. LOL.
As a result of the discussion on Pablo’s comments here under OM 29 March @ 3.1.1.2 two days ago, I caught up on his last six months of posts on his blog yesterday and assume you are the same Sanctuary as the one there. His 19 Jan 2018 post and the ‘discussion’ in the comments under it were of particular interest to me. Your comment of 20 Jan at 09.27 pretty much mirrors my own views on the situation both then and still currently. But pleased you two were able to resolve your ‘differences’. LOL. Re the discussion here the other day re his latest blog post, I also decided that this had to be read in conjunction with his “Plus ca change..” post of 5 Jan to understand what he was actually saying about Labour’s foreign policy and reaction to the UK led coalition action.
[If you are speaking to him, please pass on my best wishes for his operation. Can confirm from my own experience, the relief from pain is almost immediate although regaining mobility takes some time. I also recommend spinal with sedation vs general anesthesia as no after effects. I was home and fully over it less than three days after the op.]
Signed the TPPA, soft on immigration, no water tax, no capital gains tax.
Let’s see what gets delivered by the election.
As well as not yet delivering for those that voted for them, yes labour faces relentless negative media. We have yet to see any media savvy or strategy to balance the news media. Without strong change, this government will be gone.
FYI if not being a rusted on labour or national voter makes someone a snowflake, we need more of them.
We need real change.
The rouge state of Israel massacre 15 Palestinian protesters and wound over a thousand more, with IDF troops, snipers and tanks (for fucks sake!) executing Palestinian protesters armed with rocks.
Victoria also said “The British say the Russians.The Russians say the British but maybe it is a third party that wants to make mischief between the two”
I’d be picking Ukraine as a candidate in that scenario
One, they stand to lose a lot of money if and when Nordstream goes through, bypassing them and depriving them of lucrative transit fees, plus the opportunity to tap into the pipeline for free gas
They would love to scupper Nordstream.And there was pressure on the Germans to abandon it.The US wants to sell its more expensive fracked gas to Europe
They would also like to muster up a bit more support from the EU (monetary) which has been tiring of their failure to adopt EU “values”
And the black market in Ukraine for ex soviet military weapons is alive and well
Plus you have the organised Crime/oligarch network already in place
All in all, Bill’s series, with all these threads and potential cliffhangers and red herrings has huge potential
The family element you bring in is an absolute beaut,highly necessary for a popular mini series
I know, that dog is so telegenic!
And I want to know what happened to the expensive cat and guinea pigs removed from Skripal’s house while we’re on the animal theme
Could bring in the recent animal rights protests outside Porton Down too
Hmmm the guinea pigs, were they on loan or liberated from Porton Down?
These are questions we demand be answered
Israel makes great play of its credentials as a democratic state, even allowing Palestinians with Israeli citizenship the right to vote to elect their representatives to the Knesset*
But democracy is more than having the right to vote.
A true and inclusive democracy does not send sharp shooters to shoot down unarmed protesters. Nor does a democracy fire tank shells into farmland, killing a farmer, to intimidate people from protesting.
After a successful strike in Kentucky, the state government rushes through legislation to destroy the union, one cut at a time. Response – Wildcat Strike!! How scummy can the right get, well it’s early days yet, and if anything like the lying and spinning Tories here, it going to get worse.
(With Bill et al in mind)
From The Dark Mountain Project
“So thank you for inviting me to talk about this, because it made me reflect in the last few days, and I realise that maybe it’s useful to share this. Because this cathartic process that I went through, some of it conscious and some of it actually only making sense to me looking back, is perhaps something that other people will go through and need to go through. And maybe it’s something we can go through together and help each other.
I guess I’ve gone through a grieving process and now I realise that it was pretty damn obvious that I will die, everyone I know will die, any community or culture I could ever contribute to will die out, this human species will die out, and the Earth and everything on it will die – well, that’s just obvious, we all knew that, anyway.
DH: Yes, all of those things were true before the great hydrocarbon episode in humanity’s history. Arriving at that is an important part of the journey of making sense of what it means to be alive right now.
JB: I feel free of some forms of delusion, some forms of social pressure, and I am approaching things with fascination and playfulness. And what I didn’t have over the past few years were fellow travellers and community, and now I’m realising that I do need a community around this very realisation that we’ve been talking about. And what will emerge from that, I don’t know, but there will be love within it, there will be creativity within it, there will be a sense of wonder at being alive at this incredibly strange moment in human history.”
Hello Robert. Yes, like the serenity prayer.
My version for the secular world.
May I have the serenity to accept what I cannot change
The courage to change what I can
And the wisdom to know the difference.
We all need the company of those who know how to make others happy, who have enough grace to share that, and do it in such a way that it feels natural and right.
Here we go a negative branding campaign against Maori. There are no story’s about the Maori King gifting land to the Government to build housing for the people who end up in the tentacles of the Justice system. This is a good thing because society changes so fast. It takes a while for people to catch up with the changes like every thing done by computer ECT society labels people as unemployable and if your brown well it is even harder to get a decent job .So having housing to give these people time to readjust to society changes is essential in keeping our people out of the tentacles of the justice system. I don’t see this story the positive story on OUR Maori King all I see is these story’s here is the link to the medias negative branding against Maori.
Marae TV 1 Hutau Petera College kai pai to the the whano fighting to keep it open we need more Maori schools not less to keep OUR Maori culture thriving surely someone can help keep this Catholic Maori school running the main reason that students have dropped at this school is money Maori don’t have enough money to send there mokopunas to this great school. There are many reason that Maori have slid down the income bracket I could name a few . But we need to stick together and look after our own as no one else will do this for us. We have to have OUR mokopunas best future first and foremost in our minds and actions and this means looking after Maori mana the way we behave the way we treat others the way we present our selves in public .We should always know if we do these things respectfully we will be giving our mokopunas mana if we do the opposite we are eroding our mokopunas mana. Its as simple as that please don’t give the negative branders of Maori any amo to use against our mokopunas future . Be proud of our maori culture and your self but don’t act arrogantly as this will damage our mokopunas mana to enough said Kia Kaha Ka kite ano
Good fight Josephs you are very worthy of a rematch against Joshua I’m sure they will go for it the punters are calling for a rematch and now they know you are know push over. If you do things right you and your whano will be set for live. Kia Kaha
Ka kite ano
Newshub there you go another fossil that needs to retire his ancient views he dress as if he is a common man for the cameras and on his website he is all flashed up he is just a person who plays with the public’s emotions .
If we let his type win century’s ago we would not even have a telephone now .His type tried to suppress science as science endangered the control of some religions.
Garth Mc idiot whats wrong with that new tec a taser enough said.
Mike thats a beautiful sight of Te Moanga Taranaki There was more crowd support for the Warriors than the Roosters Kia kaha ka kite ano P.S still some flys hanging around I will Ignore them
Newshub Mike the more I examine my whakapapa and the unique places I have been and the experiences I’v had well this is my fate and te kumara never tell how sweet it is ka kite ano. P.S that lawyer I went to see in Hamilton was a employment lawyer I worked for another company that discriminated against me being brown and they under estimated ECO MAORI Ana to kai
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
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A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
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Flicking around the news this morning: Stuff headline asks if Jacindamania is over?
Meanwhile Ardern is on the front page of the UK Guardian, with link to an article, which links to an interview.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/30/new-zealand-likely-to-become-a-republic-in-my-lifetime-says-jacinda-ardern
On NZ becoming a republic?
And what Obama said to her, and being a celebrity PM, and more…
“On NZ becoming a republic”.
It will no doubt happen someday. I can remember Jim Bolger, in an Address in Reply debate when he was Prime Minister, suggesting that it would (or perhaps it was should) happen before 2001. Jim had the characteristics of someone from the Irish Republic of course.
Hardly a question of urgency when she suggests it will happen in her lifetime considering that her life expectancy is probably another 60 years. Still, it’s a squirrel.
Check out the comments below the full interview.
The full interview covers more than the Womans Weekly garbage.
Somewhere I read she will meet Corbyn for breakfast? when she’s in the
UK
Hope we won’t be treated to her favourite muesli recipe. No doubt there will be cat talk, and El Gato will be photographed smooching up to Jacinda
https://inews.co.uk/news/general-election-corbyn-cat-number-10-socialist/
“Somewhere I read she will meet Corbyn for breakfast? when she’s in the
UK”
I dont know if that would be wise given the issues around him at the moment:
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/28/europe/jeremy-corbyn-labour-anti-semitism-intl/index.html
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/29/17168320/labour-corbyn-anti-semitism-mural
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/28/antisemitism-open-your-eyes-jeremy-corbyn-labour
*sigh* Accusations of anti-semitism have become the last refuge of the scoundrel.
These charges against Corbyn are nonsense. No one in the UK really believes them, not even his accusers. The charges have made very little impression on British voters, who know a smear campaign when they see one.
The anti-semitism charges against Corbyn are useful to study though, because they show two things.
The first is how successful Israel has been with infiltrating the UK political establishment and bribing neoliberal politicians via the LFI (Labour Friends of Israel) (https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Labour_Friends_of_Israel). Effectively, anyone who questions current Israeli policies of violent repression of the Palestinians in mainstream UK politics can be practically guaranteed they will be smeared by a powerful fifth column of pro-Jewish voices in the UK media and political elites.
Secondly, the anti-semitism accusations how quickly middle class liberals will start slinging around accusations of racism when they lose. It was literally the first thing the Blairiites went for when Corbyn won the UK Labour party leadership.
That there is an intersection between the utterly corrupt and hopelessly entitled Blairite extremists and the cash sloshing around from right wing LFI donors is undeniable – and they have powerful friends in the liberal media. Repeaters and morons like James find it convenient to parrot politically motivated and vile lies and smears for completely dishonest reasons, what a complete dropkick and arsehole you are James.
Can’t wait for reselection of Labour candidates to get underway.
Corbyn’s surge in the last UK elections shut the Guardian up for a bit, but they’re back to their old ways.
Currently anti-semitism is the rack they hope to break him on
CarolynNorth, I have noticed a concerted effort by the right in all areas to undermine Jacinda. The article in Stuff follows several in the same vein giving the impression she has “Lost control”
This is a build up before Winston takes over, trying to destabilize the coalition, and make it look mismanaged by emphasising unrelated issues as symptomatic. IMO
I see three rather right wing commentators arrive to swiftly add fuel to the fire. As if being an echo makes it right.
That’s not very polite language there.
Are the 15 UK labour MPs who protested dropkick assholes as well?
“Repeaters and morons like James find it convenient to parrot politically motivated and vile lies and smears for completely dishonest reasons, what a complete dropkick and arsehole you are James.”
Harsh.
But true.
Corbyn is probably being quite reasonable about Zionist …. and Zionists like to smear people with “antisemitism” … James
No, no there’s no agitation to become a republic…
http://www.republic.org.nz/
Just an entire organisation deducted to making it so…
And there’s a reason why the question keeps coming up – there generally support for the change.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/83864989/nearly-60-per-cent-of-kiwis-want-the-british-monarchy-out–poll
It seems that it is the politicians that are holding things up.
I don’t think there will be any political will toward becoming a Republic any time soon. It would, I think introduce a three way brawl between politicians, the senior level of the Judiciary in the Supreme Court and the public.
There will need to be a Head of State, other than the British Monarch.
The current set of politicians around at the time will want it to be an appointment by them. The Public will want to elect him or her. An election will give the person chosen a major claim to power. They will be the only person elected by the whole of the country and will be able to claim moral authority over parliamentarians. No Politician will want to accept that.
There will be a brawl between the senior judges and the politicians. The Judges, led by our current Chief Justice will claim the right to decide all the questions of a Constitutional manner. They will claim the right, in the absence of our traditional system and without a formal Constitution to lay down the rules and to override the Parliament. Again the politicians won’t like it.
Personally I am quite happy with the present situation. They keep out of the way, don’t try and interfere and don’t cost us very much. In fact I think we ought to go back to choosing British Peers as the GG as well. When they were in Office they tended to give us things. Think Ranfurly Shied, Plunket Shield, Bledisloe Cup, Waitangi Grounds, Treaty House etc.
Then when they leave office they bugger off back to Britain. Look at the number we have of the local lot who still demand their perks long after they have become relics from History? Crown Limo to go to the ball, anyone?
Do you realise that we don’t just have the current one to worry about? There are, if my counting is right, no fewer than 5 ex’s swanning around. Plus a bunch or spouses of deceased ones who are also still feeding at the trough.
Away with them.
And a pretty comprehensive interview in Good Weekend magazine that goes out with the Fairfax papers on a Saturday in Australia.
I like the bit where Clarke goes out every Friday evening to get the briefcase of Cabinet Papers and judges by the weight of it whether or not they are going to any fun that weekend.
Yes his humour is “robust” to quote Jacinda.
If that is the same one that was in the DomPost I can only say that you have a very strong stomach sir. Did you really read it all?
A grand piss take of the gun debate, RW commentators and “conservative values” from the Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2018/03/29/i-am-sick-of-these-kids-demanding-safe-spaces/?utm_term=.74762ef3257a
You have to wonder in the light of the Cambridge Analytics scandal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=KKJMp_O0f7E why the UK is not having a second referendum on BREXIT to see whether it was democratically legitimate to the British people and is what the British people wanted, not what a small corporation funded by a US billionaire, spent a lot of money to influence the result of.
Gareth Morgan on Coleman’s resignation and the need for a by-election.
“while we have high expectations of our politicians, they are in turn very well looked after by the NZ taxpayer, and have an obligation to their constituents. Dr Coleman, being an Electorate rather than a List MP, is the latest to thumb his nose at this social contract he has with his constituents”.
He goes on to say that “Electorate MPs that resign for pecuniary reasons during their term should forfeit all of their taxpayer-funded post political benefits which include inflated Super payments. After all, at the election they undertook to represent the people of their region. To turn around after the event and say ‘too bad, I’m not in government anymore and that’s all it was about for me, it was never about representing you, my electorate’ is the ultimate insult an electorate representative can inflict’.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1803/S00408/gareth-morgan-jonathan-colman-resignation-an-insult.htm
Interesting discussion to be had about fulfilling social contracts and penalties for contractual default……
I’m thinking Gareth has never seen written or signed a social contract. No doubt the courts will enforce what ever provision has been written into Colemans one.
“I’m thinking Gareth has never seen written or signed a social contract.”
Lol
” “Electorate MPs that resign for pecuniary reasons during their term should forfeit all of their taxpayer-funded post political benefits which include inflated Super payments. After all, at the election they undertook to represent the people of their region. To turn around after the event and say ‘too bad, I’m not in government anymore and that’s all it was about for me, it was never about representing you, my electorate’ is the ultimate insult an electorate representative can inflict’.”
How is that a pecuniary reason?
Good luck with proving why an MP resigns.
Your quote is out of context. That relates to the ‘ultimate insult’ – not pecuniary reason.
The pecuniary reason is:
a. The earlier reference to Coleman deciding to step down to take up a position in the private sector, and maintaining it was a hard decision, “ But when you get offered opportunities like this, you just got to take them”; and
b. The paragraph following your quote that “To add insult to injury, the taxpayer then has to turn around and spend $1 million on a by-election, simply because they took the candidate at their word. Politicians who undertake to represent an electorate should have to pay the costs of a by-election or forgo all their post political perks, if they move on for the money before fulfilling their pledge”.
I doubt it would be hard to prove that Coleman’s move will result in pecuniary gain from the salary etc from his new job compared to his current income as an Opposition MP; especially since he himself has made public statements to that effect.
Maybe, but if there were rules around that then they’d just say family reasons or whatever.
Lol GM though, the man that tried to buy his way into parliament with his personal fortune.
Imagine Mike Hosking’s if Coleman had been a Labour MP. For the left, hysterical condemnation from the MSM. For National, utter silence.
Remember the screams of protest on this site when some other MPs resigned and forced a By-election?
Don’t you remember the screams of outrage on this site when Winnie Laban quit for another job? And the same when Lianne Dalziel jumped ship to be Christchurch Mayor, or when Phil Goff did the same in Auckland and David Shearer also quit in mid-term?
No, neither do I.
I think that anyone, Electorate or List who runs for Parliament should serve out their full term unless medical problems preclude it or they are kicked out.
The only exception should be PMs whose party ceases to be the Government. Clark and English come into that category. Everyone else should fulfil their contract.
Sanctuary, Just as telling is the “Deafening Silence” from Hoskings about Health.
So what if the Skripal’s themselves were the ones with the nerve agent? The daughter had just flown back from Moscow a few days before. The container or whatever bursts as she’s rummaging for the front door keys. (hence shit on the door handle) They then run around all those cordoned places – the kids park, the cemetery etc, in those cordoned vehicles, as they look to get rid of the stuff. They feel fine. They think they might have dodged a bullet. They go for lunch. It hits. And the rest is unfolding history.
Makes for a better film script than anything I’ve heard so far 🙂
In this new story, why did the Kremlin give Yulia Skripal some military grade nerve agents?
Ah! Well, you see, the reason May was so sure of the Russian connection was because the daughter had just been to Moscow. May didn’t specify whether it was the Kremlin or a private source. Which is good for the plot line and allows for the Kremlin to be blamed regardless (loss of control of nerve agents/ not full stock destroyed etc) 😉
Did she know she was carrying nerve agents? Who was she carrying nerve agents for? What was the intended purpose and who was the intended recipient or victim?
Or did May just jump the gun with the Moscow connection?
Could make a nice wee mini series.
Who plays May? maybe Meryl Streep, she seems at ease with rehabilitating despicable woman’s reputations.
Who plays Corbyn ?
A walk on part as himself.
I was thinking of this chap
I’d go for this guy. for May.
Yes I see there is a strange familiarity between the two, even their dress sense is not all that dissimilar.
I think I would go for the chap who plays Mrs Brown.
,,, A good black and white, ..Artistically showing Mays long shadow . ……. cast as shes Stepping up to the podium to speak at some Legatum jig … among friends
Worse plot than the new Star Wars movie.
I liked it – good mid-trilogy movie to transition to a new generation.
Actually Bill, the Novichok series has already been made The british public had just finished watching their first introduction to the notion of Novichoks
“So where is the ‘Novichok’ talk coming from? Well, someone in the British government propaganda staff watched the current seasons of the British-American spy drama Strike Back. Nina Byzantina points to the summaries of recent episodes:
Episode 50 ran in the U.K on November 21 2017 and in the U.S. on February 23 2018:
Meanwhile, General Lázsló shuts down Section 20, forcing Donovan to work in secret. She discovers that Zaryn is in fact Karim Markov, a Russian scientist who allegedly killed his colleagues with Novichok, a nerve agent they invented.
Episodes 51 ran in the U.K on November 28 2017 and in the U.S. on March 2 2018:
Section 20 track Berisovich’s meth lab in Turov where Markov is making more Novichok and destroy it, though Berisovich escapes with Markov.
Episodes 52 ran in the U.K on January 31 2018 and in the U.S. on March 9 2018:
Section 20 track down Maya, a local Muslim woman Lowry radicalised, to a local airport. When she attempts to release the Novichok, Reynolds shoots her. The Novichok is fake however, as Berisovich does not want an attack committed in his country. … By the time Section 20 arrives, Berisovich had already called in the FSB to extract Markov and confiscate the Novichok. Yuri resurfaces to kill McAllister and Wyatt. However they turn the tables and strangle him to death. They then manage to engage the FSB and contain the gas. But in the process Reynolds is exposed. Markov works on an antidote but is killed by the Russians before he can complete. McAllister improvises and saves Reynolds, before Novin blows up the lab. Lowry uses the remainder of the gas to kill Berisovich for trying to betray her.”
I like your screenplay better
No doubt Perry Mason ferreted out the truth when the whole matter got court.
There is form for this kind of thing you know, apparently it had something to do with Iraq…
Hollywood’s Warner Bros. will be knocking on your front door any day now bill. Play your cards right and you could make a tidy packet out of that script. It’s about on a par for H.w. 😉
Might even get Peter Jackson to direct the film.
Bill, at 5 and 5.1.1. you say
“The daughter had just flown back from Moscow a few days before.” and “because the daughter had just been to Moscow.”
My understanding is that Yulia Skripal lives in Moscow and just visits her father in the UK from time to time. Also I read some time ago that she works in Moscow at either the UK Embassy or the US Embassy. I am not sure which and am not about to search back for the articles.
However, if you want a good film script you could not go past this Daily Mail article that claims that the poison was aimed at Yulia, not her father, because of her impending marriage in Moscow.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5557625/Russia-protecting-identity-Yulia-Skripals-mystery-boyfriend.html
This article implies she lived in the UK for at least some time
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5744564/yulia-skripal-daughter-russian-double-agent-sergei-skripal-latest/
But this one then suggests that she did live in the UK for some years but then moved back to Moscow
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5744564/yulia-skripal-daughter-russian-double-agent-sergei-skripal-latest/
And no, I don’t usually read or believe rags like the Sun or the Daily Mail. But there are other variants of the Daily Mail story.
For this to be plausible there needs to be a good reason for the daughter of a known MI6 spy and defector getting hold of the nerve agent though.
Hmm.
The father continues his involvement in the shady underworld of Russian ex-pats and…oh, I know!
Bill Browder has another target in mind! One of the London based oligarchs is getting close to uncovering his scamming, murderous ways. So he instructs the daughter to pick up a wee package from Moscow….
I guess that should all unravel at the end of the final episode though as a passable surprise ending 🙂
I think you could bring in side issues like this:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-42852666
Salisbury hospital trust “12.5 million pounds in debt”
as opposed to this:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-russia-williamson/uk-to-invest-48-million-pounds-in-new-chemical-weapons-defense-center-idUSKCN1GR1IR
and angry Salisbury shopkeepers going under
how the community is impacted etc
‘Plausible’ doesn’t exist when using a subset of breadcrumbs and speculation to understand the ‘WHO’ of an espionage hit…
Could have been anyone…
But RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA
And of course Russia never kills anyone.
Politkovskaya lives. Litvinenko died of natural causes. Nemtsov strolled home intact without begin gunned down by Putin’s thugs. And Daphne Caruana Galizia is still alive. It’s all just nasty western propaganda.
Piffle.
“anyone” doesn’t have nerve agents at their fingertips.
That’s ok Stuart you can ‘think’ whatever you like…
But you’ve no actual idea who has which nerve agents, resources to manufacture them or who actually ‘did it’…
You’re not a spy or hitman I’m guessing, and espionage won’t be in your skillset…
Thinking like a spy or hitman…not for you…
Happy day – lectured by a dupe so backward he swallows the RT line whole.
I have a fair idea what’s involved. It’s well beyond the average petty criminal.
“Thinking like a spy or a hitman” – is neither here nor there.
Nerve agents are principally made by state actors, who can recruit people capable of deploying them. Russia has made a habit of using them, and has a large pool of people available to use them.
The thousand lies of whataboutery have yet to fly a plausible kite.
That you’ve taken my obvious statement as a lecture and come back with such a bizarre comment is of no surprise..
Resplendent with the RT mention thrown in…I’ve not mentioned RT , Stuart…that makes you a projection dupe…
You see , Stuart. It’s a good thing to understand ones own boundaries… You appear not to….that’s all too common an affliction…
No-one on this site has anything other than speculation based on what might be 1% of information provided by other entities…
It’s a fundamental failing to take a postion and believe it in the espionage arena….you are not part of that world…
Take a position, sure but appreciate you have NFI about the levels and angles that are in play, because it’s espionage Stu…….just acknowledge that to yourself if you can….
It is a world that your imagination wouldn’t get close to…
[Cut out the pointless chest puffery personal stuff, aye? Both of you. Cheers.] – Bill
So as usual – the propaganda troll claims intellectual superiority for entertaining unsupported (and unsupportable) bilge.
You are not a spy.
You are not a hitman.
You know little or nothing about Russian intelligence.
Your imagination is neither here nor there.
You’re not even properly informed.
Propaganda tr*ll…again with the projection, Stu…
it could have been anyone……
I do not know, nor do I have an interest in ‘who did it’…no propaganda in my position…
You appear to have chosen a side…Each to their own…
Have a good day…
Not bad Bill, I like it and why not? The UK pension doesn’t amount to much these days
but wouldn’t she just wipe the mess up with baby wipes?
Nope apparently not, and the mess is still there on the doorknob, actually its a handle in the photos but I like the word knob, after 4 weeks of rain and snow
As part of his consultancy work in cybersecurity, Skripal travelled all over the place ,Dubai for one
False flag in the ME?
Skripal was still meeting with Pablo Miller, his original recruiter, every week .
And Miller was working for Christopher Steele at Orbis
Like a lot of ex M16 agents, they go on to do private consultancy work
Maybe Skripal contributed to the Steele dossier, knowing it was a load of bullshit but the money was ok
Maybe his monthly visits(according to an expat Russian friend)roused the suspicion that he’d flipped once again , and knew too much ….
Or maybe he’s just been using out of date organophosphate pesticides he found in the garden shed
Personally, I’m going with the theory that Putin at heart just wanted to be caught, he wanted to out the whole secretive Novichok program he’d been beavering away at for the last 10 years
And he wanted to send a message, to the US/EU that their beleaguered ally the UK needed to be rallied around and propped up
missed out bit about Skripal
monthly visits to the Russian Embassy in London
Ok, let’s go with that.
Firstly, that requires Julia to have access to the poison, and be sure thet she (as daughter of a traitor toi russia) will be able to get it through customs. Big hole needs filler.
Secondly, the exposure needs to be unknown to them, because otherwise they would have presented immediately to hospital with some convoluted story. Time is survival.
Thirdly, she smuggled a substance internationally and they didn’t immediately check it when she arrived, they went to lunch? Doesn’t match with the second.
Fourthly, why the front door? They would have gone inside and looked at the package, so that’s where the main contamination would be, surely?
It’s possible, maybe, but really doesn’t scan so simply as “assasination attempt”.
She doesn’t know what she’s picking up for Browder. It’s in some make-up thang – a compact case! (All spy movies should be 60s 🙂 ) Maybe the compact case comes as a “side package” to the main package which isn’t nerve agent. No suspicion at customs for innocuous object.
There’s a meeting. The compact case is in her bag. Meeting gets rescheduled. They go home. Compact opens by accident. Door handle.
They quickly contact Browder. He says they’ll be okay, wash hands and dump the shit somewhere.
They go where they went. They dump it somewhere along the way…or pass it off. And lunch. And think they’re okay, but…
Don’t know whether you should be a script editor or never allowed to go to the pictures with anyone McFlock. Maybe both 🙂
Ok, assuming she decidied to take something through customs for Browder, you’re on the one hand saying she doesn’t know what it is, but on the other hand “calls him quickly” when it breaks. And why would he use as a mule someone who’ll raise flags on both Russian and British immigration/customs computers?
And there’s still the source in Russia to cover, and whomever Browder wants to give it to.
I mean, you’ve got a possible explanation of events there, but not really plausible, let alone likely.
Whereas on the flipside we have Russia being the source, transporter, and deliverer of a lethal weapon in order to get revenge for treason and intimidate other prospective assets.
Do you think we should have a scene where daughter and father discuss what to do before deciding that maybe it would be best to make a call? I think you might be right on that. Good idea.
I’m actually not altogether happy with the burst package in bag getting contents on hands and that then coating the door handle. As with the case of the door handle being the source of contamination by some other route, it would generally only be touched by one of two people entering a place.
Anyway. Do you think we can let that one slide? Or should we concoct some little scene to explain two people using the one door handle?
I don’t think we need to bother ourselves with “flags” at Russian/UK customs etc seeing as how the daughter was a fairly frequent flyer. Maybe we could also shoot a scene where the faux package is subjected to some scrutiny? What should that be? Some papers? Computer related drives? Hmm – thinking 🙂
The full identity of the source doesn’t really matter for our purposes. Establishing a private entity as the source is all that’s required which, given that Skripal senior was a double agent and so unlikely to be used by the Russian state, isn’t a problem.
Bill O have been away for a couple of weeks.
In that time, my research on this topic has taken me to Craig Murray as a very interesting source of information
Have you heard of him?
Do you have a view on his viewpoint?
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/03/on-not-being-refuted/
I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
Thing is, that’s the closest anyone’s come to coming up with some other even vaguely reasonable explanation as to how two people were poisoned by nerve agents in the middle of an English town. As as you point out it still has big holes that would make William of Occam suspicious. Whereas having one or both of them as targets of the Russian state fills up most of those holes.
BTW, you’re looking for cross-contamination to explain the doorhandle thing. Person A touches door, then touches person B with the same hand. But you’d expect the person with the initial exposure to have a greater dose and therefore greater symptoms.
It has been quite cold in the UK so weren’t they wearing gloves?
How come so many people ended up in hospital with symptoms of alleged poisoning? Simple precaution or were they truly ill? Did they all touch that door handle or did they all shake hands with the couple when they were found slumped on a park bench?
Lots of people were tested. Three others were injured to the point of being given a hospital bed. ISTR all three were cops and had been in the house.
Interesting point about the gloves. But then I’m not sure what the latest theories of exposure are.
The basic questions are often overlooked. Cops entering the house would have worn gloves and not touched things with their bare skin unless they are clueless & incompetent …
I kinda liked these pertinent questions. (I’ve reproduced a few) But then, I know I’m apparently bias, besides knowing for certain that I’m in a growing minority of people who view “the west” as being the belligerents on the global stage these days.
From this link.
https://www.rusemb.org.uk/fnapr/6447
2) What specific antidotes were administered to Mr and Ms Skripal, and in which form? How were those antidotes available for the medical staff on the site of the incident?
3) On what grounds has France been involved in technical cooperation with regard to the investigation of an incident in which Russian nationals had suffered?
12) On the basis of which characteristics (“markers”) has it been ascertained that the substance used in Salisbury “originated from Russia”?
13) Does the UK possess reference samples of the military-grade poisonous substance that British representatives identify as “Novichok”?
14) Has the substance identified by British representatives as “Novichok” or analogous substances been researched, developed or produced in the UK?
Not all that interesting, really. What purpose do they serve? How would any answers to any of those questions change the debate? Seems to me that it still comes down to “Putin is killing traitors” vs “Putin’s enemies are killing his other enemies in order to make him look bad, but they keep killing his most powerful enemies so that’s a bit of a weird strategy”.
As to people who view the West as belligerants, that’s actually a pretty big group of people. The people who automatically think the the West must bethe only group of belligerents, that’s a very small group of people.
The usual antidotes for poisoning with nerve agents apparently don’t work with Novichok, if that’s what they were poisoned with. In any case, they have to be given within minutes of exposure to be effective; any later and they’re largely ineffective and require different antidotes/treatment. The inhibition of one of the biological targets, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), leads to severe acute symptoms and potentially followed by rapid death. The longer-lasting effects of nerve agents are nerve damage particularly of but not limited to the function of the legs.
Or there are these ones (a few reproduced) from this link.
https://www.rusemb.org.uk/fnapr/6443
1) What is Mr and Ms Skripal’s exact diagnosis and condition?
2) What treatment are they receiving?
3) Is that treatment the same as that provided to Sgt Nick Bailey?
6) Did Mr Bailey, Mr Skripal and Ms Skripal receive antidotes?
7) Which antidotes?
8) How were the right antidotes identified?
9) Did they actually help or harm?
25) Nerve agents act immediately. Why was it not the case with the Skripals?
26) Leaks suggest the Skripals were poisoned at a pub, at a restaurant, in their car, at the airport, at home… Which version is the official one?
27) How to reconcile quick political moves with Scotland Yard’s statement that the investigation will take “months”?
Jesus christ now the russians want the doctors done for malpractise.
25 is wrong, btw. Nerve agents don’t act “immediately”. But then someone might accuse the Russians of trying to muddy the waters with bullshit questions, as if they have something to hide.
Look through all the CCTV on March the 4th for the guy decked out in the hazmat suit to protect himself from contamination
He’ll be the one
Or maybe he’ll be the one in the army fatigues because they seem to give immunity too
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/929436/russian-spy-poisoning-sergei-skripal-yulia-skripal-military-personnel-salisbury-wiltshire
Check out the photos ..Hazmat guys side by side with army…pure theatre!
I had read that such nerve agents, when administered to the skin, take a while to have an effect.
I also read that an ante-dote was administered pretty quickly.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/world/europe/russia-sergei-skripal-uk-spy-poisoning.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes
Where did that information come from?
@ McFlock 1 April 2018 at 9:47 pm:
Point 25 is correct.
From that same link in this comment https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-29-03-2018/#comment-1467564 (for your convenience: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/novichok-agent).
For inhalation, it would be immediate/seconds.
Yeah fair call, they don’t necessarily act immediately. Which is the point – lack of immediate onset doesn’t rule out any nerve agent.
The chapter has significant differences in time between skin exposure and symptoms vs inhalation. Because it says inhalation of the powder was thought to be the main route of exposure, they theorised onset in seconds. If the Skripals had a skin exposure, the delay is anyone’s guess.
As a side note, reading the chapter basically puts paid to the “where did they get the antidotes from” question – literally every nerve agent has the same treatment as organophosphate exposure:
So any rural area fit to treat farmworkers soaked in pesticide would be able to treat a nerve gas attack.
Not to mention other uses of those medications.
As an antidote to a fortnight of hostile MSM attacks, a nice interview in the Guardian with Jacinda Ardern –
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/30/jacinda-ardern-on-life-as-a-leader-trump-and-selfies-in-the-lingerie-department
Reading the interview made me realise how partisan and right wing our media is.
The agenda is to paint Labour an accidental government, unready and accident prone and the onslaught is relentless – and it isn’t helped by the pile on of immature and hysterical left wing snowflakes who toss their toys because Jacinda hasn’t waved a magic wand and fixed everything in three months.
“Reading the interview made me realise how partisan and right wing our media is”
You then go onto a puff piece in the Guardian ?
The main difference is in NZ the media is discussing her actions (or lack there of) of her government.
It dosnt make them partisan or right wing.
The government or labour should be held up for what they are doing.
There have been some commentators on here who voted for labour who have said they wont again – does that make them right wing? No – its that some people just are not happy how this government is working out and media may be a reflection of this view for many.
True but the MSM never seems to do that when National is power and they get excessive when Labour is.
And then there’s the fact that they’ll stop reporting what National did in power to report a non-event that happens in the present Labour government.
It depends on ones perception of a non- event.
Example you have stated as fact that labour did nothing wrong about the sexual assaults at the labour camp (despite concessions from labour for not providing a safe space).
So for you it’s a non-event.
Others disagree and believe it’s a item that is newsworthy.
There is a lot of personal bias that comes into ones perception of the media.
They didn’t. Shit happens no matter how many protections you put in place and expecting everything to be perfect is delusional at best.
And what they did after shit did as a matter of fact happen, was spot on according to those who know a bit about these things which counts a great deal.
Considering National’s systemic victim blaming if this had happened at a National Party function the victims would either have thrown under the bus or paid off if the parents were rich.
That’s not perception – that’s bias and people looking for reports that confirm their bias.
“….and people looking for reports that confirm their bias.”
‘Cough’… political compass…’cough’
😉
Dude, I’m autistic with genius level IQ.
I’m quite aware of my own biases and account for them.
Any party that supports capitalism is, by default, right-wing. Labour has always been a capitalist party.
Capitalism is the problem – not the solution.
For someone with a genius level IQ you sure make a load of mistakes 😉
But we’re all human at the end of the day. Even Stephen Hawking fucked up on occasion
Making mistakes is fine – learn from them.
But you missed the point about autism didn’t you?
Compare that paper’s coverage of Ardern to its coverage of Corbyn. Then dig out some of its coverage of Smith who ran against Corbyn.
And tell me Ardern should be considered a good thing.
Exactly…+1, the editors of The Guardian have made it plainly obvious that they would rather eat their own arms off than have a real Left Wing Progressive alternative in the UK.
“and it isn’t helped by the pile on of immature and hysterical left wing snowflakes who toss their toys because Jacinda hasn’t waved a magic wand and fixed everything in three months.”
I so agree with you there – they remind me of the worst of ‘terrible two’ behaviour. It beggars belief that they have no understanding of the amount of effort that’s going to have to be put into turning around the horrors that have developed, especially in welfare, health and education. We haven’t had 6 months yet, and a goodly portion of that was taken up with settling into government and then the long holiday. Adding to the feeding frenzy of the trolls and twits is not helpful or sensible.
1000%
They could at least answer letters.
“Terrible twos” indeed!
Perhaps some of us have long memories and recall how enthusiastically Labour embraced neo liberal free market ideologies, and we accept that they literally smoothed the path so the real right wing could consolidate.
Perhaps we terrible twos need some sort of a sign from this so-called progressive government this could be that the very first task should be a systematic rout of the bureaucrats who have held power at certain ministries for way too long.
Because when this snowflake heard that the new Minister of Health was going to take advice from staff at the Ministry about disability issues and family carers I actually wept with despair.
I guess I’ll just have to harden the f up.
Rosemary your position and perspective is entirely appropriate (not that you need endorsement) but I’ve followed your posts, and have nothing but support for all who have been maligned and abused by successive governments and their departments…
The current government could have unequivocally cleared house by now in a number of key areas, but have not even made the ‘right noises’..instead they are playing along with the dominant ideology of which they represent and are gatekeepers of..
Those who ask for more time or make excuses for inaction, are establishment apologists who sound as though they have memory failure…
Waiting and wishing that the Westminster System will change its spots is head in the sand denial…
The system is rotten…and requires complete rebuild…
My heartfelt sympathies for all who are being abused by state and private establishments…
not quite as bad as the Labour fundies though who can’t tolerate any critique of the beloved party.
See how the framing in this thread is going?
Far from being a ‘Labour fundy’ I more often vote Green than Labour. Labour this time though, because I was desperate to get National out and, living in the Far North, voted tactically.
However, feeding a National opposition, who will stop at nothing to undermine Labour, on an open forum will, in practical terms, help to bring down this government within one term. Then you will have a National government back – yippee!
There may be an awful lot to do, and it might not be enough for many, but coming from an education background, I am thrilled to bits that they have got rid of National Standards already. That’s huge, for those that understand it.
If there are specific things that some think are not going well, spell it out – do a post so we can all understand so maybe the rest of us can support and help you. There seem to be major issues about the treatment of people with permanent disabilities that are not going according to plan and I know myself how appalling WINZ can be. However, it would be helpful to know, in more detail, what people who are dissatisfied now think that Labour should do that they have turned their backs on.
Thanks Jan, that’s very helpful. I agree with that, that we need solid posts* on what the actual problems are, and we need posts on what Labour (and the GP/NZF) are getting right. I’d also like to see some discussion about what to do in the areas where Labour are failing from a LW perspective, and that leads into a bigger conversation about how to criticise the centre left when the risk is supporting a RW narrative.
btw I wasn’t calling you a Labour fundy 🙂 I was making an exaggerated comment to mimic the generalisations that are being thrown around at the moment that are loaded with implications but not specific enough to easily address. I’d like to see that conversation get more nuanced.
*anyone who wants to have a go at writing a Guest Post, please let me know.
Cool 🙂
Hi Weka, I sent you one those messages again 😉
Cheers. I’ll be back at my email in the next few days. Let me know here if it’s more urgent than that 🙂
Nah, not urgent but fits in well (I hope) with Micky’s post The manufacturing of a narrative and other quite recent threads.
I wish you a good Easter; the weather is beautiful, which means lots of working in the garden 😉
thanks Incog. Have fun out there!
Reading the interview made me realise how partisan and right wing our media is.
Yep. And happy to wittingly formulate lies and half truths in the process. Like TV3 who
continued to claim the young Labour victims of sexual abuse were only 15 years of age. This, despite the fact they were 16 years years old. What’s the difference of one year? Well at 15 they’re still under-age but at 16 they are considered old enough to make their own decisions. Important distinction in the scheme of things, but hey… why let the truth get in the way of a good Labour bashing.
I believe that there was a 15 yo there and drinking – although I understand that the sexual assault victims were all 16.
Where has tv3 categorically stated the victim was 15 – do you have a link?
Of course it is possible that they are right – unless you have inside knowledge??
Duncan Garner for starters. I also read it online in more than one of their news items. Contemplated emailing them and hauling them over the coals for their ‘subterfuge’ but decided I had far better uses for my time.
And btw, I’m taking about the victims of the sexual assaults. From memory there were 4 of them.
James believes whatever it is that disadvantages the Left and suits the Right.
That’s all.
Robert you have no idea what I believe.
To pretend to is simply a sad attempt at trolling.
But you keep telling us what you believe. And it’s always the worst possible interpretation for the left.
That is a piece of sanity Santuary. Hand wringing isn’t needed, early days yet.
+1, patricia. See my 6.6 below.
Also the bracketed comments apply to you as well as they are in relation to hip ops. Sorry, to hear you may have to wait. I had heard that waiting times for hips were shorter now but probably dependent upon DHB etc. But do give thought to the spinal if available. The same day as me, there were three other hip ops and one other had spinal like me and the other two general anesthesia The other spinal and I were up and walking in the corridor five or so hours after our ops, dressed in casuals and walking up and down stairs the next morning, cleared by the physio the following day and wanting to go home, but had to wait til the next morning for the surgeon and his clearance. The ‘general anesthesia’ two were bedridden for two days, only just walking by day three, and still in bedclothes when I went home, and expected to be in hospital for a further two days at least.
Thanks Veutoviper. I will discuss that with the surgeon when I get an appointment…. when being the operative word!!
There sadly may be other issues for me, being a “post Poliomyelitis” patient, as some sedatives and muscle relaxants are not suitable. Further I have a double scoliosis of the spine… always did do things the hard way!!
I have heard what you say from others regarding op times. Quite a difference.
Understand the limitations on some sedatives etc as I was/am in the same situation (heart murmur and ultra sensitivity to many drugs) – hence the anesthetist wanting to go with spinal at the time. And so glad he did from the experience, plus I have since been diagnosed with one autoimmune disease and being tested for more, and this further limits things.
Well said, Sanctuary. And I am pleased you started a new thread on the Guardian article, because I was trying to avoid the covert cattiness under 1 above and getting my own claws out.
As a softish article, I did not consider the Guardian article too bad. And I totally agree with your snowflakes comments which match my own of yesterday on OM which sparked some reaction. LOL.
As a result of the discussion on Pablo’s comments here under OM 29 March @ 3.1.1.2 two days ago, I caught up on his last six months of posts on his blog yesterday and assume you are the same Sanctuary as the one there. His 19 Jan 2018 post and the ‘discussion’ in the comments under it were of particular interest to me. Your comment of 20 Jan at 09.27 pretty much mirrors my own views on the situation both then and still currently. But pleased you two were able to resolve your ‘differences’. LOL. Re the discussion here the other day re his latest blog post, I also decided that this had to be read in conjunction with his “Plus ca change..” post of 5 Jan to understand what he was actually saying about Labour’s foreign policy and reaction to the UK led coalition action.
[If you are speaking to him, please pass on my best wishes for his operation. Can confirm from my own experience, the relief from pain is almost immediate although regaining mobility takes some time. I also recommend spinal with sedation vs general anesthesia as no after effects. I was home and fully over it less than three days after the op.]
Signed the TPPA, soft on immigration, no water tax, no capital gains tax.
Let’s see what gets delivered by the election.
As well as not yet delivering for those that voted for them, yes labour faces relentless negative media. We have yet to see any media savvy or strategy to balance the news media. Without strong change, this government will be gone.
FYI if not being a rusted on labour or national voter makes someone a snowflake, we need more of them.
We need real change.
The rouge state of Israel massacre 15 Palestinian protesters and wound over a thousand more, with IDF troops, snipers and tanks (for fucks sake!) executing Palestinian protesters armed with rocks.
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/gaza-refugees-call-return-mass-protests-180330154419077.html
While back at The Guardian they continue their anti sematic witch hunt of Corbyn and creating a new cold war…from their headlines today…
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/mar/30/corbyn-antisemitism-and-a-week-that-tugged-at-labours-frayed-fabric
Veutoviper, re Bills TV series:
Victoria also said “The British say the Russians.The Russians say the British but maybe it is a third party that wants to make mischief between the two”
I’d be picking Ukraine as a candidate in that scenario
One, they stand to lose a lot of money if and when Nordstream goes through, bypassing them and depriving them of lucrative transit fees, plus the opportunity to tap into the pipeline for free gas
They would love to scupper Nordstream.And there was pressure on the Germans to abandon it.The US wants to sell its more expensive fracked gas to Europe
They would also like to muster up a bit more support from the EU (monetary) which has been tiring of their failure to adopt EU “values”
And the black market in Ukraine for ex soviet military weapons is alive and well
Plus you have the organised Crime/oligarch network already in place
All in all, Bill’s series, with all these threads and potential cliffhangers and red herrings has huge potential
The family element you bring in is an absolute beaut,highly necessary for a popular mini series
And don’t forget the missing dog! It has all the elements necessary.
I know, that dog is so telegenic!
And I want to know what happened to the expensive cat and guinea pigs removed from Skripal’s house while we’re on the animal theme
Could bring in the recent animal rights protests outside Porton Down too
Hmmm the guinea pigs, were they on loan or liberated from Porton Down?
These are questions we demand be answered
Israel the only democracy in the Middle East?
Israel makes great play of its credentials as a democratic state, even allowing Palestinians with Israeli citizenship the right to vote to elect their representatives to the Knesset*
But democracy is more than having the right to vote.
A true and inclusive democracy does not send sharp shooters to shoot down unarmed protesters. Nor does a democracy fire tank shells into farmland, killing a farmer, to intimidate people from protesting.
* (albeit with lesser rights than Israeli legislators).
The last election held in Palestine was 2006.
And the government elected then declared null and void by Israel and the US.
So, would that be that Israel and the US then decided that the Palestinians shouldn’t have elections at all?
Oh they can have elections. As long as the right person wins
After a successful strike in Kentucky, the state government rushes through legislation to destroy the union, one cut at a time. Response – Wildcat Strike!! How scummy can the right get, well it’s early days yet, and if anything like the lying and spinning Tories here, it going to get worse.
https://libcom.org/news/mass-wildcat-strike-kentucky-teachers-30032018
(With Bill et al in mind)
From The Dark Mountain Project
“So thank you for inviting me to talk about this, because it made me reflect in the last few days, and I realise that maybe it’s useful to share this. Because this cathartic process that I went through, some of it conscious and some of it actually only making sense to me looking back, is perhaps something that other people will go through and need to go through. And maybe it’s something we can go through together and help each other.
I guess I’ve gone through a grieving process and now I realise that it was pretty damn obvious that I will die, everyone I know will die, any community or culture I could ever contribute to will die out, this human species will die out, and the Earth and everything on it will die – well, that’s just obvious, we all knew that, anyway.
DH: Yes, all of those things were true before the great hydrocarbon episode in humanity’s history. Arriving at that is an important part of the journey of making sense of what it means to be alive right now.
JB: I feel free of some forms of delusion, some forms of social pressure, and I am approaching things with fascination and playfulness. And what I didn’t have over the past few years were fellow travellers and community, and now I’m realising that I do need a community around this very realisation that we’ve been talking about. And what will emerge from that, I don’t know, but there will be love within it, there will be creativity within it, there will be a sense of wonder at being alive at this incredibly strange moment in human history.”
So we’re all going to die along with the rest of nature but we can be ok because aren’t humans great when we hold hands??
Sorry, just really sick of the anthropocentric hubris and hugely ironic positioning of #itstoolate.
Hello Robert. Yes, like the serenity prayer.
My version for the secular world.
May I have the serenity to accept what I cannot change
The courage to change what I can
And the wisdom to know the difference.
We all need the company of those who know how to make others happy, who have enough grace to share that, and do it in such a way that it feels natural and right.
Here we go a negative branding campaign against Maori. There are no story’s about the Maori King gifting land to the Government to build housing for the people who end up in the tentacles of the Justice system. This is a good thing because society changes so fast. It takes a while for people to catch up with the changes like every thing done by computer ECT society labels people as unemployable and if your brown well it is even harder to get a decent job .So having housing to give these people time to readjust to society changes is essential in keeping our people out of the tentacles of the justice system. I don’t see this story the positive story on OUR Maori King all I see is these story’s here is the link to the medias negative branding against Maori.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12022490
Kia kaha to OUR Maori King Ka kite ano P.S I hope theres a caveats on that land that if the use changes the land is returned back to Maori
Marae TV 1 Hutau Petera College kai pai to the the whano fighting to keep it open we need more Maori schools not less to keep OUR Maori culture thriving surely someone can help keep this Catholic Maori school running the main reason that students have dropped at this school is money Maori don’t have enough money to send there mokopunas to this great school. There are many reason that Maori have slid down the income bracket I could name a few . But we need to stick together and look after our own as no one else will do this for us. We have to have OUR mokopunas best future first and foremost in our minds and actions and this means looking after Maori mana the way we behave the way we treat others the way we present our selves in public .We should always know if we do these things respectfully we will be giving our mokopunas mana if we do the opposite we are eroding our mokopunas mana. Its as simple as that please don’t give the negative branders of Maori any amo to use against our mokopunas future . Be proud of our maori culture and your self but don’t act arrogantly as this will damage our mokopunas mana to enough said Kia Kaha Ka kite ano
Hato Petera has been very poorly run for many years, Local Maori youth will get a far better education in either Rosmini or Westlake.
Good fight Josephs you are very worthy of a rematch against Joshua I’m sure they will go for it the punters are calling for a rematch and now they know you are know push over. If you do things right you and your whano will be set for live. Kia Kaha
Ka kite ano
Newshub there you go another fossil that needs to retire his ancient views he dress as if he is a common man for the cameras and on his website he is all flashed up he is just a person who plays with the public’s emotions .
If we let his type win century’s ago we would not even have a telephone now .His type tried to suppress science as science endangered the control of some religions.
Garth Mc idiot whats wrong with that new tec a taser enough said.
Mike thats a beautiful sight of Te Moanga Taranaki There was more crowd support for the Warriors than the Roosters Kia kaha ka kite ano P.S still some flys hanging around I will Ignore them
Newshub Mike the more I examine my whakapapa and the unique places I have been and the experiences I’v had well this is my fate and te kumara never tell how sweet it is ka kite ano. P.S that lawyer I went to see in Hamilton was a employment lawyer I worked for another company that discriminated against me being brown and they under estimated ECO MAORI Ana to kai
would somebody please explain why the police are able to shoot tom kill when they have Tasers ,that were issued to stop the police shooting to kill?
Depends on the distance away I’d imagine? Are all police kitted out with Tasers?
I don’t really know