That’s efficiency folks. Not-for-profit charities concentrate on covering costs so there is a small surplus. Government making a profit from providing necessities to needy citizens is a sort of oxymoron, out of gas.
As appalling as the situation is re children becoming sick and tenants dying, as the result of deteriorating state house conditions, this cartoon is right on the button. Summed up well by Tom Scott.
If Paula Bennet had her way they would be harvesting the mushrooms and making a business of selling them, using their kiwi ingenuity and “turning their lives around” just as she did???? Yeah right
Late in life, Henry became obese, with a waist measurement of 54 inches (140 cm), and had to be moved about with the help of mechanical inventions. He was covered with painful, pus-filled boils and possibly suffered from gout. His obesity and other medical problems can be traced from the jousting accident in 1536, in which he suffered a leg wound. The accident re-opened and aggravated a previous injury he had sustained years earlier, to the extent that his doctors found it difficult to treat. The wound festered for the remainder of his life and became ulcerated, thus preventing him from maintaining the level of physical activity he had previously enjoyed. The jousting accident is also believed to have caused Henry’s mood swings, which may have had a dramatic effect on his personality and temperament.[137][138]
The theory that Henry suffered from syphilis has been dismissed by most historians.[139] A more recent theory suggests that Henry’s medical symptoms are characteristic of untreated type 2 diabetes.[138] Alternatively, his wives’ pattern of pregnancies and his mental deterioration have led some to suggest that the king may have been Kell positive and suffered from McLeod syndrome.[140] According to another study, Henry VIII’s history and body morphology may have been the result of traumatic brain injury after his 1536 jousting accident, which in turn led to a neuroendocrine cause of his obesity. This analysis identifies growth hormone deficiency (GHD) as the source for his increased adiposity but also significant behavioural changes noted in his later years, including his multiple marriages.[141]
I don’t think that Hoots is one for accurate historical knowledge – his chosen profession being to rewrite the past and he’s likely to be one who slept through most of his lessons at school anyway.
For those who don’t know, a while ago well-known political commentator and shitstain Matthew Hooton declared from the comfort of a nice warm studio that today’s beneficiaries have lifestyles and amenities that would be the envy of Henry VIII, by which he meant a typical Renaissance monarch. He was quite aggressive in insisting that this was so.
Lately, since news of the horrible conditions in which Housing NZ “clients” have been enduring, deaths by pneumonia and so on have emerged, he’s been peculiarly silent on the issue.
Maybe he’s going to say that these people are getting sick and dying in strange underwater jousting accidents?
Maybe he’s going to continue to insist that they should be grateful for the conditions that they enjoy?
Maybe Hosking will come along and have something to say about the glass being half full, even if the water is cold, murky and disease-ridden?
“He was quite aggressive in insisting that this was so”
From my experience whenever he’s least convinced that what he’s saying is true (or in this case relevant) he’s most aggressive and forthright. Week after week you can hear him on RadioNZ and when he starts getting in peoples face you can be reasonably sure he’s got his fingers crossed under the table.
Life expectancy was 30 years. Poverty was widespread, disease outbreaks common, living conditions were unsanitary and smelly.
So, in a way, Hooton is right. Life is better than during Henry’s reign. Henry would have been treated for his conditions, his son would have probably survived and the world as we know it would have been different, in ways of which counterfactual history writers can only dream.
But it does not excuse that our life expectancy, living conditions, health and safety are not what they should be in a world so much more advanced in knowledge, wealth, technology and communications.
“But it does not excuse that our life expectancy, living conditions, health and safety are not what they should be in a world so much more advanced in knowledge, wealth, technology and communications.”
Exactly, and yet over and over again the parasites are saying “Be grateful for what you have and admire me for what I have – things could be worse in North Korea/Hell/Venus” It’s smug, disgusting, shows a contempt for everyone else and a philistine contempt for the project of civilisation itself which is to make life better for all.
It’s the ‘admire me for what I have’ which is just so false. The idolising of falsity, Mammon, earthly pleasures and artifacts which is so shallow and pathetic. The lack of recognition of art, spirituality, intellectual excellence, the non-understanding of what it is that makes us human beings special, unique, and capable of so much.
Indeed, the ‘project of civilisation’ is as you state so well. And it is galling that the people who have the power and resources just don’t get that; and worse, stand so belligerently in its way.
It seems that , even though incredibly ill in his later years, Henry VIII still managed to survive nearly twice the contemporaneous life expectancy, thanks to an extraordinarily high standard of state-funded healthcare for the times.
what a great cartoon reminds me of the listner days when scot was king and his cartoons and excellent articles and editorials of a once dynamic magazine socked it to the government on a regular basis, printed on non highgloss paper u could wipe your arse with it or light the fire with it after a damn good read !
I quite agree, the Listener is now a lifestyle magazine and it’s the last straw for me, I am going to cancel my subscription, this week’s issue was full of gardening, cooking and media/film star rubbish. Everything in paper form is boring these days.
There are some things we shouldn’t profit from, housing is one of them.
All the people with a property portfolio, receiving rents for sub standard dwellings will sleep a little sounder.
Waking in their warm dry homes, knowing that housing for the most vulnerable is deliberately kept in a poor condition.
Thus.making their dilapidated investment look
good.
Housing is just another Ponzi scheme designed by those who never have to live there in state housing on a generational basis .
The govt continues to show us how useless they are and actually admitting that they have no real desire to see things improve unless it is in the manner of the free market doctrine of progress, ie the end of socialism .
International research shows that there is a socioeconomic status (or class) gradient, in which those with low SES experience higher morbidity from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, rheumatoid disorders, a number of cancers, psychiatric diseases, dementia and so on.read more ...
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Today is a Member's Day, and its crunch day for David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. But its only third on the Order Paper, and has to wait a bit. First up is the third reading of Kieran McAnulty's ...
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Grant Illingworth QC is concerned that if David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill is enacted, we somehow would be breaching the social contract on which our entire system of law rests.read more ...
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A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 16 through Sat, June 22, 2019 Editor's Pick A Degree of Concern: Why Global Temperatures MatterCredit: NASA-JPL/CaltechPart ...
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Last month, Catalans elected three exiled and jailed pro-independence politicians to the European Parliament. Unfortunately, Spain no longer seems to respect the results of democratic elections, and the Spanish Electoral Commission today declared their seats vacant. The reason? None of ...
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James Robb looks at the systemic issues surrounding the state taking children from their families. A shocking documentary video released last week by Newsroom reporter Melanie Reid, shows the attempts by social workers employed by Oranga Tamariki, the New Zealand state’s child welfare agency, ...
The inquiry into whether the SAS acted illegally during a nighttime raid on a suspected insurgent’s hideout in Afghanistan in 2010 (code named Operation Burnham), which resulted in six civilian deaths and serious wounds to 15 others, is slowly coming ...
The core claims of Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager's Hit & Run are that the New Zealand SAS raided two villages in Afghanistan in search of "insurgents" who weren't there, and in the process killed six civilians including a three-year-old ...
The Original White Supremacists: The current misuse of the term “white supremacy” is highly dangerous politically. By singling out this particular form of racism and misapplying it to famous figures from the past, as well as to people living in ...
One of the major issues which face a democratic nation is the challenge of keeping its bureaucracy accountable and responsive to the public. Over the years a variety of arrangements have developed with this objective.read more ...
Statistics New Zealand is planning to track everyone through their cellphones "for statistical purposes":Stats NZ is partnering with cellphone companies to launch a new way of tracking people's movements every hour. The population density programme will launch next month and ...
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NZ has dethroned GDP as a measure of success, but will Ardern’s government be transformational? When you’re in politics, words are a high-stakes game. Voters and journalists hold you to them and there is a risk in using ...
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If humanity is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, we need to stop burning fossil fuels. Transport is a key emitter, so this means we need to stop using fossil fuelled vehicles. A number of ...
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. . This morning, a little after 4am, Sharlene lost her brave fight against cancer. Rest in peace, Sharlene. You were always one of my brightest stars… . . Advertisements ...
Just Following Orders: None of the awfulness associated with Family Court "Uplift" orders exposed by Melanie Reid and Newsroom would be possible without the active assistance and institutional protection afforded to Oranga Tamariki by the nation’s DHBs. These latter, through ...
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New Zealand needs to decarbonise its electricity supply, while also increasing it to cope with the extra demand from electric vehicles. Wind energy is an obvious solution for this: we have an excellent wind resource, and its cheaper than fossil ...
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Director-General of OPCW Fernando Arias Gonzales admits Douma engineers report was legit and he was part of the FFM – but attempts to justify suppression of the report. France 24 reports that the head of the Organisation for the ...
When teachers demanded more time and more money to do their jobs, Education Minister Chris Hipkins was adamant: there was no more money and they should expect disappointment. No, after a joint strike and facing five weeks of rolling stoppages, ...
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Restaurant Brands Ltd (RBL), is asking staff to authorise the deduction of so-called overpayments from the annual leave money they owe their current and former staff. ...
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The Socialist Equality Group (New Zealand) will hold a rally in Wellington, as part of the global campaign of the International Committee of the Fourth International and the World Socialist Web Site to demand freedom for Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks ...
Sign up now to receive Deloitte’s State of the State 2019 series, written in partnership with Victoria University of Wellington Wellington, 26 June 2019 – Launched today, the Deloitte State of the State New Zealand 2019 series, written in partnership ...
Whanau First new parent advocacy group is calling on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse and the Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft and the Children’s Commission for urgent and immediate intervention into a current situation of abuse ...
A call for a Māori inquiry into child protection agency Oranga Tamariki has been heeded by the North Island’s Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency. A national hui on 13th July 2019 at Ngā Whare Waatea Marae, Māngere will launch the Māori-led ...
The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) joins the growing chorus of those calling for an inquiry into the banks, particularly the Gang of Four big Australian-owned banks that completely dominate the sector (and do very nicely out ...
Public consultation on Medicinal Cannabis is not due until mid-to-late July, after multiple delays in the scheduling. Early OIA requests showed the initial date was planned for the 22nd April, putting the scheme 3 months behind, with 6 months to ...
Today is the beginning of a period known as Matariki, heralded by the sighting of seven stars in the Matariki cluster, which can usually be spotted during atapō (before dawn), north of the constellation Tautoro. ...
The power of Community Housing Aotearoa as a catalyst to drastically increase the supply of adequate, affordable housing for families living in poverty has been recognised by the Peter McKenzie Project of the J R McKenzie Trust. ...
A Palmerston North man has been sentenced after neglecting to provide appropriate and timely health interventions for his pony, which resulted in the pony suffering from chronic, active inflammation laminitis. ...
Today, the widower of Lecretia Seales, Matt Vickers, released a video in support of the End of Life Choice Bill, which is almost certainly up for debate and potentially a vote tomorrow. The Bill is due for its second reading. ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that, following a pursuit in Auckland, a man was dealt with inappropriately and unprofessionally by a Police officer during his arrest. ...
Yesterday's e-scooter death was the result of corrupt and reckless mismanagement by the government and the minister of transport should resign, says the car review website dogandlemon.com . ...
State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes has today announced Dr Caralee McLiesh, PSM, to the position of Secretary to the Treasury and Chief Executive, the Treasury. ...
“Good on the Government for banning smoking in vehicles when there are children inside. We wholeheartedly support this move and we’re pleased Parliament’s dealing with this issue separately to vaping,” says Jonathan Devery, director of Alt New ...
A reduction in construction waste going to landfill is a step closer, following the release of a draft specification recognising good environmental practice in waste management and minimisation. The specification has been developed by the New Zealand ...
The PSA is calling on the Government to pave the way for Fair Pay Agreements, as new research shows they will both reduce inequality and provide a better balanced economy. ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa has welcomed a BERL-authored report released by the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions this morning, which finds that New Zealand’s abandonment of sector bargaining in the 1990s is linked to a decline in wages. ...
The Council of Trade Unions has today released an independent report conducted by economic research company BERL into the validity of sector bargaining. And the findings are clear - there is no economic reason not to implement sector bargaining but ...
New parent advocacy group Whanau First is calling for the resignation of the Chair of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions Sir Anand Satyanand and its Executive Director ...
The bank deposit insurance scheme just announced by government is no more then a licence for banks to create even more money out of thin air than they already do and be less responsible about who they lend it to, ...
Assalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahumatullahi Wa Barakatuh. May the Peace and the Blessing of God be Upon you FIANZ, the voice of New Zealand’s Muslim community since 1979, is opposed to euthanasia and the End of Life Choice Bill. We give ...
New Zealand’s economy has stabilised, with solid growth supporting well-being through jobs and incomes. Ongoing implementation of the government’s new well-being approach to policymaking will offer further opportunities to create a more sustainable and ...
Disability Commissioner Paula Tesoriero outlayed her concerns about the End of Life Choice Bill to John Campbell on TVNZ’s Breakfast yesterday morning . "I'm concerned that the safeguards are woefully inadequate,” she said. “I'm deeply ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says it’s still a moot point as to whether Iran was responsible for planting mines on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. “The more intelligence we see, the more we'll be able to make ...
Members of FIRST Union who work in the banking sector felt vindicated by the FMA and Reserve Bank of New Zealand announcement that all banks had committed to remove sales incentives from frontline staff and their managers. ...
Officials believe a third of all rental homes won't be insulated in time for the deadline next week. However preliminary results from a NZ Property Investors’ Federation (NZPIF) survey show that the real number of properties which are unlikely to ...
David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill passed its second reading in parliament last night by 70 votes to 50. Among a number of heartfelt speeches from all sides of the house on the conscience issue was this, from Willie ...
ACT Party leader David Seymour's member bill that would give terminally ill people the right to choose assisted dying has passed its latest hurdle in Parliament. ...
Clauses in insurance company life and trauma policies bar people with HIV and Aids from cover, or refuse to pay out if HIV is acquired through sexual contact or drug use. ...
Mt Albert is a town at a crossroads. The pressures of growth are set to radically reshape the area, but so far change has left some of its residents and business owners pining for the past. Hayden Donnell travels to ...
Alex Casey chats to a group of 16 year-olds about the pressures of Instagram, weird men in the DMs, and their multiple online identities. “I’m planning on getting it,” says Neha. “Just my breasts. They’re just too small. It doesn’t look ...
In this bonus episode of The Offspin podcast, Simon Day takes a walk around Eden Park with one of the most unlikely legends of New Zealand sporting history.He probably shouldn’t have even been there. In the year before the 2015 ...
The gap between lectures and exams is often a crucial time for students to regroup and prepare for the oncoming exam storm. So it’s understandable that a proposal by Victoria University of Wellington to remove it is causing a stir.Faced ...
Peter Dunne concludes that the major reason this reshuffle has taken so long to finalise is because of the PM’s distaste for that side of politics. ...
Twenty-seven years ago, Trevor McKewen’s book about New Zealand rugby heroes celebrated a stoic, machismo national character. Recently his daughter asked him: would you want your grandsons to read that?I had always wanted to write a book. For a lot ...
Dairy technology company GEA Milfos has been ordered by the High Court in Auckland to pay $825,000 after admitting to a charge of price-fixing with a competitor, Dairy Automation Limited. ...
The red, yellow, and black trikes are everywhere. But where did they come from and how did they get here? Madeleine Chapman investigates.Walk past any daycare centre or kindy in New Zealand and you’ll hear the sound of plastic wheels ...
About as far as you can get from Aotearoa’s rural heartland, a new breed of farmers are rethinking the way we grow. At the heart of that shitshow of an Auckland city confluence where Symonds St, New North Rd, Khyber Pass ...
A Victoria University report is proposing extending the parliamentary term to four years, and increasing the number of MPs, so politicians can plan better for the future. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentNational Party Richard Harman (Politik): Bridges shores up his ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Astell-Burt, Professor of Population Health and Environmental Data Science, NHMRC Boosting Dementia Research Leadership Fellow, University of Wollongong People who live in regional or remote areas may be at lower risk ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Jarvis, Senior Lecturer in Education, Flinders University Less than half (38%) of Australian teachers feel prepared to teach students with special needs when they finish their formal training. This is despite ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Lawson, Honorary Associate Professor, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University Australia will need another 730,000 social housing dwellings in 20 years if it is to tackle homelessness and housing stress among ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Dinale, PhD Candidate, University of Sydney The traditional understanding of women’s economic empowerment is that, as participation in paid employment increases, fertility decreases. This was certainly true in industrialised nations up ...
Video: National leader Simon Bridges has reshuffled his caucus after senior MP Amy Adams relinquished her portfolios. He talks to Morning Report about the new line-up. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition:Some win, some lose from National reshuffle, End of Life choice bill facing crucial vote tonight, and Luxon-ad supporter lobbies against predatory lending controls.In any reshuffle, for someone to move ...
As a result of giving ourselves too much private space, New Zealanders are missing out on the benefit of communal public space, writes Dr Rebecca Kiddle. ...
Hong Kong protesters and the Court of Appeal in NZ have something in common, writes Ling Yee Wong. They both don't trust the Chinese justice system. ...
1000 Words is a Spinoff series talking to the photographers behind our most iconic political images. In this instalment, Don Rowe speaks to David White, the photographer who shot Colin Craig. Following a failed attempt at the Auckland mayoralty in 2010, ...
A new list of prioritised research for infertility topics shines a light on the areas where a real difference can be made. For too long people confronting infertility have been overlooked in those decisions, writes Cindy Farquhar, fertility expert and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The attitudes of Australians towards China have soured dramatically in the past year, according to the Lowy Institute’s annual poll released on Wednesday. Only 32% ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison will warn of the danger of any further escalation in US-China tensions and declare Australia won’t let its relations with China be dominated ...
By RNZ Pacific French Polynesia’s former president, Gaston Flosse, and 12 others have been ordered to jointly repay millions of francs they misspent on so-called phantom jobs. In 2013, the group was found to have funded a vast network ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Wood, Associate Professor, Discipline of Childhood and Adolescent Health, University of Sydney This year, we’ve seen a resurgence of measles around the globe. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recorded more than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Thompson, Coordinator of Studies: Systematic Theology, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity For many Christians, Israel Folau has become the talisman in the fight for religious freedom. This week, some Australian ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland Martyn Iles, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, dodged the question this week when asked by Lisa ...
Art history tells us a lot about the present moment through its interpretation of the past. In historicising the work of bygone artists, it reveals changing attitudes and contemporary concerns, writes Emma Ng.This year Wellington is host to three exhibitions ...
Marian Keyes is a stone-cold legend: terrifically funny and emotionally intelligent, and never afraid of the dark. She deserves all the prizes. In lieu of that, here’s a heartfelt piece by Scarlett Cayford, who grew up steeped in Keyes’ stories ...
Consumers are being warned that some exotic mushrooms being sold in supermarkets and high-end restaurants as 'New Zealand grown' are being actually imported from China, a local grower says. ...
Tom Scott on housing 
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Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.
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As a result of giving ourselves too much private space, New Zealanders are missing out on the benefit of communal public space, writes Dr Rebecca Kiddle. ...23 hours ago
Hong Kong protesters and the Court of Appeal in NZ have something in common, writes Ling Yee Wong. They both don't trust the Chinese justice system. ...23 hours ago
1000 Words is a Spinoff series talking to the photographers behind our most iconic political images. In this instalment, Don Rowe speaks to David White, the photographer who shot Colin Craig. Following a failed attempt at the Auckland mayoralty in 2010, ...23 hours ago
Research backs a move towards organised sector bargaining, saying NZ has 'nothing to fear'. ...1 day ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland Martyn Iles, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, dodged the question this week when asked by Lisa ...1 day ago
Parliament is too small, and committees too poorly resourced, to properly hold the Government to account, review says. ...1 day ago
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Consumers are being warned that some exotic mushrooms being sold in supermarkets and high-end restaurants as 'New Zealand grown' are being actually imported from China, a local grower says. ...2 days ago
Who is the guy on the left?
A tenant that pays the rent s my guess.
That’s efficiency folks. Not-for-profit charities concentrate on covering costs so there is a small surplus. Government making a profit from providing necessities to needy citizens is a sort of oxymoron, out of gas.
As appalling as the situation is re children becoming sick and tenants dying, as the result of deteriorating state house conditions, this cartoon is right on the button. Summed up well by Tom Scott.
If Paula Bennet had her way they would be harvesting the mushrooms and making a business of selling them, using their kiwi ingenuity and “turning their lives around” just as she did???? Yeah right
Still waiting for Hoots to say again that this is a lifestyle that Henry VIII would have envied.
…crickets…
Henry VIII died at the age of 55 (ie a year younger than I am now)
This is a pretty accurate analysis of his life over the last decade. Any takers for the life of Henry Tudor Jnr?
I don’t think that Hoots is one for accurate historical knowledge – his chosen profession being to rewrite the past and he’s likely to be one who slept through most of his lessons at school anyway.
For those who don’t know, a while ago well-known political commentator and shitstain Matthew Hooton declared from the comfort of a nice warm studio that today’s beneficiaries have lifestyles and amenities that would be the envy of Henry VIII, by which he meant a typical Renaissance monarch. He was quite aggressive in insisting that this was so.
Lately, since news of the horrible conditions in which Housing NZ “clients” have been enduring, deaths by pneumonia and so on have emerged, he’s been peculiarly silent on the issue.
Maybe he’s going to say that these people are getting sick and dying in strange underwater jousting accidents?
Maybe he’s going to continue to insist that they should be grateful for the conditions that they enjoy?
Maybe Hosking will come along and have something to say about the glass being half full, even if the water is cold, murky and disease-ridden?
“He was quite aggressive in insisting that this was so”
From my experience whenever he’s least convinced that what he’s saying is true (or in this case relevant) he’s most aggressive and forthright. Week after week you can hear him on RadioNZ and when he starts getting in peoples face you can be reasonably sure he’s got his fingers crossed under the table.
So what were the conditions of Henry VIII’s time?
Life expectancy was 30 years. Poverty was widespread, disease outbreaks common, living conditions were unsanitary and smelly.
So, in a way, Hooton is right. Life is better than during Henry’s reign. Henry would have been treated for his conditions, his son would have probably survived and the world as we know it would have been different, in ways of which counterfactual history writers can only dream.
But it does not excuse that our life expectancy, living conditions, health and safety are not what they should be in a world so much more advanced in knowledge, wealth, technology and communications.
“But it does not excuse that our life expectancy, living conditions, health and safety are not what they should be in a world so much more advanced in knowledge, wealth, technology and communications.”
Exactly, and yet over and over again the parasites are saying “Be grateful for what you have and admire me for what I have – things could be worse in North Korea/Hell/Venus” It’s smug, disgusting, shows a contempt for everyone else and a philistine contempt for the project of civilisation itself which is to make life better for all.
It’s the ‘admire me for what I have’ which is just so false. The idolising of falsity, Mammon, earthly pleasures and artifacts which is so shallow and pathetic. The lack of recognition of art, spirituality, intellectual excellence, the non-understanding of what it is that makes us human beings special, unique, and capable of so much.
Indeed, the ‘project of civilisation’ is as you state so well. And it is galling that the people who have the power and resources just don’t get that; and worse, stand so belligerently in its way.
So.
It seems that , even though incredibly ill in his later years, Henry VIII still managed to survive nearly twice the contemporaneous life expectancy, thanks to an extraordinarily high standard of state-funded healthcare for the times.
Personally I think Henry’s problems were genetic…and still it goes on.
what a great cartoon reminds me of the listner days when scot was king and his cartoons and excellent articles and editorials of a once dynamic magazine socked it to the government on a regular basis, printed on non highgloss paper u could wipe your arse with it or light the fire with it after a damn good read !
I quite agree, the Listener is now a lifestyle magazine and it’s the last straw for me, I am going to cancel my subscription, this week’s issue was full of gardening, cooking and media/film star rubbish. Everything in paper form is boring these days.
There are some things we shouldn’t profit from, housing is one of them.
All the people with a property portfolio, receiving rents for sub standard dwellings will sleep a little sounder.
Waking in their warm dry homes, knowing that housing for the most vulnerable is deliberately kept in a poor condition.
Thus.making their dilapidated investment look
good.
This Housing NZ situation is the most appalling indictment on our society.
bar none
But at least the South Canterbury Finance investors got their shoddy investment back eh
At least Rio Tinto could keep going eh
At least the farmers got their $400m irrigation money eh
At least Warner Bros got their deal eh
At least more money was able to be given to private schools eh
At least the highest income earners got a tax break eh
. . . .
We should all be embarrassed to the high heavens. The fact we are not is a further indictment on our society and how it is structured.
Hopeless. Lazy evil.
Housing is just another Ponzi scheme designed by those who never have to live there in state housing on a generational basis .
The govt continues to show us how useless they are and actually admitting that they have no real desire to see things improve unless it is in the manner of the free market doctrine of progress, ie the end of socialism .
The state housing experiment is a total failure.
WHY?
It has distracted needy people from being housed, (a basic function of the state housing system).
90 million will make no difference to a handfull of near term women living rough on Auckland streets who are due to give birth in several weeks.