Sunday, May 31, 2015

Supreme Arrogance

I don't think I've seen anything as cringe-worthy for a long long time as Material Turei having herself described as 'the senior female politician in opposition.'

As David Farrar rightly points out, Annette King might have something to say about that.  Of course if the useless Greens Co-Leader is still around in ten years time when King finally retires, she'll still be in opposition but for what purpose will be an eternal mystery.

As for her comments about her party's 'stellar' performance she's a bit like the bloke booming up the qualities of traction engines for farmers, a few years after the first diesel tractor appeared on the scene.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Friday's Fulminations



Visitors might consider the wisdom of using moderate language.



Thursday, May 28, 2015

Wouldn't You Think They Could See It Coming?

The Labour Party that is.

Over recent days Andrew Little has made a bit of a dick of himself over superannuation.  First he proudly announced that Labour would review the eligibility for Gummint superannuation with view to restricting entry.  Winston Peters whispered in his ear that this was a piss poor idea and Little immediately backed down.

They've handed John key the next policy he can steal from Labour.

In recent comment threads here and elsewhere a number of idiots have bleated that means testing super is horrendously expensive and non productive.  Mr Key may also have hinted as much.  That was the sucker punch.  I can assure readers that my age pension is means tested in Australia and it is a laughably inexpensive and simple process.

I'm required to go online and report each fortnight my earned income for the period.  A friendly computer programme calculates the amount by which my income will reduce my pension.  For those who like detail, the first $500 is given a free run and after that every dollar earned reduces the pension by 25c.

It's just so  simple.  If I make $60k per year I don't get the pension.  What could be fairer?

So I predict now that Little has been suckered into kicking a vote winner into touch, Mr Key will shortly announce the means testing of the age pension to ensue that rich bastards like Bob Jones and Helen Clark don't get fat on the taxes of dinkum Kiwi Battlers.  You see, he only ever promised to leave the age of eligibility alone.

The Gnats will easily win a forth term and Mr key will retire half way through, leaving the caucus to elect Judith Collins as its next leader.

Funny as a fight.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Where The Lords Test Was Lost

I have been working the last two nights so listened to Mondays second innings debacle on Radio Sport and I have not seen any of the dismissals on TV. Listening to Talk Back hosts and callers on Radio Sport last night not one of them hit on where the test was actually lost. You have to go back to the start of day three for that. NZ were 303 (or thereabouts) for 2 with Williamson and Taylor well established at the crease - an opportunity to bat us into an invincible position. I was expecting the test match doctrine of bat once and bat them out of the game to apply - especially in view of the 270 overs still to go in the match. A score of 600 should have been a minimum and ideally 650 plus which would have seen a lead about 260 - even if we had to bat until lunch on the fourth day. Instead we had two strangles down the legside - Taylor and Anderson - and two dumb shots - McCullum and Southee - especially given the state of the game. These soft dismissals were compounded by Williamson getting bogged down once he got to 100 and only Watling came out of the days play with any credit. While 523 is a good score in the context of this game a lead of only 130 odd was a poor outcome and we finished day three pretty much on level terms which was an unsatisfactory position. In the England second innings Cook showed how winning test cricket should be played and why at his best he is along with Amla and Williamson one of the best test batsmen around. Stokes took advantage of some uncharacteristically loose bowling, especially from Southee who it appears may have lost the plot. In fact of the bowlers only Boult came out of the fourth days play with any credit at all after the first hour. Once the game turned and England were given a sniff of a chance any long term follower of New Zealand cricket would have been sensing the sort of outcome that we ended up with. The most disappointing aspect being the inability of the team to put their heads down and bat time - only Watling did this. I will be looking for a big improvement in this area during the second test as well as a better test bowling effort especially from Southee and Craig who both must be prepared to bowl longer spells including containment when necessary.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Michael Cheika Takes Rugby Back To Mindless Violence!

Many of those of us old enough to understand, still glory in what Kevin Skinner did to Japie Becker and Chris Koch in 1956.
With no TV replays,  referees who struggled to either understand or appreciate the dark arts of close contact areas of Rugby,  had no idea what the two Saffa  bully boys  were doing to the All Black front row as they dominated scrums in the first two tests, suffice to say Bekker and Koch were just being dominant. After they gave grief to the NZ scrum  in the first two tests Kevin Skinner was brought back from retirement to try and even things up and he did just that. Yes Skinner was the NZ heavy weight boxing champ but he also with his attitude and demeanour and his very skilled fists,  had the two SA props subdued in minutes. Chris Koch was felled, knocked out with a big punch missed by the referee but the impact was heard many meters back in the crowd, then KS went to the other side of the front row and sorted Bekker.

Richard Low was the last NZ prop to attempt to bring violence to the table and eventually even he worked out that thuggery and violence were no answer and should you meet Richard Low today you could be forgiven for wondering if you just encountered his brother.

What Cheika is defending Skelton and Latu for doing to Sam Whitelock in Sydney on Saturday night, an incident that was potentially career ending for the Crusaders Lock, was far more serious than Cheika's dismissive defence implies. In scrappy play Whitelock ended up standing with the ball after the whistle had blown only to be picked up and spear tackled by the two Cheika bovver boys and had Sam not been able to get his arms free to  break his fall he could have joined League stars Jarrod McCracken and Alex McKinnon with a career ending spinal injury. Not so bad for McCracken he can  still walk after Kearney's effort but the freak accident suffered has McKinnon in a wheel chair and contemplating suing the ARL.
It was unforgivable and an unnecessary move to violence as an intimidation tactic and has no place in modern rugby, I note Whitelock is missing next week with concussion issues, no surprise there.
Rugby will always have such  things occur in the heat of battle but it is difficult to find an Irishman who thinks Tana Umaga and Kevin Mealamu  innocent after they injured the Irish star and skipper  Brian O'Driscoll in Lions 2005 who suffered a similar assault, the big difference being that was a tackle badly executed in play but such finer points disappear rapidly when the outcome is career ending. Cheika's thugs being defended  by him and handed pathetic stand-downs that are to be appealed all happened after the eighth match in charge referee, had blown his whistle for a restart.
Just to illustrate the ludicrous mind gymnastics of the Waratah coach who in his defence of Skelton, Cheika claims it is hard for him with  his 2m plus frame to tackle low. Hoy you numpty the big thug had Sam grasped around his chest it was thug number  two who lifted the legs and it was all taking place seconds after the ref blew his freakin whistle.

Of course in earlier times Mr Latu would have had his face altered and possibly might have needed the services of an orthodontist and Mr Skelton would have been limping around as a spare wing/fullback in the days when no substitutes were allowed from the efforts of a Kevin Skinner,  a  Frank Oliver, a Mark Shaw or any of the other enforcers that were an integral part of rugby. Now we have moved to a more civilised era where Video replays and judiciary hearings have replaced the enforcers but it would seem that Mr Cheika has a different take on such niceties.
Of course Mr Latu also committed the now unforgivable error of taking a poke at Wyatt Crocket in the resulting melee, add in the no arms cleanout of McCaw from behind plus the unique tackling style of Fijiian winger Naiyaravovo,  and the tactical nous of Mr Cheika soon to take over the Wallabies is revealed as not very nice.

Footnote as to how serious the old retribution tactics could be very severe and not fair, All Black Lock in that memorable 1956 third test at Lancaster Park where moi was a spectator, Tiny White, scored a try but his career was ended in the fourth test at Eden Park when he was kicked in the spine while prone on the ground when a Saffa mistook him for Kevin Skinner who by then was probably the most hated All Black ever, in the eyes of the Boers.

If the ARU think Michael Cheika is the way forward then just watch how the more enlightened ARL and Football Australia continue to leave the fourth ranked footy code languishing in their benighted current state of idiocy over thugs being thugs.

Disclaimer, My attitude to mindless violence has no connection to my being ordered off for punching an opposition player  'Zombie', who gave a rabbit punch to one of my teammates, 'Scone',  while he was helpless and bound in a ruck c1961, that was well worth the walk of shame.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Chook chook chook, c'mon chooks, Morgan says Stupid Andy.

Gifting Northland to Winston has chickens coming home for the Little Bantam.

Free Range Egg available!

Then they made him the yard rooster!

Is that the ISIS symbol?

Next week "feather duster"?

feather duster on white door Stock Photo - 21055367 

Tonight Roy Morgan delivered cold shoulder to Angry for his Monday night dinner.

National 54% support party Maori two seats, Act One seat and Dunne One seat,  their Margin of error share means little.

NZLP 25.5%, Melons 10.5%,  The new MP for Northland very happy to have his seat as he heads towards needing it, down to 6%.

Government 56% opposition 42%, bloody cold for a BBQ eh Robbo.

OK one poll and its along way to 2017, plenty of time for the National party to keep doing their absolute very best to end the dream only to be foiled by an opposition on a hill bereft of grass and very muddy that with recent rains has them sliding toward the abyss.

After Seymour's Budget speech there must be a chance to expand the territory to the right of Key as he dives deeper into the middle pool.
Does Craig see the situation with his hopes and dreams still lolling on the grassy knoll.

Oh that poll was taken in the leadup to the budget so where to now.

Sunday, May 24, 2015


Many of you will have read the column by Judith Collins in the SST where she urges consideration be given to the repatriation of the remains of servicemen who were killed in action or died on duty overseas post 31 December 1947 being the close-off date for interment in a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery.

Some background.   The Charter of the CWGC forbids the repatriation of remains from CWGC cemeteries.   This policy covers all NZ personnel who died in WW1 and WW2 as well as twelve J-Force personnel who died in Japan.    There are 35 personnel killed in the Korean War buried in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Pusan (UNMCK); 30 in Malaysia in a combination of military and civilian cemeteries and 2 in Singapore.    For all intents and purposes UNMCK has the status of a CWGC cemetery.   It is a national shrine and a permanent reminder to young South Koreans of the part played by New Zealand in the liberation of their country.    I suspect the governments of both New Zealand and Korea would be opposed to any attempt to repatriate these remains.

The situation in Malayia is different.    Sixteen soldiers (including 7 KIA in Vietnam) are buried in the British Military Cemetery at Terendak, Melaka (Malacca) which is also the resting place of Australian, Major Peter Badcoe VC, killed-in-action in Vietnam.    This cemetery is maintained by the British Government with assistance from the CWGC.    I have visited it a number of times.  It is clean and well maintained.   It is a restful place.    The remaining sixteen are interred in either the Kaumunting Road Christian Cemetery in Taiping or the Cheras Road Christian Cemetery in Kuala Lumpur.   These latter two cemeteries are not maintained to anywhere near the standard found in a CWGC cemetery or the British Military Cemetery in Terendak.

There are a further two interred in the CWGC cemetery in Kranji, Singapore.   As they were killed in 1954 and 1961 respectively it is not known how or why they managed to be interred at Kranji.  CWGC policy would forbid their repatriation..

There have over the years been requests from families of those interred in Malaysia to bring the bodies home.   These requests have been declined.   The last attempt was in 2007.  I have in my possession Cabinet Policy Committee Paper POL Min (07) 21/19 dated 12 September where the Clark Labour Government declined a request from families of servicemen buried in Terendak citing particularly the opposition by RNZRSA to the move.   It is the long standing policy of RNZRSA to oppose any move towards the repatriation of remains from overseas.

My understanding is that RNZRSA has now reversed its position.

I am of the view that the families of servicemen buried in the Kaumunting Road Christian Cemetery and the Cheras Road Christian cemetery should be offered the option of repatriation of their remains back to New Zealand and their re-internment at public expense.

The personnel in question in Taiping are:

Private George Amas
Private Robert Breitmeyer
Lance Corporal Percy Brown (aka Iwihora)
Private Bruce Hay
Private Tu Kawha
Private Toma Solia
Private Brian Tuxworth

and in Kuala Lumpur:

Corporal Allister Buchanan
Flying Officer William Devescovi
Private Michael Dunn
Flying Officer Douglas Nelson
Captain Lawrence Shannon
Trooper Adrian Thomas
Squadron Leader Alexander Tie

I do not support the repatriation of those interred in the British Military Cemetery at Terendak.   The cemetery is well cared for.   They lie among their colleagues.   Let them rest in peace.   I do however acknowledge the views of those who would say that it would be inequitable to discriminate against them in relation to the other fourteen.    I will concede it is a moot point.

The bottom line for me is that they deserve to 'rest' in a respectful and well maintained place.   Certainly the Taiping and KL cemeteries do not meet this standard.

I congratulate Judith Collins for being prepared to champion the call.  

I Thought He Had More Brains

John Roughan, that is.

Today he squanders a billion words lamenting the arrival of a capital  gains tax last week 'without any fanfare."

If they dig up this week's news they will see little sense of the significance of last Sunday's announcement of a capital gains tax.

Well Mr Roughan that's probably because the people you thought would kick up bobsie dye have more brains than you do.  They know it is not a new tax, just a change to the rules surrounding an old tax that has been with us for decades.

I guess what he's really saying is the media's campaign to create a cause celebre has failed - yet again.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Well It Interests Me Anyway.

This man wants to be Australian Prime Minister but he is flawed.

Pics from the Pickering Post

As more and more Australians work out that ex union thug Wee Willie Shortone is not the real deal and his star wanes, he is becoming a sniggering stock.

Both the philandering ex union boss and his missus Chloe are in urgent need of some wardrobe advice, then  Bill needs to convert those Moobs into pecs and while he is doing that get some muscle development of his little girl shoulders.

It is one thing to pick up a phone and get some heavies to give an almost life ending bash to an ex union colleague who refused to take the safe federal seat of Melton as a sweetener for silence, then while that poor bugger is languishing in hospital and rehab,  take that plum for your self.
When the opponent blocking  progress is variously pictured wearing budgie smugglers at the life saving photo opp, getting of his bike after a long ride with mates or scrambling to the top of Red Hill above the Federal Parliament and always in the picture of health for a fifty something who  has done a 'Lazarus" and understands what working up a sweat actually involves, changes are needed.

Tony Abbott who almost every journo in Aus had dead and only the funeral was undecided, has, by using every political skill he has accumulated to overcome a pack of newshounds with the scent of  blood in their nostrils regurgitating how he, Abbott, a committed Catholic, who had set out on track for the priesthood, once punched a hole in a wall as a student, gained the leadership of the Liberals by one vote over a 'Lib' in the wrong party Malcolm Turnbull, continually portrayed in an antagonistic media as a Misogynist, and most damning of all tossed the socialist luvvies out on their sorry arses.
He doesn't overcome all that crap by rolling over.
As Abbotts star slowly rises Bill Shorten's is sinking towards the horizon. What will prolong his inexorable political demise are the very restrictive rules that KRudd imposed for ALP leadership 'spills' after he finally sent Gillard to the knackers for taking his job off  him three years earlier and decided that was beyond the Pale, so with the help of the union enablers of the ALP set out to prevent such a thing happening again. In a union controlled party it is almost mandated Shorten must resign to be unseated and that folks aint about to occur anytime soon.

The mendacious prick is so increasingly arrogant and superficial, images that are so destructive and increasingly being published are of no moment but the tide is turning, I recall how when Juliar Gillard was the media's icon she was never portrayed from her waist down that has a monumentally large arse dominating the scene but as her image became increasingly tarnished camera angles slipped lower, similar with KRudd whose volcanic temper eruptions were suppressed but when blood was smelt they also became more widely published.

Why do I post on such matters, well folks they are our neighbours and not knowing how others in your street conduct themselves can come back and bite you, The West Island is more like family than neighbour and when they get sick as the are right now it is useful to try and understand and empathise.

Gold Medal Rio 2016 put the farm on it.

Went over to the Abyss to see how the dopy left were coping with Nationals most cunning operator since Muldoon fooled so many all those years ago to be greeted with the most amazing floor exercise in years of world gymnastic excellence.

Forget the lefty budget of Simon Says the venomous attack leading TDB was a protest that a public company management had taken steps to protect their Shareholder investment and dared to kill off a money losing TV show
Almost maniacal lefty Martin Martyn Bradbury protesting capitalism with messianic fervor since for ever, now protesting a capitalistic icon in NZ Media Works, now owned by Ironbridge Investments Australia, for ending a capitalist icon of Japan,  Mazda  sponsored tv reality show, Campbell Live. So suddenly capitalists have offended socialists and that has to change' meanwhile he  ignored the elephant in the market place, Red Radio NZ an acknowledged  haven for socialist sympathy driven journalists (advisedly),  funded entirely by poor bloody taxpayers.

When did the last hope for broadcast socialist dogma  lie solely with a free market aberration that has the lefties so exercised, or is it dawning that the whining carping of the moronic left is being ignored for now by too many.

Hello Martin Muppet, if a voice for the left is so important then take some of the ill-gotten gains of the unions that get burnt, year in year out on the moribund fossilised NZLP and start up a socialist radio network, instead of whining about freemarket operators who on discovering it is a losing proposition see the light and give idealogical  money losing socialist supporting media the DCM.

Bradbury's confusion has somersaults, back flips and whirling spins that would win a medal anywhere.
Do love them, hate them or do you just want them to do your bidding, sorry that is not how it works.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Congratulations Mike Hosking But

Newstalk ZB Morning host,  Monday through Friday 0600 until 0830, last night won The Paul Holmes trophy for Broadcaster of the Year at the  Annual Radio Awards.

Red Rad(io) does not enter as a commercial entity and I understand they also proscribe their on air people entering as individuals.

So Mike, well done, now take a long look at what constituted the competition, in a few words it was not much.
In the absence of a credible opposition in the Parliament, from what I observed from the Budget reply debate yesterday, it falls to media people such as Hosking to analyse, examine and question all the politicians on their policies promised and delivered. I think it was Whaleoil that published this morning, an off air extract of The Nation not meant for publication, where Lisa Owen welcomed Grant Robertson to an upcoming segment and it was all about allowing The Opposition finance Spokesperson,  to line up what he wanted to be asked on air about the Budget.
So it was nothing to do with Owen acting as an independent interviewer acting on behalf of her 'adoring', viewing public. No it was all about enabling the  amoeba in the spineless labour caucus to frame the interview. The revelation was also revealing in what 'Robbo' had actually gleaned from the Simon Says  Budget as points to attack.

So might I humbly suggest to the 2015 award winning broadcaster that he spend some time reviewing his performance and attempt to discover ways that he might explore, to confront the agenda driven employees of NZ Inc to challenge their rose tinted glasses view and perhaps get them to reveal things they do not want exposed to sunlight. Of course if they avoid such scrutiny have a look at some offshore efforts where they just ignore such contrived absence and ask the questions of an empty chair and inform the viewers as to what is already in the public record.

For gods sake you have been described as the 'forth estate', stop being the public relations department of the various pollies and do the duty we the mushrooms need to have pursued on our behalf so as to be able to make informed choices, come election time.
It is an onerous duty and democracy needs it performed if it is to survive.

Hypocrisy Writ Large! Weapons Grade Actually.

Stuff reports "Abbott Blasted Over Refugees" after the Aus PM flatly rejected a suggestion that his country, after ending the very costly, in money and human lives, people smuggling that  his predessors blatanty enabled and then milked for political advantage mercilessly, on the very real understanding that such a response only enables, encourages and facilitates the ghastly trade in human misery indulged in by 'people smugglers'

Your country is a signatory to the UN Treaty on refugees his accusors screamed.

One small problem with all that, Tony's accusors  were led by the Indonesian Foreign Minister from the nation that throughout the KRudd/Gillard years enabled that manipulative disregard for human rights to continue,  but wait there is more. Indonesia is the most populous Islamic nation in the world while the  poor bastards dieing in  the rotton hulks off Burma, fellow Muslims and being refused sanctuary in that corrupt nation with its professed national  religion of Islam,  being so vocal in condeming Tony Abbott, Indonesia is not a signatory to that UN Treaty.

Friday's Fulminations



Visitors might consider the wisdom of using moderate language.



Thursday, May 21, 2015

Tax? Levy? Fee? What Is In A Name?

One of the minor items in Simon Says today, sees a $16 fee for inbound tourists and a $6 impost on outbound. The costs of increasing requirements at our air ports will be in part met from this user pays surcharge. Fly you pay Stay home and you don't pay, seems fair enough and yes I know it wont stop at $22 pp to travel.
One airhead media person, looking as always for the negative, bemoans the extra hundy for Mum Dad and their spawn to go to the Gold Coast gee that means a few less ghastly Aussie beers,  they will be better off just say Thankyou.
Of course anyone who has watched one of the many reality TV exposes on border control will have an insight into the excrement our Biosecurity and Immigration people have to endure from all the halfwits who pretend ignorance.

On another matter Simon Says enough on the Two Billion, I and others have been paying to  subsidise rich kids and smart citizens who joined up for Kiwisaver as a kickstart to savings. Savings my arse it was OPMs and it generated bugger all change to our reliance on the state to provide everything. One bit of good news the Ball is Over and the half Billion saved over the next five years will contribute to the relief of Poverty sorry hardship. However so long as we define the poverty level at 60% of the median income it will never make a blind bit of difference in fact it will be peeing into a strong wind.

The only truly bright spot in an afternoon I will never get back was watching the NZLP temporary leader and current poet laureate descend further into political oblivion with a clear entry for the worst ever budget reply speech. In 20 minutes of pathos and ongoing embarrassment that even managed to have his colleagues squirming and wishing they were somewhere else, Angry merely confirmed  the Old Aged Pensioner from St Marys Bay is the true Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Hell he succeeded to make Material Girl almost a credible option and that is no mean feat.

My big regret and sadness comes with the tinkering around WWF that enmeshes so many more working folk in the net that is NZ welfare.
I hope for the day someone with cojones of a Roger Douglas ends this taxpayer top up of our basic wage structures, even a hint they might address it sometime in the future as it sends so many wrong signals to a swath of our commercial enterprise would be great.

There Is A Very Good Reason For That Figure.

in fact more than one!

In a reasonably constructed and delivered Leaders reply to Simon Says Budget, the recently elected Member for Northland focussed on neglect of the regions, quoting the 9.9 umemployment figure as evidence of Nationals neglect in his adopted homeland

Very sorry other little man but should you conduct a survey of a randomly selected  thousand of those without a job what be the number amongst that sample who would fail a drug test so necessary to be accepted for so many jobs today and in particular in those on offer in his new homeland involving forestry, driving and other machinery, health and safety if you will.
I wonder with the raising of benefit payments if such a poor outcome will only be exacerbated.

The latest rate of job seekers has dipped below 6% and here in The City of the Damned it is still above 5% with nearly 20 thousand apparently unable to find work. Meanwhile there is enormous opportunity and a visit to a supermarket quickly reveals a real influx of young people clearly here and working, Irish, East Europeans,  Asians  and they all seem by appearance and dress to be working.
So Mr man for all seasons what are the 18800 quoted in the latest figures I can find, on jobless here in Canterbury actually doing.
OK say 2% between jobs but with stand down rules that will be generous, and accepting that with fair and generous rules allowing those with a valid reason to be taking early tirement as sick, disabled and mentally unfit, that leaves remaining a large pool of bodies and more than enough tasks offering a job for them.
It becomes hard to remain charitable and accept they cannot find a job Mr mfas, it is much easier and reasonable to wonder if they have chosen 'workshy'  as a role in society.

Dean Moves Offshore

Barker San to skipper for Japan in Americas Cup.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

John Banks acquitted

I have always been confident John Banks was not liable for filing a false return.  And it's incredible beyond words how it ever got to where it did.

I have congratulated him, and his QC, and will sleep well tonight, as I am sure they will.

Now for the final act: The repeal of the legislation that allows private prosecutions.

The Dwarf Trifecta

Word has it UK Labour are about to anoint a new leader, one Harry Small.  Nevr heard of him.

Thus will Labour achieve the hitherto unattainable trifecta of world politics.

The Dwarf Trifecta.

NZ has Little, Australia has Shorten and now the dozy Poms appear to be putting up Small.

Can you just see the pommy tabloid headlines?

Upon his elevation:

Head and Shoulders Below Everyone Else

Upon a favourable opinion poll:

Small Rises

Upon an unfavourable opinion poll:

Small Stalls

Chatting with party conference delegates:

Small Talk

Upon missing underwear (remember Malcolm Fraser?)

Small's Smalls

With the party executive;

Small Minds

Upon a front bench reshuffle

Small Reforms

Upon his ouster;

Small Falls


for focusing on the things that really matter to Mr & Mrs Average New Zealander with their call for gender changing surgery (assessed to cost in the order of $70,000+) to be made available as of right and free of charge .    You can view the report here

No matter that Party Leader whatshisname said "its not a matter I've given a great deal of thought to".    No matter that a Party insider said the issue was a real distraction.   No matter that Stuart Nash, one of the few shining lights in the Parliamentary Labour Party, slammed the proposal and voted against it ... the damage is done.

Yet again is Labour exposed as controlled by activists who have no idea of the aims and aspirations of middle New Zealand.

And long may it continue.

Second Thoughts, Forget The Healthy Dairy Option


Went over to Whaloil and saw this "Face that sank a thousand dairies".

On that basis forget my suggestion to convert a dairy to an approved outlet, that image would struggle to sell cold beer to dehydrated navvies in a very dimly lit bar.

First up Ms Peters Tell Us The Compensation !

 Auckland Regional Public Health Service s'poke into every ones business' person is railing against "Dairys" and their location.
Now I rarely go near one as their product is poor value, due to supply costs that see the operators buying specials in bulk at the major supermarkets, it is indeed, only as a last resort.  Such an event became a diary entry yesterday as we wended our way home and SWMBO wanted an icecream in a cone, but very much an exception.
However as a sheer convenience for some of the more mobility restrained amongst us, the 'Local Dairy' is gods gift. That they follow good marketing protocols is merely a necessity and sweets, sugary drinks, chippies and other foods loathed and hated by the "food Nazis" will be a big part of turnover.
Yes having a socalled purveyor of all that is bad near a school could be said to access a market that the Gestapo is trying to target for extinction ie fat kids but do we seriously think for a moment it makes their problem greater, kids want something they will get it.
Should you want to prove me in error Ms Peters then buy a dairy near a bloody school that is in trouble for any of the myriad of reasons that befall them, and restock it with your ideas of "healthy product", run it how you see as the ideal commercial process from your perspective and I will warrant you will be in liquidation in a month.
 So Ms 'clever clogs' Peters  just stop your income justification before some irate pensioner who happens to live near a school runs you down with their mobility scooter.
Dairys are not called convenience outlets because they offer a free public toilet, they are actually convenient for many with limited options. That dumbarse parents cant see their spawn eating themselves to illhealth will not be solved by stopping a pensioner buying a treat or a necessity for whatever reason.

Oh and then tell the Successful Dairy owners and operators what compensation you will pay, where it will be funded from and how you will stop another outlet opening right on whatever limit you set from a school gate and stop it selling what the bloody buyers want.

Banks A Free Man again

Only this time it is official.

Last time a certain Justice Wyllie sitting as a judge alone convicted The Honorable John Banks largely on the testimony of the fatty German and his now estranged missus.

Amanda now the ex Mrs Banks who was with  John at a lunch at the Chrisco Mansion were not believed by the Idiot Justice who favoured the already convicted Kraut.

Following the convictions Amanda went digging and discovered the two US citizens who were also at the aforementioned repast and corroborated the Banks version that led to the CoA ordering a retrial.
That seemed a possibility until the very stained and tarnished Sgt Shultz lookalike  tried to add another luncheon to the diary but apparently that seemed a bit dodgy to the CoA who ordered and end to the sordid affair.

As the weekend games led to some life and death scenarios for the Super Rugby round robin teams, the Sanzar Referees panel have administered some smacks to the ears of errant officials with demotions and clear signals that their performance was substandard. It is an enduring failure that equally serious howlers as that delivered by Justice Wyllie will never be reviewed and some clear statements made that he was a disgrace to the system.

Notably missing in the credibility department,  it was a brave or a supreme idiot who favoured the Kraut with serious utu driving his testimony against Citizen Banks who should not have signed the dam statement but in the light of the very apparent fact it was a one off prosecution commenced by the equally flawed Litigious McCready and taken over by Crown Law the whole charade seemed more political than judicial at every turn.

Congratulations John Banks, glad it was not crippling as to costs as it would have been for so many other potential victims.


I see that a Swedish peace group has come up with an unusual way of trying to repel Russian submarines.

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (SPAS) says it has installed an underwater "defence system" known as the Singing Sailor (click to see) in the waters off Stockholm.

Described as a subsurface sonar system, the installation features the words "Welcome to Sweden" in Russian, and emits the phrase "this way if you are gay" in Morse code. The animated neon sign features a man clad in white underpants and a sailor hat, gyrating his hips as pink hearts flash behind him.

Clearly it's designed to build on and resonate with the homophobic attitude of the Russian government which has considerable support within the military.

p.s.   re the flag above.   Before you go bananas let me reiterate that I am not adverse to changing the flag ... but the alternative will really have to ring my bell before I would vote to ditch the current one. To date this is the only one that comes close and the bell is but a faint tinkle.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Is the sellers main home the same as the family home?

Andrew Little should ask John Key this question in parliament:
"Will the exemption under National's Capital Gains Tax apply if the sellers main home is a family home owned by a trust"?
The exemption in the policy is for "the sellers main home".
That does not say "the sellers family home".

And the three exemptions mentioned in the policy do not include a trust.

How Can That Be?

TVNZ reports that the Marriage Guidance Service - woops, I mean Relationships Aotearoa - has gone broke.  Maybe it might have done better if it had called itself Relationships New Zealand.

How the hell can a charitable organization funded by central gummint go broke?

I had a look through the list of directors and there are no names I know but the list does give some clues.  The  fact there are no names I know is one of them.   I  wonder how many flash cars and unnecessary fat salaries were being paid to members of various extended families?

Central administration salaries have doubled in one year from half a million to over a million dollars.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Political flattery or political flatulence?

As the saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  That includes politics.  And Labour and Act should feel pretty flattered tonight.

Let's cut the crap: Despite the rhetoric and weasel-words, National is bringing in a Capital Gains Tax on residential housing.  Sure, it's not going to be on the family home (yet) but it's going to be implemented lock, stock and two smoking chimneys.  

I can see where this will lead, at election time John Key will taunt Andrew Little about expanding it to the family home and then use any slip-up to his political advantage.  Smart politics I guess.

But a CGT that's isn't uniform across the board is just plain dumb and ineffective and will make our already complicated tax system even more complicated.  It'll be great for people like me who have property investor and trader clients (who, by the way, declare their trading income and pay tax on it) but it's still dumb.  But don't allow me to convince you - here's the Prime Minister himself just a few years ago:
I hate capital gains taxes – I just don’t like them. The reason I don’t like them is that, in political terms I don’t think they work.

If government was prepared to do with a capital gains tax what had been done with GST – put it on “virtually absolutely everything with no exceptions – they work well.

Because, in theory, if you earn NZ$100,000 from going out there and having a job, and you pay tax on it, well fair enough. If you earn NZ$100,000 from buying a property, well you probably should pay tax on that – fair enough.

But this is where the problem comes along, and that is, that no politician has the guts to do that. Because they go, ‘well that’s a vote-loser.’ They turn around and say, ‘OK, we’re going to have exemptions – the exemptions are all private housing.
I particularly love this bit from that 2012 article:
The fact that three-quarters of housing was owner-occupied, and would therefore be exempt under those proposals, meant their argument that a CGT would discourage investment in housing was "nonsense."

"The theory is they’re going to sock it to rich guys who live in Parnell – so they’re going to really nail them. But actually, those rich guys in Parnell are way smarter than the left, because they’ve already worked out to buy a big house in Parnell [which] would be exempt," Key, himself a wealthy Parnell resident, said.

“So [those house prices will] go up faster, not go up slower.”
"It encourages people to go into housing; it doesn’t discourage them," he said.
Why should Labour feel flattered tonight?  Well, National spent about five years crying crocodile tears over Labour's plans to implement a CGT and they have copied them, but they're not Labour-lite.  They just do tax *better*!

Act party stalwarts can also join the Labour bigheads tonight.

Sir Roger Douglas has been trying to implement a savings scheme for New Zealanders since about 1970.  Here's the basic story:
We've had a few goes at compulsory savings: the 1975 Roger Douglas scheme that an incoming National government axed in a cynical vote grab; a referendum after the first MMP election in 1996, which became a referendum on its creator, NZ First leader Winston Peters, and was duly lost.
I read somewhere that if Muldoon hadn’t terminated the scheme it would now be worth more than $240 billion.  Based on that $240 billion projection each worker would have $111,200 of superannuation assets compared with the current $6,300 and $86,821 in Australia. The scheme would represent 146% of GDP whereas Australian superannuation (which is considered to be the benchmark for the world) represents only 82% of their GDP.

Well strike me down with a feather if the Greens haven't joined resident communist, Winston Peters, in wanting a compulsory savings scheme:
The Greens have unveiled a kids KiwiSaver policy to promote a savings culture and make family finances more stable.

The policy will cost $224 million during the first three years of operation, Greens co-leader Metiria Turei said.

"A $1000 kick-start deposit, top-up contributions, and matching savings contributions will create good incentives to save for our kids futures.

"With careful saving, most children could have saved at least $12,900 by the time they turn 18 - money they can then use to help fund a tertiary education, invest in their adult KiwiSaver account, or use to help with a deposit on their first home."

The savings plan will help make the finances of families more stable, she said.

But New Zealand First says the party is copying its ideas.
Well, actually both are copying Act and Labour from the early 1970s but we can forget that little detail.

So it's a weird Sunday night when the Greens start agreeing with Act ideas, and National continue implementing Labour's policies. 

One really good idea, and one really bad.  And as I say above, it's not me saying the CGT is a really bad idea.  

Thicker Than Vegemite

But not as healthy.

Andrew Little, that is.

The PM announces a major change in the taxation treatment of residential housing for ALL VENDORS but Little whitters on about foreign investors who apparently make up less than 7% of purchasors/vendors.

"For years the Prime Minister has denied there is a crisis, refused to admit foreign investors are pushing up house prices and said there is no need to dampen down housing demand. Today John Key has been forced to eat his words."

The only politician who appears dumber than Little these days is Shorten.   Maybe its all in the name.  If Little was Shortened he'd be easier for them to throw under the bus.

Saturday, May 16, 2015


I note the jury deliberating in the case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Bomber found guilty of all 30 charges against him (including 17 which carried the death penalty) has decided that he should be put to death by lethal injection.

I have previously indicated my opposition to capital punishment.   Far better that he should be locked up for life in a super max prison, kept in isolation, and allowed out of his cell for only 1 hour each day.    Plenty of time for him to reflect on his crimes.   Actually, this could be worse than a death sentence.    After 10, 20, 30 years whatever, he might be screaming to be put down.    It might be argued that death would be the easy way out for him.

Others will see it differently.

It Is A Part Off Your History, Idiot.

Andrew Little in a speech, gave a backhander to a company that points our way to a prosperous future, Xero a front runner in developing software that will remove the drudgery of notating figures for the book keepers.
Little in one of his moments of lucidity claimed Xero "will put accountants out of work", that's it, the science is settled, he is a  muppet and   incorrigibly thick.
The soft ware will more accurately and efficiently write, calculate, and deliver the lawful results that the Accountant will then use to plan for the client what they have done, done wrong, could possibly do better, and ensure they stay within the law and pay their dues.

One of the leading figures in the 1935 government, of the party Little temporarily leads, Robert "Fighting Bob" Semple saw  the benefits  progress can deliver to free minions from manual labour servitude when he mounted a Caterpillar Buldozer following his appointment as Minister Of Public Works, and drove over a wheelbarrow and shovel to demonstrate how he would harness technology.

The daft prick has absolutely no comprehension, Xero is the future and Little Angry just ignored one of the lessons of history.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Letter to the editor

I hope the Herald publishes it:
In your editorial of Friday 15 May you said that democracy would be better served if election broadcasting restrictions went. I congratulate you for taking this stance and implore you to keep it going.
The Broadcasting Act 1989 contains archaic and restrictive provisions that prohibit political parties from spending their own money on TV advertising either during an election period, or outside of it.

Instead, parties must go cap-in-hand at election time to a body that uses a convoluted formula to decide how much money each party can spend on their TV advertising. Many parties have complained on this unfairness over many years. It severly punishes smaller parties, and Act has been particularly critical of it.

Removing this restriction and allowing political parties to spend their own money is right, and democratic. The argument that parties could spend an infinite amount of their own money on TV advertising doesn't wash because of the cap on spending during election campaigns. If parties choose to spend all their maximum campaign spending on TV advertising, to the exclusion of billboards (for example), that should be their choice. But it is hardly democratic, especially during an election, for voters to be prevented from seeing more of one party on TV, and less of others, according to a formula set by the State.

The other very relevant factor is TV itself. As a medium for politcial advertising, it was great in the 1960's and 1970's. But TV itself is losing viewership to the internet and other electronic modes. Political parties should also be free to explore all of this advertising capability for themselves, within the campaign spending limits that currently exist.

So indeed, democracy would be better served if election broadcasting restrictions went. But the solution is not for parties to have an allocation of public funds for TV time. They should be free to use their own money in the way that they decide will best reach their potential voters. As you rightly point out, they may well decide Saturday night prime time TV is not ideal for their purpose, but surely only parties should make that decision.

Do You Understand It?

because I sure as hell struggle.

Always vg value with her revelations and research around welfare, stated in simple terms, Lindsay Mitchell muses as to what Whanau Ora is.

With Lynne Provost joining the confused we really need to have a wider understanding of the sinkhole that began when Helen Clark and  later co-leader of the only race based political party remaining in our Parliament, now retired Turiana Turia, hatched a curates egg while they were united buddies in the NZLP.

Lindsay revisits the riddle  wrapped in a mystery in an  enigma.

Messers Key, English and Flavell need to make a greater effort to divulge exactly what is delivered by the mounting millions because from my perch the stats on Maroi outcomes away from the glitter of the tax exempt beneficiaries, ie Iwi corporate entities, things still have a serious tarnish about them.
Crime, health, incarceration, drugs, alcohol, violence, diet, employment et al might have moved to better statistical outcomes but is Whanau Ora an answer or not.

Spare a Thought

While Greater Wellington is being rinsed a pocket of Eastern North Canterbury remains in the grip of a crippling drought. Now accepting I have railed against over egging a summer dry as drought and asked for such adverse weather events to be viewed against much more serious world events, what is happening in an area centred on Cheviot is now very serious.

The affected area is quite local from around  the Waipara river to the Conway and extending from the coast variably extending inland approximately 50 kms this land has been able to miss out on autumn rains. A friend who visited Cheviot to play golf from a more favoured area of the region was gobsmacked a week ago. Any land not subject to irrigation is a depressing grey colour with nothing growing even weeds are in trouble. One retired farmer lamented two months ago that in a summer dry vegetation on south facing slopes and gully floors remains green even if no growth is evident but this dry is universal to the point travelling field mice require a water container and a cut lunch.

While we here on Banks Peninsula only a minimal distance south have had rains measured in inches the poor buggers I am publicising have had millimetres in similar numbers. The week following Anzac day  delivered us four inches or 100 mm while a resident on SH1 south of Cheviot had 3mm.

A colleague blogger who flew over North Canterbury in February emailed me how dry the region appeared, I emailed back the it was very manageable so long as Autumn rains came, and for significant parts those rains have come but at low levels and very patchy, the whole area is hanging on by its finger tips but the areas providing the guts for this missive it is now past catastrophic and winter is here with light snow featuring in current weather predictions.

Friday's Fulminations



Visitors might consider the wisdom of using moderate language.



Thursday, May 14, 2015

George Summed It Up.

Traditional lists of the seven deadly sins have six beginning with a consonant that gives them a harsh threatening tone while the seventh with a softer vowel as its initial letter is possibly the most destructive, corrosive and covert of the emotional drivers for the left.

Wrath is an explosive sin and in most cases rapidly subsides to allow a more rational being to re-emerge.
Greed and Sloth are very easily revealed by the trail of accumulated baggage and it could be that Gluttony is in that group.
Pride and Lust quickly reveal in behavioural traits but the soft sounding one, Envy is a more deeply buried sin. Many successfully keep their envy from manifesting as a clear and present peril.

I note from a very minor announcement in Stuff that the Little General is musing about the resurrecting of the Capital Gains Tax, rest assured it will come from the party that embraces every one of the Cardinal Sins and it will be accompanied by death duties to balance the state carriage.

Envy is a serious motivator for socialism as it is so easy to use it as a vote attraction. It starts out on the shop floor where a great employee might be paid more as an appreciation and retention device but that sensible economic based fact will be rapidly morphed into a base reason to pay all at a higher rate. Move it out to the public at large and using inane emotive dribble such as "poverty" and "the one percent", remove them from economic reality and there is a guaranteed voter bait.
Alas most of the poor sods enamoured of the totally false flag that paying for skills, and success is to be envied and hullo there is the next socialist wealth redistribution troughing bunch to wreak havoc on the state bank balances seated at the Speakers right hand.

Then comes the hypocrisy so well illustrated by George Orwell in his satirical "Animal Farm" where the proletariat as represented by the animals over throw the Farmer and set out to run things in a "fairer and more equal way".

The closing lines of the satirical work has the pigs in the farm house in a situation of plenty entertaining new found friends from the supposedly hated humans walking  upright on two legs while all the other animals that survived the "revolution" looking in through the windows and noting how similar to the supposedly hated "two Legged Humans",  the pigs had become.
In the case of socialists who become elevated to wealth and position they totally embrace all the accoutrements that inspire capitalists to success, just don't admit such hypocrisy to the proletariat.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015



How Socialists Waste My Money

Last night The federal Budget was delivered in the Australian parliament.

Those who want detailed comment can find truckloads of it on the net.

But take a closer look at this story.

When you go to this link you'll see no mention  of a million dollar advertising campaign by the SA state gummint.   It was there two hours ago but the ABC has removed that bit from the story as it looks bad for Labor.

But don't worry.  Here it is.

"From next July, the SA Government plans to pass on a federal budget spending cut to the state's pensioners by withdrawing the concessions they get on local council rates, meaning an annual hit of $190 for some households........

.........South Australian federal Liberal frontbencher Jamie Briggs expressed his anger at the $1 million campaign.

Just  what does the State Gummint (Labor) of South Australia think it's doing spending a million dollars of hard earned tax payers' money to lobby the Federal Gummint (Liberal) on fiscal policy?

Just imagine the uproar from Auckland ratepayers if Lyen Brown spent $1 million dollars advertising the 'benefits' of his train set.

Labour/Labor - ratbags, wherever you find them.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

They did not happen on "country roads" stupid!

 Two more people were confirmed dead on Sunday night after a two-car crash on Christchurch's Northern Motorway, near the Main North Rd.
The result of the SH1 at Belfast, two dead.

Lets assume all the nice sheeple of a rural community drive at 40Kph then a freakin idiot from the city comes for some excitement,  runs amok and causes a multiple causality crash involving several cars with bodies headed for the local morgue and the Muppet Cliff,  as in Dave not Lemming  will be calling for rural roads to be at  5Kph with a pedestrian carrying a red flag.
The fascists will not publicise  the true facts from that horrendous Mothers Day weekend,
Fact one,  two die on the Christchurch Northern motorway just out of the city limit at Belfast a part of State Highway 1
Fact two,  three die on State Highway 3 just outside Marton.
Fact three,  three die in a people mover crash on State Highway 2  near Tauranga.
Fact four,  a motorcyclist dies on State Highway 1 north of Auckland.
Nine of the ten died on state highways Mr cliff, is your disappearing bonus clouding your ability to make rational informed statements. Rural roads my arse, they happened on our best funded, constructed, monitored and engineered roads and good luck with reducing speeds on motorways and Highways that pass through rural NZ.
Dave Cliff is becoming increasingly irrelevant as he lauds low death toll weekends as a police success while a bad one such as that devastating for so many  effort for Mothers Day Weekend is all the fault of speeding on Rural roads.

Check your "best by date" Dave, it is well out of date and you are no longer fit for purpose.


Hot on the heals of David Milibrand's criticism of brother Ed's leadership of the Labour Party comes the news that Lord Sugar of Clapton, has quit the Labour Party in disgust just four days after the election.

Sugar was born in Hackey, east London, the son of a tailor and living in a Council flat.    He left school at 16 and started working in a greengrocers shop and selling car aerials and electrical goods from the back of a van expanding the business to found the computer company Amstrad which he later sold in 2007 to BSkyB for 125 million.    Sugar prospered to the point where he is now one of the UK's most successful businessmen and philanthropists worth over 1 billion. He is the former chair of Tottenham Hotspur and a major donor to the Labour Party.

In his resignation statement he said  "In the past year I found myself losing confidence in the Party due to their negative business policies and general anti-enterprise concepts they were considering if they were elected. I expressed this to the most senior figures in the party several times. I signed on to New Labour in 1997 but more recently, particularly in relation to business, I sensed a policy shift moving back towards what Old Labour stood for".

Sugar will be a huge loss to Labour.    A person who started from the bottom and worked his way up. No silver spoon, nothing handed to him on a plate ... but understanding that for workers to prosper business must prosper too.   A concept chardonnay socialists have great difficulty getting their heads around.   For them the class war continues and must continue.

UK Labour's great step backwards was rejected by the electorate in spades.   Interesting that in NZL the Labour Party under the 'inspired' leadership of whatshisname is charting the same course.    The good news is that history has a habit of repeating itself.

Necessary Core Spending, REALLY.

The useless, clueless, brainless egos that equally suspect Auckland voters have empowered to rape and pillage the citizens have now discovered they need a newer, much more plush place to meet  and pontificate as to how they can better feed those said egos.

I am at a complete loss why they cannot meet in an insulated skyline garage somewhere that involves   seriously lower land prices. Could I suggest on a bit of the buffer land that surrounds the Mangere  Waste Water Plant.

Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant.

It can be noted there is car parking on the site and another advantage from this site comes with the very small requirement for infrastructure to move the sh*t decicions that will be produced, direct to the sewerage treatment plant where they should all end up anyway.

Of course they already have a meeting place that would seem palatial to many of the peasants who will fund this latest folly but it is approximately 4 minutes walk from where the thieving superior beings want to relocate to,  for the extremely inconsequential sum of  a paltry ten million dollars

Bu bbut their supreme being and master fornicator says it will be funded from monies already set aside.

Here are the facts Lying Lascivious, Lecherous  Lenny,  a very short and concise motion with notice can move that minor sum to a more appropriate facet of your spending and although quite small in its effect on the massive 10% rate rise you are intending as your farewell gesture it would actually appear as a caring gesture to all those muppets who accepted your word that you would keep rate rises to no more than 2.5%, or were you misquoted you really meant 25% and you are well within your election pledge.
What is a pledge you ask, well  Mr Brown,  hopefully with your trousers well hitched up, a pledge is a promise, a commitment, a vow, a declaration that you will fulfil, all to hard for you then try this,  you stood in the presence of your fellow citizens and said, this I will give to you.

Still not understanding well here is another suggestion just stand outside your office and say "I QUIT" and I bet your place in history will immediately rise several percentage points, but where you stand now any movement can only be an improvement.

This One's For PDM

The story of the minister and the painter.

One day the local Presbyterian parish council decided the manse should be repainted.  Tenders were called for and a contract given to thee lowest bidder.

The successful contractor thought he would take a lend of these goody good churchies so he bought only half the required amount of paint and topped it up with water,  

When the job was finished it looked pretty good - until the first rainstorm about two weeks later.  It  simply washed off and the minister was furious.  He confronted the errant contractor and berated him about the quality of his work and the absence of his ethics.

The contractor, being a cocky little fellow; said 'Well what the hell am I supposed to do about it?'

The minister roared at him:

"Repaint, repaint and thin no more!!!!!"

Monday, May 11, 2015

Oh Dear. How Sad. Such Grief.

I see Australia's ABC which couldn't get enough of the UK election on its nightly news programmes before the event has been strangely quiet.  Not a mention since.

It seems TVNZ is still living in that lala land of opinion poll induced euphoria and KDS.

These are today's political headlines from their website:-

Politics News

Sunday, May 10, 2015

That Is Truly Great News.

Police Dog Thames, missing in the Tararua ranges for a week has been located and reunited with his handler and extended family.

Separated  from his handler during a search and rescue exercise In very inhospitable terrain and enduring some rather challenging weather Thames luck was running out and it is suggested time could have been called on continuing search operations in the near future, however today saw the almost unbelievable come to pass. The young police dog was found little the worse for his week awol.

There are many remarkable dog survival stories in this country where working dogs are so integrated into everyday life as Guard dogs, guide dogs, stock handling, hunting and retrievers and just companions where after  many days apparently out of contact, dogs are found and reunited with those who love and care for them.

I can recount two tales that almost defy belief.
The first during gravedodger's time in Cheviot in the latter days of the 1960s.  A good mate and one so involved in animal welfare as to be envied, had a young Labrador bitch that was very well bred from retrieving bloodlines and an associate  offered to expose the dog to gunfire and game retrieving. One round of gunshot and the dog disappeared and as hope had all but evaporated she was found in a nest in the middle of a large field of crop stubble, a little dehydrated and ready for a meal but otherwise unharmed and that was 12 days after she took off in a seasonal time zone similar to Thames' ordeal.
The second involved a seriously long march from my then  property at Waipara where my brother had delivered a bitch in heat that was not wanted to breed and we had good secure kennelling facilities. The bitch had been based at McDonald Downs in the headwaters of The Waipara river and as the crow flies not a great distance away, a mere 40 Kms from where we farmed. Two days after arriving while being given some air and exercise she took off and arrived back at the station the next day.
That in itself was only a remarkable bit of returning home but what made it harder to believe was that by road in the boot of a car, the trip from station to farm was a serious detour via Pyramid Valley, Waikari and the Weka Pass a road trip of some sixty Kms.

My fears for Thames only involved serious injury and or being trapped and at seven days it was still highly likely the dog could be found and I am so pleased for all involved a successful ending has occurred. I note Thames is going on annual leave but I guess ability to keep in contact with the handler will be questioned. In the case of The Labrador her future never involved any hunting/ retrieving, she took early retirement.

Intelligent People Would Work It Out

When will Politicians work out that most so called "celebs" are vacuous thespians who people view as merely entertaining in escape alternatives to the dreary real world inhabited by most ordinary folk.

One of the more telling missteps from vanquished Ed Miliband during his failed campaign came when "HE CALLED IN ON RUSSEL BRAND" that came to the airwaves as a rather destructive "Basil brush" show where a very animated reality TV leading light dominated a head nodding Labour leader in a long largely unintelligible diatribe that only made Red Ed look stupid and irrelevant.

Sports stars are, in the eyes of their fans,  gods but in the main only as whatever their sport portrays as great.  Authors, actors and poets live in and sometimes gain adulation for portraying idealistic images in a make believe world.

So what then emanates as supposed wisdom when an equally vacuous media try to invest them as having opinions that matter in the real world inhabited by 'worker bees' scrabbling to gather enough pollen and nectar to enable survival,  is totally laughable.

Miliband's encounter with Brand only contributed to the demise that was still a mystery to a poll obsessed media but was only too well understood by the voting public.

That is why Shorty St people, one book wonders and self obsessed media talking heads are of no moment to Joe average voter.

Maybe they will work it out, however for now it is a mirage just out of reach.

Dont Ya Just Love Democracy

Within hours of having their bubble pricked by a seriously intent democratic wish expressed by handing the Conservative leader the seats to govern alone, thousands of the street rabble that poor little rich boy Ed Miliband had convinced he would be The United Kingdom's next socialist great white hope took to the streets to protest things as yet only predicted by the man who continues to avoid admitting he is a man of means in his lies and scare tactics that failed so spectacularly.

So democracy was OK as long as it promised to deliver the Coup d Gras  to the Bloody Tories, now it has failed, lets go out on the streets and create a special mayhem, idiots.

Aah But Would It Improve The Outcome?

Farrar at kiwiblog has done an exercise based on MMP using data from the national totals of FPP votes cast for UK electorate candidates.

First big difference is that Cameron's Conservatives would be a minority and Miliband's mob even smaller in representation, so then it comes to assumptions as to Blocs.
Now here in NZ there is always a big variance between how a vote is cast for a candidate and the votes in that electorate cast for a 'Party' to achieve the proportionality so desired by many confused people. In the UK elections it is quite shallow to assume that say UKIP would be an automatic fit with the conservatives as immigration and other bullet point policy had support flowing to and from Labour, Conservative and Lib Dems on the National scene and then toss in the extraordinary sweep by The SNP across the Scottish region that rejected devolution so recently.

South African Rugby has messed with Race quotas in selection at many levels and it is rapidly apparent that players selected with their racial makeup as a criteria will illuminate two problems very quickly.
One, a player may not be as talented, disciplined or skilled as the reject who just happens to not be of a  favoured different racial group and secondly such a selected player will know how the selection arrived at his naming as will his fellow team members with  scorn, distrust and disapproval simmering beneath the surface. It is the same when quotas for any reason are imposed on a selection whether it is Race, Gender, shape, colour, orientation or whatever.

That highlights the weakness of MMP over FPP where a dodgy party hierarchy decides the list ranking and total dropkicks with minimal talent become members of the legislature and can in fact become pivotal in decision making.

An interesting exercise for sure on the UK results but the first problem it highlights is the weakening of the policy mix voted on by the national voters who can now hold Cameron to his pledges without the letout that having to absorb sometimes lunatic parochial village pump policies that will be only a handbrake on what needs doing.
Whanau ora anyone.

After all the connotations and convulsions that MMP has produced in its two decades in NZ, it is yet to demonstrate any significant benefits due to the introduction of the narrow mandates that preclude bold decisive decision making such as Douglas introduced to smash the corrosive and seriously threatening megalomaniac rule of Muldoon who erroneously believed he knew best that had NZ Inc on the brink of bankruptcy.

As time passes it will be much more interesting to dig deeper into the bunch of candidates who failed so miserably in convincing voters they had something to offer as I am sure many who lost their deposit will be undeterred and agitation for proportional representation increases.

My final thought lies with the now discarded odious and discredited George Galloway whose tortured and divisive stance could have had him survive to sit in the commons and worse he could have ended up as a game changer, that his 40 000  voter electorate saw fit to send him packing is reason enough to leave the system alone.

Friday, May 8, 2015


for pulling off a victory which no-one expected increasing their number of seats to a projected 329 and achieving an absolute majority.    Labour, routed in Scotland and giving up seats in England (including that of the Shadow Chancellor - Ed Balls) and Wales while the Conservative's coalition partner in the last Parliament, the Liberal Democrats, were all but wiped out in a pattern repeated in the European elections and in New Zealand where the coalition partner of a majority Party had vengeance wrecked upon them by their own constituency who somehow held betrayed.

Saw that here with Winston First in 2008 and with the Maori Party in 2011 and 2014 and now the LibDems are reduced to just eight seats and lucky to hold any at all.    It's going to be interesting to see how this pans out in the future.   Is it going to mean a greater reluctance by third Parties to enter into formal coalition arrangements? ... time will tell.

Fascinating to me that the xenophobic and racist UKIP took more votes of Labour than the Conservatives (sorry about that Howie ... do the numbers) and ended up reduced to just one seat.

Their ugly side was in play with their candidate, Robert Blay, in the NE Hampshire seat 'outed' in a rant where he said of his Conservative opponent, Ranil Jayawardena, tipped as a possible future Prime Minister ... "If he is I will personally but a bullet between his eyes".    For the record Jayawardena won the seat with a 5.5% swing and a majority of 29,916 from the second placed LibDems and Labour third.

Inevitably there will be calls for the introduction of a form of proportional representation replacing the present FPP system with the SNP and the Liberal Democrats over-represented in the number of seats won vs votes while the UKIP (who polled 1.5m more votes than the Lib Dems) and the Greens might argue they were hard done by.    My message ... beware of Greeks bearing gifts and think carefully before acting to change the system. Far better that the Conservatives correct the gerrymander favoring Labour and LibDems in the constituency boundaries (especially ooooop North) blocked by the LibDems in the last Parliament.

Finally, Mrs Veteran was pleased to note that her hometown boy and classmate at Leominster Grammar, Bill Wiggin, held on to his Herefordshire North seat with a increased majority of 19.996 and a positive swing of 3.9%.

A great night for those of us who inhabit the bright side of politics.

Late Update .... Deputy PM and LibDems leader Nick Clegg has resigned along with Nigel Farage, leader of the UKIP, with Ed Miliband, Labour leader, expected to follow shortly.

Further Update .... Miliband gone and with all the results now in the Conservatives have increased their seats held and won to 331.

Gee Needing some sauce with that.

The Election too close to call was a convincing win for Cameron and The Conservative Party.

TVOne's headline: Ed Miliband almost nearly conceding,  was someone a little bit pregnant?

Gee it was a rat too far for the NZLP training centre to realise their latest socialist success was in reality "ashes in their mouths".

The UK Labour party has had a hold so strong on the Scottish seats it was predicted UK Labour  would be out of power for decades if Devolution had prevailed.
The Scottish Nationalists have swept the northern realm that was united  with the English throne when James the 1st succeeded Elizabeth the 1st as James the 1st of the United Kingdom the son of executed Mary Queen of Scots and amalgamated the realms.

Hopefully the race based politics do not destroy the Union although that said had Devolution succeeded it would have been economic disaster  for the Celts with the plunging oil and gas markets.

I Warrant Beggars Don't Pay Tax.

Intersection and carpark "window washers" are back in the news.
One long time operator was quoted as having been doing it for years to support his kids as other work was inaccessible.

Now I applaud entrepreneurial activity so long as it is
(a) Lawful,
(b) permitted,
(c) an approved place of operation,
(d) complies with legislated costs that are born by a similar enterprise elsewhere,
(e) does not involve coercion or intimidation.

Now Luke 29 claims to have been doing it for around 8 years, he has three children 6, 4 and 10 months, so it must pay well as those three additional  wealth creators were added during his vicarious life style
He also claims that if he could get work at $23 an hour he would take it.
That indicates he is apparently earning around $40k at present with no tax obligations. He is also avoiding ACC levies and for someone dodging moving traffic and the occasional obstructionist official the inherent dangers could have ACC calculations quite onerous His workplace is unmonitored by WorksafeNZ. He can take a day off for golf or fishing as and when

Is Luke an entrepreneur to be admired or is he little different to a beggar on a busy footpath/street?

George Moala is one lucky Man.

Some day it will dawn on the Justice minions that violence is  not ever OK unless as a part of provable self defence, and to deliver a non conviction on the basis it could be judged as very unfair and having repercussions beyond what is reasonable only succeeds in degrading the justice system.

So Sir John Kirwan opines that Moala is "a good man", I wonder how he would react if the good man with clearly demonstrable inability in how normal people behave, had given the bash to Kirwan's child or another family member.

Last weekend another sporting legend in his own mind was permitted to box under world jurisdictions for  world titles and mind numbing sums of dosh and the recorded fact he has bashed his missus is of no matter.

Sorry Moneyweather, Kirwasnt, and the last in many judges who subscribe to the theory that sometimes it is OK and allow thugs to escape repercussions for illegal acts, there will be another George Moala in front of you sooner rather than later and the fact that he would watch his rugby career go down the toilet is something George should have considered  a long time ago.

If a fully trained Surgeon used their enormous talent to sever the head from the torso of someone who upset them, would that moment of madness be treated as George's actions using his finely tuned and trained physical form in his offending.
I don't think so, so  in the inevitable eventual realisation that rugby thugs are just another offender who failed to behave within the law and deserve the same penalties as a deadbeat from Remuera or a very talented surgeon from Otara our justice system is destined to remain a very sick joke.

And that George is why you should accept your good luck, the numpties and appeasers have not woken up, yet

Absolutely no surprises there.

A survey conducted under total anonymity of 102 MPs reveals all have suffered threats varying from mild harassment to death, stalking, harassment via mail and electronic data, and confrontational aggression manifesting in the use of weapons and explosives.

Why would anyone be surprised, just take a look at some of the blogsites that deal in matters political. The invective revealed will astound those who never indulge and some of it is disturbing to me.

Hardline attitudes regularly descend into unseemly language and some of it should be removed but authors have another life in most cases. Slater has made significant efforts to raise the standard of expressed opinion at Whaleoil, but many sites perpetrate some very disturbing opportunity for political debate although that term requires to be defined with a very wide ranging understanding.
Clearly Farrar was very busy yesterday as his general debate had not appeared by late PM so monitoring for David being a blogger sole is going to be very spasmodic.

To suggest the behaviour revealed is in any way acceptable and "part of the territory" is inane as threats that can easily descend into criminal activity is head in the sand stuff  as we now allow all the nutters to live amongst us as a  humane and socially desirable policy but it raises risks exponentially.
Hell, watch video of some protest marches where the behaviour of leaders and the accompanying signage and effigies is more than just disturbing. Some of it is downright incitement.

To dismiss the revelations from that survey is making a bad scene worse, we ignore it at our peril.

That is just hyperbolic nonsence.

As the jihad attacking Gloriavale loses momentum, a new attack is launched from a base of Maoritanga.

The internet  has a term for the raising of any link to Nazis, called Godwins Law, a need arises for a similar term for linking anything and everything to Maori.

It is being suggested in lunatic circles that if Gloriavale was based on Maori culture and mores,  the authorities would be far more proactive in their response.

I hold no candle for what Neville Cooper aka Hopeful Christian and his clearly touched followers and evolving leadership are doing at Lake Haupiri but in the total absence of a complaint the law is unable to act. Many if not most thinking New Zealanders will be puzzled as to how a bunch of people will submit so completely to the whims and mind control of a self styled leader but it is not as if it is either a first nor will it be a last.
Breaking Laws is a very tenuous theory , acting in ways that are a complete mystery to all who value freedom of speech, movement and association although credible do not amount to lawlessness in what I understand Gloriavale does in its pursuit of happiness.
In my book, strange as their systems and culture seems, they are free to follow Cooper.

That said to suggest if the community was Maori things would be any different is laughable,
Does Ratana receive any scrutiny from authorities.

Friday's Fulmnations



Visitors might consider the wisdom of using moderate language.



Friday's Fulminations



Visitors might consider the wisdom of using moderate language.



Thursday, May 7, 2015

On Atheists and Fundies

Have you ever noticed how atheist ratbags endlessly quote from Leviticus and Deuteronomy to show that Christians are a pack of bastards while fundamentalist so-called Christians endlessly quote from Leviticus and Deuteronomy, thus demonstrating what a pack of bastards they are?

I was reminded of this when yet another thread over at Kiwiblog descended into such a barney.

Of course, both athies and fundies miss the elephant in the room.  Christ was not around and Christianity had not been invented when those old testament books were written. 

Christianity is of the new testament but both sides keep harping on about the old testamenet which largely is a history of the Jewish nation,  That Jesus fellow came along with the express purpose of weaning people off their slavish adherence to Jewish laws.  That's why they klled him.

So, for most Christians, the old testament simply puts the life and teachings of Jesus into context while the new testament largely shows by his example how we might be better citizens.   It is difficult to find in the accounts of the life of Jesus any instructions on stoning one's daughters or on killing people who stray off the straight and narrow.

Of one thing you can be sure.

There is more reliable empirical evidence to support the death and resurrection of Christ than can be found in support of the global warming/climate change fraud/scam/ hoax.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Moses Miliband Channels Helun.

Ed Miliband wants to be UK Prime Minister.

In a little bizarre bit of circus he places a new spin on Helun's illegal $800 000 pledge card unveiling a tablet of stone inscribed with a six point promise.

Don't know how the costs or the legality pan out but the original was a little more user friendly for mobile use anyway.

Having been the recipient of invaluable information from our very own Angry Andy on tactics from a man who single handedly converted marginal New Plymouth into a stronghold for Nationals Jonathon Young, Handed Northland to the Pinstriped Dwarf, and continues as Labour NZ's next trophy to be mounted on John Key's wall of terror, how Ed's effort turns out will be revealed next week.