The real sadness is before this ideological lot got inveigled into place there were some really good people guiding the whole shebang.
Now it is a different ball game and the good people are outnumbered or outmaneuvered by the ideologues, who support each other.
I am not an expert just an ordinary guy, but common sense is common sense (when you have common values).
Unlike parliament I do trust the New Zealand heartland, 80+% is 80+%.
So why do we vote these wankers in?

My apologies, I did jump to an assumption about your racial views. I can see that your views are based on a lot of personal experience so won’t try to pretend I know more about these things than you do. You should remember that this is an open public forum, and so it would be wise to be careful when making blanket statements about race.

I don’t disagree with common sense by any means so maybe our views aren’t that far apart on some things.

the way the special needs families had to play politics with the principal was atrocious (he was a bully, one with a big smile)
infact that whole area is fcking awful esp for families with kids on the margins of the so called rules. kids still touched but not eligible or partially.
should either fully fund and stop fcking around or have special schools where assets can be used better for their needs.

then there were all the hoops the staff and principal had to jump through to discipline the naughty kids.
the worst ones were like that because of home environment and lack of parenting skills
and to actually say bugger off is so tortuarse
and what about the poor school FORCED to take a kid expelled from another school with no way to say to minedu Bugger off!
incident waiting to happen.
poor sods.

no we need to break and sack all the liberal leftys in minedu, ero, nzqa, principals and teachers unions, parliament and get some common sense back into the system.
I don’t see that happening under Key to be honest, as he’s labourlite sadly.

See its working. Not disciplining our children, teaching them that smacking is wrong and bad and that there arent any conseqences for your actions, is allowing our children to be a gentler,kinder generation. Yeah right!

Ditto.

When I was a child, if I stepped out of line granny, aunt, or uncle would likely give me a smack as well.

Ah!

Got it now.

The security guards at A+E do a bloody good job keeping parking order and taking care of violence etc. They also quite rightly “allow” patient attendees to smoke outside. I have spent much time fagging and chatting late at night with these relatives of “sick” children and have come to understand that their standard of child care and upbringing is vastly different to mine. Ducking rain on a hospital entranceway at 3am to have a fag with all comers does tend to be an eyeopener for some. I can judge, but can also see. Can you?

What can we do to redress the situation as I see it people can only lose hope with the way things are going.

I have a long and convoluted answer involving a raft of interconnected political and constitutional changes which would probably fall on mostly deaf ears here (and on pretty much any other political blog where people tend to arrive with their POV fully formed and enter into debate with those whose POV differs).

Not that there’s anything wrong with that (as they say) but it’d bore most of DPF’s readers to death I suspect, and I don’t want to threadjack his blog. Perhaps when I get some time I’ll take up the suggestion many people have made and start blogging myself, thus being able to pontificate into a vacuum

When I was a child, if I stepped out of line granny, aunt, or uncle would likely give me a smack as well.

Yeah, that woman obviously had a very close relationship with Jesus.

So when are CYFs going to visit the grandmother?
And people like this are actually permitted to breed, surely not?

Now, that woman and I have something in common. We are both parents who believe that smacking a child is a valid means of child control. However, she is a low bred breeder of useless stock who wouldn’t know a nuance or reasonable thought if she fell into a hole with one. The antismacking law will have no effect whatsoever on her family or mine because, for our own reasons, she will not notice it and I will ignore it. Funny; my child is prospering, hers will not.

@Kris K:
“Ultimately these ‘experts’ are sanctioned by the state.”

Should we replace them with experts sanctioned by the church? That used to be the way things worked…

Depends on which church.
You wouldn’t want the Catholic Church for instance, or one headed by a fruitloop like Benny Hinn.
But, in general terms at least, I like your thinking. Definitely worth further consideration.
Get back to me with more specific suggestions and we’ll review it.

Ultimately these ‘experts’ are sanctioned by the state.

Should we replace them with experts sanctioned by the church? That used to be the way things worked…