General Debate 9 February 2018

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Keeping Stock

First?

Yeah, first. Where the heck are the rest of you this lovely Friday morning?
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February 9, 2018 8:01am
- RalphT
  
  Congratulations, but no chocolate fish.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:02am
  - Keeping Stock
    
    That’s all right; I’m on a quest to lose weight anyway 😀
    
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    February 9, 2018 8:41am
- jack185
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  How sad that otherwise intelligent people seem obsessed with being the first to comment on an online forum, like dogs pissing on power poles.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:17am
  - Random T Person
    
    It’s a bit of fun, albeit silly fun. I wouldn’t worry myself about it too much by, for example, replying.
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:19am
    - MH
      
      it’s the early dog that pisses on the power pole first.
      
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      February 9, 2018 11:41am
      - Keeping Stock
        
        Quite so MH, and oh, the relief!
        
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        February 9, 2018 12:14pm
  - Jack5
    
    Again: I’m not jack185.
    
    Jack5
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:55am
- Random T Person
  
  South Africa, matter of fact. Place seems to be holding up all right, I haven’t been here for 7 years.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:18am
  - cmm
    
    Where?
    
    Your experience will likely depend on which part of South Africa you are in.
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:26am
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      Not Capetown, if you want to have a shower.
      
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      February 9, 2018 11:28am
      - RalphT
        
        Well Penny would be right at home. Perhaps she should move there once the sale of her house goes through. Perhaps KB could start a give a little page to pay for the fare.
        
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        February 9, 2018 12:00pm
    - Random T Person
      
      Mostly JNB and Vanderbijlpark/Vereeniging, although have also been up to the bush in Vaalwater (private game lodge) and camping in Royal Natal Drakensberg. Parts of JNB look like it’s been bombed. But amazing freeways and what have you. People live well here. Like really really well, can have a bloody mansion for the price of my modest do up in Whakatane!
      
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      February 12, 2018 8:47pm
holysheet

Time soon to thank Cindy for my weekly wine purchase. $20 buys a somewhat ordinary bottle these days.
Received the following from that lovely lady Tracey Martin, yesterday;

The Government has announced a new Winter Energy Payment.
The Winter Energy Payment is an investment in Seniors and others, to help them stay healthy over the winter months,” says Minister for Seniors Tracey Martin.
“What’s great is that you don’t need to apply for the payment. Everyone getting NZ Super or the Veteran’s Pension will receive it automatically.”
The Winter Energy Payment will be paid with your NZ Super or Veteran’s Pension.
The rate for single people (with no dependants) will be $20.46 a week, and couples or people with dependants will get $31.82 a week.
Payments will be made from 1 July to 30 September in 2018, and 1 May to 1 October in 2019.
People who get a Residential Care Subsidy or a Residential Support Subsidy are not eligible for the Winter Energy Payment.
Not everyone will want to receive this payment therefore you can choose to opt out. If your circumstances change you can then choose to opt back in.
The Winter Energy Payment doesn’t affect your eligibility for other support such as the Disability Allowance, Accommodation Supplement, Temporary Additional Support or Childcare Assistance.
If you travel overseas for four weeks or more your Winter Energy Payment will stop. Once you return to New Zealand you can restart payments by contacting Work and Income

I am sure the wine will help ward off the chills of winter.
Lets do this.
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February 9, 2018 8:02am
- KiWombat
  
  But what about those who are not on NZ Superannuation – there are others suffering the cold as well TM
  
  Even if only helps to fund one bottle of wine a week during winter?
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:07am
- Paulus
  
  Rather have got our Tax reduction so that “everybody” not only Super card people could have benefited in being able to do what they want with it and not be dictated to by the COL.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:17am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  I’d rather have the extra $1000 promised by the Nats thanks, but then voted down by the CoL.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:18am
  - kowtow
    
    The funny thing about that $1000 promised by Ngati Notional that so many “right” minded people seem so grateful to them for , is that it was your own money in the first place , not the gummints’.
    
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    February 9, 2018 8:23am
    - igm
      
      No money is governments . . . it is all taxpayers.
      
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      February 9, 2018 8:43am
      - MrLovebucket
        
        Not according to this mob.
        
        ALL money is governments. They are just kind enough you let you have some from time to time.
        
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        February 9, 2018 10:47am
  - KiWombat
    
    True Cap, but then the COL would not have got the credit for it.
    
    Instead they have chosen to rob Peter to pay Paul – or is it rob Peter to pay Peter?
    
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    February 9, 2018 8:25am
- oldpark
  
  Holy Sheet 8.02am
  Thought they promised $450 Dollars in total. Looks like they announced fake news. Dont think the amount you quote adds up to the promised amount.
  Sounds like they spoke with lying tongues, of which they are specialists.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:32am
  - holysheet
    
    Didn’t you get your email? It’s all in the small print on the missing pages we are not allowed to see.
    
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    February 9, 2018 8:39am
    - starboard
      
      I dont think they have been very transparent. Bullshitting scum COL.
      Then we have flip floppy robertson ..oh yeah its ok when the left do it. Geezuz they give me a guts ache.
      
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      February 9, 2018 11:08am
- KKKKatee
  
  “Yes Tracey, I’ll definitely opt out as I really, really don’t want (need) this payment”. This woman is beyond stupid. What planet is she on? So does she seriously think that after screwing the Superannuitants out of an extra $1000/year that the ones who don’t need the money for “winter energy payment’ are actually going to contact the providers and say “Thanks, but no thanks”. This COL is beyond dumb…….
  Of course the Superannuitants who don’t need the extra money are going to take it anyway as a form of Utu against this dysfunctional COL. The good thing is that Tracey Martin and her ilk will be goneburgers in 2020 thanks to their dear Leader.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:36am
  - gorse
    
    What is the procedure for opting out?
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:10am
  - jcuk
    
    Wishful thinking I suspect but lets be positive about it….. those who pay don’t have to find the $1000 but only the winter heating allowance.
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:12am
- VicParking
  
  $20 per week is not enough for me to keep warm now that cig’s are $30 a pack. It’s bad enough that my disability payment only just covers my Booze bill, however my Homecare allowance allows me to get two triple dips. I was going to go back to work but was told as I don’t speak Mandarin there are no job’s fitting out hotel rooms. I am however getting richer this year as the money I was paying to send my Sons kid to a Charter school has stopped, Thanks Chris, Thanks Robbo, Thanks Jacinda+1
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:04am
  - backster
    
    don’t forget THANKS WINSTON
    
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    February 9, 2018 1:39pm
- hullkiwi
  
  Like WFF, this is another policy that has been copied from the UK without any thought for the failings in the policy. As in the UK, the headlines & the policy was about addressing pensioners suffering “fuel poverty” in the depths of winter & the payments were issued to all without means testing or checking what the living arrangements were of the pensioner concerned (in our case my mother in law was living with us, and I was paying our electricity/gas bill, so guess who got the money?).
  
  This form of largess with taxpayers money is more about making statements rather than addressing a problem properly. Politicians like Martin (& Pest for all Reasons) is why NZ never moves forward.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:52am
- Peter
  
  The Winter Energy Payment is an investment in Seniors
  
  It’s not a flippin’ “investment”. It’s a cost! A transfer of taxpayer money to wine merchants through an intermediary.
  
  Why are we governed by such idiots?
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:32am
  - hullkiwi
    
    As I said above, copied from the UK, that was the language of Blair & Brown. All govt spending was presented as an “investment”.
    
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    February 9, 2018 11:48am
- Liberty
  
  Isn’t there a conflict of interest having a doddery old pensioners in government. Awarding
  special payments to a select group of people, Of which he one .
  
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  February 9, 2018 12:26pm
- Piniwi
  
  Thanks holysheet and as they say the truth will out. Now we understand why old WP really needed to change his entitlement status. He gets an extra $11 odd a week more than his false claimed rate. Lucky for him there is no form to apply as it is automatic. But wait there is more! Well sort of since with so many exemptions it is likely more will actually miss out than receive it.
  This is supposed to offset the loss of a tax cut that would have put more in their pocket each week for every week going forward. Now that would have been EVERY pensioner without any filtering needed.
  Not sure but this WEP may be considered income so it makes the original tax cut more of a windfall than this sham.
  But they can get a free year to belatedly start on that much desired law degree.
  
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  February 9, 2018 3:32pm
Chuck Bird

I hope Cindy takes note of this. I posted the link on her Facebook with the suggestion she get married to set an example.

Bob McCoskrie: Child poverty rhetoric ignores elephant in room

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11989864&ref=rss
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February 9, 2018 8:06am
- Paulus
  
  Don’t be daft Cindy knows it all so will not bother with any non socialist/communist suggestions.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:18am
- pdm
  
  Chuck – If she reads it she will probably form a committee to have a conversation about it.
  
  Unsure if Clark Gayford will be on that committee.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:31am
- calendar girl
  
  Chuck, Bob McCroskrie’s pinpointing of family breakdown as a significant contributor to poverty is a helpful and valid perspective.
  
  But I reject the “child poverty” tag that politicians, media and most commentators continue to fling around the subject. “Child” poverty does not exist independently of family and / or community structures. Children are affected adversely by poverty, along with family members and others. The repeated “child” reference to which we are exposed is an amateur attempt to add emotionalism to a debate that requires facts, analysis and reasoned debate.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:39am
  - KiWombat
    
    “a debate that requires facts, analysis and reasoned debate.”
    
    That would be a first for this crowd CG
    
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    February 9, 2018 8:59am
  - Dave Mann
    
    I agree wholeheartedly with what you say about child poverty not existing independently of family…. but I don’t think that this labelling is an ‘amateur attempt’ at all.
    
    It is a very professional and successful piece of propaganda and branding thought up by someone who really knows how to manipulate public perception.
    
    Why doesn’t any politician on the right point this out? Oh yes, that’s right…. National bought into the lie as well, so they can’t very well put the record straight can they?
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:08am
    - calendar girl
      
      Quite right, Dave. It’s orchestrated, although its degree of ‘professionalism’ is questionable.
      
      I should have use the word “amateurish” rather than “amateur” – most of the perpetrators are being paid for stoking the relevant political fires.
      
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      February 9, 2018 9:32am
      - KiWombat
        
        Interesting that the “poverdy” news seemed to go almost dead for a few months. There was virtually no reference over Xmas period.
        
        But now they are pumping it up again because it is an emotive – not a real – issue.
        
        I have listed items on Trade-Me for
        “$1 reserve, or less for those living in poverty.”
        
        I’ve had no takers – shows how serious the problem really is, can’t give stuff away !
        
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        February 9, 2018 11:02am
    - wiseowl
      
      Well Dave , maybe National will review this and a mountain of other propaganda while they are having their feel good pow wow .
      
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      February 9, 2018 10:07am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  I doubt she will get married for a year or two. Between having kids and getting married she can generate several years of gushingly adoring media coverage as long as she doesn’t carelessly let those activities overlap.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:53am
  - pdm
    
    `I doubt she will get married for a year or two.’
    
    Unless Winston, H1 or H2 or her Union Masters tell her to.
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:01am
    - Colinxy
      
      …or there’s a poll slump in 2020.
      
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      February 9, 2018 11:33am
      - Keeping Stock
        
        Precisely. A nice election-year wedding; I’d almost put money on it.
        
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        February 9, 2018 12:15pm
  - KiWombat
    
    Is anybody convinced that CLicker is the father of this child?
    
    After those long nights of “negotiation” behind closed doors, and the inability to produce the 30-something page agreement then I would not be too sure !!
    
    I think CLicker should demand a paternity test – and for that matter so should we !
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:07am
  - KiWombat
    
    – – and you should add
    
    “Real father steps forward”
    
    Now that would empty the shelves Vic !!
    
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    February 9, 2018 11:04am
- Harkman
  
  And what McCoskie is saying is repeated a cross virtually all western countries. So it isn’t an isolated phenomenon.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:26am
- Salacious Crumb
  
  I would go a bit further back than that Chuck and look at the whole rights before responsibilities attitude that now permeates NZ society.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:57am
  - kowtow
    
    Started with the French murdering their king in the name of “equality”.
    
    The disease has spread far and wide.
    
    No shit.
    
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    February 9, 2018 11:01am
igm

What is this growing of facial hair by members of CoL, unions, and anyone else aligned to these losers? I thought it may be to appease Islam in the hope of saving most of them being tossed off the highest roofs in town.
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February 9, 2018 8:06am
- G152
  
  A beard can hide the sneer during TV interviews ?
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:21am
- hullkiwi
  
  It’s modern & trendy, current & young. PR & spin, sod substance
  
  Relevance to 30 something’s is where the votes are. Pity Robbo, Angry & Kelvin don’t fit the image.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:57am
  - igm
    
    Mallard and Sleeze-Galloway are not young. What are they hiding?
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:02am
    - sooty
      
      Nothing, there’s no one home in either case. They are just hanging the curtains!
      
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      February 9, 2018 1:31pm
- Liberty
  
  Maybe it is just the straight ones ?
  
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  February 9, 2018 12:35pm
Digmen1

I’m just so angry at that jumped up little squirt Chris Hipkins for his obvious plan to close all the charter schools!

National and Act should have opened a lot more of them and earlier.
And they should have given us some examples of progress. OK we saw Bill at one school where all the boys looked in their uniforms.
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February 9, 2018 8:11am
- KiWombat
  
  Perhaps, in line with the seemingly preferred new government policy, he ought to lead a “conversation” before jumping to conclusions.
  
  The “conversation” should include a visit by him and his colleagues to a charter school, and a critical assessment of the outcomes of charter schools.
  
  If any type of school, charter included, have even a modicum of success in the restructure of wayward young lives, then they ought be seriously considered as viable. And valuable !!
  
  Lets do this !
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:23am
- DifferentPerspective
  
  Too true Digimen1
  
  There was so much cucking by the Key Labour Lite administration that the barbarians were emboldened to carry out this vandalisation of the education system. Charter schools = Wrong think!
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:57am
Poppa

That idiot Hipkins has announced Charter Schools will be closed by the end of this year. Has he ever been to one? No.

Has he personally held discussions with them? no

Where is Kelvin Davis? I await your resignation sir as you stated you would resign if this happened

This in itself is possibly the beginning of the end for this band of no hopers. They hate success
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February 9, 2018 8:11am
- G152
  
  Adding to the teacher/student ratio going right out of whack.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:22am
- kowtow
  
  It will be interesting to see if zealots such as Campbell et al , get off their well paid tax funded arses to visit such places and run sob stories about their imminent demise at the hands of the evil coalition……..
  
  ……I won’t hold my breath.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:26am
- Gravelroad
  
  Labour showing its true colours. What does our esteemed Prime Minister have to say about the banning of charter schools?
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:28am
  - Tricati
    
    She handed out scholarships and paraded on TV doing it at a partnership school recently – Hypocrite
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:28am
    - Keeping Stock
      
      Did she? I could have sworn Ms Ardern has given Partnership Schools a very wide berth up until now, despite having been challenged to actually visit one.
      
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      February 9, 2018 12:17pm
  - calendar girl
    
    Gravelroad, I know someone who tried to email the PM on the proposed termination of the Charter Schools policy, using the email address: j.ardern@ministers.govt.nz that is published on the PM’s page of the NZ Labour Party website: http://www.labour.org.nz/jacindaardern .
    
    But that email address for the PM appears to be no longer functioning – the email was rejected. Is this a deliberate closing-off of feedback from the public? Looks like it.
    
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    February 9, 2018 1:07pm
- Ross12
  
  Is Hipkins saying the Charter Schools cannot change to “special interest schools” (sorry I’ve forgotten the proper term for them) and they just have to close?
  If they could change over I think the removal of bulk funding would be the main difference. A major change for them but maybe the sacrifice of it for two years would be worth it.
  The other thing I was thinking of last night is why does it take an act of Parliament to close these schools?
  I’m hoping against hope that a group of wealthy people get together and help these schools continue on as private schools.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:37am
  - tf78
    
    We also need private universities to stop the rot that’s so prevalent in the state ones.
    
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    February 9, 2018 8:54am
  - Keeping Stock
    
    I think special character schools is the expression you are looking for Ross. From memory, that was going to be the “out” for Kelvin Davis, so he wouldn’t have to make good on his threat to resign if the schools in his electorate were closed.
    
    I would be looking for the opposition to drive a wedge between Hipkins and Davis/Willie Jackson in coming days.
    
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    February 9, 2018 12:20pm
- KKKKatee
  
  I just saw a pig fly past my window……..
  There’s no way Kelvin Davis will ‘man up’ to his declaration……
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:38am
  - pdm
    
    Was it a kuni pig?
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:03am
- waikatogirl
  
  Twatford says Charter schools can stay open as long as they change the name from the current hated “Charter” school, employ registered teachers and teach the NZ curriculum as dictated by the teaching unions.
  
  Do the COL not understand that the public can see behind the smoke and mirrors. If Liabor change all the rules for Charter schools to re-aligned them to be more like state schools then they lose their unique ability and are effectively useless state schools. ?
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:42am
  - Ross12
    
    waikatogirl
    I think most, if not all, these schools teach the NZ curriculum and employ registered teachers. The one area where there is an “issue” with registered teachers is PE –at Vanguard for instance, they employ an ex army PE guy
    
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    February 9, 2018 8:56am
  - doggone7
    
    The NZ curriculum as dictated by the teaching unions? You mean the New Zealand Curriculum that comes from the Government through the Ministry of Education.
    
    You know the curriculum that came about with community consultation which many people were involved in. You did take the opportunity to participate didn’t you, so it wouldn’t be dictated by teacher unions?
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:02am
- Cunningham
  
  Not true, apparently he did go to one and was very impressed. He even asked when he was there if they would still be good in 5 years but now he’s closing them! What a complete fuckwit.
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:00am
Don the Kiwi

I hear on the news steps are in place to close charter schools by the end of the year.
Ideology trumps common sense.

“You must conform!! ”

Oops – I see Digmen and Poppa are onto it too. 🙂
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February 9, 2018 8:11am
Digmen1

Yes Labour is all about equalidy and mediocrity.
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February 9, 2018 8:13am
- cmm
  
  Can’t have successful people.
  
  We need to keep them dumb and dependent so they keep voting for koha.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:18am
  - Piniwi
    
    True cmm as is the fact that union run state schools are tasked to dumb down the masses to assist their party survive. They are set to maintain a failure rate as their goal rather than a target.
    
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    February 9, 2018 3:51pm
- Paulus
  
  Equalidy and mediocrity defined by reduction of all standards.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:19am
lastmanstanding

I have always been concerned about our Civil Service. The tradition was that senior public officials served the Minister of the day and carried out their instructions no matter the politics of the official.

Those like me who are students of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister ( described by Maggie Thatcher as a documentary not a comedy) hoped that the UK example didnt exist here.

Sadly we have come to realise it does. We also realise that over the past four or so decades the Left have captured the institutions including the Civil Service.

So at present senior officials are like pigs in the proverbial getting to implement not only their Ministers agenda but their own agenda without having to resort to Yes Minister tactics.

My solution is as follows;

1. Incoming governments get to choose their senior officials so they can be sure these people will support their agenda and implement it.

2. Senior officials be required to sign a Statutory Declaration as to the political party they supported at the election prior to the incoming government and that SD be submitted to the Minister.

Either way we need to ensure senior officials are carrying out their Ministers instructions.

Remember its the Minister who was elected by the citizens NOT the senior official.

Its that quaint old idea called Democracy.
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February 9, 2018 8:13am
- Don the Kiwi
  
  Agree – we don’t want the Deep State affair that is going on in the USA.
  Go for it Trump – Drain that swamp.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:16am
  - stephieboy
    
    Don The Kiwi , he has drained the swamp and created another one adding a so-called “ Deep State” too.
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:49am
- KevOB
  
  No way.
  The independence of a Permanent Head and the Dept allow the development of policy positions that have continuity and the concerns of the State as a whole. The alternative presented makes the office a lackey of temporary ministerial wishes which must affect the whole dept.
  
  Permanent Heads in NZ have served us well. Career Public Servants are very aware of government changes and differences in policy perspectives. Ministers are not opposed but guided as to what is possible–sometimes counselled “not to go there”. Every PH accepts a duty of loyalty to the government of the day. People of that calibre are not thick and have proven their ability to sensitively provide ministerial advice. Difference may be noted but not promoted. The departmental advice to a minister should remain confidential. Likewise a minister should not be seen to be “bullying” a Dept. A Dept may change on request but reserve it’s considered position for the long term. That’s proper as it allows the compromise to accommodate different flavours of government.
  
  We are very fortunate with the high quality Public Service in NZ.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:49am
  - flipper
    
    Bollocks !
    
    What folks need to recognise is that NZ is bout one third of the size of Chicago, but the idiots sitting in the HoRs think they equal or su0perior to Australia let alone UK and the USofA. Our bureaucrats are no better than a medium/small US/European city – not a nation. Ther touted quality/superioty is BS.
    Time to drop the Rip Van Winkle snooze……
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:25am
    - stephieboy
      
      flipper , all this happened under nine years of National ?
      
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      February 9, 2018 9:50am
    - KevOB
      
      I’ve seen this all from the inside. I prefer my memories and wishes for sound administration–anarchy is just too hard to live with.
      
      I didn’t say that the present elected government was sound or capable.
      
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      February 9, 2018 10:03am
- waikatogirl
  
  A long time civil servant I know votes Liabor. Simply, him voting Liabor ensures his longtime job with a government department is guaranteed. Less chance of being made redundant.
  Safe and well paid.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:53am
  - stephieboy
    
    waikatogirl , I don’t think all those civil servants made redundant under National would agree with .
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:52am
    - Inandout
      
      You idiot, WG gave the picture that they vote Labour to keep jobs.
      
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      February 9, 2018 10:16am
- tf78
  
  Sounds like you’ve been watching the “Bolt report” and the “Outsiders”. I totally agree with you by the way.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:56am
- wiseowl
  
  Drain the swamp.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:01am
- DifferentPerspective
  
  CE of Min ED is a former unionist.
  
  NZ’s own “Deep State”?
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:01am
  - stephieboy
    
    Deep State ??
    
    LOL
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:52am
Longknives

Lots of shrieking from The Left about Sir Bob Jones.
There is a petition going round calling for him to be stripped of his Knighthood.
Personally I’ve found many of the comments from Dame Turia way,way more offensive (Not to mention Labour Minister Willie Jackson)
The Left are massive hypocrites…
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February 9, 2018 8:13am
- holysheet
  
  Don’t forget the fat murri lover boy from Central Wellington who defrauded the trust he was the boss of. If boxer bob loses his knighthood then this prick should lose his as well.
  
  http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/7530263/SFO-probes-deals-by-Tenths-Trust
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:18am
- Dave Mann
  
  More detail please. Why is this petition circulating and what do they claim he has gone wrong?
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:24am
  - Longknives
    
    https://www.change.org/p/rt-hon-jacinda-ardern-strip-racist-sir-bob-jones-of-his-knighthood-read-his-vile-rant-here
    
    Blah Blah ‘Hate Speech’ Blah Blah ‘Old White Men’
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:53am
    - Inandout
      
      Bob just may consult his lawyers and have Renae Maihi on a spit (like in the old days before the white man landed).
      
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      February 9, 2018 10:21am
    - Dave Mann
      
      Thanks for the link Longknives. Cheers!
      
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      February 9, 2018 10:31am
      - kowtow
        
        I read somewhere that the NBR pulled his article from their website.
        
        If true we’re in a very dangerous area of media self censorship.
        
        The same people who so loudly proclaimed themselves “Je Suis” but failed to publish the cartoons.
        
        Another recent example was the ODT buried the Ngai Tahu “top up” of $190 million in the back of their print edition. You’d think such a massive injection of taxpayer money would be featured on the front page of the “independant voice of the south” instead of stories about lame penguins or some such bollocks.
        
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        February 9, 2018 11:10am
      - marcw
        
        Similarly, not a mention on the ComPost online about the elimination of Charter Schools. Embarrassed much …
        
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        February 9, 2018 12:33pm
      - mikenmild
        
        It’s right here, marcw:
        
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/101287757/government-moves-to-scrap-national-standards-and-charter-schools
        
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        February 9, 2018 1:48pm
      - marcw
        
        And yet MM it doesn’t appear on The ComPost site, which is what was quoted in my comment. Yes, it may be in the Stuff site, but not in the online front page, and a search for “Charter Schools” only finds this article at the bottom of the first page of results.
        
        As usual, comments are not enabled as they would prefer to hold their fingers in their ears and not hear any predictable disagreement.
        
        I stand by my original comment. Check your bias.
        
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        February 9, 2018 3:01pm
- Harkman
  
  Didn’t Willie Jackson defend rapists a few years back?
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:29am
  - freethinker
    
    Must have been a Mawri and we all know they are entitled to do anything as Tangafa Whenua whatever that means and Willie is the the most Odious , Biased, Racist intellectual pygmy in the COL and that takes some doing.
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:54pm
    - Harkman
      
      True
      
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      February 9, 2018 10:30pm
- Longknives
  
  This is interesting!
  
  The petition was started from someone called Renae Maihi- Her Facebook page makes great reading
  
  “I have in mind that we just kill all cunts that want to treat out people like this and the white people wonder why the brown brothers and sisters want war”
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:56am
  - Inandout
    
    Bob is having a chuckle at this dumb maori’s carry on.
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:23am
  - Inandout
    
    She (or someone of same name) owns 100% of this company:
    MS MANA FILMS LIMITED
    
    Taxpayer funded?
    
    19 0
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    February 9, 2018 10:32am
  - KiWombat
    
    Sounds like a fine upstanding citizen. Is she Muslim ?
    
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    February 9, 2018 11:11am
  - kowtow
    
    I don’t expect Plod in Chief or Dame Devoid to get outraged or involved in the same way they would jump had that remark been directed at Muslims or “people of colour”.
    
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    February 9, 2018 11:22am
    - Piniwi
      
      Well kowtow it can hardly be called a racist comment since Sir Bob is simply saying no more 100% natives left. Most claiming native status have insufficient native blood to include the auto tan element.
      Labour know them as putty people since they are so easily moulded, stay in place long enough to hold but crumble without very expensive coatings.
      
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      February 9, 2018 4:05pm
    - KKKKatee
      
      No. It’s only really bad when the whiteman says such things……
      
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      February 9, 2018 5:42pm
  - sam green
    
    Longknives – just to be clear – she didn’t write that comment.
    
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    February 9, 2018 1:36pm
- Lance
  
  Bob will be Bob. As he pointed out, nothing he said was a lie.
  I actually thought it was funny (albeit provocative) that Maori should bring the Europeans breakfast in bed to thank them for the modern society they now have.
  
  But I had a laugh at Mike King’s comment
  “Bob is like your mad old uncle whose social filter is broken”
  
  He certainly thinks it’s idiotic to be talking of stripping knighthoods etc.
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:52am
  - waikatogirl
    
    For someone who is always banging on about mental health and bullying, Mike King didn’t worry about Bob Jones when he said “Bob is like your mad old uncle whose social filter is broken”.
    
    That’s okay, Bob is just an old white guy so is above being offended. Right Mike?!
    
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    February 9, 2018 2:03pm
    - Lance
      
      Oh lighten up WG
      He was defending Bobs right to free speech and it was said in humor in a humorous tone.
      Unlike the other embittered lemon suckers they interviewed.
      
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      February 9, 2018 3:28pm
- GoVege
  
  Gotta agree with you, Longknives.
  Silly Sir Bob is just having a laugh, whereas Turia and Jackson are deadly serious when they talk about 13 to 17 year old Maori girls having babies to fulfil “our (Maori) fertility” and Maori males butchering their wives if they are ever unfaithful.
  But obviously making a joke about getting a person of Maori descent to serve us breakfast in bed is WAY more serious than advocating spousal murder or impregnating of hundreds of underage girls.
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:59am
Paulus

I believe that the Col has exposed a serious Achilles heal in Education which if handled well by the opposition, right up to the next election, will haunt them.
Two points – cancellation of National Standards – with no viable replacement, parents still want it but the Teacher’s Unions have stopped it – too much work for the poor Teachers.
But more importantly the so called sqeaky little Minister Union stooge has made it clear that Charter Schools are to be closed by the end of this year.
Again union dictum.
Personally I was skeptical when they were formed but having looked further it is my belief that they have a great part to play in our educations system.
Whilst no system is perfect, except Cinderella mom, it is well suited to many of those who have taken part.
Mostly Maori who have thrived in a collegial environment and not confrontational.
I believe that we could see many of the Maori MPs having serious thoughts as it is their heritage and Mana dictated to by the Teacher’s Unions.
It will only take one or two of them to think – difficult I know, to realise that this is not in the best interest of Maori and more particularly of being a valued part of the education of all our children.
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February 9, 2018 8:13am
- Digmen1
  
  @Paulus
  Great post
  Yes imagine cancelling National Standards before having a system to replace them!
  They really are total ideological idiots.
  
  I will be emailing every Maori MP, and asking them to consider their thoughts on Charter Schools, and to trey to get them all to visit one and see for themselvs if they are helping Maori children.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:26am
  - Piniwi
    
    @Digmen1 with the salutation ” Dear Uncle/Auntie Tom”
    
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    February 9, 2018 4:10pm
- KiWombat
  
  Unfortunately the “Maori MP’s” are all locked in to following their party mantra now, and they will not be permitted to let their personal opinions intervene.
  
  The Maori electorates were intended to give Maori an independent voice in the decision making process, alas this is no longer the case.
  
  If the Maori electorates are to succeed then they need to remain independent – otherwise they should be disbanded as their existence will always skew government opinion.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:33am
  - Piniwi
    
    Yes KiWombat it is akin to what the Labour work robot will be like. Only turns to the left so it must go round in a circle to get back even one step.
    True they will not be able to allow personal opinions surface regardless of what their voters gave support for.
    We do enjoy the irony of the natives situation after claiming for so long how Labour sold them out and now they have sold out in bulk to Labour.
    
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    February 9, 2018 4:17pm
- GazzaW
  
  I believe that you are right Paulus. When Red Radio is openly critical of Hipkins you know damn well that Labour has a problem. Just add education to the growing list of issues that have the potential for real trouble for the COL.
  
  Gone by Christmas!
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:51am
  - waikatogirl
    
    Just add to the list of disgruntled voters all those homeowners affected when interest rates to rise, as they are predicted to, and wait for the screams of indignation from those hurting financially.
    
    The wheels on the COL bus are starting to wobble…
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:02am
  - Ross12
    
    I heard HDPA ( Mrs Soper) earlier on her new gig on Zb really get stuck into the Govt. on the Charter School issue. She was really “hot under the collar” about it. I was pleasantly surprised.
    So maybe there will be a good fight back on the issue.
    
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    February 9, 2018 12:16pm
  - Piniwi
    
    True GazzaW the honeymoon ended way before the 100 days of dilemma and from next week it is time to feel a true shot of reality.
    
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    February 9, 2018 4:21pm
- doggone7
  
  Not confrontational? Not confrontational? Surely the little toads need to be told what to do, how to do it and when to do it in no uncertain terms.
  Like in the army. What’s confrontational got to do with it?
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:06am
- VicParking
  
  The Maori Mp’s Won’t lift their heads out of the trough long enough to see it anything is not good for Maori.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:12am
  - Piniwi
    
    True VP and while moonlight becomes you they will be avoiding any bright lights as the hoe down in the trough. They can not let the lid fall on the trough since if brains were dynamite they know even as a collective they would not have enough to blow it open again.
    
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    February 9, 2018 4:27pm
- Keeping Stock
  
  After the 2002 defeat, is was through taking Labour on over education that Bill English got his mojo back. From memory the main issue was the problems with the rollout of NCEA, and day after day, English ripped into Labour in the House.
  
  I hope Nikki Kaye is up to the task of going head to head with Hipkins, who I believe is going to become as Paulus say an Achilles heel for Labour.
  
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  February 9, 2018 12:27pm
  - RalphT
    
    From what I’ve seen Nikki Kaye will be more than a match for Hipkins.
    
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    February 9, 2018 2:06pm
Digmen1

Chris Hipkins is the one who answer all his questions in Parliament with a smart arse “yes” or “no”
He is very childish and arogant.
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February 9, 2018 8:14am
- Gabby
  
  You mean he’s being asked closed questions? Who are the schmucks doing that dickman?
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:51am
- RF
  
  Yep. Mallard just sits there smiling and allowing Labour to run riot.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:57am
Scott

You hear it here first – Trump is more popular than Obama!!!

“Since his electoral landslide in November 2016 Donald Trump has had to deal with spying by the Obama administration, a corrupt deep state special counsel on Russian collusion, a lackluster economy, a foreign policy disaster, and a radical far left mainstream media that reported negative hit pieces on the new president 90% of the time.
Despite all of this bad news President Trump holds a 48% approval rating today in the Rasmussen daily tracking.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty-one percent (51%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 34% who Strongly Approve of the way the president is performing and 42% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -8.

President Trump has a stronger approval rating today than media darling Barack Obama did back in 2010 on this same day.
Back on February 7, 2010 Barack Obama had an approval rating of 44% while 56% of likely voters disapproved of the far left president.

Trump had a tremendous first year despite an unbelievable barrage of attacks against him.”
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/02/outstanding-president-trumps-approval-rating-tops-barack-obama-4-points-time-presidency/
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February 9, 2018 8:16am
- marcw
  
  Today in the Herald we have this headline:
  “Soper: Trump has world mesmerised by his hair”.
  
  I haven’t read it, but has barely sober gone totally retarded? How is it that a so called “head of Parliamentary Press Gallery” can be publishing such crap. What a tool. Surely there should be some standards such a person is required to meet.
  Credibility = zero.
  
  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11990680
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:42am
  - Gravelroad
    
    This is just a case of a lazy journalist with a hangover interviewing his typewriter.
    Time to toss it in Barry if this is the best you can do.
    
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    February 9, 2018 8:55am
  - KiWombat
    
    We could have a similar headline here
    
    “Cindy has NZ mesmerised by her belly bump.”
    
    Not much else of substance to write about
    – other than her ability to cook sausages !!
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:08am
    - Lance
      
      Bacon butties please !!!
      Not mere sausages
      
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      February 9, 2018 10:54am
  - Surely Knott
    
    Agree. The Soper article is madness. Soper should go. We’ve had days of ongoing speculative drivel from this man. It’s the second day we’ve seen Herald articles or embrassing pics on Trumps hair. Criticise his policy and performance for sure. But his hair, really? This is the kind of petty juvenile facebook bullying that we tell our children not to engage in held up as journalism by our national paper. I get stupider every time I read the Herald. Soper must go. Get us a journalist, please.
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:56am
    - RF
      
      I’m waiting for Soper to remind Kelvin that he would resign if Charter schools were closed down.
      
      Oh. Wait… Soper is labour’s media spokesperson.
      
      Clear the runway for the flying pigs.
      
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      February 9, 2018 10:01am
- MCos
  
  I read today that the Pentagon is suggesting the proposed military parade favoured by Pres Trump might not take place in Washington. Maybe several parades could be organized with one of them down Lambton Quay passed the Kiwiblog HQ.
  Ambassador Scott Brown could take the salute.
  If Trump’s popularity on this blog is anything to go by it would be a resounding sucess.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:42am
- stephieboy
  
  Scott , this recent poll suggests the very opposite ,
  
  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-president-trumps-approval-rating-on-the-rise/
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:21am
  - Scott
    
    Stephieboy – I know you are very busy but you should take time to read your own sources. The story you linked to does admit that Trump’s popularity is rising. Not as much as the Rasmussen poll for sure, but still a definite rise.
    
    I predict that Trump’s numbers will be pretty good come November and the elections in Congress. Unemployment is way down, the US economy is predicting over 3% growth this year and business confidence is good.
    
    Short of a worldwide crash or a nuclear attack I think Trump and the Republican Party are looking good for November! People are starting to see the good economic news.
    
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    February 9, 2018 1:46pm
Inandout

Tommy Twyford was conjuring flat out on Garner this morning regarding charter schools. Labour is changing the rules, but nothing is changing. Even Garner’s lot couldn’t believe the twisting and turning by Twyford. At least Tommy Cooper fluffed his conjuring in public but was actually a first rate magician. Twyford tries to conjure correctly in public, but behind the scenes he is a fraud. Judith looked liked our next PM, just saying.
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February 9, 2018 8:17am
- Gabby
  
  The Eyebrows of Satan looks nothing like Winston downanout, shame on you.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:33am
  - Inandout
    
    Can’t really see Tommy Twyford’s eyebrows.
    
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    February 9, 2018 8:50am
  - sam green
    
    Lol – the Eyebrows of Satan.
    
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    February 9, 2018 1:41pm
- Harkman
  
  But the media here will savage Collins like they attack Trump.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:32am
waikatogirl

Julie Bishop Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs is arriving in NZ for 2 days of meetings with Winston Peters who is hailing Australia as the most important relationship NZ has.

There are no plans for Cindy to meet with Julie Bishop during her diplomatic visit due Chippie undermining Australian politics and Julie Bishop stated that she would never trust the NZ Liabor party, but Cindy couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. Go on Cindy man up and meet with Julie. You’re the PM!
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February 9, 2018 8:17am
- Poppa
  
  Cindy will be at a kindergarten that day so is unavailable
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:21am
  - KiWombat
    
    Maybe she will still be driving the porcelain bus that day !
    
    Besides, Bishop will be meeting with the real PM, you know – the one that makes all the decisions – not just the poster girl !!
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:10am
  - hullkiwi
    
    What’s new then?
    
    4 0
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    February 9, 2018 10:23am
- MCos
  
  Ardern is not a man, neither is Bishop for that matter.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:46am
  - DifferentPerspective
    
    Oh look! A squirrel!
    
    17 3
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    February 9, 2018 9:04am
  - Keeping Stock
    
    No shit Sherlock?
    
    8 0
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    February 9, 2018 12:31pm
- Inandout
  
  In reality Julie is meeting our PM, not the puppet front girl.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:52am
- freethinker
  
  Does PM in Glitter Tits case stand for Principle Mong?
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:07pm
oldpark

Yes its getting worse. NZs once proud world famous democracy is taking a massive hit.
Since the wee dictator the accursed Peters anointed the Coalition of Corruption and Confusion,NZ way of life and well being is under the cosh.
Peters has given Carte Blance to the Trade Union infested and controlled Labour Party.
Fresh from gouging a few extra Superannuation dollars off Fixed Income old age pensioners and Loyal supporters which was bad enough.
Next we have the Bully Boys Chris Hipkins,and the other waste of space ratbag David Parker.
Hipkins under the orders of his masters the Trade Unions and in accordance with his boss known as “Commie Chic” Comrade Ardern they have given a directive to close down very succesful Charter Schools.
David Parker the electoral seat three time loser in his attempt to win an electoral seat has come out defending the punitive Jack Boot jumping Waka Bill to protect the Accursed Peters.
A massive attack on the rights of Members of our Parliament should they get into a difference of opinion with their leaders.
The corrupt Waka Bill is a massive assault on the bill of rights of all NZs.
To think that the Ratbag Parker is defending it,in accordance with the “Coalition of Corruption and Confusion” ,is an abomination.
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February 9, 2018 8:21am
- Poppa
  
  That Parker is a nasty piece of work
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:23am
  - Paulus
    
    Parker has a reputation in Dunedin, before he played politics, to be a very untrustworthy lawyer, whom I believe along with his father were ably to assist in bankrupting one of two property investments deals.
    
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    February 9, 2018 8:28am
    - Happychappy
      
      Ask the Pensioners in Dunedin who lost their life savings over a investment he was involved in.
      
      32 1
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      February 9, 2018 9:41am
      - igm
        
        Ask his infirm ex best friend what he is like. Did he not shoot through with his wife. He must be a real bastard, not unfamiliar in Labour.
        
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        February 9, 2018 10:21am
      - Keeping Stock
        
        Indeed igm – shacking up with your mate’s ex-missus after he has had a severe stroke is pretty low:
        
        http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10716817
        
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        February 9, 2018 12:34pm
  - Digmen1
    
    That’s not fair on David Parker
    Most of the Labour and Greens MP’s are nasty pieces of work.
    Hipkins
    Twyford
    Ardern
    Jackson
    etc etc etc
    
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    February 9, 2018 8:29am
    - stephieboy
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      In the reign of Terror ?
      
      https://learnodo-newtonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Reign-Of-Terror-Facts-Featured-932×349.jpg
      
      LOL
      
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      February 9, 2018 9:55am
    - freethinker
      
      Some are queers too, some are haters, no probably all are haters.
      
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      February 9, 2018 10:30pm
Digmen1

@Scott
Great post.
I am so pleased that Trump hung in there against all the negatividy.
You forgot to mention all of the celebrites that were against him as well!

He is making America great again!
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February 9, 2018 8:22am
- stephieboy
  
  One who doesn’t think so and who does know ,
  
  “Russia meddled in U.S election, George W. Bush says”
  
  ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Former U.S. president George W. Bush accused Russia on Thursday of meddling in the U.S. 2016 presidential election, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “brilliant tactician”.
  
  Bush, interviewed on stage at a business conference in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, said there was clear evidence that the Russians had meddled but whether that affected the outcome of the election was another question.
  
  “But they meddled and that is dangerous for democracy,” he said, adding that Russia had done the same thing during the Cold War and was adept at trying to manipulate opinion in the United States and Europe.
  
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-bush/russia-meddled-in-u-s-election-george-w-bush-says-idUSKBN1FS1Q4
  businessofchange.co.nz
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:58am
  - Don the Kiwi
    
    Bullshit stupidboy.
    
    It was Obama who meddled in the Israeli elections, pouring in huge funds to attempt to prevent Netanyahu being elected.
    
    10 2
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    February 9, 2018 11:55am
    - cha
      
      Nah, Hillary was colluding with the FBI and Russia to have Trump elected so she could get Soros to hire protestors to get him impeached.
      /
      
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      February 9, 2018 2:29pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    Of course they “meddled”, and their most successful piece of meddling was to promote a load of disinformation into the Steele Dossier that has been used to assist in undermining Trump once he was elected- helped enormously of course by the Democrats and their partners the MSM and the top brass at the FBI and DOJ.
    
    Of course it is possible that a lot of the info in the Steele Dossier didn’t come from the FSB, it may well have simply been concocted by Cody Shearer and Sid Blumenthal and feed to Steele via a DOJ official so the exceptionally dodgy reputation that dogs Shearer wouldn’t “taint” the dossier. But I’m not sure which version of that is more damning – either the Democrats etc are deliberately pushing Russian disinformation for their own political ends or they are pushing fantasies made up by the Clinton’s hatchet men.
    
    Either way it is a total clusterfuck and a serious set of crimes that have been committed.
    
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    February 9, 2018 12:03pm
    - mikenmild
      
      Way to reverse the narrative.
      
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      February 9, 2018 1:54pm
Chuck Bird

What anti-male crap. I wonder if the author is another man hating dyke like the Herald often has to write opinion pieces.

Elon Musk’s Tesla car and Peter Beck’s glitter ball worlds apart

In a similar vein, the red sports car symbolises masculinity — power, wealth and speed — but also how fragile masculinity is. Stereotypically, the red sports car is the accessory of choice in the male mid-life crisis, which men use to rebel against perceived domestication.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11990722
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February 9, 2018 8:32am
- holysheet
  
  Nah, a big throbbing Harley between your thighs is the ultimate mid life crisis toy. Not that these man hating dykes know anything about big things……
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:35am
- itstricky
  
  What anti-male crap. I wonder if the author is another man hating dyke
  
  I think you’re reading way too much into it.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:42am
- Gabby
  
  We like to call it the hupersonity star when we reflect on it in our reflections journals chuckers.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:46am
  - Harriet
    
    Taken your Trycoxagain tablets today Gabby, or did you forget, again? 😎
    
    14 4
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    February 9, 2018 8:49am
    - sam green
      
      Is that what you’ve been taking for your Coxaphalia?
      
      2 7
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      February 9, 2018 1:46pm
  - itstricky
    
    Don’t you mean:
    
    …when our soft, baby tears of joyful rememberence fall gently on the pages of our pink and purple lavender reflections journal…
    
    ?
    
    3 12
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    February 9, 2018 8:52am
  - cmm
    
    Hi Gabby
    
    I upticked you by mistake. I thought I should let you know because I didn’t want you being misled into believing you had a fan.
    
    PS The missus found out about the poem I wrote you last Valentines Day so I don’t think I will write you another next week.
    
    Please feel free to pursue other love interests. Dave G has made a play for Penny so I wouldn’t waste any time trying to score with him.
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:12am
- cmm
  
  “My hope is that everyone looking up at the Humanity Star will look past it to the expanse of the universe, feel a connection to our place in it and think a little differently about their lives, actions and what is important.”
  
  Bullshit sweetie. Mother Nature is a bitch. She would kill you if she could.
  
  Rather thank all the masculinity that has brought you technology that (a) keeps you alive, (b) gives you a platform to spout your drivel and (c) a peaceful world where you are free to voice your absurd opinions.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:50am
  - itstricky
    
    Bullshit sweetie. Mother Nature is a bitch. She would kill you if she could
    
    It was Peter Beck who said that, not “the sweetie”
    
    Besides which, as I read it, “Mother Nature is a bitch” is one of the very points of that quote from him. He’s just echoed Pale Blue Dot, in a way.
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:01am
    - cmm
      
      Thank you for that, but she chose to make a big quote of it, so she clearly believes it.
      
      7 1
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      February 9, 2018 9:14am
      - itstricky
        
        Or, alternatively, the editor and designers believe it. And “mother nature is a giant, universe sized bitch” is one the prime take-aways from the quote.
        
        Try reading:
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot#Reflections
        
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        February 9, 2018 10:18am
  - sam green
    
    And all that time cmm – who was washing the skid marks offa those dudes undies?
    
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    February 9, 2018 1:50pm
- KevOB
  
  The Tesla car in space is a masterpiece advertisement. A double hit as Musk built the rocket too.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:01am
  - Lance
    
    “The Rocket’ was the most powerful machine ever built by humans.
    That record used to held by the Saturn 5 booster but now the Falcon Heavy is twice as powerful.
    
    Awesome
    
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    February 9, 2018 11:01am
oldpark

Then there are TVNZ and DomPost who virtually and almost totally ignored the Hipkins assault on Charter Schools.
Seems the trade unions have a death grip on Dom Post. As for TVNZ the Coalition of Corruption and Confusion,have them in their pockets.
NZs Should be afraid very afraid. Seems any thing that dosnt look good for the Claytons NZs Government gets suppressed.
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February 9, 2018 8:43am
- igm
  
  MSM are withholding anything that is detrimental to socialist politics. They are getting worse, as they manufacture and amend everything to suit their subjective views. There are very few editorial staff not of a left-wing persuasion, and if there is one or two, they will be forced out.
  
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  February 9, 2018 8:47am
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    igm, go and visit your Doctor
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:01am
    - Keeping Stock
      
      Actually Stephieboy, what igm describes is deadly accurate around the newspapers especially, of New Zealand.
      
      The journalists are almost all unionised, and the union they belong to is E tu, an amalgamation in 2015 of the EPMU and Service and Food Workers Union. Of course, Andrew Little was head honcho of the EPMU at the time of the Pike River mine disaster, where he sided with management, and told the New Zealand Herald on November 22 2010 that there was “nothing unusual about Pike River or this mine that we’ve been particularly concerned about”. Ironically, Little is now trying to score political points over Pike River.
      
      http://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.co.nz/2014/12/how-andrew-little-failed-pike-river.html
      
      Our local paper is a hot-bed of left-wing opinion. That’s why Rachel Stewart, who threatened to break DPF’s legs, writes a regular column for it. And a couple of years ago one of their senior journalists posted a disgraceful piece on Facebook where she compared Paula Bennett to a cow which had escaped in one of our outer suburbs. A friend of mine rang the editor of the paper to complain, and was given the brush-off. Not to be deterred, my friend then contacted the General Manager of the newspaper, the post disappeared very quickly and an apology was issued.
      
      Maybe you should actually do some research before you rush into print and imply people like igm are mentally ill.
      
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      February 9, 2018 12:46pm
      - itstricky
        
        And a couple of years ago one of their senior journalists posted a disgraceful piece on Facebook where she compared Paula Bennett to a cow which had escaped in one of our outer suburbs.
        
        Which is why, to this day, you tell off everyone here who compares Jacinda to a horse, right?
        
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        February 9, 2018 1:22pm
      - mikenmild
        
        Maybe you should actually do some research before you rush into print and imply people like igm are mentally ill.
        
        I’m not sure that Keeping Stock has been reading enough of igm’s comments. In fact, I’m sure of it, otherwise all of those lunatic, abusive rantings would have attracted firm censure from the Pete George of Whanganui.
        
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        February 9, 2018 2:03pm
    - DifferentPerspective
      
      Why would igm do that SB? Is his dr going to be able to inocculate igm against your never-ending stream of drivel??
      
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      February 9, 2018 2:29pm
Harriet

I just looked at a headline on an aussie news sight which read “Australia’s highest paying job” which was medicine in general, then it also said it was “the field where there was the most disparity between male and female pay rates” — then it had 32 slides which you could flick through, the first is a male neurosurgeon and their pay rate, the second is a female neurosurgeon and their pay rate,………..and on it went radiologist……..

But it doesn’t mention the other known truth that was reported recently— female doctors in Australia across all states work far less hours than their male counterparts, and where the known problem is that every state has to now employ more doctors just to get the current work load done, which then helps drive UP the rates of pay due to demand for doctors!!!!!!
Identity politics? — nope! —- pussy politics! 😎
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February 9, 2018 8:46am
- cmm
  
  The other issue is that male doctors tend to go into the more technical specialisations (orthopedic, neuro, …) while female doctors tend to go for the feelz oriented stuff (GP, women’s plumbing,…).
  
  That will clearly make for huge biases in the average pay across doctors.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:19am
- stephieboy
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Harriet , as often the case can you source that claim other than your more usual ?
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:02am
  - softail 1450
    
    streppieboy,idiot .
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:11am
Digmen1

Should this extreme left wing bias in our media be allowed.
Or is it just part of having freedom of the press.
Why don’t the right wing have their own paper or tv channel.
Instead of donating millions to the National Party use that money for some media!
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February 9, 2018 8:48am
- cmm
  
  You might have to give them tax dollars under threat of prison, but you don’t have to give them your eyeballs.
  
  ” Why don’t the right wing have their own paper or tv channel.” For the same reason as it would be pointless to open a new wheelwright business – those days are gone.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:21am
  - Scott
    
    cmm-Don’t agree actually. When Fox News opened in America the general feeling was that it would reach a niche audience. Well it turned out the niche audience was half the country!
    
    We definitely need to hear proper right of centre voices. At the moment everybody speaks from a centre-left perspective or a far left perspective. So the national conversation is always about “equality”and how do we make everybody equal?
    
    Whereas the glorious centre-right would be talking about freedom. As long as there is reasonable opportunity, which is all anyone can reasonably expect, you should have the freedom to succeed (or not) based on your own temperament, skills, virtue and character.
    
    Over here at the centre right we want the freedom to raise our families and have the government leave us alone. I don’t think that’s too much to ask??
    
    But we need media and commentators with that viewpoint here in New Zealand.
    
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    February 9, 2018 9:43am
    - cmm
      
      That was then, this is now.
      
      Fox (and CNNs) following is waining.
      
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      February 9, 2018 9:58am
    - stephieboy
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Scott , it is not that difficult for Faux Fox News to fool alt right sheeple like yourself most of the time .
      
      In what way is this present or past government interfering in raising of your family ?
      
      I believe most New Zealanders would be able to see through the Faux claims by your kind of Faux Media
      
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      February 9, 2018 10:09am
      - softail 1450
        
        streppieboy,cretin.
        
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        February 9, 2018 10:14am
      - Don the Kiwi
        
        Says septicboy, who idolises CNN, MSNBC,WAPO, NYT etc…..
        
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        February 9, 2018 12:03pm
      - stephieboy
        
        Don the Kiwi , and alt righters often link to either of them when it suits .
        
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        February 9, 2018 12:30pm
      - starboard
        
        Shariaboy..put ya flak jacket on..”booom”
        
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        February 9, 2018 12:53pm
- Poppa
  
  I do agree that the media in this country are infested with socialists & do-gooders.
  
  You only have to think of names like Campbell, Tame, Espiner etc
  
  There was a time when the media was balanced. Why has it changed & how did we let that happen?
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:52am
  - fernglas
    
    The media is just as balanced as it was forty years ago. It’s us that have changed.
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:59am
  - stephieboy
    
    Poppa , well there is always Whale Blubber and Red Bater’s Real True Blue NZ to fall back on .
    
    1 18
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    February 9, 2018 12:31pm
  - Paulus
    
    The media changed because of MONEY for the owners.
    Publish anything true or not to get circulation and more money.
    It will only be time when NZME and Fairfax collapse financially.
    They think by merging that they will survive but will still collapse quicker with large losses and redundancies.
    
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    February 9, 2018 1:39pm
- Shaun the Sheep
  
  The screeching that would cause is unimaginable.
  
  It’d be like Milo visiting everyday … the protests, the placards, the demands for withholding a visa, …?
  
  Perhaps Bob Jones would like to write the editorials, after all he only has one knighthood to be stripped from him by public petition …
  
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  February 9, 2018 2:07pm
- DifferentPerspective
  
  As is always the case, the answer lies at the end of the money trail.
  
  Why, after a long period of relative balance across media outlets (for eg in the 80s in the UK the right was voiced by the Times, the Telegraph and the Mail and the left views were covered by the Guardian, Independent and the Mirror) have things lurched hard left? Cui bono?
  
  I suspect it’s more to do with the Saudi’s giving up on manipulating the oil market and getting a bit more sophisticated with their diversification plans.
  
  It is no longer sufficient to control a major chunk of the world’s oil via OPEC to ramp up prices, you also have to reduce the ever-increasing supply of non-OPEC oil sources. But how to do that?
  
  And this is where the new religion of Global Warming came in to play – it serves the dirty Arab’s interests perfectly! It fills the gap in the lives of the West’s masses left by the death of religion (“save your soul” morphed seamlessly into “save the planet”).
  
  The problem was how to get traction on this silver bullet solution? Up pops the useful socialist idiot Al Gore who is prepared (with a little financial support) to go global with his Chicken Little story. Where did all Al Gore’s wealth come from given he’s been so altruistic in dedicating his life to “Saving the Planet” (true altruists die in abject poverty btw)?
  
  And as we all know, once one socialist finds the way into fame and everlasting wealth all the rest of the species are sure to follow with, grasping hands wide open. The problem with socialists though is that, well, they’re a bit stupid and a free and enquiring press would have no problem tearing down the bullshit edifice of the great “save the planet” non-OPEC supply control scam.
  
  And this is where you get your answer, and why the House of Saud have been making massive loss-making investments in media companies.
  
  Who are the most profitable customers of the duopoly TV newsfeed syndicates like AP? Ooh that’s right the mid-East dictators – who like pro-Arab, anti-west flavoured footage to keep their unwashed masses in line with. Majority shareholder in Twitter? oops there we go again – the House of Saud!
  
  The oil money arabs need Western political leadership to be perma-held by the Left because of what happens when the Left are in power:
  – traditional alternative energy sources to OPEC oil are attacked (Obama’s war on coal, nuclear power is shunned, fracking is demonised, leftist activist groups are allowed to employ domestic terror tactics to prevent new oil exploration etc). Only essentially flawed, non-viable “Gween” energy sources are allowed (the OPEC arabs feel no threat from this the way they do from fracking or from oil sand mining)
  
  And a universally biased MSM is needed to keep the Left in power. Small wonder the Murdochs moved in to Fox – over time the right-wing flavour of their content will water down and line up with the other left wing mouth pieces. Look at the embarrassing abasement of NZ’s media at the feet of what is a baby-brained toothy communist bimbo?
  
  Cui bono? Is the question the sane have to keep on asking again and again and again.
  
  Who benefits from trying to steal the 2016 US election for Hillary? Could it be all the arab pay for play donors who gave so generously to the Clinton Foundation and her campaign?
  
  Who benefits from trying to put up the Saudi-sympathetic low-energy Jeb Bush to ensure that whoever wins – their person is in the White House?
  
  Who benefits from a Europe tearing itself apart under the weight of a self-inflicted cultural timebomb?
  
  Who is suffering most now that Trump is in the White House? The Paris accord is an empty gesture as the world’s biggest oil consumer is moving towards energy independence, the muslimisation of Europe is in danger now Trump has shown you can say NO and protect the border? Who suffers if the fake news MSM lose their stranglehold on delivering a house view on the truth?
  
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  February 9, 2018 3:07pm
holysheet

Q: What do you call a singing laptop?
A: A Dell
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February 9, 2018 9:08am
- Harkman
  
  But try to avoid a Skyfall, it will break.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:43am
gorse

I’ve been away for a few weeks. I notice ztev is not posting. Has it been banned? Hopefully.
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February 9, 2018 9:09am
- KiWombat
  
  He might be in the naughty corner – but he does still appear from time to time under another alias !
  
  15 1
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  February 9, 2018 9:15am
- GazzaW
  
  I assume so. He’s been missing since last week. The stephieteam and gobby are doing their best in his absence but they are pretty damned hopeless.
  
  If you’re reading this ztev then I hope that you are fulminating with sheer frustration. Enjoy your break. There’s no time off for good behaviour.
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:24am
  - Gravelroad
    
    The ztev team has been organising the charade at Waitangi for Winstone 1st and the PM. Now having a well earned holiday at the expense of the Callaghan lot.
    
    14 2
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    February 9, 2018 9:44am
  - sooty
    
    The toxic troll is in the shop for gender realignment.
    
    14 3
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    February 9, 2018 9:45am
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    GazzaW ,just enjoying the spectacle of alt right hysterics this morning .
    
    Keep it up .
    
    Hilarious !
    
    1 32
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    February 9, 2018 10:10am
    - softail 1450
      
      streppieboy ,moron.
      
      15 3
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      February 9, 2018 10:13am
    - GazzaW
      
      That’s the way stephie. Watch and learn.
      
      4 0
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      February 9, 2018 5:46pm
  - KiWombat
    
    He is sniffing around – can’t help himself.
    
    Hi Sam_Bro !
    
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    February 9, 2018 7:33pm
- Biscuit
  
  Gorse, I just checked.
  
  Ztev appears to have been a good boy for, gasp, over 4 months!
  
  ztev – 1st strike – 10/12/16, 2nd strike – 4/4/17, 3rd strike – 12/4/17, 4th strike – 27/5/17, 5th strike – 14/7/17, 6th strike – 22/9/17
  
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  February 9, 2018 12:04pm
holysheet

Now the Halberg awards are over for another year, I await calls from the lefties for their demise.
Why, well for a start they are named after some old white geezer. The winners last night of the team awards were not female. The ultimate winners were not female.
Ultimately there was no category for the LGBTwhateverthe fuck you are community, therefore the Halbergs need to go.
Lets do this.
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February 9, 2018 9:18am
- Longknives
  
  “Ultimately there was no category for the LGBT..”
  
  They have their own ‘Big Night’ coming up soon with the Ratepayer funded Fisting Competition etc etc
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:09am
  - hullkiwi
    
    LK you understate how much ratepayer/taxpayer money is being spent on this thing by AC & its CCOs. The amounts are staggering. Not to to mention we now have a queer coloured police car.
    
    This is objectional & as is the new norm, I take offence at this, why because it is public money being squandered & next year they’ll be back for even more!
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:36am
- Biscuit
  
  holysheet, the guy who won Sportsman Of The Year did his best to accommodate that section of society by turning up in a frock!
  
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  February 9, 2018 12:07pm
Harkman

Emirates ad

Anyone seen the Emirates ad that is about upgrading your airline instead of your seat?

On it there is a bloke/customer saying to a woman at a budget airline counter, ‘you know you could be a model’ in an attempt to get an upgrade. It then shows at shot of a woman behind the counter, frowning. It’s Cindy. Our PM is a budget airline luggage/counter/booking girl. ?
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February 9, 2018 9:39am
lifesgood

An interview between Jack Tame and Bill English popped up on my FB feed. Bill was good but Jack had a steadfast agenda to make National look weak and crumbling, a line he tried to cling to all through the interview. Good on Bill, though, for calling out Labour as “nasty and vindictive” re closing charter schools. He also got in the fact that Labour don’t care about the children attending them. Jack looked terrified, like, oh god, how can i shut him up? What will my bosses say if anything is broadcast slagging off the government? What on earth can I do? I know, just keep harping on about the msm manufactured instability in National. It would have been hilariously funny if not so tragic and transparent.
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February 9, 2018 9:48am
- Harriet
  
  C’mon it’s been said here before that National kicked the can down the road with regards to opening more charter schools, it was at the end of the day simply a bargain between themselves and ACT to form government.
  
  Or —- BE simply has to agree with me — John Key was lazy! 😎
  
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  February 9, 2018 9:55am
  - wiseowl
    
    National kicked the can down the road with education full stop.
    It would be the first port of call if I was in a position of power.So critical for society and the unions get to run education.
    Teachers should do what they are told. Not dictate.
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:16am
cmm

South Africa’s Prez Zuma looks likely to step down soon.

he certainly has been corrupt and most of South Africa will be glad to see him gone.

But does anyone think the next in line is going to be any better? Corruption is not just at the top. It is systemic all the way from the top to the bottom.
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February 9, 2018 9:54am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  RSA is in terminal decline, there is nothing that can be done to stop it.
  
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  February 9, 2018 12:27pm
  - cmm
    
    In the old days there was Northern Rhodesia, now renamed Zambia, then Rhodesia was renamed Zimbabwe.
    
    Question: Will South Africa ever be renamed Southern Zimbabwe?
    
    9 1
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    February 9, 2018 12:44pm
    - GazzaW
      
      Merge all three and call it the Chinese Peoples Republic of Southern Africa. Add in Malawi, Mozambique and Angola for good measure.
      
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      February 9, 2018 6:10pm
flipper

Look the so called Halbergs are derived from the Sportsman of the Year trophy. The Halberg Trust appropriated the trophy when the original trust deed expired (from memory).
While Halberg’s charitable objectives are laudable, the event as now promoted by media is little more than NZ sports politics in action. They are essentially controlled by an Auckland based Track and Field cabal.

That said, what was once simple exercise in rigged voting is now a PC driven TV promotion. To the extent that there is charitable benefit the Sportsman of the Year is a very good purpose.
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February 9, 2018 9:54am
- Harkman
  
  Doesn’t Rowing win it nearly every year?
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:45am
  - MH
    
    most of the rowers are on KB.
    
    3 1
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    February 9, 2018 12:09pm
- Paulus
  
  Didn’t Lisa Carrington look gorgeous though.
  A real women and a worthy winner too.
  
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  February 9, 2018 1:44pm
Cunningham

Labour getting an ass pounding over Charter Schools. Apparently some of the students from these schools were given a PM award from Jacinda. Anyone know of any photos of her shaking these students hands? Would love to see this on a headline at the moment! There is a large and fast growing backlash against them for this.
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February 9, 2018 9:59am
- Digmen1
  
  How is their arse being pounded?
  Just writing on here or phoning talk back is not going to cut it.
  We have to email them all to let them know our feelings.
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:10am
  - Cunningham
    
    Watch the am show interview, listen to the radio nz interview of Hipkins. Momentum is growing on this subject.
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:16am
  - cmm
    
    They’re in a very tight spot.
    
    The voters want the charter schools, but the unions don’t.
    
    Can’t please both.
    
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    February 9, 2018 1:45pm
- KKKKatee
  
  And the MSM won’t report this either.
  No, it’s far more important that we hear about the pregnancy, what the expectant mother eats for breakfast; whether or not they’ll use disposable nappies or use cloth ones; her flavour of the month maternity wear designer etc. etc.
  The MSM will not be reporting anything negative about the PM while this pregnancy runs its course I fear.
  
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  February 9, 2018 5:28pm
- GazzaW
  
  There’s a protest march on in Auckland on Sunday.
  
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  February 9, 2018 6:34pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  There’s a pic on Whale oil of the PM with one of the winners (Saffron Jackson_Marshall) from a Charterschool
  https://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2018/01/irony-alert-pm-presents-certificates-students-closing-schools/
  
  http://educationcentral.co.nz/charter-school-student-receives-pms-scholarship/
  
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  February 9, 2018 6:49pm
Anne Glen Eden

I normally have a lot of time for Mike Hosking but his offering about the four-day working week is a bit pathetic.

Firstly, I agree with him that six weeks is a ridiculous ‘test’ of anything.

Secondly, and what is abundantly clear from his every other comment, is that people are habituated to their ‘normal’ and their every action and response is mired in that ‘normal’ until a new ‘normal’ is established. No test is a valid one until that has happened.

The suggestion that any company would expect the same amount of work to be done in four days as someone currently does in five, in an environment where staff have been cut to the bone for decades to begin with, is just bizarre. I’m sure many of them are dependent on other people, inside and outside the company, to complete their jobs first to keep up the workflow as well. What kind of test is that? Are staff supposed to be grateful for increased pressure and impossible workloads?

As for China and Japan who ‘produce stuff in massive numbers’, is he suggesting this is a good thing? They produce a lot of junk product, sometimes dangerous, and flood world markets with cheap take-offs of other people’s products, generally undercutting prices and labour in other countries, in an environment where there is far too much ‘stuff’ in everyone’s lives anyway – not to mention the difficulties inherent in disposing of all this ‘stuff’, let alone distributing it all over the world. They achieve it at a massive human cost.

Such trials take a lot of preparation in human resources to ‘test’ appropriately and thoroughly. It isn’t a simple equation.

I doubt that none of them have figured out that if they can do their work in four days instead of five, they’ll soon be facing staff cuts in a five day week because I don’t know of any business that does anything without the bottom line in mind. To suggest that Guardian is doing this out of the goodness of their hearts and to benefit the employees and community is ludicrous. Yeah, right. That, alone, will ensure the ‘test’ fails. Employees may vary in intelligence but they’re not stupid. They have to be survivalists these days. They’ll sabotage it.

Or is that what this ‘test’ is for? To prove that it doesn’t work? Mind you, Guardian will ‘win’ either way, not the staff.

Some people are Type A personalities – and they tend to be those with the public profile – like Hosking. Others want different lives. Society should be able and willing to accommodate all of them, not trying to make everyone unwillingly the same.

No-one went down on 9/11 lamenting that they hadn’t worked hard enough, too few days a week, or would miss the next business meeting. You can’t take any of this ‘stuff’ with you, even mostly into old age. And it’s killing the planet, not to mention hastening the end of the species. Many of the frenetic ‘producers’ are just running away from their own humanity, making themselves feel okay by forcing others unwillingly to do likewise, resulting in myriad and expensive social and health problems. It’s a race to the bottom.
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February 9, 2018 10:00am
- KevOB
  
  The 4 days will expand back into 5 with increased pay demanded for the extra time.
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:09am
- cmm
  
  Anne, it surely depends very much on the activity.
  
  If you’re a “meatbot” factory worker then your output is very much tied to the number of hours you spend on the shop floor. Cut those hours from 5 days to 4 days and productivity goes down linearly.
  
  Same deal for many occupations.
  
  However for some occupations the hours worked does not align as closely with productivity. That is true of many creative fields: computer programming, for instance.
  
  Would a 4 day week have a massive reduction on national productivity? Likely not.
  
  Productivity follows the Pareto Principle – sometimes called the 80-20 rule. A very small number of people are responsible for most of the productivity and they tend to be working way over 40 hours.
  
  “No-one went down on 9/11 lamenting that they hadn’t worked hard enough, too few days a week, or would miss the next business meeting. You can’t take any of this ‘stuff’ with you, even mostly into old age.”
  
  Again, that depends very much on your area of activity. There are plenty people (myself included) for whom their work is their favourite hobby. I reckon to the day I die.
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:35am
  - KiWombat
    
    “However for some occupations the hours worked does not align as closely with productivity.”
    
    Oh how right you are cmm
    
    Now if only we could get our politicians to WORK for four days a week instead of spending so much time bollocking the other side, we might actually start getting ahead !
    
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    February 9, 2018 11:22am
  - Anne Glen Eden
    
    I don’t disagree with any of that. In fact, it’s part of what I said, implicitly if not explicitly. I absolutely agree with a four-day week for a myriad of reasons. People need to ‘work’ – but all human ‘work’ is not as defined by commerce and does not necessarily involve financial profit.
    
    The problems arise when the 20% who are obsessed with commercial enterprise do everything in their power to make the 80% work the same way. A Type A personality thrives. The others find it soul destroying, often life and relationship destroying, one way or another. It’s not real and not viable.
    
    Let’s remember, too, the productivity being sought is largely not to satisfy anyone’s biological or real needs. It’s to produce excess which isn’t needed and billions are spent on creating ‘need’ for it and/or almost always at the expense of someone else.
    
    I don’t have a problem with work being your favourite hobby. I give you no right to make everyone else engage in commerce every hour that God sends in order to provide you with the entertainment opportunity. Other people have lives and the right to live them fulfilling their own potential, not yours.
    
    I also seriously doubt, notwithstanding that I’m sure you think you dream of ‘dying in the saddle’, that at the moment of your death you will be interested in listening to the latest corporate report from the contemporary Company Secretary (who neither knows nor cares about you). That, as I say, would be having spent an entire lifetime running away from your own humanity and that of anyone and everyone you’ve ever known. The vast majority of people don’t want to live like that; more to the point, they can’t and remain holistically healthy.
    
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    February 9, 2018 11:29am
    - Ross12
      
      This trial is being done by an insurance company, I think. While I agree that 6 weeks is far too short I’m sure they will get positive results. It fits into cmm’s example of computer programmers.
      
      As an aside, a couple of months ago I spoke to a woman who works for Nestle in Malaysia ( in one of their marketing sections). Initially she said she worked flexible hours but when I queried her more it turned out she and her team were given tasks to be done in a certain time period and it was up to them when and how they did them as long as they were done to the required standard and on time. That is, they were effectively paid (a salary) for outputs not time input. So at an extreme if they could finish a month’s work in a fortnight by working longer hours or more creatively, then they had a fortnight to themselves
      
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      February 9, 2018 12:34pm
      - Anne Glen Eden
        
        It’s a good system. I’ve seen the Japanese do it in NZ too (a long time ago anyway) and it worked equally well in an industrial situation.
        
        The difficulty in NZ is that employers tend to see that as staff ripping them off and up the outputs to where no advantage can be gained. They call it people being lazy, greedy, unmotivated etc. rather than seeing that healthy people, generally, will work twice as hard when they’re ‘free’ and able to organise their own lives according to circumstance as when they’re ‘enslaved’.
        
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        February 9, 2018 2:21pm
    - cmm
      
      Anne
      
      I think putting up the idea of a business person dying in the saddle for that last bit of productivity is a bit of a strawman.
      
      A huge number of our people are not really productive. They are doing “make-work”. Heck half of the government regulations etc are just “make-work”.
      
      As you say, to a great extent that is also true of some productive people that actually make stuff, if it is just tat which does nothing to enhance people’s lives.
      
      Cutting back on any of those would actually improve true productivity since there would be less people on the roads and the truly productive would be able to travel from A to B more efficiently.
      
      However we are already seeing problems with people expecting reward without providing value, be that minimum wages, talk of UBI, pay equity or massive parental leave.
      
      We also have a problem with people thinking all graduates should get good salaries regardless of the value of their skills. People have disconnected following their pet interests (a Masters in History is just a hobby), rather than figuring out how they can provide value to society.
      
      4 day work weeks are fine if people still focus on being productive. It falls apart when it reinforces the idea of getting something for nothing with people just see this as a way to wag work and still get the same amount of pay.
      
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      February 9, 2018 1:05pm
      - Anne Glen Eden
        
        Once again, I agree with a lot of that. There are always people who want something for nothing. There’s a whole lot more who are just tired of trying to maintain a system that is not working for them – and I’m sure they appear to want to ‘wag work’. It goes along with the concept that if you’re doing something you find rewarding which is not producing financial profit, you’re not ‘working’. I take issue with that whole concept in a lot of cases and it’s where I would part company: for example, around parental leave.
        
        Whether anyone likes it or not, children require nurture and the best people to provide it are their parents, except in a few cases. Those children are the future and the way they’re cared for impacts productivity for decades into the future and far outweighs any issue of immediate productivity in the workplace.
        
        Likewise, the recent discussion about sharing parental leave between men and women is typical. If a man stays at home to care for an ill new mother, or mother struggling with an ill infant (or both) and/or their other children – that man is ‘working’ and contributing to present and future society more than if he is carrying out a typical job in a workplace. That is ‘work’ and work that he is best suited (in most instances) to carry out rather than someone else or no-one. It is work that will have a direct impact on the health and wellbeing of all of the individuals involved and their relationships – with significant savings in many areas from not travelling on the road, saving the travel of district nurses, to maintaining his relationship which otherwise may end up in the Court system at some point; not mention ill health in terms of depression, illness, etc. etc.
        
        No matter how pseudo-sophisticated the world becomes, there is nothing more to life than:
        
        You get up in the morning, provide for yourself and dependents during the day, go to bed at night, and get up and do it all again tomorrow. That’s irrespective of how clever you are, or not, or where you are – earth or Mars – and if WWIII breaks out and destroys infrastructure, that will go on regardless.
        
        Our concept of ‘work’ as industrial type commerce where people must be forced to attend, however much they loathe it, is just a concept, like money. It’s supposed to serve people, not the other way around. There is no particular virtue in unwillingly attending a ‘workplace’ between fixed hours, except in financial profit to a specific few owners, notwithstanding the general provision of jobs etc. It’s a matter of balance and keeping the bigger picture in sight – which has been completely lost.
        
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        February 9, 2018 2:12pm
  - Piniwi
    
    Sure cmm for some work is often a bigger part of their life during their most productive years. However there are a substantial number of wage earners who MUST work for their survival. Moving down the socio economic scale greater numbers have some very questionable “leasure” pastimes. So expect a big rise in the hardest crime to find the criminals. Burglaries. Others who have the means for a batch/caravan or holiday retreat will be easy targets as they get more time away from home.
    Productivity in the public sector will slump even further especially as the BPS targets will be scrapped. They already have only effectively a 4 day week since the first half of the first day and last half of the last day of each week is talking about what will or has been done in the weekend. So only effetively a 3 day week.
    
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    February 9, 2018 5:23pm
softail 1450

dow just dropped below 24 k near 1000 points ,lets hope this COL isnt going to face the same gfc that key and english kept us mostly insulated from with good financial leadership.
if so we are truly fucked,can you imagine Robertson getting the country through a bad downturn???ha ha ha .
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February 9, 2018 10:03am
- Jack5
  
  English did a good job with Government spending, but sadly GDP per capita growth has been virtually at a standstill, and NZ non-government international debt is moderately high.
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:20am
Manolo

The floor is all red this morning:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/08/us-stock-futures-dow-data-earnings-fed-speeches-market-sell-off-and-politics-on-the-agenda.html

Stocks fell sharply on Thursday as strong earnings and economic data were enough to quell jitters on Wall Street about higher interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed more than 1,000 points lower, entering correction territory. This is the third drop for the Dow greater than 500 points in the last five days.
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February 9, 2018 10:09am
- stephieboy
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Manolo , the President who gloated over their Bullishness is nor taking credit for their fall ?
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:13am
  - Manolo
    
    The US economy’s fundamentals are right.
    
    What is causing the high volatility is the rise of interest rates, so it is time to chip in and buy some stocks, stephieboy. Your Mohammad will reward you.
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:19am
    - igm
      
      He would not even know how to buy shares . . . he is a leech of the highest order.
      
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      February 9, 2018 10:26am
    - stephieboy
      
      Manolo ,
      
      I bet you weren’t claiming that under Trump’s predecessor ( The Kenyan ) ,
      
      “Trump Ranks Sixth In Stock Market Performance Behind Obama And Clinton”
      
      Everyone is impressed with the performance of the stock market under President Trump–especially Trump.
      
      Stocks have risen in nine of the first ten months of the Trump Administration, a record that no other U.S. president can match.
      That goes back to President William McKinley in 1897; before 1896 there were no stock indices. To gauge performance, I used the Dow Jones Industrial Average for 1897-1927, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index beginning with its inception in 1928.
      
      While the market has consistently gained under Trump, the gains haven’t been record-setting. From inauguration day on January 20 through October 27, the S&P 500 shows a 15.38% annualized rate of return. That’s less than the annualized percentages achieved under five other presidents.
      
      https://www.forbes.com/sites/johndorfman/2017/10/30/trump-ranks-sixth-in-stock-market-performance-behind-obama-and-clinton/#7696c67b6644
      
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      February 9, 2018 10:39am
    - stigie
      
      “Your Mohammad will reward you”
      
      2 goats and 1 camel for now, the 72 virgins will come later !~
      
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      February 9, 2018 12:55pm
- Inandout
  
  This creep will be trying to disrupt Wall St, just as he is trying to stop Brexit.
  
  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/02/08/george-soros-revealed-as-key-funder-in-big-money-campaign-to-thwart-brexit.html
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:50am
  - Harkman
    
    If Soros is anti Brexit, then Brexit must be a good thing.
    
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    February 9, 2018 12:31pm
  - Paulus
    
    Soros only does such things so he can get an opportunity to hedge the currencies nothing else.
    It is what he does.
    
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    February 9, 2018 1:48pm
Digmen1

The Dow had got to ridiculous heights.
Sadly when it falls, it falls a lot.
A slow sell off is what is needed.
But that will never happen.
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February 9, 2018 10:11am
- KevOB
  
  The galoots have now got funds that are placing automatic balancing orders. The did the first hedge fund in and the profs who came up with the idea.-
  
  I notice too that for the decline in the DOW the tops have formed a straight line through them. That means an underlying measurable pressure to reduce positions. Buying shares and not fully paying for them or borrowing to do so causes unavoidable need to sell or be sold.
  
  The FED can intervene with the purchase of futures contracts which will only defer and worsen the inevitable.
  
  It should be clearer by the end of next week if the GFC has arrived.
  
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  February 9, 2018 12:38pm
  - KevOB
    
    “The did the first hedge fund”
    This should read:
    
    “This did the first hedge fund in…
    Apologies for error.
    
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    February 9, 2018 12:48pm
Dave Mann

Sexual perversion and the glorification of sexually related mental problems have really gained traction in our society now, haven’t they?

I do volunteer work for a charitable organisation and I was stunned the other day to receive a questionnaire asking basically whether I was a queer or a transgender blah blah and if so, did I feel welcomed and nurtured in the organisation for my perversion?

This fake ‘survey’ was preceded by a statement that 53% of perverts (my description hahaha) hide their perversion in the workplace. Then followed a description about how terrible it is that these people feel so undervalued etc etc. This little gem is sure to skew the results of the survey, of course, but even worse, it was sent by some female with a long winded job title about ‘belonging’ and ‘inclusivity’ and ‘diversity’.

Does anybody else here work for an organisation that sends this blatant propaganda to its employees? How prevalent is this crap?
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February 9, 2018 10:13am
- Dave Mann
  
  As an addendum…. recent research conducted by Gallup Poll in the USA indicated that only 3.9% percent of the population ‘identifies’ as some kind of confused pervert (homo, transgender, lesbian etc).
  
  WHY do we give these people such a domineering voice and such power in our society? What’s going on here?
  
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  February 9, 2018 11:23am
Manolo

How did Canada get this cretin Trudeau?
https://globalnews.ca/news/4009843/justin-trudeau-peoplekind-piers-morgan/
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February 9, 2018 10:14am
- stephieboy
  
  Manolo , should that be “Humankind “ not people kind ?
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:16am
  - rangitoto
    
    Tut tut. ‘Huperdaughterkind’. You will have to be sent to one of Cindy’s re-education camps
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:20am
- rangitoto
  
  He’s trying to claim that he was making a dumb joke:
  
  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/world/canada/justin-trudeau-peoplekind.html
  
  Trudeau himself is the dumb joke.
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:19am
- cmm
  
  “How did Canada get this cretin Trudeau?”
  
  Yup, they can’t even blame NZF voters.
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:59am
- Peter
  
  From the same shop we got our glorious leader, obviously.
  
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  February 9, 2018 11:03am
- Salacious Crumb
  
  “Kim Kardashian of political leaders; an all-style, no-substance himbo with all the depth of a puddle.”
  
  Ouch. But fair…..
  
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  February 9, 2018 2:42pm
Manolo

Long live multiculturalism!

Crime figures in Italy generated by undesirable immigrants and invaders:
http://www.liberoquotidiano.it/news/italia/13307471/documento-reati-immigrati-furti-stupri-estorsioni-.html

Dai dati del Ministero dell’Interno emerge un quadro tutt’altro che confortante.

Gli stranieri che vivono in Italia commettono il 55% dei furti (thefts), il 51,7% dello sfruttamento della prostituzione (prostitution) e della pornografia minorile (child pornography), il 45,7% delle estorsioni (extorsion), il 45% dei furti in abitazione (house break-ins) e il 41,3% di ricettazioni (stealing) avvengono ad opera di immigrati.
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February 9, 2018 10:24am
- MH
  
  blasted italics left on….
  
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  February 9, 2018 12:15pm
Fletch

Bermuda becomes the first country to repeal same-sex marriage. You won’t see this in the mainstream media..

Bermuda has become the first country in the world to repeal a law allowing same-sex couples to marry.

The island’s governor, John Rankin, approved a bill on Wednesday that reverses a Supreme Court ruling last year authorising gay marriage.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bermuda-gay-marriage-repeal-legislation-same-sex-world-first-lgbt-rights-latest-news-a8200361.html
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February 9, 2018 10:24am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Well done Bermuda.
  In the meantime we encourage celebration and promotion of gayness and have even come up with a rainbow police car ‘to normalise diversity’.
  Aaaarrrrrggggggh.
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:41am
  - stephieboy
    
    Captain Mainwaring,
    
    Including normalising this kind of diversity ?
    
    http://www.sginz.org/assets/image-gallery/Gallery/diverse/_resampled/resizedimage740491-070407-YD-LD-mtg-AKL059.JPG
    
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    February 9, 2018 10:45am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Are you implying that all of those young members of
      Soka Gakkai International are gay, or in same-sex relationships, stephieboy?
      
      Have a very close look as to what this thread is about.
      
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      February 9, 2018 3:18pm
  - Dave Mann
    
    As an addendum…. recent research conducted by Gallup Poll in the USA indicated that only 3.9% percent of the population ‘identifies’ as some kind of confused pervert (homo, transgender, lesbian etc).
    
    WHY do we give these people such a domineering voice and such power in our society? What’s going on here?
    
    (Apologies for double posting this comment – but it’s relevant to this debate as well as my comment about the surveys being carried out in the corporate world).
    
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    February 9, 2018 11:27am
    - rangitoto
      
      That’s about the same level as Winnie the pooh’s current polling.
      
      “WHY do we give these people such a domineering voice and such power in our society? What’s going on here?”
      
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      February 9, 2018 11:38am
      - Dave Mann
        
        🙂 Good one! 😀
        
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        February 9, 2018 11:46am
    - MH
      
      its the closet sindrone.
      
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      February 9, 2018 12:17pm
    - Fletch
      
      It’s probably because now that we’ve gotten rid of Judeo-Christian values, the prevailing wisdom is that any desire that anyone has must be validated “as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone” and so almost anything goes. And if you don’t go along with it, you’re labelled as a bigot, a racist, a homophobe, etc, and no one wants to be labelled that. So it’s partly out of fear and societal pressure. This is the brave new world we’ve made for ourselves.
      
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      February 9, 2018 12:54pm
    - Piniwi
      
      Funny that DM it is also becoming dominant in the entertainment industry. Enjoying a free 6 months of Netflix so many recently produced programs are heavily tainted with dykes and they would have us believe there were dyke pirates?
      
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      February 9, 2018 5:35pm
  - Fletch
    
    And if they can do it, we can do it…
    
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    February 9, 2018 12:20pm
- stephieboy
  
  Isn’t “The Independent” MSM ?
  
  And from the Washington Post .
  
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/08/bermuda-legalized-same-sex-marriage-a-year-ago-this-week-it-abolished-it/?utm_term=.55d857b59d9a
  
  LOL
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:41am
  - Fletch
    
    I meant our MSM.
    
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    February 9, 2018 12:16pm
    - mikenmild
      
      Is Newshub mainstream enough for you?
      http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/02/bermuda-becomes-first-nation-to-repeal-same-sex-marriage.html
      
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      February 9, 2018 2:30pm
- Inandout
  
  stephie will be pleased that Bermuda are following Koran scriptures. This will of course piss Muslims off because they want to dismantle western society, not reverse these trends as Bermuda seems to be doing.
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:43am
- igm
  
  Should be a worldwide trend.
  
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  February 9, 2018 10:50am
Jack5

Trump takes aim at “chain migration” – immigrants who bring in extended families.

If this shut out a wave of Stephiestanis I would be all for NZ following suit!

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-02-07/trump-s-chain-immigration-plan-takes-aim-at-asia
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February 9, 2018 10:43am
- kowtow
  
  We are doing the same here and taxpayers are being ripped off.
  
  ‘And the admission by Mr Woodhouse that taxpayers have been paying the price for failures in the application process in the Parent Category only fuel the belief the government is not fully in control of immigration.’
  
  https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/315479/govt-under-pressure-on-immigration's-hidden-costs
  
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  February 9, 2018 4:39pm
cmm

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/98755804/zarn-tarapata-suffered-a-miscarriage-of-justice-after-being-found-guilty-of-double-murder

Interesting: this bloke had killed before, but that was withheld from the jury.

To an extent that makes sense. He should be tried on the case in front of them, not on what he did in the past whether that was murder or being mean to puppies.

The flip side to that though, is the defence is allowed good character references to say what a nice boy he is and how he sings in a church choir and is just misunderstood.

If people are allowed positive character witnesses, then surely negative character witnesses (and priors) should be put before the courts too?
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February 9, 2018 10:54am
- fernglas
  
  I don’t see where it says he had killed before. He had previously been convicted of the same killing but the conviction was quashed and he was retried. Character witnesses are a thing of the past, and have been since the Evidence Act 2006
  
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  February 9, 2018 11:09am
  - cmm
    
    I misread the article.
    
    Thanks for setting me right on that.
    
    7 1
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    February 9, 2018 11:22am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Juries should be privy to all information, not just what the judge want’s them to see. Miscarriages result from their attempts to conceal.
  
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  February 9, 2018 12:33pm
Jack5

Whale has on his site the Bob Jones column that was withdrawn from National Business Review:

https://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2018/02/bob-jones-full-nbr-column-uncensored-trigger-warning-snowflakes-may-easily-offended/#more-361992
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February 9, 2018 10:58am
cmm

The Dow is plunging! Oes noes the sky is falling! Trump bad! Crash!

Yet it is still up 15% since this time last year and up 40% since Trump was elected.
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February 9, 2018 11:10am
Manolo

The almost impossible task of trying to educate our resident Muslim, stephieboy, on financial matters:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/08/heres-why-the-stock-market-is-in-turmoil.html

There’s a not-so-quiet rebellion going on in the bond market, and it threatens to take 10-year yields above 3 percent much faster than expected just a few weeks ago.

There are some powerful forces at work, with global growth strong, central banks moving to tighten policy and the government’s deficit spending creating more and more Treasury supply. So, the bond market has entered a zone of no return for now.
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February 9, 2018 11:16am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  the Stock market decline seems to be gathering some pace. Given that it is driven so much by sentiment, and P/E ratios are still super high we could easily see a big drop at any time now.
  
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  February 9, 2018 12:39pm
  - KevOB
    
    Its driven less by sentiment than by people or funds having leveraged positions. If you haven’t paid in full for your securities you may have to pay now forcing sales.
    
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    February 9, 2018 6:01pm
matchbox

If only such headlines were confined to the WW.
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February 9, 2018 11:31am
Digmen1

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/101285362/national-to-focus-on-strategy-at-second-day-of-its-postelection-caucus-conference

We need some more sensible right wing comments on this Stuff article. Now please.
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February 9, 2018 11:33am
- stephieboy
  
  Digmen1 , I swear that from your previous posts National would be far too leftie for you e.g its remarkable leader John Keys affinity with Barack Obama and support for progressive legislation .
  
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  February 9, 2018 12:26pm
Digmen1

The headline writers need to be shot.
A drop of 5% is not a plunge.
Its a drop.
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February 9, 2018 11:35am
- MrLovebucket
  
  If there was a Dem in the White House, it would be “Sharemarkets take a small breath”, if anything.
  
  8 3
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  February 9, 2018 1:20pm
- MCos
  
  The ‘drop’ or ‘correction’ is 10.3% from the record high of a couple of weeks ago.
  From a political point of view the Trump brigade naturally pass this off as of little consequence. Mainstream financial commentators don’t seem too worried with comments about ‘the fundamentals being secure’.
  I don’t know much about these things except that I seem to recall this soothing talk in the past just before everything turns to custard.
  
  3 2
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  February 9, 2018 4:45pm
  - KevOB
    
    The last people who know what they are talking about are financial commentators.
    
    I’m not calling a GFC yet but it may have begun. China is reporting large movements too.
    
    1 1
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    February 9, 2018 6:05pm
- KevOB
  
  It depends on what precedes and follows.
  
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  February 9, 2018 6:02pm
Longknives

Young American Woman is suing Airline after they ‘forced’ her to flush her Hamster down the toilet.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/woman-flushes-emotional-support-hamster-11992885

*But it wasn’t just a Hamster- It was a certified ‘Emotional Support’ Hamster!
I want to go to my Safe Space and cry just reading that article…
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February 9, 2018 11:35am
Tauhei Notts

I have read elsewhere where the possibility is put that the multi millionaires of Ngai Tahu and Tainui put pressure on the National Business Review to get rid of Sir Robert Jones.
If so, then that sort of brown mail is repugnant.
24 1
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February 9, 2018 11:40am
- Biscuit
  
  Tauhei, what is truly depressing is that none of these ‘get Sir Bob to stop it! Our eyes are hurting!’ types seem to appreciate he is, erm, extracting the urine.
  
  Once, just once, I’d like Dame Susan Dedopy come out with a statement like ‘Oh, get over it, people. Bob is poking the borax’ … but you just know, don’t you?, that (if she hasn’t already done so) she is getting her minions to draft a ‘Wee izz upporled’ media release…
  
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  February 9, 2018 11:55am
- lifesgood
  
  As if any Ngai Tahu or Tainui even read the NBR. What gutless management by the NBR. I hope they pay for it with a large loss of readers. Sir Bob Jones, is a national treasure.
  
  21 2
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  February 9, 2018 1:12pm
  - lifesgood
    
    I loved it when someone accused him of being anti women and he retorted that he couldn’t possibly be, he had married plenty of them!
    
    20 1
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    February 9, 2018 1:13pm
gorse

Three posts on Whale Oil about Bill English being replaced and it’s not even lunchtime. He’s going all out at undermining National. Has Labour got to him at last??
22 2
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February 9, 2018 12:14pm
- Digmen1
  
  That’s the one thing that puts me off Whale Oil. Other than their aggressive staff.
  
  Sadly none of the other “potential” leaders have enough Charisma to pull it off.
  
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  February 9, 2018 12:25pm
- lifesgood
  
  The WO moron thinks that he carries some weight, other than on his body he doesn’t. He is just a petulant baby tossing his toys. Ignore him.
  
  19 3
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  February 9, 2018 1:09pm
dime

“Hayek first spoke out in December, when she published a harrowing op-ed in The New York Times entitled “Harvey Weinstein is my monster too”,”

lol all these actresses trying not to be left out.

my favourite is the skinny thing from the pirates movie – shes part of the metoo movement cause a guy slapped her ass in a pub once.
12 2
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February 9, 2018 12:44pm
- Longknives
  
  I just read Keira Knightley’s ‘Me Too’ Story.
  It really is that lightweight- Some Guys have slapped her bum in pubs in the past!
  Maybe she needs an ‘Emotional Support’ Hamster??
  
  19 2
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  February 9, 2018 1:17pm
  - dime
    
    the thing is – she doesnt actually have an ass
    
    still hot though.
    
    9 1
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    February 9, 2018 2:20pm
- stigie
  
  This is interesting from the great actor Ian McKellen..?
  
  “From my own experience… when I was starting out in the early 60s, the director of the theatre I was working at showed me some photographs he got from women who were wanting jobs, they were actors, some of them had at the bottom of their photograph DRR – directors’ rights respected. In other words, if you give me a job,” you can have sex with me,” McKellen said.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/100011166/sir-ian-mckellen-taking-advantage-absolutely-will-not-do-that-includes-women-offering-sex
  
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  February 9, 2018 1:24pm
Rich Prick

A Ugandan refugee delivers us two diversity dividends as this thank you.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/101277939/man-raped-two-teenagers-in-hutt-valley-within-nine-months
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February 9, 2018 12:55pm
- Manolo
  
  The scum should be deported to his shit-hole.
  
  21 1
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  February 9, 2018 1:23pm
- Digmen1
  
  They want to give him “treatment”
  
  What sort of treatment do they think will work.
  
  He has been in NZ for many years. He knows how things work here.
  
  I have a special treatment for him, and it involves some forceps and a free air fare to Uganda in a Hercules with a parachute
  
  15 1
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  February 9, 2018 1:25pm
  - stigie
    
    Just like Professor Peter Davis, he got special treatment in a Hercules back from LAX !~
    
    9 2
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    February 9, 2018 2:14pm
    - Nostradamus
      
      Did that “special treatment” involve a happy ending, Stigie?
      
      6 2
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      February 9, 2018 3:21pm
      - sooty
        
        Well he must have been allowed to sit inside!
        
        5 0
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        February 9, 2018 3:36pm
      - stigie
        
        Im hoping Dad’s going to tell all on the releasing of his book any day now Nostra..?
        
        3 0
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        February 9, 2018 4:52pm
- Inandout
  
  I agree the arsehole should be got rid of but look at how these women got into those circumstances. One (part time lesbian) got into a car after already turning him down, and then the second one was drunk. FFS.
  
  6 1
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  February 9, 2018 3:31pm
- kowtow
  
  Mags posted this link yesterday.
  
  From 2012 but still we’re importing a lot of dross from Africa , and putting New Zealanders in danger because of it.
  
  ‘Abdinor Abdi, 29, and Mohamed Bashir, 25, were sentenced in the High Court at Auckland today to 16 and 15 years in prison respectively for their part in the continued rape of the woman.’
  
  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10849230
  
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  February 9, 2018 4:10pm
Keeping Stock

Oh dear; those whom Peters was hunting have become the hunters:

Tim Murphy‏
@tmurphyNZ

No love lost:
English, Bennett, Joyce, Tolley, Eagleson and Hennessy to seek legal costs from Peters over his abandoned fishing expedition against them. Want a March 5 court date retained to determine $ if Peters won’t agree in advance.

Peters is going to regret the “innocent mistake” he made on his superannuation documents. As well as all the money he had to repay to MSD, costs and the legal fees of six people’s lawyers is going to add to his woes.

Oh dear; how sad; never mind.
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February 9, 2018 1:54pm
- Awww C-mon
  
  That’s glorious!
  
  Wonder which charities he will try and give the money to this time. Fucking Loser.
  
  28 1
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  February 9, 2018 2:03pm
  - sooty
    
    What about the $158k?
    
    9 1
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    February 9, 2018 3:33pm
- Jack5
  
  Where can National get a coalition partner?
  
  6 4
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  February 9, 2018 2:16pm
  - Awww C-mon
    
    Maori Party and Act.
    
    The parties that have made a solid coalition for the last 9 years.
    
    Before you come back with a stupid comment, who the fuck but the stupid and infirm are going to vote for any of there COL muppets again?
    
    14 2
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    February 9, 2018 2:21pm
    - Digmen1
      
      Labour and the Greens got an increase in the latest Poll.
      But I do think ad hope that it will start to go down.
      I’d like to see them really low in the polls after one year.
      
      7 1
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      February 9, 2018 4:48pm
  - Rich Prick
    
    Won’t need one. The next election will see minor parties thoroughly spanked for the antics of the clusterfuck of losers and none of the current ones will make it over 5% (ACT will get Epsom though). It will be FFP in all but name.
    
    13 1
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    February 9, 2018 2:24pm
  - Digmen1
    
    If they are going to get one.
    Either ACT needs to dump Seynour and re-juvinate itself.
    Or new “conservative” party needs to start. But it needs to start soon, so that it can sort its policies and members and get some traction before the campaign.
    
    6 2
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    February 9, 2018 5:33pm
- KKKKatee
  
  UTU – love it! Revenge is best served cold.
  Couldn’t happen to a nicer person…..
  And he’s Deputy Dawg FFS!
  
  12 1
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  February 9, 2018 5:35pm
Rich Prick

“This is why aliens won’t talk to us.”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ocs5O2Gu7BU
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February 9, 2018 2:20pm
Inandout

‘In 2010, there were 57 lawyers, zero manufacturers, and way too many career politicians in the United States Senate.
Ron Johnson

Go the Trump!
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February 9, 2018 2:21pm
Fletch

The FBI informant speaks, and fingers Bill and Hillary.

An FBI informant connected to the Uranium One controversy told three congressional committees in a written statement that Moscow routed millions of dollars to America with the expectation it would be used to benefit Bill Clinton’s charitable efforts while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton quarterbacked a “reset” in U.S.-Russian relations.

The informant, Douglas Campbell, said in the statement obtained by The Hill that he was told by Russian nuclear executives that Moscow had hired the American lobbying firm APCO Worldwide specifically because it was in position to influence the Obama administration, and more specifically Hillary Clinton.

Campbell added in the testimony that Russian nuclear officials “told me at various times that they expected APCO to apply a portion of the $3 million annual lobbying fee it was receiving from the Russians to provide in-kind support for the Clintons’ Global Initiative.”

“The contract called for four payments of $750,000 over twelve months. APCO was expected to give assistance free of charge to the Clinton Global Initiative as part of their effort to create a favorable environment to ensure the Obama administration made affirmative decisions on everything from Uranium One to the U.S.-Russia Civilian Nuclear Cooperation agreement.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/372861-uranium-one-informant-makes-clinton-allegations-in-testimony
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February 9, 2018 2:31pm
Viking2

A jury found John guilty of raping the first young woman, and sexually violating and then raping the second.

The judge said John came to New Zealand as a refugee from Uganda when he was a child. He had no previous convictions and had mostly been working in supermarkets doing night shifts. A psychologist commented on his conservative beliefs that women should not dress provocatively or walk home alone
.
Prosecutor Sally Carter said specialist medical reports on John thought he could be a high risk of reoffending because he did not recognise he did anything wrong, but treatment could change that.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/101277939/man-raped-two-teenagers-in-hutt-valley-within-nine-months

NZ”S imported rape culture. Gues what he’s a M=======
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February 9, 2018 3:15pm
- RalphT
  
  “Gues what he’s a M=======”
  
  Methodist? Over three-quarters of Uganda’s population is Catholic or Anglican, but I guess it’s likely that there is a small Methodist population in the country
  
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  February 9, 2018 3:30pm
- stephieboy
  
  V2 , the offender was child when his family arrived here as refugees .
  
  Hardly “ imported Rape culture” where we have a ton of it home grown here ,
  
  http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3351868/Worst-rapist-admits-more
  
  2 23
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  February 9, 2018 4:10pm
  - starboard
    
    Shut up stooopidboy
    
    14 4
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    February 9, 2018 5:09pm
  - Swifty
    
    Evidence, though, that for a number of refugees their move has been hugely negative: for them and for their victims.
    
    Is the clear social cost factored in to immigration policy? What is the true financial cost? What are the medium to long term outcomes for refugees in NZ? For NZ?
    
    4 1
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    February 9, 2018 7:46pm
- Jack5
  
  Many, even most, of the refugees from Uganda in those decades were ethnic Indians who made up most of the business community in that country. They mainly went to Britain and generally have been successfully assimilated in Britain.
  
  When a man cannot recognise he’s done something wrong after raping two women, then he is obviously a psychopath. The personality of these people is characterised by absence of conscience.
  
  Psychopaths can’t be cured, and an intelligent society would either segregate them permanently or …
  
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  February 9, 2018 4:36pm
DifferentPerspective

NZ’s shocking electoral map

I explained the insanity of NZ’s MMP to a foreigner the other day and they couldn’t believe what I was telling them about the ridiculousness of the proportionality of Parliament – how if:
– National won all 71 electorate seats
– but only retained a 45% proportion of the vote
then even though the Parliament is nominally only 120 seats National wouldn’t have a majority because the total number of seats in the house would have to increase to retain proportionality meaning there would have to be 87 seats given to other parties, resulting in a 158 seat Parliament.

WOBH has a great post that shows how unrepresentative PR is. Almost all the bloody country is blue!

Incidentally National cornered 1.152 million party votes and got 15 List seats.

Labour only 0.956 million votes but were rewarded with 17 seats.

Less votes gets you more seats? What a bloody weird system!
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February 9, 2018 3:25pm
- Ross12
  
  That is why Supplementary Member is a better system DP.
  
  7 1
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  February 9, 2018 3:48pm
- Harkman
  
  DifferentPerspective
  
  Great post. The other anomaly that I noticed immediately after Winston won the Northland bi-election. How could he gain an extra seat in parliament without a nation wide popular/proportional vote? If Winston wanted to be Northland MP, fine, but it doesn’t mean he should get another person in parliament. Actually, National should have been compensated with an extra list MP.
  
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  February 9, 2018 5:31pm
Longknives

Commissioner Bush
The Professional Victims who call themselves the ‘Rainbow Community’ literally hate you mate- Why are you even trying??

https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/central-leader/101288350/rainbow-police-car-a-cynical-two-week-long-pr-stunt-pride-festival-organiser-says

All this stupid car is achieving for NZ Police is confirming to the sane folk (The ones who aren’t interested in Fisting Competitions etc) that you are drowning in Political Correctness and have forgotten whet you are paid to do..
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February 9, 2018 5:28pm
- Inandout
  
  The Police are heavily into Maori shit as well.
  
  11 1
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  February 9, 2018 5:54pm
  - nasska
    
    I guess they have to identify with their best customers. Half of all serious crime is committed by the special people…..without them 50% of police, lawyers, corrections staff & judges would join the dole queue.
    
    http://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/research_and_statistics/quarterly_prison_statistics/prison_stats_december_2016.html
    
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    February 9, 2018 6:41pm
stigie

I would love Dad to come on here (genuinely) and tell us all why he voted for Winston and is he happy with the outcome.
Infact, no one that i have seen, been on here that voted for Winston is happy with the COL..?
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February 9, 2018 7:04pm
- nasska
  
  That’s because the brain dead cretins never in their wildest, gin soaked dreams ever thought that Winston would go with Labour & their weird mates stigie.
  
  In their hazy, religio/conservative fantasies they were going to give National a “backbone”.
  
  Wankers the lot of them!
  
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  February 9, 2018 7:09pm
  - Swifty
    
    Beautifully put nasska.
    
    8 1
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    February 9, 2018 7:14pm
  - stigie
    
    “Wankers the lot of them!”
    
    Suppose iv’e blown my chances of getting Dad on now Nasska..?
    
    9 1
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    February 9, 2018 7:15pm
    - nasska
      
      If you ask him nicely he might put down the Vaseline & loosen his deathgrip on his cock long enough to reply stigie.
      
      But I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting! 🙂
      
      8 2
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      February 9, 2018 7:19pm
      - stigie
        
        Such a vast arrange of Vaseline these days Nasska, i wonder which brand Reddy told him to use..?
        
        https://www.google.com/search?q=vaseline&client=firefox-b&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi36IiUmZjZAhWBUbwKHexaBU8QiR4I8QE&biw=1280&bih=587
        
        2 2
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        February 9, 2018 7:27pm
      - nasska
        
        Real men use mutton fat & are glad of it! 🙂
        
        6 1
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        February 9, 2018 7:31pm
      - Swifty
        
        Oh you are awful.
        
        5 1
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        February 9, 2018 7:32pm
waikatogirl

I have to say after seeing Paula Bennett for the first time since she returned as ‘a new woman’ that she is looking fabulous! Well done Paula. ?
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February 9, 2018 7:50pm
- nasska
  
  Couldn’t agree more waikatogirl. She’s looking like a Prime Minister in waiting.
  
  After we’ve seen off Chompers & National’s two time loser.
  
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  February 9, 2018 7:54pm
  - Awww C-mon
    
    Sorry Nasska, Bill for another 6 yrs then hand it on.
    
    He will be better and tougher next time around and the investment approach is too important for us not to have him there running it.
    
    Edit: I’m not your down ticker btw.
    
    11 2
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    February 9, 2018 7:59pm
    - nasska
      
      Politics doesn’t always favour the competent with suet pudding personalities. English was a good 2IC & an excellent Finance Minister but he lacks what it takes to inspire all but the most partisan & committed voters.
      
      Paula has that X factor.
      
      5 3
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      February 9, 2018 8:03pm
      - Awww C-mon
        
        While the lefts whispers and secrets continue she can’t be leader. It doesn’t seem that there is much to their rumours but the msm won’t let the truth get in the way of a juicy story.
        
        6 2
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        February 9, 2018 8:11pm
      - nasska
        
        Fair comment AC but IMO if the Left & their MSM mates had anything on her that they could make stick they would have used it in the run up to last year’s election.
        
        Incidentally, I would much prefer a system where competency beat personality but it’s been obvious for the past twenty odd years that those days are gone. To win we have to have someone who can break Chomper’s magic hold on those who view politics as whatever the media think it should be.
        
        We were lucky to have JK but Bill ain’t it & neither are Bridges or Collins. Paula it has to be if we want to win.
        
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        February 9, 2018 8:24pm
      - Awww C-mon
        
        Bridges ain’t it.
        Collins and Bennett could be it.
        There is no-one else. Either side of the house.
        
        3 3
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        February 9, 2018 8:44pm
      - Swifty
        
        English an excellent Lieutenant.
        
        No Montmonery.
        
        1 0
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        February 9, 2018 9:41pm
      - Piniwi
        
        Yep nasska she will look a lot better as the X Deputy to fit back on the back benches.
        
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        February 9, 2018 11:06pm
Jack5

Interesting to hear NZ, including a Government department, in a three-year project to modernise the Indian apple growing industry (it’s in the Himalayan foothills).

In the Radio NZ report, an NZ spokesman (from Plant and Food Research) said boosting Indian apples would increase the market for NZ apples in the Indian off-season.

He talked of doubling and trebling the Indian orchards’ production.

Reminds me of the aid, trade preferences, and education and defence help NZ provided to Singapore when it was a developing country.

Now it’s left us behind.

The Radio NZ report:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/audio/2018631369/new-zealand-india-apple-partnership
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February 9, 2018 9:44pm
- Digmen1
  
  Yes and we sent lots of dairy cows to Thailand and China.
  I have seen condensed mil in the shops from Thailand!
  
  So clever.
  
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  February 10, 2018 7:16am
Piniwi

Way to go bro’s. Great to see them getting those unemployment rates down.
Inmate numbers topped out at more than 10,700 – a record number – and it’s expected to climb further, with projections due to hit 12,000 inmates in the next four years. The COL will be able to accelerate that rate to do it in two years. Poo-hah

The Department says it has space for about 300 more prisoners.

Labour hasn’t yet decided whether it will go ahead with National’s plan to build a new 1500-2000 bed facility at Waikeria.
At this rate of growth the question has now become whether it will be not one but two new prisons.
Now if they can just roll the dropping of education standards over to universities the rest can get a degree in gender bending.
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February 9, 2018 11:11pm
Manolo

Why would people leave a liberal “paradise”?
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/02/08/san-francisco-bay-area-mass-exodus-residents/
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February 10, 2018 7:46am
Manolo

There is still hope for the AGWmongers.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-09/climate-change-just-got-a-little-less-terrible
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February 10, 2018 7:48am

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