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October 25, 2020 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 25 October 2020

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Sigmund Freud

Funniest Coronavirus Jokes

1) Why do they call it the novel coronavirus? It’s a long story….
2) You know what they’re saying about 2020. It went viral faster than anyone thought it would.
3) What’s the best way to avoid touching your face? A glass of wine in each hand.
4) If coronavirus isn’t about beer, why do I keep seeing cases of it?
5) What’s the difference between COVID-19 and Romeo and Juliet? One’s the coronavirus and the other is a Verona crisis.
6) What do you call panic-buying of sausage and cheese in Germany? The wurst-kase scenario.
7) Back in my day, you would cough to cover up a fart. Now, with COVID-19, you fart to cover up a cough.
8) You know who buys up all the toilet paper? Assholes.
9) Nail salons, hair salons, waxing center and tanning places are closed. It’s about to get ugly out there.
10) Why don’t chefs find coronavirus jokes funny? They’re in bad taste.
11) What should you do if you don’t understand a coronavirus joke? Be patient.
12) The grocery stores in France look like tornadoes hit them. All that’s left is de brie.
13) I’ll tell you a coronavirus joke now, but you’ll have to wait two weeks to see if you got it.
14) Finland just closed its borders. You know what that means. No one will be crossing the finish line.
15) What do you tell yourself when you wake up late for work and realize you have a fever? Self, I so late.
16) Still no toilet paper in the stores. They’re wiped out and you’re shit out of luck.
17) So many coronavirus jokes out there, it’s a pundemic.
18) What did the man say to the bartender? I’ll have a corona, hold the virus.
19) If there’s a baby boom nine months from now, what will happen in 2033? There will be a whole bunch of quaranteens.
20) Did you hear the joke about the germ? Never mind, I don’t want to spread it around.
21) I ran out of toilet paper and had to start using old newspapers. Times are rough.
22) Yeah, I have plans tonight. I’ll probably hit the living room around 8 or 9.
23) Why didn’t the sick guy get the joke? It flu over his head.
24) 30 days hath September, April, June, and November, all the rest have 31, except for March which was infinite.
25) What types of jokes are allowed during quarantine? Inside jokes!
26) You know what they say: feed a cold, starve a fever, drink a corona.
27) What did the sick parent make their kids for lunch? Mac and sneeze.
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October 25, 2020 8:00am
- Fletch
  
  Lockdown pickup line – you can’t spell “Quarantine” without URAQT.
  
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  October 25, 2020 10:39am
PhilBest

Comprehensive statement of what the so called experts – in reality a small cabal of officials – are getting wrong about modeling the pandemic. Most disturbingly, as this author says, there are people in official positions who have to know that what they are endorsing is wrong.
https://lockdownsceptics.org/what-sage-got-wrong/

What SAGE Has Got Wrong
“SAGE made – and continues to make – two fatal errors in its assessment of the SAR-CoV-2 pandemic, rendering its predictions wildly inaccurate, with disastrous results. These errors led SAGE to conclude that the pandemic is still in its early stages, with the vast majority (93%) of the UK population remaining susceptible to infection and that, in the absence of more action, a very high number of deaths will occur.
• Error 1: Assuming that 100% of the population was susceptible to the virus and that no pre-existing immunity existed.
• Error 2: The belief that the percentage of the population that has been infected can be determined by surveying what fraction of the population has antibodies.
Both of these points run entirely counter to known science regarding viruses and to a significant amount of evidence…
“…If, like me, you’re sure that the pandemic, as a ghastly public health event, is nearly over in UK, you will probably be with me in sheer astonishment and frustration that SAGE, the Government and 99% of the media maintain the fiction that this continues to be the biggest public health emergency in decades…
“…It is no use whatever if the modellers are earnest and brilliant if they are not top quality experts in the phenomenon being modelled. Because you may be sure that from models come future scenarios – predictions if you will. If the model is constructed by people who are not subject-matter experts about the thing being modelled, then if they’ve constructed it in error, they will not know it…
Read the whole thing. It has direct application to NZ’s conceited computer modelers.
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October 25, 2020 8:00am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Anyone putting up a model to justify action needs to be responsible for any outcomes based on it. Computers can do all things except think. They are the stupidest critters out there as any programmer will have experienced. Humans think: computers play with their bits.
  
  Those elected to Govern are charged with the duty and responsibility of decision making. They cannot devolve that responsibility to others of a lower pay grade. Those offering themselves for high Office must be capable of executing it or be held in breach of that with considerable penalties attached.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:18am
  - MCos
    
    “They cannot devolve that responsibility to others of a lower pay grade.”
    The Director General of Health is on a higher pay grade than the PM.
    The CEO of Watercare is way above either of them & the Mayor of Auckland – for the moment.
    
    You can say what you like, however.
    The Head of Govt is responsible for the response to a national crisis.
    Except when it’s not going well and it can be palmed off to the next tier down, as happens in the US, UK & Aus.
    
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    October 25, 2020 10:02am
  - cmm
    
    If you read the reports from our modellers they use amazingly arrogant and over confident terminology and language: “these models show” etc.
    
    Results from modelling should always be couched in less confident language: “the models possibly suggest” etc.
    
    And, astoundingly, when one model is shown to be crap they just come up with something more complex – and also crap.
    
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    October 25, 2020 10:47am
    - Engelbert Humperdink
      
      When is that physicist Hendy going to fade back into obscurity? I’d have been embarrassed to show myself in public ever again if I had been that comprehensively and lethally wrong in my “advice” to patients and politicians…
      
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      October 25, 2020 10:54am
      - PhilBest
        
        Not just embarrassed, but most people in most walks of life would have been prosecuted, stricken off registers, possibly even jailed. This is a “swamp” problem just as much as anything else, unaccountable people for whom there is a different set of rules to what applies to the rest of us.
        
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        October 25, 2020 6:26pm
  - Bob
    
    I know and have met a lot of people who have less thinking skills than a computer.
    The country has just put a significant number of them, in charge of the economy.
    
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    October 25, 2020 11:55am
- Cantabrian
  
  Exactly the same can be said about climate modelling.
  
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  October 25, 2020 11:06am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Another idiot who wants to stop and determine what immunity rates are when a virus is spreading. America just had its highest single-day infection rate.
  
  What has stopped him doing it apart from blowing his own trumpet? What proof is there that immunity rates aren’t determined and therefore its ‘importance.’
  
  Instead of hiding away with your small anonymous cohort come out publicly with your arguments and debate informed people who can respond.
  
  At least then you wouldn’t appear to be gutless.
  
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  October 25, 2020 11:33am
  - PhilBest
    
    We don’t need to “stop and determine what immunity rates are”. It has been obvious for months that the correct rate is getting lower, and lower, and lower, than the initial alarmist predictions.
    
    Dr Mike Yeadon is far from anonymous, his stance is now, correctly, that the official experts in Britain cannot possibly be merely incompetent, they have to be criminally conspiring to sustain the hysteria. The shutting down of experts who are both honest and correct, is another crime that should result in prosecutions in the period to come. Dr Yeadon is independent of means since selling a successful Biotech start-up, and he says that a large number of experts who share the correct and honest opinions are gagged by threat of deregistration.
    
    Daniel Greenfield is correct to identify this as straight out of the totalitarian playbook. Good men now need to do something so that evil does not triumph.
    
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    October 25, 2020 11:46am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Another stupid idiot who thinks that cases are the best measure. If cases are up so much, why is the hospitalisation rate DOWN so much ?
    
    Couldn’t be that the rate of testing changed, and that the virus is no where near as deadly as originally assumed ?
    
    After all, you should know the saying “assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups”.
    
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    October 25, 2020 11:59am
    - PhilBest
      
      What Dr Yeadon is saying, on multiple forums, is that the rate of false positives alone, when the volumes of testing are so high, might represent an excuse to sustain tyranny forever. He also makes the point that false positives are even part of the official “died of Covid” count, because some of the people dying of non-Covid respiratory diseases nonetheless tested falsely positive to Covid.
      
      This is not a problem when test numbers are low relative to “confirmed infections”, eg you are getting 200 positives for every 1000 tests; but when you have a false positive rate of 1% (conservative) and for every 1000 tests you are getting 10 real positives and 10 false ones, this is a 100% overstatement.
      
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      October 25, 2020 6:31pm
PhilBest

The always incisive Daniel Greenfield pronounces on the Covid debacle
https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-coronavirus-experts-were-wrong-now-they-need-scapegoats/
“….China’s deceptiveness and lack of transparency meant that we can’t know how well the China Model worked for the People’s Republic of China, but it failed in every free country that tried it. Lockdowns eventually gave way to reopenings and new waves of infection…
“….Democrats claimed that they were superior because they were “listening to the science.” They weren’t listening to the science, they were obeying a class of officials, some of whom weren’t even medical professionals, who impressed elected officials and the public with statistical sleight of hand.
The entire lockdown to testing to reopening pipeline that we adopted wholesale was a typical bureaucratic and corporate exercise, complete with the illusion of metrics and goals, that suffered from all the typical problems of bureaucracy, academia and corporate culture.
The system that determines reopenings and closings is an echo chamber that measures its own functioning while having little to do with the real world. Testing has become a cargo cult exercise that confuses the map with the world, and the virus with the spreadsheet…when they tell us to trust the science, they mean the bureaucracy…
“…A lot of people are dead, a lot more are out of work, and the problem is far from solved. Someone will have to be blamed and they certainly don’t want it to be themselves.
The lockdown and the rule of public-health experts have become too big to fail…everyone in the system, from the experts to the administrators to the politicians to the media, is complicit. That makes the massive error the world has been living under, too big to fail.
There are only two choices left. Admit the magnitude of the mistake or find someone to blame.
The establishment that touted the experts is blaming its political and cultural enemies, the people it has been priming the public to see as strange, selfish, irrational and dangerous. And also the very people who have been the loudest opponents of lockdown culture.
Given a choice between admitting the system was wrong or blaming the system’s failure on its critics, the establishment has followed the same pattern as every authoritarian leftist regime…
“…what the system failed to accomplish in battling the virus, it made up for by providing the leadership that had enacted it with a wonderful opportunity to settle its political scores.
The lockdowns don’t exist anymore as a prophylactic policy but as a political vendetta. The more people die, the more businesses are ruined, the more everyone suffers, the more vicious the vendetta grows as it hunts for scapegoats, political and religious, for the great error of terror.
Leftist regimes turn to political terror as their policies fail. When the idealism dies, and the theories fall apart, the organizers pursue misery for the sake of misery, using fear, deprivation and hate to maintain their grip on power while crushing the political threats to their rule.
The rule of the experts isn’t fighting the virus. It has become the virus.”
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October 25, 2020 8:01am
- tf78
  
  Phil, look at the upside for many governments – there are a whole lot less pensioners and sick people to spend money on – or was that the plan all along.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:42am
- Phronesis
  
  You have to look at how people use words to understand what they mean. For example, I have democrat friends who “listen to the science” on transgender issues, they believe that men can be women and women can be men…
  
  Essentially any claim to “the science” in political discourse is a claim to authority, not to facts.
  
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  October 25, 2020 12:11pm
Meatloaf

For those of you who think Labour cares about lives, or the Greens are friendly to bikers, think again:

On Wednesday at 2.10 PM, I was on Greys Ave in Hamilton, went down the hill as I was close to the bottom at 40 Km/h, a truck went into the driveway, I rammed into the side of the truck and did at least one backflip over the truck.

While in the hospital, the worst part was the traffic cop. The only thing he cared about is that because it was a bike, riding my bicycle on the footpath is illegal, therefore I should have to pay the $500 insurance excess to the truck and $150 fine for violating the traffic law.

Yet, he agreed that if it had been an e scooter, I could have legally gone on the footpath. And why do I use the footpath? A motorist finds it easier to drive and avoid collision with a cyclist, if the cyclist is on the footpath.

The end result is the other guy didn’t want the $500 from me, he just cared that I was alive as he was worried sick about my wellbeing and the traffic cop didn’t make me pay the $150; but it still shows how heartless these people are. They are only interested in fining people. And obviously the Greens are not going to make things safer for cyclists. Never voted for either Labour or the Greens and I don’t think I will.

And what will I do differently? Use an e scooter more often, maybe even sell the bike.
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October 25, 2020 8:15am
- thetiedarch
  
  I encountered a similar case a few months ago. If you BACK out of your drive and someone rides into you, they’re at fault. But if you drive FORWARD out of your drive and someone rides into you, you’re at fault. All regardless of clear sight lines.
  
  Ludicrous.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:00am
- mikenmildagain
  
  You were riding at 40km/h on the footpath?
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:06am
  - Meatloaf
    
    MMild at 9.06 AM and Albert_Ross, if you were going downhill on a bike, you would be picking up speed too. There were no pedestrians around, I’ve always slowed down if there are pedestrians. And then after going downhill you now have to pedal uphill.
    
    Exactly what is the point of braking all the time when your going downhill, only to have to pedal hard going uphill, makes cycling pointless. Things you’d know if your a cyclist.
    
    And again, those driving a vehicle find it a nuisance to have to leave room for cyclists, much easier if they aren’t using the roads.
    
    As always MMild, will ‘Make Mild’ your point, that’s what you’ve always done to me.
    
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    October 25, 2020 1:12pm
  - softail 1450
    
    MMA,I’m a cyclist and you are right ,40kmph is fast enough on the road and most cant get to that speed on the flat certainly not for long,
    On a footpath its like playing Russian Roulette with a full chamber and no serious cyclist would ever do that.
    
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    October 25, 2020 1:21pm
    - Meatloaf
      
      Thanks softail, you obviously understand the dilemma.
      
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      October 25, 2020 6:47pm
  - Meatloaf
    
    MMild at 9.06 AM and Albert_Ross, if you were going downhill on a bike, you would be picking up speed too. There were no pedestrians around, I’ve always slowed down if there are pedestrians. And then after going downhill you now have to pedal uphill.
    
    Exactly what is the point of braking all the time when your going downhill, only to have to pedal hard going uphill, makes cycling pointless. Things you’d know if you were a cyclist.
    
    And again, those driving a vehicle find it a nuisance to have to leave room for cyclists, much easier if they aren’t using the roads.
    
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    October 25, 2020 3:36pm
    - Meatloaf
      
      My post was delayed by the moderator, so I put in an almost duplicate post.
      
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      October 25, 2020 5:19pm
- Albert_Ross
  
  You were doing 40kph on a footpath?
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:14am
- RJ
  
  Must be the governments fault that some stupid idiot goes that speed down the hill on the footpath, any cyclist with brains would be on the road.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:18am
  - Meatloaf
    
    RJ, most vehicles would drive down the road at 40 Ks if there is no traffic in front of them. They would not expect, someone to swerve right in front of them.
    The only difference is this happened to a cyclist.
    
    I never said its the government’s fault this happened. Just that I thought it was a bit steep, that if it had been an e scooter, or a normal vehicle than it would have been legally his fault.
    
    And the issue for me now, is I won’t be able to use the footpath even if I go at 10 Kph. Remember it was the hill. If there was even one pedestrian I would have slowed down as always.
    
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    October 25, 2020 6:38pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Rest up. Hope you’re back in the saddle soon, Meatloaf.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:26am
  - sooty
    
    So do you think it’s wise to speed down the footpath, when at any driveway/garage a vehicle could appear and you would have less warning time to stop?
    
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    October 25, 2020 10:15am
    - Meatloaf
      
      Sooty, after this has happened, if I were to use my bike ever again, I will be much more careful. At this point, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to again.
      
      Usually, I turn my bike on high gear and use the brakes, but not this time, as there were no pedestrians and the path was wide.
      
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      October 25, 2020 6:43pm
  - Humble Capitalist
    
    C’mon be kind downtickers.
    
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    October 25, 2020 10:24am
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      Not really. Doing 40kmh on a footpath is a very very dumb call. Not even surprised you were collected. there is no room to evade at that speed and that close to the fences/hedges/ Drivers look at the road, they don’t expect to see 50kmh bikes on a footpath.
      
      Nearly earned yourself a Darwin there!
      
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      October 25, 2020 7:39pm
  - Meatloaf
    
    Thanks [email protected], however, I think I’ll be using my e scooter from now on and will either be using my bike far less or not at all.
    
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    October 25, 2020 11:14am
    - Bobba Fret
      
      Make sure you do not go 40km/hr on the e scooter on the footpath either.
      
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      October 25, 2020 5:09pm
      - Meatloaf
        
        Yes, Bobba Fret, I won’t be going 40 km on my e scooter either. My usual speed when riding a bike would have been somewhere around 10-15 kph.
        
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        October 25, 2020 6:45pm
- BAM
  
  You were going 40kph on the footpath?
  Fucking idiot, you could easily take out someone pushing a pram or an elderly person.
  
  Use a bit of common sense FFS.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:41am
  - Paulus
    
    Don’t panic I bet he voted Greens.
    
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    October 25, 2020 2:02pm
    - Meatloaf
      
      Paulus if you looked at my first post, I told you I never have voted Labour or Greens, if you looked at my other posts, you would have seen everything I say is very right wing.
      
      I also pointed out, that the Greens and Labour are not doing much for cyclists.
      
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      October 25, 2020 7:04pm
  - yossarian
    
    Have to agree. I run a fair bit around Hamilton and I feel safer running on the road, why? Too many bikes on the footpath, and don’t even mention the river tracks. Full of mamils on $8k duel suspension e-bikes…why do you duel suspension bikes for a footpath is beyond me???
    
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    October 25, 2020 3:17pm
  - Meatloaf
    
    BAM, whenever I have used my bike, I always slow down if there is even one pedestrian. The path was very thick anyways.
    
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    October 25, 2020 6:34pm
- cmm
  
  Regardless of whether you are on a bike, a scooter or a skateboard you should not be traveling at 40kph on a foot path.
  
  Someone turning into a driveway should be looking out for footpath traffic, but should have the reasonable expectation that the traffic is travelling at human running speed or lower.
  
  Same basic deal if you turn into a road in a residential area. You look for cars. You have a reasonable expectation to look out for cars doing 50kph – not 100kph.
  
  While I wish you the best for your recovery – please acknowledge the responsibility for your actions.
  
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  October 25, 2020 10:53am
  - Meatloaf
    
    CMM, again I always look for pedestrians and have always slowed down for that reason. So while you make a valid point about watching out for other traffic, at least I am careful when it comes to pedestrians.
    
    And as explained before, when you’re going downhill you pick up speed, so its not like I do this all the time, in fact, usually it will be 15 Kph even going downhill.
    
    Anyway, maybe I shouldn’t bother with a bike and with sympathy and comments I’m getting from people, maybe I would be happier dead; I don’t mean that to you personally, just to people like BAM and MMild.
    
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    October 25, 2020 6:58pm
- Rocky Jnr
  
  You were doing 40Kph on a footpath? FFS, what were you thinking, that is bloody dangerous!!! And now you bagging the cop! WTF, you should be charged. And a good candidate for crybaby of the week!
  
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  October 25, 2020 11:06am
  - Meatloaf
    
    As explained before, when you go down the hill, you pick up the speed, there were no pedestrians, the path was wide. The trucker was happy to pay the excess. If I had been driving a vehicle or used an escooter it would have been legally the other person’s fault, but because of one technicality, it was reversed.
    
    I find you as heartless as the cop you defend.
    
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    October 25, 2020 6:51pm
- PhilBest
  
  While I sympathize with you, as a very keen cyclist in my teens (still am) I read John Forester’s book “Effective Cycling” which transformed my beliefs on numerous points to do with cycling. One point he argued very strongly was that drivers of cars and trucks are more likely to see you the closer you are to their centre of vision, and being further out and nearer their peripheral vision was actually more dangerous. He argued strongly against cycle lanes for the same reason.
  
  Those of us who understand these arguments were vehemently opposed to the abominable Island Bay Parade arrangements right from the start. It most certainly increases rather than decreases the risk to cyclists. Not only are the cyclists out in the peripheral vision rather than closer to the centre of vision, they are obscured by parked cars!
  
  Almost all collisions between cyclists and motor vehicles occur when one or the other is turning across the path of the other. If a cyclist riding straight ahead wants to turn right, the safest thing is to negotiate to the centre line during a break in overtaking traffic and then turn right from there. The Road Code has correctly specified this for decades. But put the cyclists way over on the left behind the parked cars, and what happens? Real cyclists always knew this was a sham, driven by the “stuff the motorist” political brigade, not by what real cyclists actually want.
  
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  October 25, 2020 11:38am
  - Jules99
    
    When I decided to road cycle as an adult I did a training course. The trainer was in agreement with your points and taught me to cycle further away from the edge of the road and showed how to turn in traffic in a way that made visible to traffic and thus safer. Unfortunately this often annoys car drivers who don’t understand the safety issues, but he explained it well to me.
    
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    October 25, 2020 3:31pm
  - Meatloaf
    
    Thanks PhilBest, again maybe its just not worth bothering with cycling, for reasons that you’ve mentioned. Its easy to see a car, takes more time to spot a cyclist.
    
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    October 25, 2020 7:01pm
- Flossie
  
  I used to think cycling on the footpath was safer for cyclists than using the road. Until I, as a pedestrian, was knocked over by a cyclist, who “didn’t see me”.
  
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  October 25, 2020 12:09pm
  - RJ
    
    I remember back in primary school when we had to get a license, sit a test and do a practical with a police officer before we were allowed to ride our bikes to school one of the main things he pushed was to not ride on a footpath because people can’t see you coming out of their drives.
    
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    October 25, 2020 1:04pm
- Aunty
  
  You fucked up, dude. Own it and stop making excuses.
  
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  October 25, 2020 12:47pm
  - Meatloaf
    
    Aunty, let’s take a look at what currently matters. I’ve talked to the trucker, he’s willing to pay the $500. What matters now, is that I now know its illegal to use the footpath even at 10-15 kph [This is my usual speed, when I went 40 kph it was downhill and there were no pedestrians. If there is even one pedestrian I slow right down].
    
    So the question is do I use the side of the road. I’ve had motorists who pass me, go into the other lane. There are some roads so thin, that’s the only alternative.
    
    So my point is, because I can’t use the footpath legally, maybe its not worth bothering about. And if I can use an e scooter on the path, at a responsible speed, slowing down on the hills, maybe that’s a better option.
    
    Again the 40 Kph was on a hill with no pedestrians, and usually I would raise the gear and use the brakes, but this time I didn’t.
    
    Do you have any issues with this last post. Also as a pedestrian I get passed by bikes and scooters all the time, just so you know.
    
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    October 25, 2020 8:31pm
- marcw
  
  You are incredibly reckless and inconsiderate to be riding at 40kph on a footpath. I hate seeing anyone hurt, but in this case the person I feel sorry for is the truck driver, and also the taxpayer who has paid for your treatment and police time.
  
  You or your insurance company should be made to pay back what it has cost us , and stop being a dickhead on a footpath. Next time it could be a Darwin award.
  
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  October 25, 2020 12:49pm
  - Meatloaf
    
    Marcw, first of all my normal speed is 10 to 15 KPh. When I go down a hill, usually I will raise the gears and use the brakes, or even go on the grass to reduce speed. If I see a pedestrian I will bring down my speed even more.
    
    My 40 Kph has happened once in my lifetime, when there were no pedestrians. I’ve already payed the cost of the medical costs. For 40 years I’ve only gone to the hospital once, rarely ever seen a doctor and had to pay 6%+ ACC for cutting grass. Now ACC after more than 40 years pays for an injury.
    
    The police officer was there because this is standard operating procedure. The truck driver and I worked out an agreement that we are both happy with.
    
    With the way your talking to me, everybody else feels sorry for me, by the sounds of it, you are even more heartless than the officer.
    
    There is a thing called an estoppel. Where a judge will ignore the letter of the law, if the outcome is too severe on someone.-law dictionary.
    
    In another law dictionary Equity means they had to change the law from Common Law only, to allow for instances where Common Law didn’t cover everything, like trusts, to bring in a more equitable outcome, eg Civil law.
    
    Finally, now that I know the law about footpaths as explained in my reply to Aunty, I’m not sure that it is worth using my bike. If I use an e scooter it will be at a more responsible speed. This has been the issue all along, as explained to Aunty.
    
    And one last thing, this is where your taxes are going, if your smart enough to understand:
    
    http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1961/0003/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM326524
    
    See also sections 5 & 6.
    
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    October 25, 2020 8:45pm
- IC5000
  
  > but it still shows how heartless these people are. They are only interested in fining people.
  
  I think it goes back to the 80 with neo liberal reforms. There is no public service anymore. Everything now has to produce a profit to justify its existence. Police need to meet their KPIs to prove they are ‘efficient’ whatever that means. Beneficiaries are clients at WINZ. Everything is run at a profit and service levels are cut down to achieve this while ‘customers’ have to pay for something their taxes should already cover.
  
  But that’s what happens when all you want is lower taxes rates and a budget surplus.
  
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  October 25, 2020 12:57pm
- Mike22240
  
  The cop doesn’t determine who was liable he can only lay out his opinion. Just like if you park on yellow lines and a car hits you the car that was moving was at fault. You could probably lodge a claim on your contents insurance and not pay an excess at is it possible the truck is liable.
  
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  October 25, 2020 2:19pm
Inandout

‘Black Lives Matter protestors have occupied a Trader Joe’s in Seattle.
Liberal whites throughout the city are no doubt wondering: “has this all gone too far”?’
The mafia demanded protection money but had the Police on their tail, BLM demand 15% protection money and the police do nothing.
Should Biden win the BLM will have the run of the country.
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October 25, 2020 8:21am
- Harriet
  
  And China and the Russians and the Iranians will have the run of everything else just like they did under Obama.
  
  American citizens voted out Obamamania type politics when they didn’t vote for Hillary, and they aren’t going to now vote for a Biden, Harris & Sanders combo. The UN is a shambles. Overseas wars have ended.
  
  It is now all about Trade Wars and Trading Routes and resources to fight those battles; the SC sea, India, Taiwan, Australasia …..and Trump is a natural General with the proven track record in negotiation and leadership.
  
  Trump has equated his character to that of the United States of America, it’s history and what it stands for in this world. The free world.
  
  Like Jerusalem and the City of David before it Washington is the City of Donald. 😎
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:52am
  - IC5000
    
    > Trump has equated his character to that of the United States of America, it’s history and what it stands for in this world. The free world.
    
    So basically the same thing the Chinese communist party have done. Equate love of China with love of the Party ergo if you are against the party you are a traitor to China.
    
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    October 25, 2020 12:59pm
- flash2846
  
  BLM…Biden’s Laptop Matters… Heh!
  
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  October 25, 2020 11:41am
Maggy Wassilieff

Climate-change lobbyists looking for major wins with our new Government

https://www.eco-business.com/news/new-zealand-pm-ardern-urged-to-apply-crisis-skills-to-climate-change/

https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/10/19/new-zealanders-vote-climate-ambition-jacinda-ardern-greens/
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October 25, 2020 8:25am
- Charmaine Hawke
  
  What they could not bring in by climate change the great and the good plan to bring in with the recovery from COVID, a problem THEY created.
  
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  October 25, 2020 8:29am
  - Engelbert Humperdink
    
    I am confident there will be a big blacklash. Not because I know stuff, but because I read history. I just need to live long enough and store enough popcorn to enjoy watching it.
    
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    October 25, 2020 10:56am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Yes we are going to impoverish the country to reduce emissions in a country with already high levels of renewable energy. The only way to materially reduce emissions is to force people to use hybrid and electric cars which many cannot afford.
  
  So here is an idea. Poland produces 9 times the greenhouse emissions than New Zealand. Most of it from coal. IF the New Zealand Government is determined to spend money to address the climate change “crisis” then go to Poland and finance projects to convert the furnaces in apartment buildings from coal to natural gas. The marginal cost of reducing emissions in Poland could easily be 50 times more cost effective than some of the boondoggles that are bound to come from this government in the next 3 years.
  
  Remember, if you accept the need to reduce emissions, and this government does, it does not matter WHERE you reduce emissions. The best course is to reduce them wherever the marginal cost is lowest.
  
  To use an analogy it would be like the Government banning the importation of b as bananas from Ecuador and the Philippines and ordering that they be grown in heated glasshouses in New Zealand.
  
  Next time you hear someone demand that the Government “do something” about New Zealand emissions, ask them to nominate three ideas, that collectively could reduce emissions by, say, 40 percent. I’ve tried it and I get nothing.
  
  Eventually we will all drive electric cars. In the interim, just keep the ETS going with a modest carbon price. If Jacinda wants to shine on the world stage, announce a $US 1 billion fund to reduce emissions in high emissions, low abatement cost countries. I know that prospect will horrify some of you. But it is an absolute bargain compared to the economic damage that will come if some of these activists get any traction.
  
  Enjoy the rest of your weekend ?
  
  BY
  
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  October 25, 2020 8:57am
  - Mike22240
    
    I agree with you entirely. If NZ invested in green energy overseas we could even actually make money from owning overseas energy companies, not necessarily likely if it is competing with cheap coal but much cheaper than buying every Kiwi an electric car.
    
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    October 25, 2020 2:23pm
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Next election maybe – I think her true supporters want her to keep eliminating poverty and getting house prices down right now
  
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  October 25, 2020 10:05am
- KevO'Brien
  
  What are they going to do if the new LENR/LANR energy sources come on stream with in the next 12 months?
  Look no carbon, cheap and limitless and no Grrrrrn impact.
  
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  October 25, 2020 12:41pm
  - mark15
    
    What Lenr/lanr sources,when and who makes them?
    
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    October 25, 2020 1:26pm
Jimmy White

To day is Vijaydashmi, or Dusshera and is the 10th and the last day of Durga Puja. Hows that for tripe Mike?
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October 25, 2020 8:31am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Whatever turns you on, Jimmy.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:07am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  As the 2nd largest religion in NZ…and growing… isn’t it about time we started becoming familiar with these important Hindu festivals?
  
  https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/diwali-hindus-in-new-zealand-plead-for-a-public-holiday-on-diwali/
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:13am
  - kowtow
    
    Hinduism oppresses whole classes of its adherents such as the Untouchables . If the Govt of NZ had a public holiday for a Hindu festival would that make us all complicit in oppression .
    
    #dalit
    
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    October 25, 2020 9:31am
    - Paulus
      
      I see a request for the celebration of the Diwali Festival like the new Maori one, which is to be over a month.
      
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      October 25, 2020 2:05pm
- Biscuit
  
  Jimmy, today is also the day (I’d better be careful how I word this, ha) I run amok and slightly hurt a supermarket employee or twelve.
  
  Yesterday, October 24, my local Countdown was putting up Christmas Trees…
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:37am
- MCos
  
  Friday was also Chulalongkorn Day, which is a public holiday in Thailand.
  One day it will be here too when the revolution comes, but in the meantime there is a big celebration at Watyarnprateep Buddhist Temple in Kelston today and all the other Thai Temples, I expect.
  
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  October 25, 2020 10:16am
I remember when

While it is accepted there must be controls, do the left have problems understanding the often delicate balance required.
The almost continual attacks on dairying, fishing restrictions, reductions in impact of tourism and the list goes on.
If we start reducing the earning capacity of an industry where does the replacement income come from.
While the left is full of the ambrosia of the Election win large parts of it seem to fail to understand what is in front of them.
The size of the problem is still in the future. It has not really become obvious. It is still growing and there is a danger the apparent recovery, so far, is covering the problem.
Parts of the left still talk as if it was a normal Election with little to stop radical policies being enacted.
New industries popping up to replace those we don’t like. These industries will have little start-up cost, they will all be successful and it will be sunny all day and only rain when we are asleep.
Maori are emboldened by the Waikato University ruling and Ihumatao and see future advances. This is exacerbated for Labour by the Maori Party success. The Maori Labour members are starting to flex their muscles.
It will not be easy and they are not the areas where Jacinda’s skills lie.
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October 25, 2020 8:38am
- Benedict Yu
  
  “If we start reducing the earning capacity of an industry where does the replacement income come from.”
  
  From “smart” and “Green” industries. Sorry, no further details are available.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:07am
  - Jules99
    
    “sustainable” too.
    
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    October 25, 2020 3:34pm
- Sigmund Freud
  
  People don’t care enough to change anything.
  
  Let’s face it – ‘higher’ education has merely created more idiots, but idiots with degrees!
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:13am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Ihumatao will be the ruination of this govt.
  No law permits confiscation of registered titles.
  No law permits the Police to abandon their sworn oath.
  The PM has to be considered to be an accomplice to the breach of law which is Ihumatao.
  
  No registered land title in NZ is now safe from activist/govt appropriation.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:25am
  - chukar
    
    Successive Governments have shown little respect for personal and private property rights.
    Building acts,RMA water use etc,etc.
    Ihumātao could be another large step dispossessing individuals of their rights .
    
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    October 25, 2020 11:09am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Thanks for the joke Kev O’. Sheeple will blindly accept that also if Cindy says she will save their lives.
    
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    October 25, 2020 11:26am
    - DeepBlue
      
      Sidekick, my first opportunity to congratulate you on your resounding mood of the nation poll. Well done Sir, over 6 months, you consistently called 17 October.
      
      Only problem is we can no longer view your opinion as satire. Such a loss to political blogging.
      
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      October 25, 2020 3:14pm
- backster
  
  “If we start reducing the earning capacity of an industry where does the replacement income come from.’?
  ………..Thousands of high paying Green Jobs. (like in Taranaki)
  
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  October 25, 2020 10:32am
- Nickc2
  
  She could talk em to death?
  
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  October 25, 2020 11:45am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Pelosi ,Schumer joke.
https://americasfreedomfighters.com/joke-about-nancy-pelosi/?utm_source=AFF-Mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:18915881&utm_campaign=Dino%20AFF%2010-24-2020%20%231
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October 25, 2020 8:38am
Yvette

Doesn’t Tova O’Brian writing for the Guardian about her own ’feral’ interview with Covid-19 denier Jami-Lee Ross – without admitting her involvement (leakee, the one leaked to) while saying Ross had plummeted from grace this parliamentary term: a high-profile implosion and resignation from the centre-right National party – seem a little like Al Capone commenting on the availability of alcohol during Prohibition without saying what he does for living.
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October 25, 2020 8:39am
- fernglas
  
  Her level of self-righteousness is puke-worthy
  
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  October 25, 2020 8:55am
- Sigmund Freud
  
  JLR wasn’t denying covid. He was denying that covid was an existential threat.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:15am
  - Phronesis
    
    Exactly the same playbook as used against the “global warming deniers”.
    
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    October 25, 2020 12:22pm
  - Catgurl13
    
    His comments to Miss Tova were only that Covid infections compared to the regular flue were about the same. That’s actually quite true. She flew off the handle and list it over a true statement.
    
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    October 25, 2020 12:31pm
- The Real Tony
  
  I’ve watched that “interview” several times, and each time I come away with the simple view that as detestable as JLR is/was and as kooky as his party was in the election, Tova O’Brien was just plain rude. She injected her own opinion into the segment without, apparently, any self-awareness.
  
  I was lambasted on Twitter for making this observation from the predictable lefties, but surprisingly a number of righties also.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:57am
  - lifesgood
    
    I’m more of the opinion that there was something very personal between them. She spoke like a jilted lover getting her own back. That last comment “you’re dreaming mate” so totally unprofessional and full of anger. Now tell me why a “journalist” would be so angry and personal.
    
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    October 25, 2020 12:25pm
    - IC5000
      
      > She spoke like a jilted lover getting her own back.
      
      Do you think some brutal and misogynistic sex was involved? JLR was quite high up in the hierarchy wasn’t he?
      
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      October 25, 2020 1:04pm
- Suze Wainwright
  
  And the irony is that Tova wouldn’t understand the irony…
  
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  October 25, 2020 10:45am
[email protected]

The art community is asking the Labour government a handout of $150M from the Covid-19 funds.

“A starving artist is an artist who sacrifices material well-being in order to focus on their artwork” (Wikipedia).
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October 25, 2020 8:42am
- kowtow
  
  “art1
  /ɑːt/
  noun
  1.
  the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”
  
  Seeing how what passes for modern art requires no skill then none of these ‘artists’ qualify as artist , ie no skill required to throw paint at a canvass , or to leave an unmade bed in an exhibition .
  
  They can starve for all I care or find a private benefactor.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:11am
DeepBlue

Rumblings in Arts sector, $150M funding too slow, there will be no arts sector if funds not distributed soon. (Stuff)

Funds announced by Ardern pre election, now according to CEO Dep at Ministry it is a long term fund over 2 or 3 years. I guess no hurry now the election is over, they could re-announce it in 2023.

Yesterday: Ardern may not retain this ministry. Surprise, surprise.
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October 25, 2020 8:47am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Really? For the last 20,000 years there have been people who have sculpted and painted things. What we call “art”. Most of them did not have government subsidies. I guarantee that if the government abolished such government hand outs, there will still be art in New Zealand.
  
  What has hurt some artists is that there are now no high end tourists who will happily drop $2000 on a New Zealand art work to take home.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:12am
- Charmaine Hawke
  
  The arts sector may be about to discover that the PM thinks saying something is the same as doing it.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:18am
- sooty
  
  No need to give them money then!
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:47am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  I think she wants to give it to Phil Twyford
  
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  October 25, 2020 10:07am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  I will be very happy if the Arts sector dominated by Green voting artists dies a natural death. Money saved. Well done Ardern. I am considering voting for you in 2023.
  
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  October 25, 2020 10:31am
- KevO'Brien
  
  The Arts Sector has largely been an employment device.
  
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  October 25, 2020 12:46pm
gorse

Productivity is a problem in New Zealand. Easy to see why. I was chatting to my good friend who employs around 50 people. He was saying that with the extra 5 days sick leave, which is usually taken, plus the extra day off coming, his staff will only work 10 months out of twelve. Out of 50 people he will have about 8 just filling in for staff not there. That is 8 unproductive people, just in his business. How many thousands of paid, unproductive people are there in NZ? Now the Hindus want yet another day as a public holiday. I can see no way NZ is going to build its way into prosperity.
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October 25, 2020 8:47am
- fernglas
  
  Exactly. Chain them to their desks, make them work 18 hours a day every day and have them put down if they get sick.
  
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  October 25, 2020 8:58am
- Benedict Yu
  
  We all know that most people who take one day off are not sick. If you are really sick, you don’t usually recover in one day.
  
  In the last 5 years I have had two times off work. One for 5 months after major surgery. And 2 years ago for 5 days with a really bad cold. That is it.
  
  So many times I have had employee call in sick. Next day “better now?” They say yes super. 80 percent of these people are not sick at all.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:19am
  - lifesgood
    
    Teachers are the worst. They always ensure they use up their sick leave. Talk about it openly as “mental health days”
    
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    October 25, 2020 12:28pm
    - Engelbert Humperdink
      
      My mental health day is payday. I get paid for working and that improves my mental health. Showing up to do what you get paid to do. It’s a thing from my youth that never left.
      
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      October 25, 2020 1:09pm
    - Paulus
      
      In addition Teachers have their regular Teacher Only Days – our local next week again.
      
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      October 25, 2020 2:10pm
- Harriet
  
  I do see your point but it is the action of Labour that will increase productivity – employers may well automate further to increase productivity, and lay off employees.
  
  National could have increased productivity also as they too had an ‘everybody in work’ policy. Not much happened.
  
  National once did have a policy where those that did the work would get more pay but it was abandoned by National and most employers, and you are now today where you are at.
  
  The workers left the country as well as the brightest and that won’t stop anytime soon. There is no prosperity in NZ employment, broadly speaking. 😎
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:27am
- The Real Tony
  
  If the government wants to give people extra time off for being sick why the fuck do I have to pay for it?
  
  Why the hell does the government not pay for it?
  
  I will now have to cover 12 public holidays, 10 sick days, 20 annual leave days, bereavement leave (min 3 days up to 20 or more depending on how many cark it in one year).
  
  On top of that minimum wage will be up to $20/hr. This means direct increase in labour costs for me, plus knock-on costs from all my suppliers who are trying to manage costs.
  
  All my prices will go up 4% to attempt to cover the increasing costs.
  
  Inflation goes up.
  
  Houses prices go up.
  
  Do they not see the connections?
  
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  October 25, 2020 10:12am
  - Engelbert Humperdink
    
    The government has no money that it does not extort from the net-productive (and first take a cut for themselves before distributing it for feels, votes and the occasional appropriate function of government they cannot avoid funding. So, we’re all paying for the extra holiday(s).-
    
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    October 25, 2020 1:11pm
  - Joely Doe
    
    You forgot the 10 days Domestic Violence Leave…
    God help any employer that denies that one!
    
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    October 25, 2020 3:47pm
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Majority of small businesses consider Labour as better manager of economy than National – A survey before election 2020. Let them suffer. Why even bother?
  
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  October 25, 2020 10:32am
- Tall Man
  
  Oh you silly man. Dontcha know that people on holiday they buy lotsa stuff so the economy will be booming. Shame all that “stuff” is getting made in China where people know how to work.
  
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  October 25, 2020 10:33am
  - amospicton
    
    Yes Tall Man among the most ridiculous government pronouncements was that additional holidays would boost the economy. Ultimately we need to earn (ie work) our way out of the hole we’re in thanks to the lockdowns. Central Banks and left wing governments are acting as if that rather obvious rule of nature has been repealed.
    
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    October 25, 2020 3:08pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Sick leave taken by our factory workers is 90% of the time either a Monday or a Friday. Interesting statistic.
  
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  October 25, 2020 5:16pm
softail 1450

Steve Otto, Who the F—K could downtick that good laugh, Is stupidboy off his detention?
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October 25, 2020 8:54am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The usual idiots. I see Mike is lurking around – he will be one. Does not worry me that they have no humour
  
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  October 25, 2020 1:16pm
kowtow

Road toll . Now the Greens are out the toll goes up ( sarc)

Very low petrol prices , more driving , more carnage . Got nothing to do with Plod and no tolerance limits.
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October 25, 2020 9:02am
kowtow

Really interesting article from Spiked on how activist charity can rule the roost. The inclusion of “T” after LGB is causing all sorts of ructions.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/10/23/the-rise-and-fall-of-stonewall/
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October 25, 2020 9:06am
- Phronesis
  
  The basic problem is you either like cock or you don’t. If you don’t, and are told you should because it identifies as a woman, then you have to wonder if people are taking your sexual orientation seriously.
  
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  October 25, 2020 1:08pm
kglm

In the US some places, including Florida, post almost real time updates on vote-by-mail (VBM) and early in-person voting (EPV), broken down into the registered party affiliation of voters. It can be assumed that most registered republicans, and most registered democrats, voted for their affiliated party.

In Florida, republicans are significantly ahead of where they were in 2016. Democrats tend to VBM, so lead that count, but Republicans are leading in EPV in places where this was not the case in 2016. Republicans dominate voting on election day.

So the signs are that in Florida Trump is doing much better in voting in 2020 that he did in 2016. Also, there is evidence that black and hispanic support for Trump has increased, and the difference in voter enthusiasm in favour of Trump is apparent.

Those who base their expectations on the US polls are being misled.
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October 25, 2020 9:15am
- kglm
  
  I am not a polling professional, but my observations are as follows. US and NZ mainstream polling is chalk and cheese. In NZ, reported polling data is generally unbiased, reliable, and accurate (e.g. the polls of the recent election were accurate). In the US this is not the case.
  
  Most mainstream US polling companies have a liberal agenda. This influences how headline results are derived and reported. My understanding is that in NZ the headline data is the raw data. This is not so in the US where almost universally the headline data has been manipulated. The main source of bias is that the raw data is “adjusted” to supposedly better reflect the population. Most polling companies weight their raw data excessively towards Democrats, young voters, women and urban residents, all of whom are more likely to have a liberal viewpoint. The reported headline number is thus manipulated and biased towards the left, and therefore inaccurate.
  
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  October 25, 2020 12:37pm
- kowtow
  
  ‘black and hispanic support for Trump ‘
  
  Jobs is what that’s about. And despite our Media Party and the int’l media’s hatred of Trump and their constnt attacks on him and all the negativity ,at the ballot voters will vote for their own well being. Trump delivered that last time and they know he’s their chance for improvement . Not Dem lies.
  
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  October 25, 2020 2:52pm
Swifty

Ever wished to see a fine Agatha Christie drama with players including Sir Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Dame Diana Rigg, Dame Wendy Hiller, Donald Pleasence and supported by a host of excellent actors including David Langton, Richard Vernon, Peter Sallis and Michael Gough then I give you Witness for the Prosecution:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjEIsGauX04

Made in 1982 but looks like it was made yesterday.

Thoroughly recommended for those with an hour and a half up their sleeve today.
9 1
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October 25, 2020 9:18am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Thanks, saved it for later.
  
  7 0
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  October 25, 2020 12:49pm
mikenmildagain

okay
365 days per year. Subtract 104 for weekends, 15 for annual leave and 9 for public holiday, leaves 237 ‘working’ days. An extra public holiday reduces time available for work by 0.4%.
As for sick leave, an employer with all staff taking their maximum sick leave entitlements needs to think what is going wrong.
NZ does have a productivity problem, one not addressed by any politicians, ever, but it is not one that will be cured by reducing meal breaks, holidays or sick leave.
2 20
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October 25, 2020 9:18am
- Flossie
  
  Even worse. NZ workers get four weeks annual leave, which I believe is 20 days, not 15.
  Also add on bereavement (5 days total per annum – not sure) maternity/paternity, mental health days….
  
  11 1
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  October 25, 2020 12:16pm
- [email protected]
  
  Currently there are 11 public hollidays in New Zealand.
  
  3 0
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  October 25, 2020 12:55pm
- Paulus
  
  Had you ever thought that productivity was determined by what is produced in the hours and not the hours themselves ?
  
  1 1
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  October 25, 2020 2:13pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Where have you been the last few years? Annual leave in NZ has been four weeks for quite a while now. I think you may have forgotten a couple of stat days too.
  
  5 0
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  October 25, 2020 5:33pm
- The Real Tony
  
  Never said they should be reduced, just that I shouldn’t have to pay for it (twice – once for the sick employee and once for the person covering them) when an employee is sick. Govt could give everyone 365 sick days a year, wouldn’t care a toss if they were paying for it.
  
  Bereavement leave – why am I paying for someone to go to a funeral FFS? I don’t know the departed so why do I have to pay for my employee to go and have a sooky?
  
  Domestic Leave – again, why am I paying? I didn’t beat them up? I didn’t tell their abuser to beat them up? Govt wants them to have time off, sure, not a problem – they probably need it – but why do I have to pay for someone else’s domestic/anger/personality problems?
  
  Annual leave – people want to have holidays? More power to them. But why am I paying for it?
  
  KiwiSaver – govt wants people to save for retirement? Great idea. But why the fuck am I paying for their retirement?
  
  Every single cost you add just means business has to increase their prices or cut their costs. Either way, people lose out. Then they govt throws their hands in the air, gnashing their teeth and crying “How could this be? Everything is so expensive for the vulnerable people! Lets increase the money that business pays – that’ll fix the problem.”
  
  And politicians of all stripes don’t care. And no one makes them care.
  
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  October 25, 2020 9:53pm
Wired-one

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/123187651/the-moment-that-stood-out-to-pm-jacinda-ardern-following-weeks-on-the-campaign-trail

Another fluff piece from a sycophantic and utterly incompetent media. I loathe the appalling state of journalism in this country. At least the comments are open this time.
15 1
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October 25, 2020 9:38am
- Paulus
  
  I would normally not bother to read anything that Andrea Vance writes but my eye was caught on her article in the SST about the organisation and people behind Ardern and the Labour Party for the election.
  Assuming it be correct I have to say that the professional skills used by them was exceptional .
  It was well co ordinated, slick and stuck to the point of Jacinda the wonderful. Four cameras followed her everywhere long with the media ones.
  I cannot see any other Party even getting near to it and as a National voter have to say well done.
  It cost an absolute bomb as well but so what.
  It achieved what it set out to do.
  
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  October 25, 2020 2:21pm
- bruceavon
  
  I just read it. Not surprising, the journalists love her. I notice the comments too. You wouldn’t think Ardern had just won the election in a landslide! A lot of ones very negative for her. Some of them sound like kiwi bloggers. Great. I notice the herald opened up comments the other day too. The first time for years.
  
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  October 25, 2020 4:29pm
The Boss

Who is going to lose their seat if National is reduced to 34 MPs after special votes?
8 1
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October 25, 2020 9:58am
- Steve Todd
  
  Maureen Pugh is almost certain to go, and possibly Nick Smith.
  
  2 2
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  October 25, 2020 12:46pm
BAM

There you go, farmers, choke on that.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/canterbury-top-stories/122839840/did-the-government-just-cancel-canterbury-dairying-meeting-the-tough-new-freshwater-standards
10 0
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October 25, 2020 10:25am
- lifesgood
  
  Yep, let them stew in their own juice.
  
  5 0
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  October 25, 2020 12:30pm
Sir Cullen's Sidekick

Hindus asking for a extra day off is not going anywhere. So don’t fear people.
10 0
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October 25, 2020 10:33am
- lifesgood
  
  Hmm, but what if the Muslims ask for one?
  
  14 1
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  October 25, 2020 12:32pm
  - mark15
    
    Whats more important is what happens if they’re told no.
    
    3 0
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    October 25, 2020 4:46pm
Sir Cullen's Sidekick

On specials, I am sure, Labour and Greens will get an extra seat and National and ACT will lose one seat each.
7 2
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October 25, 2020 10:33am
Catgurl13

Funny we now have more Covid ads and Covid messages running across the TV progs all the time, telling to use the Covid app. It’s more than when we were in lockdown. We have more infections in two separate clusters multiplying daily but we don’t a lockdown as the election is over now.
12 2
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October 25, 2020 10:50am
Maggy Wassilieff

It is OK to call a leading politician dickhead.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018769804/a-green-light-for-dickhead

(Not that I would, of course)
9 1
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October 25, 2020 11:10am
- Phronesis
  
  But would that be true if the politician was female?
  
  2 0
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  October 25, 2020 1:12pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Biden digging the hole deeper and getting called out.
Best ad for Trump.
https://rumble.com/vat1jl-this-is-one-of-the-best-political-ads-ever-made-and-its-bad-news-for-biden.html?
17 2
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October 25, 2020 11:34am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Reporter asks Trump who he voted for. Don’t watch if you have TDS.
https://rumble.com/vattv1-reporter-asks-president-trump-who-he-voted-for-his-response-cracks-them-up.html?
14 3
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October 25, 2020 11:41am
Jack5

The Telegraph reports … Bias may have influenced selection of Britain’s Unknown Warrior, an unidentified soldier killed in World War 1, and whose body is interred in Westminister Abbey.

About three-quarters of a million United Kingdom soldiers, overwhelmingly white, died in that war. How terrible if the symbolic unknown soldier’s remains are those of a white man.

The Telegraph’s report:

” … research by the National Army Museum in London suggests that some level of “unconscious bias” may have influenced the selection of the body, which is likely to be that of a white British soldier of low rank.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/24/unknown-warrior-likely-white-solider-bias-research-suggests/
15 2
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October 25, 2020 11:46am
- Engelbert Humperdink
  
  Oh FFS. I got nothin’ else to say about the racist twitwafflers who think this is a problem.
  
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  October 25, 2020 1:13pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Who thought this up. Te British Army at the beginning of 1914 was overwhelmingly white working class.
  
  When the bodies were chosen they had to be Unknown and have no way of being identified. They had been in the ground for 6 or more years when chosen so the chance of knowing whether they were white, black, yellow of brindle was very low.
  
  Have we become so woke that the wokerati are hav ing to do this!!
  
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  October 25, 2020 2:12pm
oldfella

News Flash: ‘Not All People With Periods Are Women.’ (According to … Tampax – believe it or not.)
https://notthebee.com/article/tampax-tweets-not-all-people-with-periods-are-women-and-gets-rightfully-destroyed-by-facts-and-logic
14 1
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October 25, 2020 11:47am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Where do guys put the tampon? Under the nose. Done it twice with septoplasty and sinus duct surgery LOL
  
  8 2
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  October 25, 2020 12:27pm
- Mike22240
  
  That’s one way to increase the market size I suppose …
  
  1 0
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  October 25, 2020 2:31pm
- Flossie
  
  Could well be referring to the ever increasing numbers of little girls getting periods now, poor wee kids. I wouldn’t know if it’s good nutrition or hormones in the meat we eat but you still want to turn flips on the jungle gym when you’re ten, not wrestle with “feminine products”.
  
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  October 25, 2020 3:58pm
Ed Snack

Even better, check out the video clip with Biden saying that the Democrats have built up the biggest and best voter fraud organisation ever. One Biden statement we don’t have to fact check to know that it’s true…
7 3
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October 25, 2020 12:04pm
- RJ
  
  Yeah just be careful what clips you check out, gnews have started publishing everything they have, including the sex tapes.
  
  1 1
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  October 25, 2020 1:21pm
- Batman
  
  Hilarious that you believe this is some kind of Freudian slip, Ed.
  
  The reality is that they have built up a nationwide team of lawyers and volunteers in order to respond to Republican efforts to close polling places, strike out ballots, and generally suppress people from non-GOP districts from voting.
  
  Good of you to give the opportunity to clarify and outline the facts. Thanks buddy!
  
  2 4
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  October 25, 2020 5:37pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

The choice America has explained.
https://twitter.com/marklevinshow/status/1320127640368447488?fbclid=IwAR3J4kAEa7-RFMElnbKdEajkvk_7KpoZ7ZXVYRZFR_m6dLg_IGy36mmreD0
2 2
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October 25, 2020 12:17pm
RW Capitalist

TV 1 last night
They are now claiming they are in the middle of producing a response plan for future pandemic events.
It will take time
It will be difficult….etc etc
My answer…NO it won’t, next time we could follow the one already written in 2017
https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/influenza-pandemic-plan-framework-action-2nd-edn-aug17.pdf
8 1
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October 25, 2020 2:14pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Some shit seems to be happening regarding the Bidens. Watch vid. Then start with Gateway Pundit and China’s GTV. All off Hunter’s laptop. This is what Trump has been trying to expose – all of the pedo rings, the corruption, the Epstein stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRSnmAXIXuk&feature=share
8 4
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October 25, 2020 3:21pm
- RJ
  
  [Mod: Thanks for the heads up RJ, I will alert the other moderators and DPF]
  
  1 0
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  October 25, 2020 3:29pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I am not RJ
    
    2 2
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    October 25, 2020 4:56pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

I think General Debate is broken. Only about 4 comments since mid day
3 3
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October 25, 2020 3:52pm
Batman

Oh, don’t you just love to see the “Russian Hoax” club proven to be duped?

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/10/rudy-is-so-bad-at-this-giuliani-mocked-after-photo-of-alleged-hunter-biden-text-is-linked-to-russia/

“Emanuel’s tweet included a photograph of the text message, which was taken from a phone that appeared to be connected to the Russian MTS cellphone network.”

This stuff is chefs kiss levels of dumb. A lot of people have been suckered and may never be able to admit it.
4 6
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October 25, 2020 4:53pm
WaynelSexton

Going from bad to worse for creepy Joe

https://voxday.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-blackmail-videos-surface.html?m=1
4 3
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October 25, 2020 6:21pm
fernglas

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/300141792/covid19-bill-gatesfunded-study-shows-hydroxychloroquine-doesnt-prevent-virus

So this study shows that HCL has no effect in preventing or treating Covid.
4 2
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October 25, 2020 7:08pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300141981/plea-to-make-diwali-a-public-holiday
Oh my goodness gracious me ! What next !
4 0
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October 25, 2020 7:22pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Eid_al-Adha

Buddha’s Birthday

Chinese New Year
6 0
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October 25, 2020 8:04pm
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Public holiday?
  
  0 0
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  October 25, 2020 9:13pm
Suze Wainwright

The time has come for the Government to be bold
2 0
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October 25, 2020 9:15pm
- Prince
  
  Bowled ?
  
  2 0
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  October 25, 2020 10:35pm

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