In my Herald column I look at the Mana and Maori parties and conclude that the sensible thing for the Maori Party is to find a way to work with the Mana Party, as united they will be stronger than fighting each other.
I blog at Stuff on how the recent New Plymouth poll may be better news for Andrew Little than it appeared on the surface.
On Monday driving from Darlington to Edinburgh and got distracted by a sign pointing to Hadrian’s Wall. So we turned off the motorway and headed to Chesters where they not only had section of Hadrian’s Wall intact, but remains of Cilurnum, a roman cavalry fort. This was the commander’s quarters.
This is the River North Tyne, and you can see on the far side the remains of the wall continuing on. There was originally a bridge here of course.
The location also has a museum with hundreds of well preserved artefacts, especially engraved stones.
Nearby was this lovely field of poppies.
And another section of Hadrian’s Wall.
The border between England and Scotland is well marked, unlike the Welsh one. They have some mobile retailers selling food and souvenirs at the border, plus large rocks with Scotland marked on one side and England on the other.
Had a well located apartment in Edinburgh, just up the road from Holyrood. My second visit to Edinburgh – a truly lovely city.
No caption needed!
Caught up with an old friend and colleague at Monteiths. Most of the bar was inside, but they had covered over this alleyway to create an enclosed outdoor area.
A statue of the great Adam Smith.
Needed to find some coffee first this morning.
Here’s a sunnier moment by an Australian billabong with a white heron.
Click for larger, higher res image
Stuff reports:
New Zealanders are angry that Whitcoulls will not confirm whether it will stock Macsyna King’s exposé about the death of her twin boys are taking their frustration to the book seller’s Twitter and Facebook pages.
That should read “Some New Zealanders …”
Yesterday PaperPlus announced it would not be selling the book Breaking Silence: The Kahui Case following overwhelming feedback from their staff and members of the public.
But Whitcoulls head office is refusing to confirm whether it will stock the controversial tell-all.
In a post on the company’s Facebook page the book chain says it is taking “all views into account” before deciding whether or not to stock the book.
“We want to make a balanced decision and will let people know the outcome as soon as possible.”
The online update has prompted more than 80 messages in response.
Many of the messages in response support Whitcoulls in (so far) not banning the book.
As a general principle I do not like booksellers deciding on my behalf what they think I should or should not read. However I respect their right as a private company to only stock whatever they want.
It seems to me there is a logical halfway step. Why doesn’t Whitcoulls stock the book for those who want to buy it, but not advertise or promote it in any way. Don’t have it on display. Just have it filed away in the appropriate section where people can find it if they want it.
UPDATE: Having now read the Q+A at the Herald with Ian Wishart, I don’t see what the fuss is about. If King was profiting from the book, I could understand the reluctance to stock the book. But she isn’t. So I don’t see why it should be different to any other book – buy it or don’t buy it based on your preferences.
Am in a remote part of Scotland with no cellphone or Internet so don’t expect many posts for another day or two. Thanks to Jadis for some timely guest posts.
I am hoping like hell that our policy makers in the area of Early Childhood Education aren’t looking to Sweden as way of the future.
Simply put, the Swedish National Curriculum for Early Childhood Education affirms three values – children’s rights, gender equity, and education for sustainable development. The gender equity component indicates that girls and boys should have the same opportunities to develop and learn “without limitations imposed by stereotyped gender roles and patterns.” So, the teachers in have worked to counteract traditional gender patterns and gender roles. I am actually supportive of that, within limits.
The latest, albeit radical, representation is the pre-school with no gender references. This is a taxpayer-funded ECE provider.
But this centre also goes further to breakdown views beyond just gender – into “fostering an environment that is tolerant of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people.” So, this centre has:
To be fair, this is a radical example and representation of the new direction for ECE in Stockholm. And, there are certainly calls for it from parents and caregivers – the Centre Director says there is a long waiting list for admission to the kindy.
My concern, shared by Child Psychologist Jay Belsky, is that boys like doing boy things and that if ECE is to go to the extremes as evident above then we run the risk of emasculating our boys. Yes, it is important to break down barriers for girls and women to succeed but not at the expense of boys and men. In turn, I do want to see an acknowledgment of different family structures however this centre appears to have gone beyond the ‘tipping point’. I suspect it is meeting a need within their local community.
The New Zealand education system needs to reject the Swedish model (and radical representations) and instead focus on celebrating being male and being female without placing undue barriers or judgments in the way. The problem with removing gender is that too many pieces of curriculum actually remove ‘being male’ and inadvertantly place the ‘being female’ as more important. The more that we emasculate our boys the fewer roles we allow them to have within our society.
As we have all heard by now Ian Wishart has produced a book about Macsyna King. Perhaps memories are short but through Chris Kahui’s trial we got a picture of Macsyna’s life. Yes, Macsyna has had a hard and awful life, but she has had several opportunities to make a difference to the lives and memories of her children.
Macsyna has had multiple opportunities to put this right, and she has chosen the one forum where her words can be edited, where her words can be put in a better light, and where she can release her guilt. Or, she’s decided that she can make money and perhaps fame from the deaths of her children. I would be very interested to hear from Ian Wishart if Macsyna has received any ‘gifts’ or ‘expenses paid’ during the production of the book – and what about the marketing of the book? Will Macsyna be involved in that? Will she receive an appearance fee?
Putting aside the rationale for the book, the timing of the book is appalling in itself. Wishart has chosen to market the book during the coronial inquest into the death of the twins. The moment where the media interest in the twins is at its highest. It is important for Wishart to talk about the book now as, potentially, when the inquest is over the media interest will also wain.
To say that it is ghoulish and unsympathetic is understatement of the year.
Those babies deserved to have a good Mother, a good Father, people that cared for them. They deserved to be fed, to be held and most of all, they deserved a future. Macsyna, Chris and the wider whanau may not have been able to do that but there were otehr options. And, let’s be honest that Macsyna has had plenty of opportunities to atone herself, to tell her story and to put her children before herself.
Wishart says that any profits from the book will be given to charity. Which one? Which charity CEO or Board in their right mind will accept money made from this book, effectively guilt money (if not blood money)?
Of course the book should not be banned. Banning books is a horribly, slippery slope. We, as consumers have the freedom to buy the book or reject the book. That means we can boycott the book, and any other books by this publisher – Howling at the Moon. Wishart could have redeemed himself. If he had published this book with the intention to bring justice in this matter or to hand over the guilty killer. Sadly, Ian Wishart has positioned himself as sensationalist, and undermined any previous reputation he had for investigative reporting.
Had to head back into England for the stag party. We detoured off the M4 to Bath for lunch. Didn’t have much time to look around, but seemed quite a nice city.
The stag do was very civilised – a black tie affair at one of the private clubs. Gin and tonics before dinner, wine during dinner and port after dinner. Lots of very funny speeches.
On Saturday headed to the famous Portobello Market in Notting Hill. It is huge, and has different sections ranging from antiques to fruit & veg to new goods to fashion to second hand goods.
We grabbed lunch at the aptly named Duke of Wellington pub, where this photo is from.
The apartment for the weekend was on Tower Bridge Road, and they lifted the bridge for this boat during our stay.
Sunday was the start of the drive up to Scotland. We drove via Cambridge and spent three hours looking around there. This is the Round Church, more formally known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
In the UK they are very unimaginative with their street names. Almost every castle we went to in Wales was located on Castle Street. This church was on Round Church Road and the parking building was on, yes, Park Street.
This is inside Queens’ College, Cambridge. What a wonderful place to study at.
The River Cam. As you can see there is almost a traffic jam with all the punts. They have touts asking you every 50 metres or so whether you want to punt on the river. They were almost as bad as the touts in Egypt. It would be nice to punt on the river, but only if not crowded.
The famous Mathematical Bridge, at the back of Queens’.
After Cambridge we drove to Darlington, where we stayed the night. There are no photos of Darlington as there was nothing to see!
Stuff reports:
Embattled employers’ chief Alasdair Thompson is expected to quit today as his lawyers fight out the terms of a settlement.
Sources said last night that Mr Thompson had not resigned as chief executive of the Employers & Manufacturers Association (Northern) and the lobby group’s board had not requested his resignation. But there was no will for Mr Thompson to continue in the role, one source said. …
It is believed that big corporate members of the EMA have agitated for his removal in the past 48 hours but progress has been bogged down.
The initial remarks were survivable. It was the two appalling Tv3 interviews that demonstrated such a poor lack of judgement that made the status quo so difficult to continue with. Everyone has a bad day when they say something wrong in an interview. But to then go on and make things worse, knowing it is such a sensitive issue, and having had hours to prepare, was such a bad look.
Labour list MP Carol Beaumont said it was clear Mr Thompson could not continue in his role, and the board should not need to deliberate so long about it.
What an appalling statement. Carol knows full well that the EMA is bound by the law of the land and they can not make any decision without formally putting towards Thompson their formal dis-satisfaction and allowing him reasonable time to respond to it. Carol’s job used to be to protect employees from employers who do not go through a fair and unrushed process.
NZPA report:
A campaign against MMP was launched today, aiming to persuade voters to opt for change in the referendum that is going to be held at the same time as the November 26 general election.
The referendum will ask voters whether they want to change to another electoral system, and to tick a preferred alternative from a list of options including the old first-past-the-post system.
If a majority want a change, a second referendum will be held alongside the 2014 general election which will run off MMP against the alternative that gets the most ticks.
“Vote for Change wants a system that restores more certainty, that allows voters to easily hold governments to account and kick rascals out of Parliament”, said the organisation’s spokesman Jordan Williams, a Wellington lawyer.
“The current system lets party bosses sneak MPs who have been dismissed by their local electorates back into Parliament on party lists.”
Mr Williams said many people had high hopes that MMP would create a new era of consensus politics but instead “small groups and party bosses can now hold the rest to ransom”.
The Vote for Change website has a list of initial supporters. They include former Labour Party President Bob Harvey.
Drove west over to Swansea and the Gower Peninsula. Very amused to find these cows sleeping in the middle of a roundabout. This was not unique – unlike NZ, many Welsh farms are not fenced in. Cows, sheep and even horses roam next to and across some of the roads.
All along Gower, there are cliffs and the ocean. Magnificent views.
Many of the roads are what I call tree tunnels. They are barely wide enough for one car, but believe it or not are two-way roads. Beautiful roads to drive along, but you drive very slowly and should be prepared to reverse often.
These are the remains of Oxwich Castle. It is also home to a display about the history of Wales which was very interesting.
This is the view from the Worm’s Head Tavern at Rhossili. Had a nice lunch here and the views are to die for. Which would happen if you fell over the edge.
This sheep is enjoying the good life.
If you walk for a km or so you get to the western most point, where you can descend down and at low tide cross over to the “Worm’s Head”. it does indeed look like a worm with a head. You need to time it carefully as if you stay over there for too long, you will be trapped for 12 hours.
Another view of the beach at Rhossili
These horses are at Cefn Bryn.
This is Arthur’s Stone. The legend is he threw a stone from Llanelli which landed here. In reality is is a burial site from the neolithic period, so is up to 10,000 years old.
The ruins of Swansea Castle in Swansea.
The interior of Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff.
Outside the cathedral they’ve got hectares of old cemeteries to rumage through.
This is Caerphlliy Castle, north of Cardiff. It is the second largest in the UK, and well worth a look around.
On the way out of Wales, popped into Caerleon. It was home to a Roman legion and fort, and one can see the remains of Roman baths plus this amphitheatre. There is also a free museum with artefacts from the era.
Caerleon is also where Camelot was located according to Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Leaving Wales via the second Severn Bridge – 5 kms long.
I was not planning to visit Wales as traditionally the reputation of Cardiff especially has been rather dour. But really glad we did. Cardiff is a lovely city, and South Wales is beautiful – the Gower Peninsula especially was just great to drive around.
Over at Stuff I analyse the results of the Te Tai Tokerau by-election, and conclude how Hone won, or more why Kelvin Davis fell short.
Hannah Fleming and Zaryd Wilson in the Taranaki Daily News report:
Labour’s Andrew Little is moving to New Plymouth in the next two weeks but he already has a mountain of work to do.
The man many are touting as the next Labour leader and prime minister will have to quickly roll up his sleeves after a significant poll of the New Plymouth electorate he covets this week indicated National’s lead in recent nationwide polls is being reflected in the city, previously the country’s most marginal electorate.
The election may be five months away, on November 26, but incumbent National MP Jonathan Young has the early jump on his main challenger, polling well ahead of the former Labour Party president in a Witt School of Journalism survey.
Mr Young secured a tiny 105-vote majority in 2008, but he won 41.56 per cent of support in Witt’s random telephone poll compared with Mr Little’s 25.33 per cen
The poll, which had a margin of error of 4.55 per cent, asked 820 voters to choose between Mr Young and Mr Little. Of that number 462 people responded.
New Plymouth is going to be one of the interesting seats. National won the party vote by 6,500 votes, so for Little to win, he will need to attract a chunk of National voters.
Belinda McCammon in the SST reports:
Six people have put their names forward to contest the National Party nomination for Epsom, including former Christian Heritage leader Ewen McQueen.
McQueen did not return for calls for comment all week but sources have told the Sunday Star Times he is seeking the nomination after unsuccessfully standing for selection in the North Shore seat.
I’ve not met Ewen McQueen who might be a very nice man, but my gut reaction is I’d rather vote for a Labour candidate, than for a former leader of Christian Heritage.
If National did select McQueen, that would guarantee it for Banks I suspect.
Former Auckland City Council councillor Richard Simpson, who stood under the Action Hobson ticket, is also seeking selection.
Simpson’s bid for selection has raised eyebrows within some National Party members, with one member describing it as “odd” given his voting history on the council.
Simpson served one term as a councillor from 2004 to 2007 before failing to be re-elected and had a history on the council of voting with the centre-left, including installing Bruce Hucker as deputy mayor and supporting mayor Dick Hubbard as Mayor.
I have to confess I did not know Richard was a member, let alone wanted to be a National MP. His voting record will come under scrutiny I expect. The battle for the nomination could get interesting as Bhatnagar won his Auckland City Council seat off Simpson in 2007.
Ray Presland, a former Auckland mayoral candidate at the last election, could not be reached for comment but is also understood to be standing.
Again, not someone I would have guessed is a National Party member.
I’ve previously blogged on the other three candidates, Bhatnagar, Goldsmith and Krum.
At a dinner at McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant in Washington, Thompson approached Kelly, Street and the business leader.
Thompson is alleged to have made lewd comments at the social event about the relationship Kelly had with Prime Minister John Key, who has been married to wife Bronagh since both were teenagers.
Late last night, the Prime Minister’s office dismissed Thompson’s allegations as “totally ridiculous”.
The source said the comments were made without any basis other than Helen Kelly and John Key’s “good working relationship”.
“He asked her what the relationship was between her and John Key. There was sexual innuendo. Then he said he asked John Key, the last time he saw him. He said he asked if he [Key] fancied Helen.”
The source said Kelly was visibly upset by the comments. She said to Thompson: “That’s disgusting.”
I think I’m speechless. I can’t decide what is stupider for the head of the Auckland Employers Association.
EMA president Graham Mountfort said Thompson would be asked to explain himself to the board and was no longer allowed to speak with the media.
“He won’t be an advocate for us in the future.”
I note the Wellington EMA went to the trouble of specifically e-mailing all their members disassociating themselves from the comments of their Auckland counterpart.
The SST reports:
… party leader Phil Goff said Davis “was able to take a Maori seat with the largest majority and make it the most marginal Maori seat”.
Really?
Te Tai Tokerau’s majority was 6,308. Tamaki Makaurau was 7,540, Te Tai Hauauru was 7,817 and Waiariki was 6,812. So Goff is massively wrong – Hone did not have the largest majority – it was 4th out of 7.
Audrey Young reports:
Cathy Odgers, the author of the acerbic website Cactus Kate, is expected to be approved today as an Act candidate – one of the reasons sitting MP Heather Roy is likely to today announce she will stand down at this year’s election.
Heather has since announced her retirement. It is a shame that the internal politics of the last year played out the way it did. I’m someone who admired both Rodney and Heather, and think they both made good contributions to Parliament.
Cathy’s impending demotion to Parliament has appalled and excited many on the left. First we have Bomber.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me be 1000% clear, Cathy Odgers is a hateful person who is the very last human being one would ever wish to enter politics.
I understand that Cactus is delighted with this endorsement by Bomber, and is considering turning it into billboards around Auckland.
At the Dim-Post, the commenters are salivating with excitement over her blog posts. I don’t think they realise that every journalist in NZ has probably already read them all.
But at Kiwipolitico, Lew endorses Kate’s candidacy:
It is in this vein that I endorse the rumoured candidacy of Cathy Odgers, aka Cactus Kate, for the ACT party in the forthcoming general election. If true, Odgers will be doing Aotearoa a genuine service, showing us all what ACT really stands for. …
But this endorsement isn’t all about foreshadowed electoral schadenfreude. Odgers, for all that I disagree with nearly every aspect of her politics, is intelligent, articulate and possessed of a sharp and analytical wit. By reputation she is driven, hard-working and will not tolerate time-wasters or time-servers. If her boasts about the expat lifestyle and her drinking habits are to be believed, she will be taking a considerable cut in pay and increase in workload if elected to parliament, so we might reasonably assume her intentions are genuine. In other words, aside from her politics — which is admittedly a very big aside — she’s just the sort of person we need more of in Parliament. It may be that the rigours of public office mellow her, or it may be that her prickly public persona hides one more rounded and reasoned. They often do.
I can’t wait until Cactus is interviewed on Campbell Live.
If Cactus does become an MP, I have the perfect job for her. Make her Minister of Revenue, with her job being to close down all the loopholes. Ultimate poacher turned gamekeeper 🙂
Plus the Hon Cactus Kate MP has a certain ring to it.
With only three polling booths to report, it is clear Hone has won re-election. His majority is 761 at this stage.
Hone got 48% of the vote, which is close to an absolute majority, not just a plurality. It is down from the 62% at the general election, but still a reasonable result.
Kelvin Davis and Labour will be pretty pleased to have got 41% and reasonably close. But they will be a bit nervous about what attacks from their left they may endure from the Mana Party. They will be hoping Mana targets Maori Party voters rather than left wing voters.
Mana is now a parliamentary party, and will be in Parliament after the next election. They can now campaign for party votes and tell people a vote for them is not a wasted vote.
Mana in Parliament may be an issue for both Labour and National. Labour doesn’t want the competition for the votes, but having Mana there might help a Labour-led Government get formed. If the election is so close that the support of Mana could decide the Government, then I have no doubt Labour will do a deal. My small anarchist tendencies would almost like to see Phil Goff managing a Government of Labour, Greens, Maori Party, Mana Party and NZ First.
So today is Hone’s victory – the gamble paid off. Attention will now go on the wider Mana Party, specifically their party list. Will the No 2 be John Minto or Annette Skyes or Sue Bradford or someone else?
UPDATE: Election Night majority is finalised at 867. 1,916 specials to be commented but will not change result unless Davis picked up 73% of them which will not happen.
I’m back in London for two days. About to head off to a black tie stag party tonight, and tomorrow night am hosting with Rotorua MP Todd McClay, a pub talk on the latest in NZ Politics.
The event is on Facebook.
If you are in London and free early Saturday evening, come along to the The Old Star pub next to the St James Tube. It’s address is 66 Broadway, Westminster, London SW1H 1DB. We’ll be there from 5.30 pm in the Upper Function Room and probably wrap up around 7.00 pm. I suspect a few of us will head out to dinner afterwards.