In 20 days, the Queen will become the longest reigning monarch of the United Kingdom or any kingdom within it. That is the longest over 1,145 years of monarchy.

The 10 longest reigning are:

1. Queen Victoria (UK) 63 years, 216 days
2. QEII (UK) 63 years 196 days
3. George III (UK) 59 years 96 days
4. James VI (Soctland) 57 years 46 days
5. Henry III (England) 56 years 29 days
6. Edward III (England) 50 years 147 days
7. William I (Scotland) 48 years 360 days
8. Llyweln the Great (Wales) 45 years
9. Elizabeth I (England) 44 years 127 days
10. David II (Scotland) 41 years 260 days

The shortest reign was Lady Jane Grey for 13 days in 1553.

A cool little initiative at Eat My Lunch.

You can order a lunch online to be delivered to your school or workplace. They’re fresh and different. And if you order lunches through them, they also will donate a lunch to a child in need.

I love seeing private sector stepping up to help those who need some assistance, rather than just demanding the Government do everything.

The lunches are just $8 each, and it is free delivery to schools and just $2 to workplaces.

This analysis comes from Litmus Marketing.

They did text mining of tweets from National and Greens MPs. Their take:

1. National are the ‘one trick pony’ all about the Economy – nothing new but interesting to see it coming out
2. Greens are definitely about social policy but have clearly got content out there that is evenly split between the Environment and Human rights. 
3. This may be too much as ‘you’d expect’  but there is value in better understanding how parties ‘position’ themselves
4. Next steps is to look to time box the analysis to see if things change over time, through the last election etc.

Would be interesting to see how this changes over time.

It also suggests that National MPs are very disciplined with their tweets and messaging.

News.com.au reports:

Khazzani is accused of boarding a high-speed train in Brussels bound for Paris on Friday armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, Luger automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips and a boxcutter.

Witnesses say he opened fire, injuring a man before being wrestled to the floor by three American passengers and tied up, until the train stopped in the northern French city of Arras where he was taken into police custody.

Khazzani has denied any intention of waging a jihadist attack, saying he had merely stumbled upon a weapons stash and decided to use it to rob passengers, according to Sophie David, a lawyer assigned to his case.

Oh, how stupid do they think people are?

You don’t start randomly shooting people to rob them. And a train is a very bad place to rob someone, as you can’t exactly slip away.

“He is dumbfounded that his act is being linked to terrorism,” she told BFM-TV, adding the suspect who is believed to have lived in Belgium describes himself as a homeless man.

“He says that by chance he found a suitcase with a weapon, with a telephone, hidden away,” said Ms David, who is no longer representing him as Khazzani has been transferred to Levallois Perret near Paris where he is being questioned by counter terrorism officers.

Worst defence claim ever.

A Spanish counterterrorism source said Khazzani had lived in Spain for seven years until 2014 and came to the attention of authorities for making hard line speeches defending jihad, as well as once being detained for drug trafficking.

I don’t think this will take a jury long.

The Herald reports:

A controversial on-the-job teacher training programme has become so popular it is receiving 15 applicants for each available place.

Teach First NZ, which sees high-flying graduates placed in low-decile high schools, is hoping to increase the number of participants it can take next year, in light of the success.

The programme had about 300 applications for its 20 places for next year.

It was previously labelled a “crash course” by critics, with some saying the graduates wouldn’t stick around after course completion, but instead move on to higher things.

However, Teach First NZ chief executive Shaun Sutton says that of the 15 inaugural alumni from its 2012 class, 13 have stayed in New Zealand, and all of those are continuing to teach.

More than half remained in low-decile schools. Where they have moved out of poorer communities it was largely due to a lack of teaching positions at those schools because of falling rolls.

The overseas versions of this initiative have been very successful, so it is good to see the NZ one off to a good start.

Alfriston College principal Robert Solomone said his school was one of the first to get the programme, and was reaping the benefits.

“They have picked some very high calibre young people who would otherwise not have thought about getting into the teaching business,” Mr Solomone said.

“They are already highly qualified and are showing a real passion for the job. They want to try new things and are doing it well.”

All strength to them.

Stuff reports:

Support from across the political spectrum is backing a Government proposal to keep 17-year-olds out of adult courts.

Justice Minister Amy Adams has asked officials to look at whether dealing with 17-year-olds in the Youth Court will cut rates of re-offending and stop some young people starting out on a life of crime.

The Youth Court, currently for those aged 12 to 16, is less formal and has specialised judges. Offenders also don’t get a criminal record.

Labour leader Andrew Little, Greens co-leader James Shaw and UnitedFuture’s Peter Dunne are all in favour of the Government exploring raising the threshold – a move the United Nations also wanted.

Shaw said the Greens took a restorative justice approach to crime and he questioned the impact of sending teenagers to prisons.

“It’s more likely they’ll end up in prison over and over again”.

The trouble is that there are a hard core of youth offenders who have no fear of the youth court, and will treat the period up until which they can go to adult  court, as a no consequences offending period.

Now you don’t set policy just based on the worst offenders, but you do need to make sure the law can keep youth out of jail if at all possible, but also protect us from recidivist youth offenders.

Charles Krauthammer is arguably the most powerful conservative writer in the US. He writes on Trump and immigration:

For years, immigration has been the subject of near-constant, often bitter argument within the GOP. But it is true that Trump has brought the debate to a new place — first, with hisannouncement speech, about whether Mexican migrants are really rapists, and now with the somewhat more nuanced Trump plan.

Much of it — visa tracking, E-Verify, withholding funds from sanctuary cities — predates Trump. Even building the Great Wall is not particularly new. (I, for one, have been advocating that in this space since 2006.) Dominating the discussion, however, are his two policy innovations: (a) abolition of birthright citizenship and (b) mass deportation.

Abolishing a right to citizenship is no small thing:

If you are born in the United States, you are an American citizen. So says the 14th Amendment. Barring some esoteric and radically new jurisprudence, abolition would require amending the Constitution. Which would take years and great political effort. And make the GOP anathema to Hispanic Americans for a generation.

It would never ever happen. No Congress would approve such a change, let alone by two thirds majority. And You would not get 38 states to ratify it. I doubt you would get five.

And for what? Birthright citizenship is a symptom, not a cause. If you regain control of the border, the number of birthright babies fades to insignificance. The time and energy it would take to amend the Constitution are far more usefully deployed securing the border.

That is right.

Last Sunday, Trump told NBC’s Chuck Todd that all illegal immigrants must leave the country. Although once they’ve been kicked out, we will let “the good ones” back in.

 On its own terms, this is crackpot. Wouldn’t you save a lot just on Mayflower moving costs if you chose the “good ones” first — before sending SWAT teams to turf families out of their homes, loading them on buses and dumping them on the other side of the Rio Grande?

A good point.

Less frivolously, it is estimated by the conservative American Action Forumthat mass deportation would take about 20 years and cost about $500 billionfor all the police, judges, lawyers and enforcement agents — and bus drivers! — needed to expel 11 million people.

That is a sum of money greater than NZ’s GDP.

This would all be merely ridiculous if it weren’t morally obscene. Forcibly evict 11 million people from their homes? It can’t happen. It shouldn’t happen. And, of course, it won’t ever happen.

A mass deportation of 11 million people, some of whom were citizens, would bring back memories of Europe in the 1930s.

But because it’s the view of the Republican front-runner, every other candidate is now required to react. So instead of debating border security, guest-worker programs and sanctuary cities — where Republicans are on firm moral and political ground — they are forced into a debate about a repulsive fantasy.

Trump is Hillary Clinton’s best friend. As doubts about her grow, he is destroying the ability of the Republican party to win the electoral college in 2016.

Donald Trump has every right to advance his ideas. He is not to be begrudged his masterly showmanship, his relentless candor or his polling success. I strongly oppose the idea of ostracizing anyone from the GOP or the conservative movement. On whose authority? Let the people decide.

But that is not to say that he should be exempt from normal scrutiny or from consideration of the effect of his candidacy on conservatism’s future. If you are a conservative alarmed at the country’s direction and committed to retaking the White House, you should be concerned about what Trump’s ascendancy is doing to the chances of that happening.

Ironically Trump’s antics may help Marco Rubio win the nomination, as he may be the only candidate who could stop the Latino vote going the same way as the African-American vote – 90% Democrat.

Stuff reports:

Khalid Mehmood didn’t believe in paying $1 million tax – but the government didn’t have much sympathy and sent him to prison

Now, the restaurateur says jail itself is against his religion: he isn’t fed a Halal diet, he can’t pray because the other inmates are too noisy, and he doesn’t have access to an Imam. 

Again, authorities are unsympathetic. This week, the Court of Appeal upheld his three-year sentence in Northland Region Corrections Facility.

Good.

Mehmood’s appeal failed after judges found no records of the prison receiving his complaints, and noted he had since moved to a newly-built prison in South Auckland where he was able to observe his duties. 

So he was using his religion as an excuse to try and get a lighter sentence.

He appealed the sentence, claiming it was “disproportionately severe” because it prevented him from observing daily religious protocols. He argued it was a hardship not generally suffered by other prisoners. 

By that argument, atheists should get longer prison sentences than people of faith.

The Court of Appeal noted Mehmood had since been moved to a new facility where he had his own cell, could shower four times a day, had access to an Imam, was provided a Halal or vegetarian diet, and was given his two meals at 5pm everyday so he could eat after sunset and before sunrise.   

Sounds lovely!

The Herald reports:

A trial that could see heavy vehicle owners charged for the use of certain roads is to be considered.

Around $110 billion will be spent by central and local government on infrastructure over the next 10 years – but more money will come from user-pays and other charges.

Finance Minister Bill English yesterday released the 30 Year National Infrastructure plan, which contains initiatives to help the country cope with aging infrastructure.

One action outlines how Ministers will in 2015/16 consider advice on the feasibility and design of a “demand management and road pricing project” trial for heavy vehicles.

Road pricing is charging drivers for the use of a road, or the use of roads in a specific area.

Transport Minister Simon Bridges said he planned to speak more about that work at a road transport forum later this month.

Roads should be funded by their users. Petrol tax is an approximate user pay charge, but ultimately we should be looking at vehicles paying for specific roads and more at peak times. In return petrol tax should reduce.

Stuff reports:

The Government is looking to change the law to keep 17-year-old crims out of adult courts – a move that alarms the good samaritan bashed by a teenage bag-snatcher.

Lucy Knight suffered a fractured skull and brain bleed at the hands of 17-year-old Hendrix Hauwai. “The alarming thing is that they will get a another whole year to commit crimes before they hit that magical 18th birthday,” she said yesterday.

Justice Minister Amy Adams has asked officials to look at whether dealing with 17-year-olds in the Youth Court will cut rates of re-offending and stop some young people starting out on a life of crime. 

The Youth Court, currently for those aged 12 to 16, is less formal, with specialised judges. Offenders don’t get a criminal record. 

I believe the law should be consistent about when a young person is an adult. That is one reasons I supported a drinking age of 18, not 20.

Ideally we should have two ages at which you gain some and then all of the rights (and responsibilities) of adulthood. They are 16 (sex, driving etc) and 18.

So I think you should be tried as an adult either once you turn 16 or 18 – not the status quo of 17.

On a principled level, I think 18 is the better threshold.

The Youth Court already refers the most serious crimes – including murder and manslaughter – to the High Court. That won’t change.

That is key. If you kill someone or rape someone, you should face the adult court. But for lesser charges the Youth Court is appropriate.

Maybe one can use the three strikes law to distinguish? If you commit an offence that qualifies as a strike (a serious violent or sexual offence), then it goes to an adult court regardless of age. But for a non strike offence, it is the youth court until you are 18?

Adams said some aged 17, especially first-time offenders, may benefit from the Youth Court, which places more of an emphasis on support and rehabilitation. “There are equally 17 years olds who, it is their third or fourth time around the system. They are on a very different trajectory. There are a number of police, court and Corrections staff at the front line who have said to me they would be absolutely against me raising the age because there are some 17 year olds, who they think absolutely don’t belong in the youth court system.”

Maybe again have some sort of threshold? If you make more than x (say four) youth court appearances, then it is the adult court after that?

The Economist has done its list of the 10 best cities in the world to live. This year they are:

1. Melbourne 97.5
2. Vienna 97.4
3. Vancouver 97.3
4. Toronto 97.2
5. Calgary 96.6
6. Adelaide 96.6
7. Sydney 96.1
8. Perth 95.9
9. Auckland 95.7
10. Helsinki 95.6
    Zurich 95.6

The cities are ranked on 39 criteria such as safety, education, hygiene, health care, culture, environment, recreation, stability and transport.

Stuff reports:

Wellington Deputy Mayor Justin Lester has urged council to support a car sharing business, which he believes could be the next Xero or TradeMe.

Wellington peer-to-peer car-sharing company Roam will allow car owners to hire out their own vehicle to other people through an online booking system and keyless car entry software on their mobile.

The business plans to market the software and device to car-sharing platforms overseas – either selling or partnering with car manufacturers and car rental companies.

Wellington City Council needed to support export growth potential businesses like Roam, Lester said.

Our cars sit unused for around 95% of the week. I think car sharing will be part of the future, along with driverless cars.

Good to see Justin Lester wanting the Council to be supportive of innovative companies in this space.

The Herald reports:

US servicemen overpowered a gunman armed with a Kalashnikov who opened fire on a high-speed train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris.

Vive le US military.

As I understand it, they were unarmed, and took him on.

The gunman had a Kalashnikov, an automatic pistol and a box cutter, one police source said.

The suspect, who was arrested when the train stopped at the northern French town of Arras, was a 26-year-old from Morocco or of Moroccan origin who was known to the intelligence services, French investigators said.

So much for claims it might not be a terrorist attack.

“Then the man, who was bare-chested, returned to carriage 12 and someone in a green T-shirt, with a shaved head, saw him and jumped on him and pinned him to the ground.”

Only pinned him? Somewhat disappointing.

UPDATE:

A bit more than pin him according to USA Today:

“As he was cocking it to shoot it, Alek just yells, ‘Spencer, go!’ And Spencer runs down the aisle,” Sadler said. “Spencer makes first contact, he tackles the guy, Alek wrestles the gun away from him, and the gunman pulls out a box cutter and slices Spencer a few times. And the three of us beat him until he was unconscious.”

Trapped on a train, the death toll could have been scores if he hadn’t been stopped.

The Herald reports:

Residents of two narrow Auckland streets are furious that council parking wardens fined 27 of them in a 2am blitz on cars with two wheels on the curb.

They say if they had parked correctly access would be obscured for emergency services vehicles, rubbish trucks and other large vehicles and likely result in damage to cars.

Residents on Orakei’s Apihai and Tautari streets woke on Thursday morning to find $40 fines on their windscreens.

A 2 am blitz. That is just outrageous revenue gathering.

A Fire Service spokesman said as residents were parked on the kerb, staff had not experienced issues of blocked streets in Orakei.

“If they were forced to start parking on the road, like it sounds like they will be now, it’s only now that we might start seeing this.”

A St John spokeswoman said the residents’ concerns were justified, but there were no recorded incidents of paramedics not being able to access a patient due to a narrow road.

“St John’s preference is for streets to be wide enough for comfortable ambulance access in order to get to patients as quickly and safely as possible.”

Police spokesman Grant Ogilvie said it was important narrow streets were kept clear for emergency services to use.

Auckland Transport should be told by the Council to pull its head in.

In Wellington, the City Council takes a flexible approach to street parking. They even refer to it in a brochure as “The Wellington Way” which is to ignore technical breaches of the regulation that says don’t park on foot paths, because forcing people not to do so would be more hazardous.

Stuff reports:

Is Paula Bennett the real deal? Given the polls, fretting about John Key’s succession plan might seem overly anxious. But third terms are the time when people start wondering openly about what comes after defeat slaps a once popular leader in the face. And Bennett’s name increasingly crops up as the woman who might step into Key’s shoes when that day comes.

Certainly, business leaders think she might be the real deal  –  Bennett topped the list of mentions in a mood of the boardroom survey by the New Zealand Herald canvassing Key’s likely successor.

That is no coincidence. Some of those surveyed worried about Key’s lack of succession planning. But they clearly haven’t been watching closely enough.

When Key announced his new lineup after the election Bennett was elevated to a cluster of portfolios that thrust her directly into the engine room of the Government’s reform programme both in social housing, and infrastructure. An associate finance role also puts her in an understudy role to Finance Minister Bill English and gives her CV the extra gloss of fiscal credibility. Short of bellowing “Paula for prime minister” through a megaphone, Key probably couldn’t do much more to announce the fact that he has anointed Bennett as his successor.

I’d also take note of the fact he has promoted Amy Adams, Simon Bridges and Jonathan Coleman to the front bench. They’re all seen as having the potential to take up senior leadership roles.

Clark’s big mistake was his her third term cabinet looks very much like her first term cabinet – especially the front bench.

While the top four in National remain basically unchanged, most of the Cabinet is new blood. The years each entered is:

• 1990s or earlier – 5
• 2002 – 2005: 4
• 2008: 10
• 2011: 1

So over half the Cabinet were not even MPs until 2008. Key has always focused on renewal – both in Cabinet and caucus.

Stuff reports:

A 27-year-old West Coast man has admitted filming while a cat was set alight and killed.

Jason Dale Rowling says he was under the influence of drugs when the cat was killed at a Greymouth beach in May last year.

He admitted the charged of wilfully ill-treating the cat by burning it, causing it to die, at an appearance before Judge Jane McMeeken in the Christchurch District Court today.

The incident took place between May 1 and May 15 when Rowling visited associates.

During the visit, an associate discussed killing a cat by burning it, police prosecutor Sergeant Paul Simcox told the court.

He said the group then drove to a beach where a cage containing a cat was taken out of the boot.

Petrol was poured on the cat and it was set on fire. The cage was opened and the cat ran for a time before dying, said Sergeant Simcox.

Anyone involved with that should go to jail. Animal torture is often an indicator for sociopath behaviour.

Stuff reports:

King Tuheitia has launched a claim for Auckland extending north to Mahurangi, down the Firth of Thames and across to the Manukau Harbour and to Piha. …

Conflict with other Auckland tribes was likely but he said their relationship with the likes of Ngati Whatua would stand the test.

“It’s always going to cause some challenges for those who claim mana whenua into Auckland. That’s a reality we are going to have to deal with.”

Some challenges? That’s an understatement.

Audrey Young writes:

It was not such a huge leap for Labour to demand that McCully step down because leader Andrew Little has already demanded his resignation.

Since April, he has called for six ministerial resignations: Simon Bridges over the Northland bridges promises; the minister whose brother is facing criminal charges because of what Little believes is a conflict of interest, Nick Smith after running into difficulties with Ngati Whatua and first right of refusal on excess Crown land, Te Ururoa Flavell over claims he may have influenced Maori TV to cancel a debate on Whanau Ora, Sam Lotu-Iiga over the management of the Mt Eden Corrections Facility and McCully.

Little is in danger of devaluing the importance of ministerial accountability by demanding resignations so often.

He’s acting like Chicken Little. Six demands for resignations in six months. It’s like a once trick pony.

John Key was opposition leader for two years. How many ministerial resignations did he demand? I’m not sure, but it certainly wasn’t one a month. I think the only one may have been Peters over lying to Parliament.

Stuff reports:

The pair managed to leave the centre’s playground through the fire exit gates into the car park.

They then crossed Pioneer Highway, a four-lane road, before being found in the car park of a shopping centre 300 metres down the road.

In a letter sent to parents, centre owners Simon and Jane Pervan said the children opened the gates by one child unlatching the ground bolts and the other child getting a leg-up on the perspex to reach the two bolts at the top.

Smart kids, working out how to do that by working together. I wonder how old they were? Amazing how inventive some kids can be.

Stuff reports:

After 40 years, the Lonely Planet has released a list of the top 500 places in the world to visit – and New Zealand is on there nine times.

The book called Ultimate Travelist defines a wish-list of the most thrilling, memorable and interesting places in the world – ranked in order of brilliance.

The longlist was compiled from all the highlights in every Lonely Planet guidebook over the years, before being whittled down to a shortlist, and then Lonely Planet members were asked to vote on their 20 top sights.

Results were weighted in favour of sights that received consistently high votes.

So where do New Zealand sites feature?

The places listed were:

My comments below:

• Fiordland National Park (at 17) – did Milford Track last March
• Abel Tasman National Park (35) – doing Abel Tasman Track next year
• Franz Josef & Fox Glacier (81) – not seen since I was a kid.
• Lake Wanaka (94) – kayaked it, boated it, walked it and helicoptered it!
• Stewart Island (125) – did Rakiura Track earlier this year
• Bay of Islands (130) – not been enough but in love with Russel
• Whakarewarewa (276) – that the Rotorua geothermal tourism spot. Been a long time ago
• Waitomo Caves (280) – never yet done!
• Te Papa Tongarewa (285) – there last week!

And the global list:

1. Temples of Angkor, Cambodia – went with my parents a couple of years ago
2. Great Barrier Reef, Australia – been a couple of times, once with a fellow blogger!
3. Machu Picchu, Peru – did this last October
4. Great Wall of China – went around a decade ago, as attending a UN meeting in China
5. Taj Mahal, India – went before attending an ICANN meeting in Delhi
6. Grand Canyon National Park, USA – went around in the bis US road trip two years ago
7. Colosseum, Italy – saw around a decade again when in Rome
8. Iguazú Falls, Brazil – Argentina – was scheduled to do last October, but had to leave for next Latin America trip
9. Alhambra, Spain – on the to do list
10. Aya Sofya, Turkey – saw in 2009

So have seen eight of the 10 global top ten, and eight out of nine NZ ones on the top 500. Fairly happy with that!

Rob Salmond blogs:

But “pulling the centre back towards the left” is massively, massively hard. You win those people over by being relevant to them as they are, not by telling them they’re worldview needs a rethink. It is just basic psychology. Tell people they were right all along; they like you. Tell people they were wrong all along; they don’t.

And if you win a majority of centrists, you win. The New Zealand Election Study series records six MMP elections in New Zealand – the three where Labour did best among centrists were the three Labour won.

So around 35% are the same as Labour or to the left of them. Also 35% the same as National ot to the right of them. Note more to the left of Labour than to the right of National. And around 35% say they are inbetween National and Labour.

You don’t need to be a genius to work out where you need to go to make 50%.

Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock lead the UK Labour party through seventeen years of Tory rule. It was bleak. Why did they keep losing for so long? Because under Foot the hard left got to run Labour’s policy, alienating Labour from the middle ground. And under Kinnock the hard left continued to battle prominently for policy influence, allowing Labours’ opponents to scaremonger successfully about what a vote for Labour really means.

How did UK Labour break out of this funk? Tony Blair.

And if you think that lesson, of declining centre-left fortunes when its narrative swings left, doesn’t apply for in modern New Zealand, here are two phrases you may find familiar: “Man ban.” “Sorry for being a man.”

I look forward to Rob being denounced as a neo-liberal Blairite!