Category: imported_guest
In the first party leaders’ debate on TV One during the election campaign, Newstalk ZB political editor Barry Soper tackled National leader John Key on the subject of the 1981 Springbok tour. He wanted to know what Key’s position had been.
Thanks to its modest size and geographic isolation, New Zealand automatically is in a position of having to fight harder and work smarter to be competitive. The slowdown in the global economy is going to make that task more challenging, which puts considerable pressure on John Key, the new Prime Minster and leader of the National Party.
In the wake of the Nia Glassie case, New Zealanders across the country are asking “How on earth did this happen?” The death of the gorgeous three year old and the details that have emerged during the trial have left us, as a nation, shaken to the core and in a state of disbelief.
The resolve in Europe to make meaningful emission reductions’ is crumbling by the day in the wake of the financial credit crunch sweeping the globe, bringing with it fears of a global economic recession.
Recently I wrote an opinion piece with Jeremy Sammut criticising an editorial in the New Zealand Medical Journal (NZMJ).[1] We argued that health is ultimately an issue of personal responsibility and that there is a link between welfare dependence and bad health, which is caused in part by lifestyle choices. Sinking yet more taxpayer money into public prevention campaigns, for example to warn people of the dangers of not exercising, seems foolish and wasteful. It does not address the underlying problems.
I dislike the Maori seats, which are both racist and undemocratic. Introduced as a short-term measure, they should have been abandoned decades ago. Why not allocate Asian, left-handers, Pacific Islanders or even homosexuals special seats.
It would be nice to believe that the current election campaign would consist of well-informed debate on important issues. Ideally, there would be a good airing of the best alternative policies. Politicians, armed with the facts, would debate openly without being tied to agendas, hidden or otherwise. Let’s be honest, though. That is not what is happening. Nevertheless, according to some theories, the world is rational, everyone is logical, and there is no false information!
Engaging a panelbeater to design an intersection is unwise. It is equally silly to leave to arrogant and at times duplicitous parliamentarians unfettered control of the voting system of which they are beneficiaries.
It’s all a bit unreal, the credit crunch, but if there’s a message coming out of it, it’s engraved on the cover of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe: Don’t Panic.
The idea that the US financial crisis presages the end of capitalism – the dream of Marxists down the ages – doesn’t pass the laugh test. It took no time for local members of the anti-capitalist brigade to appear from under stones. Trade unionist Matt McCarten told us in the Herald on Sunday of 28 September that “free market capitalism doesn’t work and never has”. Presumably he thinks China ’s amazing success in lifting millions out of poverty over the last 30 years stems from rigid adherence to communist economic principles!
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