Hard News: Truck Off, etc
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Anette King doesn't remember the good ol' days when people like my parents would stock up on cigs and liquor
Interesting that you mention the black budget. I have no strong views on that particular Labour Government, but their prospects were certainly harmed immeasurably by what was rather a small act in the scheme of things, but one that had strong emotional resonance with ordinary voters who felt like they were being victimised.
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Oh it's forty below and I don't give a fuck,
Got a heater in my truck.
And I'm off to the rodeo-o-o-o-oGimmee a break.
The concept of the good Ol' boy trucker just don't hack it.
This was an orchestrated bash at labour on the say so of the RTA (Road Transport Association) you know, a bosses union, a bit like the Roundtable is for all those people who make money out of money.OOeeww, diesel is going to attract a bit of loose change outa MA pocket to pay for more efficient forms of transport. It's that Helenstien, she's a gotta go, John is the Key, forget the insider trading, forget the millions he's grabbed that could be in our pockets. I refuse to accept that the cost of caring for those that need care should come out of my pocket. Let's take ACC out of the public sector. I could make some neat dosh in MA pocket with that scam.
Yeah, Key for ME. At lest I know whose pocket he's in. It's MA pocket............ isn't it? -
Russell, keep an eye on Friedlander. He has earned a few juicy board appointments with this one, once his mates get in. So easy to whip up a bunch of truckies on full pay to raise hell on the streets, but full marks to Tony - Friedlander, not Soprano. In the meantime, we petrol buyers will carry on paying for their road damage and to build ever better roads for them.
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Russell, keep an eye on Friedlander. He has earned a few juicy board appointments with this one, once his mates get in.
Russell should be keeping a closer eyes on comments like that until he's sure that Friedlander isn't the litigious type.
It's that Helenstien, she's a gotta go, John is the Key, forget the insider trading, forget the millions he's grabbed that could be in our pockets.
And this chap might like to transition to decaf as well. Stanley and Steve, I'm really sorry that D4J and Redbaiter have hacked your profiles.
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And this chap might like to transition to decaf
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Drink 4 Justice and Bed Wetter Eh!
I have no profile, I am omnisemetric! -
If there's truth to the stories that the truck protest was planned before King's announcement of RUC rises, then it seems that the owners of truck businesses are gearing up for a major challenge from rail, and that the protest was the first stage.
But given that rail is looking like the future, I found it strange there were no reports of people crowding onto trains to get to work this morning. I was watching for such reports as I usually travel to Britomart from West Auckland, and was looking for the best time to leave home.
With no info, I went into Britomart late morning. It was all very un-crowded, and quiet when I got into the city. If I hadn't been following the news, I would never have known a protest had happened.
So, it seems loads of workers chose to stay home because driving to work was to much hassle, rather than take the train? I don't get it. The train's cheaper, and less stressful as long as one allows for possible delays.
And all the news reports focused on the roads and possible or actual gridlock. No interest in the alternatives??? Even though the alternative is the ghost in the machine that's probably the motivation for the protests.
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Yes, and I do hope the folks sneering at the truckers are going to take a good long pull on their fuckupachino next time they bitch about the price of petrol, or retailers 'passing on' increased transport costs when it comes to paying for their cheese and whine.
International oil prices are completely out of our control, and just something that has to be borne and adapted to. Like gravity, really.
And that said, one side effect of higher petrol prices is that it is now economic that take the bus. Though still not economic to take the train to Wellington.
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So, it seems loads of workers chose to stay home because driving to work was to much hassle, rather than take the train? I don't get it. The train's cheaper, and less stressful as long as one allows for possible delays.
OTOH, the next public holiday is labour day, and how often do you get this sort of excuse for a day off?
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And that said, one side effect of higher petrol prices is that it is now economic that take the bus.
Though for those of us who don't drive in the first place, another round of fare hikes could be done without. (BTW, I had to go into the city for an appointment and I'm going to slap the next person who goes off at the driver because a service is two minutes late. What did you expect her to do, fucktard, run a red light at 110kph because the whole sodding universe revolves around you? Are you aware that trains have to follow speed and signal restrictions that are intended to keep you alive, you ungrateful arse? Public transport is not some vast conspiracy to SPITE you, because you're just not that important.)
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If there's truth to the stories that the truck protest was planned before King's announcement of RUC rises, then it seems that the owners of truck businesses are gearing up for a major challenge from rail, and that the protest was the first stage.
It's actually more simple than that. You will be seeing a lot more of this kind of thing, business backed protests against Labour. National seems to be focusing on a strategy of denigrating Labour through its allies, businesses that would rather not have to put up with the inconvenience that we can't all be the "winners" that the likes of Heather Roy thinks we could, somehow, all be. has the woman never seen a boxing match or even a rugby game? There will always be those that lose out through the narrow focus of a determined businessman.
Anyhoo, I digress. You will, no doubt, be hearing from the insurance industry and real estate agents how terrible life has become in Hellenstinesgradocracy (Geeeez, that word made me think of men in chap suits drinking lager after a day at work at the council offices) and how you cant run a truck on cheese. you know, like, what have the Romans ever done for us?
You mark my words, this is what we can expect from National. They really hope we can't figure out that their only interest is in flogging off anything they can get their hands on for the benefit of them and their mates. -
Okay, here's the big fucking problem: no one amongst a crew of well-paid government communicators could come up with three clear bullet points like Idiot/Savant has done:
Actually they did. Well the Greens certainly made those points. I remember Jeanette Fitzsimons explaining them to me in depth and at length on Thursday (and yes the story was run).
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OTOH, the next public holiday is labour day, and how often do you get this sort of excuse for a day off?
Oh the irony.
Had it been a union action you can bet the Herald would be telling us "how much it cost the Country" in terms of "lost man hours" -
Let's see... the RTF goes on capital strike, and rail freight is the strikebreaker. :)
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Actually they did. Well the Greens certainly made those points. I remember Jeanette Fitzsimons explaining them to me in depth and at length on Thursday (and yes the story was run).
And I stole the thing about overall social costs from them.
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Had it been a union action you can bet the Herald would be telling us "how much it cost the Country" in terms of "lost man hours"
Oh, Steve, grip - get one. Here's a story The Herald actually has on-line: **Protest fails to bring traffic chaos**. Rather than being part of a horrible vast right-wing media conspiracy, perhaps that story was run because... well, the protest failed to lead to an orgy of gridlocked road rage after all.
Had lunch with a friend today, who asked when exactly did New Zealand turn into a giant pack of pissy-pants cry-babies. I told him the question was hurtful and deeply offensive, and he could spring the next round of coffees as punishment. :)
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BTW, Steve, the next time you want to snark about Key being an "insider trader" who has "stolen" millions of dollars you might want to consider this:
Inquiries indicate Mr Key's family trust lost a significant sum of money on the deal. It paid $108,000 for 30,000 Tranz Rail shares in February 2002 at $3.60 a share.
When Mr Key ordered their sale on June 9, Tranz Rail's share price was $1.02. On June 12, when the second tranche of shares was sold, it was 91c. If he sold half his shareholding on each day, he would have realised $28,950, minus brokerage fees - a loss of $79,000.
Even after receiving $30,000 in compensation as part of a deal struck between Tranz Rail insiders and the Securities Commission last month, he still lost $49,000.
Maybe, John Armstrong has a point:
These kind of arguments are the stuff of the Wellington Beltway.
Labour's mistake is to think winning them will prompt the wider electorate to come to its senses, Key will be seen as a charlatan and National's staggering lead in the polls will evaporate.
That this is taking rather a long time to happen might suggest to Labour it isn't going to happen.
It isn't going to happen because Labour has cried wolf too often. It has jumped on any mistake Key has made, no matter how trivial, and highlighted it as incontrovertible evidence of his unsuitability to be Prime Minister.
Labour sees the mistakes as compounding on one another. It lays the message that Key is a lightweight on thick with a trowel. But the highlighting of minor errors only makes Labour look ever more desperate. So what if Key said "condone" this week when he meant "condemn".
Labour does not help its own cause by portraying varying versions of Key. One moment he is a bumbling, blunder-prone incompetent whose boy-next-door image has been skilfully manufactured by Crosby-Textor. The next he is "slippery John" cleverly fooling the electorate by disguising himself as a moderate when he is actually a closet right-winger. The caricatures don't square with the Key the voters see.
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P.S. The main beef I’ve got with these truck people is that I’ve had that excruciating Convoy song on the brain all day.
Just that I’d share that burden…
I got Weird Al Yankovich's "Driving a Truck With My High Heels On".
At least the news was more amusing. (Okay, except for the woman who said "I don't really know what this is all about, but good on them anyway!", which was just sad.)
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Even after receiving $30,000 in compensation as part of a deal struck between Tranz Rail insiders and the Securities Commission last month,
Can anyone explain to me what that means? How do you get compensation?Maybe all the shareholders with the failed Finance companies could get a deal also.If it's part of a deal, what else can be got ?
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Can anyone explain to me what that means? How do you get compensation?
Quite easily, Sofie. I assume Colin Espiner is referring to this settlement of the insider trading action brought against David Richwhite and five others by the Securities Commission. The Commission had to seek advice from the High Court on classes of shareholders that were entitled to payment from the compensation, then identify and distribute the money.
The $27.5 million certainly wasn't the full amount initially claimed by the SC, by a significant margin, and nobody was fully compensated. But a damn sight better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, wasn't it?
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John Armstrong however spectacularly misses the point with this piece of stupidity:
Neither did it help Clark that Key had not been involved in the 1993 sale. Yet, even if he had been, what would that have proved?
Simple: it would have made him irredeemably morally tainted, deeply complicit in actions and a period of New Zealand history many kiwis today regard as criminal. But the fact is he wasn't. He may have done his bit to ruin the New Zealand currency, pocketing millions for his employers off our misery in 1984, but he didn't loot the state in the 90's.
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John Armstrong however spectacularly misses the point with this piece of stupidity:
Neither did it help Clark that Key had not been involved in the 1993 sale. Yet, even if he had been, what would that have proved?
I think you are all missing the point, which is that Key was forced to explain, and in doing so to convey subtle distinctions and to look as if he was being evasive with technicalities. It's almost as though Labour deliberately mis-phrased the allegation. This targets Key's greatest strength, which is his fresh-faced innocence, and makes him look slippery. Kinda Rovian, eh?
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I, for one, would not be unhappy if the long-haul trucking biz went back to rail. Fewer amphetamine-fuelled nutters tailgating up the desert road would improve my quality of life.
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<i>government debt</i>
Buck to the Muldoon years, then. Perhaps I should be thinking about living somewhere where my grandchildren won't be paying for tax cts and debt-driven spending for baby-boomers.
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It's almost as though Labour deliberately mis-phrased the allegation. This targets Key's greatest strength, which is his fresh-faced innocence, and makes him look slippery. Kinda Rovian, eh?
I just waiting for someone to dust off the immortal excuse that it's all "fake but accurate"! :)
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It also plays on the Government's biggest weakness. Quite wrongly, the public seems to have connected the trucking protest with their own cost of living issues (rather than decreasing the subsidy to a business sector). What they should have done is come out batting, and tackle the issue head on, and talk about cost of living, talk about petrol, talk about what the truckers want and what the Government is doing. When you're on a run chase and running out of overs, 'issue management' won't do it.
Instead, they've tried to bury it under a story that was seen as an attack on Key the person rather than the credibility of his policies and party.
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