Posts by Steve Barnes
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and the pair’s assessment of the prospects of National, Act and NZ First.
Hang on... Didn't Key say he wouldn't work with Peters?
flippity flop, you just can't trust that man Key -
As usual it will amount to nothing. The initial "how dare they record the Prime Minsters private meeting" has got everybody's knickers in a twist. Can you really imagine a politically explosive discussion between Key and Banks at all let alone one held in front of a bunch of journalists, anyone heard of lip reading?
This will turn out to be nothing other than a distraction engineered, no doubt, by Key and Co. for their own advantage.
Seriously, who's going to believe a "package" was left on the table of the Prime Minister and the DPS let it just sit there, Tui moment if you ask me. -
My take on an alternative to outright flogging off of assets.
Steve Barnes says:
November 8, 2011 at 5:49 pmIf it becomes necessary to sell any state assets, as the Prime Minister would have us believe, surely the better way would be to issue shares, to so called Mum and Dad shareholders, in the form of non-tradeable dividend bearing bonds, ie. if you want to sell them you can only sell them back to the SOE at market rate and you would reap dividends, the way that Vector shareholders do now. This would ensure the assets are retained by the country as a whole and any capital gain on trading those shares would attract CGT.
The Prime Ministers insistence on selling our assets by floating them on the NZ stock exchange will not boost the stock market as he and his cohorts imagine and will only lead to large overseas interests controlling the prices paid by business, industry, and consumers for power in New Zealand.
I do doubt the need to divest ourselves of strategic infrastructure, especially when we have to pull ourselves out of a recession.I would have thought that a no brainer.
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Speaker: The Public Broadcasting Imperative, in reply to Russell Brown,
Unfortunately, older people are of relatively little value to ad agencies.
But I don't think that is because older people don't buy stuff, its more because they buy what they want rather than get suckerd into the latest fad. Show them a good price on a good product and they will buy, its not how we are advertising, its what we are advertising. An add for a carbon fibre Zimmer Frame with built in GPS would work well in the advertising space in a documentary on osteoporosis and Alzheimer's.
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Hard News: We interrupt this broadcast ..., in reply to Sacha,
You’re perfectly free to persist in tribal thinking.
Thanks for the insult, I shall treasure it like an old sock.
Voting is the only way to achieve political change, unless you are advocating revolution and I, for une, will be sticking to good ol' democracy and be ignoring the management speak gobbledygook of proselytising political pundits permanently polluting perceptions of people power. Pffft -
Hard News: We interrupt this broadcast ..., in reply to Sacha,
The political left has had several woeful years. I wish that didn’t make a difference but it does – and “results” include the public opinion polling and political discourses highlighted by the current election campaigning. However, I’m not just talking about an election, and there’s more to action than voting.
Woeful years eh? now that, sounds like a line from National.
The "results" of your constant parroting of "Labour is bad, MmKay?" are not helping anyone but National.
Voting is the only thing that counts in an election.
Less Pollyanna and more polly parrot if you ask me. -
Hard News: We interrupt this broadcast ..., in reply to Sacha,
They are if they are not properly opposed,
Then I suggest you vote Labour, or Green and by doing so, oppose them.
the results speak all too well for themselves.
The results will be there to be counted after you vote.
What is it with you about this defeatist shit. -
Hard News: We interrupt this broadcast ..., in reply to Sacha,
The best recent NZ example is the government’s backdown over mining national parks. How do you think that happened?
Now who’s being politically naive? That was a deliberate ploy. National never had any intention to mine in National Parks, they put the idea out there and then backed off, claiming to be listening to the people. National never let on what they are really up to.
Take the cycleway for instance, a claim to be creating jobs while they gave the money that could have completed that project the the wealthiest people in New Zealand.
These people are not dumb, they are dangerous. -
Legal Beagle: Referendum Fact Check #6:…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
all electoral systems are open to manipulation if parties are determined to do that, for example doing deals on who gets selected as candidates, who stands against them, how you set electoral boundaries etc.
And if what is happening in Epsom were a Cricket match then the two Johns would be on suspension, at least, for Match Fixing.
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Hard News: Presentation and Reality, in reply to James Bremner,
a crank and a racist.
My, that pointy white hat really suits you.