If National wins ...

[elZorro]

I can't help but finding the above collection of bad and foul mouthing of everything NZ depressing. EZ, looks like you finally managed to infect daytr. Pity that.

I guess what I don't understand is your strategy of how you guys (and presumably gals) on the Left ever want to change the government? Can you give me some good examples where the people have been that stupid that they voted for the bad-mouthers? Nobody likes Cassandra, not even the people of Sparta.

If you want (I am sure, the Lefties don't) to look at a bit more balanced view of our current economic situation - Great (and balanced) expert opinions in today's press: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/7006...dailyheadlines

Our current economic situation is not too bad it looks, but sure - there are always issues and threads. Just don't understand why the people who are desperately trying to talk us into a crisis think that anybody would want them to run the country after they talked it down (if they manage to do that).

Daytr, you claim from time to time that you are not a Leftie ... but funnily you seem to think that the government is responsible for everything. And hey - at the end this is what being left is all about. The individual is responsible for nothing and the government for everything. The government has to feed and nourish neglected children, the government has to pay the poor (no matter why they are poor), the government gives and takes. It is responsible for any economic crisis anywhere in the world - and apparently as well for any biothreat which might enter our isolated shores. I guess the government is as well responsible for NZ farmers extorting their own land due to ridiculous biosecurity restrictions (did anybody notice that milk and cheese hardly came down in price despite the international milk price in the doldrums - this is the flip side of biosecurity).

I guess it would all be funny, if it wouldn't be better for our country to have an effective and respectable opposition contributing to solving the countries issues and capable of taking over the reigns. Unfortunately - if what the Lefties on this thread are producing is representative for the quality of our opposition, than I am afraid we will have to live for a long time with a National led government.

Just admit it BP, you'd vote National no matter what. What the Left are trying to say, is that the government should give direction to the economy, and run the affairs of the state as required. They shouldn't run the country in a way that increases inequality and unemployment. Yes, National gave some money to those on benefits, but at the same time they made it a rule for caregivers on benefits with children all over 3 years, to go out and look for work. It was just an accounting change, that's all.

[Daytr]

BP, yesterday you were jumping from pedophiles to mass murderers. At least today's leaps aren't so extreme.
I have never said that the government should be responsible for everything, but I do believe the government is responsible for good social policy & that does not involve flogging it off, or corporatizing its services, well not things like mental health anyway.
National have relaxed bio-security at our boarders. Fact.
Since then we have had one very major scare in Auckland, two minor ones & this latest scare that I can recall.
Should we look the other way and say she'll be right Jake! Hell no.
Many times I have given alternatives, not just criticisms in regards government policy & even the odd time congratulated National on a few things.
As I said, I would happily vote a Keyless National if they were a far more moderate party that actually cared about the environment & put policy in place that allowed all NZers to flourish instead of the already well to do.
So like yesterday your posts are completely unfounded.
Yes I want the current National government out & I would much rather have a labour coalition voted in, hopefully with NZF, the Maori party & perhaps the Greens. But that view is far more about being strongly anti John Key's National than being left wing as if there was a slightly right of center party that viewed the environment & climate change seriously, then they would happily get my vote.

Lets face it National have had a horror show in 2015, from the whole Mike Sabin thing to losing Northland, ponytail gate, sheepgate and now the economy is looking dodgy as well. Shame they have borrowed to the hilt & not saved anything from the dairy boom for the up & coming down turn.

So perhaps rather than playing the man as you just have done, try & defend any of the above.
There's plenty more...
All National have shown they can do, is build motorways (real clever!) borrow huge amounts of money & sell stuff.
I really can't understand how the debt has continued to rise when they have sold billions of dollars worth of assets.
Now it looks like we will need to borrow more to stimulate the economy. Great!

[BlackPeter]

Hi Daytr, no need for me to defend National - actually I didn't vote for them ... and yes, some things they do are good, some things could be better and some things are bad. Just a bunch of more or less gifted politicians trying most of the time to do there best (agreed - and their are exceptions like our common friend Judith ... but than every party has their black sheep ...). I just wish I could say the same about our current lot of opposition parties (referring to "trying to do their best"" ...lots of black sheep in Labour and Green).

Hi EZ - if you check, than you will find a number of hints in this thread that I don't always vote for National (hint - last election my vote went to ACT ... and I used to vote earlier as well for Liberal parties (like United, before it turned into a one-man band) and for the Green party (at a time when the environment was still one of their priorities). If you don't believe me, than this is your problem, not mine.

Did you ever vote for anything else like Labour ?

[Daytr]

I don't like the term black sheep, but National has plenty of bad apples & not just Crusher.
Act had that clown leading them who didn't get into parliament.
Wow, ACT that explains a lot. Thought their political philosophy where the market solves all would have been buried with the credit crunch & resulting GFC. Greenspan thought the same. Now seems he was wrong and he even admits he got it wrong.
Shame it created a global meltdown of epic proportions.

Hi Daytr, no need for me to defend National - actually I didn't vote for them ... and yes, some things they do are good, some things could be better and some things are bad. Just a bunch of more or less gifted politicians trying most of the time to do there best (agreed - and their are exceptions like our common friend Judith ... but than every party has their black sheep ...). I just wish I could say the same about our current lot of opposition parties (referring to "trying to do their best"" ...lots of black sheep in Labour and Green).

Hi EZ - if you check, than you will find a number of hints in this thread that I don't always vote for National (hint - last election my vote went to ACT ... and I used to vote earlier as well for Liberal parties (like United, before it turned into a one-man band) and for the Green party (at a time when the environment was still one of their priorities). If you don't believe me, than this is your problem, not mine.

Did you ever vote for anything else like Labour ?

[winner69]

EZ, Listener caption competition this week

What would your caption be?

(Looks like every man and his dog went to Apia this week ...at taxpayers expense ?)

[elZorro]

Hi Daytr, no need for me to defend National - actually I didn't vote for them ... and yes, some things they do are good, some things could be better and some things are bad. Just a bunch of more or less gifted politicians trying most of the time to do there best (agreed - and their are exceptions like our common friend Judith ... but than every party has their black sheep ...). I just wish I could say the same about our current lot of opposition parties (referring to "trying to do their best"" ...lots of black sheep in Labour and Green).

Hi EZ - if you check, than you will find a number of hints in this thread that I don't always vote for National (hint - last election my vote went to ACT ... and I used to vote earlier as well for Liberal parties (like United, before it turned into a one-man band) and for the Green party (at a time when the environment was still one of their priorities). If you don't believe me, than this is your problem, not mine.

Did you ever vote for anything else like Labour ?

Yep, I voted National for quite a while, until I began to see that Labour's terms from 1999 were shaping NZ in a better way. I didn't like the turmoil of the 80's, maybe we had to go through some of it. But I did figure that if you didn't vote National recently, it'd be ACT. Yeah, good-oh.

[elZorro]

EZ, Listener caption competition this week

What would your caption be?

(Looks like every man and his dog went to Apia this week ...at taxpayers expense ?)

What about "Labour returning to focus for 2017"

More short-term advice from Treasury, let's close KiwiRail and save some expenses?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/7011...y+10+July+2015

Except that's a recipe for traffic bedlam on the motorways and highways, increased wear on roading surfaces, and a downscaling of NZ's economy. At a time when there are more people immigrating here, and adding to the population. Should we all just take a pay or earnings cut now?

KiwiRail sought assurance from the government that they had at least two years of funding available, for medium-term planning. When that money goes into KiwiRail, it goes out as wages, taxes, payments to other businesses, it goes round. And a good part of it ends up in the govt coffers anyway. I'm not sure how Treasury ended up with those net social loss numbers.

[BlackPeter]

EZ, Listener caption competition this week

What would your caption be?

(Looks like every man and his dog went to Apia this week ...at taxpayers expense ?)

Little: Eureka ... I've got a new idea - we could put a tax on rugby competitions .... and the best thing is that the taxpayer is paying for me being here. If we introduce this tax than we can spend the tax payer dollar twice ... I am a genius!
Key: Grr - does Labour always need to outperform us? And we thought that the arrival tax was already a brilliant idea ...

[winner69]

This from Matt Nolan on interest.co.nz

Things thar better hanatbthe turn of the century. Spose we can credit both Labour and National for all these good things that have happened. Makes me think not really much difference between the two ...just how has the prettiest face or the aura to be a PM decides which party governs.

Or maybe its all Peter's and Winston's doing.

The 10 great things that are better

1. We’re richer
2. We don’t have to work as long to afford the same bundle of goods
3. Absolute poverty is being defeated
4. “Necessities” take up a smaller part of our income
5. We are living longer
6. We have the opportunity to see the rest of the world
7. We have greater access to the internet/new consumer technology
8. Total criminal offence numbers keep falling
9. Discrimination is in retreat: Sex wage gap
10. Discrimination is in retreat: Sexual orientation


http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/76...urn-millennium

[BlackPeter]

Act had that clown leading them who didn't get into parliament.
Wow, ACT that explains a lot. Thought their political philosophy where the market solves all would have been buried with the credit crunch & resulting GFC. Greenspan thought the same. Now seems he was wrong and he even admits he got it wrong.
Shame it created a global meltdown of epic proportions.

Nothing wrong with Jamie White ... he is not just an outstanding analyst, thinker and economist, he is as well honest ...

But yes - I do see the difference to the from you supported Northland member ... Winston is a populist who loves to feature in the months prior to any election xenophobic ideas (http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/tag/xenophobia) ... and if he can't find any foreign buyer of NZ property he can crucify, than he even makes them up http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ctid=11207350; If that's a politician to your heart, than I guess you got the member you deserve ...

BTW - David Seymour is currently leading ACT.

Agree however that ACT had prior to Jamie a less good hand in selecting their party leaders (and some might consider this as an understatement) - too much dead wood and outworn National politicians: Brash, Banks. Prebble used to be o.k.

More importantly however - when did you last look at their policies? Hey - here are some ideas how to keep the economy going:

http://www.act.org.nz/policies

Less red tape / less government / better education system .. and hey - ACT is at current the only party brave enough to state that our current superannuation schema is not sustainable - and proposing to do something about it.

You should support them ...