I know, I know, I know.
Lots of people are pissed with Jacinda, the lack of real transformative change and everyone blames the pandemic on her personally.
People are stressed, hurting and frightened. Everyone is angry and Everyone wants to punish someone.
That someone currently is Jacinda and Labour.
The left have gone to the Greens in protest which is doubly insulting because the Greens are even more useless than Labour.
Centrists have marched off to National without understanding that a vote for Luxon is a vote for far right ACT Party free market dogma as social policy.
And the social media battlefield activists alienate one another on is also radicalising people literally insane with hate algorithms.
But let’s just be super clear on the only certainty of a National/ACT 2023 Government with Luxon as PM & Seymour as Finance Minister.
If elected, things will almost certainly become dramatically worse.
Let’s not kid ourselves on this.
ACT are genuinely radical and have zero intention of becoming a Government without radical reform. When Seymour says he intends to axe 5 Minitry’s, plus the Human Rights Commission while cutting $7billion from welfare, he fucking means it and Luxon is too desperate to prove God’s faith in him to turn down any demands Seymour makes during negotiations.
National’s meaningless twaddle on policy shows ACT will dominate every area. Luxon is for everything while being against everything. No asset sales, no declines in welfare, tax cuts, Government spending cuts, no clear policy that he would axe – Luxon is being everything to everyone but has zero experience in the real demands of Government.
His shadow cabinet is barely visible, we joke at Labour’s talent pool being a puddle, but sweet Jesus, National is a joke looking for a punchline in terms of talent.
National stand for nothing, have little ability and will be dominated politically and psychologically by the Far Right Free Market elements within ACT.
National are a political cocktail of toxic privilege mixed with a parochial sophistry that attacks anything which makes them feel small. Unfortunately everything makes them feel small.
National have no solutions to any of the problems in front of us, just ZB talking points.
We all have legitimate grievance with Labour, but let’s not fool ourselves that the alternative of a National/ACT Government would be better or even on level footing with this Government.
It would be far far far worse.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media
yup labours talent pool IS a shallow puddle, very shallow but the nats are a damp patch on the tarmac.
National will win next year, but not by the ‘landslide’ the current poll trends show, will be alot tighter.
What will be Labours downfall will be their headline grabbing policy failures….Kiwibuild, Akl light rail, Child Poverdy…it’s a long list.
3 waters and He PuaPua (hidden from Winston during 2017-2020.)
Will Jacinda still be Labour leader in 6mths if current polling trends continue?….Interesting times ahead.
Why give up on this government? Why is the alternative at least not quite as shit?
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2022/06/12/mike-king-destroys-labour-again-how-luxon-wins-2023/
I could not think of a better example (one of many) spoken in plain language that speak directly to the failure of this Labour government.
And it’s not as if ACT are alone in the hidden agenda dept because Labour has one big hidden constitutional agenda they’ve been toiling away on they aren’t proudly front footing but it leaks out every now and then, much to their displeasure!
But here’s the thing.
Worse for who?
Identity politics and othering are breaking down social cohesion, when a government has turned it’s own citizens against each other – “ river of filth” or “two tier society” or special treatment by race, why won’t voters play the same game and vote in their own selfish interest and not care about the other or the less well off?
It’s what we’ve been conditioned to do.
A bit of a Catch 22?
So do you reward one lot for not doing anything worthwhile or noble with your support or vote for another lot who aren’t going to be any better to punish the first lot for not doing anything worthwhile or noble?
No government will make a difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n2OhCuf8_s&t=3577s
This interview was the most eye opening thing I have watched in a number of years.
The guy whose show it is on is so so and the interview starts off sounding like its going to be a conspiracy theory but its not. His guest is a lateral thinker (He tracks ideologies and propaganda) and very engaging. Its all about the way the world is like it is and where its heading. Systems thinking, whole world trends and global capitalism.
Watch it and you will recognise Ardern, Luxon and all the rest of them in there and you will see why the chances of change are slim.
Some thoughts on Democracy from various notables. Perhaps we expect it to be more straightforward than we experience. I can only feel that Democracy is a difficult horse to ride, like Christianity in this quote from GK Chesterton.
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” ― G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/13211-the-christian-ideal-has-not-been-tried-and-found-wanting
1814 – “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” https://www.civiced.org/quotations-about-democracy
—John Adams https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-6371
(John Adams (1735-1826) was a leader of the American Revolution and served as the second U.S. president from 1797 to 1801. The Massachusetts-born, Harvard-educated Adams began his career as a lawyer.)
and
“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”
1760 – The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country. John Adams
and
Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker.
But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood. [And, I think their mothers, in many ways.]
and
The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Adams
“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
and
“A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is… A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/801500-mere-christianity
“National have no solutions to any of the problems in front of us, just ZB talking points.”
… Yes, problems caused and/or exacerbated by the current Labour government. The notion that only Labour can solve the problems it created (because they uniquely understand it?) isn’t going to work. They’ll just double down on bad policy. For example, giving people more free money to help with inflation is going to do exactly the opposite. It is one thing to “stimulate” the economy with infrastructure spending which isn’t usually inflationary, but something very different if the spending is going directly to consumption (which all of the pandemic relief spending was and this new handout will be too) which is going to be essentially have an entirely inflationary outcome – i.e. throwing fuel on the fire.
You can see prove of your argument with EV cars . The government gave a bonus payment of $4000 dollars to those buying one and guses what the cars are now $4000 dollars dearer.
The winter heating money has been given to all benefituries including those on super .Now while all benefituries need the money many on super do not . This is the type of spending Act wants looked at .
I think a new National Party will be seen if elected next year . It would be a more inclusive government than under the Key years who hopefully learnt that money needs to be spent on health and education as it effects all citizens . If Act get a large vote then it is the voice of the people speaking and so National would need to listen to their demands . Labour came in with great promise but have not achieved many of their goals
The dirty secret of EVs is that it takes around 250,000 Kgs of raw material to create a single battery for them. There is (currently) no economic way to recycle the batteries. The environmental damage that will occur when we are essentially forced to switch to EVs (which will also require ~30% increase in electric grid capacity) will be catastrophic.
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/mines-minerals-and-green-energy-reality-check
We all know it will be far far worse for the reasons and evidence you provide Martyn, however some on here will spew vile at Labour and Jacinda without evidence, hiding behind “it’s just and opinion” mantra.
No shortage of evidence for spewing “BILE” at the PM bert.
You are such a loyal little Labour troll.
Ardern had a free ride to get the top job. She has to roll with ,it’s politics irrespective of what drongos like you think.
Ardern heads a do nothing government with secret agendas and is a deceitful underachiever who has zero idea about energy needs or foreign policy Grunter is an unimaginative twat and Ardern is backed by a cabal of overpaid racist Maori. She will reap what she has sown.
A plague on all their houses.
Not all Maori are racist Shona we didn’t create the so called racist Maori seats no no no we didn’t strap kids for speaking their native language and we didn’t introduce racist laws to take all our land so who are the biggest racist shona?
Burn crosses often, shona?
Labour, NZF, National and the Moaning parties are all in court for corruption.
They should be struck from being allowed to run in the next election as punishment.
So … the usual choice again …
Worse OR Worser
Thats ok. We are on the Titanic, its sinking fairly fast now into the icy Atlantic waters, so what else can I do really that is satisfying except run up and down the deck whacking all the wankers I HATE with a deck chair?
Do yourselves a favour and go and live under Albo, he genuinely gives a fuck and is not just a lying fraudster.
Martyn
You have to stop using pictures of Bert’s muppet family!
mwah ha ha !
Take that Bert 🙂
fill me in here, what does your user name actually mean, the best answer I can find is Punk Rock, which explains everything.
That is hilarious, like all your posts. Careful XXX, Bob will get jealous Dumb German is two timing with you.
” The left have gone to the Greens in protest which is doubly insulting because the Greens are even more useless than Labour ”
Yes Bomber and you know what the answer to that is.
National then Labour National then Labour and so on. The only winners are the government ministers , caucus and neo liberal bureaucracy with their gold plated entitlement’s. They will always be looked after while they participate in the circus that is how this country is governed.
Meanwhile all the problems that existed from 2008 are still with us and are now much worse but that’s ok because all the poor people and wage slaves and cold hungary pensioners are all out of site. No one wants to be depressed hearing or seeing the carnage of the neo liberal economy there is to much shopping and socialising to be done and luxuries to indulge in.
It really makes no difference if its Uncle fester or Jacindmania the ingredient’s in the dish are almost the same when it comes to only governing for selected groups.
The Nasties always look after their own and the donations keep their minds focused and LINO just carefully cuddle the Karen’s and Caleb’s because they are amongst the entitled.
Bomber the whole thing is a circus with new performers every three years performing the same old show and expecting people to keep rolling up to pay.
IMHO all of the current parties and MP’s in the parliament are next to useless and for the first time since my first vote in 1987 I will not support any of the parties or representitives in parliament or standing for election.
There are parallels.
Traditionally conservative parties like National in NZ and the Tories in the UK were not ideologically driven parties. They just ‘managed’ their portfolios and kept the accounts tidy, and as balanced as possible. They were ‘old boys’ clubs where the colour of your tie mattered most.
That changed with Thatcher in the UK, whose focus was to build a meritocracy regardless of upbringing where everyone had an opportunity, if they chose to take it.
In many ways ACT is the injection of Thatcherite ideology that National needs to be more than a ‘business as usual’ Auckland Grammar old boys club.
Will Seymour even want the finance portfolio? I suppose holding the purse strings has a lot of influence but it would tie him down too much.
Hi Andrew, You make some very points and I agree with many of them, however, i disagree that Seymour wouldn’t want the finance portfolio. I think he would looove to hold the purse strings…
Still trying on the scare line that National will be a mere cypher for Act? Do you also believe that will be the case for Labour and the Greens? That Arden and Roberson will do no more than implement Green policy across the board.
You know perfectly well that coalition negotiations don’t work like that. The major party gets much more of what it wants than the minor party. That is especially true when the relevant minor partner, applicable for both Act and the Greens, have nowhere else to go.
David turned down a Ministerial position because he wanted to ensure the euthanasia bill was passed, so yes, I certainly believe he is a believer and intends to pass radical legislation. I also believe Luxon is desperate enough for power to agree to anything ACT demands.
In terms of the Greens influencing Labour. The Greens are feckless losers who have all the offensive capacity of slow growing moss. They couldn’t get their way even if they knew what that was. I say that as a Green voter.
Martyn you’d be surprised by the offensive capacity of some slow-growing mosses! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0169534795900071
Seymour’s bargaining power will of course depend on how much Luxon needs him. But Luxon has stated that abolishing the demographic ministries isn’t on his party’s agenda – and seriously, he’s too afraid of upsetting the iwiocracy and middle-class feminists to do that (unfortunately).
Wealthy Evangalicals are yet to receive the treatment that the Catholic Church has marginally submitted to. These types have been heavily infiltrating the motu of the past 20 years, integral in the growing inequality that is destroying Aotearoa. That god will reward you with wealth is a disgusting deviation from the true Christian message of poverty and simplicity rewarding you with a more spiritual life. Basically if you are hungry you hallucinate. Sanitarium is a seventh day adventist business that escapes tax, or any reasonable fiscalisation. Aotearoa is a joke country that weirdos have been able to denegrate forever, the Pakeha still perpetrate these evils despite things being less bad for Maori / Pasifika. But the British / French / US/ China etc. influence means we are the greatest milk powder colony since they destroyed Jamaica in the 1970s. 1989 was the end of the world. Nothing is real since the internet was invented. Has anyone else noticed that even weird dreams are not as weird as real life?
If National/ act have the numbers to form govt next year and act refuses to work with national unless they get the finance portfolio which the largest party has never given up, not even in 96 or 2017, wouldn’t national prefer a minority govt and go into an early election as soon as Act votes down a national bill?
That way, National would be facing a Labour party not lead by a popular leader like Arden who is a formidable campaigner but they’d go up against some random uncharismatic labour hack which would see Labour lose a lot of its middle voters and see it’s vote collapse to National like 2011 and 2014 and with a low left turn out.
National could scare act voters into voting for it by claiming Act is risking a labour govt. A bunch of the wasted right vote could end up going with national just to keep Labour out.
In this scenario you could end up with a national majority govt or nationals fear campaign reducing acts seat count to a point where they are irrelevant.
So wouldn’t National, a notoriously vicious and back stabbing party that’s an incredibly successful election winning machine prefer going into a minority and fear mongering against act than give up the most important portfolio.
The internal party war by giving up the finance portfolio would be nuts.
In Europe when a minor partys purity results in an early election the minor party is usually decimated.
However, if national wants act policies inacted but wants to blame act for them that changes everything. However thatd end up with a one or two term govt, John key was so successful because he didn’t need Act, he could rely on the Maori party or united future and steal labour or green policies… Act having the finance portfolio doesn’t sound like it’d be an enduring govt.
But then again labour would be led by some uncharismatic robot who would turn off more voters than an act led national govt so everyone would just stay home