Saw recent display guying Brit names for Aotearoa. Picton was a dodgy character. Didn’t deserve even a prison named after him so is an insult to the South Island.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Picton
The Duke of Wellington called him “a rough foul-mouthed devil as ever lived”, but found him capable. While his military prowess is not in doubt, as a colonial administrator he was considered to be a harsh disciplinarian, even by some at the time. He approved the use of torture during his governorship of Trinidad. He was put on trial in England for approving the picketing of a 14-year-old girl.[2] Though initially convicted, Picton later had the conviction overturned arguing that Trinidad was subject to Spanish law, which he was instructed to administer on the island by Sir Ralph Abercromby and which permitted the use of torture.[3]
Controversy over his use of torture has revived in recent years and Picton’s role in the Atlantic slave trade has also come under scrutiny (he was a slave owner who was involved in slave catching). In 2020, Cardiff Council voted to remove Picton’s statue in the “Heroes of Wales” gallery in Cardiff City Hall..
Time we started looking at what we do, and do better. Ferries and fairiy stories included.

Yea, the tax from those commodities.

https://www.waikatotimes.co.nz/nz-news/360882378/rising-costs-new-hamilton-mental-health-unit

Well smarter than the whole coalition at least Pompos Pope.

And the woman in control, Willis< looks tarty by the day…

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/the-ritual-and-reality-behind-new-zealands-endless-political-announcements-david-harvey/premium/MG6UJXZFNNA5TJFFEAVNEJZZUE/

“Jacinda was a very smart cookie and knew how to read a room and she saw CGT as a mill stone”.. Mind reader are you? I doubt it very much… Projectionist more like…
Whilst Aderns social policies were humane to a point way past the limits of what the British colonial power structure has ever been capable of… Her economic basis was always incremental, and right wing in it’s overall thrust… She was never going to have the spine to introduce a CGT.. That assessment does not require me to be able to “read her mind”… It’s simply by listening to, and watching her words and actions, or lack thereof… Your statement is a rather obvious display of the mediocre and self serving fantasy that passes for political comment in NZ in far too many households recently..

Nikki No- Boats has driven the economy like she’s driven the ferry deal….. straight off the end of a very high wharf…

I think everyone, except the seriously deluded, now realise, that Willis is way way way way out of her depth….clueless ..and, like the current ferries…not fit for purpose!

I wouldn’t bet on it. I will believe it when I see it. To continue to call them ” Left wing ” is totally disingenuous. Its desperation to be rid of this government that we will once again have to settle for National lite blue.

This from Against the current.

Chris Hipkins has spent his career within the Labour Party, a party that long ago abandoned its socialist roots (I’m being generous) in favour of a centrist, market-friendly consensus. His political trajectory has been defined not by efforts to challenge capitalism, but by managing its excesses in ways that leave the underlying system intact. Hipkins rose through Labour’s ranks during the post-Rogernomics era, when the party had already embraced neoliberal orthodoxy. His ministerial record—whether in education, health, or as Prime Minister—shows a consistent pattern: incremental reforms, technocratic adjustments, and a refusal to confront the structural inequalities produced by the market economy. This is not socialism. It is managerial centrism, which Hipkins defined to Guyon Espiner as ‘a more active role for the state.’

https://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2025/11/chris-hipkins-faux-socialist.html