Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Lesson 1: do not challenge in any way the kleptocratic state that is run by Mr Putin.

Lesson 2: do not challenge in any way the kleptocratic state that is run by Mr Putin.

Lesson 3: etc etc

I'm looking foward to "One Day in the Life of an ex-Oil Oligarch".

but

Lesson n: do not write about anyone who challenges the kleptocratic state that is run by Mr Putin.

Isabelle Caro

The death of Isabelle Caro, reported in today's Herald, is a sad comment on our world. She was a 28 year old model, who battled with anorexia for years, and has succumbed to its ravages. She fronted a controversial international campaign against anexoria, yet worked in an industry which sustains images and expectations destined to pluinge many others into that same terrible situation. The Herald reports pro-anexoria websites reporting her death with captions above her emaciated body such as " die young, stay pretty". I  have seen first hand in friends and acquaintances how terrible are anorexia and bulimia. For me, they are yet another pointer to the extent that large parts of our society have become thoroughly unbalanced and unbalancing.

Israel again

Israel is in my mind again, but not for the news about its former President, who is going away for years for rape. Rather, it is the news that a posse of rabbis' wives is circulating a letter widely exhorting young Israeli women to beware of fraternising with Arab males (who, it appears, may even attempt to appear Jewish to snare an Israeli wife). Apparently, it is a campaign against misceganation and part of a much wider campaign by the Orthodox tradition to preserve essential Jewishness. Apart from the obvious fact that everyone in that region comes pretty much from the same stock, give or take a Seleucid incursion or two, it is another example of the blockage to any peace in the region created by extremism.

Her Majesty speaks...

I won't be the only person to wonder in bemused fashion why we still have a monarch in the UK granting honours to our great and good, or not so, in some cases. National Radio made the point very clearly this morning, emphasising several time that Mrs Windsor was the grantor of preference. Mr Key has taken us backwards in reinstating colonial titles, and might well think National radio was highlighting this.

As for the appointments, one never knows why some are chosen and others are not. These appointments are primarily political in their selection and I expect that a range of business people and sportspeople will be to the fore, with the odd Maori and academic here and there. For many, it is a welcome recognition of long community service, which no-one should begrudge. For others, it's simple mutual backscratching. Who knows if Bob Charles is one of the handful of most eminent NZers alive? He could certainly hit the golf ball well.

Apologies to elements of domestic capital

Driving past a shop in Queen St today, I caught sight of a sign which, it appeared to me, exhorted us to "Expect more from bonking". Thinking that this was an extension of the constant spam that I receive, offering wonderful deals on various chemical preparations guaranteed to overcome any shortcoming that my advanced age may have brought about, I asked myself why I must face these potential shortcomings even on Queen St. Then, I noticed that the sign was outside the Queen St branch of TSB..........possibly Specsavers is a first call for me.

Not a good look: SAS in Afghanistan

The news today that two "friendly" security guards were killed in a misdirected raid on a factory and its workers is not a good look for our involvement in Afghanistan. The initial ISAF commentary about who fired first, and what the basis for the raid was, and what was found, has been shown pretty convincingly to be flawed. And, good NZers as they are, it appears that our SAS apologised for the error as they left. "Sorry, mate, thought your workers were terrorists. G'day".  It's a small vignette in a much larger mess.

National and Mr Key

The Herald-Digipoll has National still well in front on 52% and Labour on 37%, with Mr Key on 53% as preferred PM. We are, I believe, beyond any honeymoon period. Two years in office is long enough for the halo of victory to dissipate. Mr Trotter has a good post on the attractiveness of Mr Key's "lightness" to the NZ voter, with attached commentary which reflects on the success of banality and anti-intellectualism evident in Mr Key's continuing status in polls. It is a conundrum. Here, we have a PM who has done very little, especially in relation to the biggest challenge we face, the economy. He has fluffed around in Foreign Policy, had some silly ideas about cycleways, has had a series of colleagues stuff up big time, and used the media for endless displays of his "ordinariness". He seems to revel in his amateur status as a politician, able to retire at will to his well-earned fortune. As Mr Trotter suggests, he is unexceptional in every way, other than in his capacity to make money and remain a popular PM. He really does seem to to be void of any novel or creative thought or insight. Yet the average NZ punter seems to like him. That liking appears to have little to do with ideas or policies, and much to do with an elemental personal appeal. Is this, I wonder, a final collapse of Politics into a levelling, empty engagement with individual personality, rather than with ideas and policies? Is Mr Key a BlairPlus?

The consquences of freedom

An interesting interview with a Danish journalist this morning, commenting on the alleged discovery of yet another plot by militants to attack the newspaper, which published cartoons deemed by some to be offensive to Islam. This is, apparently, only the latest of many alleged plots that have been discovered as the newspaper sits as a top-tier target in Europe. Security services are reported to be at full stretch and pressures on Denmark's liberal political order grow in tandem with concern about attacks. There is something about a sustained threat to kill and maim media workers, who have simply done their job as I see it, which is deeply disturbing and antithetical to my morality and principles. This is not a view of Islam as a whole, as much of Islam is firmly opposed to such actions, but it reflects my own concern about that minority who believe that they can deliver global vengeance for a perceived insult. That assumed arbitrary power is, for me, no different from the thuggery displayed by, for example, the Juarez cartels in Mexico, which have killled perhaps 30,000 in their battle for control of drug movements into the US.

Digital politics in the UK

The Coalition government is to introduce a direct route for the hoi-polloi to express views about policy, with the option that strongly-supported matters will be debated by Parliament. It's a development on the 'direct democracy' debate begun by the Labour government. It will be interesting to see how this develops. People will quickly reject any system that has no teeth, yet one might be concerned about some matters on which many people think strongly (e.g. the death penalty or tax limitation). My guess is that it will be a sideshow, but may also stir a much bigger debate about the responsiveness of politicians in the UK.

The perils of the sea

I'm listening to a radio report about jellyfish now thronging our shores - Lion's Mane and bluebottles and others - some of which can give a serious sting. Then there are the reports of shark activity. I've seen lots of sharks over the years. Large Bronzewhalers in the Manukau, large Mako in harbours in the Coromandel, Great Whites by the Aldermans, and, on occasions, very large, unidentified shapes in the break whilst swimming. I have no idea if there are more sharks than ever, but many are always there and I understand that there have been no attacks in the North Island for many years. But I also note that sea temperatures this year appear to be higher earlier than usual, perhaps a sign of climate change and a cause of increased shark movement southwards?

Tainui and Ms Martin

The thoroughly incompetent attack on Tania Martin, chair of Tainui's Te Kauhanganui, resulted in court action that confirmed her in her position. In the fiasco, the mana of the King was fundamentally weakened, and marae across Tainui were incensed by the process. It all starts again on 22 January as Te Arataura (the executive) attempt to unseat her again. Ms Martin is attempting to undertake an external audit of Tainui's financial affairs, including those of Te Arataura. Unsurprisingly, the position of Mr Morgan in this mess is noted by many. It is difficult to imagine how this could have been worse handled.

On Australia and climate change

Climate change deniers make the point that there are always exceptional weather events, which say nothing about the human impact on climate. In that argument, cyclones happen, and events in Eastern Australia are unpleasant but not evidence of a trend. Having now seen film of what is happening in Queensland - towns under 5 metres of water and vast tracts of country under an inland sea - and having understood that nothing like this has been seen in living memory, one might just consider the possibility that climate change is a reality. I understand that the severity of winters in Europe in recent years is also more likely explained by climate change, rather than established cyclical climate behaviour.

Holiday vacuity

Sir Humphrey explained to the poor Bernard that Oxford had two motorways before Cambridge had one because Oxford had provided the Permanent Secretaries to the Ministry of Transport for many years ( it allowed them to get to their college dinners quickly). I was reminded of this by the annual frisson created by traffic jams in the holiday season, north of Albany and at the Kopu Bridge.  The latter is being rebuilt, and the former is due for a vast expenditure in the near future. We do seem to be spending a great deal of money to allow the SUV-driving elite of Auckland to ferry more easily their gin and brats to their bachs. And then you look at the Government, and it becomes pretty clear where their interests lie. It is such a drag having to queue with the rabble to get to Omaha and Pauanui........

Ponting should go

Mr Ponting may well be feeling upset about the current performance of the Australian cricket team, and also about his own form, but his behaviour towards the umpire yesterday was disgraceful. He's lost 40% of his match fee, but he's also, I think, sealed his own fate as Captain. I expect Mr Clarke to step up shortly.

PS The Black Caps have won a game.

Coda: to be fair to Ponting, he's just given a fulsome, unequivocal apology for yesterday's behaviour.

The perils of death

 I read with interest the story of the Brazilian woman who, thought to be dead, woke up in her coffin and made her discomfort with her location known rather promptly. This is a traditional human fear - to be buried alive. I rather fancy the Victorian approach to this. They used to bury people with a chord passing from the hand in the coffin, through a hole in the coffin, up through the six feet of earth, to a bell mounted on a small frame, such that the 'live burial' could signal life below.

A Prebble Renaissance?

Ms Coddington is scouring the Right-wing world to discover a replacement for Mr Hide, now in marital bliss and well past his sell-buy date as ACT leader. She plumps for Mr Prebble, in the process noting accurately and pointedly that no-one listens to Mr Douglas, If only that had always been the case. This reflects the search on the Right for an effective neo-liberal alternative to National and Mr Key. Why this should be necessary as national inexorably shifts into a neo-liberal mode isn't clear. And the idea that Mr Prebble might be dusted off is laughable. I doubt if he's want it and, anyway, the likelihood that anyone would listen to him is not great. ACT is a basket case and I doubt if it can be renovated.

David Parker: Labour Leader?

Chewing the leadership fat as one does, someone with a Labour track record back to Methusaleh suggested Mr Parker as a far more proficient potential leader than for example, Mr Cunliffe. Mr Goff is, one way or another, a short-term prospect. Mr Cunliffe remains a strong candidate, but there are strong currents against him. Mr Robertson has some ground still to make, and Mr Little has much further to run before he gains preference. The issue of charisma in a populist world haunts the hard-working and thoughtful union leader. Anyway, Mr Parker has shone in some recent debates in Parliament, and scrubs up well in front of the media. He's bright, likeable, not prone to gaffes (barring the obvious), and is not obviously too one way or the other in the Right-Left split in Labour.

Oh Lord, I think like Trevor Mallard........

Trevor has suggested elsewhere that in any other circumstance, the Aussies getting out for 98 would call forth a match-fixing inquiry. I thought excatly the same yesterday as the inept forward prod gave Prior six(?) catches, with the others going to gully and slip. Cook looks like he's about ready to knock off another excellent century, and you can bet that Strauss is particularly enjoying every run past the Australian field. Will Ponting become the first Australian captain to lose three Ashes series?

Food Prices

I've blogged before about Food Security and its burgeoning presence in international thinking. We produce enough food to feed the world, for now and for a considerable future. The problem is what, where and how we produce, and who consumes what. For two decades or more, I have argued with friends that there are three drivers of inevitable global change. The first is, obviously, climate change. Second, there is the impact of constraints on global labour markets - if trade and capital can freely move, so will people expect to be able to move to better opportunities. Third, people will be driven to move to gain access to food supplies as the distortions on global production feed some to extravagant excess, and leave others to starve. I think that we will leave our children with some intractable problems to solve.

NZ and the US

Of course things between NZ and the US have been shaken by the Wikileaks revelations. Ms Clark is right. We now see that the US does treat NZ with disrespect, because, in the eyes of the US State Department, sovereignty is contingent on a country's approach to the US. Fortunately, we have not been seen to warrant wholesale destabilisation, in prat because our institutions are sufficiently robust to be able to make such a move disproportionately costly. Yet we have been subject to two pressures - constant US pressure to toe the line, and explicit encouragement of pro-US forces in political, civil service and media circles. There is nothing surprising about this, but it's worth knowing. Those pressures will increase as China moves into the role of global hegemon over the next decade or so, and as the US falls back into a second tier status. Our foreign policy will require deft footwork, and then I look at Mr McCully, and shake my head.

Outrageous fortune: Off with Ms Malcolm's head.......

A friend of a friend etc. opines that Ms Malcolm's banishment to prison in Outrageous Fortune was as much a penalty for her union affiliations and general outspokenness as it was a plot line of great artistic merit.  Of course, one could not imagine any such thing happening in a sector in which union rights are so highly respected.........and I don't watch it so have no idea if indeed a banishment took place......

Mr Key is a plonker

Prime Minister John Key has not broken his promise to meet the Dalai Lama - he just doesn't feel like fulfilling it yet.

The Herald today


I'm sorry, but this is plonkerdom of the highest order. It is very funny, or would be , if it wasn't our PM taking the piss out of us. It is the reduction of politics to inconsequential nonsense.

On stuffing and turkeys

It is a matter of culinary principle that one does not stuff a turkey. One washes it in and out, one dries it, one gives it a good daubing with butter, one puts (perhaps) a halved onion and a halved lemon in the cavity with some seasoning, and one roasts, breast side up, at about 40 minutes per kilo at 325F (perhaps 160C), with a non-touching foil cover, except for the final hour, when browning takes place. One lets it rest for 30 minutes lightly covered before carving. One ought to think twice about salty bacon as a covering - the salt may in fact help to dry the meat overmuch, but that's an interesting discussion. Stuffing should be cooked separately for about 30 minutes.

Of course, turkey leads to culinary pedantry........

And Seasonal Thoughts

......especially to the Magnificent Seven who kindly "follow" me. It's a small but select bunch!

PEDA? What PEDA?

So PEDA gets nothing after an allocation process that is recognisable as such is followed. This government is pushing such a lot out into the media in this silly season. They really must be hoping that an alcoholic haze will obscure the wave of  unsavoury matters that have been thrown up in the last couple of days. Wishful thinking, I reckon!.

On Castro

The picture on the back page of the Herald of Chavez and Castro reminded me of Fidel's history. There are things that he did in Cuba that distressed me. And I recognise that the economy is barely viable. Yet, when I think of the Cuban Revolution, it stirs me. The initial attack on the Moncada in 1953, defeat, then regrouping for the Granma voyage in 1956, almost immediate defeat again, then the building of the struggle in the Sierra Maestra, and final victory over that foul dictator, Batista, in 1959. The education and health reforms, the exclusion of the Mob and parasitical MNCs, and the support for other Third World movements followed. Flawed maybe, verbose certainly, one cannot doubt his sense of mission, his personal courage, and the mark that he has left on Cuba.

On Judges, MPs and the Hoi-polloi

One can understand Richard Wagstaffe's frustration when interviewed on Morning Report on the MPs' and judges' pay rises. MPs get 1.4 % plus an adjustment for travel perks to be lost sometime in the future. Judges get 3.7% or more. Meanwhile, the hired help, down in the bowels of government, are being treated as pariahs, subject to homilies about how lucky they are to have a job. I don't begrudge people reasonable salaries, whatever they do. but there are two rules that should be obeyed. The first is that everyone should get the same opportunities to improve their salary, rather than some being favoured and others not. Second, there has to be a sense of proportion in salaries - there should not be massive discrepancies in income such that the society becomes unviable. That prospect is growing year in , year out, as income dispersion grows. This government adheres to neither tenet.

Third quarter negative: it's the economy, stupid

The 0.2% decline in GDP in the third quarter is a shocker for the Government. I wondered why there was all the flurry on the radio this morning about poor measurement of communications in the GDP figures. Now we know - supporters of the government are looking for any explanation they can to avoid the inevitable conclusion - that we have, pretty much, double-dipped and the Government hasn't a clue what to do, apart fom the obvious "slash and burn" approach that is brewing in what they call their "thinking". And that's the problem - a "do nothing" government will take the easy, TINA way out, boosted by its cheerleaders in Treasury and the untransformed elements of neo-liberal rectitude. What a prospect!

The Spoilt Brat speaks

Peter Jackson's statement on the Hobbit, released yesterday, simply confirms what we all knew all along. The Hobbit issue was about destroying the possibility of legitimate, legal collective action in the film industry, and the Government obliged. It is, as I noted the other day, a disgraceful tale of mis-government, MNC manipulation, and personal pique on the part of someone who is, as Helen Kelly pointed out, a spoilt brat. I like his films, but they will be tainted henceforth. Why do I keep thinking of Leni Riefenstahl?

Videla gets life deservedly

A notable footnote to a terrible story. Jorge Videla led to coup against Isabelita Martinez de Peron in 1976 and expanded the "dirty war" in which many thousands were tortured and murdered (30,000 or more). Now 85, he's been sentenced to life in imprisonment. For personal reasons, the fact that justice has been done is important, but it is also clear that he and his cronies to this day believe that they were right, and display not the least remorse. Argentina was one of those cases where state-sanctioned human depravity went beyond anything I could imagine. Typing this on a sunny Auckland morning brings back terrible memories and images of those days after the 1976 golpe. I hope that the women outside Casa Rosada, and all others who lost family and friends, gain some comfort from this judgement.

Boeing's difficulties

The Herald points up something that has been emerging for some time - the major delays on the turn-out of the 787 Dreamliner now delayed once again. Now, the Herald is correct that this will cause airlines difficulties as they are experienceng major delays in upgrading their fleets in a highly competitive market. But there is also another knock-on. Expect this crisis for Boeing to be translated into US pressure on the EU around the Airbus operation. The US is already deeply angry about what they see as improper government support for the Airbus operation. If Airbus continues to make ground against Boeing as an effect of the 787 crisis, that anger will become more explicit. Boeing is at the heart of a strategic sector in the US industrial-military complex. Its crisis is more than that of a large MNC. US trade officials will be renewing their efforts against Airbus.

The Vogons of Watercare

Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz berated Earth for not having the intergalactic community involvement to check that Earth was to be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. The fact that the plans were to be found on Alpha Centauri, or somewhere such, was not an excuse in the the eyes of the Prostetnic. This passage from the Hitchhiker's Guide came to mind on hearing that the Watercare CCO is to hold its meeting in some remote location, far away from its central Newmarket offices, because they have to be public. It appears that the remote location - a visitors' centre in Timaru or thereabouts - is the only facility that Watercare has in which the public can participate. This is, of course, nonsense. It is, of course, the CCO giving two very explicit fingers to the Mayor's wish that CCO meetings be public. Richard Northey needs to pull this CCO into line, and promptly.

Fonterra and Iraq...

I rate Helen Clark very highly, in part for her extraordinary grasp of issues. So, with great respect, I would be very surprised if the trade consequences of not participating in Iraq in some way were not discussed somewhere. Whether, however, it was in the manner reported by our micturating Defence officials is quite a different matter.

Wikileaks and National Identity

Brian Rudman triggered a train of thought today. Under the last Labour government, one of the three key strategies was "National Identity". It had a strong cultural root (the Arts etc), a strong foreign policy dimension (Iraq, for example) but also a less-discussed sovereignty dimension. This said, in simple terms, that no state can exist outside a set of external ties and relationships, yet all states, however small, can construct some independent and legitimate autonomy or "space" in that global context. Moreover, the argument went that it was vital for many reasons, including important domestic considerations, that such a "space" existed. National Identity was an effect of Ms Clark's profound grasp of political theory and international relations, now put to excellent use in the UNDP. I've always thought that this was the most important of Labour's strategic foci, for economic transformation and  social inclusion depend on the existence of that space.

I contrast that over-arching, intellectually-informed understanding of policy with the the contingent, simplistic model of external subservience (particularly to the US) that is the current government's, and weep.

Such a sly government.....

Answers are needed to serious questions about the Hobbit issue. Even the most subservient Right blog is reduced to a flaccid "let's understand the context" argument about the OIA releases, which show that Messrs Key and Brownlee, at a minimum, misled the country about the real substance of the Hobbit issue. But no-one in government will speak - this is work-life balance taken to extreme lengths. Mr Key is lounging in Hawaii, and those left at home are turning a deaf ear to the world.

Then, in contrast, as Christmas approaches, Mr Smith is all noise, smoke and mirrors about the encroaching privatisation of ACC. We know that there will be higher fees, "cherry picking", collusion between employers and insurers, pressure on employees not to claim, and a massive rise in bureaucracy for GPs. We know that the next Labour government will reverse the process, but ideological fervour will out.

......and the economy remains moribund. I've heard several commentators quietly thanking God for the current rain. When the agricultural sector is our only saving grace, a drought is unwelcome!

This is a sly, ineffectual and disrespectful government, and should be treated as such.

Australian Productivity Commission in trade deals

The Australian Productivity Commission has questioned the value derived from trade deals, suggesting that more and better research is needed, and that greater transparency around them might be good. This is sensible, as the Wikileaks material on trade deals, and the TPP especially, shows. And Mr Groser's response: two fingers. He knows better and sees things as a simple "cracking" of markets. I'm seeing growing disillusionment about the usual rhetoric associated with free trade. The mantra that "free trade is good" no longer finds the favour that it did, and the growing concerns about the TPP have fuelled that disillusionment.

The end of the sunny weather?: university blues

I see that the UK is about to reverse 50 years of tertiary policy. Funding cuts will lead to a fall of at least 10,000 university places by 2012, with the potential for mothers to follow. The future is, according to the staff union, one of "funding cuts, higher fees, fewer university places, a pay freeze and attacks on staff pensions". I reflect on this as we hear news of the compensation to be paid to Massey students in Wellington, facing a canning of an engineering degree. Apart from the pensions attack, the tertiary sector in NZ is facing pretty much the same future as that described in the UK.

More broadly, I think that there is a general convergence between the Key and Cameron approaches - superficial warm fuzzies and personable behaviours disguising an iron fist. A grim prospect.

On the perils of being found out in Politics (a UK example)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQFwxw57NBI

The Wright Stuff

It has been a long wait, but, after 11 one-day losses, John Wright has taken the helm of the Black Caps. He was first class with an Indian team with some extraordinary young talent. He has a much tougher furrow to plough with the Black Caps, who look to be short of a couple of top-class players (a really good quickie, and a consistent opener and a No 3 or 4) and of confidence. Here's hoping!

The Hobbit yet again

The OIA material on the Hobbit is clear that the so-called boycott was not an issue for Warners and Peter Jackson, and that the real issue was the fall-out from the Bryson-Three Foot Six case and the desire to have NZ employment law changed. It looks pretty much like the government lied on this, and that the film workers who were mobilised by Weta etc were being used as pawns in the Warner-Jackson strategy. This is a serious issue in which the government has deliberately misled the country. The CTU were right all along. I wonder where the media will be on this - apologies, perhaps?

Lars and the Real Girl and Sense and Sensibility

I caught up with this 2007 film over the weekend, along with the 1995 Emma Thompson version of "Sense and Sensibility". I was charmed by both. Lars is a delightful film in which the director (Craig Gillespie) avoids pretty much every opportunity to be trite and predictable, and, without hyperbole, portrays with great humour and grace, an accepting and responsive community.

Call me a romantic, but the Branagh "Much Ado About Nothing" appealed to me (despite the seriously miscast Keanu Reeves as Don John). Part (actually, quite a lot) of the appeal was Emma Thompson as Beatrice, reinforcing my feeling for her which grew in the heady days of "Tutti Frutti" (alas, never played in NZ, I believe - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092471/). All this adds up to a predilection to like this version of "Sense and Sensibility" which is very good and I don't know how I've taken 15 years to see it. Ang Lee's brilliance in framing shots, seen later in "Brokeback Mountain" is to the fore - a cinematographical version of Constable.

Not so bad, really!

Len Brown's proposed rates increase for next year is 4.9 per cent. This is what the former councils proposed for next year:



* Waitakere City 11.9pc


* Rodney District 6.2pc


* North Shore District 5.6pc


* Papakura District 5.9pc


* Franklin District 5.5pc


* Auckland City 5.3pc


* Manukau City 4.2pc

(From the Herald)

The point is, of course, whether reasonable provision can be maintained under such a budget regime. Given that, I am a little surprised that in the same week the Council recommended significant pay-rises for themselves. In the context of the "jobs for the boys" flurry, it's not a particularly good look.

Pressure mounting on Mr Key to imitate Mr Douglas

The public sector and public provision in general should be very worried about the reported National lead over Labour (Stuff says 22% in the Colmar Brunton poll). The Right is timing its run of pressure on Mr Key on everything from an increase in the pension age to privatisation and swingeing public cuts and on to constitutional change away from MMP. They see an opportunity to repeat the 1980s once again, another time in which the private sector is placed once again on a pedestal and worshipped as our economic saviour. The cuts machine is already in top gear in the core public sector as a combination of real cuts and the impact of inflation on fixed allocations takes its toll. But the Right is eyeing the draconian cuts of the Greek and Irish models in which contingent arguments for cuts become a vehicle for the ideological fervour that once reigned under Mr Douglas. Treasury is firmly in this camp, as is Mr English at root. A National victory next year will result in an even more polarised and balkanised NZ, a NZ in which the potential for ever greater income dispersion and deep poverty becomes even greater.

Mallard on rail

Mr Mallard is, I believe, correct on maintaining the rail system north of Auckland as far as Marsden Point. The potential for the port is itself one factor, but, in the future the passenger and the freight opportunities offered by a functioning rail link will be invaluable. We will in the next generation have to rethink our transport approach (unless some extraordinary technology emerges, on which I am not prepared to bet) and rail will become an essential feature of that rethink (as will a much developed public transport system).

Wikileaks and NZ contd.

One might reflect on the insight into Helen Clark offered by Wilkileaks. It shows two things - she is an excellent politician, seeking to take political advantage from any international opportunity (without pressing hyer nose up against thye White House window and pleading for access) and was staunch in her anti-nuclear position, such that she frustrated the US immensely. The idea that the US was very fed up with NZ because it maintained an independent foreign policy under Ms Clark is pleasing to many of us. One has no such confidence in Messrs Key and McCully, for whom talk of such independence is an arcane foreign language.

After a weekend away....

One takes a day or two off and so much happens. The Silver Ferns Te Aroha plant docking of wages for observing the Pike River two minutes silence would have just about beggared my imagination, if I wasn't aware of the quality of so many NZ managers. It was egregious and reflective of so much that is wrong with our workplaces.

The political manipulation of the Pike River ceremony is attracting attention too. Why no family spokesperson, and why no union person either? There  is more to follow on this.

Then there was the good news of Phil Twyford's selection for Te Atatu. He will be an excellent candidate and it is pleasing to see that the female clique who does him down have been sideswiped.

The Herald's recent editorial on the Hanover pursuit was unnecessary. Hanover was the most striking of the failures (after SFC, I suppose) in the finance sector, and there is ample reason to investigate fully what happened.

And as for the Wikileaks, it is interesting to hear the truth about free trade deals from the mouths of those who defend them. And China and the Dalai Lama will be a hot topic when Parliament reconvenes. As Bryce Edwards notes, the machinations of MNCs in NZ and elsewhere are something to behold.

And, sadly, Tom Newnham RIP.

Mr Mapp for off

This is interesting news. Mr Mapp once had aspirations for very high office, and was a very staunch Mr Key man. Thy "personal and family reasons" for going are no doubt real, buty there will also be an element of internal National politics here. I guess that Mr Mapp has been given the word that his star will never rise under Mr Key, and that Defence, or lower, is where he will languish. So what does this signal about the National Party? What renewal is under consideration? Could it be that Mr Key has, for once, a strategy on something?

City of Fallen Angels

Just a plug for John Berendt's 2005 book on Venice, which is an unexpected delight. It's a non-fictional account of contemporary Venice, with elements of a whodunnit and historical reflection. I particularly liked the quote to the effect that if Venice had no bridges, Europe would be an island.

Two fingers to the public

Ministers have failed to front up at least twice on Morning report this morning. Mr Ryall refused to comment of the DML-Labtests issue; Mr Brownlee refused to comment on the extraordinary spikes in energy costs thyat have been hitting industry recently. This is a constant pattern and reflects, first,a loathing, on the part of this government, of National Radio (too Left wing, too critical) and, second, a simple disregard for the public. So we get the cheap photo ops and set pieces, but little public scrutiny of ministerial behaviour. As someone noted recently, it's an image of fortress government, unusual when the polls are as they are.

Some research needed on SERCO

Just to point out that it might be interesting to follow-up the appointment of SERCO to manage the Mount Eden prison complex with a little research on some of the company's previous successes!

Coda; pleased to see that Mr Robertson and others have unearthed the UK SERCO story

The Right hunts

Mr Brown has spoiled the Right's agenda for Auckland and they are determined to damage him in return. Jami-Lee Ross, feral, in search of a National seat and seemingly caring not one jot for consensus government, will go to any length to do down Mr Brown (as shown in the run-up to the election). Mr Farrar, more and more the Jack Russell in the 9th floor's phonograph, is helping out. There is, of course. no evidence at all of a misdemeanour, but innuendo serves to muddy the water.  As others point out, the real issue here is that the Right lost, despite throwing nearly twice as many resources at the Supercity election. The hurt and anger are very deep indeed. And, of course, they have to deflect attention from the sleaze in their own ministerial ranks.

Louisa Wall: a good candidate

I'm pleased Louisa Wall has come through the Manurewa selection. Many people respect her, and the wider party will be content. On paper, she was a stronger candidate than Mr Mika and others on the list. Mr Little should not have been drawn into a public debate about Mr Hawkins. The latter is happy about Ms Wall's selection. Let him be happy. He was due to be replaced, and the public expression of that view by Mr Little was an unhelpful statement of the obvious.Anyway, it's all a 24 hour spat and will be forgotten by Saturday!

Wong gone

As I wrote before, she had to go. And Mr Key's defence of her is now as hollow as anything. To say that he didn't want her to go is sophistry. An critical Auditor-General's report in an election year would have been a bad look. The Hodgson drip-feeding is also excellent politics, an example of parliamentary process at its best.

The bitter side of fraud

It is sad to see that Mark Madoff, Bernie Madoff's 46-year old son, has taken his own life in New York. It is reported that this follows years of "false accusations and innuendo". Anger about the disgraced financier is understandable, but it seems, looking at the US coverage of this, that the son was subjected to relentless pressure, simply because he was the son. It is a terrible price to pay because of one's father's failings.

NZ Wikileaks

You can't fault US intelligence on Ms Clark. She is a control person, who is also very warm, open and often very, very funny. Much of the rest of the Wikileaks on NZ is so far precictable. And one should not become fixated by the journalists' trips to the US. The Visitor Scheme, once described to me as the CIA Trip, is a long-established way in which current or future opinion leaders from round the world are taken to the US for a modest period of hospitality. No doubt in some cases participation is seen as a way of accessing people, but most thinking people are unlikely to succumb to US State Department blandishments

And, gosh, Mr Key is pro-US!

The furore that is Annabel Fay

The music of Annabel Fay has, alas, passed me by. Asking those who are younger in my life produces no useful insight. Shapeshifter and drum n'base are more to the fore in that quarter. I can see, however, that the public funding of her music might produce a particular frisson. The family is well-heeled, and many suggest that it is because of, what shall we call it, "advantageous circumstances" in the Great Privatisation, advantages of such magnitude that one might have thought it tactless for the family to return to public teat (especially when, when last I heard, the family had up and offed to Europe - (though I am happy to be corrected on this matter as I don't follow the gossip columns and Wikipedia says Mr Fay is now resident in NZ). -

Pfizer and US Embassy in Nigeria: the MNC and Corporate Social Responsibility?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/09/wikileaks-cables-pfizer-nigeria

Wikileaks open another page....

Two fingers to the democratic process

Just to note, following the twitters and Facebook postings, that the urgency (and associated malpractice) being used by the government in Parliament displays utter contempt for the parliamentary process and for the people of NZ. And Mr Brownlee gets Mr Armstrong's accolade as a high performer.....!

John Key: politician of the year

Blah blah stellar lead blah blah blah common touch blah blah blah steady hand on tiller blah new politics blah blah breaking the mould blah blah blah stunning performance bloah blah trusted by the people blah blah delivered on Hobbit blah blah avid, focused, less acidic blah blah blah blah blah Brownlee close to Key's showing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I clearly live in a parallel universe to Mr Armstrong, who needs a long break to recover some perspective.

Mayor Brown should, in the future, reveal donors

I don't like secret political donations. I prefer to see real transparency in the political process so that we know who is putting cash into campaigns, and can make a judgement about any pay-back that might ensue. The Left should take a principled stand on this, frm the Labour Party downwards. I would be happy for the several hundred dollars a years that I put into the Labour Party and other campaigns to be publicly visible (including the money that I put into Mayor Brown's campaign). So it makes sense to me that Mayor Brown announces that henceforth, his campaign donations will be transparent. It may result in some people, for whatever reason, not donating, but it would silence the inevitable cries of hypocrisy from the Right. The donations for this year's campaign cannot be revealed as they were given, presumably, with the possibility of trust protection in place.

Coda: all that self satisfaction on the Right about Mr Banks' "openness" is so much nonsense. The $1000 limit can be abused easily.

Attacking the benefit, but without the moral high ground

The thrust of much Rightist comment is the existence of an "entitlement" society, in which too many people assume the existence of a social safety net and rely thereon. The call is to cut and slash and shame and exclude (for the economy's, society's and the individual's own good). It is a refrain associated with neo-liberal philosophy,  the Washington consensus and the TINA tradition. Ms O'Sullivan is extending her version of this in today's Herald. Her argument also takes a swing at MMP (which, apparently promotes such outcomes via political bribery). Maori, and others expecting state support.

I have argued before that the welfare state was never designed as an alternative economic or social model. It was a safety net to help people who, for many reasons, were facing difficulty, some permanently. It was the mark of a civilised society in which social support of a reasonable sort should be made available,. as of right, in order to maintain the dignity of the recipient. "Sponging" long term when alternative, reasonable opportunities were available was not to be condoned. I think that most reasonable people accept something like this as the basis for welfare provision.

The current attacks, and that long tradition of attacks since the 1970s, has not accepted that model. The very principle of welfare provision is not accepted by the neo-liberal tradition. In its extreme form, it assumes that the individual sinks or swims by their own efforts, and social provision should be the province of benevolent individuals of the "lady bountiful" type. This is the view-in-principle that unperpins much of the Right's discourse, tempered by political reality. hence. Ms O'Sullivan is attacking welfare provision via an attack on the political order (MMP, which promotes political latitude on welfare and other demands on individual rights).

The problem is, however, that the market-driven model that provides the alternative has lost any high moral ground to which it might have aspired, The excesses of the market model, seen as a primary cause of the current crisis, the continuing excesses on the salaries and profit-taking front, and the behaviours of those rich people who clearly feel a different sort of entitlement - the one that says $5.59 million is a reasonable salary, in particular - have fundamentally damaged that O'Sullivan alternative. "Trickle down" has been shown to be "torrent up" , as I mentioned in a post yesterday. Even comfortable people look askance at that alternative if it means that a small minority become richer and richer, and the vast majority flatline in terms of standards of living. This is now an institutional and political blockage to the Right's standard alternative package, exacerbated by the impact of solutions such as the Irish one, in which the rich continue much as ever, but the poor-to-middle-class take the hit in terms of jobs and social provision. If ever there was an opening for an alternative model.....

The share to workers versus Capital

The best shorthand explanation of the debt crisis we face (especially for private debt) is in terms of where profits have gone. The simple argument is that companies have taken ever larger profits, but the share going to workers has remained stagnant, or fallen, with the result that private debt has risen, Labour economists with a pluralist bent have been arguing this for years. Well, the Herald, quoting the Economist, has finally let the penny drop.

http://www.economist.com/node/17633037?story_id=17633037

The argument is simple - productivity in the US since 2008 is increasing at 4.2% per annum. Hourly compensation is up only 2.1%. Unit labour costs are falling at 2% per annum. New jobs are not being created. In other words, we have a jobless growth model in play, in which profits are growing and labour is being squeezed ever tighter. This is politically and economically unacceptable, but I doubt if you'll hear a peep from our government.

On the search for a decent apple

In recent weeks I have been searching for an apple which is fresh, crisp and juicy. Instead, I have found an array of Galas, Braeburns, Jazz and Granny Smiths, which are mealy, pulpy and like eating a wad of sweetened cotton wool. It brings to mind the piece written by EP Thompson many years ago, bewailing the end of the English sturmer, pippin and russet in the face of the EC-led onslaught of Golden Delicious and Granny Smiths, uniform in shape, uniform in tastelessness, uniform in an endless shelf-life and, above all, blemishless.

Foreshore and Seabed

Labour's decision is, of course, about politics (and there will be lots of pleasure quietly taken in the discomfort being faced by the vituperative Ms Turia). But it is also about letting the courts have their say, which may well have a better prospect of defining a long-term solution. There is a shift here which required Labour to think well beyond short-term political gain, for it challenges their original thinking on the issue. I reflect on the possibility that, in Sir Humphrey's words, Mr Goff has made a "brave" decision.

Globalisation and the Anzac Poppy

The NZ RSA has shifted its purchasing of Anzac poppies from an operation employing people with disabilities to an Australian outfit using Chines components, at a cost reduction of $150,000 to the RSA. My immediate thought was why not get Indian children to manufacture them in sweatshops, which would be even cheaper, but, of course, the real issue is the insidious way in which cost competition wins out in the global economy. Other considerations fall away in the face of the cost saving, even if the consequent decision is described by many in terms such as "abhorrent".

Wikiwars: Assange strikes back

I can't open the Mastercard webpage at the moment, perhaps a sign of success as Mr Assange's supporters launch a cyber attack on those deemed to have joined in on the attack on Wikileaks.

The Hawkins Issue

Mr Hawkins movement out of Parliament is beginning to look messy. The assumption in some quarters that Mr Mika would automatically be the chosen successor has got right up Mr Hawkins' nose, and I can sympathise in some ways. Some of the Engineers active in the Party are less than subtle in their assumption of rights and privilege, and in a situation in which Mr Little's two hats are very much not helpful. And it is not just Mr Hawkins. Other unions have different views, as are now public, and so do many rank-and-file members of the Party, who are less than impressed by the performance of some ex-TU MPs. I expect Mr Hawkins to back down on his resignation threat, but the situation is unsatisfactory.

Coda: I should be fair. Many TU-originated MPs are perfectly decent, nice people. It is more a question about their appropriateness for parliamentary service. There are many TU people who would make excellent MPs and ministers - Andrew Little, Helen Kelly. Peter Conway, for example, - but not all TU leaders are equipped for the particularities of the political life that is Parliament. The adage "few but good" (adapted from  "Diary of  a Nobody") applies.

Mr Hodgson and Ms Wong

She'll have to go. Mr Key must see that there is going to be a steady drip-feeding of commentary that contradicts her husband's assertions, and each drip (a true Chinese water torture) will erode Ms Wong's status and, also, damage the PM as he defends her. When a pike bites, its jaws clamp and are almost immovable. Thus it is with the grasp with which Mr Hodgson now grips Ms Wong. She may flap and twist, but the jaws are firm. And National deeply loath Pete at the moment.

A Constitutional Disgrace

The news yesterday of the constitutional review left me feeling uncomfortable. Partly it was because the issue of the Republic was left out of the terms of reference, partly because the process was to be run by Messrs English and Sharples. Reading John Armstrong this morning is salutary for me as it makes my discomfort far more tangible. He describes the proposed process as a disgrace, suggesting that constitutional matters such as this require treatment at the level of a Royal Commission, rather than a politically-manipulated, government driven discussion. It is another sign of the insouciance with which this government treats important issues. I wonder if Mr Armstrong's message will be taken up.

A Navy Lark

I was brought up with "The Navy Lark", the adventures of HMS Troutbridge as it careered across the ocean. The phrase" left hand down a bit" still lives with me. It was brought to mind again by the news of HMNZS Otago, struggling along with one engine out of kilter due to electronic problems, with the GG on board. It's the third time Otago has had a problem. Its sister ship, Wellington, has had similar problems, and we simply don't mention the Canterbury and its extended teething problems. The principles behind the long-run re-equipment strategy for the Navy were excellent, yet the performance dimensions of the new vessels have left much to be desired. In the immortal words of Sub-Lieutenant Phillips "Oh lumme!"

And the sun will come up tomorrow, and the Pope will be a Catholic, and relationships will go awry on Coronation Street and.....

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10692841

Supercity finances: keeping officials in their place

It wasn't long in coming. Projections of deficits between $47 million and $127 million, and budget cuts of $47 million "to keep rates affordable" are in the Herald today. "Affordable" appears to mean a 3.9% rates increase next year. We'll see what this means in due course.

What interested me in this was the Herald's reporting on new finance Obergruppenfuhrer McKenzie, who seems to have commented publicly on the poor spending of predecessor councils and the likelihood of consequent cuts in new community projects. I hope that Mayor Brown slaps this upstart down promptly. It is not for officials to go out opining publicly about such matters. That is the job of the Council. The official's job is to provide advice and then do what they are told (within the law, of course).

Tainui contd.

Just to note that the Tania Martin sacking by the Maori King is turning into a farce, with a mediation in process despite her being sacked. There is, of course, an employment agreement issue here. Who was her employer? Who signed her employment agreement? I imagine that it was not the King, and that his technical ability to dismiss her, mana or not, may be nil. This is being badly handled - poor process, poor advice and a wave of anger moving through the marae. My guess is that we'll hear more of this as it is likely to end up in a legal process.

Pensions

Susan St John, intelligent as ever, provides support for Ms Crossan's suggestion that we raise the pensionable age to 67 by small stages over an extended period up to 2033. She makes the point that a gradual move like this gives more than enough clear signals to people about when they can expect the pension to kick in, and, of course, can always be reversed. Every OECD country is engaged in a similar debate about pension affordability. Ms Crossan's suggestion is a sensible way to deal with this in NZ.

Assange's crime

I am beginning to think that Mr Assange's greatest crime has not been his leaking of often trivial material, but his pricking of the self important bubble in which our diplomats and senior officials live. They live usually in a hermetic world, seen occasionally striding purposefully into large buildings, or apparently deep in portentous discussions, or speaking in that strange tongue that is the official statement. Their world involves nice hotels, international travel, and vicarious association with important people. It is an elite world, assuming status and importance far above the world in which we, ordinary people, live. Now, we see it to be a world in which deep intelligence is reduced to trivial pen-portraits of foreign leaders, in which high-powered discussions are reduced to  simplistic documentation, in which the petty politics of the playground is as good a metaphor as any. Assange has exposed this world as costly, self-important and trivial, and that world is hitting back. There is a consensus that the US is behind a consistent attack on Assange and Wikileaks, and the picture of a Swedish government being bullied into legal action against him is overpowering. The global establishment is fighting back, as ever, nastily.

Mayor Brown's appointments

I must admit to some concern about the CCO appointments by Mr Brown. I am not too bothered about the pork barrel accusations, though some of the appointments are clearly pay-backs. It is the lack of new blood in the appointments. Many are excellent stalwarts - as in Brian Corban and Mike Williams- but there is little new blood involved, and few appointments reflect a widespread belief that Mr Brown has to challenge the Fordist tendencies of the original appointments. Some, I fear, are chocolate soldiers.  Here's hoping that I'm wrong and that the new appointees will not settle down to a "business as usual" approach.

Private schools put out begging bowl

The crisis is hitting private schools. When you are charging $15k a year, and families are hurting the advantages you offer over state schools suddenly become less obvious. So kids at Dio or St Cuths, who can go, free, to EGGS won't lose out academically and it is a far cheaper option. So what have the private schools done? They've gone back to the government to ask for yet more state subsidy on the spurious grounds that the private schools are saving the public sector money. Full marks for effrontery, but a thoroughly unacceptable prospect. I doubt if it will happen in an election year, but you never know.

Tainui in dispute again

The summary sacking of Tania Martin, an elected Tainui official endorsed by the constituent marae, from her position as chair of Te Kauhanganui is a murky affair. It is surrounded by claim and counter-claim about a payments and expenses associated with the executive board. She is also rumoured to have criticised Tuku Morgan, executive board chair. This is another blow to the image of effective governance in Tainui, already damaged by previous events, including those surrounding the Hemi Rau affair. It is reported that marae are taking legal advice about the constitutional status of Ms Martin's sacking, something likely to prolong the embarrassment.

Note that the King's use of absolute power will also attract attention, as it cuts across the wishes of many marae.His mana is, I submit, of far less moment than effective management of Tainui resources.

Wellingtonians and the ability to look both ways

I am a little baffled by the national issue that is the Manners Street reconfiguration in Wellington. I traversed this minefield last week. Yes, there has been a reconfiguration. Yet it is clearly marked and very obvious, and doesn't strike me as so problematic that swathes of Wellingtonians must fear immediate collision with buses (which are being driven in a very sedate fashion down the street). On the other hand, any loss of a pedestrian precinct is to be regretted.

The Mafia State and the 2018 World Cup

In case the point isn't clear, the Guardian reports that Prime Minister Putin, a noted friend of the oligarchs, has told Mr Abramovich, noted oligarch and owner of Chelsea, "to pay for 2018 World Cup". You can see how it works. Public funds are provided to a private sector operator (or operators) who make personal gains (no doubt to be shared appropriately) whilst the decrepit Russian state will carry the subsequent debt burden.

Wheat, MNCs and Food Security

New Zealand grain growers are appealing to the Commerce Commission and other government agencies amid fears large multinationals are achieving a dominant position in the local market and limiting access to markets for local produce.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/4424231/Wheat-growers-call-in-Commerce-Commission

This quote from Stuff is about more than the impact of NZ's insertion into the global economy and loss of sovereignty. It is about a growing global control by MNCs of food sources and prices in the context of current commodity price spikes and, more importantly, the desire to have strategic long-term control of food supplies. Climate change, population increase, inequitable consumption, warped production priorities and other factors have brought the issue of food security to the fore. There have been concerns for two decades or more about the long-term ability of the Earth to feed its population on the current basis. MNCs are already planning how to control food supply to the advantage of certain economies and shareholders. UN agencies are highlighting the cost in terms of deaths that food security crises are already causing. These will become worse and more common. "Give us our daily bread" will soon become a much more pungent prayer.

CTU on TPP

This is the CTU press release on the TPP negotiations. It makes interesting reading in the light of the AFL-CIO letter to the NZ Trade minister around the Hobbit fiasco:

CTU has major concerns regarding Transpacific Partnership Agreement negotiations



The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions is very concerned at the directions being taken in the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) negotiations, which will begin another round in Auckland on Monday. CTU and other union representatives will be in Auckland to observe the negotiations. The other negotiating countries are headed by the US and include Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.


"Trade is only a small part of these negotiations", said Bill Rosenberg, CTU Policy Director and Economist, who will be the CTU observer. "In fact most of the proposed agreement covers areas like foreign investment rules, empowering foreign companies to sue our government, opening our services to more international competition, our right to regulate, pharmaceutical costs, intellectual property rights, and preventing use of government procurement to help local firms."


"The big trade interest for New Zealand is agriculture - getting more dairy and other products into the US. But powerful US interests will oppose that every step of the way. Australian exporters were very disappointed at the results of their free trade agreement with the US. It would be naive to believe New Zealand can do any better. If any access is won it is likely to be delayed for a decade or more, by which time there is likely to be greater competition from other international suppliers to the US market and subsidies may still be in place."


Any access will not come free, says Rosenberg. "We will have to pay for it. For example, the price could be reducing our ability to control foreign investment, giving overseas corporations the power to sue our government for millions of dollars and force it to change laws, higher cost of medicines, further loss of our ability to give assistance to local producers, or greater pressures to privatise. If we have to give this sovereignty away to get agricultural export access, we have to ask whether being locked into production of low value-added commodities is really the future New Zealanders want. It is a low value, low quality, low wage path."


Unions will also be pushing for an enforceable labour chapter to prevent the kind of race-to-the-bottom competition to lower labour standards that the government demonstrated in passing the amendment to the Employment Relations Act at the behest of Warner Brothers. "These agreements go much too far in increasing rights for international corporate interests. At the very least they should provide protection for the rights of people who work for their living and make up the great majority of our working age population."


"What is even more disturbing about the negotiations is the degree of secrecy that surrounds them, despite their outcome being more important than most laws that go through Parliament. The text of the agreement will not be available for scrutiny until the deal is signed. Only scraps of information are available until then. This is not how a 21st century agreement should be created."


"We are not against trade. It can provide jobs, but it must be fair. It often has not been fair to working people. But the TPP is about much more than trade. Any trade benefits are likely to be tiny. Unless we receive assurances that the dangers such as those outlined, are being addressed, we will oppose it. We are working with union centres in most of the other TPP countries, and have a common view on a broad range of issues."

The debate targeted at Ed Miliband

http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2010/12/labour-social-essay-society

Renewal around Ed Miliband mirrors the debates we are having here in NZ. There is in some quarters in the UK a sense that a political renovation is needed to, first, draw a line under Mr Blair, and, second, define a modern social democracy in the face of a new Rightist onslaught. It's not quite the same in NZ - no-one, I think, equates Ms Clark to Mr Blair - yet, here, the meaning of social democracy is an open question in the context of Labour's uncertain sense of direction and constituency.

I put to one side the idea of a new Left party, which to me would be a destructive and  arrogant move by those who would support it. In my travels around Auckland, only two arguments have been put to me in favour of such a development. The first - that there is a clamour for an authentic Left party (that is, Labour is not "authentic") - seems to reflect the views of a handful of isolated and primarily ineffectual activists. I hear no clamour, I see no space for such a development, I garner no evidence from those that would create a new party of such a need. The second, frankly, irritates me. It is the idea that a new Left party will keep Labour honest. The overwhelming arrogance of that view - we, the guardians of truth, will stand as the watchdog over Labour's weaknesses and foibles - says much about ego and self-importance, something about personal antipathies, and little about objective political analysis.

What is needed, as I have said before, is a strong grassroots and intellectual challenge within the NZ Labour Party, much as is (possibly) emerging in the UK party. The conference this year was a good start, as is the activity of the Fabians (though they must get off the exporter train). There are bright younger MPs in the party that need to step up to this challenge. Indeed, it is one of my tests of future leadership potential.

Why Germany is loathed.....

Chancellor Merkl is currently one of the least liked, if respected, leaders in Europe. Facing a political backlash at home about the cost of the Greek bail-out and possible costs attached to the Irish intervention (and, perhaps, those coming for Spain, Portugal,and, even, Italy) she (with President Sarkozy) has been promoting a change to the European treaty that establishes a permanent Euro-zone rescue package, with, and here's the sting, serious losses for creditors and investors as a consequence, She sees it as sharing the pain. The investors and creditors disagree (wanting the best of both worlds, they want the profits, and also the "social" bail-out). So they've reacted in ways that have pushed up the price of money, in the process precipitating the Irish bail-out.  Ms Merkl is loathed not because she has acted tough. Many agree with her solution. However, her timing, and her focus almost solely on Germany's interests, both of which are seen to have made the European crisis significantly worse, have generated fury in many quarters of Europe.

Rod Oram on form

Mr Oram's piece in the SST today neatly and ironically skewers the pro-roads bias of Mr Joyce, pointing to the inevitable implications of population increase on the isthmus and its attendant problems for the "more roads" lobby.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/business/4422267/Auckland-planning-is-at-the-crossroads

It is interesting that he's picked up on the work by Phil McDermott, one of NZ's better thinkers on urban design and the like. He and others have been arguing that more of the same in Auckland is not a sustainable planning option, and that new thinking (especially around intensification) about the use of space  in the region is needed. Meanwhile the free-market numpties continue in their desire to remove MULs and open up a free-for-all over land usage in the region. Mr Joyce is clearly in that latter camp, and displays a wonderfully closed mind to alternatives.

The AFL-CIO notes........and Ms Wilkinson babbles

The AFL-CIO has made it clear to Mr Groser that the graituitous changes to labour law made by the government around the Hobbit are precisely the types of behaviour that would be precluded under a trade deal with the US. The idea that employment regulation would be changed (weakened) to attract FDI is a cardinal no-no in labour clauses attached to trade deals. So the Hobbit rears its head again. The AFL-CIO will probably now oppose a US deal with NZ, and that might well be enough to sink the idea for many years to come. Something about cutting off noses to spite face comes to mind.

Ms Wilkinson's defence of the Hobbit legislation as consistent with ILO conventions 87 and 98 is further evidence of her ignorance of her Labour portfolio. I imagine that the officials in the DoL are squirming to see such brazen nonsense broadcast by their minister. The changes directly offend the requirement under ILO membership to promote collective bargaining.

Creativity and Twitter

http://uksnowmap.com/

Twitter tracking the blizzards in the UK

"Winter's Bone" and "Made in Dagenham"

Daniel Woodrell's 2006 book is a sparse, well-written, if bleak, story of backblock life in rural America, which has been translated into a first class film, in which Jennifer Lawrence plays the feisty teenager ploughing through the Ozark winter looking for her P-producing father. The film is at least as good as the book; both are rewarding experiences. The director (I think) is being interviewed by Kim Hill as I type, and it is an illuminating interview, capturing that real sense of distance between communities that exists within the US.

"Made in Dagenham" was a film that I was predisposed to like, simply because Miranda Richardson plays one of my favourite politicians from my youth, Barbara Castle.Castle was a Labour politician deeply rooted in her community and politics, a strong woman who stood out against Harold Wilson, and was damaged by that independence. Anyway, the film is a chirpy account of the Ford machinists strike in 1968, which became one driver of subsequent equal pay legislation. It is delightfully British in pace and humour, is political, and has Sally Hawkins in a gem of a role. Initial reviews were a bit sniffy, but I note that the tenor of most has changed. It is a gem of a film.

The McPhail report on Wong

The consensus outside supporters of the government is that the McPhail report on Ms Wong is thoroughly inadequate. It comes down to Mr Key trusting the word of Ms Wong and her partner, and. as the Herald points out, this is stretching things too far. A full investigation is needed, for she is now very damaged goods indeed and her position in Parliament is going to be made very uncomfortable henceforth, until a proper investigation clears her (or not). The dogs are hunting.

The penalty of embarrassment: death?

The embarrassment caused by the Wikileaks exposure of global hyprocisy has resulted in bitter hyperbole as supposedly responsible people have called for "hits" and drone battacks on Julian Assange, the death penalty for the squaddy who allegedly leaked some of the material, and rumours that the Swedish charges against Assange are a "fit up". This is the global bourgeoisie enragé. They are offended by the scrutiny that is allowed by these releases and are reacting with spite. The issue is, of course, far bigger than Assange. It is about the principle of transparency in our governance. Modern technology allows far greater transparency, thus allowing the hoi polloi access to what were the traditional decision grounds of the ruling elite. They loath that scrutiny, so invoke security as an excuse. The problem is that Assange is not alone. The genie is out of the bottle, and if it's not Assange, it will be someone else. It is in some senses indeed a brave new world.

And who, I wonder, is launching the cyber attacks on Wikileaks?

And so it goes...

One can be pretty sure why company lawyers are muscling in on police and DoL interviews with people around the Pike River disaster. The issue of responsibility (if there is any) for the disaster will be front and centre. It is appropriate for an interviewee to have his or her lawyer present. It is not appropriate for the employer party to have their lawyer there. It is a simple as that. Andrew Little and the EPMU are right to be concerned about this. Watch this space. There will be more on this front soon enough.

Coda: it gets worse. The DoL is being craven about the objectivity of their investigation, whilst the company is, according to Andrew Little on Checkpoint "briefing" employees before their interviews. It is very early for there to be a question about the objectivity of en enquiry, but so it goes.

Russia, the Mafia State and FIFA: Where are you Cubby Broccoli?

Just a  thought. As the Herald runs the Wikileaks stuff about the Russian mafia state (something pretty obvious for years) and as FIFA, hardly bereft of corruption, hands the World Cup to Russia (what a prospect for conspiracy, there), it struck me that the world does look like a third rate James Bond film script or, as a noted scribbler of my acquaintance pointed out, like an Austin Powers Script, complete with Dr Evil.

Sow crates and Porc au Lait

I am very pleased about the sow crate changes in NZ. Anthony Bourdain, who cooks rather well, makes the point that we should eat pork in the clear knowledge that an intelligent animal died for our pleasure. If so, then, at least, we should treat the animal with respect. Bourdain's "porc au lait" is an excellent recipe:

http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/2010/02/anthony-bourdains-roti-de-porc-au-lait.html

but there are simpler versions, too, which are also delicious. I simply brown the pork very well, then saute some onion, and a little garlic 'til caramelised, then put the pork back in with about a pint of full cream milk and a couple or so of sage leaves, season then cover and cook for about 1.5 hours, turning the pork every 20 minutes or so (I like it well done). Then, I rest the pork whilst I gently simmer down the sauce to brown, nutty clusters. Quite delicious. Green beans go well.

Andrew Little on Pike River

Mr Little spoke very well on Campbell last night. He must have been reflecting on the marginalisation of the EPMU from yesterday's service, despite their role in the mine and sector, yet he stuck to the key message - that we grieve, but then must ensure that responsibilities are properly assessed. The Royal Commission must scrupulously assess how and why this disaster was caused, without fear or favour. What interests me is the availability today of sophisticated gas measurement technologies which, presumably, were in the mine and which, presumably, were monitored, with records stored on computer. Such data must, I think, be available. My H&S colleagues suggest that very rapid build-up of methane is unusual, and that it is more usual for there to be a build-up over time. If so, then the measurement tools in place, and their operation, will be important in the Commission's work.

NZEI stirs?

I can only think that the NZEI spokesperson who took it upon herself to argue that the NZEI-endorsed recommendation of a bargaining settlement was pattern-setting for the sector was operating with brain disengaged from mouth.  If not, then the PPTA will, rightly, be furious, as there is no thought in the PPTA mind that NZEI sets such patterns (for long, well known historical reasons), and such a pronouncement would, if done deliberately, be pointedly controversial. It would be different if there was any element of cooperation between the two unions, but they remain at heart bitterly separate, with members still prone to snipe at each other.

There is an incontrovertible argument that the NZEI, PPTA and TEU (I'll ignore TIASA, which on past record will never join a  larger operation, again or well-known reasons) should create one strong sector union. Whether this will happen in this century is uncertain. I wouldn't bet on it!

Treasury on the Hobbit

We on the Left should be careful about how we interpret the news that Treasury were critical of financial support for films, had told the government so, and were, presumably, quietly saying to government "we told you so" when the extra money was made available. The reality of the global economy is that such deals are, like it or lump it, part of the furniture. We were done, but much as lots of nation states are done by the challenge of multinational capital mobility. Interventions of this type are part of the armoury of nation states, and we shouldn't let the ideological purism of Treasury gain ground on this front. The far bigger issue was the craven adjustment of employment law, which, of course, just happened to fit with the general thrust of government's employment relations policies.

Well done, Air New Zealand

I was on the 2pm Auckland flight from Wellington today so the logistics of filling a plane and getting it off the ground made it difficult to participate in the two minutes silence for the Pike River miners. So the staff and travellers held the silence for two minutes when the pilot switched off the seat belt sign. So we observed the moment in brilliant sunshine rising above Kapiti. It was a thoughtful thing to do, introduced simply and well by one of the Air New Zealand workers.

Foreshore and Seabed

I see that Ngai Tahu prefer to stick with the 2004 Act, rather than the proposed measure being foisted on them by National and Ms Turia and Dr Sharples. There must be some smiles in the Labour caucus as the National policy on foreshore and seabed unravels in the face of growing Maori hostility. It is even funnier to see the Right blogs twisting and turning to explain why the proposed measure is better than the 2004 measure. The reality is that the accommodation created around the 2004 measure was  pragmatically sustainable. The current proposed change was a result of conflicting agendas - redneck elements in national and the Maori Party - and a pragmatic accommodation was always likely to be far more difficult. Poor Mr Finlayson. Then again, he is one the least loved of National's ministers, and there will be some taking heart from his discomfort.

The SFO moves on Hanover

The SFO has decided, to surprise in few quarters, that reasonable grounds exist to think that there was fraudulent behaviour in Hanover's activities. Key issues to be further investigated include dividend payments, and the range of decisions made in the later days of the company. The very large dividend payments to Messrs Hotchin and Watson are particularly in the gun. Criminal charges are being considered by the Securities Commission. There are other big names in the frame, perhaps ruing the responsibilities that now attach to directorial appointments.

The Hanover case was but one of many, but there was a quality about it, including its "conspicuous consumption" aspects, and the level of dividend payments, which attracted particular attention, nowhere more obviously than amongst the 16,500 investors who lost the vast part of $554 million.

Cunliffe on SOEs

There should be no surprise that Mr Cunliffe has spoken about private funding going into SOEs. To be fair to him, he has taken this view for many years, and has said so publicly at meetings. He's been taken to task on this before and engaged in often quite frank debate. It is a view quite consistent with his own approach to a mixed economy, a contemporary version of Tony Crosland's model of post-war social democracy. This is a debate that has to be had as the pressure for PPP will not go away, and capital shortages in economies such as New Zealand's will raise the prospect of alliances between the public purse and private investors.

On the fiefdom that is FIFA

The arcane organisation that is FIFA, run by an executive body surrounded constantly by claims and accusations of corruption is once again in the news as it looks to the appointment of future venues. The UK is fighting what looks to be a losing battle for the 2018 event in the face of a strong Russian challenge, and any number of own goals as the BBC's Panorama programme goes to town on the corruption issue. The Lords of FIFA are furious that their power should be questioned (even in the light of the most recent evidence of bartering by some FIFA leaders for their vote). The beautiful game deserves something better than this, but it is what the commercialisation of sport leads to. One has only to look at the commercial pressures on Man U, or Liverpool, or Chelsea to see this. and it's not just football. For example, the Formula 1 world is a clash of competing commercial titans around the personal fiefdom of Bernie Ecclestone. and the murkiness around cricket deepens by the minute.

Such going-ons take the lustre of sport for many watchers, who see their beloved games become the playthings of financial forces with no real love for the games. It's a bit like the way that Capital takes skilled work and consciously destroys the bond between skilled work, the skilled worker and the production process. That cash nexus is a deeply damaging relationship.