Supercity smackers

One of the great ironies of the NZ political scene is that of the ACT party. It was a party founded on the Friedmanite principles of "the individual behaves with total economic rationality and, therefore needs no assistance from the State tomake the best decisions" and yet the representatives of this political philosophy in the NZ government continually fail to live up or down to this principle.
First we have the clown prince of ACT- Rodney Hide (the only one of the ACT bully squad who professes to represent an electorate ) - who appears to believe that if he threatens to throw his toys out of the cot he will be able to continue on with his campaign to remove the democratic rights of ratepayers to be represented at the local level by someone who actually lives and works in their ward instead of by the "big business" interest whose concerns do not reflect those of the ratepayer. This is nothing more than corporate dictatorship being imposed on the ratepayers.
Then we have ACT's justice spokesman, Garrett, whose belief system incorporates Hide's bully boy attitudes and adds such niceties as inappropriate sexual suggestions to staff and threats of retribution against any state employee who chooses to criticise any policy he puts forward... like privatising the state prison service for the benefit of the foreign corporate raider.
And now we have "Let's smack-em down" Boscowen who is loudly campaigning on behalf of the religious right, both here in NZ and with interference assistance from the USA, for NZ to return to the pre-repeal of section 59 situation which allowed "responsible" parents to claim justifiable force when they injured their children in the act of disciplining them.
All three of these righteous men appear to have no clear idea about responsible individual behaviour or principle apart from that of the dictatorship of the selfish bully.
Mind you their founder Roger (Nosferatu ) Douglas certainly provided the foundation for such behaviour so I presume we shouldn't be too surprised.
Their sole reason for existence is to prop up one of the most inept and rorting governments of recent years.

Come off it Key - suspend your errant MP until he is proven innocent!

The Double Standard rides again. If Key was as principled as he portrays himself Bakshi should be taking gardening leave until all allegations of wrong doing are cleared... after all isn't this what he insisted Clark should do with Peters?

What is sauce for the goose must also be for the gander?

National MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi has assured Prime Minister John Key he has not done anything wrong and Mr Key wants him to be treated like everyone else during an inquiry into immigration allegations.

The inquiry, involving list MP Mr Bakshi, is back on after police were provided with fresh information.

Mr Bakshi has denied allegations he accepted money for false job offers to bolster Indian immigrant applications.

There have also been allegations about attempts to silence witnesses.

Mr Key, in Australia for meetings with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, said Mr Bakshi should be "treated like any other New Zealand citizen", Radio New Zealand reported.

"I've directly and personally asked him whether there's any truth to the allegations, he's given me a personal assurance there is not.

"If there is grounds for investigation then the authorities should conduct those investigations and they'll get full support from the Government if it's required,"

Mr Bakshi would be "called to account" if there was a case to answer, Mr Key said.

Acting Prime Minister Bill English said yesterday Mr Bakshi was "quite clear he hasn't done anything wrong". Immigration New Zealand started an inquiry last year but closed it in March because of a lack of evidence.

It has now provided police with further information on the allegations after interviewing a new informant.

The service also provided police with a sworn statement, obtained by Labour MP Pete Hodgson from another new informant, which said complainants were encouraged by people in India to drop the matter; "because he was going to be the first Sikh MP in New Zealand".

Police said they were looking at the role of former immigration consultant Darshan Singh Bains, who took job offers from Mr Bakshi and gave them to Indians to use as part of their applications to migrate to New Zealand.

Mr Bakshi said he knew nothing about the police investigation, and had not had any contact with Immigration since its file was closed.

Mr Bakshi has been away from work after a heart bypass operation but is expected back soon.

Double Dipton's State House

An exclusive picture of Bill English's new home. This will soon be copied by Phil Heatley and others in the NACT cabinet.

To Tom McCroskie & the NO campaigners

I've been reading Alice in Wonderland to my 4 year old grand-daughter as the ballot papers for the most ineptly worded referendum yet have been distributed and await our mark and return. I came to chapter 6 -Pig & Pepper as I read to her and found the following rhyme the NO campaigners might find useful as a campaign song.

The Duchess began nursing her child again, singing a sort of lullaby to it as she did so, and giving it a violent shake at the end of every line -
"Speak roughly to your little boy,
And beat him when he sneezes:
He only does it to annoy,
Because he knows it teases.

I speak severely to my boy,
I beat him when he sneezes;
For he can thoroughly enjoy
The pepper when he pleases!"

Lewis Carroll certainly knew a good campaign song when he wrote it.

Reognisable even now!

In view of Michael Laws' commentary on the rorts being perpetrated by English & Co in claiming rent assistance to live in his own house in Wellington (as a boarder of his wife - of course) and, as Laws was so willing to pontificate on over the weekend I thought Tom Scott's cartoon from the Muldoon era when Laws was a new MP was highly relevant.

Proof that The Past gives birth to the Present.

I was browsing through a book of Tom Scott cartoons - "In a jugular vein" recently and came across these cartoons commenting on the National government social and economic policies.
Apart from changing the facial features of the social welfare minister (the build is the same) there appears to be little difference between Shipley and Bennett.

Then if we look at the social policies of the Engkeylish government we see echoes of the following.

Then the noises from the Treasury and the Brash consulting group provide reminiscences of this failed economic policy.