The Guardian reports:

He has now broken the record as the most unpopular French president at the six-month mark of a mandate. Only 36% of French people have confidence in Hollande, according to the latest poll by TNS-Sofres for Le Figaro magazine. By comparison, the rightwing Nicolas Sarkozy had 53% approval ratings six months after his election in 2007.

Normally the first six months are a honeymoon. This is unprecedented.

By contrast, Hollande’s opinion poll nose-dive is not about personal animosity – he has kept up his image as a modest president – it’s his politics, specifically his way of doing politics, which is under attack. The Socialist leadership and government is seen as confused, accused by its opponents of amateurism and inaction. Even the leftwing daily Libération recently dubbed Hollande and his prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault “The Apprentices”.

Coming to a theatre in NZ in 2014 possibly 🙂

Hollande and Ayrault are pushing through France’s harshest budget for 30 years – and despite telling voters that nine out of 10 of them wouldn’t feel the pinch of higher taxes aimed mostly at the rich and big business, public opinion clearly does fear it will feel the pain.

The proposed taxes are a 75% top income tax rate plus increases to capital gains tax to over 50%.

Whale Oil notes that Labour’s Welfare Spokesperson Jacinda Ardern tweeted:

I heart @homebrewcrew #NZMA

This is the band whom at the Music Awards said John Key was a cunt who should suck their dicks. They are a Labour favourite who plays at gigs to raise funds for Labour. They encourage people to chant “Fuck John Key” at concerts.

So I’m not surprised Jacinda is a fan. I mean how can you not be if you are a Labour MP. I wonder how they would like it if there was a band which had played lyrics about Helen Clark being a bitch, and encouraged people to chant “fuck Helen Clark” and called her a cunt. Somehow I suspect she would be outraged and complaining to somebody about it.

In a Stuff review it was noted:

Initially, the subject matter might be a bit hard to swallow for some audiences – songs about living on the benefit, being an alcoholic and taking deadly drugs like datura are placed prominently at the start of the album and could come across as flippantly celebratory.

So the lyrics celebrate taking drugs and being on the benefit – how appropriate for Labour’s welfare spokesperson.

But it would be nice to know specifically what part of the performance Jacinda was tweeting her approval of – telling John Key to suck dicks or celebrating being on welfare and drugs?

Stuff reports:

A mother who admitted she was an alcoholic who smoked P and marijuana around her two year old son, blew cannabis smoke in his face and waited for days to take him to hospital with a broken arm, has denied any role in his death.

How can any mother do that?

She also admitted she did not take the boy to a doctor for several days after he broke his arm because she was drunk and she was scared the boy would be taken from her.

As should have happened.

Lawrence had testified that Loffley forced JJ to smoke marijuana through an asthma inhaler.

Ready, aim, fire.

However, she admitted getting ”wasted” a lot and sometimes blowing cannabis smoke in JJ’s face herself.

”I probably used to blow some in his face but he used to give him full on spots,” she said of Loffley.

I think they deserve each other. What they do not deserve is more children.

The Herald reports:

A rates rebellion in a small coastal town is growing as more than 500 Mangawhai residents refuse to pay an estimated $1 million or more to the debt-ridden Kaipara District Council.

Rates have soared this year by about 40 per cent for many residents – more than doubling for some – to help pay off the council’s $80 million debt, which was mainly caused by a $58 million cost blowout for a local sewage treatment system.

The total population is only 19,000, which will be around 7,300 households. So the Council sewage treatment system is a cost of $10,000 per household!

Former New Zealand cricketer Warren Stott, who runs the Riverside Holiday Park, was told earlier this year that his rates bill would increase by more than 1300 per cent from $6316 to $84,850. He’s still not happy with a revised 43 per cent increase to $9050 and worries about the effect on the local economy.

The local economy has challenges already, and this has been the final straw.

Mangawhai Ratepayers and Residents Association chairman Bruce Rogan said residents were refusing to pay because the sewage system was an ever-expanding “Ponzi scheme” foisted on the community without its consent.

Meeting papers show councillors secretly agreed to expand and more than double the cost of the project in 2006 without telling the community for another four years and the council’s own legal opinion shows it has collected about $17 million of rates illegally.

Outraegous.

The council resigned in August and was replaced by commissioners. Chairman John Robertson, a former National MP and Papakura mayor, said 90 per cent of residents were paying their rates, including 75 per cent in Mangawhai.

Good the Council has done, but their decisions lived on. The challenge for any reform is how do you stop something like this happening again.

The Herald reports:

Prime Minister John Key has described soccer star David Beckham as being as thick as batshit, Radio New Zealand reported.

During a visit to a high school in Dunedin yesterday Mr Key joked with a group of pupils, saying his son spent 45 minutes with Beckham during the star’s visit.

Beckham came to New Zealand in December 2008 for an Oceania All Stars exhibition match which cost the Auckland region $1.8 million, just a month after John Key was first elected Prime Minister.

Only 16,000 fans attended the match.

Mr Key said Beckham was handsome and a really nice guy to spend that long with his son, but was also as thick as batshit.

I may be wrong, but I don’t think media were present for the comments. Basically they are reporting what was a private conversation. Now that is always a risk for any PM.

Mr Key would not be the first person to question Beckham’s intelligence. One of his celebrated quotes is: “I definitely want Brooklyn to be christened, but I don’t know into what religion yet.”

Oh dear. My other favourite Beckham quote is “My parents have been there for me, ever since I was about 7” 🙂

No Right Turn blogged:

Freedom of speech is a precious thing. But in the UK, it is being chilled by an outdated, overborad law. Section 5 of the UK’s Public Order Act criminalises speech which is “threatening, abusive or insulting”. That’s right – “insulting”. Who decides whether someone is “insulted”? The police.

As can be expected, this has led to a large number of abusive prosecutions. People have been threatened with prosecution or actually arrested, charged and tried for calling Scientology a cult (an obvious statement of truth), barking back at a dog, standing up for gay rights, opposing gay rights, debating religion, displaying “culled” toy seals with red food colouring on them, and saying that religions are fairy stories for adults. You can think a lot of things about those statements, but one thing is clear: none of them should be a criminal matter. None of them reach the level of threats or incitement which would justify restricting speech in a free and open society.

There is a campaign now to Reform Section 5, backed by everyone from the Christian Institute to the National Secular Society. These groups may disagree on a lot of things, but one thing they do agree on is that hurting people’s feelings shouldn’t be a crime. They have the backing of a pile of MPs, and hopefully this means the law will be changed soon.

I absolutely agree. It is a horrendous law. Have a look at the examples here.

Rowan Atkinson at the launch of the campaign.

The NZ education unions have been trumpeting the New Orleans charter schools as disasters and a reason not to have them in NZ. Well a couple of people in the US disagree with them – Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

The Guardian reports:

Romney and Obama hail New Orleans’ charter schools as a model for America

New Orleans is a city that has been failed by government in the past, most tragically when Katrina struck. But one consequence of that disaster has been a root-and-branch transformation of its education system.

The reforms had begun before Katrina, but the pace was accelerated after the disaster. It is now the only US city where a majority of public school pupils – around eight in ten – attend charter schools, which are non-unionised and enjoy a rare degree of operational independence from government.

I think we see why Labour is so against.

This academic year brings further change; under reforms brought in by Republican governor Bobby Jindal, poorer students attending poorly performing state schools can apply for vouchers to cover their fees at a private or religious school. Nearly 5,000 students in Louisiana have taken up the voucher programme, making it one of the most popular such initiatives nationally.

Choice – excellent.

The goal in New Orleans is to reverse years of educational decline. Before Katrina, state schools here had become starkly segregated on race and class lines as white and middle class families removed their children.

By 2004 one in three New Orleans students was at a private or religious school, compared with a national average of 11%. In high school exit exams that year, 96% of the city’s public school students were below basic proficiency in English.

In the years since Katrina, student performance in tests has improved, and fewer students now go to failing schools. Students have achieved a higher average score in the ACT test, which measures readiness for college.

What a disaster.

John White, Louisiana’s state superintendent of education, argues that decentralisation has freed schools to act in children’s best interests. Charter schools, state-funded but independently run by non-profit groups, are now the norm in New Orleans. In the past school year, 78% of public school students were enrolled in charters. The proportion will rise this year. Such schools enjoy great flexibility in managing their time and allocating resources.

White said: “A lot of this is about ensuring that parents don’t leave. It’s really not the state that is the best vehicle for keeping parents in our schools, it’s the schools, and how do you do that? You create a policy environment where choice is the norm, where schools have the freedom to improve and retain parents. We have a choice and competition model, where schools are competing for the interest of parents.”

Innovation works – even in schools.

In an attempt to ensure that schools don’t game the system, a unified system of enrolment has been introduced for the whole city, with places at oversubscribed schools decided by lottery rather than how close the family lives. Schools must abide by the same rules on exclusions. A network of school buses provides transport, enabling families to choose a school distant from their home.

No cherry picking.

In Louisiana, the state sets clear limits on the marketplace. In the end, accountability to its testing regime trumps choice: the government will close a chronically underperforming public school even if parents continue to choose it.

How terrible – closing bad schools.

Granting schools greater autonomy is regarded as vital to the health of the system. Freeing schools from central control – chiefly by setting up charters – has been a hallmark of education reform in the US, embraced by the leaders of both parties.

If only, parties were more enlightened in NZ. You’d think Labour would at least want to give charters a fair go, and see if they can work in NZ. But instead they are 100% negative on them.

Jay Altman, chief executive of FirstLine Schools, dismisses the idea that the competition for students discourages schools from sharing knowledge.

“Even though hospitals in this country are competing with each other and patients have relative choice, medicine has some of the best knowledge sharing in the world,” he pointed out. “Those of us who are trying to close the [education] achievement gap nationally, we share practices all the time.”

Competition doesn’t preclude co-operation and sharing.

Transtasman report:

OK, so the Govt wants us to smoke more, which is why it has hiked the tax on tobacco, right? And the whole Kyoto, putting a price on emissions thing: it’s to encourage people to put out more greenhouse gases, isn’t it?

No?

Well consider the position of Labour and the Greens and – as of this week – whoever writes NZ Herald editorials. Apparently, according to this logic, the way to get more houses is to tax them more.

Thanks TT for pointing out the stupidity of their arguments. They want to tax houses more, so they cost less. Yeah, right.

At the moment the issue is supply of houses. There isn’t enough of them, in Auckland or – for obviously different reasons – Christchurch.

In Auckland the question is simply because it’s the only part of the country with net inward migration and a growing population. In short, both Auckland and Christchurch need more houses.

You don’t – unless your grasp of economic incentives is really skew-whiff – increase the tax on something you want more of.

Labour and Greens are against freeing up more land, and want to tax houses more – imagine house prices then!

The Herald reports:

A mother has blamed her teenage son’s secret energy drink habit for a breakdown in his mental health.

The Auckland woman said the 15-year-old told her he drank up to 16 cans of Monster Energy a day.

This is like the family of the women who died blaming Coke for her death, and she was drinking almost 10 litres of it a day.

A couple of energy drinks are fine. Drinking 16 cans a day is lunacy, The problem is not energy drinks, but drinking that many.

“I’ve talked to him since and his explanation is that [the energy drinks] are his best friends because when he was low he could have one of those and they’d make him feel better,” said the woman, who wanted to remain anonymous to protect her son.

I think he had issues before the energy drinks!

Most popular energy drinks, including Monster, contain 32mg of caffeine per 100ml.

Research quoted by the NZ Food Safety Authority says a 70kg adult can usually consume 400mg a day without adverse effects.

So no more than 1.2 litres or four cans a day. A coffee has around 100 mgs also, so no more than four a day of them also.

This is the path into Ta Prohm. It is different to most of the other temples, in that it is still surrounded by jungle.

The entrance to Ta Prohm. It is the temple where Lara Croft’s Tomb Raider was filmed.

The incredible power of nature. Over 900 years this tree has forced it roots through huge solid stone walls.

If you were designing an ancient temple ruins set for a movie, this is what you’d design. It’s absolutely spectacular the blend of jungle and temple. If I wasn’t there in person, I’d think it was photoshopped. A must see.

Stuff reports:

Today’s confirmation that Chorus will provide free ultra-fast broadband connections to many residences with awkward access is good news, a telecommunications commentator says.

Network provider Chorus announced in partnership with the Government today that it would contribute $20 million towards the cost of connecting “non-standard” homes, in an effort to encourage greater uptake of high-speed broadband.

Up to 30 per cent of homes within the UFB rollout zone are thought to have fallen into the Chorus “non-standard” category.

Paul Brislen, of the Telecommunication Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ), said many urban houses were more than 15m from the street, Chorus’ previous limit for free fibre.

So today’s announcement that Chorus would extend that limit to 200m was “tremendous”.

“That captures 99.3 per cent of the [UFB network] population, possibly even more …That means everybody that can get connected will be able to without extra cost.”

Excellent.

However, Brislen said there was a drawback in that the offer only lasted until 2015, by which time only about a third of the network would be completed.

“Most of the connections for residential customers won’t take place until after 2015, so we need to use this to get the ball rolling and then revisit it rather quickly.”

I suspect come 2015, things may get extended – time will tell.

Chorus, which has contracts to provide 70 per cent of the Government’s UFB network, has so far rolled out 1500km of ultra-fast fibre, enough to connect 72,000 customers.

But to date, only 700 have signed up.

Brislen said the problem was that speed alone was not enough to encourage many customers to switch to UFB. Overseas, penetration of ultra-fast broadband was about 38 per cent and a good uptake in New Zealand was important to justify the expense.

Absolutely few will sign up for speed alone. What will push uptake is when companies such as Sky roll out TV and movies on demand services that work far better over fibre. A killer home video-conferencing app that works through your TV set and is as simple to use as a TV remote will also get people flocking to it.

The Herald reports:

A new court designed to tackle the underlying causes of crime will save lives and money, say judges.

Two new courts opened in Waitakere and central Auckland this morning will deal with about 100 people with alcohol and drug dependency issues in its first year of operation.

Costing $2 million, the courts will take on those who have pleaded guilty, face a term of at least three years in prison and show a willingness to change their ways.

They will be put through an intense programme designed to turn their lives around and, if they are successful, their efforts will be taken into account at sentencing.

The court has been years in the planning and draws on research from around the world.

Let’s hope it is effective. The flow on effects to families and communities will be large if they are.

The other advantage both judges point to is the potential money saved in police time, court cases, prison space and the social costs to victims and their families.

Judge Tremewan said there are 2600 similar courts in the US and the number has increased, despite Federal budget cuts.

She said many of those that come before the courts with alcohol and drugs problems are on benefits but she has met people who have come through the US model and are now proud to be taxpayers.

“It gives them the opportunity to learn work and life skills.”

From criminal to taxpayer – excellent.

Today we’re back in the NZ forests with our native birds:

Click for larger, higher res image

North Island Kaka

By John Stringer

3 News Political Editor Duncan Garner blogs:

Labour promised an exciting back story that would impress and a new front man to rival the Prime Minister.

Sadly for Labour – they’re still looking for that person. David Shearer has failed. Labour’s lucky it’s not getting done under the law for false advertising.

Let’s be honest, Labour leader David Shearer doesn’t have it. He’s a nice, mild mannered, likeable, warm but a stuttering, incoherent mess that is the opposite of what an alternative Prime Minister should look like.

And before you say ‘give him some time’, he’s had a year and I think he’s gone backwards – not forwards.

He has no presence and his television performances are a disaster. That’s where voters make up their minds.

However Labour is up in the polls from the election.

The reason Shearer remains safe is disingenuous and it’s time to call it.

Labour MPs believe Grant Robertson is perhaps the next leader, but they don’t believe he’s quite ready – nor do they want to install a gay leader just yet. It shouldn’t be an issue – but it always is.

That’s why he remains the deputy. He knows politics is all about timing. Shearer has become the fall guy. Like Phil Goff was. It’s dishonest.

I think that is basically correct in that Robertson will be the next Leader, beating out Cunliffe and possibly Little. It could be messy though as Auckland Labour people are not that keen on their local guy being passed over in favour.

Duncan then tells a story about how strong the paranoia is about Cunliffe in Labour:

I tried to get a Labour face on TV this week to talk about capital gains taxes. I approached Shearer who was in Hokitika and too far away, David Parker in Dunedin and Cunliffe in Auckland.

Cunliffe was the easiest to get hold of. But, without naming names, the hoopla I was put through before he was ‘allowed’ on TV was fascinating. Even Cunliffe was nervous – but keen.

It took six hours of negotiating to get him on. It was quite simply, outrageous. It took me one text to get Russel Norman on the telly. It took two phone calls to get the Prime Minister to agree to a one-on-one interview.

So just two phone calls to get the Prime Minister of the country on, and six hours of negotiations to get the Opposition Economic Development Spokesperson?

Shearer has been promoted above what he’s capable of in my view.

I’m sure he’s entirely capable behind the scenes – you don’t do what he’s done by being stupid – but I’m just saying he’s not cut out for the hurly-burly, think-on-your-feet world of opposition politics. Robertson and Cunliffe are.

Shearer was handed the benefit of the doubt as pointed out by Gordon Campbell in a column this week and he’s failed to deliver on any of it.

For my 2c I think Shearer’s problem is more than he hasn’t been able to stamp a policy direction on the party. Even his own spokespersons contradict him.

Put simply, Shearer does not look, act or sound like a man ready to take over the Treasury benches and drive New Zealand out of this recession. The voters see it.

They see a Labour Party unconvinced and confused by their own choice. Until that changes, Labour will stay in opposition.

Possibly, but the current Government only has a one seat majority, without the Maori Party. Labour could well end up in Government, even if they are unconvinced and confused.

www.frontpage.co.nz has all our video and transcripts.
1. Bernie Monk (Spokesperson , Pike River Victims’ Families) and Nigel Hampton QC on what the Pankhurst Inquiry into the Mine Disaster (to be released next week) should say.
2. Our bail laws — Shelley Nahr goes to Court to find out who gets bail and why. And she talks to the defendants about how they found trying to get bail.
3. Kirk Labour Government — 40th Anniversary — Former Labour Minister, Bob Tizard; staffer and Kirk biographer, Margaret Hayward; ad man, Bob Harvey and our own analyst and co- author of “The Making of a PM” about Kirk — Colin James.
4. Stefan Brown — half of “Ebony” who recorded the chart topping “Big Norm” about Kirk in 1974 and who get the last telegram Kirk ever sent will perform the song.
5. Brian Edwards — who has sued “Truth” twice — and Bill Ralston who probably wanted to, will be joined by its new editor, Cameron “Whaleoil” Slater.

Broadcast on TV 3  Saturday 9.30 am, and on Sunday at 8 am

A fascinating article at Foreign Policy:

These scientists are beginning to look for a Plan B. There are two distinct approaches under consideration — sucking carbon out of the atmosphere, or creating an artificial sun shield for the planet. The former, which involves reversing some of the very processes that are leading to the climate problem, is expensive.

A sun shield?

If the world can’t get its act together to limit carbon emissions, geoengineering may be the only option we have. Distill the climate problem down to the essentials, and it becomes obvious that global warming is fundamentally a market failure: All seven billion of us human beings are “free riders” on a planet that is heating up. We put billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, and largely aren’t required to pay for the privilege. There’s too little incentive to stop polluting. …

“Free riding” also plagues relations between countries. Some, like the European Union have a cap or tax on carbon pollution. Most are still waiting on the sidelines. Why should any single country cut its carbon emissions when it knows that its reductions will only be a drop in the bucket toward solving climate change — and other nations aren’t asking their citizens to pay their fair share? Blame it on short election cycles, partisanship, or fossil energy interests, the political will often doesn’t exist — whether in Washington or the latest global environment gathering in Rio de Janeiro.

Yep, unless China and India are part of any agreement, other countries won;t commit.

“Free riders” are only half the problem. “Free drivers” may be as important. The allure of geoengineering derives from the simple fact that – given what little we know about it at the moment – it appears to be a comparatively cheap way to combat climate change. And it doesn’t take a global agreement to act. It takes one actor – one country – in the driver’s seat.

If, for example, the very existence of an island, nation, city, or agricultural region is threatened by global warming, the question among its leaders will no longer be whether geoengineering is an option, but what the effects, positive and negative, might be and how it could be carried out. That’s also where the science stands today, and the economics points in the same direction.

This makes sense. Something one or more countries can do by themselves, without the need for universal support.

In fact, the price tag of these geoengineering strategies is likely to be negligible relative to the purported benefits: Columbia University’s Scott Barrett, among others, has calculated that it would cost pennies to offset a ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. By comparison, it costs dollars per ton to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the first place.

And much cheaper.

What makes scientists believe geoengineering could work? It’s been tried before – by nature, not by humanity.

When Mount Pinatubo erupted in June 1991, it forced the evacuation of 200,000 Filipinos and shot 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. The added sulfur counteracted the effect of 1,100 billion tons of carbon dioxide that had been accumulating in the atmosphere since the dawn of the industrial revolution. In 1992 and 1993, it decreased global temperatures by a bit less than 1 degree Fahrenheit by reducing the amount of sunlight that hit the earth’s surface. That was about the same amount temperatures had risen at that point from carbon added to the atmosphere by human activity. In other words, Mount Pinatubo alone offset all temperature increases from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

So all we need is to have more volcanoes erupt! 🙂

As the article makes clear, geoengineering has considerable risks and side-effects. But with the major emitting countries unwilling to cap carbon emissions, it may well be that one or more countries turn their attention to geoengineering.

Real Clear Politics has the current Electoral College at 201 for Obama, 191 Romney and 146 tossups.  Romney has a 1% lead in the popular vote in the polls, but it is the Electoral College that counts. Each state has at least three electoral votes as they get one per Representative and one per Senator.

Now the tossups are:

• Colorado 9
• Florida 29
• Iowa 6
• Michigan 16
• Nevada 6
• New Hampshire 4
• North Carolina 15
• Ohio 18
• Pennsylvania 20
• Virgina 13
• Wisconsin 10

Now lets say Obama wins Ohio 18, New Hampshire 4, Wisconsin 10, Michigan 16, and Pennsylvania 20. That takes him to 269 – the same as Romney would be with Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, Virgina and Wisconsin.

So what happens?

Well nothing at all until Monday the 17th of December when the Electoral College meets. Except they don’t meet. They meet in their 50(51) state capitals and cast their votes. It is theortically possible for an Electoral College delegate to not vote for the ticket they promised to. This has happened sometimes, but never in a way to change an outcome. The reality is that presidential candidates choose their most dedicated supporters to be the Electoral College nominees for them – so if the election delivered a 269-269 split, then almost certainly the Electoral College would vote 269-269.

Now only if a candidate gets an absolute majority (270) do they get elected. The formal count is done on Sunday 6 January 2013 by Congress in joint session, with the Vice-President presiding.  If the results of a state are disputed (as in 2000) then an objection signed by a Representive and a Senator will cause both bodies to individually consider the objection. Both the House and Senate would need to uphold the objection for it to be valid. This has not happened (upholding an objection) in modern history.

If no candidate has 270, then the House of Representatives is tasked with electing a President. They have done this in 1801 and 1825. However the voting is not a normal majority, but one vote per state delegation. So each state delegation would caucus to determine their vote. It would be the new House that votes and its composition is unknown. But the current House has Republicans in the majority in 33 delegations, the Democrats in 15 and two are tied. So safe to say the House would vote Romney as President easily.

However Ryan may not be Vice-President. The Senate would elect the Vice-President with one vote per Senator and 51 needed. And the Democrats are at 73 at Intrade to retain the Senate, Republicans 19% and 10% for a tie. If the Democrats kept the majority they could re-elect Joe Biden as Vice-President and you would have a Romney-Biden Administration. I suspect in reality the Democrats would vote for Ryan if the House clearly elected Romney, and Romney won the popular vote.

Now what if the House (most unlikely) or the Senate (possible) were also tied. Well if no President is elected by 20 January, the VP would be Acting President. If no President or VP elected, then then Speaker of the House would become the Acting President.

The FitnessNZ promotion of subsidised gym memberships is still going.  If you are not currently a member, just go to their website and you can get discounts of normally 40% to 70% off – but for Kiwiblog readers an extra 10% if you enter the code”Kiwiblog” in the discount field.

You can now get a 3 month membership at Les Mills Auckland for $306 instead of $767. In Wellington Cityfitness Thorndon is going for $224 instead of $448.

All subsidised 100% by the private sector with no government funding.

I blogged on Sunday my disapproval of the Herald on Sunday story that included mention of John Ansell’s colourblind state campaign in an article about neonazi attacks.

Jono Milne, the HoS Acting Editor has contacted me and John Ansell and assured both of us that there was no intent to liken John and his Colourblind State campaign to the racist attack on an immigration consultant’s office. Their intent was the opposite – the two separate stories were run together to provide a counterpoint: a racist attack contrasted with a “Colourblind” campaign. But Jonathan accepts that some readers may have interpreted it the opposite way, and so he’s split the story back into its original two parts, at nzherald.co.nz.

I’m pleased to see they have done this.

Angkor Thom is a short distance from the more famous Angkor Wat. In some ways it is more impressive. Angkor Thom was the capital city of the Khmer Empire and the ruins cover 9 square kilometres.

The main entrance above the moat has scores of busts of gods and demons lining the sides.

The entrance into Bayon, the temple at the heart of Angkor Thom.

Touring Angkor Thom by elephant!

Bayon Temple.

The name, for those lost.

More of the wonderful artwork.

The inner temple.

One of the many faces of presumably King Jayavarman VII. who built Angkor Thom.

Labour Leader David Shearer announced earlier this year a bill that would have restricted the sale of land to foreigners. It was incompetently drafted as the Herald reported. Almost every Labour bill or SOP this year has been appallingly drafted. The adoption bill, the lobbying bill sop, this bill. There’s really no excuse for using draft legislation as slogans rather than actual possible laws.

Any Shearer has very quietly dumped the bill, which was capitalising on xenophobia over the Crafar Farm sales, which Labour wanted to go to Sir Michael Fay as a discount instead. The bill was hyped as his first major policy release. Well it has been buried it seems.He’s now done a Food in Schools bill, but hasn’t handed the investment bill over to another MP.

The second u-turn is the Kapiti Expressway.

Labour has campaigned non-stop against the Kapiti Expressway. In the Mana by-election Kris Fa’afoi was out there campaigning with protesters against it.

A couple of months ago, Shearer was still firmly  against the roading upgrade.

 Labour leader David Shearer says his party still opposes building the Kāpiti Expressway and will ‘mothball it’ if it gets the chance.

Now he’s changed his mind on it.

Labour will not rule out continuing National’s Kapiti expressway all the way to Otaki, leader David Shearer said today.

That’s quite a transformation – in six weeks he went from strongly opposing the project, to we’ll see how the case stacks up!!

As it happens I support both u-turns by David Shearer, but it doesn’t help him being seen to stand for something.

UPDATE: And the policy has changed again. Shearer has now been over-ruled by Phil Twyford who now says it must be scrapped!

I for one like the current policy of a four lane corridor from the airport to Levin. It will make a huge difference to travel in the region. And giving in to some NIMBYs would be idiotic because you lose a huge amount of the value of the entire project, if you have a few kms which remain single laned – this means traffic moves at the speed of the slowest car.