Big Green Party

It's very exciting to see how well the Greens did at this election - 13 MPs in the House and plenty of energised fresh blood - green blood that is! Both Metiria and Russel looked buoyant and re-energised from the experience of the campaign and election night and handled their interviews with aplomb. The 10%+ they earned is a significant score and one that won't be fallen below, in my opinion, ever again. In fact, I believe that whatever the reason for the success of the Greens at this election, it signals a swift rise to significance and influence for the Green Party. Most important will be their greater voice in Parliament, albiet from the Opposition benches and the greater number of people who invested their vote in the Green team and will be watching and listening to them over the next three years. That focus will, I believe, serve to consolidate and grow the green vote, rather than erode it, as was the case with the Maori and Act Parties. Potential cooperation between the Green, Mana and Labour parties and, dare I say it, New Zealand First, at least where it comes to crying down issues like asset sales, will mean the Left will serve as a potent force this time around and will go into the next election rampant and spoiling for a fight.

Ledge

On assets

Could John Key's plans to sell significant chunks of our assets bring a power of trouble down upon his head?
I think the chances of that are very high indeed. He could well face an upwelling of opposition from the public over what is an unconvincing proposal that has failed so far to inspire confidence. A well informed and motivated public could drive Key and his sell-up National Party back from the prize they are sniffing around, by taking to the streets and the social media, and demanding the assets stay just where they are - in our hands. The Labour Party, in it's effort to regain strength could take the issue and raise it like a flag, putting their considerable resources behind making sure the Government doesn't succeed with its plans. The other political parties - The Greens, NZ1st and Mana, oppose the sales vigorously and could play an important part in broadcasting opposition inside and outside of the House. The Maori Party stands to destroy itself over the sale of assets. Presently they are positioning themselves to get a slice of that pie, while at the same time saying they oppose it. That won't go well for them, as people reflect on the motivations behind their claims.
It looks as if the sale of assets will be the battle ground upon which Key's popularity and the Government's future will stand or fall. I expect they will counter the threat by rolling out as many 'upsetting' changes to the status quo as they possibly can, pushing their welfare reforms hard and continuing their dirty industries/mining, drilling developments as overwhelingly as they possibly can, to keep their opponents scrambled.
For now, it's coalition time and that in itself is something of a farce. Act has died and left a scabby John Banks in its place. The cheap theatre that was his selection and endorsement has left a bad taste in the public's mouth and that won't fade as quickly as some might hope. Peter Dunne.
For myself, I'm looking forward to the performances of the Green Party in their strengthened form and to that of Winston Peters, returned to Parliament and with his beady eye fixed on the man who shafted him three years ago. I hope for great theatre and the sale of assets will provide fodder for that already-loaded cannon.

Foo-fooing around with Blogger

I'm trying various ploys to unscramble the knot I find myself in with my blog. This attempt follows disabling my add-ons. Perhaps it'll help. If I make no progress, I'll head outside to plant cranberries (perhaps I should do that anyway).

Thanksgiving

Our American friends had a Thanksgiving celebration and invited us to feast with them. We made a bread cornucopia overflowing with vegetables, and an apple, berry and plum pie decorated with pastry leaves.
It was some feast!
Mysteriously, we were required to listen to the extended version of Alice's Restaurant! Some of the guests wore feathered headbands!

Robyn's cornucopia

Hollie's wonderful pie

Frustration!

For reasons I cannot fathom, my home computers are refusing to let me post or comment on my own blog!
You can imagine how I feel about this.
Not chirpy.
I've tried downloading a new browser, Chromium for Linux, but it hasn't helped at all. I have to go off-site to blog, and that's not how I like to roll :-)
Others in my household are cheering the development, and I suspect them of subterfuge, but can't fathom how the could have kneecapped  my harmless little blog and certainly can't rectify it at all.
If anyone can advise me, I'd apperciate it very much.

Back with a vengence!

Looking like a grinning prune, Winston can barely contain his glee at his return and the potential that has for devestation in the House. I can hardly wait! He's not forgotten Key's smiling character assassination at the last election, and Winston's mind looks to be honed to a keen edge, like a knife (the sword of Damocles) to hang over Key's head. He has, in my opinion, much to gain and nothing to lose. Key might be feeling that his collar's a little tight and over the next few months, tightening. Entertainingly.
I was delighted with the Green result, especially with the success of Holly Walker. She's the young Green face with a powerful mind to boot. Russel and Metiria managed the celebratory stuff beautifully, in particular Metiria's comments on Q&A which were devestatingly encouraging, bold, gutsy and funny as well. What a gal!
While I'm on Q&A, and The Nation for that matter, on both programmes, Winston mentioned but one New Zealand town, Riverton! And he did it twice. What's with that?

Scrutinizing the south

I wore my froggy tie and cast Riverton's first vote! Once that was out of the way, I sat down to scrutinize everyone else. I applied my scrutiny scrupulously. No one escaped mine. I saw nothing untoward, but had a great low-volume conversation with the natty scrutineer sitting beside me. We sorted most of the country's ills in a matter of 2 hours. Someone said, "The coalition's going well then!"

Solar eclipse

Peter Jackson writes:
Kia ora, The Sun finally rewarded us with a brief appearence between clouds to show us the partial eclipse after patiently waiting for a parting in the dense cloud cover. So here's a shot taken at around 8.35pm looking through the Unitron 75mm f16 & taken with a Canon Ixus 500 - also a shot of sun beams while trying to salute or politely request for the sun to please appear before setting again behind clouds...... Sunny thoughts Peter Jackson Te Anau

Consider this...

Campbell exposes Key on asset madness

"Meridian will be the big prize for local investors, and Solid Energy’s coal deposits and related technologies will make it the only one that foreign investors will be rushing in to buy. For political reasons, the Key government will therefore be selling Solid Energy last, in order to minimise the furore over selling our precious natural assets into foreign hands.
Finally… it is quite hard not to be depressed then by this asset sales process, isn’t it? “It is,” Sheather says. “I’m assuming Mr Key is a rational person.” The public don’t want the sales, he says, and the financial sector can’t see the logic behind them.
What Sheather would like to see is a last minute offer of a referendum on the subject, as a sign that Key has listened to the public’s concerns, and has responded in kind. “If he does that, all will be good. If he doesn’t, he needs his head read.”

Gordon Campbell quotes from the financial analysts to show just how dangerous the proposed asset sales are to our country.

Rivers for sale

(Recieved by email)

We are deeply concerned that none of our leaders, or would-be leaders, are drawing attention to the link between asset sales of our major generation companies and the risk of associated loss of public control of our rivers with that transaction. These publicly-owned energy companies have a very big influence on our hydro river catchments. On the Waitaki River, for example, among other things they have legal claim over waters, own big tracts of land, can have interests in irrigation supply networks, and can secure "requiring authority" to purchase land that they need for their schemes. We don't think that the the majority of NZers have made these crucial connections and therefore risk making under-informed decisions. The list of questions below is intended to stimulate people's thinking about this issue.

Is it asset sale or river sale?

Thanks to our forefathers, New Zealand’s rivers have always been owned by all New Zealanders. Many of our greatest rivers are currently controlled by publicly-owned companies, directly impacting the surrounding wetlands, fish and bird environments. All New Zealanders have contributed to the building of these companies and benefit from renewable energy and public profits. Now there is a proposal to sell a large part of these companies to private buyers.
What would this mean for our rivers?

Should New Zealand’s rivers and their waters continue to belong to all New Zealanders, as our forefathers wished?
Are the clean, fast flowing rivers that we inherited a legacy we wish to pass to our children and grandchildren?
In the long-run, is it not safer for the environment and more economic to retain full ownership?
Will investor profit be increasingly prioritized over the well-being of our rivers?
Will this accelerate the ever-increasing loss of so many of our bird and fish species?
Would we ever be able to buy them back if we changed our minds?
Is this what we want to do?

Toad-kissing

From http://asstdgoodies.blogspot.com/ this fairytale relationship.

Phrase of the day

Publish and be damned!
(Kinda like, 'damn the torpedoes', only topical.)

This man suffers from worms

Jeanette says, no, no, no.

Watch and listen.

Walking the beat

Just in now from trudging the pavements of Riverton, slipping Green flyers into mailbox-slots. Many a hilly hill I climbed and many a slope I descended in pursuit of the gaping mail-maw. It was a lovely evening and not one dog heralded my approach, nor cat scatter at my footfall. No humans were about either, all inside watching the telly and the program about poverty, I suppose. The wading birds on the estuary piped their brackish tunes and fish plashed. I didn't hear any plashing but they must have, it was that sort of evening. I posted dozens upon dozens of Green messages, certain of the joy they'll bring the good folk of my town, come morning. I imagined their delight at having something worthwhile to pour over, over their granola. Some will want to vote immediately and will find the wait til Saturday hard to manage. Probably, they'll evangelize between now and then, turning whole neighbourhoods Green with desire to elect some worthwhile candidates of the earthy persuasion. Mr Kennedy, Green of Invercargill, will be the benefactor of my work tonight, as will the Party and her supporters, who'll likely top the 20% mark, as a result of this evening's soft-shoe shuffle.
It's been a good day, and now to bed.

Two storey outhouse (hat-tip Bob)

Bird on worm

(I filched this comment on last night's debate from Kiwiblog. To me, it's indicative)

Chuck Bird (1,872) Says:


Just a little off topic but I believe it is related. Is the use of political advertisements during the leader’s debate reasonable? We had a stacked panel, the worm, the biased leftie Campbell favouring Goff, the questions favouring Goff and party political advertisement by Labour. One of Goff’s favorite word is fair. There is no way this debate was fair.

(In case you missed it, John Key 'lost' the debate and the worm spurned him)

The latest leaders' debate

I watched it. I kept an eye on the worm. I tried not to cheer when the little wriggling thing began to purr at Phil Goff. I tried not to cheer when Goff kept his older-brother thing going and patiently explained to his little bro Johny where he had gone wrong.
It was a very good debate for Labour and its leader. Key and National, not so much.
It may not change the result of the election but that debate will have made lefties across the country, at least those who watched it, very happy indeed.

Grow up, New Zealand

IF WE WERE a nation of grown-ups, the biggest battle at election time would be the one between Labour and the Greens.

 

Chris Trotter sees the green light and describes the wonder of it beautifully.

Onward, Major!

Doon Major, Animal, swedes and Onward peas, in they go, row after row!
It's all about productivity and timely sowing. The soil is begging for it.
Strike while the pokers are Red Hot!

Inventory2 blinks

He's shut up shop til the election and battened down the hatches to repel challenges to his National Party shenanigans! My old mate, Inv2 has gone doggo and won't have anyone gainsay his beloved John Keys. He's drawn the curtains on comments and turned on the censoring 'moderation' function on his blog.
Something has rattled the timorous fellow.
Comments here however, remain open, so if there's anything you'd like to say to Mr 2, feel free.
Brothers in arms, us bloggers :-)

What a way to start the day...

...planting out a tray of sweetcorn seedlings. I raised the Early Gem corn in the tunnel house, where they sprouted and grew quickly. After the lovely rain that fell over night, the soil was in a perfect state to receive the young cornlets, so I got out there before I was pressed into other service (building the frame around the flue, writing the 2012 moon calendar, the laundry etc). The little green things look like expectant children on their first day at school. I expect great things from them. For the rest of the day, I'll be on blackbird watch. Those fiends love to pull things out of the soil with their scimitar-like yellow beaks.

Fly by

Key goes boing boing!

"I'm somewhat ambivalent about covert recording, but it seems clear that this isn't merely about investigating the act of recording, or punishing someone who broke the law. This feels like a campaign of intimidation against the institution of the press itself, whose subtext is, "Cover politics with kid gloves or we will make your lives hell."

Juha writes on BoingBoing

He tags his piece with: christ what an asshole, election, media theory, nz

Darkhorse on assets and retirement

darkhorse said... What is even odder RG is that BillE is planning on selling them to our retirement fund so that we end up in the interestingly circuitous situation of buying something we already own so that we can then pay our retirement investment funds more than it cost us to own them so that our retirement funds can pay for our retirement and the retirement fund administrators a nice profit and BillE can then spend our retirement funds on something else. It is a devious waay for govt to get its hands on our retirement savings without having to pay interest - we will pay the interest through our power bills. This is even stupider than selling assets.

Haere ra, Aroha!

The wee Maori girl that John Key suckered into travelling with him to Waitangi early on in his term, has had enough.
Now 16, she's leaving for Aussie, saying that things are going backwards here and she's taking Key's credibility with her.
The Prime Minister's play for the 'underclass' vote worked beautifully then, with Aroha and her mum and probably the whole community they lived amongst, believing he was a great bloke. But it's all turned sour, with all of them finding they are losing under the 'John Key-led National Government', to the point where Aroha's going across the ditch. It's a very bad look for Key, who invested a lot in the chummy relationship, so readily lapped-up by the media, but now he's batting off the criticism that comes with Aroha's decision to abandon waka.
Lot's of awkward moments for Mr Key right now - and still a week to go before polling day! They do say, don't they, that a week's a long time...

Minute slug on my bathroom window

To difficult to get into focus but nevertheless interesting (to me).

Green is for Go

Ya gotta larf!

Mountain Scene covers the Flyer

Queenstown's 'Mountain Scene' covered the relaunch of the Kingston Flyer two weeks ago, and caught Addy and I on our bikes in front the steam train.
Here's their article, (for you train buffs).

Emmerson

Genetically engineering our future

"A highly sensitive Government study into how much money can be made by changing genetic engineering laws will be underway immediately after the election.
Environment Minister Nick Smith is facing embarrassment after admitting he knew nothing about the study.
The proposal from his Ministry for the Environment is in sharp contrast to his assurance GE laws will not change."

How astonished the New Zealand public will be to learn that there are secretive things going on during the reign of this Government! And how puzzled we will be to learn that those things are in contrast to assurances we are being given by National's ministers.

"Ministry for the Environment spokeswoman Ann-Marie Johnson refused to allow staff to be interviewed."

The story from the NZ Herald makes fascinating reading.

Lesser features

Whitehills wind farm

The nub of the issue

"Is anyone else puzzled by poll results that show most New Zealanders don’t want the sale of state assets, yet most New Zealanders will vote for a National government?
It doesn’t add up. JOIN THE DOTS NEW ZEALANDERS. If we don’t want state assets sold, then don’t vote for the party that wants to sell state assets.
If New Zealanders are thinking we can have it both ways, that retaining a majority share of fifty one per cent in state assets means that we’re not really selling the assets, then think again. Minority share holders have rights, particularly those holding over twenty five percent. Their ownership cannot be prejudiced by the decisions of the majority share holders. RETAINING A FIFTY ONE PERCENT SHARE IN THE ASSET MEANS WE HAVE SOLD THE ASSET."

Denny at Look Up At The Sky, describes the  truly strange situation we find ourselves in right now. We don't want to sell, yet we seem to be going to vote to sell.

Say sorry John (or I'll sue ya!)

John Key said some untrue things about the cameraman whose microphone lay unnoticed on the table at which he and Banks sat and sipped tea, the cameraman says, and now he wants an apology from Key for saying those things. If Key doesn't apologize, the cameraman will consider suing the Prime Minister.
This should move the issue along nicely.
Tea, anyone? Sue? You?

He called it bland

Brian Edwards does the keystone cops caper beautifully.

‘What document or recording are you referring to, officer?’
‘Now don’t play the smart-arse with me, sonny. You know very well it’s the recording illegally and criminally made of Prime Minister Key having an entirely private chat with the former Minister of Police during an entirely private meeting in an off-the-beaten-track Auckland eatery. Oh, and the transcript thereof.’
‘You mean the recording made when a cameraman accidentally left his microphone on the table, and couldn’t go back in to retrieve it, because your people wouldn’t let him back in.’
‘No comment. Just hand over the recording or document before I slap the cuffs on and escort you back to the station.’
‘No, I won’t.  And I’m still waiting for you to tell me what I’m charged with and to read me my rights.’
‘Harbouring an illegally and criminally obtained,  subversive recording or transcript thereof, likely to destabilise the government.’
‘But Prime Minister Key has said there’s nothing of consequence on the recording/document. He called it “bland”.’

Hot 'n' sweaty

The weather and me. Just finished forking up another bed into which I've planted Malcolm's tomato plants. They are looking very comfortable in the lee of the standing oats. Later today, when the sun has gone down, I'll plant out chard seedlings, sow peas and beet root and then rest from my labours.
Right now, it's a tall glass of cider for me.

ODT talks lignite

"How do asset sales fit in with these climate change issues?
The answer is further loss of regional autonomy.
Like his elected bosses, Solid Energy's Dr Don Elder is keen to sell, but not to help the state's hungry coffers.
It is unlikely the "mum-and-dad" and/or iwi investors can help much with his big plans for lignite. Only overseas businesses have the money to help us to get our hands dirty"

Nicky Chapman gives Don Elder a serve in the ODT.

Hey! This is a private conversation!!

Things I've found whilst digging

A weet-bix boomerang (an easy throw gives best results), a plastic spinning top (?) and a metal flangey thing (?)

Winton, with looming storm.

I went to Dipton

And this is what I saw. It made me wonder just how connected to Dipton and it's fortunes Bill is. Not very, I'm guessing. Tomorrow, I'll post a selection of photos taken in my town and well compare.

Discovering the lost art of making leaf hay

So lost, I'm betting you've never heard of the practice!

Back in the day, certain trees were managed to produce masses of leaves that could be easily plucked and turned to hay for stock feed. Ash was the favoured tree, but sycamore, chestnut, hornbeam and others were utilised in this way. The process was a kind of pollarding and trees pruned in this way were treasured and very carefully nurtured. This image shows a leaf-hay gatherer. I found an article on 'Hay in the treetops', by Bernard Jarman, in a 'Harvests' magazine. It makes very interesting reading.

Beautiful roadsides

The potential for our roadsides to be gardens, seems huge. If we were to adopt a policy of planting the edges of our streets and roads with a variety of flowering and fruiting plants, we'd have a cornucopia from which anybody could harvest, and it'd add a great deal to the visual environment at the same time. Insects would benefit and farms too, as a result of those increased populations of beetles, butterflies and bees. But there are barriers to the success of this plan. Herbicide use by councils is one of the major 'road-blocks'. Local authorities love tidy. So do many members of the public and flamboyant displays of flowers and shrubs don't fit with many peoples desire to level all vegetation with a ride-on mower. But there are some who buck the trend, and plant their roadsides out in whatever they enjoy. 3 cheers for them!
Here are two photos I took of a swale that ran between a side road and a lifestyle block near Invercargill. It's planted with both annuals and perennials and looks marvellous. I hope it spreads up and down the road and into the consciousness of all Southlanders.

The world learns of tin-pot Key

"Obviously we live in democracy where the bill of rights protects freedom of expression," Cheer said. "We don't generally have the government interfere with what the media does."

Not generally, we don't, no. But in the case of John Key and his 'bland' tea-pot tape, we'll make an exception, it seems, and send in the police to raid the offices of our media and seize every scrap of 'evidence' they can find.

A prime minister, setting the cops on the papers to save himself from being revealed by the comments he made?

It's getting pretty sick now.

The Guardian carries the disturbing events out into the world and makes New Zealand look tin-pot.

Turei tells oily Key, no!

"John Key needs to tell New Zealanders what he discussed with American oil company Anadarko when he met its CEO on Tuesday, said the Green Party today. "If John Key is assisting Anadarko − the oil company that played a part in last year's catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill − to develop deep sea drilling plans in New Zealand, then he needs to come clean," said Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei. American oil company Anadarko had a 25 percent stake in the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded and sunk, spilling over 600,000 tonnes of oil into the sea. The Government has granted Anadarko permits to drill exploratory wells in deep water off the coasts of Canterbury and Taranaki, but drilling has not yet begun. "It's madness to allow Anadarko to start a deep water oil drilling program in one of the most important ecological regions on the planet when the company has demonstrated it doesn't know how to plug deep water oil wells if anything goes wrong," said Mrs Turei."

This is part of Metiria's press release message to Key. The remainder will doubtless be on the Green Party website.

Lucky number

Key flips out

"The over-reaction of the Prime Minister John Key to the tea-tape saga sets a dangerous precedent, Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said today.
Following a complaint from John Key four media outlets, including Radio New Zealand and TVNZ, are to be searched by Police for material they might have in their possession that relates to the tea tapes.
“People have the right to privacy, however the actions of the Prime Minister involving the Police are extreme,” said Mrs Turei."

The Greens see Key's behaviour for what it is - ridiculous, bordering on dangerous.

Me to Key

John. I've an idea! Tell Goldsmith to withdraw from the race, so that Epsom voters have to vote for Banks!
It's the only way!

Pleeeease, leave John Key alone!

This is a real tear-jerker.
Tissues at the ready!
Go!

Just 4 fun, 'cause he's funny!

From some blog somewhere came this comment, that I think matches the photo well,

"Banks on 3 tonight was an absolute riot. Out to lunch in his Clark Kent specs, stuck somewhere between outright lunacy or genuine dementia..."

I watched the 'interview' where Banks stumbled and tumbled over his own weasel-words and looked pathetic. He really was quite ridiculous.

Peas in a pod

All that's missing is a sign saying 'NO'

Watching John Key making his escape from today's press conference, where he was again confronted with questions about his tea-party tittle-tattle, I was aware that in the back of my mind, the memory of another petulant media bunny lurked - a politician who sought the glad-eye of the media for his own self-aggrandisement yet squabbled with them whenever they drifted from the script he wanted them to hold to - yes! That's him! Winston Peters! John Key is behaving like Winston Peters! This must be giving conniptions to those Key supporters who loathe Peters and his past behaviour. Now the Nats have a Peters of their own and good luck to them.

Apricot delight

I took the trunk and bigger branches of the apricot tree I'd cut down to Peter, as he'd told me apricot wood was wonderful for turning.
Last night, he gave me this lovely little lidded 'pot' that he'd turned.
Beautiful, ain't it!

Tea's the new hemlock

Key crumbles

Winston Peters has begun to tighten the screws and John Key looks grey around the gills as a result. The tea-pot tapes have handed Peters the perfect club with which he can casually bludgeon Key from now to electoral extinction and the strong possibility that Key talked disparagingly about the elderly during his unsavoury 'Epsom tea-party' is a huge weapon for Peters and anyone else so inclined, to use to knock Key out. No wonder he wants to keep the tapes under wraps!
Fancy Winston returning from oblivion to wreak havoc on National's election prospects. It all seemed so certain just a week ago....

Preferrential entry

"Off-topic posts will be deleted"

The cry of the Authoritarian Tory!
Hear them pipe their lonely lament.

Aquilegia

They're called 'columbine' as well, which means 'dove' and you can see why, when you look at them for a moment. They really are beautiful and I'd never really noticed, until this morning, while I was photographing this one growing beside the rain barrel.

We had a hangi

Patrick and Ami had never eaten kai from a hangi before, so set about digging a hole in our garden, collecting wood and stones and preparing vegetables and chicken, so that they could try something they'd be unlikely to try in their native Canada.
They made a great job of it too. In fact, it was one of the most delicious hangi meals I've ever eaten.
Here's the spread.