Winston’s board
What an affront to the democratic process that the next government of New Zealand is about to be decided by a board of party members who were not elected by the voting public, but by internal NZ First processes. It is as absurd as allowing, say, Federated Farmers, the board of Fonterra, or Greenpeace to choose the composition of the government.
As has always been the case with Mr Peters, level- headedness, gravitas, and thoughtful thinking gets blended with grandiose showmanship, bombast, and attacks on the media. He adores the limelight, and maintains a devoted core of followers held in rapture by his slight air of gangster chic.
It is time for a public inquiry into the way MMP functions, focusing on the party vote threshold and the ways post- election coalition negotiations may be better conducted, perhaps through the establishment of conventions enshrined in law that place initial primary control of the negotiating process with the party holding the largest share of the vote.
In the meantime, we remain hostage to private citizens’ diary commitments and await the oracle’s announcement of the winner with no longer such bated breath. Blacks keep winning, the sun has started to shine and the only time we see politicians they are smiling, nodding and saying you are a great bloke to deal with. Please don’t spoil our peace too soon. I have recently had a serious heart attack. I was taken by ambulance from Mokau to New Plymouth and then air ambulance to Waikato coronary critical care unit. The attention and professional care I received could not have been better.
I honestly believe that if I had paid a million dollars my care and treatment would not have been any better. Under the amazing New Zealand health system it cost me nothing. Why do people complain? Your coverage of the Passchendaele disaster has been both moving and scrupulous and yet still it bewilders. It may have been our worst day on a battlefield, but the British lost 300,000 killed and maimed. Here is A. J. P. Taylor on the lead- up to what became the Third Battle of Ypres.
“The War Cabinet were arguing in the dark. The vital facts were concealed from them . . . the French were opposed and all the British generals except Haig had doubts. They were not told that Haig’s own Intelligence Staff had advised against it . . . They were not told about the inevitable rain and mud. Lloyd George had to leave one meeting for his daughter’s wedding.”
So what is the appropriate response, 100 years on, to mass murder committed on this scale against your own side? At a time when Passchendaele is in our minds it is frightening how easily the world slipped into that war, from a minor incident. When we come to World War II it was started by a fabricated plan of Hitler’s saying they had had to repel Polish invaders.
Now we have an incompetent bully in Donald Trump who still thinks he is on reality TV and I am sure intends to fabricate some North Korea incursion to give him the excuse to go to war to the cheering of his unsophisticated support base. We have to hope China and Russia do not enter into the fray or we may have a Passchendaele of biblical proportions. National MP Jian Yang did not disclose his place of work on his citizenship application. This is because it was at China’s intelligence agency. This obviously would affect his chances of citizenship. However, he has graciously said he will check to see if the rest of his application was correct. National Party politicians have a diabolical track record when it comes to integrity. Unfortunately, this looks like another example.