Out of government in to government

Kiwiblog has a pie chart from Senate Communications’ breakdown of the primary occupations of MPs before they entered parliament.

Agriculture: National 12% Labour 0

Business :National 27% Labour 7%

Education: National 5% Labour 16%

Government::  National 19% Labour 28%

Health:  National 9% Labour 7%

Law:  National 16% Labour 7%

Other:  National 12% Labour 16%

Unions: National 0 Labour 19%

Not every MP will fit comfortably into a single box, for example lawyers and health professionals might also be considered business people; and someone who came from local government may well have had experience in the real world before or as well as being on a council.

Also I’m not sure what Damion O’Conner did immediately before he entered politics but I think he was a dairy farmer at one time.

However, those provisos aside, it’s very easy to see from this why Labour appears to have so little appreciation of business in general and agriculture in particular.

It also shows why too many have a cavalier regard for other people’s money.

Bryce Edward’s comment (@11 22) sums that  up:

This information shows how today’s MPs are increasingly “professional politicians” and are therefore more inclined to be interested in the personal remuneration and perks that come from what they regard as a “career” rather than a “duty”. Previously, MPs virtually all came from backgrounds where they had been in “proper/real” occupations and careers – Labour MPs were often wage workers, and National MPs were very frequently farmers, lawyers and in other middle-income professions. This situation has shifted enormously, and now there is – as we see in this report – a much greater likelihood of MPs coming into parliament at an earlier age and only having experience in “the political world” of lobbying, local government, PR, parliamentary research jobs, etc. So they regard their time as MPs as being part of a career path in which you try to maximise your remuneration and take advantage of the perquisites of what you regard as a “job” even though the public still consider you to be in service of the “public life” and hence don’t particularly like it when they grasp all the material comforts that they can get. So this partly explains the increased propensity for what is often called “troughing”.

Commenting on the findings Senate Communications says:

The survey by government relations specialists Senate Communications shows that almost a quarter of MPs have worked primarily in government or local government roles before entering Parliament. This has jumped from 15 percent in a similar survey six years ago.

What’s more, one third of MPs have worked in a political or bureaucratic role at some time in their lives.

Senate’s Government Relations Partner, Mark Blackham, says the result shows that for an increasing number of MPs, the world of government is their main life experience.

“The days are virtually over where people enter politics to fix things they find wrong in ordinary life. Now, they are more likely to enter government or party politics at a young age as a career move.

“The growth of bureaucracy and political interest groups allows many more people to find long term employment inside the world of national politics.

“MMP has strengthened the ability of political parties to keep their preferred MPs in Parliament – so MPs can choose to make politics a lifetime career.

“This means that the rarefied environment of politics is the main experience they draw on when making decisions,” Mr Blackham said.

That isn’t healthy for good governance or democracy.

Countering the trend toward more professionals soaked in government experience, is a parallel growth in „jacks-of-all-trades‟. Sixteen percent of MPs have had such a wide variety of jobs that is hard to categorise them as having one dominant career. This number has almost doubled over the past two elections. The span of work is often surprising – from stable hands to television presenters.

“These MPs are more likely to have had a wider experience of lifestyles and people, and are more likely to be innovators and self-starters,” Mr Blackham said.

“Innovators in Parliament have a fight on their hands against a trend that is turning Western politics into a kind of nation management-by-numbers,” he said.

The trouble is that so many of the people with skills which are needed in parliament are too busy applying them in other endeavours where they get better financial returns and don’t have to put up with the many downsides of political life.

Question for accountants useful for politicians

An accountant had a business failure as a result of which he lost almost everything.

Many of his former clients wondered how they could trust him to do his best with their financial affairs when he’d failed so spectacularly with his own.

That’s not a bad question to ask of politicians too.

I’d have thought someone’s attitude to the public purse might also be an important consideration if they were seeking election as  mayor.

If polls on mayoral elections in Auckland and Christchurch are to be believed, the majority of voters aren’t particularly worried about that.

If they were Jim Anderton’s big $100,000 trip to Europe   and spa treatments charged to his ministerial credit card  – against the rules, though later repaid  – and Len Brown’s misuse of his mayoral credit card would put them well behind but recent polls put both are in front.

I know little about local body affairs in either city. But I am sorry that character – about which attitude to spending public money on private purcahses  says much – doesn’t seem to count.

Shackles of poverty best broken by capitalsim not welfare

Trans Tasman takes its usual reasoned and throughtful approach to the Foreshore and Seabed issue and concludes:

Some authorities dismissed the foreshore and seabed decision as just another example of Key’s deal-making skill.What they miss is Key’s determination to honour the spirit of the Treaty of Waitangi, and harmonise race relations to a degree unmatched anywhere in the world. It’s a goal liberals find hard to accept coming from a conservative party, but is not so astonishing for those who believe capitalism, rather than welfarism, is the most effective instrument through which the shackles of poverty can be broken.

Trans Tasman is a weekly newsletter to which you can subscribe here.

June 18 in histroy

On June 18:

618  Li Yuan became Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang Dynasty rule over China.

1178  Five Canterbury monks seawwhat was possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the moon’s distance from the earth (on the order of metres) are a result of this collision.

1264 The Parliament of Ireland met at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature.

1429  French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeated the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay.

1757  Battle of Kolín between Prussian Forces under Frederick the Great of Prussia and an Austrian Army under the command of Field Marshal Count Leopold Joseph von Daun in the Seven Year’s War.

1767  Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sighted Tahiti and is considered the first European to reach the island.

1778  American Revolutionary War: British troops abandoned Philadelphia.

 

1812  War of 1812: The U.S. Congress declared war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1815  Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Waterloo leads to Napoleon Bonaparte abdicating the throne of France for the second and last time.

1830  French invasion of Algeria

1858  Charles Darwin received a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that included nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin’s own.  which prompted Darwin to publish his theory.

1859  First ascent of Aletschhorn, second summit of the Bernese Alps.

1873  Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.

1886 George Mallory, English mountaineer, was born  (d. 1924).

1887  The Reinsurance Treaty between Germany and Russia was signed.

1895  Minnie Dean’s trial for murdering a baby placed in her care began at the Invercargill Supreme Court.

1900  Empress Dowager Longyu of China ordered all foreigners killed.

1904 Manuel Rosenthal, French conductor and composer, was born  (d. 2003).

1908 Japanese immigration to Brazil began when 781 people arrive in Santos aboard the Kasato-Maru ship

1908  The University of the Philippines was established.

 1913  Sylvia Field Porter, American economist and journalist, was born  (d. 1991)

1915  Red Adair, American firefighter, was born (d. 2004) .

1920 Ian Carmichael, English actor, was born (d. 2010).

1923  Checker Taxi put its first taxi on the streets.

 

1927 Paul Eddington, English actor, was born  (d. 1995).

1928  Aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she was a passenger,Wilmer Stutz was the pilot and Lou Gordon the mechanic).

1930  Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Franklin Institute were held.

 

1936 Denny Hulme, New Zealand race car driver, was born  (d. 1992).

1936 Ronald Venetiaan, President of Suriname, was born.

1940  Appeal of June 18 by Charles de Gaulle.

1940   “Finest Hour” speech by Winston Churchill.

1942 Paul McCartney, British singer, songwriter and musician (The Beatles)  (Wings), was born.

1945  William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) was charged with treason.

 

1946  Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, a Socialist called for a Direct Action Day against the Portuguese in Goa.

1953  The Republic of Egypt was declared and the monarchy abolished.

1953  A United States Air Force C-124 crashed and burned near Tokyo killing 129.

1954  Pierre Mendès-France became Prime Minister of France.

1959 Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long was committed to a state mental hospital; he responded by having the hospital’s director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeded to proclaim him perfectly sane.

1965  Vietnam War: The United States used B-52 bombers to attack National Liberation Front guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam.

1972 Staines air disaster – 118 were killed when a plane crashes 2 minutes after take off from London Heathrow Airport.

1979 SALT II was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union.

 

1981 The AIDS epidemic was formally recognised by medical professionals in San Francisco, California.

1983 Space Shuttle program: STS-7, Astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.

1984 A major clash between about 5,000 police and a similar number of miners at Orgreave, South Yorkshire, during the 1984-1985 UK miners’ strike.

1994 The Troubles: the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) opened fire inside a pub in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland, killing six civilians and wounding five.

1996 Ted Kaczynski, suspected of being the Unabomber, was indicted on ten criminal counts.

2001 Protests in Manipur over the extension of the ceasefire between Naga insurgents and the government of India.

2006  The first Kazakh space satellite, KazSat wa launched.

Sourced from NZ Histroy Online & Wikipedia

Whose tree was it?

A Temuka couple faced a fine of up to $300,000 or a jail term for cutting down a rotting tree on their property.

Whose property was it? Theirs.

Whose tree was it? Theirs, but it was protected.

However, they didn’t know it was protected and their lawyer says there was nothing on the property title referring to the tree or its status.

In light of the background to felling the tree, the council agreed not to prosecute, but only if the Wests agreed to pay $3000 compensation.

The amount covered what would have been paid for getting resource consent and for the compensation for the loss of “amenity value” of the tree.

The council may have been within the letter of the law to prosecute but to do so in these circumstances would have been ridiculous.

And while $3,000 may be a fraction of what the couple could have been fined, it still looks like a very steep price to pay for resource consent and the amenity value of a rotting tree.

If the council wants to protect trees,  it has a responsibility to ensure those whose properties they are on are aware of that.

There must be a schedule of protected trees, how hard would it be for the council to ensure they are noted on property titles?

They should also think about the costs of protection.

Presumably a tree is protected so that the community, rather than the property owner, can enjoy its amenity values. In that case,  doesn’t the community have a responsibility for any costs associated with its  care including, when the time comes  as it does for all living things, its end?

Sadly not. This is a case where the public get the benefit and the private property owner pays the price.

Hat Tip: SOLO.

Fizzy milk benefits from ban

Richard Revell wanted to sell his fizzy milk, MO2,  at the Fieldays but was told he couldn’t because another company had a contract which gave it exclusive rights for beverage sales.

That’s business but it’s not all bad.

The ensuing fuss over the ban has given MO2 much more publicity than it would have had if Revell had been able to have a stand.

The Glass On The Bar

Australian poet Henry Lawson was born on this day in 1867.

The Glass On The Bar

Three bushmen one morning rode up to an inn,
And one of them called for the drinks with a grin;
They’d only returned from a trip to the North,
And, eager to greet them, the landlord came forth.
He absently poured out a glass of Three Star.
And set down that drink with the rest on the bar.

`There, that is for Harry,’ he said, `and it’s queer,
‘Tis the very same glass that he drank from last year;
His name’s on the glass, you can read it like print,
He scratched it himself with an old piece of flint;
I remember his drink — it was always Three Star’ –
And the landlord looked out through the door of the bar.

He looked at the horses, and counted but three:
`You were always together — where’s Harry?’ cried he.
Oh, sadly they looked at the glass as they said,
`You may put it away, for our old mate is dead;’
But one, gazing out o’er the ridges afar,
Said, `We owe him a shout — leave the glass on the bar.’

They thought of the far-away grave on the plain,
They thought of the comrade who came not again,
They lifted their glasses, and sadly they said:
`We drink to the name of the mate who is dead.’
And the sunlight streamed in, and a light like a star
Seemed to glow in the depth of the glass on the bar.

And still in that shanty a tumbler is seen,
It stands by the clock, ever polished and clean;
And often the strangers will read as they pass
The name of a bushman engraved on the glass;
And though on the shelf but a dozen there are,
That glass never stands with the rest on the bar.

A death every 28 days

It’s been a sad week in rural North Otago with the deaths of two relatively young men.

Neither death was the result of an accident but  ACC tells us that a farmer dies as a result of an accident every 28 days.

Thirteen farmers died in accidents on New Zealand farms in 2009, which is the equivalent to one farmer dying every 28 days.

Farmers also experienced more than 18,600 injuries on farms last year, which means that a farmer or agricultural worker is injured approximately every 34 minutes in New Zealand.

The most common causes of injuries were poor handling of animals, quad bikes and farm machinery.

Animals, quads and machinery are all potentially dangerous.

We have safety manuals and rules but policy and procedures aren’t foolproof. Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes it’s a result of misjudgement, carelessness, inexperience or stupidity.; sometimes it’s just bad luck. Sometimes there’s serious consequences and sometimes there’s not.

We’ve had a couple of accidents which could have resulted in serious injury or death this year but in both cases, luck was with the men who escaped with nothing more than a fright. – and a valuable lesson for all of us to be more careful.

How does a Milestone compare with an iPhone?

Those who responded to my question of whether it would be better to buy a Blackberry or an iPhone all said an iPhone.

Now I have another question, how does Telecom’s Milestone, which is to be lanunched on July 1 compare with an iPhone?

The media release says it’s  powered by Android™ 2.1 operating system – which I presume is a good thing, but will it work outside main centres?

Goose, golden egg

In New Zealand we’ve had thousands of people marching in protest at the suggestion that the potential for mining on conservation land be investigated.

When we were in Australia a couple of weeks the papers were full of stories on the government’s proposal to levy a super tax on mining, almost all of which were in support of the mining companies.

Here’ we’d probably have people saying sock it to ‘em. There people understand the part mining plays in the economy and what it contributes to the country’s wealth.

The tax is seen as the government’s attempt to kill the goose which lays the country’s golden eggs and most people recognise that hurting mining hurts them too.

June 17 in history

On June 17:

1239 Edward Longshanks, English king, was born (d. 1307).

1462 – Vlad III the Impaler attempted to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia.

1497 – Battle of Deptford Bridge – forces under King Henry VII defeated troops led by Michael An Gof.

1565  Matsunaga Hisahide assassinated the 13th Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru.

 

1579  Sir Francis Drake claimed a land he called Nova Albion (modern California) for England.

 

1631 Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spent more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal.

1691 Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect, was born  (d. 1765).

1704 John Kay, English inventor of the flying shuttle, was born  (d. 1780).

 

1773 Cúcuta, Colombia was founded by Juana Rangel de Cuéllar.

1775 American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bunker Hill.

 

1789  In France, the Third Estate declared itself the National Assembly.

1839 In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issued the Edict of toleration which gave Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands.

1843 The Wiarau Incident: New Zealand Company settlers and Ngati Toa clashed over the ownership of land in the Wairau Valley.

1863 Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.

1867 Henry Lawson, Australian poet, was born  (d. 1922).

1876 Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud – 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook‘s forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.

1877  Indian Wars: Battle of White Bird Canyon – the Nez Perce defeated the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.

 

1885 The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbour.

 

1898  The United States Navy Hospital Corps iwa established.

1900 Martin Bormann, Nazi official, was born  (d. 1945).

1901  The College Board introduced its first standardized test.

1910 Aurel Vlaicu performed the first flight of A. Vlaicu nr. 1.

 

1930  U.S. President Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act into law.

 

1932  Bonus Army: around a thousand World War I veterans amassed at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considered a bill that would give them certain benefits.

1933 Union Station Massacre: in Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash were gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.

1939  Last public guillotining in France. Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, was guillotined in Versailles.

1940  World War II: Operation Ariel began– Allied troops started to evacuate France, following Germany’s takeover of Paris and most of the nation.

1940 – World War II: sinking of the RMS Lancastria by the Luftwaffe.

1940 – World War II: the British Army’s 11th Hussars assaulted and took Fort Capuzzo in Libya from Italian forces.

1940 – The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fell under the occupation of the Soviet Union.

1943 Barry Manilow, American musician, was born.

1944  Iceland declared independence from Denmark and became a republic.

1945 Ken Livingstone, English politician, was born.

1947 Paul Young, English singer and percussionist, was born  (d. 2000).

1948  A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Airlines Flight 624 crashed near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.

 

1950 Lee Tamahori, New Zealand film director, was born.

1953  Workers Uprising: in East Germany, the Soviet Union ordered a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.

 

1957 Phil Chevron, Irish musician (The Pogues, The Radiators From Space), was born.

1958  The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing being built connecting Vancouver and North Vancouver, Canada, collapses into the Burrard Inlet, killing many of the ironworkers and injuring others.

 

1958  The Wooden Roller Coaster at Playland, in the Pacific National Exhibition, Vancouver, opened.

1960  The Nez Perce tribe was awarded $4 million for 7 million acres of land undervalued (4 cents/acre) in the 1863 treaty.

1961  The New Democratic Party of Canada was founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.

1963  The United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against allowing the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord’s Prayer in public schools.

1963  A day after South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem announced the Joint Communique to end the Buddhist crisis, a riot involving around 2000 people breaks out, killing one.

1972  Watergate scandal: five White House operatives were arrested for burglary of the offices of the Democratic National Committee

1987  With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow became extinct.

1991  Apartheid: the South African Parliament repealed the Population Registration Act, which had required racial classification of all South Africans at birth.

1992  A ‘Joint Understanding’ agreement on arms reduction was signed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

1994 O.J. Simpson was arrested for the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

SOurced from NZ history Online & Wikipedia

Calendar Girls

The British Women’s Institute was founded on this day in 1915.

Tuesday’s Poem on Wednesday

This week’s Tuesday’s Poem is Bill Manhire’s Nuptials.

Malcolm Allison 21.10.58 – 9.6.10

Malcolm Allison became our farm consultant when we converted part of our farm to dairying 14 years ago.

Always calm, reasonable and reasoned, he helped us through the challenges of conversion and expansion, outbreaks of TB, staff and management problems and other highs and lows of dairying.

He also introduced us to the delicious taste of venison ham when he gave us the leg of a deer he’d shot on one of his many hunting trips.

A couple of months ago we joined more than 100 other clients for a dinner at Riverstone Cafe for a farewell party in his hnour. It was an especially poignant gathering because he wasn’t going on to something better. He had terminal cancer and we were there to pay tribute to him before it was too late for him to know how much we valued him.

Ours was one of the farms scheduled for a visit during his final week at work last month, but his health took a sudden deterioration and for the first time in 14 years, he had to cancel.

Malcolm died last week and yesterday his family, friends, colleagues and clients crowded into the Oamaru Club for his final farewell.

We learned about the boy who grew up to be the first in his family to graduate; the man who loved farming, tramping and hunting, the rugby player and club stalwart,; and the consummate professional who gave his best in his personal and professional lives.

There was both laughter and tears as we celebrated the life of a man who lived life to the full but sadly not for long enough.

Would GE be okay if it saves the world?

Which is worse, climate change or genetic engineering?

People who fear both may need to answer that if genetically modified clover is proven to reduce greenhouse emissions in stock.

Shades of the green conundrum: what would you do if you found an endangered bird eating an endangered plant?

13/15

13/15 in this week’s Dominion Post political trivia quiz.

1-1: excitement’s contagious

What many regard as the beautiful game doesn’t feature on my radar and when I’ve come in ear shot of the TV while the World Cup’s been on the sound of the vuvuzelas, has driven me away.

But excitement is contagious and I have to applaud the All Whites for the 1-1 draw this morning.

Like the Hand Mirror, this is probably the only post I’ll write about the World Cup (soccer) edition.

For more informed views:

Keeping Stock has some bleary eyed reflections.

At No Minister Barnsley Bill says goooooooal

Kiwiblog says well done the All Whites - and philosophers may be interested in his comment that anything that isn’t a loss is a win.

And Not PC mixes art and sport with Glad Day William Blake.

Not as bad as it looks

Stuff’s new game of spot the funny numbers is entertaining.

They’ve got copies of all the ministerial credit card receipts released under the OIA and are inviting readers to help them spot irregularities.

But it pays not to get too excited too soon because large amounts don’t necessarily mean anything’s amiss.

 A six figure bill with sums of 167, 310 and 10,000 for dinner for a ministerial party (page 47) on Steve Chadwick”s card  might look like it’s worth a question.

Except it’s in Chilean pesos and if an online calculator is to be believed $167,310 is only $NZ449. She ought to have had reciepts but the sum once converted probably isn’t a lot for a meal for several people.

June 16 in history

On June 16:

1487  Battle of Stoke Field, the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses.

1586 Mary, Queen of Scots, recognised Philip II of Spain as her heir.

1738 Mary Katharine Goddard, American printer and publisher, was born (d. 1816).

1745  British troops took  Cape Breton Island,.

1745 – Sir William Pepperell captured the French Fortress Louisbourg,  during the War of the Austrian Succession.

1746  War of Austrian Succession: Austria and Sardinia defeated a Franco-Spanish army at the Battle of Piacenza.

1755  French and Indian War: the French surrendered Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.

1779  Spain declared war on  Great Britain, and the siege of Gibraltar began.

 

1815  Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before the Battle of Waterloo.

1821 Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer, was born (d. 1908).

1829 Geronimo, Apache leader, was born  (d. 1909).

1836  The formation of the London Working Men’s Association gave rise to the Chartist Movement.

 

1846  The Papal conclave of 1846 concluded. Pius IX was elected pope, beginning the longest reign in the history of the papacy (not counting St. Peter).

1858  Abraham Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.

 

1858  Battle of Morar takes place during the Indian Mutiny.

1871  The University Tests Act allowed students to enter the Universities of Oxford,  Cambridge and Durham without religious tests, except for courses in theology.

1883  The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland killed 183 children.

1890 Stan Laurel, British actor and comedian, was born  (d. 1965).

1891 John Abbott became Canada’s third prime minister.

1897  A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States was signed.

1903  The Ford Motor Company was incorporated.

1903– Roald Amundsen commenced the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage.

1904  Eugen Schauman assassinated Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.

1904 Irish author James Joyce began a relationship with Nora Barnacle, and subsequently used the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; traditionally “Bloomsday“.

 

1911  A 772 gram stony meteorite struck the earth near Kilbourn, Columbia County, Wisconsin damaging a barn.

1912 Enoch Powell, British politician, was born  (d. 1998).

1915  The foundation of the British Women’s Institute.

1922  General election in Irish Free State: large majority to pro-Treaty Sinn Féin.

1923 Baby farmer Daniel Cooper was hanged..

1924  The Whampoa Military Academy was founded.

 

1925  The most famous Young Pioneer camp of the USSR, Artek, was established.

 

1929 Pauline Yates, English actress, was born.

1930 Sovnarkom established decree time in the USSR.

1934 Dame Eileen Atkins, English actress, was born.

1937 Erich Segal, American author, was born  (d. 2010).

1938  Joyce Carol Oates, American novelist, was born.

1940  World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Premier of Vichy France.

1939 Billy Crash Craddock, American country singer, was born.

1940 – A Communist government was installed in Lithuania.

1948 The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marked the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane.

1955 Pope Pius XII excommunicated Juan Perón.

1958  Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and other leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising were executed.

1961  Rudolf Nureyev defected at Le Bourget airport in Paris.

1963   Vostok 6 Mission – Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space.

1967  The three-day Monterey International Pop Music Festival began.

1972 Red Army Faction member Ulrike Meinhof was captured by police in Langenhagen.

1972  The largest single-site hydro-electric power project in Canada started at Churchill Falls, Labrador.

1976 Soweto uprising: a non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto turned into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd and kill 566 children.

1977 Oracle Corporation was incorporated as Software Development Laboratories (SDL) by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.

1989  Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian Prime Minister, was reburied in Budapest.

1997 The Dairat Labguer massacre in Algeria; 50 people killed.

2000 Israel complied with UN Security Council Resolutiwen 425  and withdrew from all of Lebanon, except the disputed Sheba Farms.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Who’s sorry now?

Shane Jones has apologised.

He’s admitted what he did, accepted it’s wrong, said he’s sorry, been stripped of his portfolio responsibilities and been demoted to the backbench.

He is sorry for what he did wrong and he is justified in feeling sorry at how he’s been treated in comparison with Chris Carter.

Carter has been moved from the first bench to the second, lost Foreign Affairs  spokesmanship but has the Conservation role.

He’s also been told to apologise and did but if you have to be told to say sorry  and don’t accept you’ve done anything wrong then you’re not really sorry.

Goff looked like a leader who meant business yesterday but today Carter’s petulance has overshadowed that. and led us to ask why he didn’t demote him further.

He doesn’t seem to understand the big spender and master of hissy fits has used up all his chances. That’s why Inquiring Mind asks if Carter has some pictures. I don’t believe he does but I can’t understand why he’s been given so much rope.