How did that happen?

RivettingKate Taylor mentioned that there’s only five more sleeps until Christmas.

How did that happen?

It used to take years to get from one Christmas to the next but I’d swear the last one was only a few weeks ago.

Costs not worth the benefits

Remits seeking to enable single income families to split their income for tax purposes used to be hardy annuals at National Party conferences.

I used to think it was a good idea but patient explanations from people who work on facts rather than emotion persuaded me to change my mind.

One point raised was the difficulty if the income earner had an accident or became ill – his or her ACC  or insurance payments would be based on the split income not the full one.

High administration costs; an increase in marginal tax rates if the partner on no or low income started work, worked longer hours or got a pay rise; and the bulk of the benefit going to those who needed it least were other arguments raised.

Lower taxes and a simpler tax system would do more for most people than tinkering which adds compliance costs.

These arguments apply to the income splitting bill Peter Dunne is trying to get through parliament and several government departments have raised other concerns:

Papers obtained by Radio New Zealand News under the Official Information Act show the Government consulted the Labour and Inland Revenue departments, the Ministries of Social Development and Women’s Affairs and the Treasury.

The departments raised concerns the proposal discourages women’s workforce participation, discriminates against sole-parent and low-income families, and increases the gender pay gap.

I’m not going to take issue with any of these points but note all these arguments could be used against Working for Families.

Only one poll counts but …

Of course there’s only one poll that counts and that’s the one held on election day.

But count or not,  last night’s One News Colmar Brunton poll provides a positive finish to the year for National.

Christmas has come early for National, which ends the year polling more than 20 points ahead of Labour.

But there’s no sign of cheer for Phil Goff with the latest ONE News Colmar Brunton poll showing him nearly 50 points behind John Key in the preferred Prime Minister stakes.

December 20 in history

On December 20:

69 – Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, entered Rome to claim the title of emperor.

 

217 – The papacy of Zephyrinus ended. Callixtus I was elected as the sixteenth pope, but was opposed by the theologian Hippolytus who accused him of laxity and of being a Modalist, one who denies any distinction between the three persons of the Trinity.

1192  Richard the Lion-Heart was captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third crusade.

1522 – Suleiman the Magnificent accepted the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who were allowed to evacuate. They eventually settled on Malta and became known as the Knights of Malta.

  

1803 – The Louisiana Purchase was completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.

 

1865  Elsie De Wolfe, American socialite and interior decorator, was born  (d. 1950).

 

1868 Harvey Firestone, American automobile pioneer, was born (d. 1938).

 

1894  Sir Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia was born (d. 1978).

 

1901  Robert Van de Graaff, American physicist and inventor, was born  (d. 1967).

 

 

1907  Paul Francis Webster, songwriter, was born  (d. 1984).

 

 1913 The Great Strike of 1913, which began in late October when Wellington waterside workers stopped work, ended when the United Federation of Labour (UFL) conceded defeat.

1927  Kim Young-sam, first civilian President of South Korea after a series of dictatorships, was born.

1944  Bobby Colomby, American musician (Blood, Sweat & Tears), was born.

1945 Peter Criss, American drummer and singer (Kiss), was born.

1948 Alan Parsons, British music producer and artist, was born.

1951 The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricy.  The electricity powered four light bulbs.

Experimental Breeder Reactor Number 1 in Idaho, the first power reactor.

1955 – Cardiff was proclaimed the capital city of Wales.

 Cardiff City Hall

1957  Billy Bragg, English singer and songwriter, was born.

1973 Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, was assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.

1984 The Summit tunnel fire, the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines.

 1987 History’s worst peacetime sea disaster, when the passenger ferry Doña Paz sank after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines  killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).

1988 The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances was signed in Vienna

1989  United States invasion of Panama: The United States sent troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega.

1995  NATO began peacekeeping in Bosnia.

1996 NeXT merged with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.

1999 Macau was handed over to the People’s Republic of China by Portugal.

2007  Queen Elizabeth II became the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.

2007 – The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by Pablo Picasso, was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café, by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Esurient – hungry, greedy, starving.

Did you see the one about . . .

(Brain) farting in church - Credo Quia Absurdum Est on politics at the school’s end-of-year mass. While you’re there he’s also got 10 top money savings tips for the new Stadium SOuthland.

Hypotheses please - Dim Post graphs mentions of NZ in Goggle’s new toy the ngram viewer.

Before you think about booking a cheap flight - laughs (and some bad language) at Brian Edwards Media.

Han(g)over for Lawyers - Cactus Kate writes an alternative media release.

A real live book - A Cat of Impossible Colour has the first copy of her book.

The not so humble potato

Bluff has oysters, Central Otago has stone fruit and North Otago has new potatoes.

Almost every area has a culinary speciality and one of ours is the not so humble late spring/early summer spud.

Laugh if you want to, but it you haven’t tasted North Otago new potatoes you’ve missed a treat.

For most of the year I could take or leave potatoes and if I wasn’t cooking for others I’d leave them off the menu more often that not.

But in late spring and early summer the locally grown Jersey Bennies ripen and they are delicious.

Rub the dirt off under running water,  put in a pot, cover with water, add mint, bring to the boil, turn the heat off and leave them on the element until they are tender.

Serve warm or cold.

Yum.

Stating the obvious

Shock horror, one of the WikiLeaks revelations is:

Former National Party leader Don Brash was “not unhappy” about losing the 2005 election because it meant he didn’t have to work with NZ First.

“Winston Peters really is a nutter,” he is quoted as saying by a United States Embassy staff member in a November 2005 diplomatic cable. The comments come in an intelligence briefing to Washington after Peters’ first big trip as foreign minister.

If there was a silver lining to National not winning the 2005 election it was not having to work with Peters.

Brash said yesterday: “I don’t recall saying that but it doesn’t really surprise me. I certainly don’t have a very high regard for Mr Peters.”

That could be the understatement of the year.

Quality yes, local no

Research into British dining preferences provides a challenge to New Zealand marketers:

Taste, texture and cut were the most important reasons for choosing beef or lamb from the menu. For beef, size, trim and preparation were rated next most important, and for lamb it was type of dish, country of origin, trim and price.

Many respondents wanted to know where meat came from, as they felt local sourcing supported UK farming, showed environmental responsibility and meant meat was fresher.

Respondents were prepared to accept more inconsistencies in the shape and size of locally sourced meat, than from mainstream branded restaurants.

There’s nothing we can do about our location and the distance our meat has to travel from the paddock to the British restaurant table. Although our extensive, free range farming systems produce beef and lamb with a smaller environmental footprint than British meat, even when the travel is taken into account.

That’s not an easy message to get across to consumers though. It might be better to put our efforts into ensuring that all New Zealand lamb on British menus is better than the competition’s.

It’s very difficult to counter a preference for local produce which is mostly based on emotion, but we shouldn’t have a problem when competing on quality.

December 19 in history

On December 19:

1154  Henry II was crowned at Westminster Abbey.

1606  The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery left England carrying settlers who found, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.

1683  Philip V of Spain, was born (d. 1746).

1820 Mary Livermore, American journalist and women’s rights advocate, was born (d. 1905).

1906 Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the Soviet Union, was born (d. 1982).

 

1915 The evacuation of troops from Sulva Bay .

1915 Édith Piaf, French singer and actress, was born  (d. 1963).

1920  King Constantine I was restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander I of Greece and a plebiscite.

1923  Gordon Jackson, Scottish actor, was born  (d. 1990).

1924  The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was sold in London.

 1925 Robert B. Sherman, American songwriter, was born.

1932  BBC World Service began broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service.

1934  Pratibha Patil, President of India, was born.

1941 The Royal Navy cruiser HMS Neptune struck enemy mines and sank off Libya - more than 750 men lost their lives including 150 New Zealanders.

1941 Adolf Hitler became Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.

1941 – Maurice White, American singer and songwriter (Earth, Wind & Fire), was born.

1944 Zal Yanovsky, Canadian guitarist (The Lovin’ Spoonful), was born.

1946  Start of the First Indochina War.

1972  The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt, returned to Earth.

1983  The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, was stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation.

 

1984 The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that the People’s Republic of China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997 was signed in Beijing by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher.

2001  A record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg )was recorded at Tosontsengel, Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia.

2001 – Argentine economic crisis: December 2001 riots – Riots erupted in Buenos Aires.

2009 – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of Hualian, Taiwan.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

List still seen as second best

In spite of more than 14 years with MMP there’s still a perception that an electorate seat is better than a list one.

Electorate MPs do sometimes opt to seek a list place only, but usually only towards the end of their careers as Michael Cullen did and Lockwood Smith plans to.

It’s much more common for list MPs to try for an electorate seat – some more than once.

The Labour Party has today chosen list MP Phil Twyford as its next candidate in the Te Atatu electorate, replacing ousted MP Chris Carter.

Mr Twyford has saved himself from the embarrassment of missing out on his fourth hope for an electorate seat. He lost out on the Waitakere seat to Carmel Sepuloni. He was also earlier discouraged by the party hierarchy from putting his name forward in two seats – Mt Albert, now held by David Shearer, and Auckland Central, in which Jacinda Ardern will stand.

The question now is, will Chris Carter stay for the full term or will he go early and prompt another by-election?

Word of the day

Obganiate - to irritate with reiteration; to annoy someone by constant repetition.

Saturday’s smiles

Apropos of the previous post, even though I’ve used it before:

If the three wise men had been women: they would have arrived in time to help with the birth, cleaned the stable, brought food and useful gifts; and there’d now be peace on earth.

Ministry’s role not to narrow choice

Among John Armstrong’s awards for the year is:

The Tammy Wynette “Stand by your Man” Award: Pansy Wong for demonstrating what she really thought of her former role as Minister of Women’s Affairs by putting her husband, Sammy, first, her career second

 Armstrong misunderstands the role of the Ministry. It’s not there to narrow choices for women but broaden them.

Its website says:

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs is the Government’s source of advice on issues relevant to advancing the well-being of women. This encompasses women having real choices and using their strengths to maximise social and economic success.  

There is a perception, which I think Armstrong illustrates, that women who choose to put family before a career are somehow letting themselves, and other women down.

But if  the Ministry’s actions match its words it will not be prising open the door to new roles and opportunities for women with one hand while slamming shut the door to traditional ones with the other.

I regard the Ministry as one of the low hanging fruit which could be picked to reduce the red in the government’s books. But if it is successful in its aim to help women have real choices, the Ministry will acknowledge and be equally supportive of those who choose to put family before a career as those who don’t.

6/10

6/10 in the NZ History Online weekly quiz.

How would you like your Christmas tree?

Spotted by friends in Dunedin, a sign reading:

 Christmas trees for sale – free range, organic.

I’m not sure how you define a free range tree but they cost $6 which was a bargain compared with those we saw advertised in Christchurch for $35. That included delivery but the advertisement didn’t mention whether or not they were organic and/or free range.

December 18 in history

On December 18:

1271  Kublai Khan renamed his empire “Yuan” (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia and China.

1620 – The Mayflower landed in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts with 102 Pilgrims on board.

Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall (1882)

1642  Abel Tasman and his men had the first known European encounter with Maori.

1707 Charles Wesley, English Methodist hymnist, was born.

1777 The United States celebrated its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October.

1778 Joseph Grimaldi, English clown, was born.

1849 Henrietta Edwards, Canadian women’s rights activist, was born.

1863 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, was born.

1878 Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, was born.

1888 – Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discovered the ancient Indian ruins of Mesa Verde.

1890  Edwin Armstrong, American inventor (FM radio) was born.

1898  Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat set the new land speed record going 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h), in a Jeantaud electric car. This is the first recognised land speed record.

1900 The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria opened.

 The Monbulk Creek Trestle Bridge.

1905 – Irving Kahn, American financial analyst and investor, was born.

1908  Celia Johnson, English actress, was born.

1910 – Eric Tindill, New Zealand cricketer and rugby player, was born.

1912 The Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, was found in the Piltdown Gravel Pit, by Charles Dawson.

 

1913 Willy Brandt, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, was born.

1916  Betty Grable, American actress, was born.

1935  Jacques Pépin, French chef, was born.

1938 Chas Chandler, English musician (The Animals), was born.

1943  Keith Richards, English guitarist (The Rolling Stones), was born.

1946  Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist, was born.

1946 – Steven Spielberg, American film director, was born.

 

1963 Brad Pitt, American actor, was born.

1966 Saturn‘s moon Epimetheus was discovered by Richard L. Walker.

1969  Home Secretary James Callaghan‘s motion to make permanent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which had temporarily suspended capital punishment in England, Wales and Scotland for murder (but not for all crimes) for a period of five years, was carried by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

1973 Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, was launched.

1987  Larry Wall released the first version of the Perl programming language.

1997  HTML 4.0 was published by the World Wide Web Consortium.

1999 NASA launched into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.

2006 – The first of a series of floods struck Malaysia. The death toll of all flooding was at least 118, with over 400,000 people displaced.

2009 – The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference closed with the signing of the Copenhagen Accord.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Word of the day

Ragabash – an idle, ragged, worthless person;

Friday’s answers

Thursday’s questions were:

1. Who wrote: “I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”?

2. What line follows this one: “Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!”?

3. By what vehicles did Fred Dagg’s Three Kings travel?

4. Which country did King Wenceslas rule?

5. Name the Three Wise Men.

Points for answers:

Rob got 2 1/2 and a bonus for humour.

Andrei got three.

Bearhunter wins the electronic boquet for five right with bonuse for extra inofrmation and humour.

Adam gets one for philosophy and an appreciative bonus for being appreciative.

PDM gets close enough with the reindeer to get one with a bonus for humour.

The answers follow the break:

It’s not a rort but . . .

An MP could own a flat in any other city but Wellington and claim the allowance for living away from home and no-one would call it a rort.

It is within the rules to own a flat in Wellington and claim the living away from home allowance but it’s not a good look.

That’s why Bill English not only paid back anything he’d claimed – well within the rules – and no longer claims anything which means he forgoes a not inconsiderable amount of money.

In spite of that Labour take any opportunity to pillory him over this.

The trouble is if you attack someone over the speck in his/her eye you have to be sure there’s not a log in your own – and there is a rather large one in Phil Goff’s:

Labour leader Phil Goff is still collecting rent from his Wellington apartment while pocketing a taxpayer allowance to live in another place, even though he promised last year to sell the apartment.

Mr Goff has owned the property for years and has been letting it since he was a minister in the previous government, when he was living in a ministerial house. Last year he promised to sell the apartment while strongly criticising Deputy Prime Minister Bill English for his perceived double-dipping.

The difference between the two is that Bill was acting on advice within the rules, concentrating on running the country with no idea that it was going to be a problem and as soon as it became one he acted at considerable ongoing cost to himself.

Phil not only knew there was a problem, he said he’d do something about it while not doing anything and continuing to criticise Bill.

It is within the rules, it isn’t a rort but it’s a very, very bad look and it’s also a fine example of hypocrisy.

Update:

Kiwiblog gives more backgroudn and questions Goff’s judgement.

Whaleoil asks is this the last nail?

Monkey with Typewriter says: Just fix the f**n shower Phil.