Earthquake opportune for National - but won't save them from oblivion...

Image via WikipediaJohn Key and his merry men have been sidetracked by the terrible second earthquake in Christchurch. They will have to spend millions of tax dollars to get the city running again.

I find it rather ironic that during the same week the fascist National Party Government announced its attacks on beneficiaries, thousands of Cantabrians will need significant social welfare to recover from the effects of the second and terrible killer earthquake.

Employers will again need financial support to get their businesses back into operation. While many business premises were  damaged and repaired, and eventually able to get back working after Sept 4, many of these have totally  lost their  buildings and will have to find alternative premises to get back into operation. Tens of thousands of Christchurch people will need a job to be able to support their families, or else sign up for National's  'hated welfare'

Key and his merry men will strut their stuff around Christchurch and up in Wellington, but all Kiwis know they are false and don't represent the interests of a majority of New Zealanders. They will kick people off the dole and other benefits when it suits them. Its all about votes in November.

The earthquake has come at an opportune time for National - the opposition will find it difficult to gain traction for some considerable time. But National will be on their own after the elections without a coalition partner. They will become dog-tucker! Then Key will leave New Zealand to live in his affluent Hawaiin properties and count his tens of millions of dollars without the glare of an expectant media.

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WikiLeaks - New Zealand, the United States of America, the Iraq War and credibility...

Image via WikipediaWikiLeaks - New Zealand, the United States of America, the Iraq War and credibility...


Some more Wikileaks revelations: Was Fonterra the reason New Zealand sent troops to Iraq - troops for butter?

Leaks suggest that former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark - the current Number Three at the United Nations - changed her previous decision not to send troops to Iraq, because it was feared NZ would miss out on lucrative Oil for Food contracts.

The claim was made in an extraordinary cable labelling New Zealanders as either "first worlders" - pro-American - or "other worlders" - anyone anti-American or pro- New Zealand's nuclear -free legislation.

The cable revealed that embassy staff were briefed on Iraq by senior defence officials, who are not named and whose information is noted as being strictly protected.

"Senior MOD officials claimed it wasn't until Finance Minister, Michael Cullen, pointed out in a later Cabinet meeting that New Zealand's absence from Iraq might cost NZ dairy conglomerate Fonterra the lucrative dairy supply contract it enjoyed under the Oil for Food program, that PM Clark  found a face-saving compromise and sent combat engineers in a non-combat role to Basra, where they were embedded with the British forces.

Be that as it may, New Zealand's original decision not to send troops to Iraq was because the Iraq War was not a UN sanctioned military action. Later it was proven there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, one of the reasons for the US and its Coalition Of The Willing gave for being in Iraq.

I guess there is more to be written about New Zealand's decision, as there is about America's late involvement in two world wars, both of which had New Zealand involvement in day one of each.

It has been said also that the US had no interest at all in discussing a free trade agreement with New Zealand, but seemed annoyed that NZ was able to arrange one with China and other Asian countries.

And during that period even some American officials were uncertain whether NZ was a friendly nation or an ally. I thought the latter had been written in blood during  two world wars, and the Korean and Vietenam wars. This created some distrust of the US by NZ officials and people alike. This continues today with those with longer memories. Conflicting comments by Hillary Clinton causes some uncertainty too. Perhaps it is a very good thing that Barack Obama won the last presidential election, not her! I personally can distinguish between the American system and the friendly, generous  and genuine American people.

Just what other revelations are there for WikiLeaks to surprise us with?

http://huttriver.blog.co.uk

http://kiwiriverman.blogspot.com

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You wouldn't expect Key to support these figures, would you...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife'An internet panel poll that put New Zealand First in the running to return to Parliament and took a chunk off National's support is not credible, Prime Minister John Key says.


The Horizon Poll surveyed 2000 voters in November. People can sign up for Horizon polls by joining a website, and can win prizes for participating.

The poll put New Zealand First support at 6 per cent - support which if replicated on election day would be enough to see its leader Winston Peters return to Parliament, and play a role in deciding which party governed.

NZ First won just over 4 per cent of the vote in the 2008 election and Mr Peters lost his Tauranga seat, so the party did not make it back into Parliament.

The poll put National on 34.7 per cent, Labour on 28.3 and the Greens at 7.9.

Mr Key told Newstalk ZB the poll was not credible
.
"I just don't accept the poll to be perfectly honest," he said.

"If you look at every public polling company...they haven't had a poll where National's been under 48 per cent for two years, actually I don't think they've had a poll where we've been under 40 per cent for the entire time I've been either leader of the opposition or prime minister."

He told Breakfast on TVNZ that internet polls were unreliable.

"Internet polls are capable of doing anything. I think it's great place to sell newspapers, I don't it's necessarily a good thing for political analysis."

Before the last election Mr Key ruled out forming a support arrangement with Mr Peters' party. He hasn't repeated that stance - yet.

"It's very hard to take Winston Peters seriously... I will worry about it if he decides to throw his hat in the ring, I will make the call then."
Curia Market Research Ltd director David Farrar said internet panel polls were more reliable than website polls, but generally less reliable than phone polls.

"Companies recruit people to join the panel, but people can also just sign up on their website etc, so it is partially self selecting," he said.

"Some of the larger overseas polling companies have such huge panels - over 100,000 - that they can effectively pull out random samples from within their panel, say ask 5000 of the 100,000 to take part, which tends to make them reasonably reliable."

He said in New Zealand panels were quite small so companies tended to use the entire panel for their surveys which made them less reliable.'


You wouldn't expect Johny Key to support these figures, would you? It would be his demise! Welcome back Winnie!

Acknowledgements:- NZPA

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