PM confirms Nov 26 election date

[Berries]

For the cynics among us what has the WRC got to do with the election anyway.

For the real cynics, what has the election got to do with anything ?

[Fatt Max]

I've booked my general erection for the weekend, fucked if I'm waiting till November, me nads are like watee melons maaaaaan...

[Laava]

Expecting any votes FM?

[Fatt Max]

Expecting any votes FM?

Reckon the missus might cast a vote or two, could be a well hung parliament

[trustme]

I think that is a popular myth. They certainly didn't do all they could have done, and splurged a bit (ok, a lot) at the end to buy votes, but our government debt levels are still pretty low. There's always more value to extract from the tax dollar (on a diminishing basis, of course) and Labour could have been way more prudent in their spending - but the economy was not as poked when the Nats came in as they like to say (sometimes, when it suits them).

We do have a large private debt problem, of course, but that's because we like property and almost all our banks are Aussie banks. And we like the Ooh Shiny when we are really not an advanced enough economy to live as high on the hog as we do.

What they did do was grow public spending to a level that has proven to be totally unsustainable when the inevitable down turn arrived. Nats are borrowing 300 mil a week to try & cover the short fall but it can't go on for ever. When the inevitable cuts come don't blame National , blame the Labour govt.
Labour by trying to right all the damage that they perceive Rogernomics to have caused have recreated the same bloated public sector & subsequent public debt that made Rogernomics necessary in the first place.

[Banditbandit]

So, you'll be starting your own Party then?

Chop, chop. Only 10 months to go.

Naaa .. I could not think of anything worse than being in parliament .. and I have no respect for politicians ... why the fuck would I want to be one ????

[onearmedbandit]

I think that is a popular myth. They certainly didn't do all they could have done, and splurged a bit (ok, a lot) at the end to buy votes, but our government debt levels are still pretty low. There's always more value to extract from the tax dollar (on a diminishing basis, of course) and Labour could have been way more prudent in their spending - but the economy was not as poked when the Nats came in as they like to say (sometimes, when it suits them).
.

Really? This article would suggest that in early 2008 the NZ economy was slipping into recession, if not already there. And yet the Labour govt., in your own words, 'They certainly didn't do all they could have done, and splurged a bit (ok, a lot) at the end to buy votes'. Myth. Hardly.

[Banditbandit]

Labour also played with the unemployment figures. It looked like they had major success reducing unemployment, yet government department employment rose by about the same. This adds to government expenditure etc, and National looked unpopular when they released all the fat Labour had introduced.

I'm certainly more a fan of National than Labour, as I fundamentally believe that when businesses do well, people do well, and when businesses do poorly, people do poorly... we all derive an income from somewhere. In a very simplistic view, Labour is for the people, National is for business...

That said, it doesn't stop either from coming up with some of the most stupid or contradictory ideas ever...

How fascinating ...

Wasn't it Business that supported the neo-liberal Labour Party of the 1980s - (Bob Jones in particular was instrumental in getting Lange, Douglas and Co elected) which promtly deregulated everything and created the business environment under which NZ businesses thrived? Our basic business - rural production - benefitted hugely from the changes brought in by the Labour Government then ...

In 2005, under a Labour Government, the World Bank said Godzone was the Most Business Friendly country in the world ... under our current National Government, which claims to be business friendly, we are now rated only third ...

And on and on ...

Stop looking at the political propoganda ... it's all loaded bullshit ..

[avgas]

That's cause you're a Kiwi and not able to think into the future. You're in good company though, most of the country...

Is that my flash light up there?

Nope can't find the source of all that light shinning out of your arse.

May be its one of those ego things I keep hearing about.

What ever it is, its shoved up there good Nostradamus.

[Banditbandit]

Really? This article would suggest that in early 2008 the NZ economy was slipping into recession, if not already there. And yet the Labour govt., in your own words, 'They certainly didn't do all they could have done, and splurged a bit (ok, a lot) at the end to buy votes'. Myth. Hardly.

Interesting that this is Socialist political propoganda ... But what did the new National Government do? Give us tax cuts and borrow money overseas to pay for it ... does that sound like Fiscal Responsibility ??? Drop us deeper into debt ????

They are all as bad as each other ...

[MisterD]

Interesting that this is Socialist political propoganda ... But what did the new National Government do? Give us tax cuts and borrow money overseas to pay for it ... does that sound like Fiscal Responsibility ??? Drop us deeper into debt ????

Now who's propogandising? You're following the Labour line of "borrowing for tax cuts" because if we hadn't cut income tax we wouldn't be borrowing so much. I'm happy to agree with the government that we're borrowing to continue funding government spending programs because overall taxes weren't cut, the balance was shifted more onto consumption with the GST rise.

I'm 100% sure that if we'd had a Labour government these last couple of years we'd have seen at least as great borrowing to fund government "stimulus spending"...and boy am I glad we haven't had a government pissing away money on some equivalent of Obama's pork-fest.

I'd rather have seen some greater cuts to government spending, but JK obviously believed the theory that that would be a negative impact on the economy, I guess the proof of that pudding will be in the UK.

So the ideological argument boils down to: government stimulus spending versus private stimulus spending...

[Banditbandit]

Now who's propogandising? You're following the Labour line of "borrowing for tax cuts"

No ... the info is not hard to find from other sources ... I don't rely on the Labour bullshit either ... Sometimes I happen to agree with Labour, sometimes with National. I'll admit to being of the radical left ... but I'm certainly not a Labour support .. or even an Alliance supporter - they were just as bad ...

[superman]

Key is a good dude and he needs to be in another term to sort out the terrible beneficiary system!

People constantly complain about student loans but really the government is losing a whole lot more in the student allowance system. Do people know that thousands of the students get around $160 per week that is a benefit that they'll never have to pay back! You get that if your parents "taxable income" is under about 60,000 per year and you attend university.

Now private school kids with parents that own their own business have a "taxable income" of less than 60,000 per year. Yet they were going to a school that cost their parents 13k a year. They get a free 5k a year from the government!

I because I'm just a typical european with a dad on a straight taxed wage has no way to get around it and so I get nothing. I have to work 13 hours a week to get what they get for nothing, when I could be spending that time studying rather than working just to get enough money to get to uni. Though according to the government if your parents earn over that threshold they should be willing to give 5k a year to their kids...

They are legally bludging and get extra time off to get pissed, and I'm bloody working my ass off to try and get the same amount. Though I guess I'm advantaged in society because I'm a white male. So I deserve to have to work more.

[Bald Eagle]

Key is a good dude and he needs to be in another term to sort out the terrible beneficiary system!
.

made me snort my coffee.

[Swoop]

but if the ABs win, then the country will be jubilant (except Swoop, of course)

Bah Humbug!


Rates bill arrived yesterday. $11- for the thugby cup bollocks, again.
I'll be very happy, when the thugby retards have all fucked off and gone home.




If the all blacks lose...