See Tuesday’s post. After indicating she would support the motion, Cr Elliott departed the chamber before the vote and returned after it. The four signatories of the motion were thus the only ones who voted for it. While the present mayor is toast at the next election if he runs again, the Cr supporters of the Gateway — Buswell, Holborow, Cootes, Handford and McCann — should expect a voter backlash.

from the BFD

Fortunately for those of us in New Zealand ‘protected’ from the truth by the Team of $55 million, there is a wonderful world wide web of information available to those who care to look.

Unlike our mandarins, there are “open and transparent” bodies in the world who publish real data, one being Public Health England. They regularly publish updates such as the most recent one called SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation in England: Technical briefing 23, 17 September 2021

Table 5 on page 19 gives some interesting numbers for “Attendance to emergency care and deaths of sequenced and genotyped Delta cases in England by vaccination status”

Since they don’t provide percentage figures or directly compare vaccinated to unvaccinated the numbers here have been rearranged to hopefully give some insights.

Let’s look at the total numbers:

Nearly 600,000 cases so a pretty good cohort. Roughly 60/40 on the vaccination status, so again, a good sample.

PHE break the numbers into two groups which, if I have interpreted the descriptions correctly, are those who attend ER departments with symptoms, and then get a test confirming Delta (symptomatic) and those who attend for some other reason and are screened and found to have Delta (asymptomatic).

Either way, it appears that you are about 1.5 times more likely to go to ER if you are not vaccinated and about 1.3 times more likely to have to be admitted.

However, you are only half as likely to die.

PHE break down the numbers into under 50 and 50 and over. So let’s look at under 50:

For the under 50s the unvaccinated are 2.5 times more likely to turn up at ER with symptoms and 3.4 times more likely to be admitted and 2.4 times more likely to die within 28 days.

So what about the oldies? Given the push for vaccinations starting with the elderly there are a lot less unvaccinated in the 50 and over cohort.

Given the data above, it is surprising to find that the news for the vaccinated in the 50 and over cohort is all bad. The vaccinated are 5 times more likely to turn up at ER, get admitted twice as often and die twice as often.

You pays your money and you takes your chances …
(Except – of course, it is free to get the jab in NZ)

Original article

A reader sent us this and our reaction was one of skepticism. If true, it would put her well into the top 1% category (a requirement of $US 2.8 million or $NZ 3.9 million in NZ’s case), but it’s not at all obvious where that would have come from. An opposition MP’s salary for 9 years would have given her $160,000 x 9 = $1.44 million and the last 4 years as PM would have given her another $2 million. About a quarter would have gone in tax so that’s a net of about $2.55 million or $US 1.8 million. She was a senior policy adviser in an 80-person policy unit of British prime minister Tony Blair for a time, but that position wouldn’t have been worth more than what a NZ MP gets and would have evaporated in living costs over the years.

Her father is still alive so the alleged difference is unlikely to have been inheritance. So, what else is there? A Lotto win? She just doesn’t have the nous to make anything from a business; she’s good at business wrecking, not business building.

Payments from women’s magazines for their cover articles on her would have been significant, but not that significant.

Have there been “contributions” from her mega-rich friends like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Hillary Clinton and George Soros?

from soverignman.com

It’s ironic that, each year, ‘Australia Day’ is celebrated on January 26, which commemorates the day that the British Navy first sailed into Sydney Cove, hoisted their flag, and declared the land their penal colony.

So Australia Day does not celebrate the birth of a nation so much as the ribbon-cutting of a giant prison.

Clearly in 2021, Australia has simply been returning to its roots as the world’s largest prison.

You know the story by now— “two weeks to control the spread” of Cv-19 became “indefinite dictatorship and total suspension of basic human rights.”

Over the course of the last 18 months, Australia’s state and federal governments have:

• Banned citizens from leaving the country without permission.
• Banned citizens from entering the country, with threat of five years in prison.
• Banned citizens and residents from crossing state borders.
• Banned citizens and residents from traveling further than 5k from home without permission.

Ironically, an Australian government website lays out citizens’ “right to freedom of movement” and says that this very basic human right “cannot be made dependent on establishing a purpose or reason for leaving.”

But Australia doesn’t have to follow its own rules, nor care about the human rights of all the little people, because it’s an emergency.

In the name of covid Australian police and government officials have also:

• Tracked a large fast food order to a party to fine guests $26,000 for an unauthorized gathering.
• Deployed the military to enforce lockdowns. Deployed helicopters to threaten young healthy men playing soccer.
• Told people not to talk to their neighbors.
• Executed several dogs to prevent rescue workers from coming to the town.
• Arrested a pregnant mom in front of her kids for posting about an anti-lockdown rally on social media.
• Refused to grant a travel exception to a three year old boy visiting his grandparents separated from his parents for months, because of a surprise border closure.
• Caused a newborn infant to die because the mother was denied permission to travel across state borders for medical care.

It is also now illegal to plan, publicize, or participate in protests.

Read the full article

(National Party media release)

Nanaia Mahuta’s performance in Parliament Tuesday has shown any spirit of partnership she may have feigned with councils is well and truly gone and the Three Waters Reforms will be rammed through at any cost, National’s Local Government spokesperson Christopher Luxon says.

“The Minister is clearly facing massive pressure and backlash from her sector – not to mention the New Zealand public – and she is obviously frustrated by councils refusing to bend to her will.

“Yesterday she delivered an appalling broadside on elected councils where she insulted their intelligence and questioned the motives of some, suggesting they had never approached the Three Waters Reforms in good faith or with an open mind.

“Once again, the Minister refused to rule out forcing the Three Waters Reforms on councils through legislation.

“When that happens, Local Government New Zealand won’t be able to fight back. The agreement LGNZ signed with the Crown prevents them from actively opposing the Three Waters Reforms being forced through by law.

“Having kneecapped her sector body and painted them into a corner, the Minister might think she can ram through the reforms and get away with it scot-free.

“National has been on the record for months warning that a forced, legislated approach is inevitable.

“As we’ve always suspected, it’s clear the Minister had no real interest in working with councils – the Three Waters plans would always be her way or the highway. No consideration has been given to alternative reform models, and the Minister is ignoring councils’ pleas for the process to be paused.

“The deeply flawed Three Waters Reforms will continue to represent Labour’s love for Wellington centralisation at its worst.

“National will keep vigorously fighting the Three Waters plans with everything we’ve got. We encourage every New Zealander to sign our petition to stop the Three Waters asset grab.”

Note: The Heads of Agreement between the Crown and LGNZ can be found here – see section 4.3 (c).

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A message received yesterday evening from National MP Chris Bishop: “The government has just introduced a bill to Parliament which gives them the power to delay the 2022 local body elections all the way through 2023. Totally outrageous and they’re doing it under the cloak of covid. The bill was only introduced yesterday and now we’re debating it under urgency today. The Minister didn’t even bother to mention it in his speech. Luckily we’ve read the fine print and picked up on this.” 

Covid is obviously nothing to do with it, the real reason must be to force 3 Waters through. —Eds

It wasn’t just nurses either, so did some doctors. Why? Thanks to Margaret S-W

In 2008 editors Geoffrey and Eva painted their Waikanae house brown (and it had nothing to do with Wokeism.) Black-based schemes are rare but they are around. From Architectural Digest —

Painting the exterior of your house black may seem pretty dramatic—and it is—but black is actually a neutral, and a hardworking one. “If your house is lacking in architecture or character, black can make it more interesting,” says interior designer and HGTV host Brian Patrick Flynn. “If it’s rich in detail, black will bring those details out.” As L.A.- and Miami-based designer Travis London—who is set to release his own paint line—puts it, a black exterior can bring new life to an old house. That’s one reason Bay Area designer Nicole Hollis took her 1870s San Francisco Italianate house from beige to black, and Miley Cyrus chose black for her 1950s clapboard Southern California home. But you needn’t be a professional (or a pop star) to pull it off. We asked a few experts what to think about before going to the dark side.

Full article

(National Party media release)

New information has revealed Amazon wanted to keep filming the Lord of the Rings television series in New Zealand, but the Government’s unwillingness to hear them out forced the series offshore, costing the economy billions, National’s Economic Development spokesperson Todd McClay says.

“Despite Amazon petitioning hard to keep the series in New Zealand, including proposing independent MIQ facilities, the Government didn’t consider the company’s submissions in good faith.

“As a result Amazon was forced to shift production overseas to a country that was willing to accommodate the company’s requests and New Zealand lost $4.5 billion in spending and 2000 jobs.

“Film sector insiders have stressed Amazon’s frustration in getting face time with Ministers. It is deeply disappointing that Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash held no meetings with Amazon officials regarding the production.

“Mr Nash now needs to explain to the thousands of Kiwis who won’t have a job why he didn’t do more to keep the multi-season production in the country.

“We would’ve thought the billion dollar investment the production would have to our economy, particularly when it’s taken a hit due to Covid, should’ve at least warranted a meeting to hear Amazon out.

“Kiwis are now paying the price of Stuart Nash’s inaction.

“It’s another example of Labour’s reluctance to collaborate meaningfully with the private sector.

“Despite what Mr Nash had said it’s now clear Amazon wanted to stay in New Zealand and made an effort to do so. By fobbing off his work Stuart Nash has cost Kiwis dearly.”