ha ahaha a hahaha aha ha
so glad the Labour Party put us right on that one.
A victim of their success as a popular and competent government.
People surely don't want their own money back do they? Their OWN money - read it, THEY made it, NOT Labour.
05 September 2005
04 September 2005
Nats well ahead in TVNZ/Colmar Brunton poll
According to the latest One News/Colmar Brunton poll. National is well ahead of Labour, 46% vs 38% and could govern with United Future if:
- NZ First falls below 5% and Winston loses Tauranga.
Labour under that scenari0 needs Anderton, Greens, Maori Party, United Future to govern.
If NZ First makes it to 5%, then National needs NZ First to govern, but so does Labour, with four other parties!
Labour's bleetings about National borrowing for tax cuts are not going down well, Helen's humourless approach to the Air NZ pilot, National's call for racial equality, all of these have contributed towards a mood for change.
Given National got 21% in 2002, 31% in 1999, 34% in 1996 and 35% in 1993, if Brash can bring National above 40%, at a time of relatively healthy economic growth and low unemployment, he will have brought the party back to the political mainstream. All of the lies, unprincipled meaderings of the Bolger/Shipley era will be past once more - and if National IS elected, all of the MPs from that era should remember - Brash did it, you didn't!
Libertyscott
- NZ First falls below 5% and Winston loses Tauranga.
Labour under that scenari0 needs Anderton, Greens, Maori Party, United Future to govern.
If NZ First makes it to 5%, then National needs NZ First to govern, but so does Labour, with four other parties!
Labour's bleetings about National borrowing for tax cuts are not going down well, Helen's humourless approach to the Air NZ pilot, National's call for racial equality, all of these have contributed towards a mood for change.
Given National got 21% in 2002, 31% in 1999, 34% in 1996 and 35% in 1993, if Brash can bring National above 40%, at a time of relatively healthy economic growth and low unemployment, he will have brought the party back to the political mainstream. All of the lies, unprincipled meaderings of the Bolger/Shipley era will be past once more - and if National IS elected, all of the MPs from that era should remember - Brash did it, you didn't!
Libertyscott
March 27 1986
As I have been clearing out the junk in my house, I discovered an old box of newspapers. Here are a few of the more interesting snippits...
On March 27 1986:
- Bolger selected as new National Party Leader, Geoffrey Palmer says "We are going to have a National Party which stands for a weak, protective, subservient New Zealand looking to the Government to solve every problem and not allowing people to stand on their own feet"... voting for ACT are you now Geoffrey?
- National and the New Zealand Party to merge. Bob Jones (who left the party the previous year) said it was a "cop out", the party was finished in July 1985 and Bolger is a "reactionary King Country farming Roman Catholic - everything that is out-of-date with the modern ethos, the things that are encouraging about this country" can't argue with that!
- Wholesale taxes on cars, stereos, radio, watches and TVs to be cut to 20% as a step towards moving to GST. remember tax cuts?
- The previous night the Homosexual Law Reform Bill passed its second reading. Fran Wilde's greatest moment
- Roger Douglas introduced 12 major principles to cut government spending including:
Well the Greens, Jim Anderton, Winston Peters I bet...
As a final aside, I noticed the National Bank on 27 March 1986 offering term deposits at 21% per annum. The use of inflation as a form of state theft of the public's savings is distant history, and Don Brash has been a part of consigning it to the dustbin of the lunatic left.
On March 27 1986:
- Bolger selected as new National Party Leader, Geoffrey Palmer says "We are going to have a National Party which stands for a weak, protective, subservient New Zealand looking to the Government to solve every problem and not allowing people to stand on their own feet"... voting for ACT are you now Geoffrey?
- National and the New Zealand Party to merge. Bob Jones (who left the party the previous year) said it was a "cop out", the party was finished in July 1985 and Bolger is a "reactionary King Country farming Roman Catholic - everything that is out-of-date with the modern ethos, the things that are encouraging about this country" can't argue with that!
- Wholesale taxes on cars, stereos, radio, watches and TVs to be cut to 20% as a step towards moving to GST. remember tax cuts?
- The previous night the Homosexual Law Reform Bill passed its second reading. Fran Wilde's greatest moment
- Roger Douglas introduced 12 major principles to cut government spending including:
- "quangos would be reduced or abolished where their functions were no longer sufficiently relevant";
- "Departments would have to recover the cost of supplying goods and services from users, including government departments, instead of providing them free, or below cost, at the taxpayer's expense";
- 'Funding of departments will be reduced where the departments' functions are removed or reduced".
Well the Greens, Jim Anderton, Winston Peters I bet...
As a final aside, I noticed the National Bank on 27 March 1986 offering term deposits at 21% per annum. The use of inflation as a form of state theft of the public's savings is distant history, and Don Brash has been a part of consigning it to the dustbin of the lunatic left.
Advice for Rodney Hide - Legalise Cannabis
Dear Rodney
You are the best leader ACT has had or could ever have of your current crop of MPs. You actually do believe in ACT being the "liberal party", you believe in less government, less regulation and you believe not only in economic freedom, but personal freedom.
It is a shame that those who pull the strings behind ACT don't.
Rodney, even if you pull off winning Epsom - which I think you will - ACT will probably be left with just you and maybe Heather Roy. It is a mere shadow of what it once aspired to be.
So I propose you drop a bombshell, something that will change the base of ACT's support once and for all, it might frighten your Board, your funders and the party, but frankly what have you got to lose? ACT needs to be more than the party of Business Roundtable economics - sound though that is.
It needs to sell freedom.
You should state openly that you support the decriminalisation of cannabis for personal use by adults on their own property. It may not even be able to be ACT policy, but you should state this. Hand in hand with this is supporting the prescribing of cannabis based products for medical purposes.
Why?
Because there is nothing more fundamentally liberal, than asserting that adults own their own bodies, and have the right to ingest a substance on their own private property without the state criminalising them for it.
It would be a declaration of an end to the war on cannabis for adults. Supply to children would still be a crime, and rightfully so.
The Economist called for this two years ago - hardly a newspaper of the lunatic fringe.
You would be yanking from the Green Party one of its key platforms that attract new voters, dealing to the war on drugs. You would certainly frighten some of your supporters to National, but how many are left? It would differentiate National from ACT - Brash will deny that a National government would legalise cannabis.
More importantly, ACT could actually start to claim to be consistently a party of freedom and less government.
The war on drugs is failing, and you can challenge National, Labour and all of the other authoritarian parties on this issue - if they TRULY believe in the war on drugs, will they accept all of their family members who have tried pot being arrested and put in prison for smoking one joint at a party some time?
Most cannabis users use it occasionally, for a short time in their lives, and move on. Just like most alcohol users don't abuse it regularly.
Tell those who think it will see a jump in stoned driving or people being stoned at work, that such behaviour will still not be tolerated - people have freedom AND responsibility.
Just like drinking alcohol or any other activity.
Tell those who think it makes smoking dope cool for kids how it could possible get MOREso?
but most of all - ask every single candidate why an adult should go to prison for peacefully smoking this substance on their own property when no other person has been harmed?
This isn't about whether smoking dope is good for you or not - eating loads of butter isn't good for you either, neither is getting drunk every day - but the state doesn't put you in prison for doing it. It is about freedom.
Then, if you are brave. Support voluntary euthanasia, retention of the drinking age at 18 and maybe even say you support allowing gay couples to marry - even Labour wont do that.
Political correctness? Hardly.
I know you understand why this is philosophically and morally correct, and I know how hard it is for a good portion of ACT members to swallow.
Give it a try. What have you got to lose?
Sincerely
Libertyscott
You are the best leader ACT has had or could ever have of your current crop of MPs. You actually do believe in ACT being the "liberal party", you believe in less government, less regulation and you believe not only in economic freedom, but personal freedom.
It is a shame that those who pull the strings behind ACT don't.
Rodney, even if you pull off winning Epsom - which I think you will - ACT will probably be left with just you and maybe Heather Roy. It is a mere shadow of what it once aspired to be.
So I propose you drop a bombshell, something that will change the base of ACT's support once and for all, it might frighten your Board, your funders and the party, but frankly what have you got to lose? ACT needs to be more than the party of Business Roundtable economics - sound though that is.
It needs to sell freedom.
You should state openly that you support the decriminalisation of cannabis for personal use by adults on their own property. It may not even be able to be ACT policy, but you should state this. Hand in hand with this is supporting the prescribing of cannabis based products for medical purposes.
Why?
Because there is nothing more fundamentally liberal, than asserting that adults own their own bodies, and have the right to ingest a substance on their own private property without the state criminalising them for it.
It would be a declaration of an end to the war on cannabis for adults. Supply to children would still be a crime, and rightfully so.
The Economist called for this two years ago - hardly a newspaper of the lunatic fringe.
You would be yanking from the Green Party one of its key platforms that attract new voters, dealing to the war on drugs. You would certainly frighten some of your supporters to National, but how many are left? It would differentiate National from ACT - Brash will deny that a National government would legalise cannabis.
More importantly, ACT could actually start to claim to be consistently a party of freedom and less government.
The war on drugs is failing, and you can challenge National, Labour and all of the other authoritarian parties on this issue - if they TRULY believe in the war on drugs, will they accept all of their family members who have tried pot being arrested and put in prison for smoking one joint at a party some time?
Most cannabis users use it occasionally, for a short time in their lives, and move on. Just like most alcohol users don't abuse it regularly.
Tell those who think it will see a jump in stoned driving or people being stoned at work, that such behaviour will still not be tolerated - people have freedom AND responsibility.
Just like drinking alcohol or any other activity.
Tell those who think it makes smoking dope cool for kids how it could possible get MOREso?
but most of all - ask every single candidate why an adult should go to prison for peacefully smoking this substance on their own property when no other person has been harmed?
This isn't about whether smoking dope is good for you or not - eating loads of butter isn't good for you either, neither is getting drunk every day - but the state doesn't put you in prison for doing it. It is about freedom.
Then, if you are brave. Support voluntary euthanasia, retention of the drinking age at 18 and maybe even say you support allowing gay couples to marry - even Labour wont do that.
Political correctness? Hardly.
I know you understand why this is philosophically and morally correct, and I know how hard it is for a good portion of ACT members to swallow.
Give it a try. What have you got to lose?
Sincerely
Libertyscott
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