Kerry for Mayor of Wellington?

I can’t get too enthused, although she’s better than some it would be nicer if she could campaign on at least capping the overall rates take. So I’m looking for another mayoral candidate, one committed to less council and lower rates (especially for commercial properties, to attract business to the capital rather than relying on the state sector). It would be nice to see the council sell its minority share in Wellington Airport too, to help ease the debt burden (and consequently the rates burden).
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Prendergast is almost certainly a shoo in, although there will almost certainly be some leftie luddite candidate wanting everyone else to pay for a whole host of schemes nobody would voluntarily fund – and the Greens will probably give that person covert support (surely not!!! Surely the left is transparent in all of the organisations it backs and with all of its members, like than honest Marxist Nicky Hagar). The Nats and ACT will quietly back Kerry of course, and she is enough to the centre that Labour wont waste its time opposing her. What is more important is the council, which is currently stuck in a 50/50 left/right balance.
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So who could stand for Mayor? Maybe a young man who took the Prime Minister to court might have a shot?

PS: Blogging is erratic at the moment while I await 10 days for broadband to be installed at home, having waited 10 days for the phone line to be fixed. Of course there has been local loop unbundling here for years, so this first class service will be the norm in NZ shortly!!!

Well that's over

The wholly predictable expulsion of Jade Goody from the Celebrity Big Brother household has happened, and the drama of it is fading away. She was expelled, did not face booing crowds for security reasons, has been bawling her eyes out on TV a couple of times, and has now disappeared.

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Now Celebrity Big Brother if it is lucky will last its final week as the almost entirely boring crowd deliver next to nothing in entertainment for viewers. Hopefully the truly braindead Jack Tweed (apparently male model, training to be a footballer's agent, though frankly I'm surprised if he can do up his shoelace) will be gone next, with Jo from S Club 7 and Danielle Lloyd (pretty girl apparently has lost her footballing boyfriend for her racist remarks). Then we have the quiet sweet but thoroughly uninteresting Jermaine Jackson, Dirk Benedict who flirts with women but can't stand them flirting back, Ian from Steps (yeah I know), Cleo Rocos (who was one in love with Kenny Everett, who was of course gay, and who has sufficient personality for her real job as TV and radio personality). There is Shilpa of course who will probably win anyway.

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Seriously the issue now is Channel 4's future. The papers in the weekend reported on the indirect subsidy it gets because unlike the other commercial channels, it doesn't have to pay for its broadcast frequencies (ITV and Five do), and as it does pay for its digital channels there are questions about how it will survive longer term to meet its public service obligations.

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Given that the BBC exists, I think it should simply be privatised. Channel 4's main public service endeavours tend to consist of shows about sexually explicit topics. Partial as I am to some of these, it doesn't justify keeping it state owned. It is a commercial channel, it acts like a commercial channels, looks like a commercial channel - it should be sold.

Fly more domestically

So Air NZ is slashing domestic fares by up to 26%. It is like another leap downwards from when it dropped all frills with "Express Class" a few years ago. Most people will cheer, but I am sure around 5% will bemoan that this will mean more global warming - though few of those will stop flying because it "isn't convenient" and no doubt their flights are terribly important.

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Air NZ is engaging in a two pronged strategy:

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1. Stimulating a next level growth in air travel, to grow the business. It already has quite a profitable operation domestically, but there are economies of scale to exploit and its own research has indicated that people would fly more often if it was cheaper. Some people still drive long distances and this is designed to get them to fly instead, but more importantly people can take MORE trips more often. The flow on effects to the business sector are considerable too - this is called a positive externality.

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2. Warn away further competition. Qantas's dropping of Wellington-Christchurch and the collapse of Origin Pacific Airways have helped Air NZ a great deal. This also is about showing to Pacific/Virgin Blue that the NZ domestic market is not easy pickings, and helps to emphasise Qantas keeping a relatively small scale operation on the two routes it operates.

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"but what about emissions" I hear in the background, as the Greens clamour for a bill to freeze the amount of aviation emissions, I am sure they will support this as long as there are no more flights. However, there WILL be more flights. That is not a bad thing either. More flights mean businesspeople can do more business, trade more and there is more room for time sensitive domestic air cargo. It also has major social benefits, with families and friends being able to meet more often. These are not social benefits paid for by taxpayers, but by those buying airfares. It will be easier to hold conferences anywhere in the country, and will do a damned sight more for regional development than anything Jim Anderton or the Ministry of Economic Development does.

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This is a far cry from the bad old days, when Air NZ had a statutory monopoly on domestic routes (except routes that it didn' t want to fly), was 100% state owned and lost money on all routes except the Auckland-Wellington-Christchurch "main trunk". Ironically Richard Prebble of all people voted against removing the statutory monopoly in 1983 (but redeemed himself by raising the foreign ownership limits on domestic airlines to 50% a few years later to let Ansett NZ become established). The cost of domestic air travel back then was in today's terms around 2.5 times what it is now. NZ has one of the most open domestic airline markets in the world in that 100% foreign owned airlines can operate freely - this is unlike Australia and the US, and is only paralleled by the EU (but this only applies to EU airlines). The threat of competition is clearly very very good for NZ consumers. Now which political party would turn the clock back?

The rise and fall of Jade Goody

To find out why this is the biggest news in the UK in one easy read, try Bryony Gordon's column in the Daily Telegraph, she summarises it beautifully.
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You see, UK Celebrity Big Brother was doing badly in the ratings until the past few days. It had even more of a B and C list range of celebrities, with the only people in the Big Brother household with international celebrity status being Leo Sayer, Jermaine Jackson and (in South Asia) Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty, also Dirk Benedict from the “A Team” and well known film director Ken Russell. The highlight until recently was Leo Sayer breaking his way out of the Big Brother house and being stopped by security guards, because he was sick of dirty laundry. Ken Russell left on his own accord as he was sick of it, and punk musician Donny Tourette hopped over the wall because he refused to take the role of servant to Jade and her family saying ""I'm not waiting hand on foot on some fucking moron and her family" - you'll soon find out why he would say that.
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Anyway, the key person in there now is clearly Jade Goody, who became famous for being a brainless chav in a Big Brother in 2002. She made a fortune out of being on TV since then, being stupid (Cambridge is in “East Angular” according to her, which she thought was overseas), with the BBC website listing a whole range of her insights, as does Digital Spy.
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She was popular because she is very WYSIWYG – which is basically not very bright, foul mouthed and gobby (eek I’m picking up the vernacular). She talks a lot, about anything and doesn’t know much about it – which a lot of people in Britain appreciate probably because they all know people like that. She has had an “autobiography” written for her, and “writes” a column (rather gets someone else to write the thoughts she gobs out). A workout video was made of her, describing how she lost lots of weight - except she actually had liposuction. Yes I know she had a hard life when young, father left, mother is a nutter - but i know a few people who have had it hard too - they're not making millions of out talking shit.
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So she is famous not because of talent, skills, having produced nothing besides laughter from people taking the piss out of her for talking like an adolescent with less intelligence.
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Now she is the centre of a row having lost the plot by engaging in a prolonged abusive tirade against Shilpa Shetty a major Bollywood star. Her rant went on and on almost without interruption, largely just abuse, calling Shilpa a “princess” and how she’s “just like everyone else” – in other words the truth about how Jade is a nobody who was lucky to make a fortune out of it, vs others who actually are more than a mouth, hurts Jade. With Jo O’Meara and “glamour model” (in the UK it is glamorous to show your tits for a tabloid paper) WAG Danielle Lloyd cheering Jade on (with comments like “Shilpa should f*** off home. She can't even speak English”, she speaks English and much more than you, ignorant tart) it has caused an international row.
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There is an element of racism, but moreso an element of rather common working class young women being bitchy with a more dignified and polite young women from another culture. However nothing beats Jade’s abusive tirade, calling Shilpa a liar and fake, and much more that you can read on wiki, or watch it under Jade and Shilpa fight over stock cubes.
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The culture that celebrates and rewards talentless foul mouthed stupidity needs to be crushed. Goody’s truly insane persistent rant shows her up for what she really is - a stupid little envy ridden bitch who would rather bring down people who have some dignity, class and talent than listen and be civilised. Shilpa stood there and heard this little toilet mouthed nobody spew out her chivvy abuse, Jermaine Jackson tried to intervene but Jade thinks she is special because “Big Brother” is her environment. I hope this is her downfall – sponsors and producers should steer far away from this.
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Jade – you’ve made your money from being brainless and talking like an adolescent – now get some advice, invest it and spend your life watching TV, reading gossip mags, eating ready meals and fly Ryanair to Spain ever year to get your tan and get trollied with people like you. You can take your equally stupid boyfriend with you. You are a side show freak and you’ve been shown up to be a bundle of anger and brainlessness with NO sense of when to stop and think about your actions. The age of fame and fortune without brains, talent or beauty should be over and it is about time you were given the same attention you got five years ago – nothing. Jo O’Meara and Danielle Lloyd will also need to repent, although they have some talent (singing and tits/pretty face respectively). Essentially they are the stereotype of three bitchy bullying schoolgirls sniping and egging each other on, maybe they should get real jobs and learn to get on with people? Shilpa’s comment to Jade ““You know what? Your claim to fame is this. So, good for you.” is so true
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Channel 4 is thrilled because the ratings are now way up, and newspapers in the UK and India, and TV news is dominated by what has been going on in this show. Gordon Brown has had to respond to it during his visit to India.
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See coverage in The Times, Guardian, it is THE front page in the Independent. The Daily Star calls it World War 3, The Sun calls it a national disgrace.
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This Friday Jade goes head to head with Shilpa for the vote as to who should be removed from the Big Brother household. I suspect Jade will be gone, the only question is whether the fanciful career of this nobody will have been poisoned for good. Her abuse reflects only on herself.
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By the way, Channel 4 is state owned – you might wonder why the state has a stake in this?

British newspapers

To the uninitiated, the main national British dailies seem like a cornucopiae of choice for the reader, there being no less than 11 options available every day (excluding Sundays), and more if you include regional papers. For the average Kiwi putting up with a single paper of one of the two main chains (Fairfax represented online by Stuff and APN dominated by the NZ Herald) excluding the Otago Daily Times which remains as the leading daily independent paper.

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The character Jim Hacker on the UK comedy series Yes Prime Minister famously quipped the following about the UK papers:

"The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country;

The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country;

The Times is read by people who actually do run the country;

the Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country;

the Financial Times is read by people who own the country;

the Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; and the The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is"

followed by Bernard Woolley saying "Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big tits"

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Now this is not that far from the truth, except that the Times is not read by those who run the country as much as the Independent is (which post dates Yes Prime Minister). So here is my quick and dirty summary of the papers:

There are three daily papers that are definitive of British political news...

Daily Telegraph: Almost always pro-Tory, but generally more socially liberal than the Tory party tends to be (except lately). Almost always tends to be anti-Labour, but has moved to the centre over time. Certainly one of the best written dailies and the one closest to my point of view. The definitive paper for the market and social liberal. Most reliable for conservative commentary. In NZ it would be most comfortably read by ACT voters.

The Times: Best described as aligned between Blair and the Tories, probably comfortable with David Cameron. Has supported Thatcher and Blair in the past. My second choice, but regularly out does the Telegraph for analysis. Has smudges of conservatism, but generally a moderately socially liberal, pro-economic liberal paper. In NZ it would be most comfortably read by voters in the centre or National voters.

The Guardian: The paper of the Labour left. Easily pro-Labour, but this has been challenged by the war in Iraq. About as reliably pro-Labour at election time as the Telegraph is pro-Tory, but despite its strong leftwing credentials does contain some first class analysis and journalists on its books. Backs leftwing causes on poverty, aid, affirmative action, welfarism, Europe, environment, as much as it also tends to be socially liberal. While I may largely disagree with it, it regularly defends it position with some degree of intellectual rigour. In NZ it would be most comfortably read by Labour, Maori Party or Green voters.

While it sometimes has something worthwhile to say, the Independent no longer really is, as it is essentially the paper of the Liberal Democrats - which themselves promiscuously spread themselves over the political spectrum. The Independent is the leftwing young looking neo-tabloid, scaremongering about the environment, inviting Bono to be editor for a day - so it is constantly attention seeking. As a result its analysis is more once over lightly. In NZ it would be most comfortably read by Green voters.

There is also the Financial Times not just the paper of the City of London and business, but a far more serious analysis of news that is particularly relevant to the economy and business. A heavy read for most, but most comprehensive for hard hitting analysis.

Moving down the market is the Daily Express also referred to as the "Daily Diana" because of its obsession with a well known deceased member of the Windsor household, reflected in it publishing a picture of her on the front page on the anniversary of the July tube bombings last year. It has an English nationalist outlook, tends to have a tinge of bigotry flowing through it and often publishes scandals about government bureaucracy, "political correctness gone mad" (is it ever not mad?) and lots of pictures of tarty young women. It rarely has genuinely interesting gossip that its serious tabloid competitors have, it pretends to not be a T & A rag and can't be seen to be a NEWSpaper by anyone other than BNP voters. In NZ it would be read by NZ First voters.

Further down market is the Daily Mail. The Mail is similar to the express in being crassly conservative and nationalistic, jumps on the "bloody bureaucrats interfering with your lives" bandwagon whilst simultaneously demanding the government "do something" about many other things. The Mail is a paper for the average talkback caller. It has a dark history being pro-Nazi until 1939 (when threatened with closure if it didn't change!), with its then owners supporting the German invasion of Czechoslovakia. It supports the monarchy, is anti-immigrant, supports being mercilessly tough on criminals, is anti-EU. More than perhaps any other paper, a reader of the Daily Mail risks being stereotyped as a racist old fashioned bigot who hates "bloody foreigners" and blames the government for everything. In NZ it would be read by NZ First voters.

The Daily Star is more of a true gossip tabloid. It focuses on the proletariat's obsession with celebrities, sport and gossip about stars. It tends to be somewhat nationalistic as well, but likes T & A so is far less serious and insipid than the Mail and Express. It is for entertainment more than news.

The Sun is the quintessential British tabloid. It has the page 3 girl to attract the bumcrack showing class of workers for their morning wank. It has the highest circulation of any of the papers, with over 3.1 million per day (don't link that to the previous sentence). It has backed both Thatcher and Blair, but tends to be socially liberal and somewhat skeptical about government - so would appeal to young male ACT voters in NZ. It has exposed the BNP for being nasty, so while centre-right does not tend to pander to the anti-immigrant nationalism of the Express and Mail. This excludes slagging off the French (for being French) and the Germans (don't forget the war).

The Daily Mirror is the leftwing equivalent of the Sun, originally launched as a paper for women in 1903! It supported anti-Iraq war protests and is abusively critical of G.W.Bush. It has been overshadowed in recent years by the Sun and the Daily Mail in popularity.

The Daily Sport, takes the Sun and goes further "downmarket", by essentially being a rag on celebrities and stories of ordinary people doing naughty things. It publishes a lot more T & A than any other, so could be seen to be on the boundary between "newspaper" and softcore lads mag.

Finally there is the Morning Star - the communist newspaper of the UK, published daily. I'm serious, it is Marxist through and through. It has been pro IRA, supports Labour candidates that aren't "New Labour", used to be uncritical of the USSR. You might wonder why the Morning Star is the only paper which requires a subscription to see today's "news" online, while all of the "capitalist" ones are free.