Perhaps the simplest mistake the Greens make on transport

There are so many, but best seen in this post condemning Labour spending on motorways (which in these two particular cases, I actually agree with the Greens on, because they are well over the top from what is needed):

"they are about to spend $2 billion on a short motorway tunnel in Auckland, and $1 billion on a new motorway in Wellington. Neither of these will be needed in an oil-scarce world, but better public transport and rail will"

Does anyone truly believe that with a history of around eighty years of ever increasing private mobility with the private car, that a change in fuel will see people wanting to plan most of their trips around schedules, waiting, sharing vehicles with others? Public transport will always have a role, for those who can't afford a park, who are travelling on busy corridors where large numbers of people start and finish at similar destinations, and it can offer a speed advantage because it has a good corridor. It works for those without cars. However, it wont replace most trips - it never will.

The idea that more roads or road improvements wont be needed when oil isn't the primary source of motive fuel for road vehicles, is banal. They may be an interruption, a short period of transition if, and it is a big if, the future is not oil - but something else (I wont guess, since so many want to guess and get the government to pick winners). However, people LIKE cars, people LIKE driving, they love the freedom it brings. In busy cities, alternatives make sense because space is precious, putting up the cost of parking and creating congestion (or in the right cities putting up the price for roads) -but that is it. Those alternatives make sense in certain circumstances and at certain times.

Collective transport is chosen as second best, by almost everyone.

One simple question to ask every single National Party candidate

Do you support voluntary student union membership?

Of course they could all publicly indicate what they DO think.

Of course any don't say they will fully support free choice of students to belong or not belong to a student union, don't deserve the vote of freedom loving people. In fact if they prevaricate, just say "fuck off you fascist, I may as well vote Labour".

Of course if they all support it like David Farrar does, then there MIGHT be one step forward for freedom if the Nats win.

State Highway 1 at Mana

Ok, very minority interest item here, but given the Dom Post reported on it.

The high occupancy vehicle lanes through Mana should be converted into standard clearways. Two full lanes in the direction of peak flow. Short high occupancy vehicle lanes are ridiculous.

Meanwhile, congestion at Paremata/Mana continues to be relieved by the upgrade from Paremata to Plimmerton that cost $25 million, instead of what politicians were advocating - Transmission Gully at over $1 billion. See they know so well how to spend your money.

So United Future joins the tax cut game

As a party polling at the same level as Libertarianz, Peter Dunne has to be thinking whether he risks being a one man band after the next election. Don't forget that is exactly what he was after the 1996 election (when none of the Labour and National MPs who defected to what was then United held onto their seats), and the 1999 election when Libertarianz party vote beat United in a number of seats. He doesn't want to go back to that.

So United Future has launched its tax policy, which David Farrar describes. On the face of it he is offering a step forward. Three tax rates, of 10, 20 and 30%. It's far more radical than Labour, and I think more radical than NATIONAL would consider. After all it gets rid of the 39% tax rate, something National has been too scared to talk about because it doesn't have the courage or intellectual robustness to fight it (even though it opposed it in the first place). Give him credit, he has announced a comprehensive policy. ACT has announced half a policy (get rid of 39% and have a tax free threshold), National none.

However, for that you might ask Peter Dunne a few questions:

1. You're the Minister of Revenue. You have kept the current government in power for two terms, indeed you are PART of it. If you have such a radical approach to tax, why haven't you withdrawn providing confidence and supply and helped initiate an early election? (of course the Greens would probably step in). Do you like having it both ways or is the only policy that matters the completely wasteful Families Commission?
2. Would you achieve this with spending cuts? If so, where, given you are responsible for creating an obvious bureaucracy to abolish.
3. Given you're meant to be a party in the centre, should we expect you'll only back National if it implements a version of you're moderately worthwhile tax cuts? If not, why not?

Most importantly, a vote for United Future in 2002 and 2005 proved to be a vote for keeping Labour in power. In 2002 many opponents to Labour voted United Future to give Labour an alternative coalition partner to the Greens. In 2005, half of those voters returned to National because it had a chance of winning.

In 2008, you might wonder why anyone who wants a change of government would bother casting a party vote for a party that has helped kept Helen Clark in power for two out of her three terms, and whose most well known achievement has been creating a useless bureaucracy. The people of Ohariu-Belmont might also ask what he has done for them. I certainly don't know.

Zimbabwe now partly a military junta

The Daily Telegraph disturbingly reports that the Joint Operations Command (JOC) committee that looks after national security in Zimbabwe appears to be dominating government in the country - given its suspension of work by overseas aid agencies. The Telegraph claims:

"They ensured Mr Mugabe did not step down after his defeat in the presidential election's first round in March and are now masterminding a campaign of terror to suppress the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and guarantee victory for Mr Mugabe in the June 27 run-off.

The most powerful figures on the JOC are Gen Constantine Chiwenga, the overall military chief; Augustine Chihuri, the national police commissioner, and Gen Paradzai Zimondi, the commander of the prison service."

They are all beneficiaries of Mugabe's confiscation of farms, and his kleptocratic rule. Make no mistake of it, this is not a positive move. It appears Mugabe is useful to them, but he also needs them at least as much as they need him. Apparently the generals convinced him to not concede after the first round.

Tiseke Kasambala, a Zimbabwe specialist at Human Rights Watch, said there was an "increasing militarisation of the state". "The evidence points to an increasing role by the army in state affairs," she said. "The army is no longer just in barracks, waiting to protect the country. The army is out there, taking a role in the day-to-day government of the country."

Make no mistake about it, this is a symbiotic relationship of oppression. The generals get some moral authority from Mugabe, who rallies some support and gets the respect of his felching submissive lickspittle Thabo Mbeki and others. He needs them to maintain power and protect him. However it does not bode well for the upcoming election run off. Assuming the generals and Mugabe seize power from that, the world can look closer at South Africa - which has the greatest influence over the regime. Nevertheless, even a bullet in Mugabe, as proposed by Silent Running, and previously by myself, may not be sufficient now.

Meanwhile, Christopher Hitchens has an insightful article on Slate which describes why Thabo Mbeki fawns to Mugabe. It is linked to Mugabe's disdain for Nelson Mandela, the Maoist connections of Mugabe vs the Soviet connections of the ANC, and African politics more generally. Worth a read.