What did you really expect?

From Bill English? The man who brought National to its worst ever electoral result in 2002, the man who couldn't make political capital from Labour increasing taxes, returning ACC's statutory monopoly, pushing away foreign investment so that it could nationalise Air NZ, wasting enormous amounts of money on health for little gain.

After all in this budget he said "We have continued to invest in rail. Budget 2009 includes $115 million to fund Kiwirail’s purchase of 20 new locomotives and to provide it with access to working capital. In Budget 2009 we are announcing an additional $90 million of operating support for KiwiRail."

Invest? Who would trust a man who regards pouring bad money after bad down a plughole to be an investment? Operating support? It's a fucking loss. Tell it like it is - you've been lumbered with an entity that bleeds red, and you either need to keep it limping along till it is sold, or start cutting off the limbs that bleed.

No tax cuts, but there is $290 million to subsidise those who like watching Youtube, Xtube, Sextube or whatever - because they needed support didn't they? (maybe it's also why the censorship office is getting a massive boost, when it might have been easier to tightly focus it on material involving real crimes, not drawings, painting and written matter).

Of course there is more money to pour down the health black hole - which most of you tend to support, and which seems to do sweet nothing for health outcomes. More money for education, propping up a system that continues to not want accountability for teachers' pay or choice for parents.

A lot of money to subsidise people to insulate their homes - something the Greens like - rewarding people for doing what they like, by penalising those who already did it, or never want to.

Some trinkets for Maori - $42 million of specific spending - obviously enough to keep the Maori Party happy (though Maori "benefit" from health, education and law and order spending of course).

It's obvious Working for Families should have been abolished, in favour of retaining the tax cuts.

Another obvious step would be to prohibit people on welfare from claiming extra if they have more children, or for those convicted of violent offences to be ineligible from claiming welfare, but no.

Dr Cullen has delivered a budget where more is spent, when there was a real need to trim back the profligacy of the past, and which defers giving people back more of their own money.

Oh this time ACT voted for it too. Although you'd think Sir Roger Douglas reckons he is still in Opposition with this wonderful stuff:

"The tax cuts that have been shelved cost under $1 billion. Government spending in the 09/10 year is over $65 billion. In other words, the Government needed to find just 1.5 percent of waste to deliver their tax cuts. This is against a backdrop where Government spending is, in real terms, $18 billion dollars higher than it was nine years ago."

In other words, it would have taken little real effort to deliver cuts

"Health spending in nominal terms is set to increase by over eight percent. Nothing is being done about the incentives in the system, which under Labour saw spending increase by 50 percent, but productivity for doctors and nurses dive 15 and 11 percent respectively."

Yes - not the slightest willingness to confront the failures of the status quo.

Finally, the lack of courage to confront the deficit is appalling:

"The current level of Government deficit is one third what it was in 1984. Back in 1984, we managed to get the books back into the black within 3 years. Today, with a deficit one third of the size it was then, it is going to take 11 years to get back to surplus."

Now if you really want something different, try the Libz alternative budget, giving most of you an income tax free income (ACT once stood for that).

Let's be clear, if National relied on Libz for confidence and supply at the moment, there would be tax cuts.

So in Mt. Albert if you supported ACT, and supported National for tax cuts, you really only have one choice - Julian Pistorius. If Julian became the first Libz MP, then you'd have far more confidence at the next election that a vote for Libertarianz would hold the next government accountable. After all, what has ACT got to show for its efforts in this budget?

So what about the European elections?

Every year part of local government in the UK is up for election, and this year it also coincides with the election of representatives to the European Parliament.

The local election for me is simple, I have to choose one candidate between Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats and the Greens. Labour is contemptible, the Greens are unimaginable, the Liberal Democrats are liberal with my money, so Conservative is the best of a bad lot.

The European elections are a bit different. It uses proportional representation with party lists, and the UK is split into 12 constituencies. The PR method of allocating seats is the d'Hondt method, which in explained here. In effect there isn't a threshold, rather each constituency has a number of seats to be won, so seats are allocated proportionately.

At the moment, the parties representing the UK in the European Parliament are:
Conservative 27
Labour 19
Liberal Democrats 12
UK Independence Party 12
Scottish National Party 2
Green Party (England/Wales) 2
Plaid Cymru 1
Ulster Unionists 1
Democratic Unionists 1
Sinn Fein 1

So while there have been 78 MEPs, no party has anything close to a majority.

MEPs form "blocs" of common political interest.

The biggest bloc is the "European People's Party - European Democrats" grouping, which is conservative centre-right. In the UK, this includes the Conservatives and Ulster Unionists. It is fair to say the bloc is split between pro-European Christian Democrats and the Euro-sceptic European Democrats, the Tories are in the latter, so this is hardly a unified bloc.

The second biggest bloc is the "Party of European Socialists" which forms the leftwing bloc. In the UK, the Labour Party is a member.

The third bloc is the "European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party" which forms a liberal bloc, sitting between the first two. It is made up of a diverse lot as well, with the ACT like Free Democrats of Germany, and the pro private enterprise small government People's Party for Freedom and Democracy of the Netherlands on the one hand, whilst in the UK it is the "left of Labour" Liberal Democrats who represent it, and in France the centrist (do nothing) UDF.

The fourth bloc is the "European Greens- European Free Alliance" part of which is self explanatory with green parties, but it also strangely includes "stateless nations", in other words leftwing nationalism. The Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru are both in this group (as are Basque separatists from Spain).

The fifth bloc is the "European United Left - Nordic Green Left" bloc, essentially communist and hard left parties. It includes The Left (successor to the Socialist Unity Party which was the communist party of East Germany), French Communist Party and in the UK, Sinn Fein represents it.

The sixth bloc is the "Independent/Democracy" group basically Eurosceptic parties. UKIP sits comfortably here.

The seventh bloc is the "Union for Europe of the Nations" which is another conservative bloc, more socially conservative. No UK parties in the European Parliament belong to it.

So from that I have a choice of 14 parties and one independent. So who are they then?

Animals Count: Basically campaigning on animal welfare as a single issue, includes granting animals the legal status as sentient beings. A nice message of kindness to animals, which means putting them ahead of human welfare. So that's a no then. No chance of success.

BNP: Yes, the racist party when you're not having a racist party. It wont let British citizens born in Britain, who aren't white, to be members. On top of its opposition to immigration, and promotion of encouraging non-white citizens and residents to leave, it has a highly socialist agenda of nationalised industries, education and healthcare, as well as national military service. There is a message of opposing appeasement of Islamists, but this is a bunch of white trash poorly educated malcontents who are personal failures that project their poor self esteem into hatred of foreigner. Ugh. However there is a reasonable chance of success this time.

Christian Party/Christian People's Alliance: A clearly Christian conservative agenda, which seems to combine transparency with radical environmentalism, banning abortion, voluntary euthanasia and apparently promoting a quasi theocratic view of the EU. Um, no. Again no chance of success.

Conservative: Well you know them, demanding a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, and wanting less EU influence over member states. However, is this really about significant change? Conservatives are likely to do very well though.

English Democrats: Believe in England having its own Parliament, and withdrawal from the EU (but membership of EFTA), free vote on social issues, opposition to mass immigration. BNP without racism and without the socialist agenda. The nationalism puts me off, but it has little chance of success.

Greens: UK branch of big government intervention in the economy, statist health and education, more welfare, more tax, legalising cannabis (and eventually all drugs) and scepticism of action against Islamism. Likely to do well as Labour supporters direct protest votes to them, and spreads the usual phobias around electricity, recycling, transport and trade.

Jury Team: Party based purely on selecting politicians by public referendum, interested in representation by people not parties. So why support it? Who knows, and that is likely to be reflected in the result.

Labour: The status quo. Not worth saying anymore about that. Labour is likely to be slaughtered this European election, I expect it could well slip to fourth behind the Lib Dems and UKIP.

Liberal Democrats: Embrace Europe, embrace pan-European laws and programmes. Talk of civil liberties, whilst also embracing the environmentalist agenda and welfarism. Likely to be where many unhappy Labour voters place their tick. Will seek to come second, but faces a tough battle with UKIP.

NO2EU: A cleverly branded socialist opposition to EU membership, because it sees it as a bastion of capitalism and free trade, which is opposes. Think BNP without the racism again. It is opposed to privatisation, open borders, the Euro for the UK. One of the members is the Community Party of Britain, which blames the tyranny in the Soviet Union on "encirclement by imperialism" Enough said, apologists for murderers. No chance.

Pro-democracy: Libertas.eu: This one intrigues me, it appears to be for cutting the size of the EU, a higher level of democratic accountability for the EU and is a pan-European party with branches in all EU countries. It is endorsed by Czech President Vaclav Klaus, which is fairly positive for me. It believes in an EU that only deals with matters that need to be agreed between states. Sadly I think its chances are slim, and its emptiness of philosophy (mostly it is about more democracy and less EU) is disappointing. If I don't vote Libertas, it will almost certainly be my second choice.

Socialist Labour Party: Arthur Scargill's vile party of moaning lazy socialists. A party once dominated by proud Stalinists, until Scargill expelled them because he wanted full control, but he halved his party as a result. Scargill is a denier of Stalin's mass murders and regarded unions as needing to be run as dictatorships that would tolerate no dissent. He believed the 9/11 attacks were undertaken by the Bush Administration itself. This vile little man wont get anywhere in the European elections, thankfully. Although the youth section looks like a party club, science club or somewhere to perv at girls' legs.

UK First Party: The party with the least information, and the least chance. Anti immigration, less tax, less welfare, withdrawal from the EU in favour of EFTA, removal of "hate crime" legislation. BNP lite with some liberalism? No chance.

UKIP: Withdrawal from the EU basically IS the policy, and I was going to vote UKIP, because it is the most principled stance to take. Britain should be in a free trade agreement, but not subject to the leftwing agenda that permeates Brussels (tempered only by some promotion of competition within the EU). UKIP supports fundamental reform of the gravy train of the European Parliament. However, the UKIP ads didn't inspire. One ad said "the EU prohibits the British government from providing financial support to the Post Office to keep post offices open, and forces it to open it to competition". My response was "good". Another ad talked of how the money paid to the EU (£40 million a day) could go into hospitals, schools and abolishing university fees - not tax cuts. It ignored how part of that did come back to the UK in agricultural subsidies. So screw that, UKIP can go to hell. I want my taxes back, I don't want to protect the poorly performing Royal Mail or subsidise feather bedded university students.

So is it Libertas or the Conservatives? Is it a statement of principle that wont get elected, or the least worst option that will be elected? I have a couple of days to decide.

North Korea goes on an explosive spree

First a nuclear test, now a couple of missiles, you'd think Kim Jong Il was desperate for attention.

Well he is.

That's all it is about. He wants attention, and to be given millions of dollars to keep calm and not threaten south Korea, Japan and the USA. The truth is he is highly unlikely to do anything more than do a few tests and shoot the odd missile into the sky. So he simply shouldn't be bought out, but the US should make it very clear what happens if North Korea DOES attack - annihilation.

You see the only real option in response to any North Korean nuclear attack is massive retaliation - destroying Pyongyang, and the annihilation of military targets across the country. Kim Jong Il's faithful underlings need to know that if he wants to take them all down that path, they will face annihilation. There must be the full understanding that there is no hope of victory, that their legacy will have been to support a man who brought annihilation and death to Korea, and to themselves and their loved ones.

Indeed, it has been that threat that has kept the peace on the Korean peninsula since 1953 (by and large), and it is one the Obama Administration cannot flinch from.

I don't believe Kim Jong Il will do more than sabre rattle, as he just gets upset that North Korea hasn't got much modern technology and the people outside Pyongyang live an African peasant existence of subsistence, coupled with Orwellian fear and rampant corruption. He wants to frighten the world to give him aid. The world should resist. The only way forward for North Korea is openness and non-aggression - sadly the entire regime is the antithesis of both of these words. It is the most closed and most aggressive regime anywhere - aggressive towards its own people most of all!

Bill English terrifies the public

The Dominion Post quotes Finance Minister Bill English saying "People won't be finding a lot of money in their bank account after this one".

That's quite a threat.

You're going to be stealing from my bank account? Why should I NOT be finding a lot there?

However, given I hope I am joking, he's already promising to reward irresponsibility by committing fiscal child abuse to subsidise home insulation, for those who couldn't be arsed paying for it themselves. All because those living there are suffering health consequences. If it's your own home then tough - blame yourself for not keeping your home warm. If you are renting, then presumably you take into account paying less for rent to pay more for electricity, or do you need Nanny State to help you keep your home warm because you're incompetent? The Greens think so.

Meanwhile, Bill English's threat should be taken somewhat seriously - be ready to move your money if he really is raiding bank accounts!

Obama sticks a finger up New Zealand

The Obama Administration, true to form, has decided to subsidise dairy exports. Given the Bush Administration sought global agreement to abolish agricultural export subsidies (and the EU - meaning the French - didn't want to), it demonstrates a great leap backwards for international trade.

Yes, all you fawning cheerleaders of the great leftwing change merchant, he's basically told the efficient dairy industry in New Zealand to go fuck itself. Federated Farmers have already responded calling the US dairy lobby a "compost heap" (which has made Lindsay Perigo smile).

Ironic that Maryan Street is calling for strong protests, because I'd put a bet that she and the rest of the Labour caucus cheered Obama's election, despite his record in supporting higher agricultural subsidies being clear.

Yes, it shouldn't surprise. The Obama Administration is no friend of free trade, which means it is no friend of the economies of other countries. It's a friend of big fat taxpayer thieving mud rolling stinking pork - change you can believe in? Yep, if you believe in subsidising inefficient producers to screw US taxpayers, and efficient dairy producers the world over.

Thanks for nothing Mr President.