Utopia, you are standing in it!

Prussia was for many centuries a major power in north-central Europe, based around the cities of Berlin and Königsberg, and rose to particular prominence during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Following its victory in the Austro-Prussian War, Prussia became the driving force in creating a German Empire that excluded Austria (a Kleindeutsches Reich) and in 1871 King Wilhelm I of Prussia became German Emperor.

Following the First World War, after the abdication of German Emperor Wilhelm II who was also King of Prussia and the abolition of the Monarchy, the new Free State of Prussia bore most of Germany’s territorial losses but remained the dominant state of the Weimar Republic. During the Nazi era, the states of the Weimar Republic remained but were sidelined. Following World War II almost all of Germany’s territorial losses were from areas that had been part of Prussia.

Prussia was abolished…

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer’s parents – according to a report in Stuff – delivered some strong mantra to live by.  One of them: “Don’t accept, you push back, be provocative, but always be respectful.”

But what happens when political opponents don’t accept, push back and  – dare we suggest it? – are a mite provocative?

Why, you interrupt their speech and complain you have taken offence as tangata whenua.

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, of course, is the Maori Party co-leader who now sits in Parliament promoting a political agenda that promotes the interests of Maori.

She has an aptitude for spicing her rhetoric with hyperbole while championing their cause:

“I stand here as a descendant of a people who survived a Holocaust, a genocide, sponsored by this House and members of Parliament whose portraits still hang from the walls.

The aforementioned Stuff report notes she stood for and was elected to the South Taranaki…

The agreement reached between the UK and the EU is as good a deal as we were ever likely to get. I will leave others to comment in detail on the legal and technical aspects, but here are five key points (my personal views) on the economics.

First, it important to be clear about the ‘counterfactual’, or what would have happened if a deal had not been done. Opponents of Brexit like to use a rosy view of continued EU membership as their benchmark. But that ship has long since sailed, if it ever existed at all. It makes far more sense to compare the new agreements to the alternative of ‘no deal’. On that basis this outcome is a clear win.

Leaving with what most agree is a ‘fair and balanced’ deal is undoubtedly good for consumer and business confidence. It provides a much-needed boost to the credibility of…

I have often disagreed with the views of University of Chicago Professor John Cochrane over the paste five years. However, his latest oped in the Wall Street Journal is spot on.

In the oped Cochrane questions the rational for the increasingly common view that central banks should pursue “macroprudential” policies to reduce the risks in the financial sector.

This is Cochrane:

Interest rates make the headlines, but the Federal Reserve’s most important role is going to be the gargantuan systemic financial regulator. The really big question is whether and how the Fed will pursue a “macroprudential” policy. This is the emerging notion that central banks should intensively monitor the whole financial system and actively intervene in a broad range of markets toward a wide range of goals including financial and economic stability.

For example, the Fed is urged to spot developing “bubbles,” “speculative excesses” and “overheated” markets, and then stop…

Ahead of next Tuesday’s VirtualIHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, we hear from Dr Max Skjönsberg, of the University of Liverpool. On 2 March 2021, between 5.15 p.m. and 6.30 p.m., Max will be responding to your questions about his pre-circulated paper, based on his recently published book: The Persistence of Party: Ideas of Harmonious Discord in Eighteenth-Century Britain and we will also be welcoming Professor David Hayton as guest chair for the session. Details of how to join the discussion are available here, or by contactingseminar@histparl.ac.uk.

Party is a crucial theme in William Hogarth’s four election paintings from the second half of the 1750s. The paintings were in part inspired by the controversial Oxfordshire election of 1754, one of the last major strongholds of Tory-Jacobitism in eighteenth-century England. The four paintings depict how Tories dressed in blue and Whigs in orange entertain and…

China isn’t even vaguely interested in intermittent wind and solar; it’s insatiable demand for coal to fuel coal-fired power plants tells the story, as does the fact that it continues to build new coal-fired plants, hand over fist.

All despite claims by wind and solar cult that China will soon turn its nose up at the black stuff.

The CCP’s efforts to make Australia kowtow with its ban on Australian coal imports has come with a particular domestic price. Disgruntled householders and businesses, faced with rapidly rising energy costs and power rationing, will cause a policy rethink at the party level, soon enough.

But, trade squabbles aside, there is absolutely no doubt that China is deadly serious about building serious power generation capacity. Much to the horror of the climate cult.

China’s coal war with Australia fuels shortage at home
The Wall Street Journal
Chuin-Wei Yap
11 February 2021

China’s…

Our Beehive Bulletin … 

Each of two fresh announcements from the Beehive involves payments of $18 million.

One lot is being poured into a trough to offer grants up to $150,000 a year “for creative spaces to make arts more accessible”.

The other is the sum involved in the Moriori treaty settlement, although Moriori get not only the money but also a bag.

Myth-busting is likely to be a consequence of the deal, too, when the Moriori Claims Settlement Bill is enacted.

Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little welcomed Moriori to Parliament to witness the first reading of the bill, which – he said – is “the culmination of years of dedication and hard work from all the parties involved”.

He candidly acknowledged the Moriori are being short-changed, saying:

Since when did the British Press in general ‘respond to government policy’ by reversing its opinions on anything? Very strange. No evidence is offered in this article of what public opinion of government climate policy, or even of climate propaganda in general, actually is, so they resort to assertions.

H/T The GWPF
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The new green face paint of the British press is not simply a consequence of public opinion.

It’s also a response to new Government policy, says I-news.

Like a shrinking Antarctic ice shelf, collapsing into the sea in the face of global warming, the climate scepticism of large parts of the UK press is finally starting to melt away.

Earlier this month, The Times, which had caused scientists to despair at its apparent support for climate change denial, ran an editorial in support of Government proposals for new taxes to combat carbon emissions. “It…