Utopia, you are standing in it!

When Labour  went into coalition  with  NZ  First, it  seemed   astute  on the part of the Greens to back it on confidence and supply in exchange for  ministerial  positions. The Greens believed they  would be able to achieve several of their major policy  goals, without  suffering the fate of other small parties  suffocated  in the embrace of a  major party  in the process of governing  the country.

So how is it looking less than nine months into the term?  The  assessment is far from favourable:  the Greens  have  scored  enough own-goals to  dismay even onetime champions  like Sue  Bradford.

Any  government starts losing  votes   from  the day  it takes office.  For the Greens, as polls show, leakage of support has been on a scale which could threaten  the party’s survival  at  the next election.

Visitors to the BBC News website’s main homepage, its ‘World’ page or its ‘Middle East’ page on the morning of June 20^th were all informed that the people who had fired forty-five military grade projectiles at Israeli civilian communities in the space of some five hours during the previous night are ‘militants’ rather than terrorists.

In typical ‘last-first’ style, the headline to the BBC News website’s report on that story read “Israeli jets strike Gaza after rocket and mortar fire” and the euphemism ‘militants’ was seen again.

“Israeli jets have hit militant positions in Gaza after Palestinians fired rockets and mortars into Israeli territory, the Israeli military said.

The military said 25 targets linked to the militant Hamas movement were hit, in response to a barrage of about 45 rockets and mortar shells.”

Quoting “Gaza’s health ministry” without informing readers that it is run by the same…

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the government’s consultative document on its proposal to target net-zero emissions by 2050, and particularly the commissioned modelling NZIER had undertaken on the likely consequences of each of several options for future real GDP.    As the consultative document itself put it

The analysis by NZIER suggests that GDP will continue to grow but will be in the range of 10 per cent to 22 per cent less in 2050, compared with taking no further action on climate change.

Those are breathtakingly large numbers (future GDP gains) for a government to simply propose walking away from.  As one comparison, high end estimates of the GDP gains from preferential trade agreements (such as CPTPP or the proposed new one with the EU) tend to be about 1 per cent each.

A couple of days ago NZIER’s final report itself was released, making it…

Documentary on Churchill’s decision to shell the French Fleet in Oran

Yesterday we saw how a backgrounder on Jerusalem produced by the BBC World Service’s ‘BBC Minute’ misled its target audience of “young people” with regard to the 1949 armistice lines.

Last month BBC Minute produced two more of the items that it portrays as “making sense of the news” – this time relating to the Gaza Strip.  In those two items – still available online – once again a BBC Arabic journalist misled audiences with inaccurate information and presented context-free portrayals.

The first item is titled “BBC Minute: On Gaza clashes” and was published on May 16^th.

“Gaza witnessed what’s described as the deadliest day of violence since 2014. Some 58 Palestinians were killed and Palestinian officials say around 2,700 were wounded during clashes with Israeli troops. It comes amid weeks of rising tension. We hear from the BBC’s Nida Ibrahim, who is in Gaza.”

BBC…

The bill stopping foreigners from buying houses in NZ has emerged from select  committee study with   significant   amendments.  Associate  Finance  Minister  David Parker   says the  new law will ensure the  market  for homes  is a  “NZ  market  not  an international  one”.  He  contends  Kiwis  should not be outbid by  “wealthier  foreign buyers”.

But the same bill now includes a move to encourage  “foreign direct  investment”  in forestry.   Forestry Minister Shane Jones says the legislation –  by bringing forestry rights into the overseas investment regime – will help promote high-quality foreign investment  which puts more emphasis on genuine benefits for New Zealanders.

So – foreign money  for  NZ homes  is  dirty but  foreign money for  NZ  trees is clean?

Shoaib Daniyal in Scroll:

What passes for political leadership in this country is engaged in a wind and solar-fuelled economic suicide mission. Subsidies to grid wrecking wind and solar (when soft loans, green schemes and taxpayer handouts are added) are pushing $5 billion a year, punishing households and businesses alike.

As wind and solar power capacity increases, power prices are rocketing out of control and major energy users are being chopped from the grid whenever the sun sets – killing solar – and sudden bursts of calm weather cause precipitous wind power output collapses.

And yet, Australia’s Energy Minister, Josh Frydenberg continues to act as if nothing’s wrong. Gormless doesn’t cover it.

Exasperation and desperation are giving way to anger and fury. As Alan Moran details below.

Energy policy, price escalation and the destruction of industry competitiveness
Catallaxy Files
Alan Moran
8 June 2018

For some in Australia, the renewable rich UK electricity market…