Utopia, you are standing in it!

(British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher)

A few weeks ago, former President Bill Clinton visited Northern Ireland in commemoration of the 25^th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that mostly ended the violence of the period known as “The Troubles” that had prevailed since the 1960s.  Clinton’s administration helped negotiate a multi-party agreement between most of Northern Ireland’s political parties, and the British-Irish Agreement between the British and Irish governments.  To this day the agreements have been held with a minimum of violence, but decades of ill-will between all sides and the January 2020 Brexit Agreement has created a series of obstacles which at times makes the situation tenuous.

For years, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and its splinter groups resorted to violence to achieve an independent republic free of British rule. One of the most violent attacks occurred on October 12, 1984, with an assassination attempt against Prime…

A mob of pretentions Australian wankers has written to King Charles, demanding, among many other things, the following:-

“We expect a formal apology for the systemic racism, oppression and Crown-sponsored attempted genocide of the First Nations peoples of Australia, a call that we see being replicated across many Commonwealth nations,”

In their long, tedious and verbose missive I did not detect even one word of thanks for the immense benefits bestowed by Great Britain upon the barbaric, savage, warlike and often cannibalistic Natives of the world.

Little things like an extra forty years life expectancy, civilising Christian influence, administrative skills, agriculture, modern transport, schools, hospitals, guns and rum.

Funny that……………….

The Natives should count themselves lucky the British arrived before the French.

Hove you noticed everything these dopes talk about is ‘systemic’? I’ll bet they don’t actually know the meaning of the word.

Long bursts of calm weather are no mystery to sailors and kite flyers, but the wind industry apparently never got the memo. Hence the type of indignation expressed when the wind fails to materialize – in its financial statements, Australian outfit, Infigen has repeatedly cursed the Wind Gods for its often-dismal profit results.

The industry has started calling a hitherto well-known meteorological phenomenon a “wind drought”. As if there’s some basis to expect that the wind will blow around-the-clock, at a constant 11m/s – the ideal rate at which wind turbines operate.

Rafe Champion has been tracking these so-called “wind droughts” and their consequences for our power supply for some time. Here he is again.

The endless wind drought crippling renewables
Spectator Australia
Rafe Champion
23 April 2023

The spectre of power failure is haunting Europe as Britain and Germany demonstrate that modern societies can’t run on wind and solar…

During my early years in public policy, back in the late 1980s, I repeatedly crossed swords with people who argued that Washington should have more power over the economy so that the United States could compete with Japan, which supposedly was an economic juggernaut because of “industrial policy” directed by wise and far-sighted bureaucrats at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Given Japan’s subsequent multi-decade slump, it certainly seems like I was right to warn against giving American politicians the power to pick winners and losers.

But not everybody learned from that experience. In the words of Yogi Berra, “It’s deja vu all over again,” only this time we’re supposed to be terrified because the Chinese government wants to subsidize and promote certain industries as part of “Made in China 2025”.

At the risk of understatement, I’m not scared.

Yes, China has enjoyed some impressive growth since…

“This morning I have officially notified the Speaker that I have resigned from the New Zealand Labour Party and have joined Te Pati Maori, effective immediately … and as Ikaroa Rāwhiti sitting MP I intend to be seated with Te Pati Maori when we return to Parliament”

That declaration from Meka Whaitiri can be clearly heard in an audio recording included in a Stuff report.

At least, we think it can be clearly heard.

You won’t be alone if you get the impression from those words that Meka Whaitiri…

• (a) has resigned from the Labour Party; and
• (b) joined the Maori Party.

The mainstream media got the same impression –

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) is charged with upholding all New Zealanders’ human rights. Fundamental rights include free speech, non-discrimination, and equality before the law.

However, the HRC has declined to take action against racist acts hostile to non-Māori. It did not defend effectively Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s free speech rights in New Zealand. Rather than focusing on its core legal obligations the HRC has now set as a strategic priority the elimination of racism from New Zealand. It believes this will require race-based constitutional change.

This change is along the lines set out in the 2019 He Puapua document. This argues for Māori governance of things Māori (rangatiratanga), Crown governance of its own affairs (kāwanatanga), and a joint sphere to deliberate upon matters of mutual concern (the relational sphere).

He Puapua denies that the Treaty of Waitangi/Tiriti o Waitangi transferred sovereignty/kāwanatanga to the Crown. In a footnote (p.28) it states incorrectly…

Coronations may be performed for a person other than the reigning monarch. In 1170, Henry the Young King, heir apparent to the throne, was crowned as a second king of England, subordinate to his father Henry II; such coronations were common practice in mediaeval France and Germany, but this is only one of two instances of its kind in England (the other being that of Ecgfrith of Mercia in 796, crowned whilst his father, Offa of Mercia, was still alive).

More commonly, a king’s wife is crowned as queen consort. If the king is already married at the time of his coronation, a joint coronation of both king and queen may be performed. The first such coronation was of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1154; seventeen such coronations have been performed, including that of the join sovereigns King William III and Queen Mary II.

I did some research…

Buzz from the Beehive

The Government has further strengthened and clarified counter-terrorism laws, particularly around high-risk individuals, to make our communities safer, Justice Minister Kiri Allan said in a press statement after the Counter-Terrorism Acts (Designations and Control Orders) Amendment Bill 2023 passed its third reading in Parliament “with strong support across the House”.

But the Greens did not support the bill and Allan’s press statement is somewhat vague in explaining how the laws have been strengthened and clarified.

Among other things, the new law amends an arrangement in the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 which enables the Prime Minister to designate a terrorist entity (either an individual or a group) if the Prime Minister believes on reasonable grounds that the entity has carried out, or participated in, a terrorist act.

A Prime Minister who has been politically ambushed while overseas by a Minister declaring her intention to stand as a…

A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch’s head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of other items of regalia, marking the formal investiture of a monarch with regal power.

Aside from the crowning, a coronation ceremony may comprise many other rituals such as the taking of special vows by the monarch, the investing and presentation of regalia to the monarch, and acts of homage by the new ruler’s subjects and the performance of other ritual deeds of special significance to the particular nation.

Western-style coronations have often included anointing the monarch with holy oil, or chrism as it is often called; the anointing ritual’s religious significance follows examples found in the Bible. The monarch’s consort may also be crowned, either simultaneously with…

At his coronation, Charles III will swear an oath to uphold the Protestant religion in a ceremony overseen by the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, while many European monarchs retain a link to their national church, the UK is alone in continuing to have a coronation ceremony. Frank Cranmer discusses how monarchies throughout Europe have attempted to reconcile their historical religious traditions with the reality of modern multi-faith societies.

In addition to the United Kingdom, there are 11 other monarchies across Europe, with varying constitutional arrangements when it comes to religion: Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden – and, of course, Vatican City, where the Pope is head of state. In Andorra, the Bishop of Urgell and the President of France are co-Princes and its constitution gives special recognition to the Roman Catholic Church. Under the constitution of Liechtenstein, the Roman Catholic Church is the ‘National…