A Collection of John Key's Lies

A selection - there are more (GST, ACC, etc)

On rivers and lakes or this one

Kiwibank

The income gap between NZ and Australia

Oil and gas exploration of the East Cape

The SAS in Iraq and this about how prisoners were treated


About his share dealings before Kiwirail was renationalised

About those ministerial BMW's

Trying to offer the former National party leader a job out of the country

About job creation

Tax cuts

On mining reserves

More random 'Next Blog' stuff

This week every 'next blog' seems to be a cancer sufferer; I read somewhere that Google monitors the content you are viewing and selects content accordingly. I can't remember googling cancer!

Here's a thought...

When you click the 'next blog' link at the top, why is it that you generally get an American chick with brightly coloured patch work/curtain style backdrops? Quite often they have pleasant info about their trip to New England or South Dakota, copious pictures of kids, friends and animals, with the occasional quote or proverb for good measure.

On mine you get moaning, politics and abuse - who has got this blogging thing right then?

Once upon a time

Well back in the 60's and 70's Mini's were cool.  In fact my first car was a 1970 model, in white, alloy wheels and front fog lights, that when you put them on the heater and radio stopped working, such were the deficiencies of the charging system. It was great, handled brill, looked cute and generally got me mobile. STU155J where are you now?

Anyway, time moves on, and with the demise of the Mini, replaced by the god awful Metro, the rest is simply history. The British motor industry capitulated and several moons later the Germans came in and bought the parent company, or what was left, namely Land Rover, possibly the only bit worth salvaging.

Of course, they plundered the technology, all the 4x4 stuff they now have (funny because BMW always said their cars had the perfect system and didn't need 4wd). They also plundered the brand name - the Mini!





Fast forward another few years and you hit the 'new' Mini. Now, in the basic, ordinary configuration it isn't that horrid; but BMW, as I have blogged in the past are experts in messing things up. I rest my case via the pictures below (a picture is worth more than a few thousand words here!)

What the hell are they doing? Clearly there is a nostalgia market, e.g. the new "Beetle' (a Golf with a crap body shape) and even the Fiat 500 which at least mimics its predecessor. But to make an SUV Mini is, put simply, sacrilege.

More annoyances

I am back on motoring, but on motoring with a slant. In previous moans I have pointed out the stupidity of those who text and drive, those who are stupid enough to purchase American cars and those who do not give way to cyclists.

Anyway, back to today’s grumblings. Firstly, I am not holier than thou, I am not able to chuck the first rock (as in having never sinned), but I am no bank robber or serial killer either. The group I intend to complain about are an insidious breed, some of the most annoying lot, the tax dodgers.

Here in New Zealand every vehicle on the road, be they a car, a truck, a motorcycle or even a trailer or a caravan requires two things. The first this if known as a WOF – the warrant of fitness. This is essentially an inspection test that is done every six months, checking the vehicle is roadworthy, the tyres have tread, it isn’t likely to fall to pieces and kill someone. It isn’t perfect; it doesn’t have an emissions test, it can be fiddled (e.g. sticking your mates tyres on instead of your bald ones), but it is a safety check.

There second thing is called the Rego, or vehicle registration (it is actually called vehicle licensing, but as most people call it the rego that’s what I’ll use). This is essentially a levy, paid to the government for a range of things, such as maintaining the roads, providing road safety training, but largely to fund ACC.

What’s ACC? Well in New Zealand we have this thing called the Accident Claims Commission, a state body that pays out for accidental injury – it prevents lawyers chasing ambulances like you get in many other countries. It generates income from levies from every worker, from insurance premiums on home property and vehicle policies, but mainly from the rego.

It currently costs about $250 for a year, of which about $150 per registration goes to ACC.

So why is it that such a large number of cars in Rotorua have neither? And more worryingly why are the police not actually bothered?


I take it when the drivers of these cars impale themselves on a tree they will happily forward the bill to the drivers and not ACC - or maybe they will give me a refund - yeah right!

A Few of my Least Favourite Things

Why exactly does it need a double axle? Don't they realise chrome went out years ago?

This one is endorsed by a Texan country music star - say no more!

The whole purpose of this blog was to enable me to get off my chest the annoyances that really grate me. I have been thinking about this for some time and decided to do a top ten of my least favourite things. This list will probably not surprise many who know me, and indeed it is not probably reflective of the level at which each of these things actually annoy me.

Anyway, I’ll start with this one – the American truck.

I could have focused purely on American cars – why? Because they are shite! They don’t look nice, are badly built, handle badly, etc. But that would be isolate the biggest part of the problem, the big Tonka truck monstrosities.

Let us consider them in detail. Firstly, they are gross, too big for NZ roads, in fact they are too big for most roads. They are fuel inefficient, designed, no doubt, for carrying buffalo that you have just shot on the plain, not for cruising around towns in the central north island. With their duff duff V8’s and chronic auto transmission they look foolish pulling away at traffic lights.

Why do people drive them? Who knows – the inadequacy in the trouser department theory springs to mind (big car to compensate for small manhood). Of course, they always have the fog lights on and have mirrors that would not look out of place on a Scania.

What is even more bizarre is what they actually buy - the list of their best sellers is quite comical! Taste, what taste?

So there, it’s out – I hate Yank pick up trucks!!

Another generalisation....

Another batch of stunning gross generalisations.

Recently in New Zealand the use of mobile phones by the person driving a moving vehicle was outlawed. However, some people are above this law, clearly far too clever/important/powerful to need to comply. Recently an off duty police officer, in full uniform, was pictured by a passing motorist exceeding the speed limit on a motorway whilst chatting on the phone - but this is not the generalistion.

The two groups I intend to criticise are as follows.

The perpetual texter, slaloming their way down the road fit quite simply into a single group - young and female, generally driving a blinged up hatch back - Mazda 3, Honda Civic, Subaru Impreza.

The other group is the chatting away whilst trying to hide the phone - again quite easily spotted - the works Ute or 4x4, usually a carpet fitters, decorator or a security alarm firm - I kid you not - I see at least one of each every day; maybe they have an exception certificate - I am allowed to use my phone because people Axminster rugs are more important than other road users safety, and why should I have to pull over to answer a call, because my truck is bigger than your car.

Another one? Why is it that fat people can usually be found eating pies?