465 days ago

DANGEROUS, DISASTROUS & TERRIFYING

Michael from Trentham

Wellington Mayor, Tory Whanau says a National-ACT -NZ First coalition government would be "dangerous, disastrous" and that she would be "terrified" of this happening.
So it is a given that a National-ACT Gov will emerge in two weeks and the possibility of NZ First getting in on the act is fairly high.

I too feel that Whanau, a left wing Green Party advocate, is right in one particular way. National and ACT are committing to taking millions of funding dollars away from the civil services and divesting them of thousands of jobs. This would affect not only Wellington but the local region as a whole. Government and quasi Government departments and organisations is the backbone of the Wellington region and its economic health and well being.

National have done it before more than once and it has taken a Labour Government each time to revitalise departments like Conservation to allow the likes of them to get to a point of achieving what is being attempted.

This time round, the National Party has also gotten into a bind - promising too much in tax cuts with one of the only ways to meet the tax cut costs is by shedding millions from the civil services.

There is a hope that should NZ First get a share of the Government benches, they can trim National-ACT plans in respect to our civil services otherwise Whanau will be right. I suspect Whanau has other reasons also for her rather unstateswoman pronouncement as Mayor of a leading city of what seems certain to occur.

More messages from your neighbours
24 days ago

Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.

If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?

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Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
  • 63.3% Summer
    63.3% Complete
  • 35.4% Winter
    35.4% Complete
  • 1.3% Other - I'll share below
    1.3% Complete
2715 votes
2 days ago

EMPIRE BUILDING TRUMP

Michael from Trentham

So Donald Trump does not want to start any wars and is a peace maker.
And yet he is seriously seeking to annex the world's largest island, Greenland from Denmark, take over the Panama Canal from the sovereign country of Panama who have owned it since 1977 and even forthrightly suggesting that Canada ceases being a nation and become a state or series of states of the USA.

Greenland above everything else, harbours minerals vital for todays and tomorrows world and that is what probably attracts Trump most. His son is looking things over in Greenland as this thread is being produced. Climate change is also changing Greenland which despite its name is currently mainly covered in ice and snow all year round. Greenland has a population of 55,000.

Panama's major asset after tourism and services is the canal with a current revenue of $5 billion. It operates its shipping charges through an international organisation so that the USA gets an unbias deal for its ships etc that use the canal. Panama is a poor country on the improve and has a population of 4.5 million.

Denmark is a member of NATO. But Trump has threatened many times for the USA to pull out of this Europe-USA defence alliance and Greenland may be the straw that finally breaks the pact.

Canada is surrounded by the USA but it is so much unlike the USA and much more akin to Australia and NZ. In contrast to the USA, Canada is one of the happiest countries in the world and in total land area is the world's second largest.

NZ is going to come under the scrutiny of Trump and his henchmen/women. He will probably look to cut NZ away from its free trade arrangements with China with some kind of ultimatum.

1 day ago

New Year, New Questions You Won’t Solve!

Riddler from The Neighbourly Riddler

I get smaller every time I take a bath.

What am I?

Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.

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Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.

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