Bill English stealthy? Maybe we should take away his megaphone to make his plans more open

The word “stealth” takes on new meaning in the lexicons of the lefties.

Listen to their leader, Andrew Little, for an example of how they use it:

Plans to offload state houses to social housing providers is “an asset sale by stealth,” the Labour Party says.

The deluded Andy is banging on about an expression of interest from an Australian company, Horizon Homes, to buy surplus state housing stock.

He is claiming the Government has given no reason why the houses should be sold offshore,

But having surplus stock and wanting to find a buyer seems reason enough if you are not too fussy about where the buyers live – so long as their money is good (which perhaps rules out the Greeks for now).

Rooftop protest could make it harder for the public to see MPs (and Annette King to skip to the loo)

Gotta say Alf hopes the book is thrown at the Greenpeace tossers who staged the day-long protest yesterday over what they say is government inaction on climate change.

Even better, let’s throw a library of books at them because this should inflict greater hurt.

The tiresome foursome are believed to have used scaffolding at the rear of Parliament to get onto the building, then make their way to the ledge which overlooks the forecourt.

Alf didn’t pay much attention to their antics, but it seems they placed solar panels there and unfurled a benner with a photo of the Prime Minister, John Key, and the words “cut pollution, create jobs – yeah, nah”.

Not all MPs were too dismayed but according to Radio NZ:

Wellington Regional Council clobbers ratepayers with near-10pc rates rise – so why just one “no” vote?

Alf is disinclined, usually, to see much good in the political decisions of lefties

But he was pleasantly surprised to find Paul Swain doing the right thing by hard-pressed ratepayers in the Wellington Regional Council’s domain, which reaches over the Rimutakas and into the Wairarapa.

Swain has voted against a rates hike of almost 10 per cent but was something of a Lone Ranger on this matter.

The rest of the council voted for the rates rise and $550,000 of funding for the Capital Connection to be written into Greater Wellington Regional Council’s long-term budget.

Here’s how Stuff reports on the matter:

So that’s what the white man’s science did not realise – cleaning up Kapiti’s water calls for eels

Mayor Church … out of his depth without the right science.

Well, isn’t this a splendid example of Treaty-based togetherness?

Actually, the best people to answer that question should be the good people of Kapiti who may – or may not – have woken to a pleasant surprise.

According to this Radio NZ report, the council they had elected in 2013 to do good things for them, including manage their water supply, had recognised it was not up to the job.

It had whistled in some help – or maybe it eagerly accepted the help which was offered.

Much more important, the sad-sack council has recognised the serious shortcomings of the white man’s science and is being bailed out by the belated application of Maori science.

Seditionists should forget about sacking Her Majesty and give more thought to the equality they promote

An outfit calling itself the undergroundREPUBLIC has emerged from the sewers or some dank hole to say it’s time to say goodbye to Queen Elizabeth as our Head of State.

Probably they don’t know the words of Happy Birthday and would rather be rid of our monarch than wish her a happy birthday and sing that song.

Accordingly, they are asking: “Why do we celebrate the Queen’s Birthday ……. Seriously???”

They (or maybe there is just one) have expressed their sedition in a media statement today.

“Bye Bye Liz” …. Let’s elect our own President as a figurehead, like other modern democratic countries do… a kiwi who makes us proud to be a New Zealander.”

“Let’s put this person’s head on our coinage for the duration they are our Head of State.”

“It would be easy to have nominations with 500 signatures, forwarded to the Electoral Commission so that we can vote in our President at the same time we vote for our representatives.”

In some countries the people fight for democracy but here we are helping iwi to water it down

Mrs Grumble has been dipping into some dictionaries to check out the meaning of democracy.

Here’s one of the results:

Full Definition of DEMOCRACY

a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority

b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

And here’s another:

de·moc·ra·cy (dĭ-mŏk′rə-sē)
n. pl. de·moc·ra·cies

1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.

2. A political or social unit that has such a government.

3. The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.

4. Majority rule.

5. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.

Then there’s the idea of one person, one vote.

Iwi bounce back from defeat at the ballot box to demand council voting rights without being elected

You’ve got to give Peter Moeahu full marks for gall.

His undemocratic cause was lost when the good citizens of New Plymouth went to the polls to decide if it was a good idea for their district council to have a separatist ward reserved for indigenous persons.

An overwhelming majority of those who bothered getting off their chuffs to vote made plain it was a bad idea.

But this Peter Moeahu feller sees this as a chance to push an even more provocative idea.

He is calling for New Plymouth’s council to reconsider appointing iwi representatives to influential standing committees.

This means they would get to influence council decisions without having to go through the bother of getting elected, even in a separatist ward.

Howie Tamati has an explanation for ballot box result: some voters didn’t bother playing the game

Alf’s good mate Paula Bennett shouldn’t lose much sleep.

But she should be ready for the United Nations to give her a call on a matter within her ministerial bailiwick.

The reason: the Mayor of New Plymouth is spitting the dummy after voters in his bailiwick rejected a council vote for a Maori ward.

Andrew Judd, the mayor in question, is now talking of  going to the United Nations with a complaint against the Government about the legislation governing the process whereby our indigenous persons can seek special voting privileges.

Exactly what this has to do with the United Nations is anyone’s guess.

Bugger trying to woo local voters – the smart way to power is through Treaty settlements

Forget about all this democracy stuff.

There are short-cuts to getting a place at the local authority decision-making table – or close enough – without having to go through all that messy stuff about winning support from voters.

Nah, nuts to all that. If you are an indigenous person with tribal inclinations you can count on non-Maori decison-makers – if you approach the right ones – being only too anxious to let you in

That’s how Taranaki’s indigenous persons will soon be flexing their iwi muscle with the Taranaki Regional Council

The good people of Taranaki – who have shown a distinct preference for making their indigenous big-wigs earn their council posts the hard way – accordingly have been gazumped.

Alf senses the craven aiding and abetting of Christopher Finlayson may be found in there somewhere.

Chester shows off his improved education – but it’s how electorate voters mark him that matters

Chester Borrows draws a long bow today.

Alf makes this observation while acknowledging that his judgement is steeped in envy, because he missed out on the junket that Borrows is now defending.

The best means of defence, as Chester clearly knows, is attack.

So he is sticking it into the media for making a fuss about the cost of the junket that took him and a gaggle of other MPs to bits of Europe.

He is saying this treatment of the Speaker’s delegation shows it takes New Zealand’s democracy too lightly.