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).

Oh, no – it’s Cho who goes in a world where the relationship between boss and staff has gone nuts

The sorry sight of a boss who is being harshly treated.

Alf is bound to say he has some sympathy for the Korean Air sheila who has been excoriated around the world simply for demanding better service than she was given.

Correction: he has heaps of sympathy for her.

The Daily Mail is among the newspapers rejoicing at pictures showing her bowing her head in shame after making a grovelling apology for exploding with rage after her snack was served in a bag.

Dammit, when she blew a fuse she wasn’t flying down the back of the airliner with hoi-polloi who would appreciate being tossed a bag of nuts.

Nah. She was flying in the first-class bit with the posh passengers.

She was the chairman’s daughter.

And she was in charge of in-flight service.

How many critical tweets does it take to extract an abject apology from a twit? Just ask Phil Twyford

Let’s chalk this one up as another wimpy Labour surrender to the forces of political correctness, if not feminism.

According to the NZ Herald, Phil Twyford has apologised on Twitter after Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett bailed him up as sexist for making a cat claw gesture at her in Parliament.

Alf must have had his head down in his heavy portfolio of paper work at the time, because he missed Twyford making the gesture to indicate Bennett was catty after some howz-yer-father about answers to his questions about housing.

Whatever happened during the exchange, it somehow finished up on Twitter.

The twittering Twyford – challenged about his cat claw gesture – was initially unrepentant, tweeting in response to one questioner that it was “entirely appropriate.”

If boaties opt against wearing their life jackets and drown – it’s the Govt’s fault how, exactly?

There’s been lots of huffing and puffing in the aftermath of 3 News delving into the Government decision not to make it compulsory to wear life-jackets on all small water craft.

It seems Transport Minister Steven Joyce backed off the idea just a week before it was to be signed off.

The reversal was made despite official advice saying the change could help prevent 10 deaths a year.

Now one maritime expert says the Government must take some responsibility for unnecessary deaths.

How so?

Twyford gets it right – partly – on the farce of Maori representation in the Super City

Alf is agreeing with Labour’s Auckland Issues spokesperson Phil Twyford, who reckons the Auckland Council’s funding row with its Maori Statutory Board is evidence the board structure is flawed.

But only up to a point.

Actually, flawed is a somewhat mild way of expressing it.

The board has become a bloody travesty.

Twyford should use red-blooded language like that, too, because he says it should be abolished.

If it’s simply flawed, then it can be fixed.

Just the thing for a Super City – some super cost cuts, like shutting down the museum or something

It's a bit of a dump, but better than living in Auckland.

Alf is by no means surprised to learn that big savings are not being made as a consequence of all that Super City stuff.

ACT’s Rodney Hide – as was posted here in May last year – had been much too gung-ho about the Auckland restructuring and not half as concerned about the implementation costs as his track record on accountability would have us believe.

The magic of building Rodney’s Super City – the costs are mystifying but “miniscule”

Rodney Hide is gung ho about what he has done and is doing for the restructuring of local government in Auckland and bringing relief to ratepayers.

He’s much too gung ho for Alf’s liking, actually, and is bound to come a cropper.

The final legislation setting up the rules and responsibilities of the Super City has been passed into law after Parliament passed the Bill that finalises the roles of local boards and the council’s management of its companies.

More ominously, as TVNZ reports:

There are claims this morning that the costs for setting up the Auckland Super City are spiralling out of control.

Rodney gives us new insights into mayoral madness and ministerial time-keeping

North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams has done us a favour by asking for, and then publishing, more details about ACT leader Rodney Hide’s overseas travels with that squash-playing sheila.

Williams is reported to have used the Official Information Act to winkle out the itinerary and Hide’s report to the Cabinet. He sent the stuff out with a press release yesterday.

“Aucklanders will be fascinated to learn that, according to the official trip diary, Rodney Hide spent around 10 hours on Auckland governance, three and a half hours on regulatory reform, four and a half hours on Act Party policy, one hour in media interviews, and seven and a half hours having breakfast and lunch with his tour party who accompanied him on the trip,” Mr Williams said.

Let’s be pricks and add that up.

Oh, yes. A grand tally of 19 hours work.

Playing Hide and seek over restructuring costs

Gotta say Rodney Hide is shaping up as much too gung-ho about the Auckland restructuring, and not half as concerned about the implementation costs as his track record on accountability would have us believe.

This is the bloke who demanded rigorous cost and benefit data on the matter of the emissions trading scheme (for which Alf applauded him).

Now he is playing funny buggers with the super-city implementation costs, which is very odd, for someone who was so strong on accountability in opposition days.

This is very disappointing to Alf. When super-city plans were unveiled a few weeks ago, this blog observed there was an absence of cost-benefit numbers, but expressed confidence Hide would come up with them.

Not only is he fudging the issue. He is giving Labour’s Phil Twyford a bloody firm platform for political grand- standing. Letting a Labour lightweight look good is unpardonable.

Giving the Speaker good grounds to rebuke him for failing to answer a straightforward question wasn’t smart of Hide, either

Philatelist puts his stamp on Mt Albert campaign

Alf is tempted to move to Wellington. Only temporarily, mind you.

He would like to exercise his democratic right and not vote for Jackson James Wood, editor of the student magazine Salient and a candidate in the Mt Albert by-election.

Wood has properly identified concerns about the entry of Greens co-leader Russel Norman into the tightly contested race.

“Amidst all this talk of splitting the centre-left vote, I think people have lost sight of the real issue here,” Wood said.

“While there is certainly a chance of a centre-left vote split, the real issue is the splitting of the Wellington vote.”