Karl du Fresne: There goes my collection of Viking records

I bristled – boy, did I bristle! – when I read that the housing company G J Gardner had withdrawn a TV commercial after someone objected that the name “Taranaki” wasn’t correctly pronounced.

Te Waka McLeod reportedly complained to the company and suggested its staff attend a “cultural competency” course. G J Gardner initially rebuffed her, explaining that the people in the ad were not paid actors but real people, born and bred in Taranaki, and this was how they chose to pronounce the name. “It’s a personal choice, this keeps our ad authentic.”

Justin Haskins: Al Gore Has Strong Connections to the Global Socialist ‘Great Reset’ Movement

Earlier this month, the World Economic Forum (WEF), a highly influential nonprofit organization based in Europe, announced its plan to push for a “Great Reset” of global capitalism.

Among the many world leaders who have already publicly backed the plan are Prince Charles of the United Kingdom; Antonio Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general; Bernard Looney, CEO of BP, formerly known as British Petroleum; Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard; Bradford Smith, president of Microsoft; and Gina Gopinath, chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

The stated purpose of the “Great Reset” is to use the coronavirus pandemic as a justification to overhaul the entire global economy, including the U.S. economy, to make the world more “equitable” in economic terms and to fight climate change, which has on numerous occasions been identified as the world’s next great “crisis” by advocates of the plan.

Melanie Phillips: Obama hails anarchy and mob rule as “a great awakening”

Former US president Barack Obama has expressed satisfaction at what he described as “a great awakening going on around the country”.

Let’s see what this “great awakening” has involved.

Black Lives Matter, the group behind it, is a far left, anti-white, anti-capitalist, anti-family revolutionary movement with openly expressed aims of destroying western culture and society.

In the insurrection it has led, statues commemorating great people in American history have been torn down in acts of mass vandalism and criminal damage on the basis that they represent “white colonialism” or “white privilege”.

GWPF Newsletter: EU Ministers Exclude Nuclear & Gas From Green Transition Fund

Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman quits green movement to become a campaigner for nuclear power saying: 'I changed my mind'

In this newsletter:

1) EU Ministers Exclude Nuclear & Gas From Green Transition Fund
EurActiv, 26 June 2020

2) Good News: Even Radical Greens Can Change Their Mind
Daily Mail, 25 June 2020

John Robinson: Fighting racism across the political divide - anger and positive action

After having researched the Maori social situation for many years, I fell afoul of the demand for political correctness within the growing grievance industry and set out to understand what had actually happened.  

A simple analysis of the Maori population in the nineteenth century (which was turned down by the NZ Population Review as it dared to suggest that Maori benefitted from the Treaty of Waitangi) led on to a series of books on early Maori history and culture.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 21.06.20

Saturday June 27, 2020

News:
Two Hamilton hotels to take in returning Kiwis
Two Hamilton hotels will house returning Kiwis from next week.

One is the Hamilton central Ibis, a Waikato-Tainui asset, a statement from the iwi said.

NZCPR Weekly: Border Botch-Ups

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week, we raise concerns about Government incompetence at the border and the risk that this creates for all New Zealanders, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Barry Brill outlines the case against the Government over the legality of the Alert Level 4 lockdown, and our poll asks whether you consider the Government’s border control performance has let the country down.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

GWPF Newsletter: EU Made ‘No Progress’ In Climate Action Over Past Five Years, Eurostat Reveals

In this newsletter:

1) EU Made ‘No Progress’ In Climate Action Over Past Five Years, Eurostat Reveals
Energy Live News, 23 June 2020

2) EU Recovery Fund Ignores Climate Targets, Experts Say
EurActiv, 22 June 2020

GWPF Newsletter: What Happened To Greenland’s Tipping Point?

In this newsletter:

1) What Happened To Greenland’s Tipping Point?
Not A Lot Of People Know That, 22 June 2020

2) Joel Kotkin: The Green Civil War
Real Clear Energy, 19 June 2020

Garrick Tremain: Claims

Here is Garrick Tremain's latest cartoon commentary - from the Archives!

CLICK TO VIEW

Theodore Dalrymple: The sanctification of George Floyd

When I first saw the mural of George Floyd with large angel wings, I assumed that it was a satire on his sanctification – effective, perhaps, but not in the best of taste. Shortly afterwards, however, I realised that the mural was in earnest: the picture of the mural in the newspaper included a man genuflecting before it and the caption said that he was making a ‘pilgrimage’. Apparently, St Peter can no longer cope alone at the Pearly Gates: he need bouncers too, Heaven having become something like a nightclub.

George Floyd was not a saint; in fact, he was a bad man, and being killed by a brutal policeman does not change a man’s life from bad to good. 

He was a man of many convictions – criminal convictions, that is, not political ones – and at least one of his crimes was of deep-dyed malignity. Along with five others, he broke into a pregnant woman’s house and held her at gunpoint while his associates ransacked the house for drugs and money. This is not the kind of crime that results from a sudden surrender to temptation. It was premeditated and planned, albeit not very intelligently or successfully.

Matt Ridley: Could the Key to Covid be Found in the Russian Pandemic?

From lethal pandemic to common cold: what we can learn from the events of 1889-90.

The killer came from the east in winter: fever, cough, sore throat, aching muscles, headache and sometimes death. It spread quickly to all parts of the globe, from city to city, using new transport networks. In many cities, the streets were empty and shops and schools deserted. A million died. The Russian influenza pandemic of 1889-90 may hold clues to what happens next — not least because the latest thinking is that it, too, may have been caused by a new coronavirus.

In addition to the new diseases of Sars, Mers and Covid-19, there are four other coronaviruses that infect people. They all cause common colds and are responsible for about one in five such sniffles, the rest being rhinoviruses and adenoviruses. As far as we can tell from their genes, two of these coronaviruses came from African bats (one of them bizarrely via alpacas or camels), and two from Asian rodents, one of them via cattle.

Melanie Phillips: The Barbarians Inside the Gates

For the past three decades, some of us have been warning that the inevitable outcome of what the universities have been pumping out under the misnomer of “education” would be what we are indeed seeing today – a shocking and violent onslaught against the core western and civilised values that they have so systematically undermined.

It was university-based dogma that abolished objectivity and replaced it by the authority of subjective feelings. All values became relative. No-one had the right to say that the way anyone lived, or the principles or characteristics of any culture, were better or worse than any other.

Truth became a matter of personal opinion. Abolishing objective truth opened the way to the hegemony of lies. Rationality was destroyed. As Allan Bloom observed in his mordant valedictory for civilisation, the western mind was being closed.

Clive Bibby: Communities should decide

Reports of a "sale by tender" of one of our most iconic livestock farming properties - Mangaheia Station, inland from Tolaga Bay -  is welcome news for most of us who have been nervously watching the process since it was listed for sale.

Foremost amongst the reasons for our satisfaction with the result is the fact that the property is now in the hands of two local farming families with long histories of adding value to everything they commit to.

It could have been so different!

GWPF Newsletter: Green Self-Censorship

Natural Climate Change in Antarctica Is No News

In this newsletter:

1) Natural Climate Change in Antarctica Is No News
The GWPF Observatory, 18 June 2020
 
2) Model Failures: Inflated Pandemic Estimates Weaken Climate Forecasts
Adam Creighton, The Australian, 17 June 2020

Point of Order: Gun owners aggrieved by new firearms legislation

Latest from the Beehive

The New Zealand Police Association has declared it is both pleased and relieved that Parliament voted to pass into law the Arms Legislation Bill.

Association President Chris Cahill said many of the reforms heralded in the bill fall into the ‘better late than never’ category with some at least 30 years overdue.

Naomi Seibt: Climate of Freedom - The Consensus Fraud

Naomi Seibt is a 19-year old from Germany who questions the claims that mankind is responsible for catastrophic global warming that is killing the planet.

Here, along with along with Lord Christopher Monckton, she reveals that the claim made by climate extremists that there is a "97% consensus" amongst climate scientists that humans are causing catastrophic global warming, is a fraud.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 14.06.20

Saturday June 20, 2020

News:
Cancer Control Agency Receives Māori Name
The national Cancer Control Agency, established in December last year, has been gifted a new Māori name.

The name Te Aho o te Kahu is being gifted to the Cancer Control Agency by Dame Naida Glavish and Matua Gary Thompson from Hei Āhuru Mōwai, Māori Cancer Leadership Aotearoa. The new name was formally gifted to the Cancer Control Agency today at a ceremony at Parliament hosted by the Minister of Health.

GWPF Newsletter: India & China Announce New Coal Boom

India 'Frees Coal Sector From Decades Of Lockdown'

In this newsletter:

1) Unleashing Coal: PM Modi Announces India's New Coal Boom
IANS News Service, 18 June 2020
 

2) India 'Frees Coal Sector From Decades Of Lockdown': PM Launches Commercial Mining Auctions
IANS News Service, 18 June 2020

NZCPR Weekly: Dangerous Agendas

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week, we look into the statue controversy and other dangerous agendas being progressed under the cloak of recent protests, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Melanie Phillips warns that the refusal of society’s leaders to defend western culture is threatening our future, and our poll asks whether you support the removal of colonial era statues, street and community names deemed by some to be ‘offensive’.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

Frank Newman: Straight Talk - Hamilton or Kirikiriroa?

National MP Todd Muller is showing his true worth as a leader of the Party. In a speech at the Te Puna Rugby Club on the weekend he has added his thoughts to the debate about the removal of the Captain Hamilton statue. 

That statue of course was removed at the initiative of Hamilton's first term Mayor, Paula Southgate, after a Maori sovereignty activist threatened to deface it. Presumably the Black Lives Matter protests presented the perfect opportunity for him to do so again, having already defaced it in 2018.

Here's what Mr Muller is reported to have said: "It's not for a leader of a political party to say what statue goes or stays…One of the strengths of our country is we are able to have the capacity for conversations like this."

Great to have that cleared up!

GWPF Newsletter: Britain Goes Nuclear As Rolls-Royce Triggers £250 Billion Mini Reactor Race

China Threatens To Pull Plug On New British Nuclear Power Plants

In this newsletter:

1) Britain Goes Nuclear As Rolls-Royce Triggers £250 Billion Mini Reactor Race
Mail on Sunday, 14 June 2020

2) China Threatens To Pull Plug On New British Nuclear Power Plants
The Sunday Times, 7 June 2020

Garrick Tremain: Be-headed!

Here is Garrick Tremain's latest cartoon commentary!>

CLICK TO VIEW

Henry Armstrong: The Great New Zealand Dichotomy

Contemporary New Zealand is an extremely unsettling, somewhat sad, place to live in the 21^st century. It is full of absolute  contradictions; has a political system which vigorously pursues  ethnic difference yet claims “we are one” or, “a team of five million”; where one’s individual, personal and social identity is far more important politically, than  any concept of unanimity-except for the sporting All Blacks rugby team. Prime Minister Ardern’s earnest exhortations at her daily COVID19 briefings that “we are all in this together” is absolute nonsense and verges on dishonesty.

In reality, New Zealand is well on the way to becoming a seriously divided nation endorsing overt ethnic separatism and social division. How can the PM claim such gushing unanimity when she and her government overtly act to the contrary?

Peter Holle: A Canadian Perspective - Rogernomics in 2020

Many Winnipeggers are disappointed that Exchange District restaurant Hermano’s is closing. It is just one of thousands of businesses which will not survive the government’s drastically overwrought and badly informed decision to shut down the economy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

History will show how wildly inaccurate computer models grossly exaggerated fatality projections. Unfortunately, too many folks still think holding the economy underwater will end the virus’s progression. Sadly, it is just delaying the virus; we can expect Covid to return after the summer.

But hold the panic. A May 21 National Post commentary by 4 infectious disease doctors discussed their study which showed that in Canada, the individual rate of death from COVID-19 for people under 65 years of age is just six per million people, or 0.0006 percent. This is roughly equivalent to the risk of dying from a motor vehicle accident within the same time period.

Clive Bibby: Some of you aren't going to like this

It never fails to amaze me how gullible the public are to the mis information coming from the international news media that is uncritically accepted as verifiable fact and repeated verbatim by our own news outlets. While this phenomenon is not new, it has been a developing trend for years , but we, way down here at the bottom of the planet, can't be expected to recognise the validity of every report emanating from the world's trouble spots - we should be able to rely on our local journalists who get paid to do so, disseminating the credible from the bullshit.

I'm not asking to only include stories that have a particular political bias more to my liking - just that there is a bit more balance to the coverage and inclusion of a wide cross section of opinion from those reporters who are working at the coalface of these flash points. They can't all be Trump haters although you have to wonder.

Alex Davis: NZ’s Post Covid Futures Are Bad

After days of no new Covid19 cases many New Zealanders are likely to be feeling a mixture of relief and complacency. The country dodged a bullet - now there is just the journey back to normality.

However for those prepared to look honestly at the challenges facing New Zealand a return to normality is neither simple nor guaranteed. In fact, there are strong arguments that New Zealand’s much triumphed “eradication” may have instead painted the country into corner.

GWPF Newsletter - New Study: Islands Across the World Could Adapt To Rising Sea Levels

As Subsidies Run Out, 5000 German Wind Farms Face Shutdown

In this newsletter:

1) New Study: Islands Across the World Could Adapt To Rising Sea Levels
University of Plymouth, 10 June 2020
 
2) Green NGO Deletes David Attenborough Video Amid Racism Claims
The Times, 12 June 2020

Breaking Views Update: Week of 7.06.20

Saturday June 13, 2020

News:
Hamilton City Council to remove controversial statue
Hamilton City Council is going to remove a colonial statue from its centre seen as global protests against racism and colonisation grow.

The move comes after a formal request from iwi Waikato-Tainui on Thursday, amid a growing international drive to remove statues which are seen to represent cultural disharmony and oppression.

Mike Hosking: Labour's Pike River disgrace now that victims' remains will not be recovered

So the day of reckoning, or at least a day of reckoning, has arrived. The jig is up.

Andrew Little, the Minister in charge of Pike River, fronts the appropriate select committee and reveals what most of us had worked out well before they ever entered the mine.

The retrieval of bodies is no longer practical. The simple truth, a decade on, is that the retrieval of remains was never practical.

Little perpetrates the con a little further by suggesting that the main reason they are still there, apart from perceived political gain, is to gather evidence for the crime committed.

NZCPR Weekly: The New Normal

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week, we reflect on our journey to Alert Level 1 and raise concerns about official decision-making, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Professor John Gibson shares his new research showing that lockdowns, which come at an enormous economic cost, are ineffective at reducing Covid-19 deaths, and our poll asks whether you think that Labour will introduce a capital gains tax if they are re-elected into government.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

GWPF Newsletter: EU Ditches Green Deal For Aviation Industry

BBC “Astonished” By Perfectly Usual Arctic Weather

In this newsletter:

1) EU Ditches Green Deal For Aviation Industry
Climate Home News, 9 June 2020

2) BBC “Astonished” By Perfectly Usual Arctic Weather
Not A Lot Of People Know That, 10 June 2020

GWPF Newsletter - It's Official: Germany’s Green Energy Costs Are Becoming Unaffordable

Greens On Back Foot As Germany’s Newest Coal Plant Opens

In this newsletter:

1) It's Official: Germany’s Green Energy Costs Are Becoming Unaffordable
Bloomberg, 5 June 2020

2) Greens On Back Foot As Germany’s Newest Coal Plant Opens
Financial Times, 8 June 2020

Melanie Phillips: Kneeling to surrender British and western values

When people in London demonstrating over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis shouted at police guarding the Downing Street gates “take a knee”, four Metropolitan Police officers meekly got down on one knee as demanded.

Last night, hundreds of people around Britain came out onto the streets at 6pm, in the coordinated demonstration suggested by “Stand Up to Racism” activists, and all sank to one knee.

The death of George Floyd after more than eight minutes pinned down on the ground by a police officer kneeling on his neck was appalling. But what all these Britons were doing in this act of “solidarity” was deeply shocking.

Matt Ridley: So Where Did the Virus Come From?

Research into the origins of the new coronavirus raises questions about how it became so infectious in human being.

New research has deepened, rather than dispelled, the mystery surrounding the origin of the coronavirus responsible for Covid-19. Bats, wildlife markets, possibly pangolins and perhaps laboratories may all have played some role, but the simple story of an animal in a market infected by a bat that then infected several human beings no longer looks credible.

Clive Bibby: The difference between us and them

As we try to extricate ourselves from this, as it turns out - unnecessary "total lockdown", we should try and salvage what we can from the smouldering embers - at least so we are better prepared for the next time when we will have a lot less number of options to use in mitigation.

In the time between now and then, countries desperately trying to re-establish their economies as something approaching its former self will be hoping that their respective constituencies have accepted the lessons we should have learned from the calamitous experience. Unfortunately, history suggests that might be a forlorn hope.

CALM: Smokescreen

With the referendum on cannabis coming soon, here's a thought-provoking commentary from the US on the dangers of cannabis use, which also makes the point that medical marijuana is used as a smokescreen to legalise recreational use:



Don't forget to share this with others if you are concerned - the direst link is HERE...

Lloyd Marcus: This Black American Deems Floyd Protests Unnecessary

As a black American, Democrats and fake news media demand that I agree with the George Floyd protests. I say the protests are unnecessary and are totally politically motivated. The American people of all races including President Trump have expressed their outrage over the wrongful death of Mr. Floyd. The officer who killed Mr. Floyd has been charged with murder. The three officers who watched the abuse have been fired and investigated. So, where’s the beef? Why are opportunists looting stores, burning businesses, and beating up whites in the name of demanding justice? Who is opposing justice for Mr. Floyd? The answer is no one.

Therefore, what is the real purpose of the riots, hate, violence, and chaos in our streets? The answer is politics. Democrats and fake news media believe by generating racial hate, they can ensure that blacks will vote against Trump in November.

Candace Owens: "George Floyd is not a martyr - police brutality is a myth"

Candace Owens, a black American conservative political commentator who is not afraid to speak her mind, has taken to her Facebook page to set the record straight about George Floyd and those using his death to push their political agendas: 

 

GWPF Newsletter - New Study: Climate Impact Of Grazing Cattle Overestimated

BBC Invents 'Hottest May On Record'

In this newsletter:

1) New Study: Climate Impact Of Grazing Cattle Overestimated
GWPF Science, 5 June 2020

2) BBC’s Fake Claim About “Hottest May”
Not A Lot Of People Know That, 5 June 2020

Breaking Views Update: Week of 31.05.20

Saturday June 6, 2020

News:
Govt needs to 'trust Māoridom' to fix worrying justice, policing issues - Race Relations Commissioner
The Government needs to invest and trust in Māoridom to improve the overrepresentation of Māori in the justice system and their treatment by police, Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon says.

"The current system obviously isn't working so we must try another system. The only other system is by Māori for Māori," he told Breakfast today.

Henry Armstrong: The Ardern Government and Ageism - fact or fallacy?

                           

This article is purely speculative, a conspiracy theory if you will. But as an over 70, I cannot help but feel just a little uneasy at what I see and read in today’s media, regarding us oldies. What do footpaths; access to health; and taxation, all have in common? Read on!

Several recent comments by the Prime Minister , members of her Cabinet and her professional advisers  during the COVID19 pandemic crisis  suggest that lurking just below the surface of the political landscape may be an ageist agenda? That the elderly pose an economic burden on future generations?

NZCPR Weekly: A Covid Farce

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week, we outline how the Covid-19 lockdown has now become a farce and explain why an inquiry is needed, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Anthony Willy outlines the important role that Judges play in upholding the Rule of Law – especially when a government acts unlawfully, and our poll asks whether you support an independent inquiry into the lockdown.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: COVID-19 as a candidate for conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theory – the theory that an event or phenomenon occurs as a result of a conspiracy between interested parties; spec. a belief that some covert but influential agency … is responsible for an unexplained event. - Oxford English Dictionary

In a Sydney pub one day in 1983 I was engaged in conversation by an elderly man who informed me that the minerals supposedly exported by Australia to Japan actually originate in Japan from where they are transferred through submarine pipes to Aussie only to be sent back, the purpose of the deception being to create the impression of two-way trade to ensure Japanese domination in the Australian consumer market in vehicles and electronics.

GWPF Newsletter - BBC's 'Climate Change' Hype Exposed: Sunny May Was Only The 48th Warmest

Climate Wars: David v. Goliath In Cyberspace

In this newsletter:

1) BBC's 'Climate Change' Hype Exposed: Sunny May Was Only The 48th Warmest
Not A Lot Of People Know That, 3 June 2020
  

2) Climate Wars: David v. Goliath In Cyberspace
Clarice Feldman, The Pipeline, 2 June 2020

GWPF Newsletter: The Coming Dark Age & The Death Of The Scientific Method

German Authorities Are Cracking Down On ‘Climate Dissent’

In this newsletter:

1) The Coming Dark Age & The Death Of The Scientific Method
Gideon Rozner, The Australian, 30 May 2020
 

2) The Life Of Others: German Authorities Are Cracking Down On ‘Climate Dissent’
Sky News, 30 May 2020