GWPF Newsletter: Appetite For Electric Cars In Britain Collapses As Pandemic Squeezes Finances

 

Britain Faces Growing Risk Of Blackouts, National Grid Boss Warns

In this newsletter:

1) Appetite For Electric Cars In UK Collapses As Pandemic Squeezes Finances
Financial Times, 3 September 2020 
   

2) Britain Faces Growing Risk Of Blackouts, National Grid Boss Warns
The Times, 2 September 2020

Clive Bibby: Self sufficiency should be an integrated part of our recovery

Last week's column suggested free marketeers might have to look at making some adjustments to their advocacy in support of a post Covid restructured economy.

I volunteered one example of how we might do this but did not mean to imply that we should be returning to what some consider to be the "bad old days" during the Muldoon years when government controlled far too much of the supply chain.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: James Shaw has bigger problem than Green School saga

I don't think James Shaw has yet managed to fix this problem he's created.

He's clearly scrambling to find a solution for the Green School controversy and so far that seems to be reclassifying the $12 million for the eco-school not as a grant but a loan.

But that's not going to solve much.

Because it doesn't really matter what he calls it – a grant or a loan or fairy dust – the fact is the money will still be allocated to the Green School. Which means it isn't available to other schools that need it more desperately.

GWPF Newsletter: World’s Largest Corn Harvest In History Expected

 

Best Indian Rainfall Since 1901 Raises Hopes For Record Harvest

In this newsletter:

1) World’s Largest Corn Harvest In History Expected
World Grain News, 31 August 2020
 

2) Best Indian Rainfall Since 1901 Raises Hopes For Record Harvest
Economic Times of India, 31 August 2020

Oliver Hartwich: Turning cities into ghost towns

Walking around central Wellington, more shops are boarded up. On Lambton Quay, two bank branches recently disappeared. Just as the two Burger Kings on Lambton Quay and Courtney Place. Walking down Featherston St, there are empty shops every 40 or 50 metres.

Reports from New Zealand’s forbidden city, formerly known as Auckland, sound even more alarming.

Where Wellington’s economy was cushioned by steady public sector employment, Auckland felt the brunt of a private sector contraction and now another lockdown. A quick online search of advertised retail premises returned 122 listings in Takapuna alone.

Mike's Minute: Was a level 3 lockdown ever actually needed?

So lessons from level 3 and 2. 

Firstly, only Auckland is different today, the rest of the country is still held captive in a state many can still not fully explain. No cases, nothing close to cases, and yet limited in operation and movement through nothing more than deep conservatism and ideology.

Auckland is down to 2, and what we ask is, what's different this morning as opposed to yesterday, the day before, or any day over the past two and a half weeks?

We still have cases; they're still linked to the original cluster. There's the odd case where the immediate connection isn't instantly linked, but I think the vast majority of us have concluded this is a border leak not a community problem. Therefore we have trouble because we learned little if anything from last time.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Musings from Beirut – paying $35 for a pound of butter

The catastrophic loss of the value of a currency is not an unknown phenomenon in world history.

The Chinese experienced a period of hyperinflation when they first started printing money. People taking bag-fulls of near-worthless money to buy essential groceries in 1920s Germany is legendary. The Zimbabwe Dollar went the same way many years later – the Reserve Bank stopped calculating the inflation rate once it topped 250 million percent.

The Lebanese Lira, or Lebanese Pound (international code ‘LBP’, local abbreviation ‘LL’) first ran into big trouble during the civil war when it plummeted from LL4 to the US dollar to, eventually, around LL4,000. Colleagues here have told me how they literally saw 99.9% of their savings being wiped out. It explains why so many of them stayed on after retirement age.

Garrick Tremain: Irony!

Here is Garrick Tremain's latest cartoon commentary!

GWPF Newsletter: UN-Backed Climate Fund Faces Wave Of Abuse Allegations From Staff

 

New Decarbonisation Policy Scandal That Could Bankrupt A Generation

In this newsletter:

1) UN-Backed Climate Fund Faces Wave Of Abuse Allegations From Staff
Financial Times, 26 August 2020
 

2) UK Government Bracing For Extinction Rebellion Cyber Attacks 
Gaia Fawkes, 28 August 2020

Karl du Fresne: I despair for Wellington

I have a lot of affection for Wellington. I spent most of my working life there. Two of my children were born there. Many of my oldest and closest friends live there still.

It’s a place full of pleasant memories for me. I enjoyed my first non-European meal at the Shanghai restaurant in Manners St. I had my first under-age beer in the infamous Bistro Bar at the Royal Oak Hotel. I met the woman who became my wife in The Beachcomber at Oriental Bay. I knew most of Wellington’s pubs and I played in bands in its bars, cabarets and dance halls. In later years I spent many pleasurable hours exploring the city’s nooks and crannies on my mountain bike or on foot with our dog.

NZCPR Weekly: Political Agenda Endangers Lives

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR-Weekly newsletter, we investigate the dangerous separatist agenda that claims institutional racism and colonisation are to blame for Maori child abuse and highlight the real problem, our NZCPR Guest Commentator former Judge Brian Giesbrecht shares his first-hand experience of the disastrous impact on children when Canada allowed tribal authorities to gain control of child protection services, and our poll asks whether you believe priority status on hospital waiting lists should be based on clinical needs or race.

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

Barry Soper - What has New Zealand Government learnt from virus?

Five months ago we were all beginning to hunker down, to stay at home, to only venture out for the vital necessities of life like food.

For all of us it's been a long, hard slog - particularly for Auckland, which by Sunday night will have been in lockdown for a total of nine weeks.

Well we've learnt to be obedient, to stay at home, to wash our hands, to be kind and from next week to accept that we'll be wearing masks when we climb on public transport.

But what have they learnt, those who call the shots that we are all ordered to follow. Well, the answer is surely bugger all.

Breaking Views Update: Week of 23.08.20

Friday August 28, 2020

News:
Matakana Island proposal: Panepane Point plan prompts encouraging level of interest
The proposal to return part of Matakana Island to Māori has already prompted an encouraging level of interest from people keen to have their say.

On July 28, Western Bay of Plenty District Council voted to consult on a proposal to return Panepane Point, also known as Purakau, to five Ngai te Rangi hapū. Like Mauao, the land will remain open to public access.

Peter Kurti: Beware the sinister dangers of cancel culture

First they came for the cheese. Last month, Canadian company Saputo agreed to change the name of its Coon brand of cheese. Indigenous rights activist Stephen Hagan quickly claimed victory in his long-running battle against the food brand.

Even though the cheese – named after American cheese maker Edward William Coon, who patented the ripening process involved in its manufacture in 1926 – had been on sale in Australia since 1935, Hagan insisted the name had racist connotations. So now it’s gone.

Next they came for the milk. 

Clive Bibby: Are you sitting down!

We sold most of the farm to our Iwi neighbours some time ago. Failing health and an interest in our colourful heritage combined to point what we retained of the farming partnership in a new direction.

We had to do something and here's why!

While we are greatful for the fortnightly New Zealand Superannuation payments, it is difficult to imagine people our age (76 this year) surviving on it alone - even if the home is mortgage free. So, for those of us who have (for whatever reason) not planned well enough for these twilight years, the prospects are not good - especially when something as disruptive as Covid 19 suddenly controls what happens to us all.

GWPF Newsletter: 'Green Recovery' Flops

 

ESG Investment Performed Worse Than Overall Market During Covid Recovery, Study Warns

In this newsletter:

1) ‘Green Recovery’ Flops: ESG Investment Performed Worse Than Overall Market During Covid Recovery, Study Warns
Institutional Investor, 20 August 2020

2) Eurozone Industry Fears EU's 'Green Recovery' Will Be Shortlived
Financial Times, 24 August 2020

Joseph D'Aleo: Climate Alarmist Claim Rebuttals

Alarmist Claim Rebuttal Overview - with updates through 08/04/20.

Below are a series of rebuttals of the 11 most common climate alarmists’ claims such as those made in the recently released Fourth National Climate Assessment Report. The authors of these rebuttals are all recognized experts in the relevant fields.

Guy Steward: The Mask Debate

The talk ramping up over the possible mandating in New Zealand of face masks in indoor environments from Alert Level 2 up, in order to prevent transmission of COVID19, is of more than passing interest to us laypeople. There’s debate worldwide about their effectiveness – maybe they are, maybe they aren’t – and even expert opinion has been far from settled.

Some, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (April, 2020), and #MASKS4ALL believe that everyone should use them.

There are others, focusing on handwashing and isolation, who maintain that the aerosol particles are too fine to be blocked by most masks and the virus is mostly spread through skin contact.

And there are those well qualified who are uncertain about it (e.g., Paul Glasziou, Professor of Medicine, Bond University and Chris Del Mar, Professor of Public Health, Bond University, Science Alert, April, 2020).

Breaking Views Update: Week of 16.08.20

Saturday August 22, 2020

News:
Māori framework sets ground rules for council
Auckland Council has adopted an Outcomes for Māori Framework, five years after a treaty audit recommended such a framework be an urgent priority.

Councillor Angela Dalton, who heads the Māori portfolio, says the CCO Review spelled out again how the council was not delivering for Māori.

Henry Armstrong: You Cannot Unhappen History

The recent excitement  prompting many New Zealanders to do away with statues and place names connected to our national history, raises a huge question about who we are as a nation and what our young people are to be instructed in regarding our “emerging national identity”--  a phrase used by our  exalted leader in her comments about the compulsory teaching of New Zealand history in our schools from 2020.

I cannot believe that in New Zealand in the 21^st century, there are so many whose understanding of our history, (if indeed they have any knowledge of or interest in it) is so shallow. But such shallowness can be exploited by our government and a pathetically incompetent, totally biased, politicised media, as a portent to teaching New Zealand history to the next generation of school children. And I am appalled that so many of our educators seem to be supportive of a potentially revised, sanitised, selective and in places, untruthful presentation of New Zealand’s history.