Paula Backs Bill English

Rather predictably, Bill English has taken over the role of New Zealand's Prime Minister after John Key jumped ship. Now the National Party has chosen Paula Bennett as his deputy. Paula prides herself as a "Westie" - from the rougher side of Auckland and will bring a sparkle to the election later this year. Whether this odd couple will charm their way back into power remains to be seen. With John Key gone the polling scores between Labour and National are very likely to be much more even. But the real winner will be NZ First's Winston Peters, in my opinion, as excessive immigration, inequality, housing and low wages are making NZ a harder place to earn a living.

Key Resigns When Job Grinds Him Down

Whooopeee! The big question is why John Key has quit as New Zealand's Prime Minister. I suspect that the ex-money trader knows that political and economic cold winds will be blowing next year and will soon expose how damaging his tenure as Prime Minister has been. So he is cashing in his chips while he can. I will not miss him, however I know many others will be sad to see him go. Time will tell if is something more personal. Perhaps his strange children need his full attention, if they do, then I wish them well.

Shootin' His Mouth Off

Trump is at it again. From what I heard on Radio NZ, he has let his tongue get away on him once more and this time inviting the NRA (National Rifle Association) to stop Hillary Clinton amending the constitutional right of citizens in the USA to bear arms. Saying with a wink that this action would be horrible, shows that probably he knew that what he said might be seen as an invitation for a possible assassination. American politics is getting weirder and weirder.

Right On

I have given my new Asics shoes a walkabout and they feel really good. Plenty of space for my toes and wonderfully cushioned - making walking an extra pleasure. This is my third pair of Asics and the last pair have lasted over 6 years - which is truly remarkable. They have not finished their service even now (but near to it) and when my daughter gave me a new pair for my birthday, I had fears that buying such a personal thing over the Internet without a test driving was a tad risky. These fears got worse when they got left behind in the USA by accident and they made an extra unintended journey .

All is ok I am glad to say and I will prolong their life like I did for their predecessors, with regular applications of Dubbin for the leather and 'Armor All' for the synthetic parts.

Up and Out

Auckland's Unitary Plan has been released and includes recommendations to allow more high rise houses in "Leafy Suburbs" and more rural land to be zoned residential. One of the aims has been to reduce the huge increases in house prices and improve house availability - and yet nothing has been done to stop foreign buyers distorting the NZ house market. Apparently there are now large numbers of empty houses in NZ now that are being bought as purely tax dodges and part of a very dangerous gambling game that risks our entire economy. Go figure!!

Clinton Gets The Bird

Hillary Clinton seems to think she will be the only Democratic  candidate in the next U.S. presidential election now that she has sufficient pledged delegates to take to the Democratic Convention in July. However, rumours continue to circulate around the Internet that the Bernie Sanders campaign is not quite over. He is still attracting thousands of supporters to his meetings who are showing their support for a "New Deal" in American political and economic directions to restore the damage done by 30 years of neo-liberals wrecking the U.S. economy. If Hillary Clinton wants the job really sown up then surely she knows that she must take Bernie with her in some way or other to guaranty her to be the next U.S. President.

Will Clinton have the courage to bite the hand that feeds her campaign funds and take Bernie Sanders and the ideals he stands for onboard as part of her campaign? I hope so, if she does not and tries to campaign under the banner "business as usual - plus a few tweeks", then the economically dispossessed might well vote for..............God forbid.... DONALD TRUMP!

PS The really observant might notice an acknowledgement to one of my illustrating heros, Peter De Séve. When I saw his illustration of a bird perching itself on a baseball player's bat, I immediately thought of the little bird that perched on Bernie Sander's podium while he was delivering a speech at a packed out stadium - and so this cartoon idea was born.

Brexit: The Silenced Majority Makes A Choice

Some people are bound to ask "What is he on about with this one?" I think it is obvious if you have been following the news, so have another look if you cannot see its meaning at first. I thought about labeling the options, but sometimes it is best to just let the drawing say it.

If is still a mystery, then I will say that it seems that a majority of disaffected (older and working class) British voters have decided to exit the European Union when they were given the rare chance to do so by referendum. They appeared to be fed up with the unrestricted flow of European workers into Britain - plus all the thousands of other nationalities who are arriving there every day. Also, ever since Britain entered the E.E.C many Brits were irritated by the unelected Brussel's  Bureaucracy telling them what to do - or more likely, what not to do.

Here in NZ our economy took a severe hit when Britain joined the E.E.C.. I wonder if Britain will now be once more open again for all our exports in the future? Time will tell after a year or two I think. In the meantime, there will no doubt be a backlash and perhaps even another referendum coming up when Scotland tries once again to leave the United Kingdom. We live in interesting times. I never thought this would happen, perhaps the rest of Europe needs to re-evaluate who they want to rule them and more importantly - how.