It's OK when my team do it

rOb at the standard shows how partisan he is again

rOb uses the M.C. Escher picture of endless churn to represent National's recent announcements of impending tax changes. This is the same rOb who has endlessly defended WFF, top tax thresholds so low that people are paying the top rate while receiving benefits and of course rOb has always been the ultimate defender of status quo - the same thing he now dislikes about National.

Back in April 2008 I asked rOb some hard questions and did he care about the issues then - no he defended them.

I'm not sure rOb really understands just how much of a hack he really is, he has all the arrogance of his idol but none of his idols intelligence. He's just a muppet.

Against anything that improves educational outcomes.

In response to this prep-school spin from NRT;

Since the beginning of the state education system, there has always been a parallel private system, catering to those who thought that any school which accepted ordinary children was not good enough for their little darlings, who could not possibly mix with the peasants lest they be contaminated.

What is he trying to say ? - look at it simply and it becomes obvious;

The private schools are funded directly by parents who also fund the state schools with their taxes. These parents feel strongly about the education of their children and even though they are required to pay thousands of $$$ a year in fees while still paying their taxes to support a system they do not use, it pisses Idiot/Savant off because the private schools produce better academic results than the 1 size fits all debacle that has no accountability.

Unfortunately, the government funds this snobbery.

OMG, the state collects tax payers money from parents who don't use the state school, and lots of it then a tiny fraction is allocated back to private schools.

...but they're now also giving out $2.6 million a year in "aspire scholarships" to poor children

That is so wrong because poor children should go to poor quality schools and get a poor quality education so they stay poor.... Any other explanation ?

The message behind this is clear: the public education system isn't good enough,

Got it in one. Well done Idiot/Savant, you tried to bury that fact in prep-school level spin but it still stands out like dog bollox as a fact that needs to be addressed.

...and everyone should instead aspire to go to a private school.

Well as they produce consistently better academic outcomes - YES they should aspire to having a choice and being able to afford to do the best by their children.

...This is not something we should be paying for.

I can see why a lefty would say that, educated voters won't vote for policies and ideologies that have failed again and again.

...The sole purpose of private schools is to promote the snobbery of the rich.

Policies of envy alive in well in lefty-la-la land. I think the private schools actually exists to educate kids - but I guess if you love mediocrity you would make an insane comment like that.

...Instead of funding that, we should be putting that money into improving our public education system so that it delivers for every child.

Well this is a first, Idiot/Savant almost gets over his envy and remembers what school is about. Promising start but then he looses it again.

...And if the wealthy want to exclude themselves from that so they can think they are better than the rest of us, they can pay for it themselves.

Idiot/Savant - wake up. The rich do pay for it and they pay for the public system they do not use. These scholarships (irrespective of how the kids are chosen) are allocated to kids who are probably not even funding their share of the public system. But I guess like I said before you simply don't want poor kids well educated or they might not vote for a dim-bulb lefty party. Which will be why this quote was never put into Idiot/Savant's prep-school hack of theHerald article.

"It's purely about increasing educational opportunities and choice for those students who wouldn't normally have the ability to go to a private school."

You are a muppet - you prove again why you won't allow comments on your MSM newsleter.

Finally they get it.

Bloody hell, it's taken being in opposition for the Muppet John A at the standard to realise that digging bigger and bigger holes denying something odorous just makes it worse.

After defending Labour in scandal after scandal it's funny to watch the Muppet's shuffle from defending the indefensible to being sticklers for principle. These people are great in opposition, pity they don't demand the same standard from their own leaders as they demand from their opposition.

Note: I support an investigation into Melissa Lee's dealings in this. Public money has been spent so accountability is required. I'm going to have a field day with the Muppet's if National end up validating this.

Is Hide on his way to the Priveleges Committee?

Rodney Hide may breached privilege by seriously misleading the House.

This is one for you legal types out there but from a layperson’s perspective it looks like it. Here’s what happened

On Wednesday, Phil Twyford (or Twif-ford as Hide insists on calling him) asked Hide whether “he has costed the super-city proposal outlined in [the government's report]?”. Hide replied simply “Yes”.

On Thursday, Twyford asked Hide “How much will the government’s super-city proposal cost to implement and to run annually?” Hide’s answer: “Implementation costs will be minuscule compared with the present costs of running the various Auckland councils”

Twyford followed up: “What is the cost of the Government’s super-city proposal to implement and run annually?” Hide tried to avoid answering and eventually gave the minuscule answer again. Speaker Lockwood Smith told him that wasn’t good enough and asked him to give the cost if he had it (Trevor Mallard pointed out Hide had already said he did have it). Hide ummed and ahhed some more, Gerry Brownlee tried to cover for him but Smith insisted on an answer. This was it - Hide: ”The government actually does not have the cost of implementation”

But wait a minute, just a day earlier he had said the government did have the cost and the ‘miniscule’ comments imply he knows the cost, wasn’t that seriously misleading the House?

Oh dear. It's not looking good for Rodney. Serious this upsets me. I've always thought of Rodney as one of the few people in Parliament who actually took ethics and process seriously. I'm disappointed to say the least.

However, imagine if Rodney is censured by the privileges committee - the authors of the standard will be telling us that like Winston it's nothing serious really. He'll get admonished, perhaps be told he's a naughty boy by his major party leader who can do no wrong and we will all move on.

So what do you reckon Eddie? - we apply the same standard of "what do we do now" to Rodney if hes censured as was applied to Winston?

I think he should resign his ministerial warrant if he is censured - thats what I said for Winston as well. Look I hope its not the case, but if it is I'm going to enjoy posting all sorts of links to compare what the authors of the standard say about Rodney compared to what they said about Winston.

Take care guys - the burt is watching.

Oh dear - Hyde the costs.

How embarrassing. lprent must have decided that since he can't fix the bug riddled Eddie he will try and be a political commentator.

He has a point, but he looses the thread and starts shooting his mouth off about all the things he is upset about, the same things he has defended Labour for. I'm starting to get an idea why Eddie is so myopic....

It is a bit disturbing all the same, Rodney Hide has been forced to admit that he has no idea of the costs of his super-city proposal. Phil Twyford with the aid of the speaker cornered him into an admission that he’d been acting like a Labour party person and spending money like he has a surplus to hide so he can tell us "No tax cuts".

The Minister has been caught out trying to mislead Aucklanders about whether the Government has done those costings and only acknowledged there were none, when ordered by the Speaker in the House today.

Yesterday I asked Mr Hide whether the Government had costed its Super City proposals, as outlined in its Making Auckland Greater booklet, and he answered ‘yes’.

Today when I asked what those costing were, Mr Hide danced on the head of a pin as he tried to evade the question, until he was finally ordered by the Speaker to come clean.

I'm pretty disgusted actually, Rodney talked the talk big time when he was in opposition about being responsible with tax payers money, proper process for passing laws and the need for referendums. Now the plonker is just acting like a self serving Labour party and thinking he knows what is best for us.

I'm not happy but I do smirk when lprent starts slagging off Rodney for all the same things I use to slag Labour off for. The same things that lprent defended when Labour did them. (no referendums, use of urgency to pass laws and uncontrolled spending on PR and spin)

Well as far as I'm concerned this shit is wrong irrespective of which party is doing it. I get the feeling that we are going to see a lot more of this at the double standard, the defenders of the indefensible don't like it when it's not their party doing it - I just don't like it at all.