Who would Helen Clark turn straight for?
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Friday, October 24, 2008
POLL: NZ Herald Digipoll, October 24 2008
The latest New Zealand Herald Digipoll for October 24 2008 shows National still with a commanding lead ahead of Labour. This continues the trend of big leads for National and contrast yesterdays TNS poll:
If the poll results were translated into votes, National could govern alone with 50.4 per cent of decided voters and 63 seats.
Prime Minister and Labour leader Helen Clark has improved in the preferred Prime Minister stakes, by 2.3 points, putting her fractionally ahead of National leader John Key, 45.4 per cent to 44.8 per cent. It is the first time she has been ahead since January.
Labour's 37 per cent poll figure means it would be able to muster 54 seats with the Progressives and the Greens.
The Maori Party, with four seats, would not hold the balance of power. Nor would it do so if it won all seven Maori seats but stayed on its 2.4 per cent poll rating in the party vote.
It looks likely that National party will govern alone based on today's polling.
Herald Digipollsc Political Animal 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Long-term portfolio view wins the investing battle
Carrying on from last weeks look at my Portfolio and how it is getting a pasting, I have to make a point to those that have poked their ignorant little tongues at my propensity to invest in companies for the long-term.
As many who follow the Share Investor Blog might know I follow Warren Buffett's approach to investing as much as I can; buy stocks at a price that I consider value for the long-term, in good companies that have a competitive advantage, a good track record, excellent prospects for growth and good dividends.
The bulk of my portfolio is around 6 years old, but I have added some more stocks with additional money and dividend income.
My portfolio is currently up by around 7% when tax credits are included and in my not so humble opinion, considering the pasting global stockmarkets have been getting over the last year and especially in the last month a stockmarket meltdown rivaling the 1987 crash and yet my portfolio has performed extremely well.
This is principally because I have taken a long-term view to my stockmarket investing, received healthy dividends, re-invested most of them and haven't sold and because of that it has put the portfolio in good stead during the inevitable current downturn.
Of course, short-term things could get worse but long-term you will wish you didn't sell up because I will still be there when you start buying again.
Recent Share Investor Reading
- Long VS Short: Freightways Ltd
- Briscoe's cash worth looking at
- "Sin" stocks saintly for the Wallet
- Bonds: "Investment Grade" Bonds
- Attractive looking Stock Prices
- Warren Buffett Week
Bear Market Investing Strategies (Wiley Trading) by Harry D. Schultz
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c Share Investor 2008
Deluded media beat-up denies public the truth
The media attention to Lockwood Smith's comments 2 days ago about immigrants and their abilities or otherwise to do particular jobs or the inability to toilet themselves without coaching were interesting.
It wasn't the comments that were controversial in any way whatsoever because certain races do have particular physical or mental traits that make them good at one thing and crap at another. Lockwood Smith was simply conveying the truth, from information passed on by employers who have experience with immigrant workers.
The controversy really lies at the reaction from the politically correct media, lefty politicians and John Key's over the top reaction to publicly censor Smith for no particular reason other than he might have pissed a few Wellington egg heads off, and to get the snivelling media off his back.
For Smith to have to apologise to professional racist Taniana Turia is really scraping the barrel of filth.
One might also like to point out that the All Blacks have mostly Island and Maori Boys, the Tall Blacks have mostly tall players, most sprinters and the majority of NBA players are black, jockeys are small and light and mostly white and the New Zealand Woman's netball team is, well, fully comprised of women.
All participants in these sports are picked because of their particular abilities and certainly black athletes prevail in sports that require strength, speed, and brute force.
Nothing racist about picking people by ability in this way at all, or to point it out, like Lockwood Smith did, that this is the case.
To vilify an individual in this way by using PC group speak such as "racist" and "bigot" is merely giving way to an intellectually bankrupt idea that those that speak the loudest, with inappropriate labeling and have the opportunity to do so-such as the media and barking mad socialists like Helen Clark-are right simply because someone might be "offended" by the truth.
What this does is stifle free and open speech and quite simply removes us several factors away from truth and therefore democracy.
Interesting that David Cunliffe, who apparently has a propensity to try and eradicate racism from the face of the earth had a go at the Asian accent Benny Hill Style in 2005 when he mocked Pansy Wong's in Parliament but little was made of it by the mainstream media.
Go figure.
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