Road Worriers

The fuss made over the proposed motorway tunnels going through the suburb Mt Albert and through to Waterview reminds all of us of the elitism that rules the Labour Party and some of those that vote for them.

It is OK to put open motorways throughout Auckland through a number of different suburbs, some of them wealthy and some of them less so but not through Mt Albert, where the former Prime Minister lived?

Aparently yes, if you are a Labour Party member.

We are all well aware of driving along the Southern Motorway, through suburb after suburb along an above ground piece of tarmac, sometimes ten lanes in width.

True, motorways can now be built better above ground, with noise walls and noise dampening surfaces but they are a necessary evil.

The last link in Auckland's motorway system, the Waterview connection is the most crucial part of the system because it completes a road system designed in the 1950s to move future traffic.

The proposal by Labour was for a $3 billion plus unfunded tunnel of approximately 4km that was never going to go ahead under Helen Clark's reign of terror because it would have cost her votes and possibly her power. So it was a political decision to stall the motorway rather than a practical one to go forward and progress-hardly surprising given Labour's track record.

Labour took 9 years to get something done and failed. This left Mt Albert residents affected by the new road in limbo and it left Auckland as a whole losing 10s of millions of dollars a year because of lost time due to extra travel around the Mt Albert area.

What makes Mt Albert residents and surrounds such special people, nothing really, they aren't.

It was simply Labours elitist political approach that made it seem normal to them that spending more than $3 billion of taxpayer money on Mt Albert tunnels instead of half a billion on an open highway to keep political power and expecting people in South Auckland (ironically where Labour has BIG support), where that 10 lane highway I mentioned above cuts through, to pay for it.

We now have a decision and the road (PDF)is going to be built.  

About bloody time.

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c Political Animal 2009

Rankin's appointment stirs the Lazy Left

To have the Labour Party, Sue Bradford, that guy from the United Future Party (isn't that name an oxymoron with just one member?) and the navel gazing left media disagree with something means you surely must be on the road to something momentously truthful.

Having appointed Christine Rankin a commissioner in the Families Commission (not sure what they do, does anyone?) the left gets frothy at the mouth over an attractive well dressed woman with a strong opinion that they disagree with and the balls to make it known to everyone, simply because they feel threatened by her common sense and drive.

The fact that she comes from a practical background from the "wrong side of the tracks", instead of the Labour Party breeding ground of university political studies classes and unions brings their hackles up even more.

They feel threatened, challenged and understandably nervous with a capable person in their midst.

I cant wait for the shake up because these academics, theorists, leftist brain dead bureaucrats need a good kicking.

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c Political Animal 2009

Dead Cats & Vicious Bears 2: The Cat Bounces Higher

Back on March 24 I wrote about the dead cat bounce that had been the "stockmarket recovery" up to that time:

Stocks like Fletcher Building [FBU.NZ] are up more than 20% on recent lows, Mainfreight [MFT.NZ] up by nearly 20%, Sky City Entertainment [SKC.NZ], Goodman Fielder [GFF.NZ], Briscoe Group [BGR.NZ], Hallenstein Glasson [HLG.NZ] and Ryman Healthcare [RYM.NZ] all up over 10%. The NZX is up nearly 200 points, 43 of them today. Markets around the world are up dizzying amounts over the last week and a half, the DOW alone leaping around 1000 points off 13 year lows. It gained nearly 500 points today in the third highest ever percentage gain in the indexes history.

Since then the NZX has added another 250 points plus, the DOW is up a further 1000 points to close at over 8500 last Friday and there have been incredible gains on a wide range of stocks listed on the New Zealand bourse, I mean really incredible gains of more than 50% in some cases, all in the space of a mere two months! 

Gee whiz it is like a bull market! (can you feel the sarcasm?)

Retail stocks seem to be among the biggest gainers, as they were the biggest losers when the economy started to fall apart last year

Pumpkin Patch [RYM.NZ] up from 80c to 1.38, Ryman Healthcare [RYM.NZ] up from less than $1.20 to $1.72, Briscoe Group [BGR.NZ] 55c to 94c and Restaurant Brands[RBD.NZ], that serial loser that runs the KFC franchise, up from the high 50s to nearly a buck!

The stocks I mentioned in March have gained considerably, with Ryman Healthcare[RYM.NZ] alone putting on an additional 30% in share price.

What has fundamentally changed though?

A B-I-G fat nothing.

Market sentiment has surely done a 180, but sentiment should be set aside for old Meg Ryan movies, not buying stocks as they go up in price.

Who was buying when they were going South?

Nobody, but market fundamentals were the same then as they are now, terrible!

Makes no sense to me and I think sentiment might come back into the market when investors getting in on rising stocks start blubbing when they realize that sentiment can quite easily change in markets.

A dead cat bouncing even higher means there is further for it to fall and it is going to hurt.


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c Share Investor 2009

David Shearer: A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing?

I haven't watched "Q & A" on TV One on Sunday because I cant stand Paul Holmes, especially when he sweats like a fat German with a sausage up his arse in a sauna, but I took a look quickly last Sunday and it gave me a belly laugh.

Holmes asked John Tamahere what he thought of David Shearers prospects in the Mt Albert Bye Election and Johnny Boy answered thus:

"Lets tick the boxes,

He's straight, he's married, he has a family"

I would have added that he is a male and white but of course that would be sexist and racist so I wont.

Funny how Shearer appears to be everything that the typical Labour MP isn't?

c Political Animal 2009