I think I’ve got my finger on why the government fails at everything they touch with the exception of PR where, to the country’s detriment, they excel. The government is understaffed. We know it because Chris Hipkins is swamped with four ministerial portfolios, three select committees and the
Chris Hipkins has admitted that he hasn’t yet bothered to read the Ministry of Health’s testing strategy. Wait! What? There are two strategies for testing? How can there be a Government testing strategy that is different from the Ministry of Health’s testing strategy? So, let’s get
There are few things that bring down governments faster than incompetence, arrogance and hubris. When all three are in evidence the downfall is assured. We’ve now had a second week of spectacularly bad headlines for the government. Never before has this Government had such a long streak of bad
If you have a great Youtube or Vimeo video to share send it to videos@thebfd.co.nz
If you have a great Youtube or Vimeo video to share send it to videos@thebfd.co.nz
James Farmer QC jamesfarmerqc.co.nz LEGALISATION OF CANNABIS SUPPLY AND USE WILL ELIMINATE THE BLACK MARKET The short answer to this proposition, based on North American experience, is no. The longer answer, however, is that there are two effects of legalisation, both of which make the present effects of
WHO told him to wear a mask. I don’t know. Who told him to wear a mask? WHO told him to wear a mask. I don’t know who told him to wear a mask! Why don’t you tell me who told him to wear a mask? Sigh…
I hope Mr Hipkins doen’t tell me off, but some things about our ‘South Auckland family’ don’t add up. Is it alright to talk about it? After all, the repercussions are destroying the livelihoods of many of our Auckland friends and costing the country billions, so everything should
James Farmer QC jamesfarmerqc.co.nz MEDICINAL CANNABIS IS NOW LEGAL AND SO CANNABIS FOR RECREATIONAL USE SHOULD BE ALSO In a separate article from her Herald piece (published in The Irish Times, 16 September 2019), Professor Cannon refers to a book written by a former New York Times journalist,
You’ve got to love how civil servants fight back when they are being maligned by their political masters. When faced with mounting embarrassment and public discord over the failures at the border both Chris Hipkins and Jacinda Ardern said that their “expectations weren’t met.” Ignore for a moment
James Farmer QC jamesfarmerqc.co.nz I have consistently believed that cannabis is a harmful substance and that people who use it for “recreational purposes” would be more sensible to choose a healthy form of recreation that doesn’t put them and those dependent on them, i.e. their children
Ananish Chaudhuri Simon Thornley covidplanb.co.nz The authors are members of the Department of Economics and School of Population Health respectively at the University of Auckland. The views expressed are their own. During the Vietnam war, the well-known (and Kiwi-born) journalist Peter Arnett is supposed to have quoted a
We don’t know much about the South Auckland family at the centre of the latest COVID outbreak, except that they are of Pacific Island descent. This is hardly a surprise in South Auckland, where a large part of the Pacific Island and Maori communities reside. But their ethnicity is
On Tuesday this week, I woke up with a runny nose. It was completely my fault: I went to bed very late Monday night without having had the heater on during the evening, or at night. Having turned soft by living too many years in Auckland, and the fact my
Have a care for Chris Hipkins. He’s in the hot seat at the moment because the ‘COVID Queen’ Jacinda Ardern can’t ever be seen to deliver bad news, so it’s up to poor old ‘Chippy’. And there has been plenty of bad news of late. The virus
