tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post5882734624190686060..comments2024-03-29T03:41:12.499+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: What Just Didn't Happen?Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-1812046224558056272020-09-03T17:48:53.222+12:002020-09-03T17:48:53.222+12:00The 'civil service' was abolished in 1913....The 'civil service' was abolished in 1913. Since then workers in that area of government have been called 'public servants'. Many of the people involved in the Covid response are not part of the public service but work in other areas of government such as the defence force. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-12467959251767106002020-09-02T18:09:53.819+12:002020-09-02T18:09:53.819+12:00Dear Patricia,You are being too kind to National.T...Dear Patricia,You are being too kind to National.They actually paid the Chinese to invent this virus so that it could be inflicted on NZ to bring this government down and when that didn't work they subverted Bloomfield to make a number of cock ups to further embarrass the govt.<br />They are truly capable of anything and I hope they never find out where you and I live or our lives will be in danger.Simon Cohennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-54741629837254619622020-09-02T12:53:03.849+12:002020-09-02T12:53:03.849+12:00Comments that the Labour govt have given in to pol...<br />Comments that the Labour govt have given in to political pressure is a nonsense. <br /><br />When NZ was in Level 4 lockdown all twenty DHB's throughout the country had recorded cases and there were widespread clusters. The current situation is totally different in that the majority of cases are localised to a common cluster in Auckland. The govt is doing a pretty good job in containing the virus given all the circumstances.<br /><br />Making inflammatory comments for political point scoring appears to be the default mode for those not interested in the facts. Either that or they are just plain lazy and subscribe gleefully to fake news. Katnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-18654194198028653722020-09-02T09:56:08.215+12:002020-09-02T09:56:08.215+12:00I must admit, I'm confused about Covid. One re...I must admit, I'm confused about Covid. One reason is the official sources are the toxic RNZ, Spinoff and TVNZ. I was just googling "Covid outcomes" when I decided to read Bowalley Road. Who and how many die and how many survive but don't fully recover? <br />Leighton Smith podcast had Dr Borody who I respect (having followed him on another matter). He claims to have a cure and he says the malaria pills plus ++ are effective in the early stages of the disease but Trumps advocacy was the death knoll to that?<br />I read the South Auckland rumor and waited to see if it was valided, however on Q&A an Australian expert suggested someone wasn't coming clean on contacts. If it was bouncing around in the community it would have found a weak target? <br />There is a trust issue. They have been managing our opinions for decades as our senior thinkers?John Hurleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-17052789459837570102020-09-02T07:53:32.993+12:002020-09-02T07:53:32.993+12:00Who knows, Chris? Transparency is not this governm...Who knows, Chris? Transparency is not this government's strength. But I think you're correct in sensing there has been a sea-change in the government's approach to COVID. Now that Aucklanders are free to roam the land at will the risk of the virus spreading throughout the country has increased considerably. So it appears the elimination strategy has, to all intents and purposes, been abandoned despite protests from the government that it has not. This is an almighty risk that can only have been taken for political purposes.Trev1https://www.blogger.com/profile/00271717267778957672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-23455177261118197642020-09-01T20:58:21.761+12:002020-09-01T20:58:21.761+12:00Perhaps it was, after all, just a balls up. Of cou...Perhaps it was, after all, just a balls up. Of course National has done so many, I would call, treacherous things to the Government of this country that wouldn’t put it past them to have organised it, but how could that be proved just six weeks out from an election.Patriciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01509686441858091630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-28754963264416631182020-09-01T18:26:00.355+12:002020-09-01T18:26:00.355+12:00For whats it worth...
"Paranoia strikes deep...<br />For whats it worth...<br /><br />"Paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep, it starts when you're always afraid..........."Katnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-84017326309695418552020-09-01T17:52:56.731+12:002020-09-01T17:52:56.731+12:00Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malic...Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity".<br />This is a Government which has been hip-deep in underperformance since it was elected: Kiwibuild, tax reform, poverty reduction, protecting the border, and on and on. Great promises, then almost complete non-delivery.<br />In addition, the civil service is not a strongly-managed institution. Middle managers seem quite willing to just make up their own procedures, without feeling constrained by what has been decided at higher levels, and the organisations are not well-run enough to prevent this.<br />So I have no difficulty in believing that this advice was written off-the-cuff by some low-level "communications adviser", and that nobody above them (up to the Minister) was asked to approve it, or thought it worth correcting after it had been issued.<br />There is no secret revolt of the managerial classes against the Government. The truth is both more mundane and more depressing: the apparatus is so ineffective that the levers of power are mostly not connected to anything.PaulVDnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-31006561177171843012020-09-01T17:16:17.466+12:002020-09-01T17:16:17.466+12:00Announcements must be made by the PM or cabinet mi...Announcements must be made by the PM or cabinet ministers, not civil servants.The latter need to be brought under control.petes new writehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00256560029674496199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-2952690590883579092020-09-01T15:52:56.075+12:002020-09-01T15:52:56.075+12:00Well I hate to tell you this Chris but it's tw...Well I hate to tell you this Chris but it's two things you don't want to hear about this government<br /><br />1) Our Health bureaucracies are actually not that competent. Locking down a population can work in squashing a pandemic even when your health folk are not that goo because it's a crude, simple solution. It's when things start up again and things get more complex that it becomes a problem.<br /><br />2) Outside of Hipkins and Robertson this just isn't a competent government capable of dealing with bureaucratic incompetence. The PM is a superb communicator and front-person for all this - but nothing more. Hence all the MSM coverage of how she "feels", including being repeatedly and reportedly "angry" about successive failures.<br /><br />3) Despite your fondest hopes they are not the reincarnation of the First labour Government and even if they were they live in a very different global world where they have no choice but to rely on the private sector for employment, tax and so forth. So sooner or later the answer to your previous post is going to be "Wall Street" over "The People" because they really have no idea how to have government run businesses nowadays. <br /><br />Incidentally that why we're at L2 (2.5?) while COVID-19 cases continue to appear, something that several months ago resulted in L4 for the whole country. Labour have decided to live with the virus and let people go about their business - literally.<br />Tom Hunterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17840988228699338463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-86804750253106730002020-09-01T14:28:28.509+12:002020-09-01T14:28:28.509+12:00Chris - it's almost certainly not what happene...Chris - it's almost certainly not what happened.<br /><br />1.) The Government honestly believes that they have learnt enough from the first outbreak, and how the virus behaves, that it is safe enough for Auckland to go down half a level in the face of a single largish cluster that is now returning new community cases in only single figures. Contact tracing, testing (including the new genomic testing) has been beefed up enough since the first outbreak for them to have this confidence. This is not a departure from an elimination strategy - the plan is to eliminate this cluster while letting normal life (with significant restrictions) go on. Elimination is not permanent eradication, it is going hard and early on every outbreak and eliminating it - while all the time doing the very best to stop outbreaks from happening in the first place. I am hopeful that they are correct and in fact this elimination strategy is exactly what living with the virus looks like. Labour is a centrist party, they are going to save economic BAU and so far are doing it very effectively, despite being hated-on by the very people who do best under BAU (the owners and managers of the private economy).<br />2.) The messaging error was a cock-up by someone. It got through because actually at first sight it doesn't seem that alarmist. The outbreak is mainly in the south and west, so surveillance testing in these areas would be logical. Testing everyone is a step beyond that, and it takes a bit of reflection on how the sheer number of tests of asymptomatic people would overwhelm the much more important testing of symptomatic people, before the realisation dawns that it can't be right. Every day of our lives is characterised by cock-ups small and large - if people don't expect these they are living on another planet.ABnoreply@blogger.com