Our mass media – mindless, mischievous, malicious…? Is it actually corrupt?

See below. From Bruce Moon, to  the editor of The Nelson Mail, Sunday, August 5, 2018

Dear Victoria,

A lot of propaganda and very distorted stories about land have been circulating recently in the news media, including the “Nelson Mail”.  What is invariably concealed is the primary fact that the tribes were only too eager to exchange large areas of surplus land for material goods which the Europeans provided.  To provide that “balance” which our public library and the chief executive officer of the City Council have asserted to me as being so essential, I provide herewith therefore an article of mine which is not propaganda but is accurately based on the hard facts of history to which references are given.

 

You may recall, too, that on 2nd March 2016 the “Mail” featured prominently an article by John and Hilary Mitchell which I found to be inaccurate and unbalanced in several respects.  I wrote for you therefore a piece to correct their shortcomings, but you chose to ignore it.  I am pleased to report,  however,  that not long afterwards it did appear in the “Northern Age” whose editor, Peter Jackson, shows the great merit of printing material as freely from one side as the other, thereby allowing his readers to make up their own minds on matters of importance.  It is attached below.

Very recently, too, a correspondent sent me the editorial page of the “Mail” for September 9, 2000 with the bold “Mailbox” headline “Dr Mitchell’s ancestors guilty of genocide too”.  Two letters, by B Tod of Motueka and David Curl of Nelson, describe the brutal pre-1840 practices of Maori tribes including the genocide and wholesale cannibalism inflicted on the innocent people of the Chatham Islands by Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Tama – from whom John claims descent.  John had apparently written in support of  Tariana Turia who had made the outrageous claim of a “holocaust” in British settlement of New Zealand – a term surely more accurately applied to his own tribe’s behaviour.  Curiously, on the very same page the “Quote of the week” reports then Finance Minister Michael Cullen stating that Ms Turia had accepted the Prime Minister’s edict that “ministers should not use That Term” [sic].  Well, well!

 

I refer also to my talk “A Jaundiced View of the Treaty” for whose title I selected John’s own reported words.  As far as I know and notwithstanding my cordial invitation, nobody from the “Mail” attended its very successful presentation on 7th July at the rooms of the Hearing Association whose acceptance of the importance of free speech evidently outweighed its fear of “a health and safety issue”.  This had, I understand, cowed the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, the Elim Church, the Masonic Temple and Fairfield House into declining to make their premises available.

 

Thus it is attached too for your information.  It was delivered to a very attentive full house – in fact a notice to that effect had to be posted two minutes before its scheduled start.  There was not a single attempt at heckling or any other disturbance; questions and comments were courteous and relevant.  Its success is at least a small contribution to the defence of truth, fairness and democracy which are so much at peril in New Zealand today.  Elsewhere, in consequence of its earlier banning, it has appeared in various social media and assuredly been read by many more people that would ever had done so had it been delivered as intended in the first place.

As one commentator put it, Nelson now appears to be the prime candidate for the distinction of being the first town in New Zealand to indulge in book-burning, though possibly Auckland may vie for that dubious distinction.

 

With my compliments,

 

Bruce M

This very brave man has long been been fighting back. Who is going to help him?

This is a serious question. New Zealand is now in many ways at the crossroads – and it depends on each of us which way it’s going to go… as so much needs to be reclaimed – ( To understand how, see www.100days.co.nz).

What can one conclude, looking at the record of our media giants these years, and the utter bias demonstrated by the now almost inevitable, one-sided presentation of very important issues?

These include the heavy-handed promotion of the politics of racial superiority.

The lack of much-needed scrutinising of the massively costly and divisive Maori supremacy movement – by no means supported by most part-Maori  – but  gaining far too much mileage in being pushed by a relatively  few radicalised extremists – has reached disgraceful levels.

And the biggest challenge to every New Zealander has to be that none of us can walk away and say it doesn’t matter.  It matters very much.

It is individuals, accumulatively, who count. We can ring up the local newspaper – and say we’ve had enough – tell the editors. They won’t like it – but we needn’t grieve over that 🙂 And if you have done your bit…and someone else does the same thing…on it goes. Even if it was only you – you count.

Or what about contacting Talkback – and/or asking your MP, your paid employee, what he/she is doing to represent you and the majority in opposing this damaging movement?

MPs don’t like Talkback. No surprises there. It so very often tells them how so many New Zealanders really feel…

And behind it all, what about the fine individuals you/ we let down, by doing nothing to support them?

We don’t have to be experts in any particular area to realise that there are things very wrong in a number of important areas.

What about saying that we’ve had enough of deliberate bias? And does it raise the question of a basic corruption within these media? 

One brave man, among others, has long been challenging this.

For a copy of Bruce’s attachments, please send a return address. Thank you.

Amy Brooke – Convenor – www.100days.co.nz

The witch-hunt against Allan Titford?

The Witch-hunt against Allan Titford?

COPYRIGHT © KAPITI INDEPENDENT NEWS

July 24, 2018  

Amy Brooke believes that 24 Years, The Trials of Allan Titford by Mike Butler exposes judicial failure in both the district court and the Court of Appeal.

Some justice at last?

At last, thanks to Mike Butler and Tross Publishing, some justice for a man who has basically been framed?

As a socio-political commentator at the time, I recall being increasingly concerned at what looked very like a loaded gun, metaphorically speaking, which had been pointed at Allan Titford.

I was horrified at the charges that had been levelled against him on the flimsiest of evidence – much of it based on accusations which simply should not have carried weight in a genuine court of justice.

Questions about the Waitangi Tribunal

Equally shockingly has been the utterly undemocratic, and indeed arguably corrupt, processes under which The Waitangi Tribunal has  been allowed to operate.

Much of this is detailed in my book –

“The 100 days – Claiming back New Zealand – what has gone wrong and how we can control our politicians.”

Flawed from its inception, the tribunal has been granted far more respect than it deserves, and, biased in its findings, it has basically brought itself into disrepute.

That our political parties have given far too much credence to its findings, and that there is even provision for its findings to be binding on government is completely unacceptable.

So is what has happened to Allan Titford, with an almost unbelievable sentence of 24 years of imprisonment!  More than for committing murder…. utterly incredible!

That this whole saga is an indictment on our justice system is an understatement. It is more than time for these issues to be addressed. And it is time our government fronted up.

Mike Butler explains how corrupt our justice system has become in 24 Years, The Trials of Allan Titford.

Uncovering the truth

In 1987 Allan Titford was being driven off his farm by people who claimed that part of it was Maori land. His story captured the hearts and minds of many New Zealanders.

However, in 2013, when he was jailed for more than 24 years, he was called “a slave driver, a monster and a liar”.

This book tells how a treaty claim took private land against the will of its owners despite evidence that the claim was unjustified.

It also analyses how Allan Titford was jailed for such a long time.

The record jail term is bizarre considering that 12 charges relied on the uncorroborated testimony of a person who admitted to perjury.

Moreover, many of the 53 charges against him were hardly tested in court.

It also shows a hidden parallel story about how the justice system was played for financial gain.

This book exposes judicial failure in both the district court and the Court of Appeal.

It asks whether the process used against Allan Titford is standard practice in the New Zealand justice system and how many more victims have been locked up by using these methods.

See the video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uQamj01Paw

Ross Baker, Researcher, One New Zealand Foundation Inc, wrote:

“I have just finished reading 24 Years and as I have been very involved with Allan and Susan Titford since the “false” claim was place on Allan’s freehold titled property at Maunganui Bluff, I can confirm this is a true and accurate accounts of the events that ended with Allan being jailed for 24 years because of our corrupt justice system. A must read”.

(24 Years, The Trials of Allan Titford by Mike Butler is published by Limestone Bluff. It has 339 pages, is illustrated and is available from www.trosspublishing.co.nz or at a good bookstore near you for $39.50.)Bottom of Form

 

The bully boys and girls have gone too far

https://www.spectator.com.au/2018/07/the-bully-boys-and-girls-have-gone-too-far/

We all know that among human beings, in every ethnic grouping, individuals vary enormously. And I’ll always recall with gratitude the kindness of a Wellington Muslim café owner, Abdel, who, learning that we had just come from farewelling my mother, brought my sister and me a cup of coffee with an almond biscuit – and would take no payment.

Any well-justified concern at the aggressive worldwide march of Islam needs to take into account that most people share basic aims, wanting peace for their families and the best for their children. We have this in common with New Zealanders of all backgrounds – including family-minded Muslims who now regard themselves as New Zealanders and have happily become part of our communities.

However, the threat to this country from radicalised Islam targeting, propagandising, recruiting, even virtually blackmailing its own people is very real. So New Zealanders have a right to know what steps the government is taking to safeguard this country – and to limit the intake from those from Islamic background.

We should now be well aware, given what is happening right throughout Europe, and even in our closest neighbour, Australia, that when the numbers are sufficiently large, assimilation is replaced by virtual enclaves, or ghettoised settlements. Women and young girls continue to be sexually mutilated and basically enslaved by their male relatives, forced or brainwashed to wearing anachronistic, burdensome clothing,  while Islam’s deep antagonism to Christianity and the West should make us very wary of our government’s apparent naivety – if not incompetence  – in the face of its strident minority demands.

We all now well know the pattern happening world-wide. Radicalised activists from other cultures, sheltering within ethnic groups, begin to challenge majority rule – and to demand the damaging separatism which has occurred under the manipulative, ideological demands for multiculturalism.

So-called diversity, the superior merits of which we are constantly assailed with, is simply a weasel word wielded like a bludgeon to propagandise and intimidate New Zealanders beginning to ask well-overdue questions about what is happening to this country.

It is time for our politicians put their hands up to answer them. Our political parties’ responsibility is given to them by New Zealanders – to represent us, in accordance with our wishes – not to constantly over-ride them. But it is the latter which has now become entrenched.

Join our 100 Days – Claiming Back New Zealand movement – www.100days.co.nz

 © Amy Brooke

The witch-hunt against Allan Titford?

The witch-hunt against Allan Titford?

At last, thanks to Mike Butler and Tross Publishing, some justice for a man who has basically been framed?

As a socio-political commentator at the time, I recall being increasingly concerned at what looked very like a loaded gun, metaphorically speaking, which had been pointed at Allan Titford.  I was horrified at the charges that had been levelled against him on the flimsiest of evidence – much of it based on accusations which simply should not have carried weight in a genuine court of justice.

Equally shockingly has been the utterly undemocratic, and indeed arguably corrupted,  processes under which The Waitangi Tribunal has  been allowed to operate. Much of this is detailed in my book –”The 100 days – Claiming back New Zealand -what has gone wrong and how we can control our politicians.”

 Flawed from its inception, the tribunal has been granted far more respect than it deserves, and, biased in its findings, it has basically brought itself into disrepute.  That our political parties have given far too much credence to its findings, and that there is even provision for its findings to be binding on government is completely unacceptable.

So is what has happened to Allan Titford, with an almost unbelievable sentence of 24 years of imprisonment! More than for committing murder….Utterly incredible…

That this whole saga is an indictment on our justice system is an understatement. It is more than time for these issues to be addressed. And it is time our government fronted up.

Mike Butler explains how corrupt our justice system has become.

24 YEARS

The trials of Allan Titford

In 1987 Allan Titford was being driven off his farm by people who claimed that part of it was Maori land. His story captured the hearts and minds of many New Zealanders.

However, in 2013, when he was jailed for more than 24 years, he was called “a slave driver, a monster and a liar”.

This book tells how a treaty claim took private land against the will of its owners despite evidence that the claim was unjustified.

It analyses how Allan Titford was jailed for such a long time.

The record jail term is bizarre considering that 12 charges relied on the uncorroborated testimony of a person who admitted to perjury.

Moreover, many of the 53 charges against him were hardly tested in court.

It also shows a hidden parallel story about how the justice system was played for financial gain.

This book exposes judicial failure in both the district court and the Court of Appeal.

It asks whether the process used against Allan Titford is standard practice in the New Zealand justice system and how many more victims have been locked up by using these methods.

See the video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uQamj01Paw

Ross Baker, Researcher, One New Zealand Foundation Inc, wrote:

“I have just finished reading 24 Years and as I have been very involved with Allan and Susan Titford since the “false” claim was place on Allan’s freehold titled property at Maunganui Bluff, I can confirm this is a true and accurate accounts of the events that ended with Allan being jailed for 24 years because of our corrupt justice system. A must read”.

24 Years, The Trials of Allan Titford,  Mike Butler, Limestone Bluff Publishing, 339 pages, illustrated, $39.50, available from www.trosspublishing.co.nz and at a good bookstore near you.

 

 

Goodbye Fairfax and NZME – no loss now…

Goodbye Fairfax and NZME – no loss at all…

https://kapitiindependentnews.net.nz/goodbye-nelson-mail/

Apparently, around the country, I gather, from reaction to my recent letter of farewell to the Nelson Mail, individuals who’ve also cancelled subscriptions to Stuff newspapers are being contacted by editorial staff asking them why.

They can’t be serious, can they?  It should be more than obvious to even the apparently severely challenged new breed of editorialists why the retreat from their second-rate publications is gathering speed.

My long attempt to persuade our local editor to stop suppressing letters which either she or the letters editor found displeasing recently came to an end. To know of fine, highly qualified correspondents continually denied the right to comment – particularly in relation to challenging activist propaganda and quite wrong assertions  – meant I could no longer support a paper so now essentially biased and basically thoroughly dumbed down.

Enter the Kapiti Independent News – with its increasingly enthusiastic readership. It presents a very good example of the way forward for the small, independent community newspapers now offering themselves as weeklies to step in and attract the interest of readers.

With so many now accessing the web for national and overseas news, local journals that will concentrate on two vital areas  – (the much-needed scrutinising of local council activities , and providing a forum for the letters to the editor – the two areas that most concern local people) –  will come into their own. If these can manage to remain independent, then there is every chance they will morph into a genuine, worthwhile replacement to their community than what were once far more worthwhile publications.

 

© Amy Brooke, Convenor, The 100 Days.  See my book “100 Days – Claiming Back New Zealand …what has gone wrong, and how we can control our politicians.” Available through my  BOOK Page at www.amybrooke.co.nz, or at Amazon’s Kindle.

“Disharmonious speech” ! Wake up NZ – This is shocking…

 

 “Disharmonious speech” ! Wake up NZ – This is shocking  

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/christchurch/canterbury-mornings/audio/is-freedom-of-speech-under-threat/#ath

Political commentator Lindsay Perigo has told Chris Lynch he is concerned freedom of speech is under threat in New Zealand from the Human Rights Commission wanting to prevent “disharmonious speech” directed towards ethnic minority groups in New Zealand.

Yes, we are all busy, but it’s well worth taking the time to listen to this interview. It was this same highly experienced media commentator who originally raised the alarm over the “brain dead” directions of our state-sponsored television and broadcasting media.

This is now equalled by the descent of  Fairfax New Zealand  (a subsidiary of Australia’s Fairfax Media newspapers)  and New Zealand Media & Entertainment (owned by Sydney-based APN News & Media and the Australian Radio Network) into the obligingly dumbed-down, PC, daily fare dished up to this country. There never was a better time to abandon subscriptions and to support proudly independent local newspapers.

Critical analysis of what we’re being fed through the media is only too rare, which is why the Perigo interview is so very important. For there is no question that we New Zealanders are in deep trouble with now state-sponsored cultural bullying receiving useful platforms in the only-too compliant mass media.

It is also receiving support even in areas which have absolutely no business in becoming politically active – and radicalised.  The police hierarchy, for example, is now causing concern by its inappropriate intrusion into areas relating to policy-making – a move which will rightly concern many of its own rank and file.

Former Race Relations Commissioner Susan Devoy, already viewed by many as inappropriately partisan in her role, increased concern with her apparent wish to involve the police in policy decisions  – or pressuring the government to do. And now, a New Zealand Herald correspondent has pointed out that the Acting Race Relations Conciliator, Paula Tesoriero, a former New Zealand Paralympics racing cyclist, has made the mistake of attempting to equate freedom of speech with physical safety…in order to give legitimacy to restricting this freedom. This is very poor thinking from her indeed.

 This Herald correspondent commented on Tesoriero’s failure to make the distinction between words and actions – a now fashionable justification for those seeking to muzzle freedom of expression. He’s right in stating that “Legislation already protects the right to physical safety- and words are not actions.” Moreover, as he points out “The commission seeks new legislation to sanction ‘hateful and disharmonious speech targeted at the religious and beliefs of minority communities.’ Who will define these terms, he asks, and why would they apply only to speech directed at minority communities?’

Why indeed? But I think we all know the answer to this, given the now constant attack on mainstream New Zealanders, who are not being consulted by our government on what they feel as the best directions for our country.

Tesoriero has now denied that this is the case – but the evidence is against her.  The Summary of Recommendations by our far from impartial Race Relations Commission to the United Nations is worth checking out– see 2(a) and (b)  – https://www.hrc.co.nz/files/8215/0171/9491/Appendix_to_NZHRC_CERD_Submission_2017_-_Summary_of_Recommendations.pdf

Not only does it inexcusably continue to advance the quite wrong claim of a ”partnership” between Maori and the Crown, it specifically urges the government  to “Review the adequacy of current legislation in addressing and sanctioning hate speech and incitement to racial disharmony, including hateful and disharmonious speech targeted at the religion and beliefs of ethnic minority communities.”

In fact, reading this document right through leaves little doubt in the reader’s mind that it is basically a highly activist piece of work, also pressuring the government to implement the recommendations from the Waitangi Tribunal – a body which has already been not only utterly partisan, but even arguably corrupt in its modus operandi. (See page 160 in my book “The 100 Days  – Claiming Back New Zealand – what has gone wrong and how we can control our politicians – “The case for abolishing the highly damaging Waitangi  Tribunal and questioning its highly dubious, activist record.”

We’ve got to the stage in this country where the European-descended majority is now basically under constant attack, with special rights and privileges directed not only at today’s part-Maori but at other ethnic minorities which can be used as a tool for this purpose. And of course, when one particular sector of the community gains special rights, special privileges, special concessions…it is always at the cost to all others.

The weasel word of diversity has become especially useful when wielded to silence criticism from New Zealanders rightly concerned that the democratic aim of equal rights for all, regardless of colour, race, gender and creed to bring people together as one – is now being deliberately undermined.

Even given this aim of equality under the law for all New Zealanders, we need to also remember the American political scientist Sam Huntingdon’s reminder about cultures in conflict. Best known for his 1993 theory, “the Clash of civilisations”-  of  a new post-Cold  War new world order – he argued that future wars would be fought not between countries, but between cultures, and that Islam extremism would become the biggest threat to world peace. Given the problems that the rise of militant Islam is now causing throughout Europe, in Britain and even close to us, in Australia, it can be argued that it would be irresponsible of our government to allow unrestricted Muslim immigration to our own country. Moreover, it would be inexcusable if even opening this relevant issue up for debate will bring accusations of “disharmonious speech” directed against concerned New Zealanders.

The summary of the Race Relation Commission’s recommendations to the United Nations should be torn up. It is basically a divisive and damaging document – and gives credence to those who argue that the commission itself should be abolished.

Susan Devoy had come to be viewed by many as naïve in her seeming lack of awareness that the United Nations is now a highly suspect organisation essentially antagonistic to the West, with a basically One World, repressive agenda aimed at bringing down democracies. Devoy did not seem to realise that her loyalty should be to New Zealanders at large – not to this leftist organisation whose destructive diktats should be opposed – not endorsed.  The question that should be asked is – who authorised her policy stands there on our behalf?

The situation is getting worse, not better, with this new move to threaten or criminalise New Zealanders by proposed new legislation ridiculously described as “disharmonious speech”. Common sense alone, which today seems extraordinarily lacking among government appointees, points to the fact that a horse and cart, metaphorically speaking, can be driven through this definition. And all the puffery now forthcoming – to hastily assure us that such legislation would only be invoked in extreme cases – should be treated with the derision it deserves.  Bad laws are bad laws – and what is proposed is very bad law indeed. 

It is in essence nothing other than a giant step towards the overwhelmingly repressive legislation with which those unfortunate enough  to live in the former USSR, in Nazi Germany, in North Korea today – or in any other  oppressive dictatorships  – were, and are, only too familiar. 

The hour is now very late for New Zealanders to wake up – or we are going to lose this country.  We all know that the tentacles of the State are reaching more and more over us all, not only with all the increasing compliance edicts and petty regulations,  but with the utterly inappropriate ethnic superiority, anti-Christian, anti-European onslaught that has targeted all our institutions. The universities, the teacher training facilities, the nursing and medical curricula –  and, among the most pernicious, the Ministry of Education, imposing its costly and radicalised agenda on our schools  in a blatant power grab for the minds of  our children – are all now contributing. 

 The ominous and loaded phrase “hate speech” was bad enough. But now, under a basically socialist government, and an agenda-driven Prime Minister who likes to use the word “Comrades” – while well aware of its Communist cloaking – we are heading and more and more towards the reality of a police state. 

A recent excellent article in the Spectator Australia by political science student Tom Grein should be compulsory reading for all our naive and incompetent politicians. It is the latter, whose knuckling under to the bullying of the Marxist cultural movement white-anting our society (in the name of ethnic diversity), who are costing us so dearly. It is our politicians  who constantly inflict on the country, without New Zealanders’ consent, the flawed, ill-thought legislation with which we have become only too familiar. 

Noting that we have lost our way, Grein states,” I’m talking of course about the unfettered ability of the individual to express their (sic) opinion without fear of violence or intimidation, otherwise known as free speech…

“I propose this is an open question to those that demand speech codes. 

  “Quo warranto? The oldest question in the book asks, By what right do you have to decide what I can and cannot hear?

“A de facto Islamic blasphemy law is already in place – everyone knows full well what the consequences of caricaturing ‘the prophet’ are. The Rushdie affair and the Danish cartoons Charlie Hebdo… You had your own protests in this fine city of Sydney a few years back which saw young Muslims carrying signs saying ‘Behead all those who insult the Prophet’. If you had told me before I read up on these problems that people were being killed in Western nations for caricaturing a prophet, I would have asked ‘When did the Inquisition return?  These sickly developments are a threat not only to free speech, but to everything we can sensibly call civilisation, and   must be meet head-on… 

“ It pained me to read about the attempted prohibition of the Catholic Union at Balliol College, Oxford…This specific targeting of Christians has become an all too common theme on university campuses as we saw a few months back with the harassment of students on this campus,  the University of Sydney,  over their opposition to same-sex marriage…Such incidents  represent the pointy end of a ‘progressive’ culture that has swept through the institutions of Australian society over the past decade or so,  which seeks to make redundant the history of this nation and reshape it along a revisionist ideology of guilt, shame, and self-flagellation”.   

New Zealanders will recognise exactly the same sort of reinvention of our history, the deliberate encouragement of a culture of special “entitlement” for some.  The agenda underpinning this here is just as dangerous and as corrupt.  

Grein concludes, with an unusual source as a recommendation. “I offer this challenge as a pragmatic way forward {that]  – we return to first principles in understanding the necessity of free speech… I suggest the letters of Rosa Luxemburg who most eloquently wrote, ‘Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently.’  

“From this position we must inculcate a culture that understands the significance of free speech and its place as the bedrock which all other freedoms lie upon…” 

He concludes with Oscar Wilde’s reminder that ‘He who does not think for himself does not think at all.’ 

To have a police force in the position of laying charges against individuals brave enough to challenge the damaging, politically correct orthodoxies of the day would be unacceptable –  incredible and  utterly dismaying to those New Zealanders who fought for our democratic freedoms. 

 If we do not correspondingly fight, we will not just have let them down – we will have lost our country. 

*

© Amy Brooke, Convenor, The 100 Days.  See my book “100 Days – Claiming Back New Zealand …what has gone wrong, and how we can control our politicians.” Available through my  BOOK Page at www.amybrooke.co.nz, or at Amazon’s Kindle.

 

 

 

Jacinda Ardern’s partner is not going to have it easy. Media /police activism.

Jacinda Ardern’s partner is not going to have it easy. Media and police activism.

 In the gossip circles of a basically close-knit mainstream media, it was reported some time back that unpleasant rumours were swirling about the Prime Minister’s partner. It was called “an unprecedented assault of baseless rumour and false innuendo.” Toxic gossip is not new in these circles. Who can forget the tragic case of the beautiful Charlotte Dawson, a media celebrity in New Zealand which she fled for Australia later, saying that she was “savaged” as a celebrity living in this country? “New Zealand is small and nasty and vindictive. It’s a tiny little village…a tiny country at the end of the year,” she said. Her death by suicide shocked so many – as it should have.

The relevant question is, was she right? Who would deny that the political scene is a toxic one with the jostling for power and ambition underpinning many of the rumours that surface – very often never reaching the public at large, but gaining currency in the media in-groups. The latter have now become equally as little respected – so much so that politicians and the mass media are near the bottom of the least-trusted occupations.  This is tough on those journalists who do try to write with integrity against the tide of the times, including some well worth respect. That they are apparently now in a minority makes it harder for them.

No doubt the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford will have a tough road ahead – even disregarding the media rumour mill. New Zealanders will wish her well, with the imminent arrival of her baby. However, paralleling the usual corresponding euphoria which surrounds any “progressive” celebrities, many New Zealanders have been troubled by Arden’s decision to prioritise her own career over what they see as the best interests of a baby…whose primary caregiver, for very good reason, has traditionally been regarded as its mother. By no means isolated comment also maintains she should have let the country know, before the election, that she was pregnant.

However, there is little doubt that Labour’s strategists would have known that if the country knew before the election that its leader was carrying a baby, many would have been concerned – wondering if a vote for her, in such a demanding job, was in the best interests of the child – let alone for the Prime Minister herself.

We cannot but be aware that many solo mothers have a far more demanding life than those with a husband to support them. Where a deliberate decision has been made for someone in Jacinda Arden’s position to not marry the father of her child, questions are asked. The liberal views of so many self-congratulatory but under-informed media are by no means, as so many journalists seem to take for granted, reflected back by the far more conservative country at large. Memories are surfacing of the younger political Ardern, steeped deep in socialist doctrine, choosing to use the word Comrade…as well as of socialists’ contempt for the family unit, regarding marriage contemptuously as a ”bourgeois” practice. But evidence overwhelmingly points to the presence of married parents, a mother and father, as in the best interests of the child.

Labour is very much a minority government, attracting only 37% of the vote.  It cannot claim to have a mandate for some of the ill-thought directions on which it has now embarked, including the foolish clampdown on any further gas and oil exploration – moving into typical ideologically-motivated, deep Green territory.  Disgracefully, vitally important decisions are being made behind the scenes by the coalition’s party hierarchy without even Cabinet involvement!  Buying lock stock and barrel into the now massively discredited global warming theory is costing the country hugely in economic terms. Little wonder there is rising concern about its decision-making.

The media reporting which has so obligingly avoided any of these issues of concern out in the wider community has been interesting.  Long-time journalist Barry Soper describes Clarke Gayford  “as being in the social pages long before he’d ever hooked up with Ardern – “he was a man about town.” It’s a curious, almost Edwardian description, whose meaning is not clear. But it does highlight the fact that Mr Gayford, handed the role of primary caregiver for their child, is being asked to make a considerable sacrifice, very much limiting his career and social activities – as any mother in the same position could tell him. And how demanding a role it will be for Ms Ardern, juggling her initial few weeks away from Parliament while expecting to be in constant touch with what is happening. The question still stands, whether this demanding scenario is likely to be in the best interests of the baby – let alone the mother, in those very early days.

Interesting, too, is Barry Soper’s casual mention of the fact that he texted Ardern, outlining the rumours, suggesting she or her partner should address them, and offering them a media platform to do it. His comment that, “The only reply came from her press secretary, insisting that the rumours were false and she wouldn’t be commenting on them” sounded almost miffed – as if he was expecting the Prime Minister to be personally responding to him.

This is an interesting point, because I recall journalist friends taking for granted the fact that they had Prime Minister Helen Clark’s cellphone number and could reach her for direct comment. Reportedly this worked two ways – Clark could leak to chosen media statements she wished to go further. However, whether the preferential, two-way access of selected media to the leader of the country is appropriate is another issue.

This political journalist did make one very valid point when he said that it was a mistake for Police Superintendent Mike Bush to become involved by approving the statement denying that Gayford had been the subject of a police enquiry, and saying he’d never been charged in relation to any matter.  In Soper’s words, “This simply stokes the rumour mill, and opens up the suggestion that the police have become politicised. It is unprecedented for the cops to become involved in what are unsubstantiated rumours. The question’s already been asked: Who requested the Police Commissioner’s involvement?”

Who indeed?

However, it’s over late in the day to wonder whether or not the police have become politicised and partisan in their activities when we have evidence this is already the case. Equally, we have evidence that mainstream media, with now strong liberal Left leanings, are not only highly selective when publishing what takes their fancy, but now routinely suppress letters to the editor from correspondents when the content challenges their thinking – and their bias.

I’m waiting still for a reply from the Press Council – now many weeks overdue, which this august body has not yet even acknowledged receiving – even though it promises receipt of a formal complaint within two days. A follow-up enquiry has also been ignored.  As I am familiar with two or three of the names on this council, I am not holding my breath in expectation of the response to which it is supposedly publicly committed.  However, if my third enquiry continues to be ignored, then it will be time to check to whom the Press Council itself is answerable.

The are serious issues, questions of accountability, and the suppression by the Nelson Mail of the letters below some weeks back – and a follow-up enquiry made to this newspaper – is an important matter  – because the content of these letters involves what Barry Soper is questioning  –  an arguably inappropriate police involvement in a highly politicised situation. Given the Fairfax media’s now quite blatant practice of featuring editorials and opinion pieces which allow no genuine consideration of those radicalised issues of the day which attack family values – and of refusing to publish letters legitimately expressing genuine concern, it is no wonder its newspapers are closing down all over the country.

“Dear Editor  “For the police to publicly favour the “lesbian, gay, transgender, queer, intersex and questioning” movement now becoming confrontational and aggressive is quite shocking. Those warring with the biological fact of being born male are actively targeting and recruiting vulnerable children in schools, while demanding to share women’s and children’s toilets.

“Using the weasel excuse of “discrimination”, children are being prescribed pernicious “sex education” programmes detailing as perfectly acceptable what many consider abnormal – with the word “normal” now ridiculously regarded as “hate speech”.  “

Under the banner of that other weasel word, “diversity”, police marched in the Auckland Pride campaign with rainbow colours on a police car. Individuals’ free choice must always be respected. But Police Commissioner Mike Bush’s partisan policy stance, offering recruitment support, is inappropriate and unacceptable. When have the police ever marched in a parade supporting Christian values, or any other of those core values underpinning our society?

“Canadian psychology Professor Jordan Peterson’s courageous confrontation of this destructive counterculture war, and of the moral relativism now flooding the West, is attracting capacity crowds. Commissioner Bush should reflect on the fact that among the loudest support from Jordan’s young audiences is for his appeal for the sanctity of marriage, and child-rearing.”

Although this letter makes important points –they are not ones which the majority of today’s journalists wish to hear. The Editor of the Nelson Mail is apparently no exception. Churchill’s very important reminder to “Never, ever, ever quit,” is one that too many, deeply concerned about what is happening to New Zealand, seem to have forgotten.  Yet it is the key to winning back this country.

So I wrote again as below…although I by no means support the National Party – nor any political party for that matter, given the accumulative damage they have all caused to this country. Only by working toward what the clever Swiss have achieved, control of our politicians (www.100days.co.nz) so that New Zealanders themselves can make the decisions about our directions ahead, will we be able to mount an effective challenge to being ruled by today’s politburo. However, after a typically unbalanced editorial quite common now for this newspaper, I felt it was not good enough to walk away.  Hence this follow-up.

“Dear Editor

“The Nelson Mail’s increasingly “liberal” editorials apparently take for granted the majority of the community feels the same. For example, you noted the new leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges, voted against same-sex marriage and opposes euthanasia. You reported he goes to church and his father was a Baptist Minister  – (are we meant to recoil with horror?) – stating this puts him not only at odds with “the liberal faction”, but “potentially the momentum of popular opinion in this country and around the world”.

”It’s a leap too far. You offer no sound evidence to substantiate such an extravagant claim. Obviously the unpleasant targeting of those concerned about the worrying directions of the day – (particularly families and parents) – deters much feedback. So does the now common, bullying tactic of calling “homophobic” those who question abandoning the values so long stabilising our society.  Many will not agree with the partisan stance inappropriately shown by the police hierarchy marching in the LGBTQIA parade in Auckland – nor with schools now offering programmes which disturb many children, confusing them about their sexual identity.

“Apparently encouraging “diversity” doesn’t extend to supporting genuine debate?  And only extremist groups’ “cultural sensitivity” counts?”

Needless to say, this letter also did not get published.   However, there are  ways around this, and cancelling your support for any Stuff – Fairfax media publication to access local news and correspondence from other sources available  is a very good strategy.

These are increasingly important issues for us all – and what is equally as important is the fact that the police hierarchy felt it appropriate to take a stand which must have made many individual police deeply uncomfortable. It’s time Commissioner Bush was indeed called upon to explain his inappropriate, apparently personal partisanship in relation to an issue causing so much concern to the wider community.

What are our prospects ahead, if we have a corrupt democracy and corrupt media?  As Toby Young points out in a recent Spectator, “a lack of democratic accountability leads to the corruption of the political class”.

What democratic accountability do we have in this country, when, as West Coast MP Damien O’Connor recently stated, the decisions are made by the party hierarchy. Nick Smith also admitted, during the doggedly charming John Key’s tight-fisted control of his party that when the leader says  jump, he asks how high…

MPs are supposed to represent their electorates – nobody believes this any more. MPs now largely do as they’re told. The corruption of the political class is apparently well under way in New Zealand.

While party politics controls the country, instead of New Zealanders themselves  – the achievable way the Swiss have shown us – we’ll continue to pay a huge price for the basic incompetence and sheer ignorance underpinning so much of the decision-making we’ve been inflicted with is recent years. And look what it’s done to this country…

© Amy Brooke, Convenor, The 100 Days.  See my book “100 Days – Claiming Back New Zealand …what has gone wrong, and how we can control our politicians.” Available through my  BOOK Page at www.amybrooke.co.nz, or at Amazons Kindle.