Chief Stipe

LOL. Holy that's the oldest trick in the book normally played by lawyers when doing disclosure. Essentially what you do is dump everything you can find remotely related to the case and disclose it to the other side EXCEPT you "overlook" some key one's which you "find" late in the process. "Our apologies your honour but we overlooked these documents which we hope you understand given the sheer volume of documents that we have released." The Judge wearily nods his head knowing full well that he has pulled the same trick many times before. In this case the Government will have to be legally challenged to get them released. So it isn't what WAS released its what WASN'T released. Reminds me of a story. I was the plaintiff in a case and my lawyer and I were going through the disclosure process. I had all sorts of documents in a big box. In there was a Ski ticket. I said "I suppose we don't need this." I explained the tenuous connection to the case. My lawyer smiled and said "throw it in, it will puzzle them and they will waste time trying to work out what relevance it is." Same story here.

That's quite good for you Holy. That's the second time this week someone has posted something that has had me rolling around the floor laughing my arse off. You weren't being serious were you? By the way a "handful" usually means FIVE. This time it is ZERO i.e. Zero which is five LESS than five.

Complete the following: A suitable caption; Name the winner; The Jockey; The Win dividend. Bonus points in the event of a tie - name who ran second and it's jockey. Don't mention Health and Safety rules please unless you are being humoress or humorless.

Check out Ruakaka's Jan 5 meeting. Their Christmas meeting was the same. http://www.ruakakaracing.co.nz/Gallery/TabId/10801/emodule/39351/egallery/2167/Default.aspx Not only do they have a good grass track to train up on in late winter but they have a good synthetic one as well - 150m from the main track - picture below.

But you are not comparing horses with horses. Ruakaka doesn't get the Premier funding dates that Trentham gets which is reflected in the horse quality. Ruakaka only has one Spring meeting and that's the Northland Breeders Stakes day. I was lucky to see Catalyst win that! May I suggest that is more perception than actual fact. The Christmas at The Races day I told the group I was with that Gibbs/Bradley normally dominate. By Race 5 they thought I was an idiot and contrary to what they were led to believe I actually knew nothing about horse racing. Thankfully they abandoned the dominant trainer strategy for the rest of the day! I agree although the cone isn't the actual winning post. The camera angle on TV seems to cut out the winning post and the cone sticks out like a sore thumb. The only purpose I can see for the cone is perhaps it is a sighter for the jockeys.

No comments on Adern's email to her Cabinet Ministers? Or do you, as an Ardernt apparatchik, believe that the leader can sideline the Politburo anytime she wants?

Maybe that has something to do with those trainers that set up the satellite stables there during the latter part of the winter. Both you and Barryb say it is boring to watch - why? How is it much different the rest of New Zealand racing? I agree and I find it strange given the positive things I've seen there. It makes me think that there is some constraint - technical or otherwise that prevents them from fixing it. Wouldn't surprise me if it was the TAB saying they can't run a cable out to it!

I have to disagree with your analysis of Ruakaka. When was the last time you were on course? I've been on course 3 times in the last 18 months. Once for their Christmas at the Races day. The hospitality options were sold out weeks in advance. We had to go on a waiting list. The crowd was one of the bigger ones that I've seen in recent times. The facilities were clean, the food fantastic and the alcohol cheap. Our group had a great time. We were in a large room in the main public grandstand. A glorious view of Bream Bay and the Hen and Chickens. I've been twice since (would go more but circumstances don't allow it). Used their free bus service from Whangarei. The bus does a circuit of a wide area stops including many of the popular watering holes. It is usually near full. Fun on the way home! Their members and owners facilities seem new and are packed every race meeting. I have only had the pleasure of viewing from a distance. The racing surface is great. The races competitive considering the dates they get in the season. Saw Catalyst win the Northland Breeders Stakes. The placement of the main stand is great for viewing. Aside from the large number of horses trained on the track many of the big trainers from further south set up satellite stables during the winter to get their horses ready for the spring. The club involves the local communities and race sponsorship is strong. Their annual pub vs pub punters challenge is another big day. The only thing I could find wrong was the winning post. Aside from the fact my horses didn't often get their first it needs to be bigger. Maybe that's the problem the horses I backed couldn't see it. The club is financial and their turn over to stakes ratio is as good as anyone's. In short I can't knock Ruakaka at all. What I do know is their local supporters will be a tad pissed off with the decisions. I would add to that my view was different until I attended the races there. I used to think that Ruakaka was just a Logan benefit but after doing some in the field research have come to a different conclusion. Ruakaka is of benefit to racing as a whole and is one of the last bastions of what made racing great in this country.

So it's HER fault. The woman must have some bad mojo.

Where's Winnie in all this? He is old school Parliament and as well wouldn't take kindly by being told by Ardern to keep his mouth shut.

I think the associated email from Adern to Ministers might have been "leaked".

So which Government member leaked the email?

If you are going to copy and paste from some other site or publication I suggest you paste as plain text!

Post them thanks.

You obviously haven't read the RNZ article on the Government document dump with its attendant advice to cabinet ministers? Note the article does not quote any opposition politicians and was republished in its entirety by Stuff and the NZ Herald. ? I wonder if Jacinda and Grant will ask for the $50m back.

Shyte I just read on the news what Brodie is referring to with regard to Aderns directives to her Ministers. Her actions reek of arrogance and inexperience. What's worse it is complete disrespect for the institutions, norms and rules of our democracy. I say that from a non partisan perspective and I'm sure there are pissed off people in Labour.

LOL I'm not sure what value it would be as apparently I'm an illiterate nutcase! ? I'll answer that tomorrow when I sort this Topic out. At the moment I'm watching a movie with a beer in hand. Writing long posts on a smart phone can be a tedious process.

I have similar concerns and it is a bit glib to say "Well it's still a democracy and you can change things at the next election." Adern and Robertson took it upon themselves to run the country by executive order. But they even cut down the normal executive team by excluding cabinet from the decision making. The last person to do that was one Robert David Muldoon. The ghostly echoes of cabinet ministers finding out about executive orders via the media resonated through the empty halls of parliament these last few weeks. Checks and balances were put in place to stop the executive power he wielded with impunity. Adern had no right to suspend parliament our primary democratic institution. Our elected representatives should have been in Parliament all through this. FFS the UK Parliament continued to sit and debate during the Battle of Britain in WW2. Aderns inexperience is clearly evident. What's more she has screwed forever the weapon of last resort against this virus that being complete lockdown. We've got no chance of forcing people back to Level 4. Further it seems we have wasted what we were told was the key reason to have the lockdown and that was to prepare our health systems for the inevitable wave of Covid-19 infection.

Hi Harness Folk I'll sort this Topic Thread out tomorrow and shift the Covid posts to the Covid forum Cheer The Chief aka "Nutcase." PS: On any other forum a couple of people would have been banned today. But BOAY doesn't work like that. ?

LOL. Lockdown really got to you eh Mardigras or you just missing your alter ego Thomaas? Never seen you this abusive, trolling or so far off the mark in your analysis.

You're out of line there Mardigras. Not your place to say who stays or goes.

As I said the Swedish Government hasn't borrowed money for cash handouts to business. They have used various tools at their disposal to make it easier for businesses to stay in business. The assistance is very targeted and much of it has not been spent or drawn down yet. For example the Swedish Government is acting as a Guarantor for LOANS provided by banks to assist private enterprises. Hardly untargeted non refundable cash handouts. They've put in place a scheme to pay for employers sick leave obligations for a limited time. Again targeted specific payments. Nor double winter warmer payments because presumably Covid-19 makes the winter twice as cold.

Where did you get that figure from? Sweden already pre-Covid-19 had a much higher unemployment rate than NZ.

I didn't say that. Now who is lying and or deluded. I said Sweden wasn't borrowing large amounts of money to handout to their citizens. Answer that one who are you into your 2nd bottle of red?

Yep particularly the way it has been managed. Not only a waste of time but after being implemented lots of lost opportunities. For example from left field. Why did new road construction need to stop? Barely any vehicles on the road. Why couldn't Auckland Airport have fixed their stuffed runway? It is apparent that the bottle neck in our hospitals is ICU beds even without Covid19. Have we used the lockdown to gear up more ICU capacity?