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5:30 pm, May 18th, 2026 - 31 comments
Categories: Daily review -
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Daily review is also your post.
This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
OMG!
"A live frog has been found in a bag of lettuce in a remote town in Western Australia."
No sleep for me tonight!
A frog! Live! Lettuce! Bag of!!!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/595581/live-frog-found-in-bag-of-lettuce-in-remote-western-australian-town
It probably was organic lettuce and the frog was used as chemical-free insecticide.
'Bro, I've got a lettuce, like a frog in my lettuce,' Ms Jones said."
Poetry!
"Bro, I've got a hedgerow, like a bustle in my hedgerow," Mr Plant sang."
Checkpoint (RNZ) has just reported that Hipkins has said in a speech in Queenstown to Electrify NZ (?) that Labour will not allow the LNG import terminal proposed by the COC to be built but instead will invest in hydro, thermal, solar and wind renewable power.
The gloves are off. So good that Labour has taken a clear stance on this.
Earlier in the day Seymour expressed his support for the LNG terminal.
So there is a straightforward choice for the voters on this key issue.
Full speech here: https://www.labour.org.nz/news/speech-electrify-queenstown/
Cheers Incog…he is strident in his speech which is excellent…respect….and apparently he already said this in his State of the Nation address…missed that.
The speech was to Electrify Queenstown.
I wonder…if it did ? : )
Besides that. good on Chippie for nailing some Red to the mast as it were !…..
He's on the right side of history if this is anything to go by:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/may/17/america-china-energy-oil-renewables
Trump & Co's "spiritual" forebears, the Luddites, caused some trouble a couple of centuries or so ago, fighting an energy transition of their own, but it was always a losing battle for them, and will be for the fossil fuel brigade too.
Nah, thats not true or appropriate there. The Luddites have been misrepresented/reviled for years.
They were first and foremost skilled Workers who because the wealthy wanted more wealth..well, yeah.
Nothing changes….
Anyway. a little History for you.
Lord Byron (respect for him!) writing on the plight of the lowers of jolly old England…
Magnificent post Psych.
lol
How very bloody true!
You don't understand Luddites at all Ob. They were having their living, their expertise, jobs and economic standing in their communities wiped out by mechanisation.
Think about now say; we may see solicitors receiving similar when AI can adjudicate and advise. All the investment in expertise – wasted. They wouldn't like that 'progress' either.
The dynamic picture is more nuanced and complicated that what you painted.
https://lawnews.nz/legal-profession/junior-lawyers-struggling-as-entry-level-jobs-dry-up/
https://theconversation.com/ai-is-peeling-back-the-layers-of-low-value-work-nz-may-be-well-placed-to-adapt-262500
Thanks Obtrectator for that link to a(nother) comprehensive Guardian article.
Sounds soooo familiar – close to home even.
BG @ 2.
More of that I say.
Willis is announcing further cuts to the Public Service on the North Shore tomorrow. She plans to amalgamate agencies into a dozen or so huge conglomerates which will mean a massive drop in standards and outcomes. It will further enable the present government to gerrymander these huge agencies and render them impotent when it come to providing services in an impartial and fair manner. Trumpian stuff which isn't surprising.
After the announcement I want to see Hipkins promise to immediately reverse the P.S. back to its former setting when they become the Govt. in November – or something along those lines.
Slow death by a thousand cuts – do less with much less aka efficiency. This is restructuring management, not governance or policy setting.
Suit-wearing has got KS where he is. Famous for not wearing his knighthood title, he doesn't follow in the grand tradition of David Lange & Rupert Murdoch (refusal) but is doing a similar riff on it. Here's his current rating: https://yougov.com/en-gb/topics/public_figure/Keir_Starmer
So the Brits who had no idea about him whatsoever clocked in at 2%. I suspect they don't vote too. Yet Starmer is registered onsite as the 9th best Labour politician according to crowd wisdom: https://yougov.com/en-gb/ratings/labour-politicians
Corbyn at 15, Burnham at 1, Ken Livingstone at 13. My advice to Keir is make Ken your foreign minister & send him off to tell Trump what to do. Give Burnham a call, ask him if he'd enter into a kind of collaboration at the top level, with a full set of options on the table, get a sense of how ready he is to come in at that level. Maybe set Corbyn onto the UN as some kind of reforming terrier to see how much of a run-around he gives it.
Protestors protesting.
Lol.
And Ol' Barry parliamentary correspondent Soper managed to somehow be patronising,condescending and churlishly mean spirited.
Its a gift given to few…..
And….yep : )
“Everyone came to see and hear the beautiful ideal of a contemporary world figure who stands for decency and kindness and liberal values. It was nice to see her again.”
It is hard to find news that can be relied on to be consistent and well thought through – No Right Turn is just such a website although the views may be repugnant to the right, and posts tend to cover only selected issues. I liked the latest entry – see
https://norightturn.blogspot.com/2026/05/full-and-final-goes-both-ways.html
National (excluding possibly Luxon) probably recognise the importance of the issue, ACT don't care, and Winston will only react if it can get him a few more votes.
I read The Standard more often than most other websites – any thoughts on other "regular reading" sites?
+100 Ed…. No Right Turn is invariably superb in summing up issues and lampooning the Right.
https://thekaka.substack.com/
Derek Cheng in the Herald tonight was unimpressed with the lack of consensus on energy policy at Electrify Queenstown. He said:
"…Chris Hipkins, ,,,,gave a short speech before leaving the debate to Woods.
He pledged that the LNG terminal would be scrapped under Labour. “There’s no future for gas but that is what the current Government is trying to tie us to.”
Clearly Cheng is upset that Hipkins (who actually gave quite a long speech-see above in this thread) had the temerity to put forward policies entirely opposed to the fossil fuel friendly policies of the COC government. The battle is joined.
"He pledged that the LNG terminal would be scrapped under Labour."
What more needs to be said?
What's your point Merc? Your comments need to be less obscure.
Apols for obsc.
Hipkins didn't need, imo, to debate the matter at length. He made a definitive declaration, gave his view and that of his party and left no room for doubt; he wasn't even slightly obscure.
Cheng doesn't like clarity and brevity as much as you or I do, it seems.
ah now that makes sense…+100 Merc
BG I did find a kinda….under the radar cover Article on RNZ. Actually had Chloe speaking….(I like the canny reach out to NZ Fist…puts the ball in their court to ….acknowledge : )
Good stuff psych….Luxon should be making a massive and embarrassing u-turn on the LNG plant but Seymour wont let him do this.
Meanwhile I just heard on RNZ that the COC is insisting that teh LNG terminal and infrastructure will cost only $1 billion whereas Bernard Hickey says it will cost $2.7 billion. Luxon is lying again.