You want to know who to vote for?

Diary of the last ten hours

7.31am

Listening to all manner of political analysis and thinking: boy everyone’s going to be sick to death of this by the time the last of the pundits have had their say, let’s make it a quiz instead.

Hello readers of the free editions! This is a thing we do every Friday now. Just make a note of your answers, or not, and and when we get to the end you’ll get all the questions again along with the answers.

Monday special quiz

1. Which of these was not an actual news headline this week?

a. Vaccine rollout in 'shambles' as first mass vaccination event due to begin

b. Health officials scrambling amid slow response to Auckland's mass vaccination 

c. Fears of 'parking chaos' as trains cancelled same weekend as mass vaccination 

d. First-ever mass vaccination event sees 15,000 vaccinated, with few difficulties

2. What is the combined vote for National and ACT in the latest poll?

a. More than 50%

b. More than Labour

c. Less than Labour but more than 40%

d. Less than Labour and less than 40%

3. If a party gets a vote so stratospherically high in an election that it confounds the conventional MMP wisdom that no single party can get over 50%, would it be an enormous surprise if it got a smaller vote at the next election?

a. Yes

b. No

4. If a poll result suggests that this might indeed be happening and you call that poll result OMG Historic, what else would qualify as OMG Historic?

a. Sun comes up

b. Dog bites man

c. TV News relies on clickbait

d. All of the above

5. What is being described in this John Roughan column?

It is a striking sign of the economy's new wealth that politicians dare make such an investment. Nobody would put their own money on the prospect that commuters will leave their cars at home, or at suburban terminals for the day, in sufficient numbers to make it pay. 

a. The Northern Busway

b. The proposed harbour bridge for people on foot and on bikes 

c. The $800 million dollar upgrade just announced for the Otaki highway 

d. Judith Collins’ proposed four-lane expressway from Whangārei to Tauranga including tunnels under the Brynderwyn and Kaimai ranges

6. Which one of these is true?

a. The Ministry of Health pays a contractor to deliver a drug rehabilitation service which has gone through an extensive vetting process, and that service was set up by someone with a Mongrel Mob past

b. Someone from the Mongrel Mob visits the Ministry of Health each Tuesday and collects  a bag of cash with Rehab Money LOL written on it 

c. The Mongrel Mob gets this, like, huge automatic payment each week from the government

d. Someone from the Mongrel Mob stood up at a hui and said give us some money and we’ll stop the drugs bro so cabinet agreed to send them some whenever there’s a news story about P

7. Which of these is not a thing we could each be doing to reduce emissions?

a. Eat less meat

b. Use a bike instead of a car 

c. Reduce, reuse, recycle

d. Drive your ute on the Otaki highway extension

8. Which of these is not in a Bob Dylan song?

a. Come mothers and fathers throughout the land and don’t criticise what you can’t understand.

b. I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes. You’d know what a drag it is to see you.

c. May you have a strong foundation, when the winds of changes shift.

d. I don't like wetlands – they're swamps. Go and find someone who actually cares about this, because I don't.

9. What is the current New World price of a 700g block of Mainland Tasty Cheese?

a. $14.09

b. $15.09

c. $16.09

d. $16.99

10. When the Auckland Harbour Bridge Authority opened its four-lane-no-bike-or-walking-lane bridge in 1959, who sued them for loss of business?

a. Newshub

b. The TAB

c. The NZ Rugby Union

d. The Auckland Harbour Board

Answers

1. Which of these was not an actual news headline this week?

d. First-ever mass vaccination event sees 15,000 vaccinated, with few difficulties

2. What is the combined vote for National and ACT in the latest poll?

d. Less than Labour and less than 40%

3. If a party gets a vote so stratospherically high in an election that it confounds the conventional MMP wisdom that no single party can get over 50%, would it be an enormous surprise if it got a smaller vote at the next election?

b. No

4. If a poll result suggests that this might indeed be happening and you call that poll result OMG Historic, what else would qualify as OMG Historic?

d. All of the above

5. What is being described in this John Roughan column?

It is a striking sign of the economy's new wealth that politicians dare make such an investment. Nobody would put their own money on the prospect that commuters will leave their cars at home, or at suburban terminals for the day, in sufficient numbers to make it pay. 

a. The Northern Busway

This, of course, has gone on to be a - if you will - stratospheric success. The full Nostradamus is here.

6. Which one of these is true?

a. The Ministry of Health pays a contractor to deliver a drug rehabilitation service which has gone through an extensive vetting process, and that service was set up by someone with a Mongrel Mob past

7. Which of these is not a thing we could each be doing to reduce emissions?

d. Drive your ute on the Otaki highway extension

8. Which of these is not in a Bob Dylan song?

d. I don't like wetlands – they're swamps. Go and find someone who actually cares about this, because I don't. This was not Bob Dylan, but the Pop-Up Leader of the National Party, Judith Collins, some years ago.

9. What is the current New World price of a 700g block of Mainland Tasty Cheese?

c. $16.09

10. When the Auckland Harbour Bridge Authority opened its four-lane-no-bike-or-walking-lane bridge in 1959, who sued them for loss of business?

d. The Auckland Harbour Board. They didn’t like getting their ferry business cut off at the knees and walked away at the end of six years of litigation with 103,000 quid.


9.38am

If you read one online news story today, make it this one.

Newsroom talks to Yum granola founder Sarah Hedger, from Nelson, who has had the courage to say what you will often hear from people involved in food supply: the two supermarket chains will heavy you like no-one’s business to get the best price and they do that using the implied threat that if you don't play ball, your products will be pulled from the shelves.

On the one hand, you might say, well maybe that's the supermarkets working on our behalf, the consumers, to get the best price. But is that our gain? Or the supermarkets gain, with the fat margin? And how fair is that to the suppliers?

10.38am

I cannot stand the expression Life Hack. What even is it? Seriously, what does it say that cannot be said with Tip?

So. I have received in my inbox a most excellent TIP, and I wish to share it because let’s face it, the price of Vanilla extract is not kind, not once the supermarket duopoly have worked out what we’re prepared to hand over.

Here then, thanks to Bon Appetit, is a top TIP: make a never-ending jar of vanilla extract.

10.39am

And another one! A conversation took place on the weekend about using standardisation to streamline your life and Graeme Edgeler, who tends to be right to a an almost maddening degree, chimed in with a persuasive suggestion.

11.35am

Taking my hand out of the TIP jar for a moment to do today’s TOMORROW IS A BETTER WORLD transport roundup.

George Weekes has a vision and it is good.

Peter McGlashan has one too.

And yesterday Karren and I rode up to Takapuna to watch a ribbon-cutting by Minister Michael Wood - Hi minister! - for the Northcote Safe Cycle Route and it is GOOD.

This is the missing link to 5km of cycle path that takes you all the way from Smales Farm to the Northcote Ferry terminal: a pair of bridges to get you over the motorway.

Paths aren’t just for ribbon-cutting, they’re also for riding. So many thanks to MTAF reader Neil Coleman -Hi Neil! - for giving us a full Northcote tour, underneath the motorway and all. Can’t do that in a ute.

2.40pm

Third and strongest tip: See this film.

Who is at fault? The State? Maybe. But all of us, really, for accepting the kind of economic arrangement we’ve been rolling along with now for three decades. Its ever-deepening inequality and damage is undeniable.

You want to know who to vote for? Vote for someone who will change that.

4.20pm

Many thanks to reader Vague Craig for this, the title track from a 2014 album Lost On The River: The New Basement Tapes featuring covers of some "lost" Dylan songs written in 1967.