Supper clubs in London are two-a-penny these days, but Ms Marmite Lover (real name, Kerstin Rodgers) claims to have laid much of the initial groundwork for the current boom. From her home in Kilburn, she puts on dinners, lunches, …
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Supperclubs, trademarks and the London Underground
Get other General Politics hereAs the papers in this issue of The Annals suggest the current economic order is anything but free of regulation. Indeed many policy changes seem to have expanded and extended regulation – in a global sense. The international arena is increasingly legalized and new layer of regulatory controls is being created at still another level of policymaking as regulatory solutions adopted in North America and Europe have spread across continents.
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.England international fly half Jonny Wilkinson has extended his contract with French side Toulon by one year, the Top 14 club announced without providing further details.
Wilkinson, whose contract was set to expire at the end of the current campaign, arrived at the club last summer from Newcastle, where he had played since making his professional debut in 1997.
The 30-year-old, a World Cup winner in 2003 and finalist four years later, is the leading scorer in the Top 14 with 177 points.
Wilkinson has managed to shake off the injury problems that bedevilled him for the latter years of the last decade and has also re-established his claim for a starting berth in the England side.
Toulon is currently fourth in the French championship with seven matches remaining and must finish in the top six to qualify for the play-off phase of the season. .
He is currently in training with England in preparation for the start of the Six Nations tournament on February 6, the English kicking off with a home game against Wales at Twickenham
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The Government has no plans to change superannuation entitlements or raise the age of eligibility in the face of a Treasury report’s dire warnings of the burden of an ageing population.
Treasury secretary John Whitehead today warned New Zealand’s net debt could reach $2 trillion by 2050 if government spending followed historic trends.
The statement showed the Government was currently issuing about $250 million a week in debt.
Releasing the treasury’s long term fiscal statement this afternoon, Mr Whitehead said “as a nation we are going to have to make some choices about what we want”.
“The only options that are feasible are options of changing taxes around.
Finance Minister Bill English said the Government would not go back on its promise to retain entitlements but the next round of tax cuts would not be happening in the short term.
“If we can get some better results on the economy then we will get some more tax revenue in. We will need to collect all the current amount of tax,” he told reporters.”
Growth in Government spending has averaged 6. But in the shorter term there isn’t an option on giving away a whole lot of revenue.2 percent over the same period.3 percent a year for the past 15 years, in total more than 20 percent higher than economic growth, at 5.The shift in the past three years was partly due to lower revenue and increased expenses from the recession, and revised growth and revenue predictions.
The statement more than doubled the projected net debt from the 2006 forecast to 223 per cent of GDP by 2050 if things did not change.
Mr Whitehead noted the imminent threat to government spending liabilities from the increasing 65-plus age bracket.
Also contributing to the shift was the increased expense of new Government policies over the past three years.
“By 2050 the ratio of people 65 and over to those of working age will double,” Mr Whitehead said.
A quarter of Government spending currently went towards that group, which made up 12 per cent of the population. .
Mr Whitehead emphasised he did not expect the worst case scenario to come true, but it was up to the Government to make the necessary choices to address the fiscal issues highlighted in the statement. Treasury’s given the same advice about super for 20 years, it hasn’t changed.
“Future Governments haven’t made the undertakings the current Government has made.”
More people were choosing to stay on at work longer and Mr English expected that to increase. We made an undertaking and we are sticking to that undertaking.”
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New South Wales police say they hold “grave concerns” for a New Zealander who disappeared since last month.
Oliver Sims, 26, was last seen on September 18 at a university in Wollongong, where he worked in a function centre, NSW police said in a statement. .
Mr Sims, who lived in Wollongong, 82km south of Sydney, failed to return home after his shift and did not show up for work the next week.
“I was at home and he sent me a text message about 11pm, saying `Don’t wait up, I will be home late.
In the six weeks since he was last seen, his girlfriend of seven years, Pauline Cook, has retraced his steps, kept a constant vigil and made a public appeal for information to help find him. And that was the last I heard from him,” Ms Cook told the Illawarra Mercury newspaper. I love you’.
“I have been in contact with his family in New Zealand pretty much every day and they’re very distraught and extremely worried,” Ms Cook said.
Mr Sims, who did not have a driver’s licence, usually used public transport or got a lift home with a workmate. I’ve gone to places locally where he might be or go, and I’ve gone up to Sydney to places where we used to hang out.
“We’re all scared for his welfare and there’s not much we can do.”
Ms Cook and Mr Sims had talked of a future together that included marriage, and she said he was a “quiet and gentle kind of guy”.
“We’ve tried everything we can think of to find him.
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Family members have set up a “find Oliver Sims” Facebook group
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NZ Bus will lift its lockout notice and resume services on Thursday morning “as a gesture of good will”, if the unions stop strike action and agree to reach a settlement, the company says.
But parents and school children still face another day of disruption tomorrow as a lockout of about 900 bus drivers in Auckland continues.
A statement from the company said it would remove the lockout notice but only on the “proviso that by 1:30pm tomorrow the unions also lift their strike notice and agree to work with the facilitator to reach a ratified settlement”, NZ Bus operations general manager Zane Fulljames said.
No NZ Bus services have run since then and the disruption became greater yesterday on the first day of the fourth school term. .
Students and around 80,000 other commuters have had to find alternative transport to get to school or work.
The Auckland Combined Unions will meet with their members tomorrow at 11am to discuss developments.Most travellers had coped by switching to trains, taking buses provided by other companies, car pooling or using their own cars.An offer by the drivers to drive pupils for no pay was rejected by the company as “at best misguided and is at worst mischievous”.But yesterday, with pupils returning after the school holidays, many of the buses used for public services last week were switched back to school routes.co.Frustrated passengers have been told to go to the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (Arta) website maxx.Arta spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said it had scraped together a skeleton bus service and the trains into the city were packed.nz for alternatives.She said the daily subsidy of $160,000 paid to NZ Bus had been suspended while the buses were not running.She said the daily subsidy of $160,000 paid to NZ Bus had been suspended while the buses were not running.”If this dispute is not settled, I will be calling on Arta to start the process of terminating the existing contracts and finding someone else who will deliver the services that Auckland expects and pays for.”Like any commercial contract, NZ Bus contracts can be terminated for non-performance,” Mr Lee said.”If we terminated NZ Bus completely then we’d leave a 700-bus gap overnight, and we couldn’t do that to the public,” Ms Hunter said.”However, Arta spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said it would take up to two months to terminate the contract and it would be impossible to replace the bus service in that timeframe.
.NZ Bus spokeswoman Megan McSweeney said Mr Lee’s comments were “not helpful”
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A senior public servant has been committed for trial facing an assault charge.
At a depositions hearing before two Justices of the Peace in Wellington District Court today, the man, whose name and occupation have been suppressed, denies the charge following an incident in central Wellington on August 29 last year.
Prosecuting lawyer Paul Dacre told the court the teenage victim had taken credit cards belonging to the defendant’s wife and withdrawn $700 from an ATM, spending $200 of that on a cellphone, cigarettes and a bag.
Once in the car he punched the victim five or six times, with one blow hitting him in the head, he said.
On finding the victim the defendant grabbed him and walked him back to his car, threatening to break his legs if he tried to run away, Mr Dacre said.
Four witnesses, including two teenagers and two shop staff from across the road, today gave varying accounts of seeing the defendant strike the victim about the upper body while the pair were in the car.
When spoken to by police the man denied the threat and punches.
Some said they witnessed just a couple of blows while another said he saw up to 10 blows with a closed fist.
What they thought were punches could have been the man trying to get the bag off the boy and lock the car doors.
The defendant’s lawyer, Mike Antunovic, questioned the witnesses’ recollections and statements about the event. .
The witnesses were spoken to by police earlier this year, up to nine months later.
The defendant will next appear in Wellington District Court on January 19 for a jury trial call over.
Mr Antunovic conceded there was a prima facie case to answer.
Arguments for continued name suppression will be heard before a District Court judge before Christmas.
Arguments for continued name suppression will be heard before a District Court judge before Christmas.
. If he was acquitted then the damage done by publicity would be irreversible
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Winds of up to 140kmh will batter New Zealand today and tomorrow, with heavy rain forecast for the northern part of the North Island tomorrow.
The Metservice is predicting northwesterly winds for Wellington, Wairarapa and Marlborough, rising to severe gales with rain expected tomorrow.Severe northwest gales should also hit Canterbury tomorrow afternoon and evening.In Northland, northern Taranaki, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty, Taupo and Taumarunui showers will increase to heavy rains tomorrow night.Otago and Southland may also experience severe northwesterly gales tomorrow morning. .The Automobile Association warned motorists travelling on State Highway 57 overnight on Sunday that 100 to 150mm of rain was expected in the Tararua Ranges.In Otago, the risk of avalanche has closed SH94 between Lower Hollyford and Milford Sound from Saturday until Sunday morning.
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An earthquake measuring 5.9 magnitude centred in Fiordland was felt widely in the lower South Island tonight, following two other quakes earlier in the evening.31pm was centred 120km west of Te Anau.
The latest tremor at 8.9, the US Geological Survey registered it at 6.
While GNS Science measured it at 5. Geologists say the measurements of quakes are often more accurate from a long distance as a result of how shock waves travel through the earth.1.
”The phones are quiet,” a police spokesman said.
Invercargill police said there were no immediate reports of any damage.8 magnitude Fiordland quake that struck on July 15.
A GNS spokesman told Radio New Zealand residents should not be concerned as the quakes were all aftershocks from the 7.
There were two earlier quakes – one measuring 5. They could be expected to continue for the next few weeks, he said. .2, 100km west of Te Anau, at 4.07pm.8, at 7.
The 5. It was centred in Fiordland, 110km west of Tuatapere.
More than 200 people had logged reports on tonight’s latest quake on the GNS website, she said.9 quake was one of the largest aftershocks recorded since that, duty seismologist Lara Bland said.
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The country’s top judge is suggesting giving some prisoners an amnesty as a way of relieving prison overcrowding, but the Government has ruled out the idea. .
“We need to look at direct tools to manage the prison population if overcrowding is not to cause significant safety and human rights issues.
Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias sparked the debate in a speech where she said the controversial idea should be considered.
“Such solutions will not please many.”
Dame Sian pointed to the system working in other countries to prevent overcrowding. . .”
She also criticised the denial of bail and parole to inmates – an area the Government is considering tightening further. but the alternatives and the cost of overcrowding need to be weighed.
Dame Sian said if attitudes in relation to bail and parole were not relaxed, then the focus would have to go on the length of prison sentences.
“I question whether that strategy can reasonably be maintained,” she said.
“Are we ready for solutions such as these?
“If not we will have to keep building prisons and diverting resources into incapacitation.
She said this could result in either shorter sentences, changes to parole and bail laws or early release amnesty. . .
Justice Minister Simon Power said inmates would not get amnesties.,” Dame Sian said.
“This is not government policy.
He also made a pointed remark about the role of the judiciary versus Parliament.”
Mr Power said the Government would “decide its own policy agenda”. The Government was elected to set sentencing policy, judges are appointed to apply it.”
SST spokesperson Garth McVicar was outraged by the idea.
Asked if that could include amnesties, he said: “I have ruled out such a move. . . . start talking about how people have choices and how they choose to commit crime or they don’t and why are so many people choosing to commit crime in this country.
“That seems to me to be a total cop out.”
Mr McVicar said already many offenders received single sentences for multiple crimes.
“Until we get back to holding people accountable for the crimes they commit then ultimately we are going to have more crimes committed.”
An amnesty would dilute the deterrent effect of prisons and was unfair to victims of crime, he said.
“It’s totally, totally corrupt.”
Kim Workman, director of Rethinking Crime and Punishment, said Dame Sian had not suggested anything unusual.
“Over half the states in the USA are currently implementing or planning to implement early release schemes for prisoners to alleviate overcrowding,” he said.
“What they now accept is that it can be done without increasing the recidivism rate or the crime rate. Internationally, there is no proven connection between the crime rate and the rate of imprisonment.”