Speaking of facebook, my feed had a *sponsored* story from the Taxpayers' Union last night... one guess what it was.

Seeing it had 100+ comments, I gleefully clicked in, expecting to see a group of savvy Kiwis politely pointing out to the TU that they were 'avoiding' the truth somewhat.

Instead:

hell no just search boys murdered by clinton and you will get untold links to so many deaths through his career and her support of the cover ups !!!

why would you continue to give the NZ peoples money to a lying evil bitch who hopefully Trump will put in jail, the congress are pumped to get to the bottom of her actions, or is it the Bilderberg Group calling now that we have been sold out

Not enough palms for my face.

Read the Spinoff piece. Christ.

I was a core member of NZM from approx. 1999 (age 14) - 2004. Have a suspicion that I know/knew at least one of the girls in the story. And I certainly remember the user geekboy.

My NZM participation was a truly formative experience, and it's sickening to know this happened in that seemingly-benign space.

In addition to the *137 thing, I'm pretty sure dialling 1851 told you what landline number you were dialling from.

Thanks guys.

Is the main debate being streamed at all? I'm in the US at the mo so also hopefully not geoblocked.

This seems as good a time as any to share part of the 3-page ACT pamphlet I received, laughed at, and scanned a few years ago to provide laughs for future me.

I point especially to number 6, column 'Countries where similar policy works well'. At one point Phil Heatley came back from Houston and said exactly the same thing. Those must've been some strong Texan drugs.

Also enjoy 'Get rid of all nutty regulations' as a policy platform.

rush through under urgency

That would be the definition of ironic.

I sincerely hope that my use of 'quell dissent' made it clear the irony was intended.

in the face of widespread strong public opposition.

... and seemingly unwavering public support for the Govt as a whole. Wtf, NZ.

But – it’s too hard. No really. The detail and legal process to create something like this … sheesh.

Aw. Go oooooon. Are there any recent equivalent changes in other countries? Copy/paste, quell dissent, rush through under urgency. Done. I'll take first shift.

Did the whole forgotten password palaver, just to log in for the first time in forever & say this idea makes me really, really excited.

What chance us actually getting this off the ground? People would support it, I think; politicians meanwhile, perhaps not. Perhaps one of the Labour hopefuls is looking for a point of difference...

"Budget of all mothers."

Fantastic. I giggled uncontrollably.

Paul, that isn't really true - as the farmers and Fonterra are fond of noting, the globalised economy means we take the world price on these goods. Reducing domestic demand will do no more than make our stuffed potatoes a little less enjoyable.