A nice summation. I've tried to give him every benefit of the doubt, but the insanity is getting to me. In one video when he was a new politician, he talked about his family had some issues and how he learned about having compassion for such families.
But does he not realise that anyone who might get hurt or get killed in road accidents will have it much worse? Does he care about them and their families?
And where in his committed faith is money more important than care and responsibility of children's lives or road workers?
I've just stopped watching a clip of Michelle Obama commenting on trump where she said "we need an adult in the white house" . That wise, wise woman's words certainly apply down here too
Politics seems to attract certain profiles that aren't necessarily kind, giving or mature, but pathological enough to know what to say to get into power.
Couple that with big corporate donor money and lobbyists, it seems like a recipe for destruction.
The utter egotistical beliefs these people have astonishes me.
I spent all my working life as a mechanical engineer, a proper one not a book learnt one, and would no more accept a cabinet post away from my skill set than try to fly to the moon under my own steam. These guys become instant "experts" and make decisions that affect people for generations. We need more adults
And in their roles, listening and considering advice of real experts e.g. in the field of mechanical engineering, someone like yourself - would be essential.
I once did an analysis and determined many of them in this current Government are pro lobbyists - and that is the extent of their entire adult life experience - and I am afraid that not only do we not see an ounce of adult maturity, which includes some humility - we only see people who believe their own myths.
Simple fix for Simple Simeon - copy Florida. "Speeding fines doubled when workers present" - speed camera in the middle of the works - "ka-ching", the way most people adhere to road works posted limits in NZ he would have his pothole budget paid off each year! Simple assumptions says you would probably only need to nab about 17,000 a day - easy, and it's only arithmetic!
High Performance Motor Vehicles (50 tonne log trucks) cause unsustainable damage to our under engineered NZ roads. The simple answer Simeon is rail. Share the load with rail and spare the road
SB's announcements remind me of the Crosby Textor "Dead Cat Theory". This explanation from Wiki is:-
Origin. While he was mayor of London, Boris Johnson wrote a column for the 3 March 2013 edition of The Telegraph in which he described the "dead cat" as a piece of Australian political strategy about what to do in a situation in which the argument is being lost and "the facts are overwhelmingly against you".
So, in SB's situation, he has to oversee a massive requirement for infrastructure maintenance and rebuild caused by years of under investment. However, Willis has a firm hold on finance and that means do as little as possible and kick the problems down the road. To make sure the media, bless them, are kept busy chasing any story but the one the government does not want told, SB and other ministers use on the "Dead Cat Theory".
Meanwhile, decisions that the country desperately NEED are ignored for what the government WANT, or rather what the government donors and their lobbyists WANT!
The roads of significance are another ploy. The planning will take months, the contractors will have to come from overseas because who in NZ is competent to run these huge projects. PPP will be the finance route and they have been shown not to work well. That nicely takes us up to the next election, only 27 or so moths away!
Meanwhile, ferries? Sold off to someone.
Coastal shipping for movement of containers? What? Who? Nah.
Using rail for moving wood and containers to and from transport hubs for local distribution? What? Who? Nah.
And so the list goes on.
SB's answers are.............poor old pussy stories
What an excellent read! Simeon like so many others in this coalition of chaos ignore empirical evidence in favour of personal reckons. What could possibly go wrong with this modus operandi?
I've read a few profile pieces of him and am hard trying to forget them....but broadly big Church go-er, BNZ branch staff, then tried to get into politics very quickly on community boards, then running for National.
The whole point of road cones is to calm traffic, mainly to protect those working on the road. So are those workers just collateral damage, like school kids??
It really does - very unfortunately - feel and seem that way. It's almost insanity.
Later in the 1News piece, a civil contractors expert does say this road cone war is a distraction. The real topic is worker safety and the safety of the travelling public.
The heartlessness of this Government feels like something out of some satirical universe, except it's real and present.
Agree 💯, it's a bleak depressing outlook under this lot! However thanks to people like you prepared to do the hard yards in terms of research and analysis the potential for eyes to be opened is massive and I share your hard mahi as far and as wide as I can so thank you so much. I came across you for the first time very recently via The Standard and I have emailed the Spinoff imploring them to look at your interislander article and get cracking on some decent analysis of their own. Nga mihi nui
Beautiful summary, well done. Simeon has the single minded ignorance of the true believer, but what he actually believes in is beyond us humans…
A nice summation. I've tried to give him every benefit of the doubt, but the insanity is getting to me. In one video when he was a new politician, he talked about his family had some issues and how he learned about having compassion for such families.
But does he not realise that anyone who might get hurt or get killed in road accidents will have it much worse? Does he care about them and their families?
And where in his committed faith is money more important than care and responsibility of children's lives or road workers?
Anyway, the rant is still there obviously.
Thank you for your comment, Keith.
I've just stopped watching a clip of Michelle Obama commenting on trump where she said "we need an adult in the white house" . That wise, wise woman's words certainly apply down here too
Politics seems to attract certain profiles that aren't necessarily kind, giving or mature, but pathological enough to know what to say to get into power.
Couple that with big corporate donor money and lobbyists, it seems like a recipe for destruction.
The utter egotistical beliefs these people have astonishes me.
I spent all my working life as a mechanical engineer, a proper one not a book learnt one, and would no more accept a cabinet post away from my skill set than try to fly to the moon under my own steam. These guys become instant "experts" and make decisions that affect people for generations. We need more adults
Firmly agree.
And in their roles, listening and considering advice of real experts e.g. in the field of mechanical engineering, someone like yourself - would be essential.
I once did an analysis and determined many of them in this current Government are pro lobbyists - and that is the extent of their entire adult life experience - and I am afraid that not only do we not see an ounce of adult maturity, which includes some humility - we only see people who believe their own myths.
Simple fix for Simple Simeon - copy Florida. "Speeding fines doubled when workers present" - speed camera in the middle of the works - "ka-ching", the way most people adhere to road works posted limits in NZ he would have his pothole budget paid off each year! Simple assumptions says you would probably only need to nab about 17,000 a day - easy, and it's only arithmetic!
High Performance Motor Vehicles (50 tonne log trucks) cause unsustainable damage to our under engineered NZ roads. The simple answer Simeon is rail. Share the load with rail and spare the road
Absolutely, and all that implies…..
God, I cannot applaud this enough. You've hit every nail on the head. He has no clue what he's doing and doesn't want to listen to anyone who does.
Hubris, hubris and pride. (Plus a good dose of incompetence too)
I think people who know things, know they can't know everything, whereas the ones that don't know anything, think they know everything.
Very true!!
SB's announcements remind me of the Crosby Textor "Dead Cat Theory". This explanation from Wiki is:-
Origin. While he was mayor of London, Boris Johnson wrote a column for the 3 March 2013 edition of The Telegraph in which he described the "dead cat" as a piece of Australian political strategy about what to do in a situation in which the argument is being lost and "the facts are overwhelmingly against you".
So, in SB's situation, he has to oversee a massive requirement for infrastructure maintenance and rebuild caused by years of under investment. However, Willis has a firm hold on finance and that means do as little as possible and kick the problems down the road. To make sure the media, bless them, are kept busy chasing any story but the one the government does not want told, SB and other ministers use on the "Dead Cat Theory".
Meanwhile, decisions that the country desperately NEED are ignored for what the government WANT, or rather what the government donors and their lobbyists WANT!
The roads of significance are another ploy. The planning will take months, the contractors will have to come from overseas because who in NZ is competent to run these huge projects. PPP will be the finance route and they have been shown not to work well. That nicely takes us up to the next election, only 27 or so moths away!
Meanwhile, ferries? Sold off to someone.
Coastal shipping for movement of containers? What? Who? Nah.
Using rail for moving wood and containers to and from transport hubs for local distribution? What? Who? Nah.
And so the list goes on.
SB's answers are.............poor old pussy stories
You're right. This bunch of marketers is so un-serious. And it's in their interest to keep us (as the general population) that way too.
What an excellent read! Simeon like so many others in this coalition of chaos ignore empirical evidence in favour of personal reckons. What could possibly go wrong with this modus operandi?
How depressing to see the unbelievable incompetence laid out so clearly!
Thank you for your work.
Yep, he's super strategic is Simple Simeon...
An absolutely unmissable article, including comments!!
Happy you've joined us Judith!
I struggle to take Simeon seriously, I really do. So much to do for such a small guy.....where did he even come from????
I've read a few profile pieces of him and am hard trying to forget them....but broadly big Church go-er, BNZ branch staff, then tried to get into politics very quickly on community boards, then running for National.
The whole point of road cones is to calm traffic, mainly to protect those working on the road. So are those workers just collateral damage, like school kids??
It really does - very unfortunately - feel and seem that way. It's almost insanity.
Later in the 1News piece, a civil contractors expert does say this road cone war is a distraction. The real topic is worker safety and the safety of the travelling public.
The heartlessness of this Government feels like something out of some satirical universe, except it's real and present.
Agree 💯, it's a bleak depressing outlook under this lot! However thanks to people like you prepared to do the hard yards in terms of research and analysis the potential for eyes to be opened is massive and I share your hard mahi as far and as wide as I can so thank you so much. I came across you for the first time very recently via The Standard and I have emailed the Spinoff imploring them to look at your interislander article and get cracking on some decent analysis of their own. Nga mihi nui
Appreciate your support.
Put a road cone on over his noggin and problem solved... His and the tax payer
simeon would make a great garden gnome, sitting beside a road cone........sorry to be so trite......sitting by a pothole.