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Posted at 8:55PM on 22 May 08. Permalink.

I'm cheesed off that Dr Cullen has emptied the larder but now there is no whey that he can now claim that he is cellaring his cheese for a mouldy day. I'm sure he will caerphilly try to string that mozarella though.

The Big Cheese Key will be emmental if he can't make holes in Cullen on this budget, edam it! Although it is starting to grate a bit that Key won't get up on this stilton and provolone that he can cut a bigger slice of the Bucheron though!

I'm feta up with politicians!

Posted at 9:42PM on 22 May 08. Permalink.

Too much pork. Where's the beef? It's peanuts. Jam tomorrow. Dividing up the cake. Lolly scramble. Toast.

Posted at 1:10AM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

Screw the cheese. What about the wine?

In fact, looking at the table, it comes out quite nicely: those earning under $40K get cheese. Those earning between $40K and $70K get wine. And those over $70K get both.

Somebody call a cartoonist.

Posted at 8:34AM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

Screw the cheese. What about the wine?

Wine's going to be bloody cheap for the next year or two. Unlike cheese.

Posted at 9:02AM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

What about the whine?

You're in the wrong place. You want talkback radio. down the street, first on the left.

Posted at 9:32AM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

What about the wine?

What has that got to do with the price of chees?

Posted at 9:33AM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

or cheese, even

Posted at 9:34AM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

or CHIs, if we still had them

Posted at 9:45AM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

Meanwhile, could someone explain to me how all this cheese isn't going to fatten interest rates and inflation? Sorry, folks, but trying recast a serious question in dairy puns isn't working out.

You're in the wrong place. You want talkback radio. down the street, first on the left.

Who needs talkback? Morning Report's 'listener feedback' ran a charming request for 'the whingers' who should piss off to Zimbabwe or Myanmar and STFU. Gentle listener, to paraphrase Chris Rock, you low-expectation-having mother****er! I'm not inclined to give Helen Clark a cookie for NOT behaving like Mugabe, or the murderous despots who'd rather see the Irawaddy Delta turn into a open grave than surrender the smallest part of their power, because civilized human beings just don't do that shit.

Posted at 10:21AM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

Who needs talkback? Morning Report's 'listener feedback' ran a charming request for 'the whingers' who should piss off to Zimbabwe or Myanmar and STFU. Gentle listener, to paraphrase Chris Rock, you low-expectation-having mother****er!

Yes, I thought the same thing when I heard that.

I somehow doubt Labour would find a winning slogan in "Helen! Not as bad as Mugabe! More generous than the Generals of Myanmar!"

Posted at 11:19AM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

I somehow doubt Labour would find a winning slogan in "Helen! Not as bad as Mugabe! More generous than the Generals of Myanmar!"

Sure, and to reality check the more over-wrought left and right wing-nuts we will have a free, fair and credible election this year (unlike Zimbabwe); the armed forces won't be throwing a military coup if the results aren't to its liking (as went down in the country formerly known as Burma); and whatever the outcome, it won't be the final sign of pending apocalypse.

Posted at 11:33AM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

If I'm thinking of the same Morning Report feedback, I think the point was that "people who are prone to whining in New Zealand should remember there are many people worse off in the world than they are." Which is a reasonable point to make from time to time.

In any case, crazed and inaccurate rhetoric can be found on the other side of the spectrum, case in point the NZ Herald's Your Views section.

See comments along the lines of "I earn $80k a year and this budget will make me worse off!"

Right, and the moon is made of Swiss cheese, I hear.

Posted at 12:52PM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

Mugabe rhetoric:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0708/S00402.htm

Posted at 12:56PM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

You're in the wrong place. You want talkback radio. down the street, first on the left.

First on the left is actually the Trotter's office. Talkback is first on the right.

Posted at 12:57PM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

I think the point was that "people who are prone to whining in New Zealand should remember there are many people worse off in the world than they are." Which is a reasonable point to make from time to time.

It's also a reasonable point to make in reply that in much of the world, broadcasting or printing criticism of the government has consequences ranging from the unpleasant (having goons torch your office and make obscene and threatening phone calls to your family) to the lethal (imprisonment, torture and murder).

BTW, please bookmark this comment and if there's a change of government, please rub my nose in it if I ever patronise critics of a National-led administration (or a Budget delivered by Bill English) as "whingers". It is perfectly fair game to say an opinion is wrong-headed, but pissing on someone for having the gall to express it is off.

Posted at 12:59PM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

In any case, crazed and inaccurate rhetoric can be found on the other side of the spectrum, case in point the NZ Herald's Your Views section.

See comments along the lines of "I earn $80k a year and this budget will make me worse off!"

I had a look yesterday. It is the place of utter unreason.

Posted at 1:17PM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

More on Mugabe.

House debate on Electoral Finance Bill, July 26, 2007:

Hon BILL ENGLISH: This is straight out of Zimbabwe. In fact, if members read the rules of the former Soviet Union about election campaigning, they will see that those rules were less restrictive than these ones.

John Carter: Mugabe wrote them.

Hon BILL ENGLISH: Mugabe would be proud of this. He cuts out the middle man; he just locks them up.

Posted at 2:03PM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

Talkback is first on the right.

Thought of that a microsecond after I hit post.

Craig - take your points. Just a bit frustrated with swivel-eyed knee-jerk unreasoning lunacy at the moment. And need to vent to complete strangers on the interweb.

Posted at 3:58PM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

How dare English compare New Zealand to Zimbabwe.

New Zealand is one of the freest countries in the world, as measured by Freedom House, Reporters Sans Frontieres, and The Economist.

Freedom in the world
World Press Freedom
Economist 's democracy index (PDF)

Bill English wouldn't know freedom if it pissed on him.

Posted at 4:17PM on 23 May 08. Permalink.

Bill English wouldn't know freedom if it pissed on him.

Before or after one of Helen's jack-booted thugs sets him on fire? ;)