Patrick Reynolds for a greater Auckland

There's nothing fiscally conservative about sprawl. There's nothing "small government" about the costs of sprawl.

Here’s there things:
1. Enriching rogue state Russia through oil sales.
2. Enriching world EV supplier China.
3. Enriching his Big Oil buddies, a very happy Houston.

Oh it’s even narrower than that under current management.

Interested in how to get public transport that works, even in traffic-heavy suburban cities?

My book lays out the ins and outs of transit planning, with theory and practice grounded in years of experience on what works.

Now available in print and eBook formats: www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0GRPZ4VHD/

Sociopath

Could solar panels help strengthen global food security? - Positive News A Canadian study suggests solar farms could increase global crop yields by hundreds of billions of pounds, thanks to the protective microclimate created beneath their panels

Solar farms could increase global crop yields by hundreds of billions of pounds, thanks to the protective microclimate created beneath their panels.
www.positive.news/environment/...

I’m just being provocatively smug to make a point about our missed opportunities…

Imagine being called “the great Satan” and deciding to live up up to that

Picture of a social/supportive housing project in the Yaletown community in downtown Vancouver. Text says “if we don’t build housing to solve homelessness, we don’t really want to solve homelessness.” Logo of the urban truth collective in the corner.

If we don’t build housing to solve homelessness, we don’t really want to solve homelessness. #UrbanTruth

Graphic of busy car-filled road and text stressing that car dependency is the opposite of freedom. Mobility freedom comes from mobility choices. Graphic by the Urban Truth Collective.

Gas price hikes & shortages “fuel” controversy, especially when they’re “driven” by an illegal war. But let’s not forget one of the most important discussions that should flow from such hikes — how they spotlight the difference between places with mobility choices, and places that are car-dependent.

So, in the coming liquid fuels crisis, how much should i rent my EV out for?

MBIE seems to be filled with status quo warriors

Well, that’s one way to get a fast transition. Could have acted prudently, but instead it looks like it’ll take a crisis.
->Here it is.

Yeah, so predictable too, shouldn’t we have been taking advantage of new (now fully established) technology to get away from this vulnerability…? Where’s the leadership?

And batteries. Experience from Aus and California show even relatively small additions of battery storage balance system out of all proportion. Also, of course, we can leverage legacy hydro resource… tho need to optimise market model to get this to really hum.

Scene from Hungary tonight as crowds rally against the Russian-backed Orban regime.

We could/should be. Just need to use regulatory levers and smart incentives to overcome incumbency of old systems.

yeah-> incentivising our energy independence through new electrification technology is simply the most powerful + obvious action any govt can take, for well, everything: the economy, employment, environment, balance of payments, energy security… we are poor in hydrocarbons, but rich in electrons.

By successive governments

Kaleidoscope | Series | Television | NZ On Screen Kaleidoscope - Kaleidoscope was a magazine-style arts series which ran from 30 July 1976 until 1989. Running for many years in a 90 minute format, the show tried varied approaches over its run, from a...

'Kaleidoscope' (1976-89) was perhaps NZ's greatest TV series about the arts. It was added to the UNESCO NZ Memory of the World register in 2017

Contrary to retro stereotypes about cultural elitism, it covered a wide range of topics. 30 full eps can be streamed 👇

www.nzonscreen.com/title/kaleid...

‘Incredibly liveable and creatively buzzy’: Bret McKenzie’s guide to Wellington/Te Whanganui-a-Tara The Flight of the Conchords comedian shares the New Zealand capital’s best coffee, nature spots and the pastries he’ll queue out the door for

Anyone actually paid to market a city, you know like Heart of The City in Auckland- this is how you do it ->

www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...

Liam Dann: Iran conflict could sink economic recovery ... and Luxon A badly timed supply shock threatens to spike inflation and sink our fragile recovery.

Imagine Liam, if this govt had accelerated, even just continued, energy transition, getting NZ off the oil&gas addiction, liberating our economy from this vulnerability they would have something real to offer. But no, they chose the exact opposite, for reasons.
www.nzherald.co.nz/business/ira...

How Elon Musk’s Sci-Fi Hyperloop Failed Before his misadventures in government efficiency, Musk promised to revolutionize commuting with a subway that would speed passengers between DC and Baltimore in a matter of minutes. The project was a...

A year long investigation into the Hyperloop found …

“The truth was far simpler, far dumber, and far more prescient: Musk and his lieutenants truly had no idea what they were doing.”

washingtonian.com/2026/02/12/h...

Pete Hegseth's murderous buffoonery, coming amid a lifetime in which he's betrayed everyone close to him and failed up from one disaster to the next, is a perfect example of how the appeal of Trumpism is that it creates a permission structure for people to openly be their worst selves

LTG Mark Hertling discusses the current state of physical training readiness at a briefing to the Department of Physical Education at the United States Military Academy, West Point NY 2 Oct 209 Photo by Ahodges7 under Creative Commons 3.0

"Military power can destroy targets with remarkable efficiency. Turning that destruction into durable political outcomes is far harder. Tactical victories often produce strategic complications", writes
@markhertling.bsky.social at @thebulwark.com
www.thebulwark.com/p/kristi-noe...

Yes. Combustion requires constant stoking of the furnace, you’re never done buying fuel. Invest in renewable generation infrastructure, and it’s still there tomorrow delivering energy. Electrons over molecules- we now have the technology, it’s cheaper and better. The future is present.

This is an even stulpider way to accelerate the end of empire than Suez was for the Brits…

Other nice adjectives for this approach, if say any opposition parties were looking to fortify their appeal at the moment: sensible, prudent, thrifty, versatile, creative, self-sufficient, adaptable, organised, strategic, ready, provident, collaborative, cooperative, united, and dare I say, popular.

Just not ‘conservative’ in the sense of always backing incumbents no matter how harmful that becomes. That twisted idea of conservative: Conserving concentrated vested interest’s wealth and power, over the whole nation.

Ok, hear me out here. A govt enabled acceleration to renewables, effective alternatives to always driving, + EVs, is essentially the lowest cost, most resilient, independence supporting, job creating, and actually ‘conservative’ option ahead.