New Zealand Electoral Engineering

Now that New Zealand's recent general election has punished the two major parties, Labour and National, voices are now calling for changes to the electoral system, or further rules restricting the distribution of votes and/or restricting voting rights in parliament itself.

That didn't take long, did it!!

In 2026 voters split their votes. On the centre/right, National voters gave their electorate vote to National, but their party vote to ACT or NZ First. Meanwhile, on the centre/left, Labour voters gave their party vote to Opportunity, while the Maori party voters gave their party vote to the Greens or Labour. 

This wasn't rigging, it was foreseen by the framers of the MMP system when introduced in 1996. Mixed-Member Proportional allows first-past-the-post at the electorate level and proportional representation at the party level. Voters get to choose their local MP. Thus, Maori voters get their local person, someone they trust, but at the national level they get to vote for policies they see as beneficial. For National, a party made up of farmers and people who live in the provinces, the result is the same, local representation by someone they may even know, while at the national level, they see their interests being represented. 

The framers of MMP said that when this happens it forces the parties to seek coalition agreement. MMP works as a filter of policy but results in everyone still having a local MP. All other systems risk losing that, and would likely see urban elites having ascendancy. 

NZ got the result it wanted. Be wary of those calling for reforms to a flawed system. Do I think MMP is flawed? Yes, and I've many times called for a return to first-part-the-post only. Failing that, it is better to keep things the way they stand now. 

JD Vance Distances Himself

Desperate to still be considered a credible Presidential candidate, JD Vance is positioning himself as against the war all along. It is so unbecoming.

Out With the Old in New Zealand Politics

The New Zealand General Election has turned out the way public opinion polling predicted, with all the senior National Party government list MPs losing their jobs. Gone are Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, and the Speaker Gerry Brownlee, and many others.

The NZ people have spoken, they're sick of the same stale politicians hanging on for dear life. Voters split their votes, giving their party vote to smaller parties while using their second electorate vote for their preferred local candidate. Gone are the two ticks blue or two ticks red.

The UniParty, National and Labour, each failed to get over 30% of the popular vote.

The result will refresh parliament, bringing in new ideas and, critically, MPs who represent the people, not faceless so-called elites.

These are the provisional results; note that the ruling National Party did not receive any list MPs.

https://electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2026_preliminary/

2026 Vote Shares NZ Election

New Zealand General Election 2026

On Saturday, the 7th of November 2026, voters will decide who will form the next government of New Zealand. Early voting is underway, and it looks like a major shift is occurring. The two main parties that have ruled NZ for almost a century are falling away. Both will struggle to get over 30% of the vote. The duopoly is ending, finally.

NZ has seen voters in the US do something significant, and now NZ voters can do something similar - reject the Davos self-appointed elites and the Epstein class. 

Here is what will happen in NZ on Saturday evening after the count starts:

The National Party list-only candidates will be gone from parliament. That's because National will receive more electorate members of parliament than its percentage of the vote qualifies it for (creating an overhang, but I won't go there for now), meaning the list-only candidates will be out, gone, sacked.

The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, the number 2 in the current National line up, and a list-only candidate, will be looking for a job come Monday. She deserves to find herself in that position as she's actually set out to harm the economy. When NZ found itself about to run out of diesel, and it still could, she did nothing. Willis has never had a real job, she's a professional spin doctor. What's worse, she's work-shy. She was offered a safe seat in Auckland. Willis lives in Wellington and has children in school there and so she refused to move her family to Auckland. This exhibits the type of character unworthy to serve the country. She wouldn't make any sacrifice to serve, while enjoying all the benefits. She thinks we work for her, not the other way around.

Think about this, if she had moved to Auckland, she'd then qualify for a Ministerial house in Wellington, so her children could still stay in Wellington and attend the same school. She already gets free travel everywhere, so she'd actually end up better off, but for Willis none of it was good enough. Basically, she didn't want to have to deal with all those unwashed people at the electorate level. She considers herself too important for any common folk.

All I can say is thank you New Zealand, thank you for getting rid of this useless individual.

Then, Speaker Gerry Brownlee is gone. Brownlee has been in parliament too long, why is he even there after he lost his seat in Ilam back in 2020? Brownlee used to be a woodwork teacher, well grab a hammer Gerry and do a day's work for a change.

Paul Goldsmith will be gone if he fails to win a seat. Given he's challenging the ACT party leader who holds Epsom, it appears he too will be looking for a job. That's another useless individual sacked.

Then with Chris Bishop in Hutt South, he'll need to win it or he'll be gone. This person wanted to fire anyone who did not get the jab. The little dictator could be gone, what a wonderful day that'd be. And don't forget Bishop intends selling NZ's roads, he's a fool.

Get out there and vote NZ, punish the Uniparty, Labour and National. 

Democrats Ascendant

The US Democratic Party has had a major win in the 2026 midterm elections, taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Clearly, the war on Iran would have had a big impact on how people voted as the war itself directly led to a rapid rise in the cost of living.

Here's a few things to consider overall:

1. Donald Trump has regularly attacked or criticised the Pope. The Pope is an American, and many people in the US are Catholic. This may have turned off many from voting Republican.

2. ICE raids have alienated many voters in regions where immigration is an issue. I'm thinking areas like Texas, where people have relatives on the other side of the border with Mexico. While voters want immigration controls and secure borders, they do not want this to be over-the-top. Interestingly, Texas has elected its first Democratic Senator in decades.

3. The cost of living keeps coming up time and again. Rising prices are due to the war in the Middle East, but also tariffs which Trump uses as a weapon. Democratic candidates who talked about the cost of living during their campaigns have gone on to poll very well.

4. Those Epstein files won't go away, get those files fully released and let's see some arrests.

5. The Democratic Party candidates more closely resembled the voters, thus, they were able to connect with people better. The GOP looks pale and stale.

6. Darline Graham for the GOP gained her Senate seat through being the sister of Sen. Lindsey Graham who died in office just months ago. She was resoundingly defeated and justifiably so, her appointment smacked of nepotism. 

The Republicans have a lot of ground to recover, their only hope in the short term being that the Democrats may implode with infighting. The Democrats, for their part, had better deliver on their promises, as clearly, the voters have woken up.

Alan Jones Dies Aged 80

F1 racing legend Alan Jones has died aged 80. The Australian won his F1 drivers championship in 1980. I looked around for footage of his driving style and found this, Argentina 1980. He won that grand prix, along with four others, and a further five podium finishes to take the championship. 

His driving was aggressive, and this footage shows him unafraid to put the power down. As a man, he was the nicest bloke you'd ever meet.

Strikes on Iran Kick Off Before Mid-Terms

Uh oh, this will escalate.

Iran Will Respond

Iran has issued a statement saying that if they're attacked again, they consider anything in reach a legitimate target. I assume, therefore, that this includes civil targets as well as military; thus, airports, desalination plants and such are fair game. 

Granite Construction (NYSE: GVA)

One of my favourite companies is Granite Construction, a civil contractor based in Watsonville, California. For investors, they show steady growth, and yet have a relatively low price. That's because they're faced with historical charges related to debt; many investors classify them as a turnaround stock, which I believe ignores their core role of building infrastructure. 

Check them out, they're often overlooked as they're doing real business, and not chasing the latest fad. They have a pipeline of work, called CAP, Committed and Awarded Projects to the tune of $7.5 billion.

https://simplywall.st/stocks/us/capital-goods/nyse-gva/granite-construction/news/granite-construction-gva-q3-results-rekindle-the-cash-flow-d/amp

Granite Construction came into this Q3 2026 release with the stock already grinding higher, up about 6.7% over the past month and another 1.6% today to roughly $123. The move looks modest next to the headline. The company just posted record quarterly revenue of about $1.8b and record adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $283m.

Banking System Collapse

Clif High has the annoying habit of being right about a lot of stuff. What he does is look at internet traffic and how that is trending, and from that he's able to predict events, at least in the short term. 

Crisis in Poland - Coup?

What is going on in Poland? Judging by what is going on there, whether a coup or not, I'd say Poland's continued membership of the EU seems doubtful. 

Is AI Creating Sludge?

It isn't being talked about enough; AI requires clean human-created content to be useful, but AI is cannibalising that content, which is creating sludge, or low quality content. Further, people search the web for answers and search engines like Google make money from that activity. But now, people are spending more time on AI, but the revenue is not following.

Candace Owens Scores a Win

American lawyer, Michael William Lebron explains the legal reasoning behind Podcaster, Candace Owens victory over Emmanuel Macron in a Delaware court. Despite having an expensive set of lawyers, Macron has stuffed up badly. 

Republicans' Epstein Problem

The just released report by the US House Committee on the Judiciary Democrats raises many questions. You can read it here: https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2026-10.hjc-dems-staff-report-epstein-and-trump.pdf

"A growing body of evidence demonstrates that Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are doing everything they can to keep the American people in the dark about it."

Is It Over for MBS?

MBS may face a palace coup within days. 

New Zealand Election 2026

Early voting has commenced for the New Zealand General Election, with the final day for voting being November 7th. What appears significant is that the two major parties cannot get over 30% in public opinion polls. Usually, they can be expected to be polling in the 30's and 40's. 

Finally, the voters have woken up to the Uniparty spewing their lies. The candidates are uninspiring, very ordinary the lot of them. They'd struggle to run a school fundraiser, so no wonder the country is falling apart.

I've made a decision about who I'll vote for, and all I can say is my party vote will NOT be for a party currently in Parliament. Every single one of the current bunch is untrustworthy.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/2193053/gap-narrows-between-national-and-labour-in-new-poll

Investigate Jared Kushner

Donald Trump's son-in-law needs to be investigated. 

Meghan Markle's Possible Legal Issues

News channels around the world are reporting allegations made by Thomas Markle Jnr, regarding his father Thomas Markle. Thomas Markle is the father of Meghan Markle, the wife of Prince Harry.

Meghan Markle put out a statement saying that she knew of these allegations as early as 2018. Later, this date has been adjusted to January 2019, but still, she knew of the allegations many years ago.

Here's an issue many are not reporting; Meghan Markle and her husband signed widely reported and hugely valuable contracts with Spotify and Netflix. 

Did Meghan Markle disclose that allegations had been made about her father, and that she had communicated with the UK police about those allegations? 

Contracts with the likes of Netflix come with routine clauses, the first of which is a morals clause, then, the second clause is a nothing is being withheld. The latter is covered by a section related to representations and warranties, which includes third parties.

Where a production relies on the reputation of the subject, these clauses are present to protect the value of the investment and provide recourse if that value is damaged. Given that Ms Markle has admitted to knowing of these allegations, the question arises; did she disclose this to Netflix?

Liam Lawson Can Sing!

F1 driver, Liam Lawson has appeared on stage in Austin along with his guitar. He has a nice tone when singing, and he appears composed when on stage. So, potential then, but he'll need a bit of voice training before he goes pro.

Anyway, good luck to Liam Lawson, and here's hoping he can get a podium finish driving for Racing Bulls.

Quality Rant About Musk

A good rant this, and I agree with some of it, especially as it relates to Elon Musk acquiring his wealth via government contracts. Musk styles himself as an entrepreneur but in reality he's a creation of the US taxpayer and has zero imagination.