Now here is a very bad idea. Only students doing courses that benefit the economy should receive interest-free loans, according to a suggestion from a leading accountancy group. The idea in KPMG’s Agribusiness Agenda 2011 was prompted by “long-term decline” of graduates entering agriculture. While I have sympathy for the agribusiness sector, because it is [...]

The practice I work at is responsible for the health of the kids who go through the “Fresh Start” camps – John Key’s boot camps for young offenders. I say this at the beginning of this post as a declaration that I have a small financial interest in these camps. Don’t let that fool you [...]

Dean Scanlen makes an impassioned plea for stricter driving license laws in the Herald today. I have much sympathy with his call to make the driving test more comprehensive. I have long been an advocate of making the defensive driving and the advanced driving courses compulsory for learner drivers. This would certainly provide new drivers [...]

The scenes outside the National Party conference serve only to remind me that the left apparently continue to favour unreasoning force rather than reasonable debate to promote their views. I would be interested in someone with socialist/union leanings explaining exactly how storming a police cordon, and trespassing on private property, with the express purpose of [...]

Until this morning, I did not know who Peter Snell was. I was, therefore, somewhat surprised to see a large front page spread in the Weekend Herald getting all excited about a 71-year-old man having heart disease. It seemed to me to be somewhat reminiscent of the famous “cat stuck in tree” line. I was [...]

Yet another child has been attacked by vicious dogs and severely injured. The dogs have been destroyed but the owner, unfortunately remains very much alive and able to own more dogs. Sure, he will be banned from owning dogs, but seeing as he is unlikely to have microchipped or licensed his previous dogs, this will [...]

Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. Well, half the headline is ok… DHBs, union clash over plan to axe 20 doctors Plans to cut 20 resident doctor positions at Auckland hospitals will increase the pressure on remaining staff and threatens standards of patient care, a [...]

The MacDoctor was doing locums (aka mercenary medicine) for about five years and only settled in a position this year. Technically, of course, all jobs could be considered mercenary, to some extent, because few of us would work if we didn’t get paid for it. However, there is no doubt that money is the most [...]

Such an interesting range of reactions in the blogosphere to Paula Bennett’s revealing of the amount of benefit the two ladies who features the the Herald over the weekend are receiving. Natasha Fuller and Jennifer Johnston appear in the article entitled Govt axe destroys dreams, claiming that Bennet’s removal of the allowance for sole parent [...]

Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. (MacDoctor definition) And now for a spot more medical spam… Doctors fear added training strain While the $25 million Budget boost for training extra doctors is a step in the right direction, it will also create problems of its [...]