57 Comments

Surely in a cost of living crisis, taking a bit of the load off struggling families by providing school kids with lunch makes economic and societal sense? The fact that Mr Shit-eating-grin thinks this is all a bit of a joke, and Mr I'm-rich-and-sorted just can't relate says a lot about the sense of entitlement of this Government. Corporate welfare good, actual welfare bad.

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Great comments David but I have to pull you up on the Cost Of Living Crisis thing. There is no cost of living crisis just an evil money distribution disparity. The rich and the big Banks and Power Companies etc are doing really really really well.

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This has been such an omnishambles. It is so clear to everyone that Compass can't deliver on the price point (costs are over $4/meal but don't include current expenses of extra staff time and ordering in edible food). Seymour was dreaming when he gave them the contract. Luxon and Stanford seem to be quite ineffectual at doing anything about it?

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Agreed. Luxton continues to prove his lack of leadership as Seymour just does what he wants without any accountability. Seymour basically gave Stanford the finger yesterday.

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Agreed. Seymour was just cocking a snoot at Stanford who is ineffectual.

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Luxon looked like he'd thrown his toys out of the cot when he mentioned marmite & an apple scratch the surface of his bald head & you really see what's there (not a lot). It's like they want to send us back to the 1970s instead of an up to date & modern society. That food looks absolutely disgusting 🤢🤢🤢. We've turned into a banana republic without even a banana.

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I like that line - a Banana Republic, without a banana. 😂

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I'm surprised he didn't say Fricken Marmite Sandwich. Beside that empty egg head there is also a big gaping hole in the upper left side of his chest where there ought be a heart.

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Yes I agree with all the above! New election NOW - anyone??

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The dumb things this Gummint have done, could even have been done better in the context of their neo-liberal ideology. How about allowing schools to choose their own lunch provider, with a meal budget... and also allow schools to opt out if they don't think they have an issue? A tweak to the one-size-fits-all lefty solution they seem to hate. The Auckland fuel levy was a near perfect user pays solution to road and transport funding. They want tolls and congestion charges now... sigh.

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Hey Roger isn't that how it used to be under Labour that this bunch quickly chucked out - out of pure spite.

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My recollection is that it was universal for schools to provide the lunches, but I'm happy to be corrected if it wasn't. I didn't look it up... just spouting forth :)

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Yes universal indeed is my recollection too but I thought schools got to choose local providers of which around 2000 immediately got kicked to touch when Seymour unleashed his filthy food to save a few bucks.

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Yes, indeed. My point was about opting out, rather than supply, but I wasn't clear, I guess. The local supplier thing was great, but some schools did better than others, with who they those. My daughter's high school chose a big catering company first at it was a bit Seymour-esque in quality, then went with Pita Pit and Subway, which was notionally health maybe. But really fast-foods sandwiches. Maybe a big city thing.

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A couple of issues with Marmite itself:

Marmite is made by Sanataium who pay no tax due to being a 'charity'. If they were taxed then that would possibly pay for decent lunches.

Marmite has no calories or kj ie no energy in it -only nutrients. ( I learnt this from an anexorexic friend when I was a teen)

Luxon will regret his 'marmite' moment when he proved he was out of touch and pretty dull.

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We'll add it to the pile of brainless gaffes from our Corporate Clichés Dispensing Android in Chief along with 'Sorted' and 'Bottom Feeders'.

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It seems like only yeasterday that Sanitarium was in danger of losing its tax free status - now it has been endorsed by the PM. I have worries about E-wrecker, she is just as mean and hard as the other leadership contenders but is (at least publicly) a smoother operator. Let’s just support Luxon until they lose the election

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I trust "yeasterday" was quite deliberate 😂

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Keith, don’t you mean ‘let’s just endure Luxon’, so we can watch him sink this rotten ship of a coalition at the next election. There is no way I can support him - he is an entitled, mean, emperor with no clothes, or moral compass, who trusts Levy and tRump. It is so bad.

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"Emperor with no clothes"...ewww ewww ewww!!!!

Mentally covering my eyes.....blah

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No. it's not a pretty thought is it. Sort of like a grown-up baby. Yikes.

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Can I just say that genuine MARMITE is back on sale in the supermarkets and its iconic British branding seems to have been used more often in the last twenty four hours as this dismal government screws stuff up again than its nasty local equivalent?

Including this post.

This is a splendid development. While Sanitarium Marmite is vaguely palatable, the company that makes it are definitely NOT.

Sanitarium are as creepy a pack of sleazy bible maggots as ever pretended to be 'religious' in order to evade proper taxation as you could ever wish to turn your nose up at.

(Unless we count the Density Church)

Personally, I love people who don't like Marmite, because it means I can have theirs.

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Vegemite, Bovril, British Marmite, Kiwi Marmite, we'll never agree.

Something we can probably all agree on is the humour of Billy Connolly, here's an old one about Bovril:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JjVg0Sbsh4

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British marmite is different in texture at least and not palatable to me as a spread. OK for soups etc. Vegemite is my preferred option.

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Always my favourite. Vegemite my go to.

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Opposite for me - love my English marmite! I find sanitarium marmite tastes like plastic but hey - each to their own ❤️

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Sorry to disagree but British Marmite is an abhorrence, Bovril by any other name…

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I am sure you all know that Sanitarium is 7th Day Adventist owned, don't pay company tax and are rabidly anti union. We preferred Marmite to Vegemite, and my son says we should nationalise it! Free Marmite and make it free! Funny thing is when we lived in the UK under Thatcher just before she was rolled in 1990, the same son mentioned above got free school lunches every day at his Primary School. They continued all through the Conservative years and under Labour and survive to this day. The only exception is private schools. Yet Luxon and Seymour (and Willis) have ruined what was a targeted lunch programme for kids who are less likely to get breakfast and go home to a hot meal in the evening. They are cruel bastards. I really hope Eric Stanford gives Seymour a good poke, but he will already have gone running off to Luxon whining. Meanwhile we rely on charities like Kidscan (who I also have reservations about) to feed kids breakfast. And btw it's not only kids : more and more, local food collectives, including churches are feeding the poor and struggling to keep up.

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A scheme set up to fail. End goal more money in the government coffers.

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Kia Ora Nick - glad to hear those subscription donations are coming in - like me people so appreciate your writing and so enjoy our daily fix. Your mahi is I imagine disproportionally non lucrative compared to the quality of your output. Does that make sense.

Any way I was reminded of a joke ( now I'll probably ruin my reputation here as a contributor haha ) that used to be told about Muldoon but could easily apply to CEO Luxon or shit-eating grin Seymour ( that is so appropriate ). So...Luxon/ Seymour are in hospital awaiting an arsehole transplant when they are told the operation has been cancelled as the Arsehole has rejected him.

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Yes, it does make sense - but there is nothing I'd rather be doing, and I'm bloody lucky to be able to do this with the support of you good folks.

It's a quality joke, well worth reviving.

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😱🤔😁😂🤣 Enhances your reputation 👍

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Love the track video Nick...by Porij. Great write. It's a shame that the one standing up is Erica Stanford...........the best of a bad bunch, but dont be fooled , she is on agenda as Min Of Ed, she is cutting, reshaping and undoing some excellent assetts, human ones, in the edu sector. And she is not done yet........there is more defunding and disestablishing in the wind. The RTLB service is in her sights I have heard...............and that is shameful. Thanks as ever.....and yeah...I love that track.

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It's a goodie eh. When I first found it yesterday my instinct was "nah", but it grew on me.

I'm not fooled bu Sranford, as I say I don't think any of them should be within cooee of government, but at least she is comparatively up front.

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yeah, funny and very sad that ‘up front’ with the people of New Zealand is a rarity in this government. Tell me Nick, I have tried to look and find out more…but my gut, in it’s ignorance wishes Zelenskyy had just turned to Europe rather than seemingly acquiesce in a way to tRump……….tho he will not be totally rolling over. In some ways I get a sense that doing this has tRump over a barrell and Zelenskyy isn’t totally mad. But ohhh how I wanted him to stick it where the sun don’t shine……but I realise there is more wisdom than mine at play here, and possibly the collective wisdom of Europe guiding him…………what is the wisdom of peeps here say, and you yourself Nick. No big deal but I can’t find anything. Just in from fencing and need a break. I love your point around Seymour sliming out of the meeting with Stanford……….like a pathetic excuse for Mr Atlas and all his muscle. This lunch thing is hurting his self grasped mana. Good!

Subsequently I have found this read around Ukraine. Raises more questions for me.....but lines up with what Ryan Ward has been saying....

https://open.substack.com/pub/jonathancook/p/yes-trump-is-vulgar-but-the-us-global?r=2y6j9l&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

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Re Porij. I loved the way they had 3 sets of keys on stage, with two of them multitasking with gats. I am such a sucker for pads………….as in keyboard sound libraries call pads, huge expansive and moody presets……….that 3 x key setuop shows a lot of creativity. Sorry no response needed, I just loved that personal and creative eye opener from Porij, as a muso maself.

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Maybe everyone should send Mr Luxon at his electoral office an Apple and a marmite sandwich? See how he likes it. But aside from that - if Seymour is genuine in wanting to supply lunches and not setting it up to fail, then my conclusion is that he couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery. Also why go to a British firm (I was born in the UK before you think I'm Brit bashing) to supply food? Brits aren't in the top tier for haute cuisine especially on a grand scale. 🤢 complete and utter shambles, they couldn't do worse if they tried

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It's not one of the classic cuisines for sure, but a bit of Shepherd's Pie wouldn't be a bad option. Plus, let's be realistic: the Butter Chicken most schools seem to be being given is basically the British national dish! ;)

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You're not wrong! I believe Compass supply British hospital food as well - enough said!

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Keep up the good work, Nick.

Luxon needs to be quoted, much as it hurts, so that everyone can see him and his cohorts for the shameful and heartless entities they are.

Erica Stanford I except from this as she had the grace to reply to my emails.

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Thank God the caring wonderful school I get to relief teach in, have continued providing locally produced healthly nutritious Kai with fruit and yogurt, but the callous and harmful comments from the PM,Willis and Seymour shows how out of touch they are. They obviously have never experienced the delight on children's faces when breakfast is also made available or eating fruit in season like strawberries, nectarines or mandarins which families cannot afford to buy.

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I would love to see every berm, the surrounds of playing fields, and school grounds full of fruit trees. And yet we have producers leaving fruit to rot on the ground because it's uneconomic to send it to the supermarket.

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Perhaps someone should remind Luxton about the Marmite ad "too much spoils the flavour". Your idea about those generous donations sounds good to me Nick.

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"Too much spoils the flavour" used to be written on the label, and we kids used to scribble out some letters so it read "Too much oils the lav" much to our mums disgust.

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Ha - had a good laugh at that one.

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Agree Rachel...so lovely people have done that ...I love reading Nick's emails

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🤔What's the definition of an optimist? Checking the "news" every day & hoping that at home & abroad there has been an awakening & a return to empathy & compassion in leaders at every level (not holding my breath tho' 🤷) So, spoilt brat Seymour just blew off a "please explain" meeting with his immediate boss-woman - is anything going to be done about it⁉️ Like I mean compared to lying every time his lips move & causing untold harm & distress with his school "lunches" debacle (& why hasn't Nicky-no-boats done something about all the $$ he's wasting?) it's minor, but the lack of accountability is what he is taking advantage of, & he's soon to be Deputy PM with even more opportunity to tell lies & get his face on TV.

As for Luxon & his marmite sandwiches - I watched with the sound off & boy he was squirming & losing his cool 😱

Re the gift subs, I have no preference for how you utilise it - 🫂to those who have "gifted" though💗. Lovely to be reminded there are more GOOD people than there are Luxons, Seymours et al

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