“Muldoonism” is now a uniquely (and unfairly) New Zealand swear-word.
I knew him well and can say there was much about him to be admired.
Here’s a hypothetical example.
As reflected by newspapers correspondence, the country has been up in arms for two years now at the new phenomenon of traffic cones lining our highways, suburban streets and even country roads.
On my observation at least half of these lengthy clusters are unaccompanied by any associated activity.
I have not the slightest doubt that had this absurdity occurred when Rob was Prime Minister, he’d have acted promptly to put a stop to it. It’s certainly overdue for government intervention.
Some common-sense rules need to be applied such as,
- No cones without associated activity.
- The cones to apply to the work-site and not hundreds of metres to each side.
- The cones to be removed immediately once work has ceased.
It’s no joke. Drive anywhere in New Zealand and there’s lengthy traffic jams because of the ridiculously lengthy rows of cones channelling traffic into single lanes.
This silliness is peculiar to New Zealand and it’s overdue for government action.
13 Comments
Maybe they want us out of our cars? Notice how we have more parking charges, speeding fines for being less than 5km/h over the limit? Total mechanical perfection required to obtain a wof…etc?
On ya bike!
“The motorist” is a class “to be sought occasion against” at every opportunity, by the elites and the luvvies in administration and bureaucracy.
I don’t believe there is anyone involved in planning circles any more, who effectively puts their hand up and says, hey this is stupid, inefficient, a waste of people’s time – or if they do they are shouted down. “Screw with driving” is the point, not an unintended consequence.
Even the way these projects and maintenance are scheduled, often chokes two or more alternative routes simultaneously in the geographically constrained urban areas of Auckland and Wellington. Add in the regular fender-benders when you have far too many cars for the space on the road, and “hours of wasted time for thousands of people” happens ridiculously often. NZ’s cities keep setting new records in GPS-based congestion comparative reports like the TomTom one; especially compared to other small cities around the world, which is what ours are.
There is this stupid Walter Mitty type attitude that of course we have congestion because our cities are like London and Hong Kong, when in fact they are like Lyon and Grenoble, or Indianapolis and Boise. Our congestion is completely self-inflicted bad management, not an acceptable cost of “being like London or HK”.
The problem is that there must be a lack of storage for all the road cones, so they line the streets with them!
Cone manufacturing would have been such a great investment. For example, when they are in 3 to 4 parallel lines for over a 150 metres. A near by street has had them, and every street must have them, just like the chicken pox, for several months as solitary sentinels. It might be a colonising fetish of the clip board matriarchy which now seem to patrol road works sites.
I also remember Rob “Piggy” Muldoon fondly. At the time he was very popular with the majority of people in NZ.
The recent (and not so recent) beat-ups by the left wing of Muldoon have portrayed him as horrible tyrant, nothing is further from the truth.
Perhaps he stayed in parliament a little longer than he should have, but that is not a a valid reason for the media treatment of him since.
While the new broom is out, demand that Police clear accidents immediately when there is going to be a trafic holdup. They can do there site investigations later if they are really necessary. ( I suspect they aren’t)
Congratulations to Ms Ardern for a historic victory.
We are told to expect much in the way of “youth” and “transformation” from our new government.
What does it all mean?
The first rumour about the supposed amazing “transformation” she will make to NZ is that there will be ever larger government spending on “infrastructure”. Ms Ardern might even spend more than Sir Robert Muldoon spent in his 1970s’ Think Big white elephant projects.
I can’t help but wonder whether picking winners from huge white elephant projects constitutes “infrastructure” spending, and furthermore whether this should be classed as“transformative” policy?
Look, I don’t want to come across as ungrateful towards the lady that saved my life (and the rest of the now legendary “Team of Five Million”), but it would be nice to have further details about her masterplan. Anyway, for those who yearn for a return to “Muldoonism”, we’ll soon probably be drowning in it. Expect an increase in the cone count to historic highs.
The second rumour I’ve heard regarding the government’s “transformation” programme is that beneficiaries can expect higher welfare payments. Does higher welfare spending really constitute a “transformative” policy? As a policy, it differs from Muldoonism, because he created hundreds of thousands of fake jobs in the railways, post office and bureaucracy, instead of paying people to do absolutely nothing. Perhaps the current programme could be described as neo-Muldoonism? Does this represent improvement?
Of course, I could be completely wrong about the above. It is a somewhat surreal situation.
People say that Ms Ardern is a master communicator, and yet I have no idea what “transformations” she plans to make.
I’m sure I was listening to her, at least some of the time (although the hand waving, face pulling and peculiar pronunciation made complete concentration difficult). And yet – I have no idea what is planned.
Maybe she does want a complete return to the 1970s? Messiah’s move in mysterious ways…
The closest we have in the current Parliament is Luxon who looks like a young Muldoon on chemo but who has none of his grit, intelligence or strength of character. Judith Collins approaches him in wit and boldness but falls short in terms of political nous. Road cones should be limited to cycle lanes where they may serve the useful purpose of bowling over a bearded unicyclist or two.
Surely as I’ve noted before there will soon be university degrees in road cone deployment with supporting courses in traffic obstruction and watching road works not happening.
Too true Sir Bob! All it does is that drivers learn to ignore them……which leads to accidents when there really required!!!!!!
I suspect that government pays for cones on a cone by cone basis. Hence the more cones the higher the cost, to the benefit of contractors and the civil servants who “manage” these operations.
We live in Aotearoadcones.
This (traffic cone) silliness is peculiar to NZ,but it’s perhaps appropriate that in a nation of 12 or 13 million sheep,including several million of the two-legged variety, they have to be pushed around and channeled this way,and that,to facilitate fleecing.