Guardian Issue 58

The Guardian Political Review Produced by the New Zealand Democratic Party for social credit Inc. Issue No.58

Autumn 2010

ISSN1176-614X

The Robin Hood Tax DSC policy hits a worldwide bullseye!

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

Health - reform or deform?

Environment - the 'Green Imperative' Fluoridation - who are the crackpots?

Seniors - what's the answer?

MMP or FPP? - learn from history 'Banker' Bill Nighy on YouTube

PLUS NEWS, REVIEWS, FEATURES & MORE

The Guardian Political Review

Issue 58, Autumn 2010

Produced by Guardian Publishing on behalf of the N.Z. Democratic Party for social credit, PO Box 5164, Waikiwi, Invercargill 9843 Tel/Fax: 07 829 5157. Email: democrats@democrats.org.nz

Website: www.democrats.org.nz

Editor: Tony Cardy, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400. Tel/Fax: 03 434 5523. E-mail: editor@guardian.org.nz Web: www.guardian.org.nz

EDITORIAL Far, far more

It’s time to rethink the tax system. Not patch it, not tweak it – but change it.

DSC has the way to start, with its FTT – a financial transactions tax, currently being promoted worldwide as the “Robin Hood Tax”.

According to Sunday Star‐Times feature writer Finlay Macdonald: “The idea of a tax on global financial transactions, despite appearing almost too good to be true, really is hard to fault”.

The adoption of DSC financial policies would yield many benefits, starting with abolishing GST – not raising it!

But, as experienced contributor Colin Whitmill points

out: “There is far, far more to the DSC than monetary reform”. There are 34 distinct areas of policy. In this issue we cover but a few: health, forestry, seniors, electoral reform, environment, compulsory medication, and binding referenda.

However, financial reform is the key to the successful implementation of many areas of policy.

In the words of DSC leader Stephnie de Ruyter: “New Zealand needs a new economic system which meets the needs of a modern, 21st century New Zealand. The Democrats for Social Credit Party offers a wide‐ranging policy platform underpinned by a programme of social credit monetary reform which presents a viable alternative to the present debt‐based system”.

The Guardian Political Review is available on-line at www.guardian.org.nz Visitors to the site will be able to browse through this and previous issues of our frontline publication. Your feedback on presentation, ease of navigation and functionality is invited.

CONTENTS

4

Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 2

1 - Front Cover

15 - Environment

2 - Editorial

16 - World News

3 - Leader's Message

17 - Fluoridation - For & Against

4 - Robin Hood Tax

18 - Media letters

5 - Deputy Leader's feature

19 - Reviews

6 - DSC News

20 - Obituaries

7 - Viewpoint

21 - Binding Referendums

8 - Letters

22 - Whitmill's World (1)

9 - Health - David Tranter

23 - Whitmill's World (2)

10 - Forestry + Adrian Bayly

24 - Whitmill's World (3)

11 - Seniors + MMP Debate

25 - News Bites (1)

12 - Jeremy Woodhall + Opinion

26 - News Bites (2)

13 - Harry Alchin Smith

27 - News Bites (3)

14 - Opinion

28 - Back cover - Beyond Greed

LEADER'S MESSAGE

The New Economic System

By Stephnie de Ruyter Leader, Democrats for social credit

A prosperous, economically and environmentally sustainable nation

‘It is time to stop trying to fix what can’t and shouldn’t be fixed ... and get on with building the New Economy and a new system of financial institutions to serve it’ – David Korten.

New Zealand needs a new economic system which meets the needs of a modern, 21st century New Zealand.

The Democrats for Social Credit Party (DSC) offers a wide‐ranging policy platform underpinned by a programme of social credit monetary reform which presents a viable alternative to the present debt‐based system.

Key to DSC policy is the use of our central bank to issue credit for major capital works, instead of borrowing the funds from private commercial financial institutions. Direct government funding of infrastructure could provide a large number of jobs for people, stimulate the domestic economy, and introduce debt‐ free money into circulation. This would result in a major revitalisation of the New Zealand economy.

Unfortunately, successive New Zealand governments have failed to display the vision and foresight necessary to embrace a new economic model. The present government’s approach is typically orthodox and neo‐ liberal in its approach, as recent announcements demonstrate.

In particular, the proposed increase in GST reflects the Government’s reluctance to consider common sense alternatives. GST is costly to administer. It is a punitive tax with a narrow base. It is an imposition on individuals and businesses through its complex system of accountability. It adds directly to prices. All those who are lower or middle income earners pay a higher proportion of their incomes in GST. The DSC believes it is time to introduce a fairer system, starting with abolishing GST, not raising it.

Similarly, the intention of a Chinese backed, Hong Kong listed and Cayman Islands registered company, Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings Ltd, to buy the 29 Crafar Guardian Political Review - Issue 58, 2010 - Page 3

family dairy farms which are in receivership and also a further 100 dairy farms in Otago and Southland, raises nationally significant questions about who benefits, the motives of the investors, and issues of global food security. Although any such purchases will be closely scrutinised by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) which must grant approval in order for the transactions to proceed, to date that organisation has not shown any willingness to put the brakes on foreign ownership and investment.

The proposed purchases are encouraged by the New Zealand‐China Free Trade Agreement, signed up to by politicians on both sides of the House. It contains an embedded investment agreement protecting the rights of investors from the countries which are party to the Agreement, and those foreign investors’ rights are backed up by the force of legal sanction. This Agreement even includes a provision that New Zealand cannot make or amend laws (without China’s permission) that “discriminate” against Chinese investors.

It is important to remember that New Zealand companies and individuals invest in overseas countries too. Fonterra, for example, has invested in three farms in China. However, the company does not own the land but is subject to land use rights which are similar to a long term lease arrangement. The DSC believes that it is the responsibility of our government to support the vital productive farming sector by making low interest finance available to assist New Zealand farmers to purchase New Zealand farm land.

Direct government issuance of money and the control of credit as a public utility form the basis of the DSC’s monetary reform programme. The implementation of our programme will establish the new economic system on which New Zealand’s future as a prosperous, economically and environmentally sustainable nation depends.

MEDIA

Robin Hood tax has all a‐quiver

By Finlay Macdonald Sunday Star‐Times 14/2/10

One should always be wary of seemingly simple solutions to seemingly intractable problems. Yet the idea of a "Robin Hood tax" on global financial transactions, despite appearing almost too good to be true, really is hard to fault.

From a New Zealand perspective the launch of a fresh campaign for such a tax was beautifully timed, coinciding as it did with the timid revenue tinkering proposed by the prime minister.

If you'd found yourself drifting off listening to John Key's uninspiring prescriptions, you could have hopped on YouTube and watched the snakily funny Bill Nighy video in which he plays a smarmy banker failing to justify his opposition to a Robin Hood tax. Like most bankers and tax experts who thrive on the perceived complexity of their fields, simplicity and common sense is his enemy.

transactions.

One benefit of this ‐ aside from curbing the sort of market panics that trigger major crises and ruin ordinary people's lives ‐ would be the diversion of investment back towards the productive sectors. Also, and not least, it would raise the kind of Video nasty: actor Bill Nighy plays a smarmy banker on You Tube who fails to justify his opposition to a Robin Hood tax. money that makes a difference to the worthy goals humanity British Prime Minister Gordon Brown aspires to, like fighting poverty and climate advocated such a tax at the G20 meeting change. late last year and continues to promote the Of course, if successful, such a tax would reduce its own potential revenue base, which is why estimates of what it might generate are problematic. However, given that roughly $1.5 trillion is traded in world currency markets each day, even a significantly reduced amount would yield a hefty annual tax take.

idea. Yet only last month the governor of the Bank of England humiliated him by dismissing the proposal as "bottom of the list" of reform options.

money‐go‐rounds ‐ a phenomenon sometimes described as the "financialisation" of the economy ‐ it's long overdue for scrutiny.

showrooms. Suggestions of between 0.05 and 0.25 percent could raise between $90 and $300 billion a year, depending on the forecast.

Outside the banker bubble, though, there is plenty of support for a Robin Hood tax, including from industry leaders, who actually make and sell stuff.

The idea is not particularly new, but it gained new impetus with the global financial crisis and the debate about longer‐term remedies for reckless investment banking and foreign exchange dealing.

According to a report by liberal think tank The New Economics Foundation, quoting previous expert analysis including research by the IMF, a currency transactions tax is administratively and logistically feasible ‐ albeit dependent on international political co‐operation.

As the boss of New Zealand fishing giant Sanford said to shareholders just the other day, "A tax on non‐trade‐related currency transactions could not only earn significant income for the government, it could also result in our exchange rate moving closer to its realistic value and thereby add significant value to the wealth of New Zealanders."

In the US, source of the present crisis (which is far from over), Wall Street has very effectively blocked all attempts at reform, historically and now. It's brazen and The central genius of the Robin Hood idea shameless ‐ how else to explain a is that it treats the global The central genius of the Robin Hood idea is that it treats banking sector that could revive financial system for what it really the global financial system for what it really is ‐ an its morally obscene bonus culture is ‐ an economic activity that can economic activity that can be taxed like anything else within months of being bailed out be taxed like anything else. with billions upon billions of public dollars?

And it's not as if anyone is arguing for a Indeed, since so much of the world's total Expecting such creatures to act other than regime so punitive it would put Forex corporate profits now derive from purely self‐interestedly is futile. dealers out of work and shut Lamborghini unproductive speculative trades and other

The primary purpose of such a tax, in fact, would be to take some of the heat out of money markets and reduce exchange rate volatility. As its original proponent James Tobin put it, it would "put sand in the wheels of international finance" by creating a major disincentive to short‐term speculative

Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 4

Well, there had to be a catch. Getting governments to agree on such a policy when they are so much in thrall to their domestic financial lobbies would be about as easy as achieving that other noble goal, world peace.

Now there's a tax reform plan with genuine vision ‐ precisely why this government and its former merchant banker boss could never come up with it.

A tax system for the new millennium: FTT What’s not to like?

By John Pemberton Deputy Leader & Finance Spokesperson, Democrats for social credit

In his opening address to Parliament, PM John Key ignored most of the Tax Working Group’s recommendations for tax reform.

The TWG report recognised New Zealand’s tax system was dysfunctional, but could only suggest clumsy patches and shuffling revenue streams. It is more notable for omissions and inaccuracies than anything else.

percentage from every dollar that goes out of any account. No account escapes, not even a bank’s activities. All transactions in a currency are subject to the tax, with no compliance costs, no exemptions, no bureaucracy or fraud investigations, no havens or loopholes. FTT is truly broad based and low rate, and so efficient that nearly every dollar of revenue is available for Government needs.

To start with, FTT could replace GST. No more arguments about exempting food and clothing, a worthy idea with bureaucratic migraines. FTT at say 5c for every $10 (really, that’s all) and everything would be cheaper. No more accountants to calculate your refunds, no way to duck the taxman by buying your boat through the company or hiding your income in a trust, no more under‐the‐table trade jobs. Just business the way it should be.

GST is praised as a broadbased, low rate tax “without exemptions”. Clearly, since the financial services industry is GST exempt, this statement is a fiction. The report attacks property speculation, but ignores the economic damage done by money marketeers, as made abundantly clear by the It’s time to rethink the tax system. Not recession of 2008. There is no attempt to patch it, not tweak it: change it. DSC has reduce the bloated bureaucracies of Inland the way to start, with a transactions tax Revenue and Work & Income, and the How much effect on the financial industry crippling cost of debt servicing. is desirable?

The Tobin Tax was not designed Democrats for Social Credit (DSC) to collect revenue but to suppress recognises that money, originally invented to At a rate of 1%, speculative speculation. facilitate trade, is now almost entirely activity will become unaffordable.

Capital will employed in speculation, which too often seek long term investment such as escapes the tax net. DSC also calls for the sovereign ownership and management of the manufacturing and other avenues in the productive economy. money supply as a public utility, rather than borrowing inefficient and expensive funds from privately owned banks. This reform first and foremost would reduce the need for revenue to finance Government activity and services, by removing debt servicing costs.

It’s also time to rethink the tax system.

Not patch it, not tweak it: change it. DSC has the way to start, with a transactions tax. This sort of tax has been labelled variously the Financial Transactions Tax (FTT); the Tobin Tax, after Nobel Laureate James Tobin; the Currency Transactions Levy (CTL); or most galvanising, the “Robin Hood Tax” which will take from the rich and give to the poor.

Whatever you call it, this tax is long overdue. It is simple to set up in these days of centralised banking and sophisticated accounting software, similar to that for Resident Withholding Tax. It takes a small Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 5

A very low FTT rate, as promoted by the ‘Robin Hood Tax’, will allow financial activity to continue, and will gather far more in revenue than is possible with GST. FTT doesn’t rely on labour or capital (both a little volatile right now), just on transactions. The only way to temporarily avoid paying FTT is to save your money, so FTT promotes saving too.

In New Zealand, we could have a bet each way. FTT could operate at the low, ‘Robin Hood’ rate for domestic transactions, and at a higher, speculation suppressing rate as a Foreign Transaction Surcharge (FTS).

Exporters engaged in real trade of goods and services would not find FTS onerous, and their other tax and compliance costs could be reduced. In fact, all other forms of tax can be reduced, and some even eliminated

under this genuinely broad‐based system.

Meanwhile poverty deepens, right here in New Zealand where we once were the envy of the world. Our well‐intentioned efforts to help struggling families has bypassed the poorest and created a windfall for upper incomes. Targeted welfare always deprives someone, and it’s time for a change here too. It’s income security, not job security, that worries New Zealanders these days.

Just as revenue from labour is no longer sustainable, the concept of income should no longer be tied to paid work. Everyone needs income to live, but not everyone can access paid work. Some are too young or too old, sick or disabled. Others work unpaid, caring for family members and volunteering in the community. As more of our production work is done by machines and technology, there are fewer paid jobs to be had. Income, like superannuation, should be tied to residency, inheritance and ownership.

Gareth Morgan had his ‘Big Kahuna’ of an idea: give every adult a basic income. DSC would go further and supply a guaranteed basic income (GBI) to all residents, including a partial income for children. Families are helped whether they are working or not, wealthy or poor. GBI can be easily funded through taxes, big reductions in IRD and W&I bureaucracy and, most importantly, money creation as a public utility.

GBI would simplify social welfare. With no abatement, there is no benefit fraud, no poverty trap and more people are likely to take on part‐time work. GBI removes invasions of privacy and beneficiary bashing in tough times. More to the point of this discussion, GBI means that every person will have the means to live, and FTT would have a core, stable revenue stream, creating a prosperous and sustainable economy.

What is the Government waiting for?

They know the systems they’ve inherited are expensive and inefficient. Now’s their chance to do something just about everyone will like. Let’s have a system appropriate for the 21st Century. Lower prices, lower compliance costs, less bureaucracy, the possibility of reducing or eliminating every other tax.

What’s not to like?

www.democrats.org.nz

DSC Action!

The recent DSC Leadership team meeting was constructive and productive. It made the following proposals: 1. That the DSC campaign for the 2011 general election commence immediately, concentrating on a group of electorates which can work together and show potential for success.

2. The five electorates comprising the Southern Region to be the primary focus of the “group” campaign (i.e. Waitaki, Dunedin North, Dunedin South, Clutha Southland, Invercargill). Each electorate in the Southern Region must have an enthusiastic, hard working candidate, supported by a local campaign team. The Leader is to relocate to and campaign in the Invercargill electorate.

3. A nationwide campaign to be mounted, which will be to be list‐focused. Electorate candidates will be recruited in as many other electorates as is possible. The DSC will field a list of no fewer than 20 candidates, with 35 candidates being the target list.

4. The campaign’s key messages will focus on: superannuation (i.e. issues of income security); localised banking (i.e. alternatives to present banking system); economics (i.e. targeting environmental issues by putting the ‘eco’ back in economics); and infrastructure funding (i.e. issue of credit). Secondary messages to focus on student debt; energy; health; STV; and housing.

5. The campaign to be detailed, specific and prescriptive, with an extensive action list and timelines. Maximum use will be made of the internet, especially social media. Work has commenced on the layout for a mini‐manifesto. Also scripts for a series of video clips for use on the website, for posting on YouTube, etc. A template for the detailed campaign plan is being prepared, as well as the accompanying budget.

6. In addition to issues of The Guardian Political Review, updates to members will be sent out by email and by post to those members who do not have internet access.

7. Good progress has been made in the South Island with existing members renewed and new members recruited. An advertising campaign will promote the DSC more widely, as part of a recruitment drive to create a surge in membership numbers.

Democrats for social credit Executive Contacts Leadership: Leader Stephnie de Ruyter PO Box 5164, Waikiwi, Invercargill 9843 Ph/Fax; 03 215 7170 Mobile 027 442 4434 Email: democrats@democrats.org.nz Email: s.deruvter@callsouth.net.nz Deputy Leader John Pemberton PO Box 402, Matamata 3440 Ph 07 888 8564 Mobile 021 716 895 Email: iohn.pemberton@democrats.orq.nz Email: pemberi@slinqshot.co.nz Website: http://www.iohnpemberton.co.nz Biog: http://monetarviustice.blogspot.com Executive: Party President Neville Aitchison Suite 321, 399 Khyber Pass, Newmarket, Auckland 1023 Ph 021 987 338 Email: neville.aitchison@democrats.orq.nz Vice-president Katherine Ransom PO Box 402, Matamata 3440 Ph 07 888 8564 Mobile 027 471 6891 Email: katherine.ransom@democrats.orq.nz Email: katransom@siinqshot.co.nz Blog: http://katherineransom.bioqspot.com Northern & North Shore Regions John Rawson Lookout Hill, No. 8 R.D., Whangarei 0178 Ph 09 438 9265 Emafi: iohn.rawson@democrats.org.nz Email: iohngrawson@hotmail.com

Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 6

Auckland Region C/o Neville Aitchison (refer Party President entry above) Waikato Region Les Port, c/o 19 Argyle St, Hamilton 3216 Mobile 021 725 791 Email: ldport@rocketmail.com Eastern Region Barry Pulford 17 Caernarvon Drive, Flaxmere, Hastings 4120 Ph 06 879 9497 Mobile 027 288 5658 Email: brp51@xtra.co.nz Western Region Heather M. Smith 14 Broughton St, Wanganui East 4500 Ph/Fax 06 343 3038 Email: heather.smith@democrats.org. nz Email: heathermarionsmith@qmail.com Wellington Region Mary Weddell 57 Shakespeare Ave, Upper Hutt 5018 Ph 04 971 7143 Fax 04 914 2405 Mobile 021 701 598 Email : marv.weddell@dernocrats,org.nz Email: weddell@paradise.net.nz Canterbury/West Coast-Tasman Regions Bob Fox 14 Charles St, Rangiora 7400 Ph 03 313 6774 Email: bob.fox@democrats.org.nz Email: foxhole@clear.net.nz Southern Region Bob Warren 1 Highcliff Rd, Andersons Bay, Dunedin 9013 Ph 03 454 3235

Email: bob.warren@democrats.org..nz Email: pabo@paradise.net.nz Party Secretary Peter Ferguson 2a Hampton Terrace, Matamata 3400 Mobile 027 243 7365 Email: peter_ferquson@xtra.co.nz Ex Officio Positions: 'Guardian Political Review' Editor Tony Cardy 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400 Ph/Fax: 03 434 5523 Email: editor@guardian.org.nz Email: cardy@callsouth.net.nz Website: http://www.guardian.org.nz Secretarial Support Margaret Hook 393 Marychurch Rd, No. 4 R.D., Hamilton 3284 Ph 07 829 5157 Email: nzdp.inc@xtra.co.nz Committee Convenors: Finance Committee David Wilson PO Box 60, Paparoa 0543 Ph 09 431 7004 Fax 09 431 8615 Email: wilson df@xtra.co.nz Policy Committee Allen Cookson 230 Glentui-Bennetts Rd, Oxford 7471 Ph 03 312 4057 Email: asimco@farmside.co.nz Constitution Committee Neville Aitchison (refer President's entry for details)

VIEWPOINT Having moved to NZ from Australia where I was always involved in politics, I have been looking for a Party to join other than the inevitable and reprehensive Labour or National and have been disappointed to find that the minor left‐of‐centre parties are narrow spectrum; the Greens are purely environmental, the Alliance is Socialism and the DSC is purely financial reform.

There must be many like me who expect a Party to want to form a Government in its own right and therefore expect that Party to have in place policies to cover every Ministry, so it is bewildering to read in your Political Review that debate is raging in the Party over whether the DSC should have a full range of policies – nothing less will do!

It would certainly make for a more interesting and varied Newsletter. For example, in view of the central role that house mortgages play in debt creation, I assume that the Party would have a clear idea of what drives house prices (and, no, it is not just interest rates alone) and would have policies on reforming the housing market.

On a happier note, I was pleased to see in “Whitmill’s World” a quote from a newsletter of Economic Reform Australia ‐ a group which I chaired for a while in the 90’s ‐ and also a quote from the deceased Canadian economist Prof John Hotson, whose group ERA followed closely.

I hope that your Party moves beyond a narrow focus on money creation. I rather miss political discussion.

Dennis Dorney, Dunedin Colin Whitmill responds:

Professor John Hotson

"There is far, far more to the DSC than monetary reform"

The Party has a surfeit of policy which at one time ‐ and perhaps still does ‐ even covered the problems of beekeepers. The 2007 policy register includes specific policies on agriculture, horticulture, broadcasting and the media, defence, education, employment, energy etc. ‐ all the way to youth. There are 34 distinct areas of policy which from time to time are updated to reflect current events and thinking.

Many of our members joined the DSC not because of the monetary reform aspect, much of which they did not at the time understand, but because of the determination with which the party pursued issues such as fluoride in water, nuclear power, toll bridges, a basic income for all, electoral reform, a transfer tax instead of GST, and bilateral trade.

In the electoral reform issue, it was the DSC which, through its then MPs and members promoted petitions, protests and pressure on politicians that finally forced one to concede to a commission into the first past the post electoral system.

successful implementation of all other policies.

Our housing policy contains 33 specific actions to be taken to ensure that people are housed and can afford to own their own homes.

The Guardian Political Review has contained articles from world‐ wide experts on issues such as housing, pensions, water, oil, Muslim banking, fluoride etc. The reason for the increase in house prices and other assets, has to do with money creation and the widening gap between rich and poor.

The DSC has as its basis monetary reform and the possibilities that derive from it for all other policies to be effective.

The party recognises that people will be attracted to it not by esoteric references to theoretical work formulated Colin Whitmill prior to 1935, but by addressing issues which currently directly affect them, such as housing, student debt, unemployment, pensions and the environment.

The concentration on monetary reform, which we believe is vital for the survival of our planet, was the reason why the party was formed in 1953 because other political groups would not even consider the need. Monetary reform we believe is the key to the

There is far, far more to the DSC than monetary reform, but it is the key to the successful implementation of all other areas of policy. It is also the only matter of concern which makes the DSC different from other parties.

"Social Credit is far more than a system of monetary reform"

By Francis Hutchinson, Chairperson of the Social Credit Secretariat UK. Extract from editorial of The Social Crediter, Winter 2009

When asked to explain Social Credit 'in a nutshell', I no longer take the question at face value. Social Credit is far more than a system of monetary reform. It is not a 'system' at all.

There are no easy answers to the burning issues of the day: poverty amidst plenty, debt, financial insecurity, terrorism, wars, the erosion of civil liberties, the curtailment of genuine debate based on freedom of information, or concerns at educational, medical and care provisions.

Social Credit provides thoroughly accurate

Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 7

methods of analysing exactly how finance flows through the economy.

The analysis can be used for many different policies. If what is required is to get people back to work, under the corporate business‐as‐usual scenario, Social Credit analysis can be used for just that purpose.

If, however, in the twenty‐first century, alternatives are sought to the misuse of new technologies and the earth's resources which flow from the materialism of the industrial revolution, Social Credit can be studied for ways out of the mess.

In addition to having published numerous articles and reviews in academic and other journals, Frances Hutchinson is the author (with Brian Burkitt) of The Political Economy of Social Credit and Guild Socialism (Routledge, 1997) (Reprinted by Jon Carpenter, 2005), (with Andrew Hutchinson) of Environmental Business Manage‐ ment (McGraw‐Hill, 1997), of What Everybody Really Wants to Know About Money (Jon Carpenter, 1998), and (with Mary Mellor and Wendy Olsen) of The Politics of Money: Towards Sustainability and Economic Democracy (Pluto Press, 2002). She was awarded a PhD for her published works, and now edits The Social Crediter.

WE HAVE MAIL PROFESSOR BURGSTAHLER Thank you for kindly sending me a copy of your Spring (our Autumn) 2009 issue of The Guardian Political Review with the full‐page report on page 13 on fluoride‐related arthritis and the NZ$2 billion health cost of water fluoridation in New Zealand.

Albert W. Burgstahler Editor, Fluoride Journal, U.S.A. P.S. Please note the free online access to Fluoride Journal on our website www.fluorideresearch.org

WEB OF DEBT Thanks for the issues of the Guardian Political Review ‐‐ great articles!

You are welcome to review my articles at www.webofdebt.com/articles.

Ellen Brown, U.S.A. Ellen Brown is the author of ‘The Web of Debt’ (reviewed in Guardian Issue 53)

CANADIAN COMMENTS Thanks for the complimentary copy of The Guardian Political Review. I read it with interest and presented it last night to a local group of Social Credit enthusiasts who are members of the Alberta Social Credit Party.

This Saturday I will present it at our provincial executive meeting.

As far as I know, your New Zealand party, and ours here in Alberta are the only formal remnants of Social Credit parties around the world.

We have to build our movement and party right up from the ground, starting in my local electorate of Rocky Mountain House.

A Socred party member, Alfred Hooke, used to occupy this seat in the provincial legislature from 1935 to 1971.

Our task in the next two years is to rebuild the constituency association to a point where that seat is back in our hands again. (Just a few years ago, my associate Laverne Ahlstrom, who also used to be the provincial party's leader, was a close second runner here during a provincial election.)

I am convinced that deteriorating economic conditions for more and more people will be an important factor in putting us back on the public stage again.

MARCHING FEET Thirty years ago the Social Credit Political League created a nationwide sensation when it won Rangitikei. It won that seat because it chose a personable candidate, concen‐ trated its resources, and hit the electorate with everything it had.

And it lost Rangitikei in the 1984 election when Bruce Beetham spent much of his time during the campaign travelling around no‐ hope electorates in the South Island instead of securing his own home base. Some of us here in Christchurch at the time were uneasy, but Bruce was supremely confident ‐ until the results came in on Election night.

Social Credit won Rangitikei because it did exactly what Neville Aitchison advocated in his Guardian Political Review article, "The tramp of marching feet." And lost Rangitikei ‐ mainly because it failed to repeat the proven winning formula that first won the seat.

And that winning formula isn't just because of the numbers of marching feet.

I worked in East Coast Bays in 1991 and Tamaki in 1992. The thing I'll never forget about both of those campaigns was the enthusiasm that was generated when everybody felt there was a real chance of winning.

And that enthusiasm brought in more eager volunteers. On Election day in Tamaki so many local people came to help that the campaign headquarters looked like a crowd on Show Day. Rangitikei, East Coast Bays, and Tamaki should have shown us that concentrating our forces was clearly our best campaign strategy. But for years we have persisted in trying to win every electorate, and only succeeded in wasting our money, time, and losing prospective supporters who see no sense in fighting a hopeless battle.

In East Coast Bays and Tamaki my wife Rayma and I were troops in an army of eager supporters who tramped the streets all day and long into the night delivering pamphlets and erecting billboards. But all I did in the last election was deliver a small bundle of pamphlets, although I knew it was a complete waste of time ‐ and the election results showed it was.

Our Party's history shows Neville was absolutely right when he called for us to unite ‐ then " ... mass together and concentrate your fire. " Stan Fitchett, Christchurch

Helge Nome, Alberta

INFLATION SCAM VALUED The Guardian Political Review is indeed full of interesting things. I've always said that it is the only political magazine of value; it is the glossiest and should be sold to the public.

Ivor Farkashc, NSW, Australia Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 8

Over my lifetime, the purchasing‐power of the dollar has deteriorated from 100 cents to about half a cent.

Now who do you think was responsible for the deteriorating value of our money?

We've had about 40 years of National Government, and 35 years of Labour Government. They'll each point a finger at

the other........and by golly, for the first time ever, they'll both be right. Right? I don’t really think so.

They have each been caught in a scam they don't understand.

Geoff Church, Kerikeri

LOWELL MANNING I expect you know all about the work of Lowell Manning but, if not, I am sending an extract from James Robertson's Newsletter: “Lowell Manning, a civil engineer in New Zealand, is one of many monetary reformers who have come from more practical professional backgrounds than economics.

He has developed an up‐to‐date version of Irving Fisher's equation which has served as an analytical basis for many monetary reform proposals since the 1930s. I hope Manning's work will come to be accepted as important for economists, as the need for monetary reform belatedly penetrates their professional minds. One practical conclusion is that: "the effect of unearned interest on deposits is to transfer claims on the real wealth of the nation from those who produce the economic output to those in the investment sector who produce nothing.

Houses and other assets become more expensive in terms of the inflated prices in the investment sector but must be bought using the less inflated money of the productive sector. Unless inflation in the investment sector and the productive sector are equalised, there must be an ever‐ widening gap between debt‐bound wage and salary earners on the one hand and the participants in the investment sector with net deposits in the banking system on the other." www.jamesrobertson.com (11/11/09)

A short version of Manning's findings is at www.flowman.nl/lowellshortpaper20090706.htm.

Barbara Panvel, Solihull UK Editor’s note: Lowell Manning was guest speaker at the DSC 2009 Conference

FAIRER TAX British P.M. Gordon Brown stated that a fairer tax system of a transaction fee would benefit the Government and people.

Democrats for social credit have been advocating this for years. At last a world leader has seen the "light at the end of the tunnel": that the money belongs to the people, not the money manipulators and speculators.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is owned by the people. The Federal Reserve of America is owned and controlled by large business corporations. They would never agree to the above. We know why!

Ivan Geddes, Oamaru Letters or emails should be sent to The Guardian Political Review, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400, NZ. Tel/Fax: 03 434 5523. E-mail: editor@guardian.org.nz The editor reserves the right to edit or abridge. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the editor or the NZ Democratic Party for social credit.

Health: reform or deform?

By David Tranter, DSC Health Spokesman

For health "reform" I cannot help feeling that "deform" would be a far more appropriate expression.

It was deeply disturbing just this week to see a programme on Australian television about the plight of the families who have had to take over the care of their often adult children with severe physical and/or mental problems since the mass closure of residential care facilities was carried out ‐ often against huge protest from the patients, their families and many care support groups.

And as one health minister after another pontificates on what their government is going to do to solve the problems plaguing the health system they seem incapable of grasping the appalling extent to which the corporatisation of health system manage‐ ment has supplanted the views of dedicated, lifelong health professionals, many of whom have either gone private, moved overseas, or abandoned their vocation altogether.

Now many of those caregivers are reaching the age when they feel unable to continue the hugely daunting task of giving that care. Many are now well into their 60s or older and are desperately concerned at what is going to happen to their children when age and/or ill‐health makes it impossible to continue. The response from a government minister was, to put it politely, disgraceful.

Of course, it's not just happening in New Zealand. Only this week there was an item on Queensland radio where the imminent loss of most doctors from a Queensland rural hospital at Roma was attributed to the failure of management to listen to the concerns of the health professionals. How familiar that sounds.

Which all brings me to what I see as one of the biggest confidence tricks of all perpetrated under New Zealand government health policies in recent years ‐ the claim that deinstitutionalisation was supported by massive world‐wide evidence.

Throughout the 19 years I have been actively involved in health issues I have been repeatedly staggered by the extent of ignorance and arrogance amongst the new breed of managers in the New Zealand health system.

In 1992, the year after I became involved with a rural hospital/home for the frail elderly in South Otago, I travelled around New Zealand visiting rural hospitals and talking to staff and support groups. While many of those involved had suspicions about the "reforms" as they were going to effect rural centres most were prepared to give it a chance.

Three years later I did another, similar journey speaking to many of the same people ‐ and the change in their views was startling, probably best summed up by a church minister on a North Island hospital committee. When I asked what had happened he replied with four words which have stuck in my mind ever since ‐ "They lied to us". "They" covered the whole spectrum of health/government officialdom.

Fifteen years on little has changed.

Of all the areas where ill‐informed bureaucracy and policy‐making has continued since the early 90's perhaps the appallingly‐ named and ill‐conceived "deinstitutionalisation" of the mentally and/or physically handicapped is the most tragic.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 9

"They lied to us" In the mid‐90s I pressed the then Director‐General of Health in New Zealand, Karen Poutasi, for copies of this evidence.

Evasion and delay continued for months but by continuing to demand the evidence (I started by politely requesting it) I finally received a massive pile of papers. I read the lot and was utterly astonished to find that the supposed massive world‐wide evidence amounted to endless repetitions written by different people about the same handful (four or five) deinstitutionalisation projects ‐ with the world to choose from why did

these different sources all refer to the same few projects? The David Tranter only feasible answer would appear to be that there simply wasn't a wide range of evidence.

Incidentally, one of the report writers was Ernst and Young ‐ hardly an authority on mental health matters! And even these papers supposedly endorsing deinstitutionali‐ sation ‐ and thereby endorsing the mass eviction of people many of whom desperately needed the residential security and the expertise of the many dedicated professionals who cared for them ‐ contained many warnings of the need for appropriate alternative services when residential places were closed.

Now we are seeing in Australia as in New Zealand, the growing crisis in disabled care brought about by tragically inadequate policies and services.

A friend of mine who has had a long involvement in campaigning and writing on mental health issues recently observed; "The more I write the more I worry about politicians meddling with things they know little or nothing about". And so it is with many in health management leading me to wonder ‐ where is it all heading?

Do countries like New Zealand have to go even further down the present misguided path where health professionals are denied their rightful influence in how services are provided while richly‐rewarded "consultants", many of them with little or no understanding of the reality of the health workplace, go on churning out wordy and often nonsensical reports upon which so many policies are tragically based?

The DSC will establish an independent New Zealand Health Advisory Board to review and administer health care policy. It will re‐ organise District Health Boards to ensure that members are elected by a combination of a public vote and those elected by the medical professional health, surgical and nursing staff (Policy R08.2). DSC will revise the statutes under which Health Boards operate to ensure that the welfare of patients is considered foremost at all times.

Forestry in New Zealand

The following are extracts from an article on the historic New Zealand Forestry League by Hamish Levack in the N. Z. Journal of Forestry, May 2009: “Thanks to its efforts, the NZL obtained a pledge from Prime Minister Massey to set up a separate Forestry Service. Established in 1921, the Forest Service achieved much, but of course over the last couple of decades everything has unravelled.

By John G. Rawson, President DSC Northern Region

which is not even required “… to By 1997 Government forestry policy and management was again buried deep monitor what is happening to them.” inside another organisation, the Ministry (In fairness, that Department undoubt‐ edly lacks the funding needed to carry of Agriculture, this time with no this out.) independent identity, which is arguably even less appropriate than having The Democrats for Social Credit forestry looked after by an independent recognises that Forestry comprises a branch of the pre‐1921 Lands wide field, of which timber supply is Department. Govern‐ only a part. It embraces ment forestry facilitation Democrats for Social Credit also protection of our is probably also less recognises that Forestry high country, with its effective now than it comprises a wide field unique forest and other was before 1921.” natural associations. It includes prevention of erosion there and “…farming and forestry compete for protection of the rivers and lowlands land, are respectively short and long‐ below. It is concerned with our native term investments, and provide wildlife, and the danger to it provided respectively poor and excellent off‐site environmental long‐term benefits. With by introduced pests. It is important for provision of high quality water supplies, these internal conflicts, and MAF’s and also in the fields of recreation and inappropriate structure (there is no tourism. forestry policy division) officials in an agriculturally dominated organisation One of the Party’s enlightened can not be expected to resolve and policies is to re‐appoint an independent recommend good forest policy before it Government department to represent reaches Ministers.” forestry.

Hamish also recorded degradation of John Rawson, B.Sc (NZ), Dip.For.(Aus), MNZIF, is our indigenous forests ( “… five million a Whangarei forestry Consultant and foundation hectares …”) under a Department (DOC) Branch Secretary of the Institute of Forestry.

25 January 2010 ‐ WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS

The Diary of Adrian Bayly Nelson-based Adrian Bayly keeps a close eye on the political scene

6 November 2009 ‐ SHOCKING Since the Bradford electricity reforms of the 1990s National Government, the domestic consumer has seen prices rise by 70%, whilst the cost of living has gone up by 29%. The Labour government of the 2000s did not change the set‐ up, nor did they alleviate the electricity problems.

Both Labour and National governments have received substantial dividends as substantial shareholders in these SOEs. The Commerce Commission reports that electricity suppliers have made $4.6 billion in excess profits over the last six years. The domestic sector has paid most of that money.

20 December 2009 ‐ COPENHAGEN COP‐OUT Aftr two years of planning and two weeks of negotiations, with 40,000 delegates from 193 countries, the United National Climate Conference in Copenhagen has ended in failure. The newspapers are right when they called this the ‘Copenhagen Cop‐Out’, The DSC advocates a carbon‐neutral status for NZ, increased use of non‐ polluting renewable forms of energy – such as wind, solar and hydro‐electric power –and will promote a fossil‐fuel‐free status for NZ. Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 10

I have been reading the book “We Hold These Truths” by Richard C. Cook. It explains the economic and financial problems in the USA today and what needs to be done to regain financial independence and solvency. Richard recommends Social Credit policy as a solution to our debt‐ financed system, referring to Major C.H. Douglas and the American Monetary Institute (AMI). In Britain, similar work is being done by the Bromsgrove Group and other reformers. He says: “Top priority of the reform system is to use public credit to rebuild the producing economy, wrecked by the phony ideology of ‘market’ economics and the inept, self‐serving manipulation of the money supply”.

15 February 2010 ‐ LET'S REPLACE GST While the Government plans to lower all top tax rates to 30 per cent long term, they will make up the lost revenue by hiking GST to 15 per cent.

The Democrats for social credit advocate a bank financial transactions tax to replace GST. FTT would be collected through data bank facilities on every bank transaction both domestic and foreign.

Businesses would be relieved of compliance costs when GST is phased out. FTT would be a lot fairer on everybody.

governments – or having them in support roles on confidence and supply votes.

11 March 2010 ‐ PILING UP DEBTS The Labour Party was in town this week with its 'Axe the Tax' bus campaign, highlighting their opposition to the proposed Government hike of GST to 15%. If Labour wins power in next year's General Election, I wonder if they would reduce GST? The Nelson City Council is wanting to build a Millennium Conference Centre. The cost of $28 million is to be borrowed. The Council is still paying off a $25 million loan on its water plant ‐ started in the early 2000s. Nelson and Richmond Councils are piling up debts to their ratepayers.

It's a case of debt spending to get their pet projects finished before the next local elections ‐ and to hell with the protests from ratepayers.

31 March 2010 ‐ MEDIA COVERAGE In the Nelson Mail (17/3/10), Don Steele recommended Richard C Cook's book We Hold These Truths. On 29/3/10, Heather Smith wrote how the 1930s Labour PM Michael Savage used Reserve Bank credit for State Housing and infrastructure. (See News item on p.23)

(This letter appeared in the Nelson Mail) 18 February 2010 ‐ CHANCE TO CHOOSE The public finally get the chance on which of the four alternative systems they would like for future General Elections. One of these choices is the single transferrable vote (STV) which is advocated by the DSC. National and Labour would like nothing better than to return to FPP so they can be rid of minor parties and coalition

Nelson ‐ Piling up debts and to hell with the ratepayers

Seniors will suffer DSC Media Release 28/2/10 "The proposed increase in superannuation will not compensate seniors for the proposed increase in GST,” said Democrats for Social Credit (DSC) leader Stephnie de Ruyter, “and it is deceitful for the Prime Minister to claim otherwise. Seniors will be worse off.”

guilty either of a dramatic miscalculation or of deliberately distorting the real facts to lull seniors into a false sense of security” she said.

“Seniors will not be so easily fooled. It’s not rocket science to work out that the increase in GST requires a higher level of compensation than the “double whammy” pledged by Prime Minister John Key at a Grey Power meeting in Auckland on Friday.

Superannuitants can add, and subtract.”

simultaneous increase in the cost of essentials, and it is disingenuous of the Prime Minister to claim otherwise.

“It appears that neither the Prime Minister nor his Minister of Finance have “The DSC opposes the use of GST as a done their sums. Pensions need to increase mechanism to collect government revenue. by a bare minimum of 5% in order for It is a punitive, narrow‐based tax which Superannuitants to maintain their current impacts most on those who can afford it income levels if GST is raised to least” said Ms de Ruyter.

"The DSC opposes the use of GST as a mechanism to collect 15%.”

“Raising GST to 15% will not

government revenue. It is a punitive, narrow‐based tax Ms de Ruyter cited as evidence contribute to a miraculous economic which impacts most on those who can afford it least” the modest budgets which had recovery. Instead, the most been sent to her by seniors concerned that vulnerable New Zealanders will suffer Ms de Ruyter noted that the proposed the Government was misleading Superannui‐ unnecessary hardship, with Superannuitants GST increase was not the only additional tants into believing that their incomes would and others on fixed incomes bearing the cost facing seniors. be raised sufficiently to meet the additional brunt of the costs.”

“Electricity, rates, and food prices are also costs.

See: "A tax system for the new millennium" on the rise. The real “double whammy” is “It is very clear that the Government is in this issue. the imposition of GST at 15% coupled with a

COMMENT

The Battle of Portaloo & the MMP Debate

By Steve Baron

It was Winston Churchill who said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

Like the names of loves long lost, we often forget, and so it is with politics.

Politicians hungry for power often prey on this weakness of human nature and give us the opportunity to make the same mistakes over again. Yes indeed, we do have short memories, especially on political matters.

At the next election New Zealanders will decide whether or not to keep MMP or replace it with something else. So what does history tell us about our voting system and why did we change to

MMP? For a start, in 1978 and 1981, the Labour Party received more votes than the National Party but National remained the government, because they held more electorate seats. In 1978 the Social Credit Party received sixteen percent of the vote, but only one Member of Parliament, then twenty one percent of the vote in 1981 which gave them only two seats in Parliament. In 1984 the New Zealand Party received twelve percent of the vote, but no Members of Parliament. In other words many votes were “wasted votes”. These results, along with a growing distrust of politicians due to

Democrats outside Parliament Buildings, supporting those inside. November 1988

Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 11

many broken promises, and New Zealanders innate belief in fairness, led to calls for change.

I also remember Garry Knapp, leader of the Democratic Party (formerly Social Credit, now Democrats for Social Credit) and a number of supporters barricading themselves into one of Parliament's Select Committee rooms, as a protest to highlight the unfairness of the First Past the Post (FPP) system. They remained there for a number of days, even taking a porta‐loo in with them. Knapp was seen on the six o'clock news waving from the balcony in defiance, after requests from the Speaker of the House and Police to remove themselves.

Eventually a referendum was held and an overwhelming eighty‐four percent of voters voted for change. Many opponents at the time claimed that MMP would cause unstable governments.

National Cabinet Minister Bill Birch said MMP would be "a catastrophic disaster for democracy".

Former Minister of Finance, Ruth Richardson said MMP "would bring economic ruin". None of this eventuated. MMP has produced a more diverse representation as expected. A record number of women were elected, along with an increase in the number of Maori and Pacific Island MPs. Does New Zealand really want to go back to those days ‐ the old two‐party club, the fastest law makers in the west, as Geoffrey Palmer referred to New Zealand? Or does MMP just need tweaking? Only time will tell but at least we all get to participate in the debate. So the next time someone says to you, we need to get rid of this MMP, ask them if it's ok that the party who gets the second most votes becomes the government and remind them about the good old days of 1978 and 1981.

Dear Mr English From Jeremy Woodhall, Christchurch

I am a retired Registered Surveyor. All my working life my productivity and usefulness has depended upon my mathematical and logical ability to understand geometric, geodetic and trigonometrical problems and then to solve them. Further to that, I have successfully navigated many a yacht on ocean passages using my understanding of astronomy and spherical trigonometry and their associated tables. I do not claim myself to be a genius, but nor am I thick.

Motors or the price of an ounce of gold.

But might not New Zealand's problem be her reliance on a monetary system (unsystem) whose finances ‐ money ‐ is brought into being as a massive debt rather than a useful entity on the positive side of the nation's "ledger"?

Further, any such loan is in American dollars or in terms of American dollars. And those dollars are created out of nothing by the US using as collateral its own massive production of goods and services.

Yet I cannot understand conventional economics or the obviously self‐destructive financial system that is holding the world in such disarray, nor why you as New Zealand's Minister of Finance cannot diagnose the problem and therefore take steps to disassociate New Zealand from the so‐called financial "crisis". Or, better, to accept the true definition of "crisis" as being a time or situation of decision and to question the cause of the world's problem and to put New Zealand in the van ‐ forefront ‐ on the road to recovery I have already said that I'm no economist and frankly don't give a stuff about General

OPINION

of all things the universal superannuation fund ‐ you borrow from overseas in one form or another. To do so, you are required to gain from some nefarious outfit called Standard and Poors a credit rating for New Zealand which assures any would‐be lender that she has the wherewithal ‐ the collateral in terms of goods and services ‐ to repay it plus interest.

If the US is able to create its own credit why cannot New Zealand do likewise, using as collateral the very such which causes Standard and Poors to recognise her ability to repay any usurious overseas loan?

I have put the question in the past to your predecessor, Dr. Cullen who told me that such a ruse would cause rampant inflation, while not explaining why a more

Finance Minister Bill English - cannot diagnose the problem

As I understand the matter, when you need to have more money with which to fund your Government's policies ‐ including

Daylight discomfort

Why not a referendum on daylight saving?

Why don't we put the clocks forward half an hour, on a permanent basis and leave the time changing alone?

We are already on half an hour permanent as it is, as we've been through ail this before years ago. Daylight saving has been extended at both ends.

It is very selfish to enforce this change on elderly people and schoolchil‐ dren every year, waking up the elderly people in homes an hour earlier each day to have breakfast when their bodies are not ready for it. It makes a long day for these people who also have tea an hour before the sun goes down each night.

costly ‐ interest‐bearing ‐ similar amount borrowed from overseas would not.

Western Australia recently had a referendum on daylight saving and it has been thrown out and will not be revisited for another 20 years.

So let's have a half hour permanent and leave the time changing alone.

Keith Clapham, Ruakaka Northern Advocate 7/9/09

Daylight compromise In reply to "Daylight Discomfort" (Advocate, September 7). Keith Clapham shares my exact thoughts.

I was going to write to the MP concerned at the end of our last daylight saving but never got around to it.

As Keith said, the biggest effect of the sudden one hour change is on those without much say: children, mothers and elderly, not to mention the disruption to international schedules, shift workers, nurses and the like with a sudden time jump.

As Keith says, putting our clocks forward another half hour on a permanent basis would set New Zealand standard time one hour ahead of sun time (currently we are half an hour ahead).

This would give benefit to all, as those who want extended daylight after work would get it all year and those such as farmers who suddenly got thrust back into getting up in the dark, not to mention the effect on cows milked earlier, would not be affected.

International airline schedules, hospital routine etc, would not be interrupted and children would have a regular sleep programme which I'm sure mothers would appreciate.

Let's have some common sense and perhaps a little compromise so everyone can have a regular schedule.

Peter Comrie, Kamo Northern Advocate 12/9/09 The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the editor or the DSC.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 12

It has been done, it can be done and should be done Address to Gisborne District Council by Harry Alchin Smith

with the requirements of the local Government Act of 2002, that the four well‐ beings ‐ social, economic, environmental, and cultural ‐ be sustainable.

On behalf of Democrats for Social Credit I would like to thank the Gisborne District Council for the opportunity to take part in the submissions process of its 10‐year Draft Annual Plan.

In our submission we urge that the Gisborne District Council lobby Government for interest‐free credit lines from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand for the funding of all major infrastructure works — especially those projects mandated by central government.

There is a widespread concept amongst many Local Territorial Authorities (LTAs} that councils are helpless to influence national financial policies. We feel that this is an unfortunate and undemocratic mindset.

Which leads us to wonder if local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) and the Society of Local Government Managers (SOLGM) are no more than mouthpieces for treasury doctrine.

Projects have to be paid for, but once is enough!

The present implosion of the world's capital markets has laid bare the "mysteries" of money and capital creation. The sudden manifestations of trillions of dollars by the governments of Europe, Asia and the United States of America should give us added confidence to push very hard for the provision of "Fiat" or Government created money, (as they have in years past) to ease the ever increasing interest‐rate costs accruing to ratepayers. Which is, in effect, stealing from the future as a way of providing steady returns to private banks' shareholders.

We have met many councillors throughout the country who are very much concerned about the injustice of LTA's having to bear the full burden of capital expenditure imposed upon their ratepayers by statute.

There is a general reluctance to confront the government of the day regarding the savage burden of these impositions.

I know councillors are very aware of the crushing effect of interest paid to private overseas bankers, especially when borrowing for public capital works, which must be funded by private investors. Servicing debt at compound interest is in direct conflict

We are not talking of government

handouts. Projects have to be paid for, but our contention is that once is enough! Why should we pay two, three, even four times of what amounts to tribute to foreign banks when government has the ability to loan itself all money it needs free of interest without changing one law or imposing one regulation. Just a ministerial directive to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. That's all.

When one looks at the estimated level of debt and interest included in the mailout I received the other day, average annual interest‐rate projections to 2019 are around $3 million. Over the 10‐year period that amounts to $30 million.

Supposing a 20% saving in interest could be obtained by the implementation of a Reserve Bank of New Zealand line of credit, I am sure Council would be more than satisfied with a saving of $600,000 a year for the next 10 years!

I realize this is a very simplistic scenario as indeed it has to be to be, given the time available, but I can assure you that what we are promoting has been done to great benefit to New Zealand, Australia and Canada in the past.

It has been done, it can be done and should be done.

Alternative economic strategy Extract from the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Economic Bulletin No. 107: October 2009 An Alternative Economic Strategy was launched at the CTU Biennial Conference The strategy is timely. The global financial and economic crisis has illustrated the recklessness of deregulated capitalism and demands rethinking of economic assumptions, ideas and policies. And for many people in New Zealand and the world, the economy simply does not work for them, whether it is massive inequalities, unacceptable levels of poverty, in New Zealand and around the world, unfair wage systems, or unsustainable demands on our environment.

This is a major crisis in historical terms ‐ the worst financial crisis since the 1930s Depression. It grew out of international policies of domestic and

Guardian Political Review, Issue 57, 2009 - Page 13

international deregulation and particularly the excessive influence of deregulated finance capital in the economy.

Despite US$1.9 trillion spent internationally to bail out banks, many are back to their old ways and we are still not sure the financial system is stable.

The United Nations estimates that "between 73 and 103 million more people will remain poor or fall into poverty" as a result of the crisis. The economies of the richest countries, those in the OECD, are expected to contract by 4.1 percent in 2009 and unemployment is expected to be at 8.3 percent at the end of 2009 and reach 9.8 percent in 2010.

The policy proposals in the Background paper are based on principles of Fairness, Participation, Security, Improving living standards, and Sustainability; and a three‐pillar framework of Sustainable economic development; Some examples: ∙ Stabilise the exchange rate through management of international capital flows and currency controls in cooperation with other nations ∙ Low interest funding for new housing through the Reserve Bank in the short term and in the longer run, creating a National Housing Strategy We hope that these papers provide a useful framework for a healthy and informed debate.

OPINION A Natural Alliance

By Peter Adcock‐White In a newspaper column following the election of the current National Government, Michael Laws asserted that in his view, New Zealand had potentially been on the verge of a momentous social and political change at the 1972 General Election. Had MMP been in force at that time, a coalition of a Labour‐led government under Wallace Rowling, a strongly‐polling Social Credit monetary reform Party and the nascent Values Party might have formed the new government.

New Zealand might have seen the strengthening of a fair, just, mutual and sustainable society by the bringing together of otherwise separate political forces. Instead, National under Robert Muldoon came to power with a minority of the total vote.

In the years that followed, and in 1981 in particular, our nation crossed a type of ‘Rubicon’ with the instigation of a neo‐liberal “Rogernomics” which radically and controversially changed New Zealand society.

I agree with Michael Laws that New Zealand did indeed stand before a kind of threshold. What led on to neo‐liberal policies of privatisation of state assets, deregulation of financial and labour markets and much more besides might otherwise have been a ground‐breaking step towards a society of greater real freedom, of equality before the law and a system of economic mutuality than had been seen anywhere else in the world to date.

More than lament lost opportunities, it seems true that nations no less than individuals come before defining moments of destiny. Nor is it impossible that such moments, if apparently irrevocably lost to history, may be offered once more.

Even in our present position, much can be learned from this retrospection. We can understand how the Values Party went on after a time to become a voice of significance for the environment in the current Greens. We can also see how the traditional characteristic concern of the Labour movement for the common citizen could be overshadowed and seduced by a self‐ serving economic neo‐liberalism.

And as for the Social Credit movement, we can see how a ground‐swell monetary reform movement can reach a zenith in popularity, and then all but fade from popular consciousness.

What can be learned from this? I would like to offer some suggestions, not based on any particular expertise of authority of my own, but as tentative insights which may open up fields of further discussion as a way forward for the monetary reform movement. In making these suggestions, I would like to acknowledge and state very clearly my respect for the enormous efforts of those involved with the monetary reform and Social Credit movement.

To begin with, what sort of profile does the Democrat for Social Credit political party have amongst New Zealand voters? Is that profile consistent with the enormity of its aims? And what can be done about both increasing and improving this profile which might translate into parliamentary representation?

Placed alongside a comparable party such as the Greens, our past two election results have been disappointing. The Greens have developed a strong profile as the ‘environmental spokesparty’, so to speak, while the Democrats for Social Credit have not done the same with regards to a required transformation or metamorphosis of our economic and financial systems. We need to become the political voice of alternative economics, in the way the Greens have become the voice of environmental care and protection.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 14

And these are entirely complementary tasks, much as the current National Government may deny this. The Democrats for Social Credit and the Greens are natural allies. To quote Christopher Budd, “As regards the political front, the many new parties ‐ be they green or not so green‐ all seem to lack an economic dimension. To that extent they may all prove toothless in the real world. On the other hand, political strategies centred on ecology and responsible concern for the environment should all find a ready ally in the movement for monetary reform, especially since the ruination of the earth‐ a cause they have in common is the direct effect of the usurious money of the our times.”

Furthermore, is it possible to take one moment to consider whether the broader message of monetary reform is helped or hampered by an overly‐dogmatic insistence on the tenets of last century’s Social Credit movement? A vast amount of water has flowed under the bridge since the birth of the Social Credit movement last century; many new insights and approaches have been suggested, and the need for monetary reform is as widely appreciated as historically it ever has been, particularly in the light of the current worldwide financial crisis.

I am suggesting there is a need for self‐ reflection and renewal in every organisation, and the Democrats for Social Credit are no exception, This is not to suggest ‘throwing “the Social Credit baby” out with the bath water’ rather than a willingness to test our approaches and cherished ideas alongside the growing number of new economic approaches and ideas which are emerging. Such an attitude of openness towards the wider monetary reform movement prevents unhealthy institutionalised dogmatism and helps it to remain both appealing and relevant.

Of particular interest in this regard do I find the “Three‐folding Movement” which takes its inspiration from the insights of the Austrian philosopher and scientist, Rudolf Steiner. In essence society is perceived as having a dynamic tri‐polar structure; society emerges from the dynamic working together of business, the state and civil society, which have their home territory in the economy, political system and cultural life respectively. The health, wealth, resilience and justice of society is greater, the more individuals work with the principles of freedom in the creative cultural and civil life, the more citizens respect the equality of human rights in political life and the more consumers and producers are guided by mutuality in the economic life – and the more sustainability guides our care of the earth.

In my view, the three‐folding concept has much to offer our understanding as would‐be monetary reformers and members of the Democrats for Social Credit political party. While we have some pearls in the policies of a Universal Basic Income, Reserve Bank Funding of Public capital works and a Financial Transactions Tax, Free Health Care and Education, I consider our understanding can be greatly enlarged and enriched by the understand‐ ing that society is, as it were, a three‐legged stool, whose legs are government, business and civil society. If each sector focuses on its strengths and engages appropriately in dialogue and partnerships, there can be social renewal and effective practical action; conversely, when they overstep their appropriate boundaries, society suffers (e.g. the state is held captive by business, or health or education, as part of the domain of civil society are run as profit‐making businesses, or the public sector runs business with attendant waste and bureaucracy.

How open is our party to these refreshing and revitalising insights?

Can it take on board, for example, the emergence of the Community Land Trust Movement, whereby a civil movement is seeking

to make land available for people, homes and communities? This “people’s movement” has clearly perceived that treating land as a commodity is resulting in a housing market failure whereby home ownership is becoming less and less likely for many New Zealanders. Community Land Trusts can be one very effective way of securing land and affordable homes for people as houses, though privately owned (as commodities), are on land held in trust (as commons) – through such a means, the building cost of a house is all the buyer needs to pay for. This approach is built on the simple, accurate insight that land is not and can not be a commodity in the same way as tools, televisions and foodstuffs, for example.

Can our party be one known as one dedicated to social renewal? Can we adapt our message, acknowledging at the same time the heroic efforts of Social Crediters of the last century, so it is one of relevance, freshness and inspiration to the voters for our own time? If so, then I think an understanding of the principles of Three‐folding, and the transformation of capitalism into a stewarding of capital for individual enterprise and the common good are most helpful.

My hope is that the Democrats for Social Credit position ourselves alongside and not against the Greens, while not losing our independent identity, as the choice for those voters looking for real, workable and visionary alternatives. I know personally many people of “alternative” inclination who will not put their votes behind the Greens, for a wide variety of reasons. These voters are looking for alternatives – for which reason, I’d suggest a campaign slogan: “When old, outdated ways no longer work, try the alternatives! Vote the Democrats for Social Credit, working in conjunction with the Greens”.

One could imagine that the Greens find particular favour with the youthful voter, somewhat dreamy and visionary, certainly futuristic with a strong sense that the world environment requires our care. However this does not exhaust the possible range of alternative voters, and there is a marked absence of political representation for a more restrained or ‘conservative’ type of reformer than the typical ‘Greenie’ – those with a strong sense of social justice, a sense for the practical and yet visionary steps that need to be taken for the renewal of New Zealand society, and in particular, its financial system.

In conclusion, we live in momentous times.

There has never been a time in which the voters of our nation stood in need of being presented with real, viable alternatives. There has never been a time when unless these are alternatives are presented with both vigour and credible competency, far from achieving our “Godzone” potential, we will slip into deep disparity, alienation, disenfranchisement and discontent.

It need not be that the ‘near‐miss’ of the 1981 General Election, in which the Social Credit Party polled so well, and the dispiriting ‘Years in the Desert’ since, have been in vain. We owe it to the toilers for monetary and social reform of the last century not to allow this to be. But what we can do is ensure that as the political voice of alternative economics, working in league with the Greens as the voice of a care for the earth and our environment, is to ensure that our message is clear, free of doctrinaire dogma, up to date and appealing.

P.A‐W, Waipara 13/3/10 adcock‐white@clear.net.nz References: “Of Wheat and Gold”, C.H.Budd, New Economy Publications, 1988, p55” “Commonwealth – for a free, equal, mutual and sustainable society”, M.Large, Hawthorne Press, 2010.

Ibid, ch10 “Land for People, Homes and Communities”.

Note: The views expressed are not necessarily those of the editor or Democrats for social credit

You and Your Environment Social Credit “way out front” In 1973 the Social Credit Party produced a 27‐page glossy publication: You and Your Environment, which was called publicly by a Values Party candidate as “the finest environmental book produced”.

The convenor of the production committee was George Bryant M.A.(Hons.),Dip.Ed. Members included current DSC Northern Region president John G. Rawson.

The Foreword opened: “You and Your Environment embodies the results of investiga‐ tions of a concerned group of people into the environment we live in, how it affects us, and what can be done to improve it. Concern for conservation, in its widest sense, has always been strongly embedded in Social Credit thinking. During the 1972 General Election campaign, the Social Credit Political League was placed first in both the quality and substance of its answers to a questionnaire distributed by the New Zealand Ecology Action Committee to all political parties. The committee’s secretary confirmed the ‘superiority’ of the Socred environmental policy and showed Social Credit ‘way out front’.”

Money, Investment and Banking in the service of

The Green Imperative Extract from a paper by Dr D.C. Artingstall (U.K.) Reprinted from Guardian issue 27

The Green Imperative is the urgent need to conserve finite resources by substituting renewable resources and by recycling; to reverse the damage to the ozone layer, drastically reduce the emission of those gases causing acid rain and global warming; to clean up their pollution of air, soil and water and to prevent its recurrence; to minimise any further soil erosion, desertification and deforestation; to markedly narrow the gap of poverty and riches between the citizens of any one economy and between national economies.

Now it is beyond question that all the measures are going to cost immense sums of money. For investment is the key to achievement. And the basic contention of this paper is that our present money system is not designed to supply the required amounts of investment money without creating such a mountain of debt ‐ unserviceable and unrepayable ‐ that the tasks will remain unfulfilled before they have scarcely begun.

The cry "We cannot afford it" will ring throughout the land as the death knell of endeavour. Therefore a radical rethink about the way investment money is provided becomes the imperative on which the satisfying of the Green Imperative depends.

Such is the non‐profit making nature of so many of the needed projects that the initiative and finance for undertaking them will inevitably have to be assumed by one tier of government or another.

But governments too are trapped in the historic convention that only deposit‐taking commercial banks can create and issue money. That is, governments at every level have to borrow for investment purposes and pay interest on such capital.

Thus is both the national and local government debt burden Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 15

continually increasing and the enlarging debt has to be serviced either from taxes or more borrowing.

Governments, quite understandingly, become alarmed when more and more tax income has to be set aside to meet interest or repayment commitments and are invariably lagging behind the economy's needs for capital formation. Not, it must be emphasised, because of any shortage of materials, labour, know‐how, or skill, but purely because nothing can be undertaken without incurring debt.

The only conclusion that can be drawn is that we must break out of the bondage of debt. Money for investment purposes, whether in the private or public sectors, must be created and issued interest‐ free and non‐repayable, in the sense that word is currently used.

Without some radical reform of our contemporary money system then there is no possibility of meeting the investment needs of industry, commerce, controlling consumer credit, no curbing the insatiable demands of speculators in property, stocks and shares and currency exchange. But, most importantly, meeting the demands of the Green Imperative.

Deryck Artingstall, Stratford‐on‐Avon, U.K.

WORLD NEWS Haiti - a long-suffering nation

By Simon Cunliffe, assistant editor Otago Daily Times, 20/1/10 (extract) eventually became the hallmark of just about every administration that occupied Port‐au‐Prince.

Haiti has had more than its share of calamities, the recent earthquake recalibrating the scale for natural disasters in the modern era. But if there were ever a model of how not to construct a human society, this Caribbean republic, with generous assistance from the old colonial powers of Europe and United States, takes line honours here, too.

The world's first black republic won its freedom in 1804, but it spent the next century and a‐half paying for it — literally. By some accounts, its reparations to former colonial master France began in 1825 and went on until 1947.

To accommodate the sums, it took out huge loans from the US and other Western country banks at rapacious interest rates, so that by the turn of the 20th century it was deeply in hock. Its economy eventually crumbled under the weight of compounding debt burden, and the avarice of a succession of leaders who came to see power as a pathway to personal wealth and hoarded for themselves whatever reserves were left over when the interest bill had been paid.

Born put of violent revolution in the late 18th century, and declaring its independence from France at the very beginning of the 19th, the island went downhill from there.

The legacy of piracy and the inhuman predations of the slave trade which would ultimately repopulate the island with African stock seemed to have become stitched into its DNA. Greed, corruption, cruelty and violence

But even by the dire Simon Cunliffe standards of all that had gone before, Dr Duvalier, infamously known as “Papa Doc”, raised the art of rule by fear.

And what was the United States and the West doing at the time? Turning a blind eye to the regime as long as the loans were being repaid and Cuban‐style communism didn't take hold?

It is going to take a superhuman effort to alleviate the immediate suffering and a truly massive and sustained commitment to put the country back on its feet.

Confronted by its dark and brutal history, one school of thought might suggest that perhaps the world owes it that — at least.

Iceland - the old Viking spirit

By Helge Nome There was a referendum in Iceland on Saturday, March 6, where voters were asked whether they were prepared to pay back money owing to depositors in three failed commercial banks in Iceland. Actually, the depositors, most of whom are English and Dutch people in their own countries, have already been paid back by their respective governments and now the dispute is between the governments of England and Holland on one side and Iceland on the other.

The Iceland government had already cut a deal for repaying this money, using the taxpayer’s pocket, when the island nation’s President, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, unexpectedly refused to sign it, triggering the referendum.

The big sledge hammer Olafur Grimsson over the Government of Iceland’s head, is a promised loan from the International Monetary Fund to tide Iceland over its present financial problems into a more prosperous future. This loan is currently being withheld.

At the core of this dispute is the demand by the British and Dutch governments for the repayment of funds that they forwarded to their own nationals in the wake of the Icelandic banks in question closing their doors. And the only source of possible repayment is the Icelandic tax

Of the 62.7% of eligible voters that turned out 93.2% said no to repaying Britain and Holland.

1.8% said yes. The rest of the votes were invalid.

Icelanders understandably feel that they are not responsible for decisions made by private bank owners, who by now have likely set up shop in the

Time will tell where this process is heading. The interesting thing here is that the old viking spirit is still alive in Iceland, in contrast to the United States, where senators, congressmen and a puppet president were easily bullied into taking over privately created debts during their financial crisis.

payer who is understandably very upset because the banks were privately owned and engaged in highly leveraged high risk lending practices. They were reportedly helped along in this by the failed Lehman Bros. bank in New York.

Bahamas, protected by their hijacked money and old friends.

The American Monetary Institute From Stephen Zarlenga We had a wonderful 5th Annual AMI Monetary Reform Conference in Chicago (see reports at our website http://www.monetary.org)

One major highlight of the Conference was when Congressman Dennis Kucinich phoned in on my mobile phone and asked me to announce to the meeting that he was changing the name of the American Monetary Act to the American Monetary and Financial Security Act, and he'd be introducing it shortly. That is really great news. A video of

There were truly remarkable speakers with outstanding talks. We are burning a CD with the text of their talks, and a DVD with a summary video of the talks.

Congressman Kucinich's address to the conference will soon be posted on YouTube.

Dennis Kucinich

The AMI 6th annual Monetary Reform Conference will be held at Roosevelt University, in Chicago, Sep.30 ‐ Oct.3, 2010.

Ten Years of 'Prosperity'

By Alistair McConnachie contactus@ProsperityUK.com The first issue of 'Prosperity' appeared in January 2000, as a result of a decision made at Bromsgrove 1999. Ten years later and we're still here!

There is much greater knowledge among the public that something is seriously wrong with the banking system. This knowledge has come about as an inevitable consequence of the inherent faults within the banking system, which are now Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 16

more evident today than they were 10 years ago.

Circumstances continue to move in our favour.

It's clear the financial and political establishment does not have an answer to the credit crunch.

Well, we do have a big part of the answer and in that regard we've got some good news. Very soon we will have a completed draft of our UK Parliamentary Bill for Money Reform.

The first draft ‐ around 90% of the document ‐ is complete.

Alistair McConnachie The time is right. A new Parliament will be elected this year. Many of the new MPs will be idealistic and enthusiastic newcomers, keen to make an impact and keen, quite rightly, to do something for the public good.

Fluoridation ‐ For & Against From Stan Fitchett

children.

'Psychoceramics', according to comedian Benny Hill, is the study of crackpots, and my long association with the Democratic Party has provided a rich source of material for my study of this fascinating science.

It does no credit to the Guardian to give an additional half page of free publicity for Mark Atken of the Fluoridation Action Network.

Organic food, 1080, G.E., 'natural' medication ‐ and anti fluoridation ‐ are some of the demonic issues that can turn normally sensible people {including me) into crackpots.

Almost every issue of the The Guardian Political Review gives the antifluoridation movement free publicity, and the latest issue includes a full page of dubious claims about the effects of fluoridation in water supplies.

On page 13 a half‐page article "Ohf my aching back" claims fluoridation causes 'skeletal fluorosis' and back pain. Bullshit.

I have back pain ‐ and I have lived most of my life in Christchurch which does not fluoridate its water, so it is stupid to suggest that fluoride causes my back pain.

Many areas of New Zealand have deficiencies of trace elements such as cobalt, selenium ‐ and fluorine. The reason for adding fluoride to water is because it has been repeatedly proved that fluoride prevents tooth decay.

Christchurch is the only major city which no longer fluoridates its water ‐ the result of pressure from opponents who campaigned against it with grossly exaggerated claims such as "...fluorides are violent poisons to all living tissues... " Wellington fluoridates its water to bring the level to between 0.7 and 1 part per million ‐ the level recommended by the Ministry of Health for good dental health.

The natural fluoride content of Christchurch water is less than 0.1 part per million, and this is a likely reason why Christchurch four‐year‐olds have an average of 95 per cent more decay in their baby teeth than Wellington

In his article Aitken quotes the findings of "... new studies..." which show that arthritis costs the New Zealand health system two billion dollars a year a year, and that, "... much 'arthritis' is actually misdiagnosed skeletal fluorosis caused by over‐exposure to fluoride ‐ the toxin put in many of NZ's water supplies."

Mark Aitken failed to mention who conducted his "new studies" ‐ but it certainly wasn't the Ministry of Health which states on its website,"... the weight of scientific evidence supporting the safety and effectiveness of fluoridation is overwhelming . and no persuasive evidence links optima fluoridation with any adverse health effects. " Mark Atken also declared, "Half of all fluoride swallowed accumulates in the bones."

Not true, according to the Ministry of Health which states, " Our kidneys excrete excessive fluoride from the body, so to protect teeth over our lifetime it is important to have small, regular amounts such as provided by fluoridated water and fluoridated toothpaste.''

If Mark Atken and his followers are so concerned about the toxic effects of fluorides, why are they not campaigning for the abolition of a widely consumed drink that can contain up to five times more fluoride than fluoridated water?

And what is that 'widely consumed drink' that many anti‐fluoridisationists probably consume several times every day ?

It's tea.

Tea, according to the University of Waikato, "... can contain up to 5 p.p.m. of fluoride."

Who are the crackpots?

Response from Mark Atkin, Fluoridation Action Network NZ (FANNZ) FANNZ relies on the latest scientific evidence; not the propaganda published on the Ministry of Health web site. The MoH cannot support any of their claims with reliable science – we know because we have asked for it under the Official Information Act. For the record, the MoH does not conduct any study into possible adverse health effects of fluoridation – never has; never will. This is left to true scientists overseas.

In 2003 the NZ Ministry of Health was forced to admit to me, under the Official Information Act, that a view against fluoridation could be held on the same standard of scientific evidence as the ministry claimed supported its own view in favour of fluoridation. In fact the Ministry continues to rely on those studies the York Review trashed as scientific garbage. In fact the British Medical Journal in 2005 stated that fluoridation promoters continue to selectively quote unreliable research to support their position.

The article did not claim that fluoridation was the sole cause of back pain, only one cause of arthritis‐like symptoms. This is acknowledged by the World Health Organisation ‐ a somewhat higher authority than Mr Fitchett’s false logic.

surface, requiring concentrations of at least 2 ppm; not the 0.8 in fluoridated water.

In terms of dental decay in NZ, Wellington has the highest socio‐economic status of any NZ community. It therefore has less decay than any other community, fluoridated or not. When the suburb of Waimaire was fluoridated it had more tooth decay than the rest of unfluoridated Christchurch, in spite of having a higher socioeconomic level. As at 2008, the MoH data for 12 year olds (the internationally accepted age for reliable comparison) shows (regional figures) Christchurch had 20 – 30% less decay than Dunedin, Hamilton and Invercargill, slightly less than New Plymouth, and 43% more than Auckland.

However the actual difference either way is less than half a filling. The MoH has also stated that the heavy metal contaminants in fluoridating chemicals, notably Arsenic, will cause less than one extra cancer death per year. Who will that eventual death be? Would it be worth saving half a filling if that were even real?

The arthritis information is from “The Crippling Burden” Bossley and Miles, May 2009, published by the international organisation “The Decade of Bone and Joint”. This was publicized in all major NZ newspapers in August 2009.

The Nutrient Reference Values document for NZ and Australia states, as is internationally accepted, that fluoride is not a nutrient or an essential element. There is no daily minimum requirement for fluoride. It is impossible to have a deficiency of fluoride, by scientific/medical definition.

The fact that 50% of fluoride is excreted and the other 50% accumulates in the bones is not seriously questioned at the international scientific level. The MoH quote given by Mr Fitchett does not deny this – it cleverly makes a false and misleading insinuation.

In 2000 the York Review Board published its review of over 3000 population studies on fluoridation. Not one of these gave any reliable evidence to support claims that fluoridation was beneficial to teeth, let alone safe. The York Review did not consider laboratory studies or medical case histories. In 2006 the US National Research Council published its report on its 3‐year, $6m dollar review. It could find no safe level of fluoride in water.

Mr Fitchett does get one thing right – tea imposes a significant fluoride burden on the body. Tibetan studies on “brick tea” consumption report significant levels of fluorosis arising from its consumption. Importantly, people can choose to drink tea – or not. You cannot totally avoid fluoridated water – when it is used without mention in food and drink processing.

In 2004, the Australian Armfield and Spencer study showed there was no benefit from fluoridation past age 12, and was inconclusive below that age. In 2009, Kumar re‐examined the US national Institute of Dental Research data on 39,000 children. It showed no benefit from fluoridation as shown by John Yiammouyanis following its original publication in 1990. Fluoridation promoters falsely claimed it showed an 18% reduction in decay.

It is internationally accepted that fluoride gets into tooth enamel from the

We also have the opportunity to study “psychoceramics” ‐ in observing those who zealously promote fluoridation. Otherwise rational people become raving lunatics when their religious belief in fluoridation is challenged with science ‐ an attitude that should have died with the renaissance.

A comprehensive list of international research demonstrating the harmful health effects of fluoride can be found on FAN USA's website www.fluoridealert.org with selected references on ours at www.fannz.org.nz

DSC policy upolds the rights of the individual and, as such, opposes "compulsory medication", which includes mandatory fluoridation of public water supplies (Health policy C .03.2.1 R1076).

Guardian Political Review - Issue 58, 2010 - Page 17

MEDIA Otago Daily Times 26 January 2010

Global wobbles chance to fix money system In the face of New Zealand's compounding debt, Bob Warren argues for a "creative restructuring" of the world financial system.

C

OMMENTS by Roger Kerr and Chris Trotter in columns last month (ODT, 4.12.09) need addressing. Both give opposing views that have been tried before and failed abysmally. We are still in debt.

Chris Trotter came close to the answer when he said the first thing to be done was the "New Zealand state must regain control over its own financial system".

But he did not say how? The answer is simple; we must return the ownership of the nation's money supply back to the people via the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. For goodness' sake, it's our bank - it's our money.

The basic global problem is that the world's money is created, owned and controlled by commercial financial institutions and lent into the system at interest. The interest is not created, requiring more borrowing, resulting in exponentially increasing, compounding debt.

Compounding debt takes the wealth created by people's work and delivers it into the hands of non-productive bank shareholders and speculators. It widens the gap between the rich and the rest of us.

Compounding debt causes stagnant wage levels, rising prices and failing business. It contributes to family breakdown, community dysfunction and national unease.

Compounding debt causes poverty, inflation and unemployment. It promotes poor nutrition, poor health and inadequate housing.

Compounding debt fosters racism, sexism and other forms of exclusion. It breeds a savage, dog-eat-dog society.

Compounding debt forces cash-strapped governments, local bodies and individuals to treat urgent environmental problems as unaffordable "side issues". It allows a small group of people to own and control the world's wealth, leaving the rest of us to fight for a shrinking number of jobs.

Contrary to recent claims the recession is over, the Bank of International Settlements, which is the central bank for the world's central banks, issued a warning in its quarterly statement released last month that the economic recovery is an illusion and we can expect future crises. No surprises there.

The global financial crisis offers real opportunity for creative restructuring. The case for introducing monetary reform has never been stronger because it is increasingly Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 18

understood, worldwide, that nothing can truly change until the financial system is changed.

There exists an understanding that it is socially and morally unacceptable for any sovereign nation's financial system to be owned and operated by overseas interests.

Public ownership of the institution with the power to create, issue and cancel New Zealand's money supply, in the public interest, to serve the public good, is the only sustainable way to deliver economic democracy and social environmental justice.

• Bob Warren is chairman, southern region, of Democrats for Social Credit.

Otago Daily Times 16 February 2010

The opinion article on the issue of debt by Bob Warren was refreshing (ODT 26.1.10).

Not many understand how money is created.

Most new money is created not by the Reserve Bank but by private banks. The profit motive — when applied to new money creation — encourages excessive lending during boom times, resulting eventually in credit squeezes and the distressing loss of real value in the economy.

The fact that governments around the world have attempted to patch the system by injecting vast amounts of new money is veiled testimony to the need for a managed system. Money is (or should be) like a ticket representing items of real value, as the software for a computer game is designed to depict reality. The application of the profit motive to new money creation by the banking cabal is counterproductive. Prudent management by an independent national monetary authority would avoid systemic collapses and the risk of national bankruptcy.

It is time, surely, to think outside the square.

B.Elliston

fund desirable public works from our own Reserve Bank to get New Zealand out of the Great Depression. So why do they continue to licence foreign-owned commercial banks to produce what is unquestionably "funny money" on paper, which has no real assets to back it, and which sees huge profits going to those banks' overseas owners?

David Tranter Northern Advocate, 2 March 2010

In the USA, more and more workers are losing their jobs. In Europe, governments are being forced to restrict spending, and the same is happening there. Anyone who thinks the current recession is anything but a precursor of much worse is dreaming. The first Labour government had an answer to these problems, but its timid successors have thrown that away.

At home, more and more young people are failing in their efforts to gain employment, which will further boost drug and crime problems. In a sane society, what a great chance this reservoir of unemployed workers would provide to catch up on health, education and infrastructure problems. Labour once believed that, if men and other resources were available to carry out desirable projects, they should not be stopped by an artificial shortage of money. What is their stance now?

How long must we suffer the degradation of Parliamentary discussion into puerile personal attacks between the two old parties and their satellites, with almost identical policies? Not one appears willing to face up to the only way out of the present mess other than what happened last Century, a disastrous war. Reform of our dishonest and decaying money system has become urgent.

John G Rawson

Greymouth Star, 1 December 2009

Northern Outlook, 26 April 2010

It is utterly bizarre that for many decades the major New Zealand parties have got away with labelling Social Credit policy as "funny money" when what passes for the so-called "conventional" financial system has resulted in huge and ever-increasing debt which has New Zealand, as elsewhere, by the throat with an increasing proportion of families having to borrow in order to cover their day-to-day living costs.

It’s good that Jim Anderton has at last found his voice as a monetary reformer – yes, a “Tobin Tax” would offer some relief to farmer-exporters from perennially volatile exchange rates, and deter non-productive currency speculators who largely benefit from this volatility.

It doesn't take much thought to appreciate that when the average debt for every man, woman and child in this country is now a staggering $100,000 and rising, this is a slippery slope from which there is no escape under the present fundamentally flawed system. And still governments refuse to acknowledge the inevitable consequences as vast sums of so-called government money provided by who else but the taxpayers? - is committed to propping up the same banking system which rips us off.

Can Social Credit work here? The first Labour government thought so because that is precisely the financial system they used to

Would that Mr Anderton had his enthusiasm for this sensible measure when he was in a position of influence, for was he not second fiddle in the last government while the world’s financial markets burned? But he is right, given Mr Key’s banking background, there shall be no enthusiasm for a Financial Transactions Tax to replace all other taxes under this government!

However, it is positive that politicians are beginning to entertain hitherto spurned Democrats for Social Credit reform policies (FTT, Universal Basic Income, Reserve Bank ‘Quantitive Easing’ for public capital works) to fix the currently unjust and dysfunctional monetary system in favour of one that works fairly for us all.

Peter Adcock-White

REVIEWS

Malice in Plunderland ‐ The Abuse of the Role of Money in the Marketplace

By Peter Lock Reviewed for The Guardian Political Review by John G Rawson

Malice in Plunderland, published 2009 by Queen of the South Press, PO Box 504, Hindmarsh, South Australia 5007. Copies can be ordered from www.queenofthesouth.net. Price direct from Publisher (incl. GST and post) A$20.00, Overseas $30.00. It can be read and downloaded free from the website.

For those of us who believe that the secret of campaigning is to “sell the need”, to tell people how they are being ripped off by the present financial system, this book is marvellous. It hits from all angles, from reason and history to Papal encyclicals. But, perhaps mainly as a source of information to be put across more gently. Not all of the public would appreciate its hard‐hitting exposure of the antics of financiers and the

dishonest system that has grown up over the last three centuries or so; many might find it a bit “over the top”, perhaps fanatical. For a few, many of the situations described may be totally incredible, but it is excellent for those who already know a little about banking and monetary reform.

It says practically everything that Social Crediters say, and more, but strangely never once mentions or refers to Social Credit or C H Douglas.

The first chapter deals with money and how banks have acquired the ability to issue “make believe” money for the nation and to claim it as their own. The second starts with a little philosophy on how systems work and goes on to explain further how they facilitate the “ripoff” described in the first. Subse‐ quent chapters come back to the same theme from different angles, always most convincingly. There are seven more of these, all of which require attentive reading.

The last summarises previous material and describes the sort of benign and cooperative economy that is the aim of monetary reformers of every shade of opinion.

The book has two weaknesses. While in the second chapter the author admits that

banks have costs and pay out salaries etc., during the rest he firmly embraces the “debt virus” theory. The Douglas analysis explains escalating debt because of the need for extra money to be created to allow all goods etc. to be sold and the economy to function smoothly. Those who don’t accept the existence of a “gap” have to look elsewhere for an explanation, and this theory, though plainly faulty, may seem to be the best available. The second is that, although a list of sources exists at the end of the book, precise references are absent.

These criticisms are minor, relative to the masses of information in the book, obviously resulting from many hours of extensive search through a multitude of publications.

This has resulted in a very valuable addition to the literature dealing with monetary reform.

It portrays clearly, many times over, the desperate need for mankind to “clean up its act” in relation to the lifeblood of our economies.

Like a superbly produced firearm, it should be pointed only in directions where its effect is likely to be useful.

Key to Victory The general election of 2008 Edited by Stephen Levine and Nigel Roberts.

Extract from a review by Oliver Riddell, Sunday Star‐Times 12/3/10.

'Key to Victory' is published by Victoria University Press. Price $50.

It is an old truism that governments lose elections rather than oppositions win them.

That was certainly true of the 2008 general election.

The result of the 2008 election had been predicted accurately for months in advance, and for reasons that were both prescient and cogent, and have been well chewed over since.

It was clear that Labour had no hope.

Voter fatigue would have set in by 2008 even if everything in Helen Clarke’s third term had gone according to plan.

It didn't. Labour had become terminally

unpopular for many reasons — the hubris of long‐term office, the foreshore and seabed debate, the smacking issue, the Electoral Finance Act, and many more. During the campaign National was told over and over again that the election was its to lose.

Perhaps it was concern about seeming overconfident, but National did not risk campaigning on the issues.

The title of this book is very apt Indeed, it might seem that National is still relying on charm rather than addressing the issues.

Voters in New Zealand blame the Government, eventually. They always do.

Bruce Beetham at his best This 2‐disc, 3‐hour DVD, produced by the NZ Social Credit Association, shows Bruce Beetham at his best, lecturing at a Social Credit seminar in Invercargill in June 1992.

The Seminar was entitled 'The New Zealand Banking System and Credit Operation', hosted by the Southland Rural Support Group.

Bruce also talks at length about the famous 'Westpac Papers' saga which detailed Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 19

wrongdoing by Australian banks.

He helped his audience make sense of the unprecedented business and farming foreclosure levels at the time across Australasia.

Available from Ian Andrews, Secretary NZ Social Credit Association (Inc), PO Box 5201, Wellesley Street, Auckland 1141. ianandrews@ihug.co.nz Price $25

OBITUARIES

Ray Palmer ‐

DSC Life Member Ray Palmer passed away last year on Christmas Eve after a brief illness.

A born and bred Cantabrian, Ray lived all his life in Kaiapoi and Rangiora. Tragedy struck early in his life when his parents and one of his two younger brothers were killed in an accident: Ray and his surviving brother were sent to live with relatives but after a couple of years Ray moved out and shifted in with his grandfather, a supporter of social credit.

Ray was a loyal man whose generosity of spirit and practical approach extended from the political to the personal. He was a staunch advocate of social credit from the time he cast his first vote, which, on the

a full and successful life

advice of his grandfather, was for the Party.

Active involvement began some years later and spanned more than thirty years.

As a boy, Ray excelled in woodwork classes at the Christchurch Technical College and this led to an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker, then work as a builder. Later in his life these skills were put to good use for the Party when Ray constructed billboard frames, items for raffle prizes and, more recently, a nifty pop‐up top for the trailer he used for fund raising at markets all around North Canterbury.

Later, he worked as an agent for MLC Insurance. This was a job Ray enjoyed: meeting and helping people. Throughout that time he shared the monetary reform message with anyone who would listen, and many who wouldn’t: Ray was seldom discouraged by dismissive voters, convinced as he was that they would eventually see the logic of his message. His gift was an innate understanding of, and empathy with, the human condition. He could talk to anyone about anything, but more importantly, he listened too. This trait earned him many friends, across the political spectrum.

Ray served on the Kaipoi North School committee and he was on the committee of

Mary Shaw ‐

Mary Shaw, a well‐known Te Awamutu resident, was farewelled at a very well‐ attended funeral service at St. John's Anglican Church on January 13th., 2010.

A number of individuals, including Ron Harsant representing the Waikato Democrats, addressed the congregation with regards to Mary Shaw's contribution to the town and organisations she enjoyed being associated with.

Of interesting note is that at least six Justices of the Peace attended her service ‐ such was the respect she enjoyed in her town.

On behalf of those who had actively worked with Mary for the progress of Social Credit, then the Democrats, in the then Waipa Electorate, I also said a few words.

She was both both Waipa Electoral Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 20

the Rangiora Businessmen’s Association for several years, two as president.

Despite suffering from bouts of the debilitating illness ME over the years, Ray continued his Party involvement in a variety of roles. He initially held the position of electorate chairman in the Rangiora Electorate then the Waimakariri Electorate.

He worked as electorate campaign manager for former leader John Wright, and served on the Party’s Executive as regional president for the Canterbury and West Coast Tasman Regions. A formidable fund raiser, he ran the Rangiora Flea Market for twenty years and also a weekly meat raffle at the Red Lion Tavern in Rangiora.

Ray was willing to dedicate his time and energy to the cause he so passionately supported in any way he could. He led by example, with no task too big or too small, and with wife Veny standing firmly alongside.

Democrats for Social Credit members and supporters will remember a much loved and respected friend and colleague In Veny's words: "he had a full and successful life and, no matter what, he did it his way."

S.d.R. (information from Veny Palmer)

a passion for politics

Branch and Te Awamutu Sub‐‐Branch Secretary. John Kilbride was the very popular candidate and for many years the Electoral President was Leo Kensington. I was the Electoral Branch Treasurer with a latter responsibility for membership as well.

Through the concerted efforts of Mary and her colleagues, the Waipa Branch grew not only in membership but also in the progressive establishment of sub‐branches in Arohena, Kihikihi, Mangakino and Pirongia in addition to the more established ones in Cambridge and Te Awamutu.

In tandem with Cambridge, the Te Awamutu Sub‐Branch established a book exchange which is still trading today. Mary took a leadership role in this new fundraising venture, which financed the Waipa election campaigns, a paid part‐time campaign worker and the acquisition of a caravan which was used with devastating effect in many areas of the spread‐out Electorate.

The popularity of Social Credit and the disillusionment with the National Administra‐ tion of the day were added bonuses.

She wrote all the Branch newsletters and addressed many by hand ‐ a huge job since computers only belonged to scientific boffins at the time.

Mary had a passion for politics and a stong belief in what was right. Her surviving family is thanked for sharing her with us all.

She did all what she did because she cared for others; and will be sorely missed.

Norris Hall.

Footnote from John Kilbride Mary was one of the driving forces behind the Te Awamutu Bookshop which is still in operation today. It would have to be the longest fund raising operation in the Party's history.

During the heady days of the Party during the late seventies through to the mid eighties, Mary's home was always available for sub‐branch meetings. With large numbers attending it was a tight fit but always enjoyable.

Her support for the party was unwavering and her many roles during election campaigns were enormous.

Mary and the team continued to keep the Bookshop going. Their support has contributed to regional levies of the party which is something not to be taken for granted.

In December 2009, Mary celebrated her 90th birthday, and at that time she was still looking after the finances and paying the accounts for the bookshop.

Mary, like many before her, showed a commitment to Social Credit monetary reform which is a great example to anyone fighting for a just cause. Mary was made a Life Member of the Party, an honour of which she was very proud.

In early January after a very short illness, Mary passed away peacefully. Our sympathy to her sons, Bruce and Keith, her daughter Olive and their families.

Binding Referendums A Cornerstone Policy for any Political Party Contributed to The Guardian Political Review by Steve Baron

Steve Baron

I

f a political party truly believes in democracy and representing the will of the people, a cornerstone of its policies would naturally be binding referendums. This would allow citizens more control over controversial and polarizing issues that directly affect their lives.

That is not to say that binding referen‐ dums should replace political parties or representative democracy, only that they should be an adjunct to what we have at present.

democracy in New Zealand, by giving voters more say in how their money is spent, and participation has increased. Voter participa‐ tion for referendums in Wanganui have actually been higher than the local body elections themselves.

Professor John Matsusaka from the University of California has also produced empirical evidence to prove that those US States with the power of referendums, actually reduce government spending by up to 19%. Surely data to wet the appetite of every New Zealander.

of elected representatives in tyrannizing minorities is notorious. One only has to look at the treatment of Maori and Chinese by previous New Zealand governments.

While binding referendums would provide a check and balance on government, it has been suggested there could also be a check and balance on binding referendums, by allowing seventy five percent of Members of Parliament to veto a referendum within sixty days of the result. This option would offer a protection from both factions for powerless minorities.

If binding referendums are not at the core of a party policy, then all that Provisions would also need to be Binding referendums are an idea whose time has come party seeks is absolute power to implemented to provide for the impose its own political ideology. dissemination of a balanced official The referendum process is very simple. On referendum brochure, which would be one day a year New Zealanders would get to Binding referendums are a tool that few required to be supplied to all voters at least vote on issues important to them, so long as parties have ever considered, but a tool that ninety days prior to a referendum. the required number of signatures have been a growing number of citizens and states around the world are embracing.

collected to trigger a referendum.

190 Million people in Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein and twenty three States in the USA now embrace the referendum system.

Even the European Union has incorporated referendums into its constitution.

A referendum may be to veto any new legislation, initiate new legislation or recall a Member of Parliament who in the opinion of voters is no longer wanted.

The Swiss experience has proved how successful binding referendums can be at empowering a nation and deciding national issues of importance. They have used direct democracy for over one hundred and thirty years through the Veto, Recall and Citizens Initiated referendum. All of which are binding on the government.

Under the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993, any citizen can trigger a nationwide referendum, by collecting the signatures of at least ten percent of those registered on the electoral role.

The trouble is, in New Zealand, unlike Switzerland, referendums are not binding on the New Zealand government. They can, and have been ignored by past and present governments. So much for democracy. They therefore need to be made binding.

Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws and his City Council have led the way with direct Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 21

At present the required number of signatures is ten percent of those registered on the Electoral Roll. This is approximately 300,000 signatures, a figure that would seem extremely high given the Swiss only have to collect 50,000 signatures with a population almost twice that of New Zealand.

What is surprising is that even with such a low requirement, the Swiss only average three to four citizens initiated referendums per year. Given that it only takes five percent of the vote at election time to put a party into parliament, one would assume this figure would be more than adequate to trigger any referendum. Although a figure of one hundred thousand signatures would not seem unreasonable.

It is often said that binding referendums are simply a tyranny of the majority over minorities, even though there is little evidence to prove this.

However on the flip side, the track record

It would also be advantageous to create an official referendum panel to oversee the referendum process. This panel would ensure that the question to be put to citizens was not ambiguous or misleading in any way, and that the information provided in the referendum brochure was balanced and appropriate.

It would also be desirable for parliament to debate the referendum question and to include its recommendation in the referendum brochure and voting papers.

Binding referendums are an idea whose time has come.

Steve Baron is an author, Founder of Better Democracy NZ, and a regular contributor to publications throughout New Zealand. He resides in Cambridge. steve@betterdemocracy.co.nz www.betterdemocracy.co.nz

DSC is committed to democracy through the policy of Binding Citizens' Initiated Referenda, and "that where an absolute majority of registered electors support the changes placed before them at a refer‐ endum the result will be binding and the change will become law" (Policy R0914).

Whitmill's World Colin J Whitmill reports from the U.K.

No debate on what we want And what worries me is that we are trusting these unelected officials from regulators and the central banks ‐ like the Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England ‐ to take these decisions on our behalf all over again, without any serious popular debate about what kind of banking system we want. Unless media organisations are prepared to tackle these unsexy complicated issues, how on earth are we going to foment a national debate, how are people going to have a voice on issues that probably affect their prosperity more than whether the tax rate rises or falls by a few percentage points....

Robert Peston, BBC economics journalist, lecture 29‐08‐09

Crisis to be repeated unless..

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn KIng, was reported by the London Times [28‐1‐10] to have said that unless we look at the deep structural issues that have got us to where we are, we simply repeat the crisis again on an even bigger scale.

Limited Purpose Banking required Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, professor of economics at Boston University, has advocated Limited Purpose Banking. In this banks would be turned into mutual funds that would take no risk and lend out only what they had taken in deposits from savers.

The London Times reported that he said that we have a financial system which has cancer and we are treating to with [plasters]. We need to cut out the cancer. We need to restore confidence for the public in the financial system around the world. We need a system which is safe and which people see as safe.

Tax, tax,tax, tax,tax Tolley's Yellow Tax Handbook,detailing UK tax legislation,comprised 4,998 pages in 2 volumes when Labour came to power in 1997. Its 2008 edition now has four volumes with 10,900 pages.

Having the right degree Since 2005, the Sunday Times University Guide has tracked not just graduate unemployment, but also the ability of Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 22

students to win graduate‐level jobs. With the average debt expected to be $31,825 for students as a result, what to study, and where, can be not only be a matter of what seat of learning will accept an applicant, but what can result.

Every year, writes Ed Caesar in the Sunday Times, newspapers roll out the list of "Mickey Mouse" degrees on offer at British universities ‐ stained glass studies, stand up comedy, surfing studies ‐ to much guffawing in the cheap seats.

These courses can even be useful for those who don't finish their degree. In Dundee, at Abertay University [no, I've never heard of it either] there is a degree course in ethical‐ hacking. Arron Finnon didn't complete the course. He had too many offers for his skills that he could not refuse. He now works as a freelance consultant.

As Ed Caesar writes ethical hacking sounds absurd. Actually, it is one of the fastest‐ growing areas in computer security, a field in which IT experts investigate how hackers work, and design countermeasures. Many companies, from multinationals to high‐street shops, employ ethical hackers to look at their system for flaws. Now, there are 50 students on the course and in 2010 there will be 70.

Arron Finnon explained there's a lot of money to be made in this field, and I'm lucky in that I'm passionate about it. I don't speak ubergeek. I can just explain security issues in laymen's terms.

Big Interest Interest on Britain's national debt is expected to cost the British taxpayer $141,000 million a year by 2014. If it had only not signed the Maastricht Treaty, this could have been far, far, far less.

Reconstituted Soviet state moves west Apart from the analogy of the European State with its Politburo, unelected president and the like, moves are afoot, in Britain, to replicate communist control over its citizens. i. We are all suspects ‐ the Stassi has arrived!

Britain's Independent Safeguarding Authority ‐ another costly unelected Labour

quango ‐ has decreed that any adult in contact with children other than their own and, say, taking a neighbour's child to school, or to a sports event with their own children, or helping a child in distress, must have a certificate of approval to do so. They must be vetted by this authority to protect children from the risk of possible paedophile abuse. Any one caught with a child not their own in these circumstances has to prove their innocence. A certificate from this quango will be sufficient proof. The penalty for failure to produce this certificate is $12,000.

To obtain a certificate of approval costs each person $150. Despite a softening of requirements under public pressure, it is estimated that over 9 million people are involved,and this figure rises with the passing of time. Labour is adamant‐ everyone must be controlled ! The vetting procedure is not foolproof as it does not take into account overseas paedophile activity !

Jennie Russell [Sunday Times 13‐12‐09] commented Being checked by the ISA is not a one‐off process. Once you are registered, it will track you for life. It isn't concerned only with your criminal record, but also with any behaviour that might be considered suspicious, either now or in the past. Your employers will be legally required to report any concerns about you, or any worrying incidents, such as a child accusing a teacher or a helper of assault, even if you are subsequently cleared. ii. State approval ‐ and special papers‐ needed to work Philip Johnston in the London Daily Telegraph [27‐10‐09] in an article effectively explained how this state control will work.

He commented, inter alia:‐ ISA [Independent Safeguarding Authority] registration will be needed by doctors, dentists, opticians and others whose clients include children.

Sweet shop owners whose regular customers are children may feel obliged to sign up and display their ISA certificate.

A clean bill of health from the ISA will become as important as a professional qualification for any aspiring employee.

What sort of society is it where adults suspect adults, and children are taught to suspect anyone other than their parents, who are often the people who cause them greatest harm? iii Policewomen accused of criminal activity Various newsmedia reported [27‐9‐09] the intention of Ofsted ‐ a regulator ‐ to prosecute two policewomen. Their crime had been to look after each other's daughters while the other was on duty. The regulator accused the mothers of running an illegal childminding business.

Any person looking after a child not their own for over two hours must be registered (continued on next page)

(Whitmill's World continued)

and open to regulatory control. And of course, in addition to any fees for being a registered child‐minder, they'll have to pay the £150 fee to have a certificate from the Independent Safeguarding Authority. I wonder how long it will be before a host of grannies appear before magistrates to be fined and/or gaoled for this wilful crime.

Since this news report, the Minister in charge of the regulator has suggested that no action be taken to charge the mothers.

Possibly this is because of public anger and the fear of losing Labour even more seats at the next election in 2010.

$165 million in bonuses to executives in what is believed to be the division that help start the world economic collapse. After public anger, some of the bonus recipients returned a total of $50 million.

The banks ‐ how to regain trust Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, told The City in a speech late September 2009 To regain trust, banks need to re‐focus their energies not on those over‐complex products of no real use to humanity, but on their core functions of providing savings and credit and payment products to customers, whether individuals, companies or institutions.

Happiness is contagious Whitmill's World usually contains stories of economic misery or of financial frustration, but seldom any good laughs.

Scientists at Harvard University have found that happiness is contagious ‐ if you are friends with a positive person, then 25% of their cheerfulness rubs off on you. To be happy, spend as much time as you can with positive people and see less of others. The effects of Whitmill's World will soon wear off.

The notions of security, longevity, freedom from need, and enjoyment of life are showing themselves to be illusions‐very tentative, and able to be enjoyed by only a relative few. And the relative few who enjoy such life‐conditions do so at the expense of others ‐ and, in fact, on the basis of the suffering and exploitation of others.

Something new must emerge. [extract from Not‐Two Is Peace by Adi Da ‐ died 27/11/2008]

Paid work ‐ employment ‐ is not the purpose of existence Major C. H. Douglas over 70 years ago explained that it is not the prime object of existence to find employment. If you were to say to an intelligent child that the aim or objective of the average human being was to live in a pleasant house, have sufficient to eat, and to be well clothed, I think that child would say at once that what you ought to do was to build sufficient pleasant houses, grow sufficient food, and weave whatever clothes you require and then stop and enjoy yourself.

But most of us, I am afraid, are not intelligent children. Some of us are even economists. And to be an economist it is impossible, apparently, to imagine a state of affairs in which, if you want something, you proceed to make it. The economist says it cannot be done that way. If you want a loaf of bread, you must obtain employment.

Insurance can be profitable Among the easiest ways for an insurance company to make a lot of money is to sell a policy and then, when a customer makes a claim, not honour it. AIG [American International Group] was widely criticised for avoiding paying out on even straight forward claims. This in part explains how it became so successful, and such attempts not to honour commitments give an idea of how it did business. It also makes AIG's failure to set aside assets for insurance claims when it sold credit default swaps seem more natural [Akhil Sharma New Statesman 14‐09‐09]

AIG is the financial institution which is said to have played a large role in starting the current economic crisis. The US government propped it up with $180 billion of taxpayer backed funds. AIG then paid out

Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 23

enjoying them to some degree. In such a circumstance, people begin to suffer a psychic crisis ‐ a crisis in the psyche of egoity itself. Then political and social leaders start calling upon people to make sacrifices for the sake of the social collective ‐ as if the mere fact of belonging to such a social collective, on the basis of social contract is, in and of itself, a virtue. But the only reason people enter into any such social contract is in order to enjoy greater security, longevity, freedom from need and enjoyment of life. There is no point in asking people to make sacrifices in order to belong to the social collective if the collective is altogether failing to provide any degree of security, longevity, freedom from need, and enjoyment of life, or is providing those factors to a much lesser degree.

How Iceland melted Lord Turner

Banks can buy companies by creating money Many companies, some well known brand names, in Britain have been bought out by private equity groups borrowing money, making great profits by restructuring and asset selling before selling them on for even greater profits. However the bank created recession has caught up with these activities.

Loaded up with bank created debt, the private groups find themselves unable to refinance or pay off the loans. A typical result is as described in The Sunday Times [4‐10‐09] The company's lender, Lloyds Banking Group is mulling a deal after Admiral [Taverns] breached the terms of its loans. Lloyds is considering writing off £500 million debt in return for control of the group, which owns about 3,000 pubs.

And just how did Lloyds find £500 million in the first place? It created it out of nothing or borrowed it from others with balance sheets which enabled them to create money.

Already Lloyds owns 40% of case makers Samsonite, 17% of a shopfitting company, 40% of a nursing home company and who knows how much of others.

Time for something new There are times in human history, such as the present world‐moment, when the factors of security, longevity, freedom from need, and enjoyment of life are becoming increasingly threatened ‐ experienced by fewer than before, and experienced much less by those who are accustomed to

Robert Harris in the Sunday Times [11/10/09] reviewed the book Meltdown Iceland by Roger Boyes which described how the global financial crisis bankrupted an entire country. Robert Harris commented that the prime minister of Iceland at the time the disaster was beginning was David Oddson, a disciple of Milton Friedman and Margaret Thatcher. It was Oddson who privatised Iceland's two state banks and slashed corporation tax by two‐thirds. What had been a safe, dreary and paternalistic country.......was suddenly transformed into a kind of snowy Las Vegas. Icelandic bankers would cheerfully drop $15,000 a table at restaurants in downtown Reykjavik. One businessman flew in Elton John to sing Candle in the Wind at his 50th birthday party. Ordinary Icelanders took out 100% mortgages in dollars, euros and yen, while menial work was increasingly left to the Poles.

The book's author calculated that the Icelandic financial elite consisted of no more than 30 people.

The new banks funded the politicians who had privatised them.

Gradually it became clear that prime minister Oddson had created a monster that was devouring his own country. By the time he left office in 2004, the assets of the three big banks....were as large as the country's gross domestic product; by 2006,they were eight times the size; by 2008, on the eve of the world's financial collapse, 10 times.

It is impossible not to feel sympathy for (continued on next page)

(Whitmill's World continued)

‐ we risk collapse into "falsehood fatigue ".

the average Icelandic family ‐ who no more approved of the excesses of their bankers than most Britons did of the egregious greed of the City ‐ yet who now find themselves saddled with a debt of $1.6 million per household.

We live in a strange world that we have barely begun to adjust to: a frightening and exhilarating time, in which the globalisation of money and markets, and the power of the internet, mean that even a little state such as Iceland can briefly rise into the jetstream of international power.

What will this unstable, unstoppable force do to us next, one wonders ?

[This is the result of placing the creation of money into private hands ‐ CJW]

[Jeff Randall London Daily Telegraph 16/10/09]

(See World News item in this issue: Ed.)

The rich avoid taxes British Exchequer has estimated that it loses up to $100 billion each year through illegal tax evasion and aggressive but legal tax avoidance.

The anti‐democratic European State The anti‐democratic nature of the EU has never been more openly displayed than in these past few years, as the political elites have lied, bullied and threatened their own citizens to force through a treaty that the people appear not to want.

[Editorial London Daily Telegraph 16‐10‐09]

Verbally stated incorrect information Extract from a letter to the Financial Times 16/10/09. Thank goodness the FT still describes "verbally stated incorrect information"..... as lies.

Britons suffering from falsehood fatigue Having been fed so many lies by a discredited Government ‐ weapons of mass destruction, immigration numbers, education standards, the Lisbon Treaty, boom and bust

Financiers influence spiritual world The BBC reported [17/10/09] that the rabbi of Britain's oldest synagogue, Bovis Marks in the City of London, had stood down after allowing a demonstration against the role of the bankers in the financial crisis to start from there.

Senior synagogue officials said the march had upset members with links to the financial services "industry".

Dollar decline likely to lead to DSC policy implemention.

Irwin Stelzer, director of economic policy studies at the American Hudson Institute, writing in the Sunday Times [25/10/09] said:‐ One well‐respected expert tells me that in two to five years the dollar will no longer be considered safe enough to be the currency in which the world does business. Its replace‐ ment: separate deals in local currencies ‐ the Chinese paying for Brazil's oil in renminbi, which the Brazilians use to purchase stuff made in China.

On 10 April 1979, the DSC announced its intention to put part of its trading policy into action.

To overcome the need to borrow internationally acceptable trading currencies, with their interest rate demands, an approach had been made to the New Zealand Reserve Bank which gave its approval for the purchase of Solomon Islands timber to be made with New Zealand dollars for payment into special accounts in New Zealand. The Solomon Islands traders would then buy and pay for New Zealand goods and services from funds held to their credit in the special accounts.

The National Party ‐ in government ‐ banned this proposal.

Biblical basis for the policy of a basic income for all In commenting on the rules laid down in Leviticus 19, 9‐18 an observer wrote that In this set of rules it is clear that the harvest is for the benefit of the whole community: not just for those who own the field, not only for those who are able to work all day. The fruit of the land belongs also to those who are the weakest; the most vulnerable should have their opportunity to gather the crops for themselves. The message is that there is enough for all, if it is shared with the whole community Tobin Tax ‐ endorsed by UK Treasury The General Secretary of the UK Trade Unions Congress is reported to have said that the UK Treasury in a document makes an overwhelming case for a financial transaction tax ‐ one of the best ways of both taming finance and ensuring it makes a fair contribution to society.

The DSC has had a financial transactions tax as policy for over 20 years.

2009 ‐ a good year for industry Despite the recession and near collapse of the financial system, 2009 was a good year for industry, That is if you accept the favoured term for the money manipulators.

The London Financial Times reported [31/12/09] that the global hedge fund industry turned in one of the its best years of performance in close to a decade in 2009.

The average fund is said to have returned 19% to its investors that year.

My dictionary's definition of industry is manufacture of goods. By seizing and using the word industry over the past few years to describe its manipulations, the financial establishment has hoped to hoodwink the gullible into believing that their practices actually provide something of value to society.

The Christian Council for Monetary Justice U.K. Extract from a report supplied by Colin Whitmill.

At the Christian Council for Monetary Justice meeting on 31 October 2009. the President of CCMJ, the former Bishop of Worcester, Peter Selby, said that, having heard reports from those in the hall, the problem was the range of activities of those involved. These were a kaleidoscope of beautiful bits of glass which became a wonderful picture as a whole.

The technique of those in control was overloading, disintegrating others passions, and debt. One major source of preventing radicalisation was debt. Peter Selby recalled the radicalisation of students and protests in 1968. To overcome this in the future, debt for students was introduced.

In speaking of the BBC television programme Question Time, when someone asked about Islam there was an ominous silence. The fear of Islam and the hatred of it, Peter Selby said, needed to be connected to the issue of money.

Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 24

There was a strong suspicion that the below them to find the symptoms. The grip birth and rise of Islam had occurred because of those in power is enhanced as the of the failure of the Christian church to take energies of people are dissipated across the economic gospel seriously. The roots of hundreds of causes.

Islam confronted economic failure and the Peter Selby is the former Bishop of Worcester, now preaching of Christianity.

President of the National Council for Independent Monitoring Boards. He is the author of the re‐ Peter Selby said money was the driver of issued book 'Grace and Mortgage', described as the incarceration industry and he illustrated exposing the delusions and fantasies that underpin this view with examples of people locked up the world’s economic system (Grace and Mortgage not only in prison. published by Darton, Longman and Todd.)

All of us, he said, were very busy confronting the debilitating symptoms of the manifestations of the monetary industry.

Tarek el Diwany commented that the themes which Peter Selby raised were all there in the Muslim world.

The issue to be resolved was how to bypass the establishment and get to the people and influence them.

In response, Peter Selby said that there were issues capturing the imagination, but which did not go In accord. Peter Selby and Tarek el Diwani

A DURABLE ISLAND

NEWS BITES - hunting through the media jungle!

Dene Mackenzie, Business editor Otago Daily Times 5/12/09

WHEN, OH WHEN? When, oh when, is a New Zealand government going to find a Health Minister with the willingness to learn from history ‐ because just a little history shows that until the advent of the bean‐counters, knob‐twiddlers and other assorted passengers on the Great Health Bureaucracy gravy train, hospitals were run on common sense by minimal management, health professionals' views were accorded their proper importance, and management served the needs of the patients and the professionals who treated them.

David Tranter, media letter 8/2/10 (See David Tranter's feature article in this issue).

MINING MILK

collecting the goods and services tax. It would not be directly automatically inflationary. There would be minimal administration or collection costs. The burden would be fairly shared by everyone.

Businesses could not avoid paying it, and it would help put a brake on short term purely speculative money transfers.

The goods and services tax adds directly to prices and imposes a higher proportion of costs on to the poorer sections of society. Why should the poor always subsidise the rich?

Colin Whitmill email 2/3/10

GREEK TRAGEDY Default dangers in Greece, where 20 billion euros of debt falls due in April are making creditors think twice about lending to other cash‐strapped governments.

Greece has two choices – both disastrous for the eurozone. One is to default – with general strikes now in the offing, and the Greek public‐sector unions resurgent, such a scenario is possible. The other option is that Greece accepts a German‐led bail‐out and “muddles through”. But even that would spark an eventual eurozone split.

As for the Chinese agribusiness buy‐up of dairy farms, the description of it by its own mouth‐ pieces paints a perfect example of vertical integration, whereby the Chinese owners control every stage of the process from NZ paddock to the sales of the finished product in China.. So instead of being a "farm for Britain", NZ will be a milk cow for China, Never mind Gerry Brownlee throwing the conservation estate open to foreign miners, the Chinese are already here to mine milk.

Liam Halligan, The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 14/2/10

Murray Horton, CAFCA (see page 3)

(Item supplied by Adrian Bayly)

Could the endgame of this Greek tragedy be a eurozone break‐up? The single currency was built on political dishonesty. The eurozone is ultimately doomed because, in the end, economic logic wins and the will of each country’s electorate bursts through. The single currency will ultimately split and be exposed for what it is – a triumph of European hubris and political vanity over unavoidable economic logic.

FIRST OFF THE WHARF

INTEREST FREE CREDIT

There has been talk on Internet blog sites on the possibility of replacing the Goods and Services tax with a with a tax similar to the "Robin Hood Tax".

The DSC introduced the idea of a domestic transfer tax instead of the GST in 1985. The former Commissioner of the Future, Dick Ryan, once said that the DSC left the wharf 20 years before the others thought of setting sail.

"That this House believes that HM Treasury should alleviate the effects of the recession and prevent the continued escalation of debt by matching the amount of money created through quantitative easing by the Bank of England with interest free cash for financing works in the public interest, thus addressing the enormous imbalance between interest bearing credit and interest free cash in the overall money supply."

In a pamphlet in 1985, the DSC listed some of the advantages that a domestic transfer tax in place of a goods and services tax would have. It would be a fee charged monthly against bank account withdrawals. The percentage charged would be small but would be dependent upon the financial needs of the government. With a DSC influenced administration, the percentage would be lower than would be the case for those operating a financial debt system.

The domestic transfer tax would reduce the need for so many public servants to be employed in Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 25

Better Democracy NZ, 4/2/10

WASTE DISPOSAL What society would buy toxic waste that is banned in Europe and especially from the country of origin, Belgium, and then drip feed it into 60% of another country’s public water supply? If that was done to you in your country would you be outraged? Well, you may have to experience this feeling, because this is happening to the people of NZ. Fluoride Action Network NZ www.fannz.org.nz

DAMAGING The most damaging charge the Maori caucus will face is that, like Saul in the Bible, they stood to one side, holding the National Government’s cloaks, while their people got bloodied by the stones of economic privation Chris Trotter, Otago Daily Times 27/11/09

TOP GEAR As we now know, there are one or two flaws in the concept of global capitalism. For example, if you have a suit and a side parting, you can use money that doesn't exist to create money that does, in your own bank account. And you can keep on doing this until the whole world goes bankrupt.

Jeremy Clarkson, Sunday Star‐Times 13/12/09

COURAGE TO CHANGE The news that Dunedin city debt has spiralled to $360 million is appalling. There are councillors who know that there are alternative methods available to them to fund local‐body projects, other than borrowing from the private banking sector. This source of funding incurs high interest on the borrower, thus creating a burden of debt servicing for years to come for the ratepayers of Dunedin. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has at its disposal (mandated by central government) the tools required to fund essential capital works at minimum interest. So come on, councillors, sharpen up; have the courage to change your thinking and your way of operating.

Bob Warren, Otago Daily Times 16/1/10

Text of Early Day Motion EDM 1138, presented to the UK House of Commons 13/10/10

YEAH, RIGHT! “It is my belief that we will rarely witness by parliament the rejection of a referendum result.

For the most part, we are too sensible and too well educated to vote for measures that would restrict our rights or impair an essential governmental power.”

Doug Graham, National Minister of Justice, 1993

Tremain Otago Daily Times

DRUGGED Mr English said “On behalf of taxpayers, we are borrowing $250 million a week, every week, over the next four years to ensure that we can continue providing public services and maintain welfare entitlements.” BNZ Capitals senior economist Craig Ebert says the $250 million Mr English quoted had blown out to something closer to $450 million a week: “All sorts of expensive drugs have been pumped into the economic system to keep the patient alive. The problems come when the patient leaves hospital and is given the bill”.

The Mauritian government has launched a national referendum at which the people will express their views on how to make the country a "durable Island". The referendum is open to all shades of opinion and citizens ‐‐ women, men, fishermen, small and medium‐sized companies, corporate sector, local authorities and the various ministries. After six months, Mauritius will draft a document defining the national vision for a durable Island ‐ a model of country they want to live in 20 or even 50 years from now. They will be an example not only for themselves, but also for the other Islands of the Indian ocean and even to for the bigger countries in Africa.

Tremain, Otago Daily Times

currency speculators and similar financial wheelers and dealers who gamble with wealth created by others. It's an idea which is growing in popularity among developed countries in the northern hemisphere. Punishing corporate greed has been one driver popularising FTT in the north and there's no reason New Zealand should be left behind. Two weeks ago the managing director of Sanford, Eric Barratt, told the company's AGM the Government should start taxing those who speculate in New Zealand currency* John Minto, www.stuff.co.nz 16/2/10 (Item supplied by Colin Whitmill).

STUMBLING AND FUMBLING

HORSING AROUND

The National‐led government appears to have lost its way. It seems to me that Prime Minister John Key’s intricate and inclusive coalition arrangement, rather than ensuring National’s re‐ election nest year. is shaping up to generate its return to political oblivion. I’m beginning to wonder whether Mr Key and National, in apparently trying to please as many people as possible, are pleasing nobody. The Government seems to be stumbling and fumbling about trying to find answers when it doesn’t seem to know the questions.

If MMP were reformed before the referendum question was posed, it could save us all a whole lot of upheaval and division. Yet we're going to try it the other way around. Which brings us to the cart‐drawn horse: what the commission might be able to fix. The obvious ones are the threshold and electorate rules. The 5% party vote threshold is far too high, disenfranchising thousands of voters and unfairly denying small parties with meaningful support any representation. The rule allowing sub‐5% parties in just because their constituency MP is elected is equally anachronistic.

Garth George, Otago Daily Times 19/3/10

Jane Clifton, NZ Listener 27/2/10

WATERED DOWN

THE WHOLE TRUTH?

The story goes that Churchill offered a woman 5 million pounds to sleep with him. She hedged and said they would have to discuss terms. Then he offered her 5 pounds. "Sir!" she said. "What sort of woman do you think I am?" "Madam," he replied, "we've already established that. Now we're just haggling over the price." The same might be said of President Obama's health care bill, which was sold out to corporate interests early on. The insurance lobby had its way with the bill; after that they were just haggling over the price. The "public option" was so watered down in Congressional deal‐making that it finally disappeared altogether.

When I read on a toothpaste tube that the “Liquid Calcium” is “clinically proven to strengthen and repair weak spots in the enamel” I was more than a little skeptical because liquid calcium would be a molten metal with a temperature of at least 842degC (red hot) and I doubt if this would do any weak spots in your tooth enamel, let alone the rest of your teeth and gums, much good at all.

This is one of those sadly all too frequent examples of not telling the whole chemical truth.

Ellen Hodgson Brown JD, 23/1/10

IT'S TIME It’s time to drop our goods and services tax and adopt a financial transactions tax. It's an idea whose time has come. We all know GST disproportionately hurts those on low and middle incomes who work hard, live week to week and spend most of their income. An FTT, on the other hand, would impact most heavily on the likes of

Allan Blackman, Chemistry Matters, Otago Daily Times 30/1/10

THE BIG LIE If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, said Joseph Goebbels, people will eventually come to believe it. The bailout of Wall Street initiated in September 2008 was premised on the dire prediction that if major counterparties in the massive edifice of derivative contracts were allowed to fall, the whole interlocking house of cards would collapse and take the economy with it. A hijacked Congress dutifully protected the derivatives game with taxpayer money while the

MANIPULATED Kiwisaver Manager Huljich Wealth Management has admitted manipulating its early fund performance after losing money on investments.

Huljich has also revealed an investment of $13.3 million in the New Image Group, equivalent to 13% of its Kiwisaver funds. New Image makes and markets a fuel additive product called the Power Pill. Its main ingredient is ferrocene, well‐known to the fuel industry, that causes long‐term engine damage and melts the catalyst in catalytic converters. Huljich set up Huljich Wealth Management in 2007 with mentor John Banks and former National Party leader Don Brash on the board.

Sunday Star‐Times 21/2/10 Photo: John Banks and Don Brash celebrate their involvement with Huljich in 2007

Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 26

real economy proceeded to collapse, the financial sector choosing to put their money into this protected form of speculative betting rather than into the more mundane and risky business of making loans to struggling businesses and homeowners.

Ellen Brown, www.webofdebt.com/articles, 5/2/10 Ellen Brown is author of the Web of Debt’

ERRONEOUSLY SQUEEZED At the 2008 election, only parties represented in Parliament were allocated time to broadcast their closing address. This decision has just been reversed by the Court of Appeal, ruling that “The commission’s response to this predicament which was to effectively ‘squeeze’ the small parties by excluding them was erroneous”.

Source: NZPA 11/2/10 Sunday Star-Times 14/2/10

People in the news This week: Richard Curtis What does he do?

He's a New Zealand-born British scripwriter whose film credits include Four Weddings and a Funeral.

What's he been up to?

Curtis is spearheading a campaign demanding the introduction of a "Robin Hood tax" - a rebranding of the Tobin Tax (after the American economist who first suggested the idea) - on financial institutions, reports the Guardian.

Harnessing YouTube, Facebook and celebrity endorsements, Curtis has taken what was once regarded as a naive pipedream to tax a slice of every financial trade and given it a makeover.

Alongside Curtis, a coalition of domestic and overseas charities, unions and church groups argue that a 0.05% levy on each bank trade could generate $US700 billion ($1 trillion) worldwide.

Curtis has also roped in his long-time collaborator Bill Nighy to star in a short film, playing a senior banking executive who grows increasingly uncomfortable when quizzed about whether such a tax could work and how much it would raise.

The film, directed by Curtis, will be premiered on YouTube.

He said the goal was to create "an instinctive link between fixing banks and the huge challenges facing people on this planet".

The tax has long been demanded by campaigners but brushed aside by politicians and bankers as an impossible dream. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last year became the first global leader to publicly call for its introduction.

(See feature in this issue)

SINISTER NEW ENTITIES At the Act Party conference, former National Party leader Don Brash declared voters were venal and ignorant. This is an elegant way of saying we’re greedy and stupid.

Which brings us to the Rodney Hide Act‐ supervised creation of the Auckland super‐city, with its sinister new entities, CCOs. The headline news on Council Controlled Organisations is that they take greedy, stupid voters right out of the pictture. These entities will be run by unelected directors, who effectively control three‐quarters of the city’s services.

Jane Clifton, NZ Listener 20/3/10

NUCLEAR POWER "In my own country, where we've had a generation of nuclear power stations, I'm in favour of a replacement generation. But I wouldn't be happy about a huge worldwide expansion of nuclear power unless one could be sure that the proliferation risk was controlled. Unless one can be sure that the fuel is brought in safely and the waste is taken away safely. Because, bear in mind, there would need to be 10,000 or more nuclear power stations to make a substantial contribution to the world's energy needs."

Martin Lord Rees, Britain’s Astronomer Royal, NZ Listener 20/3/10

THE FLUORIDE DECEPTION Fluoridation of public water supplies is one of the most controversial health issues since the 1930s when United states scientists questioning its wisdom had their career paths blocked.

Amongst the many concerns arising is the manip‐ ulation of statistics which ignore the documented evidence showing it has little or no benefit to teeth. Neither is it generally acknowledged that fluoride accumulates in the body with serious implications for those consuming too much of it.

Then there is the question concerning compulsory medication of entire populations which denies the individual's right to take medication only if they have given their informed consent. An awareness of the massive evidence against fluoridation such as that given in

Christopher Bryson's book The Fluoride Deception should be compulsory for politicians who promote fluoridation of public water supplies which is now illegal in many countries.

was Chris Auchinvole who ”pointed out that his name is pronounced ock‐in‐vole – but hasn’t pointed out much else”. Progressive MP Jim Anderton was noted as heading for retirement.

David Tranter, Health Spokesman, N.Z. Democrats for Social Credit. The Australian Review 28/3/10

NZPA 8/12/09

MOMENTOUS DECISION In a momentous decision, the Kapiti Coast District Council has resolved to include the option of "ceasing to add fluoride" as an item in this year's Draft Annual Plan. Councillor Peter Daniel conveyed his concerns and the reasons he believes fluoridation should be stopped. The Mayor says they will cease adding fluoride to the water if it's clear that the community does not want it.

www.fannz.org.nz 2/4/10

WORRIED? If the number of zeros on your latest Visa bill has got you worried, you are not alone. Kiwis owe more than $5 billion on their credit cards.

Sunday Star‐Times 3/1/10

INFLUENTIAL Between 1998 and 2008, the US finance industry spent an estimated $1.7 billion in political contributions and $3.4 billion on lobbyists. In 2007, there were five lobbyists for every member of Congress.

The Observer (UK), 12/10/09

A 10‐metre high projection on the Bank of England kick‐started the campaign. But it really began in earnest when Richard Curtis and Bill Nighy appeared on breakfast TV to show support and promote the video. We now have 130,000 Facebook fans and 64,000 people have voted in favour of the tax on our website. 32,000 have signed up for e‐mail updates and we have almost 3,000 followers on Twitter. Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stigiitz and 350 other economists publicly supported our campaign, which has already been launched in Germany.

France, Japan, Australia ‐ and the US. Thousands of people emailed their MPs. Graham Allan MP secured a successful debate on the Robin Hood Tax in Parliament, and the European Parliament voted in favour of a resolution to implement a Robin Hood Tax. 3,400 wrote to the Chancellor and 145 MPs have signed the Robin Hood Tax early day motion in Parliament..

News Update from www.oxfam.org.uk View promotional video on www.robinhoodtax.org.uk

SAND IN THE WHEELS Lord Turner, chairman of the UK’s Financial Service Authority, talks about controls on capital flows, and a transaction tax to throw “sand in the wheels” of the hyperactive financial markets.

Guardian News & Media UK, 28/2/10

HEADING FOR RETIREMENT? Political newsletter trans Tasman has marked MPs according to their parliamentary performance.

Among the lowest‐ranked National backbenchers

SAVAGE REMEMBERED March 23 was the 70th anniversary of the death of Labour's first leader, Michael Joseph Savage.

Under his leadership, Labour not only gave us enlightened social reforms but also adopted a monetary policy that directed a newly nationalised Reserve Bank to issue loans for state housing and infrastructure, such loans incurring interest rates as low as 1%.

Were Mr Savage alive today, he would be horrified to find our central bank forbidden by both Labour and National to fund public works in this way. Yet both parties condoned the Reserve Bank provision of very cheap credit lines (euphemistically called quantitative easing) to the overseas‐owned systemic banks, to see them through those liquidity crises of the past two years. This, even though these same banks still owed the Inland Revenue Department nearly half a billion dollars.

Such a shame that today's MPs and local bodies fail to demand similar treatment for the benefit of the taxpayers and ratepayers of New Zealand. Are they afraid to look like social crediters? Do they not know that Social Credit simply ran with the baton dropped by Labour?

Heather Marion Smith, local government spokesman, Democrats for Social Credit, Southland Times 23/3/10.

Democrats for social credit I/We wish to join or renew my/our membership of the Democrats for social credit, which is an independent political party committed to the economic transformation of New Zealand.

You can join online at www.democrats.org.nz or return this coupon with payment to: DEMOCRATS FOR SOCIAL CREDIT, P.O. BOX 5164, WAIKIWI, INVERCARGILL 9843 I/We enclose $10.00 (per person) to cover annual membership Cheques payable to Democrats for social credit

N.B. Membership includes all issues of The Guardian Political Review (Non members may obtain the Guardian for $8.00 p.a., including p & p. Send to Guardian Publishing, 26 Warren Street, Oamaru 9400)

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Guardian Political Review, Issue 58, 2010 - Page 27

Democrats for social credit

beyond greed Democrats stand for social and economic justice. At the heart of our vision for New Zealand is a fundamental reform of the monetary system. We propose establishing a more democratic control of money supply, whereby the Government‐owned Reserve Bank would create a greater share of the money needed, without the burden of private interest charges.

We offer policies to strengthen communities, reward enterprise and safeguard the environment. They are policies for today ‐ relevant, forward‐looking, and unique.

We stand for:   A social credit economy   Community credit: grants & interest‐free loans for public works and

community projects   A first class public health system: without DHB debt & top‐down

administration    Income security in retirement   A fairer tax system: no GST   A fully publicly‐funded education: scrap the student loan scheme   Public ownership of New Zealand's strategic assets   Affordable home ownership: with low interest state loans for first‐home

buyers.   Investment in sustainable energy generation.   A secure, prosperous, independent New Zealand

www.democrats.org.nz