Boris J knows Exactly how New Zealand came to this #KeyGovernment

“The whole EU system of regulation is so remote and opaque that the super-rich are able to use it to their advantage, to maintain their oligarchic position.”

### telegraph.co.uk 15 May 2016 • 9:20pm
Of course our City fat cats love the EU – it’s why they earn so much
By Boris Johnson
At last year’s Tory Party conference I drew attention to a worrying statistic about the way our society is changing. It is the number of times the salary of the average FTSE100 top executive exceeds that of the average – the average – employee in that company. This multiple appears to be taking off, at an extraordinary, inexplicable and frankly nostril-wrinkling rate.
Plato said no one should earn more than five times anyone else. Well, Plato would have been amazed by the growth in corporate inequality today. In 1980 the multiple was 25. By 1998 it had risen to 47. After 10 years of Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson – and their “intensely relaxed” attitude to getting “filthy rich” – the top executives of big UK firms were earning 120 times the average pay of the shop floor. Last year it was 130 times.
This year – cue a fusillade of champagne corks – the fat cats have broken through the magic 150 barrier. The average FTSE100 CEO is taking home 150 times as much as his or her average employee – and in some cases far more. Let us make no bones about it: these people have so much more money than other people in the same company that they are flying in private jets and building subterranean swimming pools, while many of their employees cannot afford to buy any kind of home at all.
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Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (b. 19 Jun 1964) is an English politician, popular historian, and journalist who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Uxbridge and South Ruislip since 2015. Johnson previously served as the MP for Henley from 2001 until 2008, and as Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. A member of the Conservative Party, Johnson considers himself a One Nation Conservative and has been described as a libertarian due to his association with both economically liberal and socially liberal policies. Born in New York City to upper-class English parents, Johnson was educated at the European School of Brussels, Ashdown House School, and Eton College. He studied Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected President of the Oxford Union in 1986. Beginning his career in journalism at The Times, he later became The Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent, with his articles exerting a strong influence on growing Eurosceptic sentiment among the British right-wing.

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#JohnKeyPm kicked out of house ths week but he's feeling righteous My #cartoon @sundaystartimes #nzpol #panamapapers pic.twitter.com/E7DyjooyXj

— Sharon Murdoch (@domesticanimal) May 14, 2016

H is for House.
An old #cartoon for a worsening problem. @PressNewsroom #housing #poverty #childwelfare pic.twitter.com/wt1h7vPFqc

— Sharon Murdoch (@domesticanimal) May 15, 2016

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### Stuff.co.nz Last updated 11:22, May 16 2016
Labour leader Andrew Little: PM ‘out of touch’ with families in hardship
By Rosanna Price
Prime Minister John Key has advised families living in garages or in cars to go and see Work and Income. But Labour leader Andrew Little has called that advice “impractical”, saying Key is “out of touch” with these New Zealanders in hardship. Key’s comments come after social housing groups and community workers have called on the government to increase their supply of affordable housing. There have been reports families in Auckland have been forced to rent garages and shipping containers, with the Salvation Army estimating one in ten Auckland garages is used as a home. Social agencies say the number of families living out of their cars has increased.
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: theguardian.com – Boris Johnson