HEARTWARMING STORY OF THE WEEK

Our old mate Eric Roy tells a story about losing his wallet twice and both times its been returned -

Only in Southland

TIME FOR THE DON?

Trevor Mallard has made some predictions over at Red Rag  that the stodgy Aaron Gilmore might be prepping up for a tilt at the  selection for Invercargill  on the basis that Eric Roy may resign. Well if Eric decides that it is time to  hang up his kilt
( and we are not sure he is ready to hand over his dirk) then we expect a good candidate to step into the breach. But it wont be Aaron Gilmore.

We reckon that if the Nats want a logical successor to Eric there is only one candidate.

Thats the Don.  Don Nicholson. He's the man for the job.

GOOD DAY

The sun is shining, my son is flying, ma and pa are playing golf, the Aussie Rock is , well a rock, and 1000 people turn up to hear John Key speak in Southland.

and then we find out that Rodney Hide could be in cabinet

Thats a good thing - Economic - dry - social - wet.

Perfect.

Eric grumpy with NZ First

Bloody good on Eric - you wouldnt want to cross this big bugger when he gets shitty and he will be mightily grumpy about NZ first spreading falsehoods.

CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOK: Lies Not Welcome

A campaign of “fear driven by lies” was not welcome in the Invercargill election race, Invercargill MP Eric Roy said today.
“For the last three weeks I’ve had superannuitants ringing me and my office saying that Labour is going around Invercargill spreading the lie that National will raise the age of eligibility for government superannuation to 68,” he said.
“John Key has announced National policy on this matter and made it clear that we will give seniors financial certainty by keeping the age of eligibility of NZ Super at 65. We have pledged to keep NZ Super at 66% of the average after-tax wage.
“Labour hasn’t made that pledge. Labour hasn’t put aside the funds for that pledge. Labour is hoping our seniors won’t notice. Well, I won’t play games with our senior citizens. They have given their working lives to this country. National won’t tell lies, and we will make sure their Super payments rise every single year.”
Mr. Roy said he had heard other lies.
“One of my staff was in the supermarket the other day and the checkout operator said she would have to vote Labour because she’d been told by Labour that National was going to cut Working for Families,” he said.
“That is an out-and-out lie. National will give families financial certainty by continuing all Working for Families payments at current levels. We are keeping 20 hours Early Childhood Education, and retaining caps on doctors’ fees.”
Mr. Roy said all of Labour’s campaigning had been based on personal attacks or lies.
“The sad thing is that, like the old adage, a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its trousers on. Well, I’m not going to stand by while lies and twisting of the truth are used to undermine my campaign.”
He said Labour’s constant barracking that National was not telling the truth was rubbish.
“Our election pledges have been costed and outlined in full. People know what we are offering and there are no secrets.”

Erics blog is here

ERIC ROY - RETURN TO SENDER

Lovely we yarn from Eric Roy who has managed some good publicity in the south this election.

He takes on Nz Post and loses - and wins.

BIG BOY ERIC NO PEDDLER

The Southland Times reports Southland MP Eric Roy wont take up the challenge of green candidate to sue a bike on the election trail ..

Because he is too big.

Eric walks everywhere, and the buggers big enough to cover a single Ivercargill city block in one stride..

Go eric.

ERIC ROY GOES GREEN - ??????

This from the Southland Times ....

Eric is planting trees to offset his electoral carbon emissions. I think Eric is a lovely big huggie bear and an tireless local Mp but seriously this is a crock.

Invercargill MP Eric Roy kicked off a carbon-neutral campaign for re-election yesterday by planting trees in Queens Park.

Mr Roy planted 20 native podocarps near the animal enclosures on the Queens Dr side of the park yesterday afternoon.

The 20 trees would be more than enough to offset the carbon emissions produced while travelling around the electorate, he said.

Mr Roy drives a 3-litre diesel Hilux. He estimated he would travel 1500km during the next 40 days.

"There's a bit of driving ... we've made the best attempts to work out what we need to do and work out how to meet that requirement." The calculations were based on the estimate the emissions of an average household per year could be offset by planting four trees, he said.

The campaign would produce an estimated 430kg of carbon dioxide, while each tree would offset 250kg during its growing life, he said.

"I'm significantly under the estimation." Campaign materials would also be printed on recycled paper, which would cost 30 percent more than normal paper, he said.

The campaign had not been registered with carboNZero, a branch of Crown Research Institute Landcare Research, he said.

CarbonNZero technical manager Ann Smith declined to comment on Mr Roy's campaign as it was political.

Invercargill's Green Party candidate Craig Carson applauded Mr Roy's attempt to go carbon neutral.

"I think it's great that he's doing it. How well it works or not I'm not sure." Mr Carson said that because he worked fulltime and had limited resources, he was not able to follow suit.