The Mike Hosking Breakfast Newstalk ZB

Things are heating up as the UK moves closer to its general election. 

The election is generally a two-horse race between the two major parties, the Conservatives and Labour, but UK Correspondent Rod Liddle says nobody really seems to want either horse. 

He said that there’s no great enthusiasm for Labour, with a poll saying that only 15% of the public are firmly in their camp, and there’s certainly no appetite for the Tories anymore. 

Current PM Rishi Sunak has announced the reintroduction of mandatory military service should the Conservatives make it back into power. 

He said that he believes twelve months of service would help foster the “national spirit” that emerged during the pandemic. 

Liddle said that it seems to be a bizarre, out of the blue policy which a good many members of his own party have cheerfully derided. 

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Ricardo Menendez March and teachers. 

Let me join a couple of dots. And the glue for the dots are standards, or lack of them. 

If you don’t have standards you end up with teachers who can't pass NCEA Level 1, and you end up with people like March using the F-word in Parliament. 

The F-word is not the end of the world, but it is indicative of the modern day outworkings of an institution that, despite whatever your political leanings, had an element of decorum and civility. 

Now it's full of thieves, swear words and cowboy hats. 

No standards. 

When you suggest or infer anyone can teach, what you end up with is what we have got - a system everyone knows and accepts is broken and yet has done nothing about. 

Our son was shown around some houses in London last week. The person who showed him was the same age, a young rental agent. They wore a suit and tie and were dressed for the job because in Britain you dress for the job. Because there is expectation. There are standards. 

The agents we have dealt with here could be agents, or surfers, or just out of bed. Not all of them, but too many. 

No standards. 

Look at poor old David MacLeod last week. It was hardly the crime of the century and if the paperwork had been with the Greens he would have been given the week off on full pay and nothing would have happened. In National he got sacked. 

Luxon is driven by standards. You set them high and keep them high. It leads to better performance, hard work, and it singles out the aspirants from the can't-be-bothered's. 

What holds teaching back, what allows the Genter's, March's and others to behave the way they do, what stops crime dropping, what stops climate protesting kids staying in the classroom, is a lack of standards. 

Dropping standards emboldens bad behaviour. It lets intent fall by the wayside and success become a scarce commodity. We hide by being average, ordinary and lazy amongst the crowd because the easy way out will always attract a crowd. 

That’s the value of leadership and what happens if you don’t have enough of it. When you're surrounded by it, it's normal. 

Otherwise you end up like we have. 

So much of this country these days is what a lack of standards looks like.    
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Keep New Zealand Beautiful claims it's been treated unfairly by the Ministry for the Environment. 

CEO Heather Saunderson alleges bullying by the Ministry, and the entire team has resigned. 

She claims ministers —past and present— have refused to meet them, there's been a lack of consultation, and funding has been withheld. 

Saunderson told Mike Hosking that other organisations that are legislatively mandated outside of central government receive funding, the SPCA for example gets $6.5 million a year. 

She said that the central government has basically said that by law, they have to do this, but they’re not going to get any funding to do so. 

In response, Christopher Luxon told Mike Hosking that the country has changed a lot since the anti-litter charity was set up. 

He says it's a well-known brand, but Kiwis take a lot of pride now in keeping the environment clean. 

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New Caledonia's State of Emergency has lifted after two weeks of unrest.  

Fewer than 20 New Zealanders are still there and wanting to come home, with one more flight today.  

French President Emmanuel Macron has travelled to the French island territory and says lifting it allows political dialogue.  

France correspondent Catherine Field told Mike Hosking that all he seems to have achieved is agreeing to lift the state of emergency.  

She says it's being seen as a sign that all parties that Macron spoke to there want to de-escalate the situation. 

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On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Tuesday 28th of May, cancer services in the lower North Island are at critical levels, and trains in the Wairarapa are on schedule only 25% of the time. But hey, at least that's up from February’s 5%! 

The Prime Minister talks the Budget, whether he is sick of dealing with the increasingly revealing problems in this country, and whether the David Seymour and Todd Stephenson situation passes the sniff test. 

What's happening with the motor industry and electric vehicles? Kiwi Kay Hart is the President of International Markets for Ford and has some insight. 

Get the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast every weekday morning on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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The future of cars is becoming increasingly complex. 

EVs, BEVs, and PHEVs have been pushed as the vehicles of the future, and yet there’s been an increasing number of major producers backtracking on the promise to go electric. 

The idea that the internal combustion engine will no longer be produced by 2030 seems to be out of reach. 

Kay Hart, the President of International Markets Group at Ford, has been in the automotive industry for nearly 25 years, and has seen quite a significant amount of change in that time. 

“I think the change has been phenomenal on so many fronts,” she told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking. 

“The changes that we’ve seen in technology available in our vehicles, the connectivity of our vehicles, the features that are available to our customers, power train that we have, and also the way customers interact with, purchase, and service vehicles, I think has changed hugely over that 25 years.” 

There are distinct differences in the regulations each market has, and so automotive producers need to be very clear on what the rules and regulations are, and how they bring the right products to their customers in those regions. 

For example, the EU has restrictions around emissions and the use of internal combustion engines, but Hart says their timelines can leave something to be desired. 

“To be clear, we are for, are very much in favour of cleaner vehicles, lowering carbon emissions,” she told Hosking. 

“The overall, the intent of governments have been positive in terms of what their intent is. I think, to your point, maybe some of the timelines don’t necessarily ensure that we had the most viable alternatives for our customers in the market at the right time.” 

That flux, Hart thinks is what the industry is struggling to adjust to when it comes to EVs. 

“In the market like New Zealand, to have the most aggressive curve in the world, probably unfairly punished vehicles that didn’t really have a viable alternative.” 

“And that's, that’s probably where we’re at now.” 

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