Explore the archive
Find articles and conversations by date, subject or search expression.
Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 91–120 of 238
Post
Key's tarnished brand - While the economy burns, Key is fiddling with spiders. He is the good times PM, all about getting himself in front of a camera and having a grin - as if he's on a 3 year project in collecting pictures for…
Post
Different voice, same message: instead of Stephen Joyce or John Key, we had Bill English on Friday saying that they don't have any money for Public Transport. Just money for roads. They've been forced to commit to $1.5billion of ongoing Auckland rail projects (mainly because they…
Post
For some reason that I can't quite puzzle out, the Nats hate public education. Even an elitist fool should be able to see that a well-educated workforce is valuable and public education is the cheapest way to achieve it. Yet National is attacking education at…
Post
Does anyone have a spare Earth? Or two -- or three? If so, could you please speak up, because humanity is going to need two Earth's worth of resources by 2030. This is the headline news from the WWF in their 2010 Living Planet Report.…
Post
Unemployment is up, wages are down. But the Nats won't pass up their chance to put the boot into workers to keep costs down for their rich mates. They're trying to take away workers' rights, remove protections, cut pay, reduce holidays and diminish access to…
Post
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
Post
Phil Goff made an excellent speech yesterday. One that showed far more direction, and a lot of promise for going forward. Hopefully Labour can capitalise on this much better than they did on the excellent "The Many, Not The Few" speech. They should be able…
Economy labour Media monetary policy overseas investment phil goff Social issues
Post
In the wake of an agenda-setting Labour party conference, which has been well received by delegates, Labour activists, and the broader media alike, there is one lone voice out of step. That voice is John Key, using his favourite softball Breakfast TV session to peddle…
Post
Yesterday, former National media trainer Paul Holmes and former National Party President Michelle Boag attempted an extraordinary hatchet job on Phil Goff on Q+A. No analysis of the real policy divide that Goff and Labour with National carved out at the national conference, just attack…
Post
Labour's conference in the weekend seems to have gone well, and been well received by the media. Phil Goff drew a line in the sand on foreign ownership of land, and picked himself up a new nick-name in the process: The 'Goff-father' says 'no' to…
Post
It's great to hear Phil Goff announce that a Labour government won't let overseas interests to own more than 25% of monopolistic companies, like ports and airports, and farmland. In the new world economy we're moving into, a global scramble for vital natural resources like…
Post
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
Post
In his last column Garth George laments how foods he regularly enjoyed in his childhood (1870s?) are now priced beyond the reach of most New Zealanders. It's easy to dismiss the complaints of an old man about prices these days but there's a deeper story:…
Post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mYY1QGK0jQ Here's John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett in the classic "An Understanding of Class", a lovely commentary on one of the pillars of capitalism. Since the abandonment of class rhetoric by Labour a few decades ago, we no longer have a lot of…
Post
The Labour conference this weekend is expected to release new "policy directions". One of them is out already -- and it's good. What could make more sense than putting children first: Labour focuses on children Labour deputy leader Annette King says the party will put…
Post
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
Post
Minster of Justice Simon Power is 'consulting' on regulating the on-line communities to prevent violations of normal societal and legal standards. Clare Curran at Red Alert asks 'hopefully' that this isn't simply a reaction to the idiocy of ex-National party member Whaleoil in how he chases…
Post
An article in The Economist looks at the failing basis of polling techniques in the USA. It isn't that much different to the circumstances here. THEY are used to determine spending on political campaigns, to guide tactical voting and to enthuse or cow voters. News…
community democracy democratic participation election 2011 labour polls telecommunications vote smart
Post
John Armstrong is at his insightful best today. He's hit on the emerging change in the political discourse - the economy is going to crap and that's what really matters, not the meltdowns of minor MPs and racist TV monkeys. And this do nothing government…
Post
Labour have pushed the republic debate firmly into the spotlight. There is coverage here: Republic good for NZ - Goff Becoming a republic would be the "making of New Zealand as a country" and we need to start talking about it now, according to Labour…
Post
Amidst growing realisation that the right wing "neo-liberal" economic agenda as a whole is fatally flawed, some of the previously ardent supporters of privatisation in NZ are admitting that the last round of sell-offs was a mistake. But the current National leadership haven't got the…
Post
As the dust settles on the local body elections, what are the lessons for Labour? Especially, of course, "the big one" in Auckland. Len Brown, a "Labour Mayor from South Auckland", beat Key's anointed candidate for the right. What lessons can Labour take away? How…
election 2011 labour len brown local body elections phil goff
Post
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
Post
This might just be Danyl's best satire piece ever: National to stand Spider God in Epsom The National Party has announced that it will stand a candidate in Epsom during the 2011 election and Prime Minister John Key has thrown his support behind the nominee.…
Post
I've had this sitting draft for months :) Last year, Icelandic comedian Jon Gnarr set up the Best Party to parody the parties that brought Iceland to ruin. The party contested the Reykjavik local elections with Gnarr promising a drug-free Parliament by 2020, a polar…
Post
Russel Norman asked Bill English about the economic impacts of coming oil shocks and how transport infrastructure planning takes them into account. I'm not sure which was more surprising: English's matter-of-fact acknowledgment that peak oil is coming, or his attitude that it's not something the…
Post
Hillary Calvert introduced an amendment this week to change the Foreshore and Seabed Act - sorry, Marine and Coastal Act. In keeping with Act's philosophy of One Rule For All (and in the darkness bind them...) it denies Maori the right to charge for access to…
Post
So John Key was unusually forthcoming to a question this morning - he was very keen to give poor unemployed Kerry Prendergast a job. Key knows how hard his government has made it to get a job, so he's eager to help her out. 2300…
Post
I/S writes: Last week, the government put two IHC companies into statutory management after they indicated that they would not be able to pay staff wages owed as a result of a court case. Today in Parliament, health minister Tony Ryall was asked repeatedly whether…
Post
Open mike is your post. It's open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your fancy. The usual good behaviour rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...