Written By: - Date published: 1:56 pm, July 27th, 2014 - 9 comments
Mary Poppins quitting because she isn’t being paid enough to survive on in the magical nanny trade. I guess the peasants just aren’t prepared to starve as blindly as they did in the service of their ‘betters’ as they did in Edwardian era.
It is also quite funny…
Written By: - Date published: 2:04 pm, July 20th, 2014 - 65 comments
The Conservatives have made a complete cockup of their “bottom line” for making a deal with National about going into government. They want to make referendums legally binding on the government. It is something that no rational government in NZ would agree with because it is impossible from several different criteria. Andrew Geddis points out that it is pretty well impossible without changing the legal basis of our government. I just think that the questions for our referendums have been complete crap.
Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, July 20th, 2014 - 40 comments
It is a shorter day today. More organisational.
Leading up to Winston Peters speech later today where he is promising about 9 policy announcements.
Campaign slogan “It’s common sense”
Updated: 14:46
Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, July 20th, 2014 - 59 comments
With Labour, there has been a particular topic on my mind for some time. How to get renewal inside the caucus. Over the last 6 years at The Standard we have had this horrible task of dealing with stupid “leaks” from unnamed sources in the party. As far as I can tell these unnamed leaks are invariably from safe electorate caucus members. I think it is time that party members start to make them feel less safe.
Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, July 19th, 2014 - 70 comments
At the Alexandra Park racecourse for the NZ First conference.Just listened to Paddy Gower in his interview with Winston Peters. The interesting bit was the questioning about Winston standing in East Coast Bays if Steven Joyce/John Key make a deal with the conservatives and Murray McCully stands aside. That will be interesting, and I suspect under those circumstances that he’d get a lot of votes.
Written By: - Date published: 4:48 pm, July 15th, 2014 - 50 comments
It looks like I’ll be able to head to the NZ First conference at Alexandra Park racecourse on the weekend as media. This election the position of NZ First party members is probably going to be crucial for any coalition that forms. In this rather long post I explain my (and other peoples) thinking on possible coalition results for National after the election. They aren’t good because they really depend on a political group that National has been denigrating for quite a while.
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, July 11th, 2014 - 9 comments
The NZ Defense Force have been defending themselves in a defamation case against some grossly inaccurate claims that they made about reporter Jon Stephenson back in 2011 (and that John Key recklessly and foolishly chimed in on). They have been forced to concede that their claims were inaccurate. But a hung jury about how defamatory the claims were is causing it to proceeding to second trial. It looks like legal maneuvering by the NZDF has failed. My view is that the NZDF are being completely stupid about owning up to their screwup.
Written By: - Date published: 7:52 am, July 11th, 2014 - 59 comments
This morning Labour will be announcing it’s Digital Economic Upgrade (ICT policy). “Streamed live to the world” at 8am. As a dedicated member of the programming fraternity and often aghast at the stupidity of the how the government treats the digital community, I want to hear this.
So I will live blog some of this as it goes through.
Written By: - Date published: 11:51 am, July 8th, 2014 - 16 comments
Since 2012 I’ve been going to Labour conferences as “media” rather than as a delegate. This is in large part because I have been avoiding the hurly burly of being involved in Labour party campaigning. But this was my first Labour congress as media. The Saturday was as boring for me as it was for Vernon Small. Watching other people doing housekeeping is seldom of much interest to outside observers as it is for those doing the housekeeping. The Sunday was more fun.
Written By: - Date published: 5:24 pm, July 5th, 2014 - 15 comments
I have spent a large chunk of the this week digging my way into Labour’s fiscal plan after the Liu smear collapsed. I think that the fiscal plan is a work of art, and very classy art at that. Of course you have to read it closely and look at what it is intended to do. I was particularly intrigued about why there was ring fencing of future increases to education and health.
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, July 5th, 2014 - 136 comments
What stands out for me in the part of Labour’s education policy announced today, is the deliberate intent to make sure that all kids wind up with a personal network capable device both at school and home, and access to the net. At present we don’t. Much of the “voluntary” donations in schools is for computer equipment that kids need to learn from, but is not paid for by the state funding of schools. I was fortunate in that I started computing in 1976. Everyone needs that education now so they can pay for my retirement..
Written By: - Date published: 1:23 pm, July 4th, 2014 - 12 comments
I realise that journalists have to show some column inches sometimes to justify their existence on the payroll. However the “Investigations editor” Jared Savage at the the NZ Herald appears to be overdoing that. The latest is Jared’s attempt to puff up three routine immigration letters in 2005. He really must be desperate for those extra inches. There doesn’t appear to be anything about it that holds much public interest apart from a simple desire to smear. Hardly journalism.
Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, July 2nd, 2014 - 90 comments
Dairy prices have resumed their slide, falling 4.9 per cent at the latest GlobalDairyTrade auction overnight. The drop was the ninth fall out of the last 10 auctions. It looks to me like the boom is over. Looking at the rise in production for whole milk powder in China, and increased exports from other countries, I think that it will continue to decline. In the meantime National have been allowing our other export industries to stagnate.
Written By: - Date published: 1:38 pm, June 30th, 2014 - 38 comments
National has been sucking billions of dollars out of the provincial road maintenance budgets to throw into “Roads of Significance only to National” since 2009. In the latest round, maintenance costs for roads mostly used by trucks will drop to an average of 52%, with the small populations of ratepayers expected to subsidize trucking firms. Is it any wonder that they’re looking at National’s token gesture over the weekend with disdain and anger. Meanwhile the urban centres aren’t getting the public transport they need.
Written By: - Date published: 2:26 pm, June 28th, 2014 - 69 comments
On Trademe.
“As new, unwanted gift from a smartarse.
John Key Portrait of a Prime Minister by John Roughan.
Essentially a love letter.
Utter rubbish but may get you out of a jam if you run out of toilet paper.
Proceeds from sale go to fighting poverty.”
Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, June 28th, 2014 - 61 comments
David Cunliffe will be putting up a post on Sunday earlier on Sunday. He will be around for some two way interaction at about 4pm-5pm. It will be similar to the previous session last month. However he has put more time in his schedule.
Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, June 27th, 2014 - 62 comments
There is a self-serving anonymously authored editorial in the NZ Herald this morning “Editorial: Cries of bias will not stop reporting”. Well for a start the problem isn’t with the Herald reporting. The journalism on the story has been performed by amateur journalists and facilitated by incompetent editors who didn’t check the story. This probably including whoever wrote this pathetic editorial. It appears to have been an abrupt change from their usual competent style of journalism. Of course the question has to be asked about what caused this change?
Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, June 26th, 2014 - 70 comments
There is one thing that shines through in the coverage of the biography of John Key today. It is by a veteran arselicker of the right – John Roughan, veteran editorial writer and columnist for the NZ Herald. He is someone that have have no respect for because his writing has a short-term approach to Auckland that is more characterised by stupidity and a rabid adherence to National’s partisan campaign needs. Both as an anonymous editorial writer and in his columns.
Written By: - Date published: 1:12 pm, June 26th, 2014 - 52 comments
I think that this poster from the Greens about the debate on the maui dolphin says it all about the shallowness of National and its leader. The guy is simpleminded fool and generally a dickhead. Rather than understanding an issue and dealing it, he prefers to act like a mumbo-jumbo clown.
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, June 25th, 2014 - 47 comments
I’ll be in Wellington from the 4th to the 7th for the Labour party congress on the 5-6th. I’ll be on a media pass again which will relieve me of the duties that I have usually had to undergo as a delegate, like having to think too much. This will be the first congress I have attended as media. I’m expecting to have a lazy time watching others work. If you’re around Wellington, come and see David Cunliffe’s speech on Sunday. He is promising a big speech about what he and Labour will be taking to the voters this year.
Written By: - Date published: 5:12 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 225 comments
Ok, so according to the NZ Herald Donhua Liu is alleging that a fund raiser was held on Sunday 3rd of June 2007.
That is the Sunday in the middle of Queens birthday weekend. To say that is hardly credible is an understatement. No-one schedules fund-raisers on Sunday. They certainly don’t do it in a long weekend. And can’t the journalists at the Herald read a calendar?
Updated: This mornings Herald story looks like being more about face saving than accuracy, and the interview on Morning Report make the journalistic process at the Herald look even more dodgy.
Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 45 comments
The Whaleoil blog is in court on Monday. There is a full day session in the High Court in Auckland looking at the appeal by Cameron Slater against Judge Blackie’s decision in the District Court that the blog is not a news medium. Therefore Slater was not a journalist, and was therefore not able to protect his sources who provided stolen material to allow him to apparently defame Matthew Blomfield. The decision will probably provide case law about the status of blogs in the law and the responsibilities of news mediums.
Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, June 22nd, 2014 - 112 comments
I’ve been around the Labour party campaigners for a long time. I’d have expected to hear of auction sales of near to $100,000 by rumour if nothing else. It is possible that I didn’t. But then so is time travel. Quite simply the NZ Heralds reporting of Liu’s letter without any corroboration or details about where and when isn’t what I expect from journalists. It is what I expect from Whaleoil – a simple smear. I hadn’t realised that the Herald was that desperate.
Written By: - Date published: 3:56 pm, June 19th, 2014 - 73 comments
My comment at The Daily Blog responding to a section of one of Martyn ‘Bomber’ Bradbury’s post got moderated out. That does rather reinforce what my comment said. So I will simply repeat it here. The political scene is a very bad place to have as sensitive ego in as Bomber has. Most people involved around the political scene will have different opinions and they usually aren’t hesitant in expressing them. It appears that young Bomber lacks the backbone to withstand that diversity without having a fit of pique.
Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, June 19th, 2014 - 17 comments
There is a very long but worth reading post over at The Political Scientist. If you’re serious about campaigning in NZ at present, then it is definitely worth setting aside the time to ponder it. In particular the demographics and the occupational changes across Christchurch that may affect this years election outcome. Tony Milne also has a good post on Christchurch and its continuing travails..
Written By: - Date published: 3:50 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 324 comments
It is a damn form letter written to immigration by electorate offices every day. Prepared by electorate office staff. Signed in a stack by the MP. Requesting information about a constituent case or even a drop-in to the office. I’ve seen many of these per day going on in a neighbouring electorate office. Their files are strewn all over immense file directories. It is seldom that the MPs meet with the people until after the information is received from immigration. It isn’t “advocacy”. It is just dumpster diving for crap by National’s researchers.
Written By: - Date published: 7:18 pm, June 17th, 2014 - 8 comments
This site frequently has opinions from authors and comments promoting promoting political positions and telling people who they should vote for or not vote for, and why. I’ve been making the site conformant to the rules about 3rd party promoters. You have a few days to comment on that before I start treating nuisance complaints as being a reason to get banned from commenting. Speak now or hold your peace until after the election.
😈
Written By: - Date published: 12:12 pm, June 16th, 2014 - 57 comments
This morning I was reading the Transport Blog on The Draft 2015-2025 Government Policy Statement released by the Ministry of Transport. This is the main starting point for a number of the transport planning documents over the coming decade(s). Somehow based on what looks like a delusional belief that people are going to start driving more as the price of petrol is going up, the MOT is planning about $17 billion dollars to be sunk into (what I think will be) white elephant new roading over the coming decade.
Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, June 13th, 2014 - 51 comments
Wayne Mapp is worried about the possibility of Labour backing away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). If National and MFAT would like support from the free-trade advocates inside Labour, then I’d suggest that they get off their padded arses and provide some solid information not only to us, but also to the public. But all I have heard so far is some psuedo-religious Randian rants about free-trade that are about as convincing to business people as statements about the imminent arrival of the Rapture.
Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, June 12th, 2014 - 116 comments
David Farrar in his usual burst of hypocrisy and curious selectiveness about detailed numbers is proclaiming a headline rise in manufacturing. As is usual he is only interested in the top level numbers and doesn’t provide a link to even the summary data. I guess that is because they are rather depressing for his 9th floor of the Beehive view of employment and wage packets, which is what most voters expect from growth. There has been a slight decline in manufacturing jobs while we have a 11% growth in “manufacturing”.
Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, June 10th, 2014 - 44 comments
John Key has been making a joke of the electoral system in recent days with his support of criminal MPs and his veiled attempts to foist the crazy Conservatives on various electorates. But he was quick to pour scorn on a very popular micro-party who were less likely to become a pliant tool of the National party. Clearly he hasn’t realised who the Civilians are satirising and why so many taxpayers support them. Updated with Occasionally erudite’s analysis.
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