The Standard

Author Archive

Never argue immorality with a Tory *

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, July 24th, 2020 - 53 comments

*they will drag you down to their level and beat you through experience.

What is the best way for a political party to handle a sex scandal?

Written By: - Date published: 10:16 am, July 22nd, 2020 - 61 comments

Judith Collins appears to be living by her motto, giving back double, and has made public allegations that a Labour Minister has engaged in inappropriate behaviour.  But is this the best way to handle a sex scandal?

Strong team?

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, July 21st, 2020 - 267 comments

Earlier this year National boasted that it had a strong team.  But this was before two coups and the loss of seven MPs in the past few weeks, the latest for sending indecent material to a teenager which the leader initially described as a case involving mental health concerns.

National’s next Auckland Central candidate?

Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, July 17th, 2020 - 38 comments

With Nikki Kaye’s shock retirement announcement National urgently needs a new candidate.  One name springs to mind.

Will the last remaining National MP please not forget to turn off the caucus room lights

Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, July 16th, 2020 - 149 comments

The Herald is reporting that Nikki Kaye will announce her retirement from politics today.

If Judith and Gerry are the answer it must have been a desperate question

Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, July 15th, 2020 - 189 comments

In a great leap backwards Judith Collins and Gerry Brownlee are now leaders of the National Party.

Collins crushes caucus vote

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 pm, July 14th, 2020 - 155 comments

Twitter confirms that Judith Collins is now National leader.  She is the perfect candidate if your goal is to stem the bleeding of support.  She is not the candidate if you want to win the election …  

Muller goes, bring back Simon?

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, July 14th, 2020 - 181 comments

In breaking news Todd Muller has resigned for “health reasons”, effective immediately.

Time to bring back Simon?

Updated with some breaking links.

Of course it’s dirty politics

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, July 13th, 2020 - 39 comments

National’s latest attempted spin is to try and suggest that last week’s clusterfuck of rolling events did not involve in any way the slightest trace of dirty politics.  How wrong they are.

The Christian Right and the 2020 election

Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, July 12th, 2020 - 90 comments

A variety of Christian parties have attempted to gain a place in Parliament.  What are the chances in 2020 of a conservative Christian Party succeeding in gaining seats?

Jian Yang announces retirement so he can spend more time with his family

Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, July 10th, 2020 - 54 comments

Jian Yang, he with impeccable Chinese Communist Party links and of formidable fundraising ability, has announced that he is is retiring from politics.

Did any National MP not receive confidential information from Michelle Boag?

Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, July 10th, 2020 - 128 comments

Michael Woodhouse has admitted that he received confidential information from Michelle Boag a couple of weeks before he said that it was “unconscionable and unacceptable” that the leaks were happening.

Everybody gets a road

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, July 10th, 2020 - 13 comments

National has made two major roading project announcements in the past week.  Both announcements recycled announcements that were also made before the last election.

Some Random impertinent questions about Michelle Boag’s access to confidential medical information

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, July 9th, 2020 - 81 comments

Westpac Helicopter Trust’s claim that it had not breached privacy rights of Covid sufferers raises some serious questions about why Michelle Boag was provided with sensitive information.  And who she has provided it to.

Trashing the country’s Covid response for political advantage

Written By: - Date published: 8:39 am, July 8th, 2020 - 126 comments

As details emerge about Hamish Walker’s leaking of confidential information of Covid sufferers for political advantage, questions are being asked about Todd Muller’s leadership and if National is actually committed to assisting the country’s response to Covid 19.

Clusterfuck

Written By: - Date published: 6:31 pm, July 7th, 2020 - 210 comments

Hamish Walker and Michelle Boag have admitted leaking private information about covid sufferers for political gain.

Does National actually have any policy?

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, July 6th, 2020 - 66 comments

National has recently been upping the campaign rhetoric but there is a disturbing lack of policy detail.

National’s “intelligence unit” kicks into gear

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, July 5th, 2020 - 120 comments

A month ago a leak from National’s caucus said that they had set up an intelligence unit designed to dig up dirt on opponents.  Yesterday Newshub ran a story based on a candidate’s seven year old tweets.  It looks like the intelligence unit has been busy.

National wants to open up our borders, unless you are Indian, Pakistani or Korean

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, July 3rd, 2020 - 55 comments

National Backbench MP Hamish Walker has claimed that Queenstown is to be invaded by people from India, Pakistan and Korea when the reality is the Government is considering using empty Hotels for quarantining returning kiwis.

Muller is floundering

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 pm, June 30th, 2020 - 47 comments

Todd Muller had a bad day yesterday with adverse confidential National polling leaked to the media and with Grant Robertson and Winston Peters showing in the house that Muller’s denial that he had proposed opening up the border with China was simply not correct.

The many and varied Covid reckons of Mike Hosking

Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, June 30th, 2020 - 49 comments

A review of recent opinion pieces by Mike Hosking shows that he has adopted a series of contradictory positions with the one common feature that they are critical of the Government’s actions.

Bye bye Paula

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, June 29th, 2020 - 79 comments

Paula Bennett has announced that she is standing down from politics and will not seek re-election on National’s list at this year’s election.

Paora Goldsmith in fake news scandal

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, June 29th, 2020 - 33 comments

Paora Goldsmith has shown either that he is lacking in basic numeracy and literacy skills or that he is prepared to tell porkies for political advantage.

Colmar Brunton poll – Labour can still form majority Government

Written By: - Date published: 6:36 pm, June 25th, 2020 - 117 comments

The latest Colmar Brunton poll results have been released and Labour is still remarkably in a position to rule on its own.

National is relentlessly negative about the country’s Covid response

Written By: - Date published: 10:03 am, June 24th, 2020 - 95 comments

You would think in the midst of a world pandemic that is threatening established countries everywhere that National would do the responsible thing and work constructively to resolve all of government issues. If you do think this you are wrong.

In defence of Ashley Bloomfield

Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, June 22nd, 2020 - 155 comments

National and elements of the media have gone full on attack on the Government’s and Ashley Bloomfield’s Covid 19 performance.  Which is unusual given that there is still no examples of community transmission and all recent infections have been picked up through the quarantine system.

Protesters, Anarchists, Agitators and Lowlifes

Written By: - Date published: 8:13 am, June 21st, 2020 - 96 comments

Donald Trump has planned to hold a political rally on the day used to celebrate the abolition of slavery at a place where one of the worst examples of white brutality on black people using advertising material containing nazi symbols.  All in the middle of a global pandemic.

Todd Muller and the strange tale of the Leader’s Safe

Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, June 19th, 2020 - 22 comments

The Herald has reported that Todd Muller’s staff used a safe cracker to open up a safe previously used by Simon Bridges, even though they had the access codes.

Responsible politics verses Gotcha politics

Written By: - Date published: 8:16 am, June 18th, 2020 - 215 comments

Michael Woodhouse has recently had a difficult ethical dilemma.  He received information suggesting that there were major weaknesses in the Covid quarantine system.  Should he do the responsible thing and point out these weaknesses to the authorities or should he play Gotcha politics?

Covid really is a bastard

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, June 17th, 2020 - 93 comments

New Zealand’s outstanding daily run of ducks for new Covid infections was broken yesterday after it was reported that two visitors, here for the death of a family member, tested positive.  Questions are being raised about why they were not tested before being permitted to travel within New Zealand.

National prepares to die in a ditch over racist American flag

Written By: - Date published: 4:10 pm, June 16th, 2020 - 26 comments

In politics there are two general theories, the conspiracy theory where events are the result of deep Machiavellian planning, and the f*ck up theory where things just happen because of human stuff ups.  Todd McClay’s decision to defend the use of the Confederate Flag is that much of a f*ck up there must be a deep Machiavellian reason for him deciding to do so publicly.