New Facebook groups
After I was part of the ‘Great NZ Sell-off’ skit protest outside the National Party conference at the start of the month, I […]
Steve Pierson
Throw-away
Sometimes, the throw-away comments a person makes are the most revealing – for example, Bill English’s attitude towards the “punters” and towards John […]
Causes and effects
A series of graphs from the Social Report. First off, the unemployment rate When the unemployment goes up or down, the practical effect […]
Peters stands down
Peters has stood down. Clark has taken over his portfolios. It’s good that Peters appears to have accepted that this is a necessity […]
The Standard Week: August 22-29
It’s all been on this week. Maurice Williamson promising $50 tolls and more before being forced to retract, a poll showing more Kiwis […]
Nats, Farrar fail again in attempt to muzzle Kiwis
For the third time, National’s attempt to get a legal decision to block the EPMU and its sister unions from participating in the […]
But why?
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on Peters because its not the kind of issue that affects Kiwis lives (its […]
Clark cuts the thread
Winston Peters’ stories around the Owen Glenn donation to his legal fund are dangerously convoluted and have stretched everyone’s credulity but without real […]
Social Report shows Kiwis better off
MSD released its Social Report today, an annual publication that collates a wide variety of standard of living measures, and produces this awesome graph. […]
Herald poll shows Nats’ lead collapsing
Today’s Herald-Digi poll is the first to be released that was taken after the secret agenda tape scandal had fully emerged and had some […]
Workers demand decent work rights policies
6000 workers turned out in Manukau yesterday for the EPMU’s Wages Drive rally. With 25 events nation-wide over this month, which have attracted […]
The more things change…
70 years ago (more or less) and The Standard was correctly predicting a Labour victory as the ‘Nationalists’ ramped up a hollow election […]
Whom to believe? (2)
Owen Glenn’s letter to the Privileges Committee contradicts Winston Peters’ previous statements to the media, the Privileges Committee, and, presumably, the PM. Glenn says […]
Greens win better ETS
The Greens have won some very good improvements to the ETS in exchange for their support. The most important is $1 billion over […]
What else did Williamson say?
I notice that, while the Nats have attempted to play down Maurice Williamson’s promise of $50 a week in tolls, they haven’t retracted […]
Metaphor
So, I was walking along in Kelburn yesterday, and I saw Stephen Franks’ faded yellow mini. He was driving along in the centre of […]
Kiwis waking up to Nats’ secret agenda
According to the TV3 poll last night, 46% of voters believe National has a secret agenda. And why wouldn’t they? We’ve had Bill English […]
Whom to believe?
On Agenda on Sunday, National’s Transport spokesperson, Maurice Williamson, said National would impose tolls on major new road projects – Transmission Gully, Waterview […]
Nat: our ‘diversity’ is just a gimmick
Unless a party has a systematic bias towards one sector of the population, it would be normal to expect that their candidates would […]
Beastly
[I do love the idea that someone would go to the zoo merely to hurl insults at the apes]
Adapting to the end of cheap oil
On August 1, Transit NZ and Land Transport NZ were merged into the NZ Transport Authority. The new organisation’s first major publication shows […]
Reflections on Shawn Tan
There’s a lot of heat but not much light in the debate about the EPMU’s suspension of Shawn Tan. What we know from […]
The Standard Week: August 15-22
As expected, the polls out last weekend did not show National being hit by the secret agenda tapes scandal because they were conducted […]
Greens call for public input on ETS
One thing you can always say for the Greens, they’re democratic to their core. Currently, they find themselves facing a tough choice – […]
Mythbusting: Half of new generation is thermal
Reading National’s energy policy last week I was surprised to learn that of 1942MW of new generation that has come online since 2000 […]
Tasteless
Thank God for those individuals of high morals who are at this moment whipping themselves into a frenzy over Pharmac’s decision to fund […]
Briefly
The coverage of the Australian Dfat* briefing paper on Helen Clark is as unsurprising as it is depressing. Depressing in that this appears […]
Key demands we publish full quote
John Key called us to task in his interview with Wammo today: “every leftwing blogger out there has a field-day going on and […]
Speaking of competence
Kiwis don’t trust Nats
According to the Colmar/Brunton poll, 50% of Kiwis don’t believe National is being open about its plans vs 37% who believe the Nats […]
Ambitious for transport
Why are we spending $1 billion on Transmission Gully when by the time it is finished the price of petrol will be up […]
Reflections on the war in Georgia
What can we learn from the war in Georgia? Without going into the rights and wrongs of the combatants, what I’m interested in […]
The Sensible Centrist
Tracey Watkins is said by some of her colleagues to be spending an ‘unseemly’ about of time hanging out in John Key’s office, […]
Nats: some of us look like youse
National is desperate for you to know its party list is a diverse one. It’s a diverse list alright. I mean you’ve got […]
Reviewing the weekend polls
As I said last week, the polls that came out this weekend can not reflect any impact of the secret agenda tapes. The […]
Jumping the shark
Remember the photos of McDonald’s wrappers strewn on a grass verge that John Key expected us to believe was evidence people had been […]