Petition: It’s Not OK Prime Minister
This petition at ActionStation is closing in on 5,000 signatures.
Politics
democratic participation
Groser flips the bird to the Judiciary and NZ Laws
The Law? That’s not for Cabinet Members, the Law is for the lazy malcontents who don’t want to work hard.
TPPA national day of action
Saturday November 14 is a national day of action against the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement. Details of all protests are set out in the post.
There is Hope.
Anarchism, past and present.
4 days Left to answer Ombudsmen Survey
People have just four days left to tell the Chief Ombudsman about their experiences of making requests to government agencies under the Official Information Act if they are to inform her enquiry into government agencies’ OIA practices.
Portugal
This is going to end well…
Sobriety
The video excerpt comes from the Yann Arthus-Bertrand film ‘Human’. It’s available to view on youtube.
I LOVE these kinds of stories
““We had an 83-year-old man walking in here to vote for the first time in his life,” she said from near a polling station in Tsuut’ina Nation, near Calgary.”
Bugger the Truth – Getting elected means fooling the poeple
So, its is not that the voters are idiots, as some suggest the Left are claiming, it is that the Right deliberately lie and mislead to get a vote, on false pretenses. It is the Right who constantly treats voters as gullible idiots, And a media, strangled by shrinking budgets and reduced personnel with less and less time to research rather than regurgitate. Couple that with an increase in non-journalists hogging the space set aside for reporting and elucidating news events… what chance the voter?
Does the left win by tacking to the centre or by being principled?
Jeremy Corbyn’s election provides a further opportunity to discuss if elections should be won by tacking to the centre or adopting a principled approach to politics.
Syria and Internationalism
I wonder if the current public outpouring of sympathy for Syrian refugees is nought but a ‘fashion’, or whether it’s the beginnings of a renaissance for internationalism.
NRT: Meh
Today the government announced the four candidates for John Key’s vanity flag referendum: three ferns (one of them the logo of Immigration NZ and the Companies Office) and a koru. And really, all I can say is “meh”. So how about defining a good way of doing a informal or invalid vote on this stupid first referendum on selecting John Key’s underwear..
Finlayson criticises Law Society but gets it wrong
Chris Finlayson has criticised the New Zealand Law Society for not being aware that a change to the Health and Safety Reform Bill affecting human rights introduced after submissions had been heard was itself being changed. But all this does is reinforce the Law Society’s criticisms that such provisions should have been part of the original bill.
left wing leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn well ahead
Hard lefty Jeremy Corbyn has a 22 pt lead in the UK Labour leadership race. The Labour Party Blairites are definitely not happy.
Fuck you Auckland!
That’s the Nats’ message to Auckland, who are getting a taste of some Canterbury style “democracy”.
The Canterbury rebuild
The Canterbury Rebuild grinds on with news that CERA is to be replaced by a new entity dubbed Regenerate Canterbury. But is a name change all that is required?
Do petitions work?
The increased use of petitions is a very clever innovation by the Labour Party because this Government has proven to be a weather vane lot, guided by polls.
Voices of the people on emissions targets and climate change
A record of the Dunedin consultation meeting on NZ’s emission targets. It was an extraordinary evening. So many people spoke with concern, with intelligence, with anger, with compassion, with emotion. Some spoke with hope, some without.
Please – make a written submission before Wednesday.
Have your say on our electoral system
Make a submission about how our voting system should be improved.
Heroes and Villains
Thinking authorities in the west have yet discover the difference between their arse and their elbow…
A Bright Spark Burning…
A further piece on the peoples’ revolution within Northern Syria.
Northland Polls; Horrorshow for National
The first polls in the Northland by-election are grim reading for National. It looks likely that Winston will win and National will lose their Parliamentary majority. Have the Tories snatched defeat from the jaws of victory?
Labour’s Betrayal Continues
It might well be in Labour’s best interests to cut the crap now and go into coalition with the National Ltd™ Cult of John Key. It would be the honest thing to do. Kiwis will then know where the boundaries lie and who actually is working to oppose the implementation of the wider neo-liberal ideology.
Aussies & US mount opposition to TPPA – but in NZ we just keep nodding
So much to sell, so little time… When this Government is finished selling, we will have sold our right to make laws for ourselves too. Be under no doubt, if the effect of bringing in a law for the health and well being of Kiwis will cost a corporate millions of dollars, part of their lobbying after the TPP, will be threatening to sue the taxpayers of NZ and watch such a Bill slip into obscurity. And those corporates wielding that power? Most will never pay a cent of tax into the coffers of NZ taxpayers.
Revolutionary Spain, Revolutionary Syria, and the Bastards We Vote For.
It seems that just as the 30’s offered the chance to turn dreams into reality, Syria is offering that chance up to ‘the left’ today. Suddenly, for me, the recent travel bans and the passport confiscation laws etc make sense since we are potentially looking at an international influx of non-nutters and non- psychopaths as happened during the Spanish Revolution of the 30s.
Local Leadership
The Labour Local Government Council ran a hui last Friday in Wellington. I went along and it was one of the better Labour events I have been to in a long time – community-based organisers sharing and discussing what works. Crosby/Textor is onto it too.
Top MP tweeters ….?
Claire Trevett in the NZ Herald has an article on her chosen top MP tweeters, now that Judith Collins has vacated her (alleged) position as “Minister of Twitter” Not quite my list of top tweeters… and yours?
If the voice fits….?
Politics has traditionally been men’s business. Gradually women have come to be given more space in this sphere of public activity. However, there are still strains of traditional masculine values evident in political activity, organisation and debate. How much does Key trade in
bloke-iness?
Europe & the anti-austerity left
The UK Green Party is gaining in popularity as many people turn away from the 3 established parties. The radical left Syriza party in Greece could possibly gain power in their election – what powerful international right wing forces would then be unleashed?
Organising to win
Labor’s win in the recent Victorian state election was historic – the first time a one-term government had been turned out for more than 60 years. It was also a fantastic example of how organisation can win elections. Labor leader Daniel Andrews’ focus was on having 5500 active volunteers behind him.
Democracy, Money and Power
The stage was long ago reached where members of the US Government were told they should “wear their sponsors logo’s on their shirts”.
Submit today!
I/S at No Right Turn yesterday: “Yes, that’s right. An important bill with major human rights implications, and we have one day to speak up about it.” I/S supplies a submission guide to make it easy…
In defence of John Key
Click-bait, moi?
Lessons from the ’30s and 40’s: culture and the left
We often look to the first Labour Government for core left wing values, & a political way forward. As well as massively restructuring of the NZ economy, work, welfare & housing, that Government aimed to restructure NZ culture & to combat capitalist-dominated popular culture.
Campbell Live on ‘Feed the Kids Bill’
The main message from Campbell Live last night is we really need the “Feed the Kids” Bill to pass it’s first reading: then the Bill will go to Select Committee, so everyone can have a conversation. Update: reading postponed ‘cos Key’s war statement debate gets priority.
Where would you spend $26 million?
If you were the NZ government, with $26 million to spend, what would you spend it on?