Apologise
Congratulations John on your latest speech. We especially like the line “Let me be clear: there is no room for separatism in New […]
Politics
history
Colin James on Labour’s election record
Dancr linked to Colin James’ piece in the Press the other day, in which he writes: Here’s Labour’s record for the five decades […]
Remember this?
Pascal’s Bookie dug up this classic in the comments: Congratulations…. You always knew that politics would be exciting, but I guess that neither […]
Someone Else’s Country
As the same old faces of the Right roll out the same old failed neoliberal ideas in new packaging, it’s a useful time […]
Anyone remember this guy?
With all the noise around Obama you don’t hear much about this guy now. He was politically naive but knowingly and willingly acted […]
Political violence
A Nelson man attempted to buy a gun to shoot Nick Smith. Details are scant. What could have been a nasty situation looks […]
Labour always hated the Nazis
I have to confess some confusion about this study that supposedly shows the First Labour Government was tight with Hitler. They were real, […]
On Auckland and Leningrad
The modern blitzkrieg [lightning war] was first tested in the Spanish civil war, refined in the invasions of European states that marked the beginning of WWII, […]
What comes around goes around
It wasn’t so long ago that National’s covert attack organ, the Free Speech Coalition, were squealing about how anti-democratic the last Labour government […]
Homegrown
At the end of my post a couple of days ago I touched on the notion of a new Zealand identity and a […]
X-rated
There’s a lot of fuss about at the moment over Ayman al-Zawahri’s labelling of Barack Obama as the kind of “house negro” described […]
Party like it’s 1946
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 […]
Same thing?
In an attempt to cover for John Key’s ignorance of New Zealand history, National’s Gerry Brownlee has pulled out a quote from Michael […]
Key denies Land Wars
Mr Key on NewstalkZB: “We’re not a country that’s come about as a result of civil war or where there’s been a lot […]
Happy Birthday National
Today is the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the National Party. So, it’s an opportune moment to reflect on the founding principles […]
A brief musical interlude
If only I’d been around in 1969, and hanging out in upstate New York. Hard to believe that the best we can do […]
Mythbusting: Winning a fourth term is impossible
It has become a media mantra that winning a fourth term of government is nigh on impossible, but is that claim actually based […]
Undo the cuts
Good to see Ruth Dyson finally admitting we have left beneficiaries behind. I would hope now that there would be a lot more […]
Sir Ed and Helen Clark – admired Kiwis
From the Sunday Star Times: A new poll suggests that National Leader John Key may be up against a bigger obstacle than he thought in […]
More on mental health
After reading Steve’s piece about suicide prevention and the subsequent comments I’ve decided a short history lesson on this issue is needed. In […]
Those were the days (all 20 of them)
When I wrote to the MPs asking them for their thoughts on John Key’s “we would love to see wages drop” quote (results […]
The baby bounce
When a society goes through trauma, one of the first results is a drop in the birth-rate. People choose not to have children […]
Massey to go the way of Saddam and lose statue?
New Zealand Labour movement activists will support Irish unionists – the political sort – who wish to remove Reform Prime Minister Massey’s statue […]
Lord Keith of Kinloch
Am halfway through “Kiwi Keith”, Barry Gustafson’s portrait of our third-longest serving Prime Minister. He obviously had something, as he was picked out […]
Levin: hotbed of Tory militancy?
Just had this sent through to me by a Levin reader. The reference to the Federation of Labour and getting the army in […]
From the Uttermost Ends of the Earth
On the morning of October the 12th 1917 845 New Zealand soldiers lost their lives in a failed attack on Bellvue Spur during […]