The joy of tory trolls
One of the great pleasures I get from writing for The Standard is making the trolls scream. There’s no better sign that you’re […]
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Thanks Jeanette
So Jeanette Fitzsimons is, as expected, resigning from Parliament. After 13 years her last day will be February 11th. Parliament will miss her […]
Goff advocates real solutions to crime
Goff and his advisers knew that the wage cap on public service CEOs would be the headline grabber of his widely praised speech. […]
Keys ‘Master Brand’ marketing.
The John Key led National Ltd® government lands yet another axe blow on our 100% Pure brand by cancelling a scheme recognised internationally as a best practice model. This latest announcement caps off a busy year for National Ltd® on the environmental front. Its list of actions include spending millions on establishing the 100% Pure Brand as the “Master Brand†of Aotearoa while simultaneously it has:
The many. Not the few
Phil Goff has just delivered his first major speech of the year to state what Labour stands for and where it is going. […]
Meetings: Auckland super-shitty
Phil Twyford has been organizing a series of meetings about the impending Auckland super-city 3rd bill. The date for submissions to the select […]
Privatisation failures: Telecom
If Telecom were an SOE there would be cries to privatise it. These repeated crashes of XT simply aren’t good enough. Just the […]
Outsourcing away
We’ve had a few posts about the lack of action from the government – but over on Bernard Hickey’s blog he’s spotted progess […]
Year of the wolf?
I really thought the rumour that the minimum wage would only rise by 25c had been put out by the government to make […]
On intellectual failure & economic crisis
Before they were swept along by the latest incarnation of US Right anti-intellectualism, National used to have some smart people. One of the […]
Key admits mistake: Tolley and Groser shuffled out
Today John Key admitted his mistake in two Ministerial portfolio appointments, as two long overdue changes were announced. 1) Chopper Tolley has rightfully […]
Campbell and Hooton on do nothing Key
I can’t work out how to embed audio alone, so here’s a YouTube of Andrew Campbell and Matthew Hooton on the Key Government. […]
The power of public condemnation
Phew, that was quick. Yesterday John Kingi writes to us about Club Physical promoting homophobic myths. I publish his email. The same day […]
The danger of pre-writing your narrative
It was clear that the Herald had decided how Ratana would play this year: eveyone loves Key, Goff gets the cold shoulder. It […]
250,000 jobless and counting
Is Club Physical promoting homophobia?
A reader, John, writes: “I’m a member of Club Physical and I was disgusted to see that in their latest E-newsletter (below) sent out […]
The SAS, the media, and Key
I don’t think the SAS should be in Afghanistan. That said, there are good reasons why the activities of the SAS on deployment […]
Key committed to [insert your priority here]
Last week: “Prime Minister John Key said the Government’s major theme in 2010 would be improving New Zealand’s economy” Today: “He said his […]
Cowardly
This is how Health Minister Tony Ryall announced the Government would be appealing the court decision to try to get out of paying people for […]
Hide opens door for Winston?
Eddie has already covered the story of Hide giving the middle finger to the people of Franklin regarding the Supercity. Franklin is Tory […]
How media should view polls
Hattip: NickS linking to PhD comics
Tax is the price the elite pay to maintain their privilege
John Roughan asks: “Nearly half of all personal tax revenue is contributed by just 10 per cent of us. Is this socially healthy?” […]
Warning: Beware what you say on the net. Humourless bastards are after you.
No Right Turn has a post about the weirdness of the police forces in Britain at present. Elements of our own police force […]
Tax reform: tax cuts for rich, paid for by poor
The Tax Working Group has given its recommendations for tax reform to the Government. It predictably recommends: Dropping the tax income tax rates to […]
Another benefit beat-up
The Key Government’s anti-beneficiary campaign continues. The latest is a beat-up on long-term beneficiaries. Apparently, 9 people have been on the dole for […]
Franklin & Papakura want out, Hide says ‘no way’
The people of Franklin and Papakura, who overwhelming oppose becoming part of the National/ACT government’s Supercity experiment, have been denied their request to keep […]
‘3 strikes’, typical ‘Do Nothing’ Key policy
The ‘3 strikes’ policy is the kind of policy you put in place when you want to look tough on crime but you […]
Minimum wage increase, what will it be?
John Key has ruled out a $2.50 an hour pay increase for New Zealand’s lowest paid workers but won’t give any indication of […]
Say what?
Statements made in Parliament last year, in chronological order: Hon BILL ENGLISH: They have been telling us that we should copy the Australian […]
Coddington: exposing secret agendas = bad, attacking sex victims = meh
Deborah Coddington, former ACT MP and author of the filthy racist article “Asian Angst: Is it time to send some back?” that killed North […]
Bigot gets a bashing
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow covers the outragous comments by rightwing Christian fundamentalist Pat Robertson on the Haitian earthquake. Great to see this bigot confronted. […]
Farrar tries to cover for do nothing govt, and fails
Phil Goff has picked up on the point I made yesterday: while unemployment is falling in Australia due to the $42 billion stimulus […]
Bhatnagar to knock out Hide?
There is a story in today’s Herald noting that current C&R Hobson councillor Aaron Bhatnagar is not going to stand for the new […]
Covering for ‘Vacation John’
Both David Farrar and Cameron Slater have posts up attacking a comment by roger nome in one of our comment threads, and it […]
NZ closes the gap with Aussie
Well, I didn’t think it could done but it has been. National has been promising to close the gap with Australia, and damned […]
I don’t know, what do you think?
Less than a week before the opening of the new $80 million Supreme Court building in Wellington, Prime Minister John Key is reserving […]