The sincerest form of flattery
The Greens billboards have shown how it’s done – striking and simple without being dishonest or simplistic. Maybe National could imitate them: Maybe […]
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Ashcroft’s donations a worry
Lord Ashcroft is a worry. Not just to John Key, who had to admit that he didn’t know why Ascroft had met him […]
Now, that’s better
Look. Over there!
A friend has just rung to excitedly inform me that National’s conservation policy has now also been released by Trevor Mallard. That means […]
Fewer bureaucrats
OK. They were laughably bad before but now they don’t even have the grammar correct. If you can count it, you use fewer: less […]
The hypocrisy of the Right
Today, we have National’s Judith Collins attacking the Government because the number of Kiwis on the unemployment benefit rose from 17,710 to 20,465 […]
National bleats about wages, still has no solutions
The National Party are once again trying to make political capital over the Trans-Tasman wage gap, even though they created it in the […]
ACT unauthorised
ACT: the guts to do what’s right1 2 1. except when it comes to properly authorising our election advertisements 2. oh, and global […]
Granny beside herself as polls turn
As the polls start to turn on National – and a new poll out yesterday saying the Left working with the Maori Party […]
Shambles
The leaks from within the National camp just keep on coming. Last night Trevor Mallard had the privilege of releasing National’s environment policy […]
Roy Morgan shows Left ahead
John Key’s impatience to get the election over and done with makes a lot more sense in light of today’s Roy Morgan poll. […]
Why didn’t NZF use Nats’ donations playbook?
This business with donations from the Spencer Trust going to New Zealand First but not being declared. I find it hard to credit […]
Video: Nats wave goodbye to blue sky
Newly up from 08wire There’s something very powerful about that music and image combination….
ACC privatisation costs National support?
A reader just sent us this poll from NZ Doctor magazine (offline): If there was a snap election tomorrow, 38 per cent of […]
Why the rush?
We are, at a legal maximum, 72 days away from the election. The tradition is that the date is announced at least six weeks […]
Key, leadership, and the audacity of hope
Perhaps Mr Key is feeling a little regretful about comparing himself to Barack Obama. Certainly the chutzpah inherent in such a comparison has […]
Not good enough
For any of you who thought the sharp end of capitalism was a nice place to be, the front page story in today’s […]
Beyond parody
National’s new billboard. It’s like when your Dad tries to rap.
Are you positive?
Talking about the Nat billboard campaign on Wammo’s show this morning, Key said it was going to positive and on message*. Umm, when’s […]
It just gets worse
Just when you thought National’s billboard campaign couldn’t possibly get any weaker, reports emerge that their next one will say: “Get youth into […]
Telco hits out at National’s fibre plan
John Drinnan in the NZ Herald: “One of the biggest challengers in the telecommunications business, TelstraClear, has attacked National Party plans for a […]
Choosing a Righter Future
A couple more National Party billboards I whipped up in my lunch break. You know, when the original is so godawful it takes […]
Dissection
OK, so there are limitless ways to mock the Nat’s ‘WW2 bombers flying to Chile’ billboard (send us yours to add to these […]
Ashcroft’s jet spotted in Wellington too
An astute reader just sent us this – they spotted Ashcroft’s jet parked at Lyall Bay on Saturday August 30 and managed to […]
Russel Norman at Drinking Liberally Wgtn – tomorrow
The Drinking Liberally – Wellington email: By popular demand this Wednesday Drinking Liberally Wellington presents: Russel Norman – Co-leader of the Green Party. […]
Key: “I just followed what was in my diary”
TV3 revealed last night that John Key has recently met with billionaire Tory donor Lord Michael Ashcroft. Lord Ashcroft clearly preferred that the […]
Wave goodbye to National’s crappy slogan
Over to you (click the image below for the high res version – 300K JPG): send us your versions and we’ll post them under […]
The polls are weird
Dave at Big News has a good post up on a vagaries of the polls. It expands on something that Idiot Savant noticed […]
Stark
John Key’s attempt to ride on Obama’s coattails has been rightly ridiculed in the New Zealand press, but the differences go much deeper […]
Break open the trusts
As we’ve discussed earlier, it would be highly surprising if the investigations into NZF’s finances find any serious illegality. At worst, a failure to […]
Betting on likeability – Key’s strategy for 2008
Gordon Campbell spends some time examining Key’s likeability factor: “That’s why Key’s gamble over Winston Peters is so interesting because it could help […]
Weak
Perhaps I’ve overestimated the National Party’s PR machine. I mean I’ve seen them run their C/T strategy pretty well and, as much as […]
Key- you like Obama? OK.. I’m the white Obama!
“I’m a bit like (Barack) Obama,” – Key Of course, National has been trying to link Key to Obama because Obama is probably […]
ToryAid: Wastewatch (4)
Because National has abandoned its wastewatch website, we keep track of the ‘waste’ National has promised to cut to pay for those magical, […]
Whom to believe? (3)
John Key tells us that National hasn’t decided yet what it would spend its extra borrowing on, what projects would be PPPs, what […]
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 […]