What went on at the ‘horn?
Reports have been circulating around Wellington for several weeks about a night on the town for John Key with a couple of senior […]
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Roger Awards open
Nominations have opened for this year’s Roger Awards, naming and shaming the worst transnational corporation operating in New Zealand in 2008. Previous winners […]
Petrol price hits parties in the polls
A reader sent us this graph. It plots President Bush’s approval rating and the price of petrol. (the price of petrol is upside-down, […]
Keeping it in the family
The ODT reports that Bill English’s brother, Conor English, has been picked as the new CEO of Federated Farmers. Once the press secretary […]
National ‘bereft of compassion’
That is the reported view of the secretary of the Sikh Council of New Zealand in response to some attention grabbing behaviour from […]
Facing up to peak oil
The Government’s independent report on petrol prices is bit of a sop to be the public, really. The world oil price is driving […]
Matt McCarten from the Herald on Sunday
Worth a read: Remember when George Bush’s administration promised the world that the invasion of Iraq would be over in a few weeks? […]
He would say that wouldn’t he
Stuff reports that National Party energy spokesman Gerry Brownlee has labelled the government’s inquiry into petrol pricing a cynical move that would not make […]
Kremlinology: National on ACC
In most countries, accident insurance is big business. Insurers and lawyers make billions off premiums, claims, and court cases but many people don’t […]
Key’s slippery promises on waste
National has staked it all on delivering bigger tax cuts than Labour. To remain credible, they need to deliver $20 a week on […]
Political monogamy
Thought this might make a good followup to Steve/Trotter’s comments in the post below. It’s from the group TruthThroughAction.org – a group of […]
The dark side of the Right
Trotter is on the money today: …[A]ll of you young, confident women of the 21st century urgently need to pause and reflect upon […]
Comparatively, gingers have it easy
Last month Mike Hucknall, lead singer of Simply Red, asserted that ‘ginger jibes’ were a form of racism. Opinion was divided. As you ponder that […]
Monte Ohia
It’s sad to learn of the sudden death of Monte Ohia, the Maori Party candidate for Te Tai Tonga. Ohia was a prominent […]
Treating the voters like children
Keith Holyoake used to say “tell the people, trust the people”; be honest about the benefits, trade-offs, and costs of policies and trust the people […]
The wage gap and the Nats’ crediblity gap
Remember when National was all about the wage gap, whinging about it every day? Heard them talk about it lately? The last mention […]
Behind the secrecy
Reading a_y_b’s piece on National’s policy talks with the Real Estate Institute I’ve got to say it struck me as having shades not […]
Benson-Pope rejects Legalise Cannabis Party offer
Reported today in the ODT: Dunedin South MP David Benson-Pope will not be accepting an invitation to stand as the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis […]
I did not have policy relations with REINZ
With tones of the Brethren debacle we’re getting conflicting reports from the National Party as to whether or not they have haven’t have […]
With friends like these
One thing that puzzles me about righties is that half the people on their side of the fence are racists, bigots, misogynists, homophobes […]
Happy families
The New Zealand Herald’s latest anti-Labour beatup took an unfortunate twist this afternoon. Having spent the best part of a day making hay […]
Why Key really wants super-fast broadband
Remember National’s broadband ‘plan’ that reads like it was drawn up on the back of a napkin? Notice how the only gains they […]
Centre party? Yeah, right
Why is it that UnitedFuture is branded a centre party? We all know they’re socially right wing, in bed with the Christian fundamentalists, and […]
The vision thing
No sensible analysis could conclude that the Labour-led governments of the last 8 years have been anything but excellent for New Zealand. As […]
National’s policy vacuum
From the editorial in the ODT today we learn that Bill English is keen to dampen down concern within the party at the […]
Spin-busting: ‘Hardworking kiwis’
‘Hardworking kiwis’ is National’s new ‘mainstream New Zealanders’. Referenced by Key ad nauseam, it is the population at which National purports to target […]
Anyone for more pork pies?
On TV3 last night John Key was continuing to tell outright porkies about how advanced National is with its “policy” development compared with […]
Brand Key
We got this in from the ‘sod and we like it so here’s the guest post we swore we’d never give him (taking […]
What’s Behind Key’s Cheesy Grin?
Ever since Labour’s budget was released, John Key has been talking cheese. I’ve been wondering why all his talk of blocks of cheese has been […]
Bubbles and empty spaces
John Key’s policy vacuum is such a joke that even the ad-men are using it for comic material. Have a listen. powered by […]
Video: Dr Cullen at Drinking Liberally
We just received a video of Michael Cullen’s speech to Drinking Liberally on Wednesday from one of the attendees. It’s well worth a […]
Key greets high school students, Vulcans
Before you bag him, give it a go yourself, it’s harder than it looks. It’s a little known fact that Spock took years […]
Quote of the week
On John Key’s visit to Waitara High School yesterday: Ms Gellen said Mr Key’s visit had been excellent and the students had got a […]
Peters refuses to answer your questions
In the final of our ‘Interview the Leaders’ series, we asked Winston Peters three questions submitted by readers. Damian Edwards from his office […]
National policy vacuum becoming a joke
A reader just alerted us to this. When John Key went missing in action on Sunrise what did the “Allstars” suggest he was […]
17-year-old disses Key on Bebo
The Taranaki Daily News reports: National Party leader John Key was at Waitara High School, where he pushed his party’s plan to spend […]