Even Granny’s patience can wear thin
With a loving smack that would have brought a smile to Bob McCoskrie’s face, the Herald‘s editorial today rebukes John Key in the […]
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
The pragmatist
Asking the second question
Key’s best trick is to answer questions with impressive or technical sounding assertions that stop the line of questioning but don’t actually tell […]
The Ministry of National Affairs
Here’s a good ten minutes from the middle of Winston’s post budget address yesterday. The highlight is around four minutes in, on National’s burgeoning bureaucracy: Did […]
Where’s the beef John?
Key kicks off this Close Up interview by trying to dampen down rising expectations of National’s tax package and make himself some wiggle […]
National’s cruel hoax
Well the budget is out and across the country the public are looking at their tax cuts and asking “is that it?” and […]
Roy Morgan
There was a Roy Morgan poll out yesterday showing a gap of 14 between National and Labour. Party support varied only slightly from […]
“As slippery as a snake in wet grass”
John Campbell interviews John Key on the budget, refusing to let him get away with merely repeating his focus-grouped lines. At about the […]
Drinking Liberally liberally attended
The launch of Drinking Liberally at the Southern Cross last night was a blast. The organisers had been hoping for 20 plus people […]
Telling porkies
The Herald and National have started attacking every piece of government spending as pork-barrelling. Here’s some of what they’re calling ‘wasteful, needless spending’: […]
Water, water everywhere, why not stop to think?
From the MP who tried to ban water comes ‘don’t use crash statistics to work out which roads are dangerous’. Writing in the […]
National’s campaign to muzzle union continues
It seems National has succeeded in the first step of its campaign to muzzle the EPMU and the fifty thousand workers it represents. […]
Lazy academic calls Pacific Island workers lazy
Economist Greg Clydesdale has released a report in which he says Pacific Islanders are a drain on the New Zealand economy (exhibiting “significant […]
National still won’t say what they’d do
Seemingly content to coast along on the “time for a change” sentiment, the National Party are still refusing to offer any substantive details […]
Nandor to stay in Parliament until election
Nandor Tanczos has just announced he will not be standing down from Parliament early to let Russel Norman in because former MP Mike […]
Spin Bingo: Budget Edition
Well it’s Budget day tomorrow and we’ve got our man Steve Pierson going to the lock-up so we can get you a good […]
Beat-up
Well, I’ve seen the video of Goff on Alt TV and I really can’t see what all the fuss is about. Phil Goff’s […]
National – more women-friendly?
Colin Espiner pointed it out the other week, National “needs more women. Never over-represented in National at the best of times, the party […]
Kremlinology: National on work rights
National’s refusal to say what it stands for is becoming so ridiculous we have resorted to the Cold War art of Kremlinology. Today, […]
Sockpuppet
Key lacks leadership on climate change
National has pulled its support for the emissions trading scheme which is intended to set limits on the emission of greenhouse gases and […]
National: we’ll borrow for tax cuts for the rich
Discovering National’s policy is a bit like the old art of Kremlinology, when Western intelligence agencies would attempt to discover the inner workings […]
Getting the facts straight
When asked on Morning Report (MP3 link) today why National was bringing up the issue of MMP now, Key remarked: “[the public] were […]
Key’s green mask slips
Last year John Key announced National’s ‘Blue-Green’ Strategy. It contained the first shadow of acknowledgment from National that climate change is a serious […]
Winner takes all (of us to the cleaners?)
The Sunday Star Times reports National is keen to have a referendum on MMP. As you would expect Peter Shirtcliffe has been involved […]
Media policy
As The Standard has grown, we’ve started to receive inquires from the media and requests for a comment or interview. We’ve been a […]
A change to what?
As we all know the latest Fairfax poll has shown a huge lead for the National Party. Now I’m of the opinion it’s […]
Fairfax poll
This morning’s Fairfax poll is bad news for Labour, with National easily having the numbers to govern alone. Following the hugely popular rail […]
California lifts gay marriage ban
California’s top court has ruled that a state law banning marriage between same-sex couples is unconstitutional, accrording to a BBC report. The state’s […]
Bill Ralston: independent commentator?
If you’ve been reading Bill Ralston’s columns in the Herald on Sunday over the last few months you’ll have noticed how they’ve started […]
Get your questions in for Peters
We’ll be selecting the questions for Winston as the final interview in the ‘Interview the Leaders’ series on Sunday. So, get them in […]
If I were UnitedFuture’s Campaign Strategist
Last in our ‘campaign strategist’ series is UnitedFuture, perhaps the least inspiring party in Parliament. UnitedFuture (ie. Peter Dunne) should play the same […]
Launch of Drinking Liberally NZ
If you’re down in Wellington and of the Left, you’ve probably heard people talking about Drinking Liberally New Zealand. Drinking Liberally is an […]
Two stories on crime in Christchurch
Christchurch hosted a public meeting on crime within the city last week. But the thing that caught my eye, despite the very laudable […]
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 […]
Nats’ attack on union hits High Court
Today National will be explaining to the High Court why it wants the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union’s 50,000 members to be denied […]