The political honeymoon that keeps on ending
Media pundits are claiming on the evidence offered by one poll that the Government’s political honeymoon is over. But the same claim was made four months ago.
Politics
Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation
Photoshop Wars?
The Independent’s Robert Fisk reports from Douma, where he interviewed one of the clinic doctors who said that the images that outraged Trump, May and Macron were real, but the cause was oxygen starvation from dust, not poisonous gas. Could it be that misleading images started a bombing war? What might this say about Western values?
Compassion?
May claimed she couldn’t wait until Monday before unleashing compassion on Syria on Friday night. Which brought a line from this to mind….
The Northcote by-election
Labour and National have both selected their candidates for the Northcote by election. Labour’s candidate is Shanan Halbert who cut significantly into Jonathan Coleman’s majority at the last election.
The Government’s response to the Syrian crisis
Jacinda Ardern has accepted the US, UK and French response to the Syrian crisis. Should she have instead condemned it?
The Humanity.
Apparently “this lot” really do care about people.
What’s the Game?
What the hell are Macron, May and Trump playing at?
Global finance and climate change
The two greatest powers at work in the world right now are the roles of global finance, and climate change. In New Zealand we don’t yet see how these intersecting worlds of finance and climate change are interacting, or the government’s role in forming that interaction. But this is close.
Dear Judith burning Oil and Gas is the worst thing for the climate
National now seems to adopt the position that climate change is real and has to be addressed. But it is refusing to accept that to address the problem New Zealand is going to have to give up its reliance on oil and gas.
Homeless families are living in cars … and tents
Remember how early on during his reign as National leader John Key talked about the underclass and how they were a blight on New Zealand society? Well over the past year WINZ has been giving grants to homeless families to live in tents.
Is New Zealand really as ‘racist as fuck’?
I am inclined to believe that there are at least some New Zealanders who are as “racist as fuck”.
Government blocks off shore oil and gas drilling
The Government has announced that there will be no new offshore oil and gas exploration permits issued under the block offer process.
We did not know it would be this bad
Marama Davidson’s question to Jacinda Ardern in Parliament yesterday allowed Jacinda to outline the enormous mess the last National Government has left the country in.
What did we want from Marama Davidson?
While there has been some informed commentary on Marama Davidson’s ascension as co-leader of the Green Party, some of the more right-wing outfits have failed to understand the dynamics within the party right now. What did Marama promise, and what were Greens expecting of her?
The hidden infrastructure fiscal crisis gets real
Steven Joyce’s $11.7 billion fiscal hole is becoming more and more of a reality although it is in hidden infrastructure costs that National had suppressed in search of the elusive surplus.
immigration profiling
A data modelling programme that includes race and ethnicity as factors for consideration is a bad idea.
Explaining is losing (but only in politics)
Politics is war by other means and nobody likes losing.
Green Party female co-leader announcement: Marama Davidson (updated)
Marama Davidson is the new female co-leader. Speech and transcript, with a bit of analysis of what this means for the party and NZ politics.
Labour speaks up.
Partial transcript of a speech as reported in “The Independent”
Doofus of the week – April 7, 2018
Another easy decision. Gerry Brownlee wins for overseeing a $210 million blow out in EWC’s liability for Christchurch earthquake re-repair work and for being upset when Megan Woods called him on it.
North Korea redux
Does being incoherent work sometimes? With the President of North Korea visiting China for the first time, meeting with the South Korean President for the first time, and preparing to meet with the Japanese President and with the President of the United States, was Trump’s approach actually right for the circumstances?
Gaza
Is it the new by-word for silence?
Regrets, John Key’s had a few *
or more accurately one. A failed vanity flag referendum.
National’s strong economic management …
Between the crisis facing Middlemore Hospital’s buildings and the farce surrounding the cost of repairs of repairs of the Canterbury rebuild, National’s claim that it is a party of strong economic management looks at least misguided.
Tax is violence
Can we please now save David Seymour from his violent oppression and relieve him of his tax-funded salary?
Northland politicians want to drop more trucks into Auckland
Politik reports that some mayors from Northalnd are upset that they aren’t going to get a four lane boondoggle to feed more heavy trucks into traffic chaos that is the Auckland isthmus. They can stick their trucks up their body cavity of choice and learn to love rail. We don’t need more traffic in Auckland until we fix the disaster that National have left us.
Labour aims to make transport system more sustainable
The Government has released a draft Government Policy Statement on Transport for consultation. A radical shake up of the Transport system is being proposed.
Still in Denial.
General Tim Keating’s resignation.
This is extremely dangerous to our democracy
Make of this what you will.
The Largesse
April the first and second mark the days when those receiving entitlements receive a yearly increase in line with the CPI and the governments increase to Accommodation Supplement also comes into effect. So what does it all mean for those receiving entitlements?
Hallelujah Parliament to pass law allowing for wiping of convictions for engaging in homosexual behaviour
It is predicted that today Parliament will pass a law allowing for the expunging of convictions of adults for engaging in homosexual behaviour.
Evidence-based foreign policy
In the second stage of a false flag attack, facts go out the window and the sole issue becomes “are you for us or against us.” Our media and National Party politicians are well into this stage in the Skripal affair. But as questions mount and skeptics proliferate from all sides, Jacinda Ardern and Winston Peters may well be wiser than media advisers by not following blindly the western herd. 26 countries is not the whole world. Update: Porton Down unable to establish Novichok of Russian origin.
Hope – A powerful but dangerous tool.
Some interesting musings on hope and dashed hope by “Upper Hutt boy in London” – Nick Kelly.
The manufacturing of a narrative
The past week has seen the Herald focus on issues concerning Clare Curran to the almost exclusion of anything else, including the perilous state of our Health system and Kim Dotcom’s successful appeal against the last Government’s breach of his rights of privacy.
Love war, fear and hate.
Political power doesn’t respond well when those who are meant to be invisible decide to be visible.
Climate 2050
Highlights from the Climate 2050 event in Wellington last night.