Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, September 23rd, 2014 - 216 comments
David Cunliffe has just announced that he will seek to continue as leader of the Labour Party and will let the party decide. A contest for the leadership is almost inevitable.
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, September 23rd, 2014 - 282 comments
I’m pretty sure that David Cunliffe would win a members and affiliates vote. So suck it up MPs, stop playing your silly caucus games and do some frigging work this term rather than the self-indulgent posturing you wasted time with last term. We have to start building campaigning machinery as soon as possible. You are getting in the way.
Written By: - Date published: 3:18 pm, September 22nd, 2014 - 165 comments
No Right Turn points out the underlying truth of voting in an MMP environment. For the party electorate seats don’t matter much. Running electorate only campaigns are not productive. He is wrong in ascribing them no value. They provide a base for campaigning.
Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, September 22nd, 2014 - 482 comments
Greetings from the sanity of Dunedin North. Every pundit and their dog is opining on the lessons of Saturday, so I might as well have a go too.
Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, September 21st, 2014 - 145 comments
Win or lose, there are never any final battles in politics. A defeat simply means the firing of the starting gun for the next round in a never-ending struggle. And, especially for the left, it is the struggle that matters. Without that struggle and the effort that has gone into it, the values of fairness, […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, September 21st, 2014 - 141 comments
This election result is not the end of the world for me – because I am very, very lucky.
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, September 21st, 2014 - 174 comments
National has an outright majority and the left has gone backwards. Some thoughts on what may have happened.
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 pm, September 20th, 2014 - 4 comments
Moira Coatsworth, Labour Party President, sent this notice out to the members, supporters and volunteers.
Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, September 19th, 2014 - 5 comments
… with pre-election day fervour. It’s an election that’s going down to the wire. The energy is there for the left to keep talking to people, and to encourage as many as possible to get out and vote. It’s Suffrage Day – reporting via the telegraph in 1893 to the internet today. On-going updates
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, September 19th, 2014 - 98 comments
Three last polls and National’s support is declining, Labour’s improving and the Greens are stable. Things are getting very close with Winston Peters looking more and more likely to hold the balance of power. This election will be decided vote by vote.
Written By: - Date published: 6:50 pm, September 18th, 2014 - 61 comments
A special call to work from David Cunliffe. If you don’t already have an date with a political party of the left on Saturday, then the best thing you can do is to Firstly vote left (and maybe Labour). Find a party that can employ you constructively on Saturday on turning out the vote. Labour […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:22 am, September 18th, 2014 - 79 comments
This election there are two very different visions of the future on offer. I know which I prefer.
Written By: - Date published: 8:34 pm, September 17th, 2014 - 155 comments
The fourth and final leaders debate has now finished. John Key will be pleased at his decision to limit it to 30 minutes.
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, September 16th, 2014 - 15 comments
The Herald is scathing of Labour’s NZ Inc policy, which defies all logic and reason by assuming that there are better ways to build our economy than flogging off profitable assets, built by New Zealanders, to foreign investors.
Written By: - Date published: 12:04 pm, September 14th, 2014 - 62 comments
Landline polls are a traditional gripe for lefties. But this election polls look seriously out of whack with reality. Is National at 55%, 50%, 48% or 46%? But it’s always far too large for a party at National’s current stage in the political cycle. Just unbelievable and highly unlikely.
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, September 14th, 2014 - 119 comments
David Cunliffe has announced his final big policy. It’s called NZ Inc and it’s a bloody smart move.
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, September 13th, 2014 - 44 comments
John Key reckons increasing the minimum wage would hurt “the hairdressers in Levin or Foxton”. So Rob McCann, Labour’s candidate for Ōtaki, asked one how she felt about that.
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 pm, September 10th, 2014 - 141 comments
David Cunliffe’s performance in tonight’s head-to-head with John Key was exactly what I wanted to see from the next Labour Prime Minister of NZ.
Written By: - Date published: 8:01 pm, September 10th, 2014 - 87 comments
Round three between David Cunliffe and John Key is scheduled for tonight. John Campbell will moderate and Paul Henry will provide expert comment …
Written By: - Date published: 8:39 am, September 8th, 2014 - 30 comments
National is now talking up the possibility of a post election accommodation with the Conservative Party. But the thought of the Conservatives having a significant say in policy formation should make all progressives very afraid.
Written By: - Date published: 9:32 am, September 7th, 2014 - 19 comments
Scott feels we need to keep up the fight.
Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, September 6th, 2014 - 139 comments
Two weeks to go and polls suggest that National’s slide in the poll may be arrested. But for how long?
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, September 5th, 2014 - 13 comments
This morning Rob Salmond did a great post about the “big lie” – the spin coming from the Right that Labour hasn’t concentrated on policy, just dirty politics.
Like clockwork, David Farrar has a post up about the latest polls, suggesting “Their focus on hacked e-mails instead of policy is backfiring.”
Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, September 5th, 2014 - 44 comments
Rob Salmond looks at the Big Lie technique coming from the right and being gormlessly swallowed by some pundits. That Labour and the left aren’t talking about policy. They have been brimming over with policy. The right have vague possible ideas. Pundits are too obsessed in dirty politics to look at the detail of actual policies.
Written By: - Date published: 7:19 am, September 5th, 2014 - 64 comments
Labour are going to lead the next Government. So what’s a Tory voter to do to keep the damge to a minimum? If the possibility of Hone Harawira and Laila Harre being Ministers in the Cunliffe administration is keeping you up at night, then Te Reo Putake has the answer.
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, September 3rd, 2014 - 243 comments
So far National’s election campaign has been a train wreck. What was meant to be a leisurely walk to the finish line has turned into a limp. David Cunliffe is more than holding his own against John Key. And dirty politics is having a gradual corrosive effect on National’s support.
Written By: - Date published: 10:03 pm, August 31st, 2014 - 40 comments
Labour’s broadcasting policy includes setting up a new public service TV channel, to be located with RNZ, incorporating RNZ values. The Greens are open to the idea. NZ First has a similar policy. Laila Harre makes some good points about public broadcasting and industrial relations. [Update: RNZ report; video clip added]
Written By: - Date published: 3:46 pm, August 29th, 2014 - 8 comments
Roy Morgan has a poll out today looking at the issues affecting New Zealanders and therefore this election. Social inequality is rising as an issue as the world economy has stopped getting worse.
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, August 27th, 2014 - 69 comments
Labour’s Rainbow Policy got some attention for its promise to offer a third gender option on passports and drivers’ licences. Why is this a big deal?
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, August 27th, 2014 - 69 comments
The NZ Herald has been notable for the blind stupidity of their editorials since its formation in the 1860s and its enthusiastic fostering of the New Zealand civil war for short-term profit. Today’s editorial continues that long tradition of blind stupid ignorance by being surprised (yet again) at Labour’s long tradition of fiscal responsibility.
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, August 26th, 2014 - 7 comments
So National are both so out of ideas and so desperate to take the spotlight off their Dirty Politics that they’re now promising tax cuts. Tax cuts straight after we have a panel of our most prominent economists warning that the ‘rock star’ economy is going to hit the rocks.
Recent Comments