National: targeting the victim
So National’s latest tactic in the Richard Worth affair appears to have been to leak the identity of the first complainant against Richard […]
political parties
national
Crosby – Posturing with little substance
Lynton Crosby of the political spinners Crosby/Textor, who ‘advised’ both John Key and Don Brash, has finally given up on trying to pursue […]
Kneecapped
Until now, Melissa Lee’s only remaining selling point in this train wreck of a campaign has been that the party she’s standing for […]
Key endorses Banks
As if denying Aucklanders the chance to have their say on the super city wasn’t enough National now seems determined to tell them […]
Rhetoric & Reality 3: Crime
One of the most tedious and predictable right wing electoral tactics is to try and whip up a frenzy of fear about crime, […]
Brains Trust
Whaleoil, John Key, and Melissa Lee. National’s policy wonks discuss transport modalities in an oil- and carbon-constrained future.
Wait, didn’t he say ‘women’?
There’s still a lot of confusion on the Right, in particular, about the sequence of events in the Worth saga, so I’ve tried […]
Iz satisfard
hattip: Maia, Anthony Karinski
Nat discovers the virtues of listening
Here’s an exert from Nick Smith’s speech to the 2009 New Zealand Planning Institute Conference: I acknowledge, that while the bulk of submissions […]
If you’re gonna cut, make it clean
How titillating. Worth has resigned and he won’t say why. ‘Personal reasons’ eh? Heard that one before. Key’s not talking either. He describes […]
Transparency
Strange isn’t it that Key can support transparency yesterday but not today. Political expediency at its worst.
Worth’s gone
Link on Stuff. UPDATE: The “personal reasons” we know about so far: He personally profited from his trip to India to discuss aviation training. […]
Tip of the spear
You’ve done your job as a spin doctor when journalists start repeating your spin sub-consciously. The credit downgrade ‘issue’ is a great example. […]
Sweet rides
A few weeks back, in the best traditions of tabloid TV, Q+A took time to mention Lockwood’s ride, the macho muscle car Ford […]
Government waste
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the right when Labour and the Greens filibustered the other week to draw the […]
Here we go again
In the 1990’s the National government of the day dealt with recession by cutting spending. The tragic result was to suck cash out […]
Broken promises
National have already broken lots of pre-election promises and policies. Their policy to consult on local government and Auckland has been contemptuously ignored. […]
English and Key uncertain of Budget’s focus
If there was ever a phrase that this Government keeps reminding me of, it’s “couldn’t organize a piss-up in a brewery”. Today, on […]
History repeats for Mark Thomas
The irony is that Melissa Lee’s campaign manager, Mark Thomas, is no stranger to campaigns that start off with a hiss and a […]
On Auckland and Leningrad
The modern blitzkrieg [lightning war] was first tested in the Spanish civil war, refined in the invasions of European states that marked the beginning of WWII, […]
Smoke ’em out
Let’s give Brash his inquiry. The poor demented shell of a man thinks there’s some great conspiracy against him. He’s so deluded he even […]
Nat MPs distancing themselves from Super City
Remember – March against National’s undemocratic supercity Monday 25th, noon, Queen St [More info] National’s Paul Hutchison, whose Hunua electorate lies in Franklin, […]
Less firing, more hiring
The Herald reports today that TVNZ fired 90 employees following a letter from Broadcasting Minister Johnathan Coleman demanding that it raise its profitability. […]
National’s “supercity” policy lies
Remember – March against National’s undemocractic supercity Monday 25th, noon, Queen St Interesting to look back at National’s local government and Auckland policy before the election. […]
On the back foot
When a Government are having to defend their actions they are not setting the agenda, Given it is a week before National’s first budget […]
Teflon off: Key gets a mauling at Press Conference
John Key’s performance at this afternoon’s 4pm Press Conference was impressive. I’ve never heard so many, ‘don’t knows’, denials, ‘I can’t tell yous’, […]
One of these things is not like the other V
One of these things is not like the other One of these things is not quite the same. Can you guess which one […]
Kiwibob-each-way on Melissa’s video
Interesting comment on Melissa from Kiwiblog’s Farrar: There is also the issue of the video produced by her before the election, placed on […]
I can see South Auckland from my house! An interview with Melissa Lee
Did your company use NZ On Air money to produce a National Party promotional video? Look, I didn’t keep records of who was […]
“An indecent assault on numeracy”
Over at Public Address Keith Ng has a great post up on Labour and National’s tax regimes. Pretty graphs, accessible analysis and a […]
Lee down, under; about to be reborn
Melissa Lee’s recent interviews on Q+A, TV1, TV3 and RNZ proved once and for all that being able to read an autocue doesn’t mean […]
Why so afraid?
Labour asked for an urgent debate in the House today on the Waterview announcement. Smith denied it because the announcement hadn’t then taken […]
Melissa keeps on digging
Here’s Melissa Lee explaining on Checkpoint how her staff volunteered their time to produce a video for National Party list candidates: LEE: Well […]
The Nats’ campaign vid that you and I paid for
I figure the very least the Nats could do after spending our money on their asian-voter campaign video is to share it with […]
Melissa’s election expenses returned?
An interesting story on TV3 last night about potential for conflict of interest relating to Asia Down Under, a broadcasting company owned by […]
Hopeless
Anyone remember Helen Clark’s announcement during Labour’s election campaign that there would be no new significant spending promises: “We have judged it not prudent […]