Shock revelation: Taper is Wellington Leftie
The secret taper has revealed himself as Kees Keizer, a leftie from Wellington. I spent quite a bit of time yesterday encouraging Keizer […]
political parties
national
Context
Yesterday morning on Sunrise, John Key was moaning that there is no context to the latest secret agenda tape, where Bill English praises […]
Democracy under attack
From Both Eyes Open: National Party candidate Stephen Franks’ campaign team has been systematically tearing down political posters put up by his opponents […]
Pork barrelling from the Nats
One of the virtues of New Zealand government has long been that we avoid US-style pork barrel politics. The Government sets the direction […]
Look! Over there!
The latest secret tape has come out and it’s a classic example of the face of the National Party that John Key doesn’t […]
Another Nat secret agenda tape
The Herald campaign updates reports that Clark has just had a private interview with TV3, appearently getting her response to the latest secret […]
Hypocrite
Watching Key tour Progressive Enterprises today was bad enough but watching him claim to support those workers in the leaders debate was sickening […]
Wages still growing strongly
Despite the recession, wages have continued to grow at a record rate and, crucially, faster than inflation. The average hourly rate was up […]
Side-show
I see the media are now comparing the ‘redundancy’ packages on offer with all of the horse race vigour they applied to the […]
Greenpeace converts John’s office
Some great political theatre from Greenpeace yesterday. A bunch of climate activists got up at the crack of dawn, plastered ready-made lawn around […]
Granny Herald yearns for good old days but democracy alive and well
The Herald is once again trying to convince us that everyone is so scared of the EFA that there is no poltiical participation […]
Tories’ crack at socialism a poor substitute
National’s redundancy package would effectively continue Working for Families payments for some people who would otherwise lose them after redunancy. Only people who […]
Whose record is better?
I found it weird that National’s attack ad is a series of newspaper headlines. Everyone knows newspaper headlines are sensationalist and everyone knows […]
Not exactly Jon Stewart
A new facebook group has started up called “I am killing a kitten for every person who votes for the Green Party” (*) […]
The Standard line: Tax cuts
[update: download this (tax-and-kiwisaver-calculator) simple excel table that will calculate tax cut and Kiwisaver losses under Labour and National, and the difference, for you and […]
Ripping the stuffing out
The CTU has released a second great youtube vid. Well worth a watch and emailing around.
Gone Flippin’
Slippery John’s flip-flops keep on coming. Here he is just three weeks ago in the Listener: “you either have a conflict of interest […]
A clear choice on ACC
If you vote National, United Future, or ACT, you will be voting for the ACC system to be privatised. Consequences of this include: […]
Chain gang
The Nats’ private prison scheme just gets worse. As No Right Turn points out prisons would be used to do contract work and […]
Prisons for profit
National’s announcement that it plans to privatise the prison system says a lot about the party’s underlying values. Say what you like about […]
Update on Brownlee
There are substantive policy issues such as National’s privatisation plans for the prisons that need to be covered but, first, an update on […]
Standard scoop: Another senior Nat failed to disclose conflicts
Last month, Key lied when he was asked whether he had more Tranzrail shares, over which he had failed to declare his conflict […]
Standard Scoop: Key exposed again on secret shares and Tranzrail
When the Tranzrail shares came to light, Key was asked whether he had any other undisclosed shares entailing a conflict of interest. He […]
On moral mandates
So, let me get this straight. The Right says that the minor parties have to support a National-led government if National gets more […]
Here be dragons
So, we can all make up dumb pictures and say ‘beware of many-headed monsters’. Let’s, instead, ask if National’s attack makes sense. First, […]
Fact checkin’ – five-headed monsters
The New Zealand Herald is, as usual, uncritically repeating John Key’s latest lines on the front page of its website. This time Key’s […]
The Standard line: Kiwisaver
So, you’re talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it’s wrong but you don’t […]
The Standard line: Photoshop
So, you’re talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it’s wrong but you don’t […]
Don’t dream, it’s over
I’ve always regarded the possibility of a National-Maori Party governing arrangement as absurd, even grotesque. The interests of the Maori people, who are […]
National’s ‘redneck element’
In the heat of the Lockwood Smith controversy yesterday, some of our right-wing readers had a go at John A for posting a […]
Green laffs
Russel Norman at Drinking Liberally – Auckland last night on Lockwood Smith: Lockwood may think all Asians have small hands but what we […]
Wait, what’s the RSE?
OK, we’ve reported on, given historical context to, and mocked Lockwood Smith’s racist comments about seasonal migrant workers. Now, to the substance of […]
Nats: instilling the work ethic early
Lockwood Smith has unveiled more National workforce innovations. In addition to favouring Asian seasonal migrants over Polynesians because their hands are smaller, Smith […]
Nats on Pacific workers in the 70s
Galumalemana Alfred Hunkin says Lockwood Smith’s statements about Pacific workers are an example of the sorts of comments made in the 70s. Here’s […]
Scratch a Tory…
…and you still reveal a bigot, it seems. Here is National’s Immigration spokesperson, Lockwood Smith, (he who likes to swallow dead fish) on […]
Highly principled statements
Yesterday, Bill ‘do whatever it takes to win’ English was out trying to assuage Kiwis fears of National’s secret agenda (which his recorded […]