National’s last moderate falls on her sword
Katherine Rich was one of only 2 women on National’s front bench and its last moderate MP. The only surprise in her resignation […]
political parties
national
Rich resignation a huge blow for the Nats
The Press reports that “Senior National front-bencher Katherine Rich has resigned her education portfolio and will quit politics altogether at the election…” Rich […]
Key conjures up cuts
John Key tells us that he would cut ‘wasteful government spending’ to pay for upper-bracket tax cuts bigger than Labour’s cuts. But do […]
Getting ALL the facts right
This contribution was sent through by a reader who did some digging after reading that Helen Clark’s research is letting her down in […]
KiwiSaver – what if…
Kiwis are showing their canny side in the way we’ve been flocking to sign up to KiwiSaver – now over 400,000 strong and […]
Spot the difference
I’ve just had a chance to read Key’s speech properly. Call me a nit-picker but I don’t reckon it was a “state of […]
Mobile democracy
Another release on the state-owned telecommunications company Kordia from Murry McCully this morning which starts: Helen Clark’s claim that Kordia’s cellphone tower work […]
Dead rats
This cartoon from Moreu got me thinking… If interest free student loans, Kiwisaver and Kiwibank are dead rats for the Nats, what the […]
Key speech: strategic blunder?
So this is John Key’s ambition: throwing troubled teens in boot camp, beating up on beneficiaries and criminalising our children. I’ve only had […]
Apologies for Burqa Bob
It would appear David Farrar is deeply concerned about the amount of traffic his mate Bill has been drumming up for The Standard […]
Burqa Bob to stand in Tauranga
After much speculation, National MP Bob Clarkson has finally announced he will be standing again in Tauranga, apparently to work on housing affordability […]
An emerging threat to MMP?
After Brash and the extreme right were exposed in The Hollow Men the Nats changed their leader hoping for a fresh start. What’s […]
Same old faces, same old tactics
Well it looks like Free Speech Coalition founder Cameron Slater has taken a break from stalking John Minto and photoshopping underage bloggers’ faces […]
They just don’t learn
I see the Free Speech Coalition hasn’t learned anything from the ramshackle PR fiasco that was their launch and have posted up another […]
What’s National cooking up for 2008?
Well, I saw my first Farrar billboard in the real two days ago and I gotta tell you I laughed. I was with […]
Granny Herald (finally) outs Julian Robertson as National donor
In a front-page article about New Year’s honours focussing on expatriate Kiwi Owen Glenn’s contribution to the Labour Party, Auckland University, and numerous […]
A photo finish
I have glimpsed the future. I know how Election 08 will play out. It will be a thriller, going down to the wire. […]
National disses minimum wage
National’s comments on the minimum wage show a party that has no answers on how to close the wage gap with Australia. Just […]
National has worst behaved MPs
Trevor Mallard’s had all the press but it’s the National Party MPs who have been battling it out all year for top spot […]
Billboard shambles
Here’s some coverage from TV1 last night on what’s looking more and more like a PR disaster for National, Farrar and their wealthy […]
DPF’s bloody good deal
There’s plenty of comment about Davey’s/National’s Billboards here and at Blogblog so I’ll not bore you with my analysis of these dreadful things. […]
Same old National
The National Party have reverted to type. They’re back to stoking the politics of fear and division. Anyone who thought that things might […]
Two drunk backbenchers
A mate of mine had a rather interesting run-in last night with a couple of drunken Tory backbenchers. Here’s what happened: Last night […]
National reopens Selwyn race
Local Nats don’t want David Carter as their candidate for Selwyn. Looks like the threats, intimidation and bullying tactics used to get him […]
No democracy for the Selwyn National Party?
Colin Espiner has a story in yesterday’s Press saying that the heads of three National Party branches in the Canterbury district supported by […]
National and the wage gap
I see National’s complaining about the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia again. As usual they have no answers on what to […]
Style over substance: no real answers
In a continuation of Key’s “style over substance” policy approach, his consultants have found him a new buzzword – “infrastructure”. “Australia’s been more […]
Petty politicking and the Xinyao tragedy
Reuters reports that the death toll from China’s Xinyao mine tragedy has now surpassed the 100 mark after 50 rescue workers were sent […]
A decade since Shipley
How remiss of us! Our pals over at Kiwiblogblog have just pointed out that we’ve just missed the 10 year anniversary since Jenny […]
2007 Trans-Tasman MP rankings
So DPF’s given his predictable take on this year’s Trans-Tasman MP rankings (PDF – 150K). Now averages are one thing but more interesting […]
National filibustering EFB
So it’s official: National is filibustering the Electoral Finance Bill. This really is childish, and it’s directly at odds with what Bill English […]
National’s spin doesn’t stack up
National’s attempt to spin its way out of John Key’s DVD debacle doesn’t stack up. Here’s the official line: National’s campaign manager Jo […]
Lord Keith of Kinloch
Am halfway through “Kiwi Keith”, Barry Gustafson’s portrait of our third-longest serving Prime Minister. He obviously had something, as he was picked out […]
The accidental MPs
A short while back Bob Clarkson effectively admitted to having no idea what he was doing in Parliament. Now he’s thinking of standing […]
Same song? You decide.
powered by ODEO National needs to come clean and stop misleading the public. The Herald reported yesterday that “National Party campaign manager Jo […]
Poetic justice?
Remember when the National Party threatened the Standard with copyright infringement? Nothing ever came of it of course because we had the fair […]