The Election That Left One Third of Us Behind
No one should begrudge John Key and the National party the right to celebrate an impressive election victory. It is little consolation to […]
political parties
national
National’s promises to you. #1.
Nationals promises to you. #1.
The lurch to the right begins
Expect to see a lot of drastic rightwing policies this term as John Key redefines the term “centre ground.”
Looking Ahead
Win or lose, there are never any final battles in politics. A defeat simply means the firing of the starting gun for the […]
Three more years
This election result is not the end of the world for me – because I am very, very lucky.
Next time …
National has an outright majority and the left has gone backwards. Some thoughts on what may have happened.
Seat Watch – Epsom
Who will win Epsom? Will enough people rebel at John Key’s instruction to vote for the ACT candidate or will ACT’s extreme policies and Jaime Whyte’s weirdness mean that the people of Epsom will rebel and vote for Paul Goldsmith? Updated: Early, but the Act guy ahead.
“We may as well kiss democracy goodbye”
The words of the title of this post are those of the Ombudsman, reflecting on yet another typical Nat government scandal as broken by David Fisher in The Herald this morning.
Three final polls
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.
Vote Key, get Colin
With the latest poll results it’s basically a coin-toss whether a vote for National gets you Colin Craig and his extremist mates at the Cabinet table.
Stability vs Change
This election there are two very different visions of the future on offer. I know which I prefer.
Leader’s debate IV
The fourth and final leaders debate has now finished. John Key will be pleased at his decision to limit it to 30 minutes.
Jackal: A conspiracy theory too far
Over the last month John Key has been displaying behaviour of being a raving right wing conspiracy theorist. Over the weekend megalomaniacal John Key even said that he wants the governor general to stage a coup to allow him to remain in power. The Jackal summarises recent nutty right wing conspiracy theories from the PM and others.
Flashback post: Poetic justice
Irish Bill originally posted this on 1 December 2007. For no reason at all we thought it warranted a reprint, with a guest comment from David Farrar.
Eminem sues National
Eminem is suing the National Party for breaching his copyright in the song “Lose yourself” used by National in its campaign video. Stephen Joyce previously claimed that National had the full rights to use it. But it appears that this may not be the case. Update: There may be some interesting legal issues for National if it loses in terms of its spending cap and the Electoral Commission broadcast allocation.
The blowoff stream
The queue is enormous. But here is the feed. Thanks Selwyn for the link….. 19:05: Liala Harre has been improving her speaking since […]
John Key On Trial
The latest instalment in the saga of John Key’s struggle to maintain his image as someone above suspicion has produced the amazing spectacle […]
John Key planned our mass surveillance
John Key and National let the GCSB spend 12 months on plans to conduct our mass surveillance. Without telling us. And he intends to release the details now only for political considerations. Without Glenn Greenwald’s presence we probably would never have learned about this.
Jackal: A coalition with Winston Peters
Jackal has compiled a number of the reasons why NZ First and particularly Winston Peters are unlikely to form a coalition or even to support National and John Key. Probably the way that National through their sockpuppets Act, David Farrar, and Whaleoil attacked with spurious charges in 2008. That he came back must have been a shock…
Blue on the polls
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.
Greenwald on the GCSB
Glenn Greenwald has arrived in New Zealand and has been interviewed on the Nation. He has alleged that the GCSB is a fully fledged member of the 5 eyes network and has been engaged in mass surveillance of New Zealanders, contrary to assurances previously given by John Key.
Nat two track strategy – March to Sept
Nicky Hager has exposed the two track strategy of the Whale Oil, Kiwiblog, Nat smear machine. Why is it allowed to continue?
Donghua Liu Letter: More Dirty Politics
Frank Macskasy at the Daily Blog has produced a timeline on the 11 year old David Cunliffe – Donghua Liu letter that shows some more seriously dodgy Dirty Politics
Campbell: Reasons Why We Can’t Afford Another National Government
Gordon Campbell posted an excellent piece yesterday on 19 Reasons Why We Can’t Afford Another National Government. I’m sure that Standardistas can add to the list…
A clear Cunliffe win
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.
Cunliffe v Key – Round 3
Round three between David Cunliffe and John Key is scheduled for tonight. John Campbell will moderate and Paul Henry will provide expert comment …
The only way National know to grow the economy
On Firstline this morning, John Key tried to compare National’s and Labour’s policies by saying “You can’t grow the economy when you restrict labour laws.” It’s nonsense, and it’s scary.
Slater backs down
The Slater application for an injunction against various media outlets has been settled by the media agreeing to not to use information that was not in the public interest, including but not limited to Mr Slater’s wife, children, medical information, the death of his mother and other inherently personal information regarding Mr Slater and his friends. The way is now clear for further stories on Dirty Politics.
Emmerson – What they did in the shadows
Poverty a National disgrace
Advocacy groups are calling for action. People are marching for action. The parties of the left are ready to take action. Only National stands in the way.
NRT: That empty void again
A bit over a week ago, I complained about the empty void at the heart of the election: Nationals refusal to release policy. And it has struck again today, in the form of Nationals fiscal “plan”. We actually have a government seeking re-election while offering no specifics about what it intends to do in office. But don’t they have a lovely picture of John Key?
Polity: Key waves hands, insipidly
Nationals hypothetical tax cut package has not gone down well. People do not appear to like the fact that it is small, hypothetical, and irresponsible, all at once.This is what you get when you have a prime minister so weakly desperate for public approval that they make up policy by accident and then push that poor decision through their cabinet and caucus.
Nats useless on economy
The economy is a mess, the Nats have no ideas, and their current policies (e.g. hypothetical tax cuts) are getting laughed out of town. National is useless on the economy, and the sooner we the people wake up to this fact, the better off we will be.
What kind of government would National lead?
The choice for NZ voters is becoming clearer in the last days of the 2014 election. The irony is that after John Key’s scaremongering, our options are a three-headed coalition of natural allies versus a five-or-six headed hydra of extremists and sworn enemies.
Is National’s sleaze unit feeding the Slater again?
Cameron Slater, National’s attack blogger has written a sleaze post on Martyn Bradbury. This shows far too much intelligence for the ever lazy Cameron to have researched it. Has National’s research unit (into dirt) resumed using that sock puppet again? We should be able to look and find out which blackmailed journalists they touch up as this story progresses. Time to follow the dots.
Where is Jason Ede?
Jason Ede’s disappearance from public view suggests a cover up in response to Hager’s Dirty Politics. The book implicates Ede (past PM staffer) in a coordinated black ops smear machine working with blogs like Whale Oil. Key may need to come clean soon about some of Ede’s activities.