What will National’s cabinet look like?
Will it be the same tired old faces, the fresh noobs or a mixture of both? Will it be an all National cabinet […]
Politics
political parties
Fare thee well
Firstly I must say congratulations to the winners on the night, and sympathies to those who did not succeed. We may not hold […]
National Spinners
David Farrar wrote… “Funniest moment was talking to a few of John’s staff, and one of them asked whether their imminent transfer to […]
The distances between parties
Just before the election They Work For You released some impressive work on the voting distances between parties based on:- There are 110 […]
Congratulations
It’s been a hard fought campaign but it’s clear that we’ve got a firmly right wing government now. Congratulations are in order for […]
Making the decision
Have you still not decided who you’ll vote for? The final poll shows the race between a National/ACT/United Future or a Labour/Green/Progressive/Maori government […]
Greens’ closing broadcast
Via frogblog, the Greens’ closing campaign broadcast. I’d put Labour’s up too, but I can’t find it.
Pigs in muck
Yesterday, John Key was telling journalists that he knew the secret agenda taper, Kees Keizer, was a Labour Party activist. In fact, he […]
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 […]
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 […]
Vote smart: Winnie cleared but too late
New Zealand First has now been cleared by the Police or any illegal behaviour. That’s three from three but too late. I’ve never […]
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 […]
Advertising, getting it right and getting it wrong
Labour’s new ad is one of the best political ads I’ve seen. It’s just a really well written script: acknowledging the success of […]
How does ACT fit in?
I have my doubts about the veracity of Meurant’s statements as he is well known for bigging himself up as a hard man […]
Dunne’s deal?
The revelations in today’s Dompost that Peter Dunne’s United party took a donation from the Vela family shows again what a messy business […]
Vote smart: The micro parties
Last election, 7,000 people gave their votes to very small left-wing parties that never had any chance of winning a seat in Parliament. […]
End of Winston?
The Dominion Post has published some pretty damning evidence indicating Winston Peters’ connections with the Vela family. According to the Dom Winston’s right-hand […]
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” (*) […]
More redundancy protection
It’s good to see Labour turning its focus back onto policy (and particularly the economy) today with its announcement of a “job search […]
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.
No smoking gun
It turns out the Herald’s story about John Key’s H-fee involvement is a bust. Aside from Key not being straight with the dates […]
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 […]