News coverage of English revelations
Here’s the segment on the English meltdown from TV One last night. [I wanted to put up TV3’s as well – it’s good […]
Politics
political parties
Sarcophagus
After a stunning attack on John Key last night, Bill English is now reverting to more standard National techniques for handling ‘accidental frankness’. […]
Meltdown
The English tape has exploded into a massive scandal. You’ll be familiar with the content of the recording: – English mocks voters as […]
Hilarious
Greens on National’s plan to borrow to build more roads: “Lonely dinosaur seeks white elephant“
Spin-busting: ‘A growth problem, not a debt problem’
To justify borrowing for tax cuts, National’s new line is that New Zealand has ‘a growth problem, not a debt problem’. Untrue. (source) […]
Behind closed doors
The scandal over Bill English’s comments at the National Party conference has not only overshadowed Key’s purposely vague conference announcements, it has derailed […]
Key’s vision: tax cuts for rich, more debt for youse
In a speech described by attendees as ‘more bullet points’, John Key announced to the National Party conference today that National would borrow $5 […]
A quick Brethren reference
At last an upfront acknowledgement of the Exclusive Brethren’s support for National during the 2005 election campaign. According to Colin Espiner: Day One of […]
Spinbusting: Nats’ borrowing not for tax cuts
Today, Bill English is outlining National’s plan to undo the work of the past fifteen years and take this country further into debt. […]
Workers stand up for their rights, Nats still evasive
The EPMU launched its ‘Work Rights Wage Drive’ today with a rally in Christchurch. Despite the rain, over 1500 Kiwi workers turned out […]
Old boys’ club
John Key: “We don’t have enough women in our caucus, so we’ve had to start cross-dressing” (Press, June 9, 2007) He’s not wrong […]
Lucky Aussies, they kept their work rights
Some of our friends on the Right have been putting themselves through strange mental contortions over the recent series of posts we’ve had […]
Sickening
Speaking in Rotorua earlier this week, John Key offered the following reason why you should vote for him to be Prime Minister: “The only […]
Winston and the wanker
Today’s front-page story in the DominionPost on New Zealand First is a complete beat-up. It starts off: More questions have been raised about […]
Flip-flops, it’s a matter of trust
I believe there are three core criteria on which a politician or party needs to be judged: (in no particular order) – policy, […]
EPMU cleared to campaign
The Electoral Commission has decided the EPMU can register as a third party under the Electoral Finance Act despite the National Party spending […]
Electoral Finance Act victory for free speech
The Electoral Commission has ruled that several unions affiliated to the Labour Party are able to register as third parties under the Electoral […]
Larger slice of the cake for workers under Labour
The essential debate in New Zealand politics (and all capitalist economies) is between Right and Left over how big a share of the […]
CTU critiques National’s employment policy
Last week the Council of Trade Unions issued a devastating point-by-point critique of National’s ACC policy. Now they’ve followed up with an excellent […]
Searching for the right answer
Hint: it ain’t chocolate.
Why Labour thinks it can win again
Here’s a well-reasoned article by Therese Arseneau in which she canvasses the reasons behind Labour thinking it can still win. She puts it down to: […]
The conservative brotherhood
Eddie’s already posted on the scripts the Tories in the UK used when it came to explaining (away) their associations with dodgy political […]
Fact: The Left has risen wages during its time in power
Inevitably, reaction from some to the post showing incomes fell 6.1% under National between 1990 and 1997 has not been horror at the […]
Fact: Nats cut wages last time they were in power
For anyone who still doesn’t want to believe that National cut incomes for most Kiwis last time they were in power (and would […]
Will the real National policy please stand up?
A reader noticed a difference between National’s workplace policy as quoted by us and as quoted elsewhere. We and some others have: “Continue […]
Reaction roundup: Nats’ work rights policy
Democratic, voluntary organisations of workers: Finsec: “Within the current framework, many workers have been able to achieve real wage increases like the 5% […]
Pride in your work
Some of our rightwing commentators are rejecting the argument that National’s ‘workplace policy’ strips workers of their rights. Problem is, every workers’ rights […]
Between the lines: Nats’ work rights policy
You know you’re in for a treat when a political party’s ‘policy’ (I still refuse to consider half a dozen bullet points a […]
Open up the trusts
Bob Jones confirmed on Morning Report that he gave $25,000 in 2005 to New Zealand First. The money was to be funnelled to […]
Previewing National’s employment policy
Word around the traps is that National is going to be releasing its industrial relations policy this afternoon. My prediction is the policy […]
Between the lines: Nats’ outdoor rec policy
The ‘policies’ National is releasing are nothing more than bullet points but we know from a number of slips that these vague one-pagers […]
The Peters saga, a summary
1 – In 2005, Owen Glenn paid $100,000 towards a legal defence fund for a case in Peters’ name. 2 – Peters was […]
Personality cult
Some of our friends on the National Party end of the blogosphere have developed a rather odd habit over the years of referring to […]
The War on P
National Party strategist and Dominion Post columnist Richard Long declared war on “P” today. The “P’” word that is. Privatisation. Labour and the […]
Chasing Peters, it’s easier than examining policy
For my part, I don’t see the big deal in all this Peters donation stuff. Transparency in election funding is important (and it’s […]
Will you vote for higher levies?
If National wins the election, it will privatise the Work Account of ACC (and maybe other ‘profitable’ accounts). We know that this may […]