And the Nats want this man in parliament?
I was just checking out the blogs and discovered this little gem on Kiwiblog: # Stephen Franks Says: February 16th, 2008 at 7:18 […]
Politics
political parties
Katherine’s tangible policy presence
It’s been a few days now since the announcement of Katherine Rich’s decision to stand down from politics, but articles such as in […]
The power behind the Nats’ message discipline
Had to laugh at this in The Herald on Rich’s retirement: She has told all her caucus colleagues only that morning that she’s […]
Rich reaction roundup
Colin Espiner reckons that Rich’s departure will hurt the Nats. “She represented”, he says, “precisely the sort of social liberal, moderate, youthful face […]
Peters’ reply to the PM’s statement
The Herald covers it pretty well: ‘He begins poetically – a narrator hooking an audience – with “furrowed brows in the dusty roads […]
National’s house of straw
Affordable housing is the topic de jour. The foundation of affordable housing in New Zealand and other developed nations has long been houses […]
The Dummies’ Guide to National’s wage policy
I never really understood how National planned to make wages grow because every time our man John Key is asked about our wage-gap […]
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 […]
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 […]
Clark targets housing affordability
In her speech today, the Prime Minister announced a slate of government plans on housing affordability. New land will be freed up for […]
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 […]
Peters ought to stop playing the race card
Winston Peters vexes me. He has a long list of worthy achievements, including free doctor visits for under sixes and crippling the last […]
Solution to wage-gap in hands of business
Larger (but still small) numbers of kiwis are leaving for Australia and higher incomes are part of the attraction. At the same time […]
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 […]
Greens/Maori Party cooperation good for the Left
The Maori Party and the Greens are discussing an informal alliance ahead of the election. This makes a lot of sense. The two […]
Cullen puts tax cuts in context
In a speech today to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce Cullen has further differentiated the role of tax cuts under National and Labour. […]
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 […]
Clare Curran takes Dunedin South
News just in reports that Clare Curran has won the Labour nomination in Dunedin South over former cabinet minister David Benson-Pope, Don Pryde, […]
Substance, not style
I don’t know if this is breaking some cyber protocol (oh, but I don’t much care if I am) but I want to […]
Dull
I haven’t had time to do a thorough analysis of Clark’s speech but from a quick once-over I can say with certainty that […]
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 […]
Nandor’s not standing
Green MP Nandor Tanczos announced today that he will not be putting his name forward as a candidate for this year’s election. Here’s […]
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 […]