Perhaps John Key should consider a Churchillian thought before he rushes to send our young to die in Iraq.
The social democracy of my youth has radically collapsed into our current culture of individualism, privatisation and personal greed.
The Labour Local Government Council ran a hui last Friday in Wellington. I went along and it was one of the better Labour events I have been to in a long time – community-based organisers sharing and discussing what works. Crosby/Textor is onto it too.
Issues surrounding Mike Sabin highlight the handling of the matter by Andrew Little. With commendable restraint he chose to privately notify the Prime Minister’s office that one of his MPs faced problems. And his recollection of matters is clearly better than Key’s recollection.
An analysis of the timeline and a reading of Cameron Slater’s comments concerning Mike Sabin raises real questions about the veracity of what Key has been saying to the media. Update: It appears that David Garrett and Rodney Hide have expressed views wondering if Key’s statement about when he was told is actually correct. Update: And Matthew Hooton suggests that the Police may have advised the Government of the invesigation.
Now that Mike Sabin has resigned attention is on what John Key knew and when.
Labour have bounced back well from the disastrous election result. But how do they keep up the momentum?
Two positive pieces in The Herald today on Andrew Little’s leadership.
Twitter has gone berserk about an announced Green Party press conference for 11 am today. Initial speculation is that a Green MP may be standing down. Update: One News has tweeted Russell Norman has resigned as leader. Update: Russel’s Norman’s statement added.
Key’s state house asset sale policy doesn’t make sense at any level, and the questions are piling up…
John Key’s housing announcement contained very little new information. Work has been put in for the past couple of years in developing the policy. The net effect will be that the Government will have more money for other capital projects not related to emergency housing. It will keep its fingers crossed that charities can pick up the slack. And the risk is that not one new house will be constructed at a time of intense need.
Rob Salmond at Polity on Key – “Is he deluded, or is he being deliberately misleading?”…
The speech notes from Andrew Little’s State of the Nation speech delivered this morning
Metiria Turei’s speech prepared for delivery at Ratana has attracted some attention for her strong criticism of John Key’s revisionism of Aotearoa’s history in suggesting that Aotearoa was settled peaceably.
For the first time in ten years, reported cases of child abuse have declined. Minister Tolley and I are in agreement, that the […]
I think when justifying sending troops to Iraq the club John Key is really talking about is the group of right-wing political parties known as the International Democratic Union. Today Key chairs its Executive in Sarajevo, his first meeting as President. This move by Key to the IDU is calculated; he sees himself as leader of the world right-wing club and this is the first step to his international political career post New Zealand politics.
Yesterday Key justified our likely military intervention in Iraq as “the price” of being in “the club” with other Five Eyes countries.
Sometimes a simple graph is much more eloquent and powerful than a whole lot of words …
Guyon Espiner has a paywalled profile of Andrew Little up at The Listener.
Nick Smith today announced proposed changes to the Resource Management Act. It is likely he will resuscitate the reforms that were stalled after Peter Dunne refused to support them last year. ACT’s David Seymour has said he will support the changes even though he did not know what they are. Treasury are to release a paper with proposals for change. Updated lprent – yep National stupidity reprised.
Andrew Little will give his state of the nation speech on 28 January. What can we expect to see in it?
James Griffin has written a tongue in cheek article on what John Key should be doing this year. But the article is full of political fluff and has no real proposals for action. What should John Key be doing this year?
TV3 recently interviewed Cameron Brewer to provide adverse commentary on a story about Labour seeded by David Farrar and Cameron Slater. And they did not even mention Brewer’s links to the National Party.
The latest excuse for John Key deleting his texts wholesale is wafer-thin.
The United Kingdom is debating entry into the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which like the TPPA will allow investor-state disputes to be resolved by unappealable unaccountable private arbitration. George Monbiot in the Guardian describes the issue well and has suggestions on how the proposal can be challenged.
For family reasons he is stepping down… Nothing to see here says Chris Finlayson, great guy who did a great job. For national’s supporters of course there is far more importance in receiving speeding fines Woodhouse is moving quickly to say the enforcement is ambiguous. It appears that he sees a universal right to speed and kill people…
Political Scientists Bronwyn Hayward and Mark Boyd were interviewed on Radio New Zealand yesterday on New Zealand politics in 2014 and what happened during the election. They talked extensively on dirty politics, on the role of the media and how things can be improved in 2015.
Far from fading away into the Christmas haze, SkyCity looks likely to be one of the defining political issues for 2015.
You’d think that with all the WW1 commemorations going on at the moment it would make us more vigilant about our freedom and security, not sleep-walking towards another Holy Crusade (in the name of the God of Money and Father of Fossil Fuels), seduced by slick liars and the gods of commercialism and greed.
The recent handling of Charlie Hebdo by the Standard and by Kiwiblog provides a startling contrast. And neatly underlies the reality that the left wing blogs are in no way just the same as the right wing blogs despite what John Key may say.
Yesterday John Key condemned the attacking of journalists going about their daily work and said that it was an attack on the fourth estate and the democratic principles of freedom of speech and expression. But his track record on respecting the independence of journalists leaves a lot to be desired.
The slaying of staff at Charlie Hebdo and the killing of two police officers will no doubt cause further debate on the extent of freedom of speech, on our relations with Muslims and on the state’s powers of surveillance and if they should be increased.
Charlie Mitchell of the Dominion Post has analysed John Key’s formal speeches since 2007 to see what has from time to time been uppermost in Key’s mind. The results are interesting to say the least.
