Why the Tories won the UK election?
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog
Politics
politicans
What if Trump wins again?
We may as well prepare ourselves for Trump overperforming his popularity again and winning. We’ve had to deal with left’s retreat in most of the world in 2019. So let’s prepare and plot some likely accelerated changes in Trump’s second term.
It Is the Thought That Counts
Antagonistic personalities are an obstacle to effective politics tackling major present problems.
T’was the day of Christmas
National’s social media team spent Christmas day deleting tweets suggesting there was any link between its MPs and members of the #turnardern campaign.
What Cheeto, Bojo and Scomo are up to
It has been a tough week for conservative leaders with Trump impeached and the evangelical magazine Christianity Today calling for his resignation, Johnson in the UK announcing voter fraud measures reminiscent of the American deep South, and in Australia Morrison being criticised for missing in action, upstaged by a 13 year old girl and pushing through protection for religious bigotry that Israel Folau would be pleased with.
The British Election result 2019
Democracy is a precious thing, and not something that can be taken for granted. Having an electoral system where every vote matters is crucial to creating a decent society. It is time that the UK started seriously debating electoral reform and how to improve its democratic systems.
Rush to Judgment redux
Barrister Maria Dew has delivered a strong conclusion in the report concerning allegations of sexual assault by one Labour Party member against another member. And Paula Bennett has not as yet apologised for her totally unfounded allegations against third parties.
No Right Turn: Impeached!
The US House of representatives has just voted to impeach Donald Trump.
Bridges fights losing twitter battle with Nigel Latta
Simon Bridges’s twitter account has chosen to celebrate Christmas by engaging in a twitter spat with well known Media personality Nigel Latta. And has not fared well.
How to counter angry boomer campaigns
The UK election was won not by Russian bots but by older voters with limited technical skills circulating poorly designed ads. What can be done in New Zealand to counter what is clearly a right wing campaign tactic?
What next after the White Island silence?
At 2.11pm on Monday December 16, New Zealanders are being invited to hold a minute’s silence to respect those who have died in the White Island/Whakaari explosion. Once that’s over, it’s time to start turning to what might occur to prevent this kind of disaster happening again.
Is it better to deliver in Government or better to shine?
Let’s frame this in leftie terms: can you get in, do grunty policy moves, and stay popular?
Free Broadband
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog
Brexit – sorry its not getting done anytime soon.
Can the Conservatives get brexit done by January 31st as they are promising in the election? The short answer is no. The slogan is catchy, and taps into public sentiment. But it is also pure unadulterated bullshit. If the Conservatives do form the next government these words will haunt them, especially Boris Johnson.
The Missing Millions
Millions of people and an entire region of the UK left out of polling calculations….
Thawing after the BRR
“The purpose of fiscal policy should be to ensure ongoing wellbeing for all and the health of our environment.”
Green Budget win backs public sector leadership on climate change
“We want to make sure hospitals, schools and other public institutions can use energy in a more climate-friendly way, cut emissions, and lower their energy bills.”
Pop Media Bullshit – another example.
It’s said that in times of war, the first casualty is truth. Well, since truth is taking such a pummeling these days, it follows that we are at war, no?
Then they came for public art
The conservative leadership in the United States and in Australia are both taking steps to attack the sustainability of public art. Shame on them.
The freedom to lie during an election campaign
Two recent National advertisements involving drastically inaccurate graphics have attracted attention. And at the same time National is opposing changes to the Electoral Law that would extend the time that it is an offence to publish a false and misleading advertisement during an election period.
The NHS and privatisation
The NHS is well loved by the British public. It is seen as something which makes British society decent and civilised. That the NHS is now stretched and badly underfunded is seen as a national outrage. Fears of even further privatisation of the NHS due to a US trade deal has unsurprisingly made the NHS the number one election issue.
Crash ‘n Burn
A chuttering PM and…well, I guess being left speechless.
Northern Ireland’s precarious peace
On Friday, UK leader of the opposition revealed a leaked Treasury Paper which undermines the Prime Ministers claims that there will be no checks on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. My earlier post on each of the party’s Brexit positions pointed out how critical Northern Ireland has been in the Brexit debate.
Can UK Labour do it?
Very unlikely. From the polls taken in the UK few hours ago, the Conservatives are in for an historic fourth consecutive term in Parliament.
The plastics problem
It’s easy to mock the government’s latest single-use plastics ban, but the comprehensive plan it arises from is impressive work from Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage, including the shift to systems thinking and the far reaching implications of the government adopting this approach.
The climate emergency and the UK election
The climate crisis is one of the greatest threats to life on our planet, and as Prime Minister Boris Johnson should have fronted this debate. By failing to do so, he has shown himself to be a weak and feeble leader. By not engaging on the critical issue of climate change, Boris Johnson has shown not only UK electors, but the world that he is a fool.
Scotland – does independence loom?
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog Scotland matters in the 2019 UK general election. Yet much of the electorate have little understanding of the […]
An Early Christmas.
Christian tradition dictates Christmas falls on the 25th of December. This year though, if we simply view Christmas through a lens of ‘good things happening’, then Christmas is coming early.
Time to become a republic
There are indications that Elizabeth the UK Queen may stand down from her office in the next two years. That may be the perfect time for Aotearoa New Zealand to cast aside constitutional provisions based on heredity and become constitutionally independent of the old country.
Little’s Electoral Bill a curate’s egg – good in parts
I’ve always liked Punch magazine’s famous cartoon “True humility” where the curate assures his bishop noticing his bad egg that parts of it are excellent. Most discussion on Little’s Bill has focused on the bad bits regarding foreign donations. The good bit requires all political ads online to be attributed.
Terror attack at London Bridge
With just over a week to go till the UK General Election, polls (which are questionable in reliability) show the race getting tighter. Expect lots of harsh word and dubious tactics. In all this, political operators shouldn’t forget that real people’s lives are impacted by events like terror attacks. Politicians from all sides need to think about their actions before trying to gain political points.
Government to ban foreign donations to political parties
The Government has announced that it will pass under urgency changes to the Electoral Law to ban overseas donations.
Why some MPs should not tweet
National MP Joanne Hayes has provided a textbook example of the perils of Twitter.
Whither Warren?
Is it too early to call negative odds on Elizabeth Warren’s candidacy?
Labour’s infrastructure spend announcement
Is the Government commitment to the budget responsibility rules weakening? Because at the Labour Party Conference Grant Robertson has indicated that the Government will shortly announce a big capital spend on infrastructure.
Labour Conference
It’s a weird moment for the Labour Party at Conference this weekend.