Bridges’ emotional junior staffer problem
The emotional junior staffer incident shows that National’s internal discipline is poor and that leaks are continuing.
politicans
Simon Bridges
National’s culture review shambles
National’s internal cultural review has been completed but two female MPs most affected by recent events were not interviewed.
The benefits of a Labour led Government
Today marks the day that the largest ever increase in the minimum wage will occur.
Simon Bridges is seeking to join the Labour Party
The Standard understands from two reliable sources that Simon Bridges has applied for membership of the Labour Party. More news as it comes to hand …
Reform of the SIS
Following the Christchurch Mosque murders there are strong calls for an inquiry into the SIS. But should it be given more power or should it be reformed to remove a pretty clear blind spot.
Adequate gun control and (almost) complete party support.
Now that I’ve had time to look through what has been implemented and what is proposed to happen with changes to gun laws and think about it. I’m almost satisfied. Since that so seldom happens that I suspect a gotcha, I’m now going to keep debugging until I am sure that it is actually as good as it looks.
Banning Rambo weapons not a knee-jerk
Passing stringent gun controls is far from a knee-jerk reaction to the Christchurch massacre – our politicians of all stripes have procrastinated over this ever since the 1990 Aramoana massacre. We already have the 13 recommendations of the 2017 Law & Order committee that were rejected. Let us at the very least now accept those.
National’s unfortunate misstatement about its migrant petition
National has been caught out in what is euphemistically called a misspeak about when it took its odious anti UN Migration pact petition down from its website. It said it was weeks before the Christchurch murders but it appears the petition was still live after the event.
Simon Bridges is distancing himself from Simon Bridges
Simon Bridges did the remarkable thing yesterday of distancing himself from his own party over events he had major involvement in.
Simon Bridges is rooting for the Greens*
Simon Bridges makes a passionate plea for the environment and for a mate.
The tax debate – Dogwhistle time
National has resorted to race baiting in its attempt to denigrate the Tax Working Group’s proposed capital gains tax.
Young people and climate change
School students are planning national protests against climate change on March 15, 2019. The response of some politicians to this news is less than optimal.
Simon Bridges’ twitter game
Why is Simon Bridges’ twitter account liking and retweeting his own tweets?
Why New Zealand needs a capital gains tax
Expert comment suggests that a capital gains tax will redress inequality, improve the economy and make housing more affordable.
Spare a thought for our poor impoverished landlords
Spare a thought for poor landlords who are aghast at the thought that they should have to share capital gains on properties they have purchased with no intent of making a capital gain.
What China crisis?
Claims that New Zealand is at a crisis point in terms of its relationship with China appear to be somewhat overegged.
The NZ National Party is the Wizard of Oz
The National Party is a sad, confused, slightly dazed white old man behind the curtain.
Walls and Bridges
It’s been a horror week for two leaders and a leader who will never be leader.
TRP casts a wary and weary eye over three political zombies whose time appears up.
And, oh, Jeremy Corbyn.
The leader has my full support
National’s message discipline on support for Leader Simon Bridges is strangely missing.
Pollwatch: 11/02/2019
Kia ora koutou readers, and welcome back to the first Pollwatch of 2019, and as our official Worst News™ will tell you, (okay, […]
Should We Fear Judith Collins?
So, it turns out Simon’s a dud. What do the Tories do about it? And can Judith Collins really make a difference?
Latest Reid Research poll result disastrous for National and Bridges
The latest Reid Research poll is disastrous for National.
Simon Bridges twitter game
Simon Bridges’ twitter account has been tweeting about unusual subjects lately.
Ross taunts Bridges about mental health system
Jami-Lee Ross has implied that Simon Bridges is being hypocritical in criticising a Government review into mental health.
What does the right have against Venezuela?
Simon Bridges has claimed that the Government is going to follow a “Venezuela model” in making much needed reform of the Polytechnic sector. But no one knows what he means.
The Meathead tax
National’s claim that the Government wants to impose a meat tax suffers from the reality that the Government has done no such thing and the proposal comes from an International collective of academics.
Show us the money Simon
Hopefully the media will ask of National the tough questions, like how it is going to increase spending in critical areas, pay down debt and give us a tax cut at the same time.
A detailed analysis of Simon Bridges’ state of the nation speech
As a public service the writers of the Standard provides you with this in depth analysis of the contents of Simon Bridges’ state of the nation speech delivered this afternoon.
The Blue Green oxymoron
National appears to be well advanced in the formation of a new puppet party, one with an environmental theme that will present a challenge to the Green Party.
About that $100,000 National Party donation
Fran O’Sullivan has correctly stated that the investigation of the $100,000 donation made to the National Party that was partitioned to hide it should be of much greater concern to the New Zealand Police than Sarah Dowie’s texts.
Herald names Dowie as the sender of that text to Jami-Lee Ross
Sarah Dowie has been identified as the MP under police investigation for sending the text to Jami-Lee Ross saying that he deserved to die.
National’s Jami-Lee Ross problem
Jami-Lee Ross has written a somewhat conciliatory facebook post which essentially confirms that he is not going to resign as an MP.
National starts political year beneficiary bashing
National has kicked off the year by reverting to type and engaging in a classic example of beneficiary bashing based on a distortion of official statistics.
Housing affordability and urban form
Hugh Pavletich thinks that Auckland’s housing crisis is because of restrictions on urban sprawl and that loosening up would be a good thing. I disagree.
Caption contest
Keep it seemly …
Political punditry in 2019
The media has recently reviewed its predictions from last year and made a few new ones. How did it go? And what is going to happen in the next 12 months?