This post was written before Gaurav Sharma’s Herald article and should not be taken as validation of his comments. There are necessary bastards in political life, and in developed democracies compared to everywhere else ours are gentle as lambs
Andrea Vance’s book Blood Bath provides an insider’s view of the carnage that erupted in the National Party from 2017 to 2021. And while things have calmed down under Christopher Luxon’s his weaknesses, including his glossing over the importance of policy detail and his tendency to bag businesses has been noted.
Wellington protestors recent activities in torching a 100 year old Pohutukawa, burning a kid’s playground and threatening to occupy Wainuiomata Marae suggests they are being given PR advice by Vladimir Putin.
Complaints that the police are unnecessarily interfering with the Wellington Convoy’s right to protest appear to be vastly overstated.
The country is reaching an interesting stage in the vaccination programme where reluctant vaccinees will have to receive the jab to make sure that we reach herd immunity.
Judith Collins has insisted on travelling from Auckland to Wellington so she can stand and shout in an empty Parliament Chamber.
Last night it was revealed that National and Act had refused to agree to a proposed virtual Parliament sitting where questions could be asked, and instead wanted face to face meetings, even though this would mean a third of the country’s MPs travelling regularly to Wellington from a Covid delta hotspot.
David Seymour has done something even more embarrassing than twerking on Dancing with the Stars.
Today in distractions: David Carter is covering for Simon Bridges’ polling results by upsetting the whole idea of non-partisan accountability of the Government to Parliament in select comittees, I give some free advice to the National Party comms team knowing they won’t pull it off, and Mallard has lost patience with non-answers
Simon Bridges appears to have deliberately maligned the position of the speaker of the house of representatives, and did it before he had any cause to do so. While he may think that it is in the public interest to do so, he isn’t special. He should expect what every other social activist knows will happen. You suffer the consequences..
Newshub has released a further Jami-Lee Ross tape which contains a promise by Simon Bridges that if Ross stood down for health reasons he could come back in the new year and be promoted.
All eyes will be on National’s caucus meeting today. And Simon Bridges will need to explain what Jami-Lee Ross meant when he said that he had recorded a conversation where he was asked by Bridges to break the law.
After spending over a hundred thousand dollars on the inquiry into who leaked his travel information Simon Bridges now claims that he is no longer worried about who leaked his travel expense information.
Trevor Mallard has shut down one possible conclusion of National’s leak inquiry by conducting his own inquiry into his office which has concluded that the leak of Bridges’ travel information did not come from there.
The Herald claims to have been leaked a draft copy of the report into Meka Whaitiri. And the indications are that it may have come from a National Party source.
Jacinda Ardern is storming New York. In an interview has set out her beliefs on leadership and rebelled against the idea that politics should only be about scoring hits against opponents. National has replied by trying to score political hits against her.
Simon Bridges has now been leader of the Opposition for six months. What has he to show for his time? People are questioning his judgment over his fixation on who leaked his travel information early.
National intends to continue with its investigation into who the leaker of Simon Bridges’s travel expense information was
A review of events over the past two weeks about the strange case of the leaked travel expense information, the expensive inquiry and the depressed MP.
Radio New Zealand has stated that a National MP has confessed via anonymous texts to be the leaker of Simon Bridges’ travel expenses. And the information was provided by way of a leak.
Tracy Watkins and Tova O’Brien have both written articles criticising Simon Bridges’ handling of Limogate.
The Standard has unearthed advice provided by Crosby Textor to the National Party concerning the leak of Simon Bridges’ travel information.
National’s show down with Trevor Mallard today did not go as well as they hoped.
Paula Bennett stormed out of Parliament yesterday after Trevor Mallard correctly applied the standing orders and ruled out a question containing an unparliamentary term. And National has responded by questioning if Jacinda Ardern was actually described as a “silly little girl” but has refused to question its MPs.
National MPs have without notice refused to turn up to the House Committee of Parliament. Should they have their pay docked?
Nick Smith has been caught out by Trevor Mallard telling a porkie in Parliament.
