Written By: - Date published: 8:36 pm, June 23rd, 2026 - 52 comments
An MI6 plant in my opinion. A hollow man, deeply duplicitous, a Zionist warmonger whose only job was to expunge the Labour left. He will not be missed or regretted.
Written By: - Date published: 11:41 am, May 11th, 2026 - 76 comments
That’s Starmer’s achievement, as the local elections show. He always was a muppet puppet; his string-pullers are much more sinister.
Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, May 6th, 2026 - 3 comments
From Friday 1 May 2026, no‑fault evictions are finally banned in England. The end of Section 21 marks a hard‑won victory for renters after years of campaigning, organising, and living under the constant threat of being forced from our homes without explanation. This change did not happen by accident — it happened because tenants, housing activists and communities refused to accept a system stacked against them.
Written By: - Date published: 5:53 pm, February 28th, 2026 - 29 comments
Hannah Spencer’s stunning win for the Greens in the the UK’s Gorton and Denton by-election has some lessons for political strategists here as well.
Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, February 4th, 2026 - 9 comments
When the coalition is treating the economy as a game, are they having fun?
Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, January 25th, 2026 - 47 comments
Ten months to go and there is no political party currently countering the sustained rise of New Zealand First.
Written By: - Date published: 8:27 pm, December 12th, 2025 - 25 comments
“The days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over.” White House National Security Strategy, 2025
Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, September 17th, 2025 - 95 comments
Some of the kids aren’t alright. What if Charlie Kirk’s murder wasn’t from the left or the right, but something else entirely?
Written By: - Date published: 6:41 pm, August 27th, 2025 - 19 comments
Everyone on the left can agree that we must change the government. Elliot Crossan argues that if Labour wins in 2026 and refuses to transform the system generating extreme inequality, NZ society will continue to fragment. Change the government. This is currently the unanimous goal of trade union leaders, left-wing politicians and progressive NGOs. At rallies, […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:15 pm, July 30th, 2025 - 17 comments
Zarah Sultana for one – she’s a star. Gaza for another – anti-zionism/semitism won’t work this time. 500,000 signed up in a week for a new party is impressive.
Written By: - Date published: 8:14 pm, March 15th, 2025 - 13 comments
By pursuing cuts, selling off assets to multinationals, enabling ACT’s attacks on the Treaty and cutting back on climate commitments, Luxon is guaranteeing that NZ will not be stable for long, writes Elliot Crossan.
Written By: - Date published: 3:36 pm, February 13th, 2025 - 159 comments
Well it didn’t take that long: from one SecDef to another in a matter of a month. It’s time for a rethink on Ukraine and much else.
Update: Hegseth’s speech video
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 pm, November 24th, 2024 - 30 comments
What is the game plan for the Coalition government? What characteristics can we observe and what is the “end game?”
Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, October 20th, 2024 - 24 comments
Elliot Crossan at System Change Aotearoa reviews the past year. Despite the tepid public support for this government’s problematic actions, he warns that ‘The Right Is United By Power — Don’t Underestimate Them’
Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, August 25th, 2024 - 28 comments
Roger Douglas, the most revolutionary minister in the postwar history of Aotearoa, knew how to exert change in three years. Rogernomics transformed the economy with dizzying speed, from protectionist welfare state to a neoliberal free market. Elliot Crossan argues that the left needs to take the same approach to end the era of neoliberalism.
Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, August 8th, 2024 - 68 comments
This is more hope than I have felt about humans in a long time
Written By: - Date published: 10:34 am, July 9th, 2024 - 12 comments
With all of the issues about Green party MPs, who have been having issues recently, I was intrigued to run across the article in the Guardian “Reform UK under pressure to prove all its candidates were real people” after the recent election in the UK.
Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, July 7th, 2024 - 79 comments
What should New Zealand Labour learn from UK Labour’s success in the recent election?
Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, July 5th, 2024 - 98 comments
A generic post to cover the United Kingdom election results as they come in. UPDATED
Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, July 2nd, 2024 - 13 comments
30 years ago, we had Dot Matrix printers, Windows 95 and brick cell phones. Today we live in a world of AI, Tik Tok and 5G. While technology changes have been embraced, including in political campaigns, strategies and methods to connect with voters seem stuck in the MS-DOSS era.
Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, June 16th, 2024 - 15 comments
Last weekend the EU elections saw a significant increase in support for the populist/alt-right in European elections.
I deliberately avoid using the term far-right. It would be too simplistic and inaccurate to paint a picture of Europe re-living the 1930s and entering fascism. It is not.
Written By: - Date published: 10:04 pm, June 10th, 2024 - 12 comments
The UK still has the First Past the Post Electoral system. Something New Zealand should have absolutely no nostalgia for. This means that, while the campaign is UK-wide, a lot of campaign activity is directed into constituencies that are deemed marginal. In marginal constituencies, a General Election brings a conveyor belt of the good and the great supporting their prospective parliamentary candidate. In “safe seats” voters get much less attention.
Written By: - Date published: 4:44 am, June 2nd, 2024 - 10 comments
I attended Faiza Shaheen’s impressive candidate launch in Chingford four years ago. She aimed to take on IDS and she dented his majority. Reselected two years ago by the local Labour Party, four days ago she was deselected by a 3-person kangaroo court from the party’s National Executive Committee.
Update: Faiza Shaheen to stand as an independent in Chingford.
Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, May 23rd, 2024 - 27 comments
“and they know it”
Written By: - Date published: 4:58 am, May 21st, 2024 - 16 comments
While I do not pick elections, I think it is safe to make this point. If Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party are holding on for a dramatic change in polling numbers, they are unlikely to see this happen. On current polling, even a 7% swing in their favour would not be enough to stop them from losing the election. Labour should not be complacent, but it is increasingly obvious that the voter coalition that helped the Conservatives win in 2019 has collapsed.
Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, May 2nd, 2024 - 2 comments
According to Zoopla, the average monthly rent in London as of April 2024 is £2,121. Council tax, internet, water and energy bills are usually on top of this and have increased significantly in the last two years. The average monthly income after tax is £2,902.50. This means most renters spend well over 2/3 of their income on rent and utility bills, with other costs like train fares and groceries many are left with very little disposable income each month.
Written By: - Date published: 1:56 am, April 22nd, 2024 - 23 comments
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark – the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory – gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held in Parliament’s old Legislative Chambers on April 18.
Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, April 21st, 2024 - 35 comments
Liz Truss’s short reign as UK Prime Minister foundered after her budget requiring borrowing to fund tax cuts was released. The budget tanked the UK economy and caused Truss’s resignation. This week amongst announcements of massive cuts it has emerged that the Government is also planning borrowing for tax cuts.
Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, April 2nd, 2024 - 55 comments
It appears almost inevitable that Keir Starmer will be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. But his taking the party to the right and an active drive to rid the party of left wingers raises the spectre that his Goverment would be a pale immitation of its predecessors.
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, February 17th, 2024 - 124 comments
The National Government’s repeal of the Three Waters Legislation and its pursuit of “new forms of infrastructure funding and financing” suggests that privatisation of water is on the drawing board.
Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, February 11th, 2024 - 9 comments
In March 2023, former Australian prime minister Paul Keating attracted significant media attention when he described AUKUS as a manifestation of the United States’s campaign to encircle China with hostile military allies and partners.
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