Five people versus a billionaire
UK Labour has released a stunning advertisement on what happens if you give ordinary people more resources compared to if you give a billionaire a tax cut.
International
uk politics
Why we cannot afford to tolerate fascists
Inn the United Kingdom a neo nazi has been convicted of making plans to kill a female Labour Member of Parliament.
Brexit: May’s Remaining Options for Leaving
Theresa May is entering the Brexit death spiral. Her last real chance to get her own preferred deal over the line will happen in a Tory cabinet meeting overnight. But what are the other options?
UPDATE: May has now invited Jeremy Corbyn for talks on a soft Brexit. But will the Labour leader be in a mood to help?
The Brexit Fuster Cluck
Watching from the opposite side of the world it is hard to imagine how badly the Conservative Party has handled it. I mean […]
More political interference on Huawei
Here’s another one for the select committee reviewing foreign interference. Visitor from Britain Charlie Parton of the Royal United Services Institute was on Morning Report this morning telling us to avoid Huawei because they are Chinese and different from us. At least he does us a favour by making it clear the matter is political not technical.
Brexit Vote Live
Theresa May’s final Brexit deal is voted down by the UK Parliament. What next?
Magicked-Up Weapons
I’m glad Anne-Marie Brady will get the chance to present her “Magic Weapons” paper to the select committee examining the last election. At long last it might get given some proper critical examination, of its content as well as it provenance. In my opinion it reads like a long list of the blindingly obvious, mixed with a large dose of conspiracy theory. It certainly doesn’t show much sign of the sort of critical thinking one might expect from an academic.
Brexit; Labour Finally Backs A Second Referendum
Events in recent days have forced UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn into backing a second Brexit referendum. Labour are now aligned with the majority of British voters, but is it too little too late?
Musing on independent breakaways in the UK.
Britain has an interesting political system, one that in many respects we share. The effect is to realise new streams of political effect without revolution. Usually not as a result of actual electoral success, but because it causes shifts in the positions of the major parties that form the governments.
The Independent Group Grows
In the UK, 3 Conservative MP’s have now aligned themselves with the 8 dissenting Labour MP’s in the ‘Independent Group’. What does this mean for both parties and how will it affect Brexit?
What China crisis?
Claims that New Zealand is at a crisis point in terms of its relationship with China appear to be somewhat overegged.
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.
Is Brexit A Signal Of Decline?
What if Brexit is not a threat to democracy as a system of government or a threat to liberal values? And what if it is an example of British democracy’s best modern exemplars to the world of institutionalised democracy and the rule of all under the law since universal franchise was first granted?
No confidence?
Live feed of the UK debate in Parliament.
Beware the Ides of May
It’s D Day for Theresa May’s Brexit plan. Will Jeremy Corbyn finally put her out of our misery?
Brexit: Tories Lose Control of the House and the Process
Another day, another humiliating defeat for Theresa May. Surprisingly, the news is no better for Jeremy Corbyn.
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?
Go Democracy Go!
It’s going to be a strong year for democratic politics.
Random 2019 predictions …
What will happen in 2019?
The SPOTY’s 2018
Here’s your chance to vote in the Standard’s Politician of The Year awards. The SPOTY’s are recognised worldwide as the leading indicator of political success in NZ and have been awarded annually for over two hundred years.
Now it’s your turn to prick the Thorndon Bubble, dear reader. Who’s your Politician of the Year?
A Right Shambles
With the UK Tories self imploding, the US President contemplating jail time, Angela Merkel moving on and the conservative parties on both sides of the Tasman looking increasingly irrelevant, what should the left do to fill the gap?
Brexit vote on Tuesday
With a vote on the Brexit deal soon and with defeat a distinct possibility both Labour and the Conservatives need a Plan B and they need it inside 48 hours.
Pete Shelley: History is Made by Those Who Turn Up
Pete Shelley, lead singer of ground breaking punk band Buzzcocks has died. And Ed Sheeran still walks among us. Where’s the justice?
Spooked!
The GCSB ban on Spark’s use of Huawei technology means this government has gone from “honest broker” to poodle in a very short time. Pressure has been applied by the US and others, apparently fearing we are the “soft underbelly” of the Five Eyes spy network. Maybe its time we got out of that too – it was designed for war.
May’s Brexit
The unsolvable problem that is Brexit is reaching it’s denouement with Theresa May’s leadership on the line, talk of a no confidence motion, a very leaky cabinet, and no possible achievable resolution in sight.
Will there be a Brexit?
In short, I think not.
Quite a day or two then!
A quick smorgasbord of reported news from Syria, to China and Sweden, to antisemitism and (hidden behind the links) an interview with (hopefully) the first woman who will serve as President of the USA.
Updated
They got bailed out and we got sold out
Ros Wynne Jones in the Daily Mirror excoriates the excesses of the Banking system and wonders why the rest of us tolerate bankers’ behaviour.
Paranoia, Bullshit and Ordinary Lives.
It seems that for some, trashing out the lives of ordinary people is fine, because “Russia bad”. It’s not fine…
Is Politik a propaganda mouthpiece for the UK Embassy?
In Politik’s 7 September issue we are told that Western diplomats in Wellington are surprised that Winston Peters has not accused Russia of the Skripal poisoning or joined some other countries in taking reprisals. Editor Richard Harman quotes a source to tell us that the British in particular were “pissed” at Peters’ response. Well dearie me. I’m with Winston, a wise old owl.
US Mid Terms; Obama Enters the Ring
America gets ready to rumble in the November mid terms, as Barack Obama enters the ring. At stake is control of both houses and the fate of the Trump presidency.
Kremlin Killers?
UK Police have named the two Russian spies accused of the Novichok poisonings. But what can Britain do about it?
And the antisemites are…?
UK Labour adopted the IRHA definition of antisemitism in full, and…
Zionism and Anti-Semitism Both Suck
Jeremy Corbyn has a problem. His supporters are struggling to seperate anti-Zionism from anti-racism and the Tories can’t believe their luck. UK Labour desperately need to turn around the narrative that they’re tolerant of bigotry. And in just two days, a definition is going to define Corbyn.
Litigation and equal pay – a history of the 1950’s equal pay campaign
Forward In 2016 I wrote the below dissertation as part of my History Honours degree at Victoria University. This dissertation explores the 1950s […]
Finkelstein on Dame Hodge
“…if any – if any – of the rules that are now being implemented in the Labour Party have any meaning whatsoever… the first person who should be booted out of the Labour Party is Dame Hodge.” – Finkelstein.