Ardern was right to hold back on Russia

Remember two weeks ago when Jacinda Ardern’s handling of the Russian poisoning scandal was considered to be a major misstep?  Well with the benefit of hindsight it appears to have been a very balanced nuanced response to an incident that is not as clear cut as it was presented.

Gaza

Is it the new by-word for silence?

National’s strong economic management …

Between the crisis facing Middlemore Hospital’s buildings and the farce surrounding the cost of repairs of repairs of the Canterbury rebuild, National’s claim that it is a party of strong economic management looks at least misguided.

The Largesse

April the first and second mark the days when those receiving entitlements receive a yearly increase in line with the CPI and the governments increase to Accommodation Supplement also comes into effect. So what does it all mean for those receiving entitlements?

The manufacturing of a narrative

The past week has seen the Herald focus on issues concerning Clare Curran to the almost exclusion of anything else, including the perilous state of our Health system and Kim Dotcom’s successful appeal against the last Government’s breach of his rights of privacy.

Love war, fear and hate.

Political power doesn’t respond well when those who are meant to be invisible decide to be visible.

Kiwibuild kicks off

The first big Kiwibuild announcement, 3 to 4,000 houses in Mt Albert has been made.  And National has responded that it was all their idea and they did not want to announce it because it would be seen as pork barrelling.

Du Plessis-Allan jumps the shark

Heather Du Plessis-Allan has suggested that there is a power struggle happening in the Labour Party.  Without the benefit of things normally considered to be important elements of an argument, those things being facts.

Doofus of the week – March 17, 2018

is awarded this week to Lisa Prager who is convinced that construction of cycleways in Auckland is part of a global conspiracy to take away our rights and whose sledge hammering technique is not optimal.

Simon Bridges’ not very good first week

In this very important first week Simon Bridges has committed two major blunders. He has claimed he was environmentally friendly when any view of his Ministerial history would confirm that this is not the case. And he forgot his Government oversaw the stripping of democratic rights from all prisoners, and adjusted his position when his error was pointed out.

Doofus of the week – March 3, 2018

David Seymour has created history by being the first person to win two doofuses of the week awards for blatant misogyny and disrespecting young kiwis who this week won olympic medals.

Some Trash.

Being anti-plastic is all the rage these days. How might business respond?

Facebook Bullshit

A very cursory glance at Facebook, Palantir Technologies, Cambridge Analytica, AggregateIQ, click bait, targeted ads…and what the hell is the FBI playing at?

Arm me with

Teachers in America have responded to Donald Trump’s proposal to arm teachers in response to the Parkland School massacre with a request that they be armed with anything but guns.

National’s meh leadership contest

National’s leadership contest is one week old.  The latest is a central edict that all candidates have to be nice to each other and a claim that candidates are not offering senior positions to MPs in exchange for their support.

Strong and decisive

Judith Collins has picked on the campaign term strong and decisive for behaviour better described as brutal and obdurate.

Beetrooted

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s future in politics is on the line as he responds to allegations of infidelity, hypocrisy and misuse of Government resources.

Doofus of the week

Doofus of the week is Bob Jones for spouting racist nonsense that would have been embarrassing in the 1960s let alone now.