How Not to Engage in Public Debate
The best way to engage in public debate on the lockdown is to be open, clear, and transparent and show the facts. A press release full of beliefs and reckons is unhelpful and irresponsible.
Media
the praiseworthy and the pitiful
Better footpaths and cycleways are a socialist inspired plot?
National MP Simon O’Connor thinks that making under used streets safer for walkers and cyclers is a Socialist inspired plan for world domination.
The end of partisan politics?
Throughout the world there is an increasing consensus emerging that the free market approach is failing and principled intelligent leadership from governments provide the optimum result.
Not a good day for an April Fool’s joke
David Farrar has shown that many of his commenters and followers do not understand satire.
Holding the Government to Account or Concern Trolling?
When Opposition Spokespersons behave like concern trolls, we have a problem.
M.I.A. Joe
America has a question.
A Welcome Change Coming.
There’s an increasing number of progressive and conservatives who are rediscovering their moral compass in these, the final days of unfettered liberalism.
National’s new conservation policy was previously announced in 2014
National has announced a “new” policy that it previously announced in 2014. And that has already been implemented.
Bernie by 6K.
Iowa and beyond.
Trump survives
Donald Trump has predictably been acquitted by the US Senate on the impeachment charges laid against him by the House of Representatives.
Pay the money back Simon
Simon Bridges has stated that National wants to pay the undeclared $100,000 donation back but even though nearly two years have passed since it was made it still remains unrepaid.
How low will Bridges go?
Simon Bridges has wondered out loud if anti semitism stopped the Government from sending a senior representative to a Holocaust memorial in Israel.
Federated Farmers launches petition against its business model
Federated Farmers has started a petition against an educational resource that teaches about climate change and activism because it does not present their industry in a sufficiently positive way.
National created more working groups than Labour
The Herald has reported that National in its first two years of Government created *more* working groups than Labour.
News Corp climate change denial attacked by (checks notes) James Murdoch …
News Corp has had a bad week in the media with many questioning its continued climate change denial and its support for politicians refusing to accept the reality of climate change. But the most surprising opposition has been expressed by Rupert Murdoch’s son and News Corp director James Murdoch.
A message for conservatives about climate change and nuclear power
David Farrar has criticised young people not for their passion about addressing climate change, but for not supporting nuclear power as a potential solution. Even though it is too risky, too expensive, and too late.
Australia is no longer the lucky country
Australia is arguably no longer the lucky country. And if it does not resolve its addiction to coal it may not have a future.
Bridges fights losing twitter battle with Nigel Latta
Simon Bridges’s twitter account has chosen to celebrate Christmas by engaging in a twitter spat with well known Media personality Nigel Latta. And has not fared well.
Crash ‘n Burn
A chuttering PM and…well, I guess being left speechless.
Right wing lies
New Zealand and the United Kingdom are both cursed with the right wing parties having the same advisors and similar means of campaigning
An Early Christmas.
Christian tradition dictates Christmas falls on the 25th of December. This year though, if we simply view Christmas through a lens of ‘good things happening’, then Christmas is coming early.
Learning to win fast
While Australia burns its conservative politicians still refuse to accept the enormity of the climate crisis and are acting to hinder and prevent measures that need to be taken to address what is a clear threat to the country’s future.
TWP – sorted?
A guest post from Chrissy Thomas on Te Whare Pounamu, Dunedin Women’s Refuge.
Truth, boomer memes and the next election campaign
Thanks to Facebook’s lax attitude to fact checking it appears that the next election campaign is going to be a rough one.
Sneaky Simon somersaults on support for Terrorism Bill
National has welched on a promise to support the Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill so that it can play politics with law and order issues.
About the $7.5 billion surplus
The announcement of a $7.5 billion surplus for the last fiscal year combined with a $5.5 billion surplus the year before proves once and for all that Steven Joyce’s claim of a $11.5 billion deficit in Labour’s costings was bollocks.
National’s faux outrage
The National Party has described as “censorship at the extreme” a rule in Parliament’s standing orders the latest version of which was enacted under the last National Government. Updated with Simon Bridges opposing the relaxation of the rule in 2017
Every day New Zealanders
Simon Bridges thinks that Jacinda Ardern’s international campaign to change the way that social media handles hate speech and terrorism a big talkfest that will achieve nothing, even though Facebook has as a result announced significant changes to its platform.
The Race to be the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee
Breaking it down.
National’s double standard
National has a rather murky past when it comes to dealing with issues relating to the behaviour of its Members of Parliament.
Toxic masculinity
As the Amazon burns and the world looks on aghast as our lungs go up in flames Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has chosen to respond to an offer of help from the G7 by picking a fight with French leader Emmanuel Macron.
Cmon Aussie …
In the last week Australia has insulted Pacific nations by refusing to commit to a 1.5 degree maximum increase in global temperatures and by claiming that Pacific Islands will be fine because they can pick Australia’s fruit. And Alan Jones has almost lost his job through misogynist attacks on Jacinda Ardern.
National still does not get MMP
National has shown that it does not understand MMP by being overly concerned that some electorates may be slightly bigger or smaller than other electorates.
Five days is a long time in politics
Five days ago Simon Bridges predicted that unemployment had gone up. The latest figures show that the unemployment rate is at its lowest rate for the past eleven years. Update: My enthusiasm was too high. It has been pointed out to me that the Bridges tweet was from last year. My apologies to Simon …
Later Whaleoil
The Whaleoil blog has announced that there will be no new blog posts on the site.
The unbelievable lightness of Simon Bridges
Simon Bridges has insulted women and Tokelauans at the same time with a thinly veiled attack on Jacinda Ardern.