Cheeky darkie Holmes at it again
In which racist Paul Holmes parades his prejudices. Again.
Social issues
Protests in the North and South
Yesterday, hundreds of parents protested cuts to early childhood education on Queen St and gave Phil Goff a 60,000 signature petition to take to Wellington. 1000 people in the Octagon called on the government to consider Kiwi jobs when awarding contracts. What is wrong with the priorities of this government that puts tax cuts ahead of kids and job?
Britain’s Watergate?
At a Downing Street press conference, Cameron said: “The deeper truth is this… because party leaders were so keen to win the support of newspapers we turned a blind eye to the need to get on top of the bad practices.” Cameron said he would have taken Rebekah Brooks’ resignation. Watch this space – others may now be seeking his. Just like Watergate, this story grows legs by the day and is now certain to be long-running. Cameron could well go the way of Nixon for the same reason – cover-up.
The case for raising super age
We are going to have to have this debate some time. Maybe it will be possible now that Labour has shown how to stare down supposed “electoral suicide”.
Murdoch could lose big
The phone-hacking story in England is not only out from under the carpet – it has gone ballistic. Now there are allegations the phones of families of slain soldiers were hacked. The fallout from the scandal is now hitting Murdoch’s pocket. Major advertisers are deserting his papers, his share price is dropping, and his takeover of BSkyB, the big prize, may be under threat. Comeuppance at long last, and where it hurts. Cameron won’t escape either.
Tai Poutini finds new funding stream
Te Tai Poutini Polytechnic is receiving an additional $750 million funding from Minister Steven Joyce after changing its name to the South Western Motorway.
Drunk in charge of the country?
An alert reader sent us this video of Wayne Mapp swaying, slurring and rambling his way through Question Time.
No Right Turn now has a post with some information saying that Mapp is not in the state what he appears to be in. Instead he is just being inept. We don’t know. Check it out yourself and make up your own mind.
Owning the agenda
Labour have started setting out a bold, fair and plausible policy framework for the election. Rumours of their tax policy have generated more interest and excitement than anything the National government has done in the last three wasted years.
$22 Billion minutiae
There can’t be many Kiwis who don’t know about the severity of the leaky homes crisis. Or can there? Oh don’t worry, he’s only the PM after all…
lprent: pushed this up the page again now that the program has aired.
Old editors don’t fade away – it’s a pity
Karl du Fresne attacked the general reaction to Alasdair Thompson’s views on women in the workforce in Tuesday’s DomPost. Those outraged were compared to Hitler, female journalists got a spray, as did the”spineless” EMA Board of Directors and “a former Prime Minister who apparently suffers from the delusion that she’s still the Queen Bee”. I don’t know why the DomPost keep him on. I think it’s time whoever’s in charge also got some spine.
Te Tai Tokerau final results good for Labour
The 1,916 special votes got pared to 769. Of which Hone Harawira got 454 and Kelvin Davis got 204. There really isn’t anything in it with a by-election majority of 1117. It will make this a tight contest at election time because Labour will now view this electorate as being quite winnable. IMHO as an long time electorate campaigner, some of the Mana supporters have been over-blowing their result.
Labour capital gains tax rumours
The buzz around the traps is that Labour will be announcing a capital gains tax next week. The journos are already calling it a bold move and John Key is ranting hysterically. That Labour’s winning the media battle is great but, more importantly, this is a much needed policy: it is fair, it is good for the economy, and it will pay for good policies.
The Big Push
There’s a march in Auckland on Saturday, to protest the government’s massive cuts to the Early Childhood Education sector, and proposal to end 20 hours free for 3-4 year-olds.
Rebel schools
Yesterday was crunch day for schools who oppose the governments national standards, and a surprising number have made a very bold stand. But according to Tolley: “Look, it’s election year, so anything goes”…
Herald shows gap narrowing
The latest Herald poll shows Labour + Greens at 42.7%, with National + ACT at 53.1% – the gap is down to 10.4% from 16.9% in May. That confirms the trend we’re seeing in the Roy Morgans as well. Interesting to note that the gap is 17% this point before the last election. Continued progress and focus on the big issues will see victory for the Left.
Happy ECE cuts day
The quality of children’s ECE care clearly influences their later development, and therefore helps to shape their entire lives. It’s probably the best investment any country can make, and the Nats are taking us backwards.
We All Have Our Vices
Yesterday, Dakta Green was sentenced to 8 months prison on drugs charges arising from The Daktory cannabis ‘dispensary’ that operated openly for 2 years in West Auckland. But what harm was caused to justify denying a man his freedom at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars to the taxpayer? More harm than other small vices?
Electioneering on the public dime?
According to Audrey Young: “National and Act, the parties that kicked up a stink in Opposition about Labour’s taxpayer-funded election advertising, are engaging in their own taxpayer-funded binge this month”…
Gutting the state housing system
No Right Turn on the Nats’ cynical plans. “And its here that National’s true goal becomes apparent: they’re planning to effectively gut the state housing system…”
Focus
Labour shouldn’t get distracted trying to stop a few votes going to Mana. (or racing benefit rorting bloggers, for that matter). If the worse thing post-election is needing Mana’s support to govern, Labour would be ecstatic. Concentrate on the real fight: getting back the 100K voters who voted Labour 3 times out of the last 4.
Democracy an expensive waste of time – Key
According to our Prime Minister democracy is simply an expensive waste of time. Not surprising as democracy isn’t exactly something this bully government gives a lot of thought to.
In other news
The spotlight was on Christchurch last week, and will be on Te Tai Tokerau over the weekend. Lots of stories are slipping by under the radar. But here are a couple of pieces that deserve further comment.
Rule by rentiers
Fascinating column by Paul Krugman in the NYT. America’s growth is slowing, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernancke has just anounced that he doesn’t understand why the recession is going on so long. Krugman’s focus is on employment, and he says that policy makers are catering almost exclusively to the interests of rentiers — those who derive lots of income from assets, who lent large sums of money in the past, often unwisely, but are now being protected from loss at everyone else’s expense. Sounds familiar here too – tax cuts at the top and asset sales to benefit the NZX.
That’s it?
Amazing what political pressure can do. Christchurch package was clearly put together in the space of a couple of days. Buy-out at GV the obvious basic solution but will see many out of pocket. Option 2 is an admission of that but only open to some. None of the fish-hooks have been worked out. What’s Gerry been doing all this time?
Christchurch offer roundup
The buy out offer comes as a relief for many (but not all) of the red zone residents. Twice as many are still in limbo. The fate of the uninsured will be a major issue. Is an uninsured resident of Avonside any less deserving of government help than an investor in a dodgy finance company?
Christchurch annoucement
Eddie called it. Christchurch announcement is today. There are very high hopes. Points to watch: how many in the ‘don’t know’ category & are payouts at pre-quake market values? Notable release is this afternoon just before Key leaves. Makes it difficult to get reaction from residents in time for TV news and follow-up with Key. This post will be updated after release.
Supreme Court 5-4 for WalMart in gender pay class action suit
The Supreme Court threw out a class action suit against WalMart alleging gender discrimination on a technicality – that the women had not proved that they were a deserving class for the purpose of the law. Reagan-Bush judges Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Alito and Roberts voted for WalMart; Clinton-Obama judges Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan for the women. This one will be back, that’s for sure.
River of Kiwis now flood to Oz
3300 Kiwis left for Australia last month, breaking a 32-year-old record. Remember when John Key promised to stop the flow of Kiwis across the Tasman? Well, now it’s a flood…
[and mostly it’s not from Christchurch either]
Polls and people
The Roy Morgan Polls are all over the place, at the moment, and the latest one has the Left at the bottom of the roller coaster. In other news, the Readers Digest survey of most trusted individuals, which this year is dominated by scientists!
Why blog?
In which r0b ponders why he blogs, and decides to come out. Very boring and predictable, I promise.
The war on drugs is lost
The Global Commission on Drug Policy have just released their latest report on the global war on drugs. Its message is quite simple; the war has failed, and it is time to begin new dialogue on what has become the greatest social failure of the last fifty years.
Lifting productivity
So, the statement of intent from the Ministry of Health has just been released. This document outlines how our health service will operate during the next three years; so what does it actually say? Is health truly safe under National?
Nats to slash wages
Patrick Gower has revealed the Nats are poised to announce a policy to reintroduce the youth minimum wage at a rate of about $10 an hour, and potentially make it apply to people in their 20s. Outrageous and a breach of human rights. You should get paid for the work you do. Not your gender. Not your ethnicity. Not your sexuality. Not your age.
Nats’ election strategy – all about Key
National’s election platform is pretty much out. It shows that National is very much dependent on Brand Key. They released the Budget and then the rest of their major policies in rapid-fire succession. This shows National doesn’t believe its policies are vote-winners. They want policy to take a backseat and all the focus on Key’s smile.
Scaremongering on credit cards
The Nats’ blogging poodles are still trying to spread disinformation about credit card details (we have the proof). Are they just stupid, or do they know they’re spreading lies? Either way it amounts to the same thing, they are deliberately trying to upset innocent members of the public. The usual scummy tactics.
The silence of the poodles
National’s first dirty tricks operation of the 2011 election campaign has ended in an embarrassing own goal. But they’ll be back with more of the same. Because the last thing National wants is an election campaign focused on the issues.