Election date to be announced
So, Helen Clark is expected to announce the election date at 12.30. $20 says it’s November 8. UPDATE: The 8th it is. I’ll […]
Social issues
On morality
The Catholic Church has called for politicans to take a ‘moral stand’ on abortion, adoption by same-sex couples, gambling, embryonic stem-cell research, and euthanasia. […]
National: for a more confused future
On Sunday, John Key, apparently off-the-cuff, announced he would dismantle the Families Commission and give the money to church groups, who just happened […]
Introducing Campaign Hub 2008
Helena Catt, head of the Electoral Commission, says the EFA has had a ‘chilling effect’ on democratic participation. I’m convinced that that is […]
Nats’ leaked health policy full of holes
Having just read the National health policy and background paper released by Labour, a few things stand out to me. 1) There is […]
Mr Slippery at it again
An interesting interview between John Key and Wammo today. He starts out saying Labour is spending all its time talking about Owen Glenn […]
Nat health policy: more money for rich, fewer for poor
Jim Anderton is releasing elements of National’s health policy at Question Time: – Pharmac’s independent decisions could be overruled by politicians. – Private […]
The truth behind the Shawn Tan affair
For the last several weeks the EPMU has had to weather an extraordinary series of attacks from ACT, ACT candidate and EPMU employee […]
End of the line for Peters
Winston Peters will be wondering why he has let his political legacy be destroyed by not simply declaring donations that came from legal […]
What I want from a 4th term Labour-led Govt
With the election fast approaching, here’s a non-exhaustive list of policies I would like to see from a 4th term Labour-led Government. Hopefully, […]
Ashcroft’s donations a worry
Lord Ashcroft is a worry. Not just to John Key, who had to admit that he didn’t know why Ascroft had met him […]
What are National up to?
A puzzled reader sent me this question – what is National up to? Their environment policy is leaked, and John Key says that […]
Fewer bureaucrats
OK. They were laughably bad before but now they don’t even have the grammar correct. If you can count it, you use fewer: less […]
The hypocrisy of the Right
Today, we have National’s Judith Collins attacking the Government because the number of Kiwis on the unemployment benefit rose from 17,710 to 20,465 […]
Shambles
The leaks from within the National camp just keep on coming. Last night Trevor Mallard had the privilege of releasing National’s environment policy […]
Market failure
An article on Stuff today shows “Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale”. It’s based on research by Dr. Jamie Pearce […]
Roy Morgan shows Left ahead
John Key’s impatience to get the election over and done with makes a lot more sense in light of today’s Roy Morgan poll. […]
Why didn’t NZF use Nats’ donations playbook?
This business with donations from the Spencer Trust going to New Zealand First but not being declared. I find it hard to credit […]
Video: Nats wave goodbye to blue sky
Newly up from 08wire There’s something very powerful about that music and image combination….
ACC privatisation costs National support?
A reader just sent us this poll from NZ Doctor magazine (offline): If there was a snap election tomorrow, 38 per cent of […]
Why the rush?
We are, at a legal maximum, 72 days away from the election. The tradition is that the date is announced at least six weeks […]
Key, leadership, and the audacity of hope
Perhaps Mr Key is feeling a little regretful about comparing himself to Barack Obama. Certainly the chutzpah inherent in such a comparison has […]
Beyond parody
National’s new billboard. It’s like when your Dad tries to rap.
Are you positive?
Talking about the Nat billboard campaign on Wammo’s show this morning, Key said it was going to positive and on message*. Umm, when’s […]
It just gets worse
Just when you thought National’s billboard campaign couldn’t possibly get any weaker, reports emerge that their next one will say: “Get youth into […]
Metaphor (2)
So, the day after our post last week a couple of readers were in town and they came across Stephen Franks beside his […]
Dissection
OK, so there are limitless ways to mock the Nat’s ‘WW2 bombers flying to Chile’ billboard (send us yours to add to these […]
Russel Norman at Drinking Liberally Wgtn – tomorrow
The Drinking Liberally – Wellington email: By popular demand this Wednesday Drinking Liberally Wellington presents: Russel Norman – Co-leader of the Green Party. […]
Key: “I just followed what was in my diary”
TV3 revealed last night that John Key has recently met with billionaire Tory donor Lord Michael Ashcroft. Lord Ashcroft clearly preferred that the […]
Break open the trusts
As we’ve discussed earlier, it would be highly surprising if the investigations into NZF’s finances find any serious illegality. At worst, a failure to […]
Weak
Perhaps I’ve overestimated the National Party’s PR machine. I mean I’ve seen them run their C/T strategy pretty well and, as much as […]
Key- you like Obama? OK.. I’m the white Obama!
“I’m a bit like (Barack) Obama,” – Key Of course, National has been trying to link Key to Obama because Obama is probably […]
New York Times praises NZ on nukes
‘Let’s hear it for New Zealand’ exclaims the New York Times editorial. Why? Because New Zealand is leading a group of countries that […]
ToryAid: Wastewatch (4)
Because National has abandoned its wastewatch website, we keep track of the ‘waste’ National has promised to cut to pay for those magical, […]
Causes and effects
A series of graphs from the Social Report. First off, the unemployment rate When the unemployment goes up or down, the practical effect […]
Peters stands down
Peters has stood down. Clark has taken over his portfolios. It’s good that Peters appears to have accepted that this is a necessity […]