National ‘bereft of compassion’
That is the reported view of the secretary of the Sikh Council of New Zealand in response to some attention grabbing behaviour from […]
Social issues
Matt McCarten from the Herald on Sunday
Worth a read: Remember when George Bush’s administration promised the world that the invasion of Iraq would be over in a few weeks? […]
Key’s slippery promises on waste
National has staked it all on delivering bigger tax cuts than Labour. To remain credible, they need to deliver $20 a week on […]
Why is reported violent crime up?
As you know, crime is down in New Zealand, which is not surprising – crime is a symptom of social deprivation and we’ve […]
The dark side of the Right
Trotter is on the money today: …[A]ll of you young, confident women of the 21st century urgently need to pause and reflect upon […]
Treating the voters like children
Keith Holyoake used to say “tell the people, trust the people”; be honest about the benefits, trade-offs, and costs of policies and trust the people […]
The wage gap and the Nats’ crediblity gap
Remember when National was all about the wage gap, whinging about it every day? Heard them talk about it lately? The last mention […]
Why Key really wants super-fast broadband
Remember National’s broadband ‘plan’ that reads like it was drawn up on the back of a napkin? Notice how the only gains they […]
Lovin’ our corner of the world
Wanting something that’s great to be even better is no bad thing – but the Mercer 2008 Quality of Living survey our today […]
If you’re against abortion then kindly don’t have one
Today we’re proud to present a guest post from Julie Fairey, often found posting at The Hand Mirror: I’m trying to see the […]
Body image gone bad
We’re used to the importance of presentation in the world of politics, but no-one does it quite so blatently as the fashion world. We’ve […]
The vision thing
No sensible analysis could conclude that the Labour-led governments of the last 8 years have been anything but excellent for New Zealand. As […]
Spinbusting: the biggest party must govern
A National line that is doing the rounds goes that if National wins more votes than Labour but can’t govern alone it would […]
What’s Behind Key’s Cheesy Grin?
Ever since Labour’s budget was released, John Key has been talking cheese. I’ve been wondering why all his talk of blocks of cheese has been […]
Bubbles and empty spaces
John Key’s policy vacuum is such a joke that even the ad-men are using it for comic material. Have a listen. powered by […]
How Obama did it
Time has a special report on how Obama “become the first Democratic insurgent in a generation… to knock off the party’s establishment front-runner”. Obama’s […]
Into the void: examining National’s ‘policies’
National’s so-called policies are laughable. National says it has released ’14 policies’ (14! wow! anyone would think they were planning to run a scout […]
Food Police State fails to eventuate
Remember the tories and the Kiwiblog Right getting all flustered about the ‘Food Police’, when guidelines were announced to control junk food in […]
Ward sees sense
Good on Mike Ward for finally seeing sense and stepping aside, allowing Greens co-leader Russel Norman to enter Parliament replacing Nandor Tanczos. Norman […]
How much did Key pay for his seat?
It’s funny the stories you hear when you’re out in the provinces. I was up in Auckland over the long weekend and came […]
Labour re-opens Botany
Brenden Sheehan, the high profile spokesperson for the Muliaga family has withdrawn as Labour’s candidate in Botany. A press release put out by […]
Advice for future aides
Those interested in the political situation in the States will be wanting to read the new book written by Scott McClellan (former White House press […]
Treasury dreams of cheap oil
This is the graph of the oil price forecasts Treasury used to underpin its fiscal model for the Budget. It assumes that oil […]
Bo Diddley RIP
Rock’n’roll pioneer Bo Diddley has died of heart failure, aged 79. Here’s a little something to remember him by (ignore the crazy Dutch […]
What’s National’s real assets policy?
Isn’t this the one issue where we truly know what National will do? Didn’t John Key say ‘there will be no asset sales […]
Butting out
The Government has announced that the percentage of kiwi adults who smoke has fallen to 19.9%. The number of daily smokers is down from […]
Ryall: disgraceful
National’s Tony Ryall has made a disgrace of himself, yet again. This time, by labelling a Government initiative to hasten improvements in the […]
Yet more government waste
Following a series of National Party questions to the house the Herald has discovered the Labour government has spent nearly $27K on sausage […]
Farrar’s company, Curia, polls for Family First
I’d thought at the time that it seemed a little odd for David Farrar to pass up a free hit regarding the Family […]
Key: Vietnam War was “right thing to do”
Yesterday, the leaders of the parliamentary parties apologised to the veterans of the Vietnam War for the treatment they received both while fighting […]
“pretty similar”
I noticed an interesting comment from Ferdinand in our Kiwisaver thread yesterday: I signed up to Kiwisaver based on the 4% employer contribution […]
Kremlinology: National and Kiwisaver
National’s refusal to say what it stands for is becoming so ridiculous we have resorted to the Cold War art of Kremlinology. Today, […]
Reality check
Housing NZ’s decision to hold a conference for 94 staff at the luxury Tongariro Resort raises serious issues about extravagance in the public […]
The status of KiwiSaver
Tracy Watkins reports: “National has been forced into an embarrassing u-turn on KiwiSaver after its industrial relations spokeswoman Kate Wilkinson appeared to put the […]
Back in the real world
Let’s have another look at our friend, the distribution of income graph. The red circle is what most people earn. The blue circle […]
Show us ya policy
Steve posted this morning that even Granny Herald’s patience appears to be wearing thin waiting for National and Key to announce some policy […]