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Categories under Social issues

The Pope’s Letter to All Believers

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, August 22nd, 2018 - 64 comments

The pope missed a great recent chance to state that accused abusers should be walked to the nearest Police station, make written statements, face trial, hopefully jailed, then defrocked, and excommunicated.

Daily Review 20/08/2018

Written By: - Date published: 5:40 pm, August 20th, 2018 - 28 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Is Judith Collins willing to denounce the use of fake news?

Written By: - Date published: 4:51 pm, August 6th, 2018 - 113 comments

Judith Collins has tweeted news from a fake news website and demanded that Jacinda Ardern does something about something that has not actually happened.

The Pied Piper

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, August 6th, 2018 - 32 comments

If we’re living in a global village, is the name of the village Hamelin?

China and Google

Written By: - Date published: 7:52 am, August 6th, 2018 - 2 comments

Google is planning a launch of its eponymous spectacular search engine in which it allows censorship from the Chinese state. Some U.S. politicians aren’t happy about it. Principles are, in the words of the words of my tailor, funny; you loosen a bit here, you loosen a bit there, you find your trousers fall down. […]

Let them fall

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, August 3rd, 2018 - 105 comments

We’ve seen a fair few construction companies go under or get close to it recently.

VSM – why it needs to go.

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, August 2nd, 2018 - 62 comments

In 2010 the ACT Party with the help of National managed to pass a piece of legislation that damaged student democracy, and blatantly ignored public opinion. Voluntary Student Membership or VSM sounds like a horrendous STI, and its impact has been to screw student democracy. Prior to 2010 students had a choice as to whether […]

The Benefit Arrives

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 pm, July 31st, 2018 - 38 comments

Simon ‘Soimon’ Bridges calls his deputy by her critic’s favourite nickname. Cui bono, as the Romans used to say. Who benefits?

Reason #73 why charter schools are wrong: they teach creationism

Written By: - Date published: 11:46 am, July 31st, 2018 - 78 comments

Newsroom has reported on claims that Villa Education Trust, which opened up National’s conference singing Hallelujah, has taught creationism in science classes as a preferred theory of evolution.

Free Mike Treen

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, July 31st, 2018 - 72 comments

Unite Union’s Mike Treen has been arrested in International waters by Israeli forces for being part of a flotilla that wanted to deliver medical supplies to Gaza.

There’s nothing vague about National’s education policy announcement *

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, July 30th, 2018 - 30 comments

* according to Simon Bridges.

Caption contest

Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, July 29th, 2018 - 76 comments

Keep it seemly …

Bridges and his cheerleaders

Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, July 29th, 2018 - 112 comments

National is pulling out all stops to suggest that Simon Bridges is not so bad as a leader.

Nurses.

Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, July 27th, 2018 - 76 comments

There’s a sickness affecting our health system.

National is jamming cannabis law reform

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, July 27th, 2018 - 82 comments

So National be getting pretty liberal with the Marijuana stuff.

And We’ll be Reich Back …

Written By: - Date published: 7:23 pm, July 26th, 2018 - 81 comments

The Southern/Molyneux hatefest is back on.

Redeveloping Public Housing

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, July 26th, 2018 - 116 comments

The Government is getting ready to battle the most rapacious economic force in this country, real estate capitalism, for the good of people.

Hate Speech Coalition Cans Canadian’s Crusade

Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, July 25th, 2018 - 102 comments

BREAKING NEWS:

Alt Reich hate speech tour CANCELLED

The UN is shocked by NZ’s child poverty rates

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, July 22nd, 2018 - 89 comments

Earlier this year the United Nations expressed shock and concern at New Zealand’s rates of child poverty, homelessness, incarceration and violence.  What is this Government doing to address these issues?

My Little Eye…

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, July 21st, 2018 - 17 comments

Something beginning with…wtf?!

Is Matthew Hooton becoming a socialist?

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, July 20th, 2018 - 41 comments

Occasional Standard reader Matthew Hooton has written a cogent column on industrial relations in which he realises and accepts that wages for ordinary workers are too low.

Property price decline

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, July 13th, 2018 - 61 comments

What would happen if the house prices of Auckland, Queenstown, and other centres of very high debt went into substantial and long term decline?

Nurses deserve our support

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, July 12th, 2018 - 101 comments

Perhaps the Labour-led coalition might choose to reflect on it priorities – the sufficient funding of essential public services or buying billion-dollar war machines from the Donald Trump regime.

Free Speech.

Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, July 11th, 2018 - 179 comments

It’s a principle.

The free speech coalition that is actually quite expensive

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, July 11th, 2018 - 168 comments

The Free Speech coalition, formed to protect freedom of speech for the far right, has amongst its members some whose views on what freedom of speech actually is are unusual.

Unparliamentary Language

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, July 11th, 2018 - 13 comments

“His brain could revolve inside a peanut shell for a thousand years without touching the sides”

Cake makers and fascists

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, July 10th, 2018 - 412 comments

A Warkworth cake maker has refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.  The situation raises the question should she be allowed to discriminate against others on the grounds that she is exercising her rights of religious belief.

The trade war

Written By: - Date published: 1:56 pm, July 9th, 2018 - 27 comments

The speed of the growing trade war between the United States and China will hit New Zealand. Our long term diplomatic arc, such that it is, was to follow a modernist impulse set after World War Two: that economic growth and democracy matched deep human impulses for freedom and prosperity together. China has never assented […]

Dotcom loses in the Court of Appeal

Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, July 9th, 2018 - 60 comments

The Court of Appeal has released its decision in the Kim Dotcom extradition case. The case has had a lot of resources thrown at it by both sides and I hope my brief description does the arguments and the judgment justice. The decision can be read here. As befits the resources that have been poured […]

The extent of the right to free speech

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, July 8th, 2018 - 354 comments

Lauren Southern’s cancelled lecture has caused some debate about what freedom of speech is, is it absolute, and if not where is the line to be drawn?

Far right Canadian activist wants to come to New Zealand to insult local communities

Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, July 6th, 2018 - 292 comments

Far right journalist Lauren Southern wants to come to New Zealand to give a speech which will no doubt insult various communities. Should we let her in?