Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, August 13th, 2011 - 115 comments
A few weeks back, I wrote that Labour’s policies are popular but it hasn’t secured the trust it needs to sway swing voters, partly people don’t feel they really know Phil Goff. Today’s Herald piece, reminiscent of one on Key in 2008 (except we get a lot more of the substance of Goff, not just carefully targeted anecdotes), should go a long way to fixing that.
Written By: - Date published: 8:54 pm, August 11th, 2011 - 5 comments
I’ve just been playing Ben Clark’s asset sale game on his campaign website. (Ben is a fellow author here and Labour’s candidate for North Shore). In the game, you have to try to suck up the shares that John Key throws out before the big foreign buyers suck them up – it’s great fun and a little frustrating when they get the shares before you!
Written By: - Date published: 7:34 am, August 7th, 2011 - 49 comments
Like the American debt limit deal, I always thought that Mana and Maori would find some kind of bloody compromise at the eleventh hour. But they’ve passed the point of no return now.
Written By: - Date published: 1:29 pm, August 6th, 2011 - 37 comments
January 2009. Jobs are being lost at 4,000 per week. Key and his government have just come back from a month long holiday. First thing he does: makes an audition tape for Letterman. Notice how all the jokes are taking the mickey out of our country. Makes you real proud.
Written By: - Date published: 12:28 am, August 6th, 2011 - 25 comments
BBC Radio 4 in the UK has a very interesting debate pitting followers of Keynes vs those of Hayek
Written By: - Date published: 6:25 pm, August 5th, 2011 - 12 comments
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, August 5th, 2011 - 42 comments
National pollster David Farrar wants scientists to debate a fake Lord climate change denier saying “Why should anyone listen to people unwilling to debate?”. Well, David, next time you’re giving your polling report to the Kitchen Cabinet, tell them that. Because National is refusing to participate in coming debate on their asset sales policy.
Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, August 4th, 2011 - 17 comments
It’s gotcha season in Parliament. First Labour was pulled up for a couple of election ads not having authorisation statements or not having big enough ones. Then Labour responded with unauthorised ads from National. Now, The Jackel has been told an unauthorised letter sent by Key to every pensioner is an electoral ad.
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, August 4th, 2011 - 61 comments
It looks like the race for Epsom is about to get a whole lot more exciting. Former ACT funder Colin Craig seems set to throw his hat into the ring against ACT’s John Banks, National’s Paul Goldsmith, and Labour’s David Parker. It only needs Winnie to join in to make a real party of it. Can Parker slip through the middle and win?
Written By: - Date published: 10:43 pm, August 3rd, 2011 - 34 comments
What does Colin Craig’s new Conservative Party expect to accomplish, other than to siphon off and waste a tiny percentage of right wing vote?
Written By: - Date published: 5:49 pm, August 2nd, 2011 - 129 comments
Key has refused to include the leaders of minor parties in TV3 debates, and Goff has agreed to debate one on one. Another step towards “presidential” style politics that does not serve our country well.
Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, August 2nd, 2011 - 57 comments
The PSA is launching its election campaign this evening. Our big challenge is to break through the government’s narrative (now reaching mythic proportions) that NZ is sinking under debt the likes of Greece tooand the only solution is to cut public spending and sell assets. As the well informed readers of The Standard know, NZ’s […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:16 am, August 2nd, 2011 - 70 comments
There’s been a lot of coverage of Winston Peters lately. Most of his announcements have been perfectly predictable, but for me there have been two real surprises.
Written By: - Date published: 6:29 pm, August 1st, 2011 - 165 comments
Remember John Key’s awful Letterman appearance? Supposedly worth a fortune in tourism. We know that was complete crap. It was a stunt meant to impress us saps. Now we learn that we paid for it. PM’s office pleaded for months to get on Letterman. Try-hard even sent a demo tape. When that didn’t work, they paid a US PR agency $10K to seal the deal.
Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, August 1st, 2011 - 139 comments
The polls show that New Zealanders, quite rightly, prefer the policies of the Left, such as capital gains tax, over National/ACT’s ‘plan’ to hock off our assets. But the majority still seem to favour returning a Key-led (and Key’s the, um, key) government, even if they won’t like what it does. What the Left needs is Goff to build personal trust with the people.
Written By: - Date published: 7:52 pm, July 31st, 2011 - 14 comments
Geoff Simmons will speak on the importanceof Pharmac at a Fabian seminar today at St John’s Church at 5:30pm. Pharmac is also “on the table” in negotiations with the US in the Trans-Pacific Trade agreement. It is no secret that the US pharmaceutical industry would like to clip Pharmac’s wings; but our government’s approach is secret as they have refused to release draft negotiating texts. Geoff and Gareth Morgan have written to government arguing that a US free-trade deal isn’t worth it if Pharmac is sacrificed.
All are welcome to the free seminar.
Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, July 31st, 2011 - 46 comments
So Breivik has given us an eyes wide open gaze into the abyss. Chilling isn’t it? Much has been written in the last week about the political atrocity he committed, yet this article in the Sunday Star Times today is equally wrong. Here is why. Many years ago I recall listening to a BBC correspondent […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, July 30th, 2011 - 167 comments
On paper Labour is doing everything right, but they are not yet getting traction in the polls. Labour needs to get voters’ attention again, and then their trust. So how to “reconnect with the public”? What should Labour be doing differently?
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, July 28th, 2011 - 160 comments
Much ado in the commentariat about the latest Farifax poll, another poor result for Labour. But some of these commentators could do to brush up on their history…
Written By: - Date published: 9:02 am, July 26th, 2011 - 55 comments
The Right is whining that Key said “If [the Norway massacre] is an act of global terrorism, I think what it shows is no country large or small is immune from that risk and that’s why New Zealand’s played its part in Afghanistan” . ‘IF! Don’t you see, IF!’ Try to get the point, righties. Key opportunistically framed a tragedy for his political purposes.
Written By: - Date published: 11:43 am, July 25th, 2011 - 26 comments
Gotta love the piece in the Herald today about Key[s]’s meeting with Obama. No mention of what was discussed or achieved (nothing). Just ‘oh they got along. And Key would have made Obama laugh. If Obama wasn’t busy with important stuff’. Best part in this non-bylined article is the list of what makes them such good buddies.
Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, July 24th, 2011 - 27 comments
Classic Key on his holiday very important series of very important meetings that were very important and achieved all kinds of important things: “I’ve got to be the luckiest Prime Minister of New Zealand in the last 25 years. I’ve come to Washington and every single person who we’ve met with from the Administration has wanted to see us” Yay! Meetings!
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 pm, July 23rd, 2011 - 27 comments
Charles Moore, Thatcher’s authorised biographer writes in today’s Telegraph: “It has taken me more than 30 years as a journalist to ask myself this question, but I find that I must: is the Left right after all? The Left argues that “the free market” is actually a set-up. The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything”. It’s worth a read.
Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, July 23rd, 2011 - 263 comments
The bombing and shootings in Norway overshadowed Key’s meeting with Obama. But he was quick to exploit Norway’s tragedy for political gain saying: “I think what it shows is no country large or small is immune from risk [of ‘global’ terrorism] and that’s why New Zealand plays its part in Afghanistan.” Truth is, the attacker was a rightwing Norwegian.
[Update: more than 80 dead at the camp]
Written By: - Date published: 3:54 pm, July 22nd, 2011 - 4 comments
I’ve long thought that the best commentary on the business pages in the Herald and DomPost comes from Alex, the Telegraph cartoonist. He documents the real priorities of the insiders running the rentier economy. News that the banks are offering a lot of hospitality to Treasury officials shows that there are a few Alex’s here.
Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, July 22nd, 2011 - 98 comments
It has been long known that the name “Fox News” should really be known as “Faux News” because it doesn’t believe in reporting reality. It just makes crap up and spins everything to avoid dealing with reality. This video looks at their performance on climate change.
Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, July 22nd, 2011 - 9 comments
3 days of dinners and walking around looking for a photo-op in LA done, Key’s in DC. But his meetings are being cancelled by people with better stuff to do. Not to worry. The big date is still on: providing “light relief“, in his own words, for Obama. Wonder if he’ll tell him in the one about the national cycleway. Or pull out the ‘brighter future’ gag.
Written By: - Date published: 7:25 am, July 22nd, 2011 - 65 comments
What to make of Epsom? I haven’t so far had a strong opinion on the topic, but I’m starting to come down on the side of “if you can’t beat them, join them”.
Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, July 20th, 2011 - 16 comments
Stayed up to watch the Murdochs testifying before a House of Commons committee. They didn’t know a thing about phone hacking. They were let down by those under them. Rupert said it was “the most humble day of my life”. That would be right; Murdochs don’t do humble. It will be a totally new experience. The highest point of drama was the right hook administered by Rupert Murdoch’s latest wife Wendy Deng on the protestor who stuck a shaving-cream pie in Murdoch’s face. There were no smoking guns, but what we may have witnessed was the beginning of the end of the Murdoch dynastic dream. Good riddance.
Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, July 19th, 2011 - 38 comments
If you’re pissed off about how much you’re paying to fly your to LA PM to eat pavs, you’re just envious.
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, July 19th, 2011 - 21 comments
Associate Finance Minister Steven Joyce has dealt his government’s economic credibility a serious blow by attacking Labour’s costings of its fiscal plan and getting his own numbers wrong. David Cunliffe looks to be enjoying himself as he rips Joyce apart on Red Alert, in the Herald, and in the Dom. So much for Joyce’s dreams of succeeding English as Finance Minister.
Recent Comments