John does a Don
Remember Noelle McCarthy’s 95bFM interview with Brash in which she got him to admit to knowledge of the Brethren pamphlets? Student radio has done it […]
Social issues
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Hollow politics at work
Brand Key on Waatea news: “A National government will be a lot more demanding about educational standards, a lot more demanding about under-performance […]
Nat response to C/T scandal right from C/T playbook
There’s a standard formula that Crosby/Textor has its clients use when damaging information comes out. a) refuse to engage. The most senior public […]
The cost of Crosby/Textor
So Crosby/Textor has been designing Brand Key from Day 1, isn’t this just what every party does? No, it isn’t – Crosby/Textor uses […]
Busted
Nicky Hager’s piece in today’s Sunday Star Times has confirmed what we all suspected: Crosby Textor are the creators of Brand Key. For […]
Bait and switch
It strikes me there is a disconnect between what prospective National voters expect it to do in government and what it has actually promised it […]
Ministry advised against concurrent referendum/election
In line with Ministry of Justice advice, the Government has decided not to hold the child discipline referendum at the same time as […]
Johnny Key and the magic $500 million
Whenever John Key is asked to explain how he will fund some new spending or his still secret tax cuts, he says ‘we’ll […]
Cake and eat it
I’ve noticed a new trend in the right’s spin lately (apart from their wholesale theft of campaign scripts) – the ‘have your cake […]
Enlightening debate
In Parliament yesterday: Anderton: “Has the Minister received any reports on how many National Party members it takes to change a light bulb?” Cullen: […]
ToryAid: Wastewatch (3)
In response to the UMR poll that shows 60% of voters would not want tax cuts at the expense of public services, Bill […]
You call that policy? This is policy
National has released a brochure, laying out all its policies. They take up two A4 pages of double-spaced bullet points. That’s incredibly lightweight. […]
National breaking promises already
As you know, National promised to cap core public servant numbers at 36,000. That was going to deliver each of us a whopping 50 […]
More bluster, still no policies
Every month, Stats releases migration figures. Each month, they show little change in the pattern from last month. And each month, National comes […]
ToryAid: Wastewatch (2)
Here’s the waste National has identified so far: 1) Embassy in Sweden – approx $3 million capital, $3 million operating 2) Badges about […]
Act now to protect workers’ wages
Times are going to get harder for workers in the next few years. Unemployment is set […]
EFA lets voters know who bankrolls parties
National has announced that John Key donated $30,000 to the party this month. That’s all well and good; Helen Clark donates a similar […]
Key promises productivity magic
Key reckons he could bring down inflation by targeting ‘low quality’ government spending. How? To counter inflation, you need to increase productivity. Inflation […]
Slippery John’s “after-tax incomes” line
You’ll have noticed that Key only ever talks about increasing ‘after-tax incomes’. Even when he’s asked about wages for government employees, like doctors, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]