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Breaking: Abbott leadership challenge

Written By: - Date published: 5:58 pm, September 14th, 2015 - 88 comments

Seems to be a leadership challenge against Abbott in Australia, a conference at 6pm our time…

Update: Abbott is gone, Turnbull won 54-44.

Does the left win by tacking to the centre or by being principled?

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, September 13th, 2015 - 162 comments

Jeremy Corbyn’s election provides a further opportunity to discuss if elections should be won by  tacking to the centre or adopting a principled approach to politics.

Key and Abbott are prepared to sacrifice the Pacific

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, September 12th, 2015 - 98 comments

Climate change induced sea level increases poses a huge threat to most Pacific Islands.  They are seeking support for a goal of limiting temperature increases to no more than 1.5 degrees.  Australia and New Zealand are insisting on sticking to a goal of no more than 2 degrees even though this will likely mean that many Islands will disappear.

MPs are harmful to digital communications

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, September 11th, 2015 - 21 comments

As anticipated, what is the first complaint at this site under the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015? Not from a kid cyber-bullied by the classmates. But by an adult trying to stifle legitimate criticism and analysis of what they wrote and distributed digitally. And they didn’t read what they were required to do under the act.

National’s refugee backdown

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, September 5th, 2015 - 82 comments

In both England and New Zealand conservative Prime Ministers are looking to urgently backtrack from recent refusals to do anything further for refugees.

Maurice Williamson super jerk

Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, September 3rd, 2015 - 111 comments

National MP Maurice Williamson was reported to have been so offensive in a recent presentation at SkyCity that attendees walked out of an awards dinner.

Is Syria the first failed state because of climate change?

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, September 2nd, 2015 - 172 comments

A climate change induced drought from 2006 to 2009 appears to have sparked the instability that has caused the Syrian Civil war.  The mass exodus of citizens that we are witnessing may be the first of many climate change induced events.

Daily Review 01/09/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, September 1st, 2015 - 23 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.

NRT: Meh

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, September 1st, 2015 - 92 comments

Today the government announced the four candidates for John Key’s vanity flag referendum: three ferns (one of them the logo of Immigration NZ and the Companies Office) and a koru. And really, all I can say is “meh”. So how about defining a good way of doing a informal or invalid vote on this stupid first referendum on selecting John Key’s underwear..

The politicisation of the All Blacks

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, August 31st, 2015 - 224 comments

All Black fan boy John Key opened up Parliament to allow the New Zealand Rugby Union announce this year’s world cup All Black squad on the weekend.

70 refugees dead in small truck on Austrian roadside

Written By: - Date published: 9:04 pm, August 28th, 2015 - 107 comments

When European and NATO countries participate in destabilising and destroying nearby countries, the human tragedy doesn’t stay neatly confined to the other side of the border.

TPP – dooming our grandchildren to poverty

Written By: - Date published: 9:36 am, August 25th, 2015 - 31 comments

… up to 45% of current jobs will cease to exist.

The Centre of Attention

Written By: - Date published: 9:43 pm, August 22nd, 2015 - 93 comments

In a post on Public Address titled “In defence of the centre” Rob Salmond uses a Guardian article by George Monbiot to pose the question “whether the old political orthodoxy of ‘move to the middle’ is, long term, a death-knell for left-leaning parties.” It’s good that Salmond’s raised the question; it’s certainly a matter for debate.

Daily Review 20/08/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, August 20th, 2015 - 11 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.

Hosking, Henry and Media Bias

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, August 18th, 2015 - 187 comments

Yesterday a debate that has occurred on the Standard about how main stream media has a right wing bias became mainstream when Winston Peters accused Mike Hosking of being a National Party Stooge.  An online poll provided overwhelming support for his statement.  And recently Steven Joyce attacked Rod Oram because his analytical thoughtful analysis critical of the Government displayed evidence of left wing bias.

Parsing John Key on TPPA

Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, August 17th, 2015 - 72 comments

John Key made some outlandish claims about TPPA opponents this morning on the Paul Henry show.  And in response, as usual, he was not pulled up on his claims by his interviewer.

TPPA Dairy Trade provision on the ropes?

Written By: - Date published: 11:43 am, August 15th, 2015 - 12 comments

The Herald is reporting this morning that the TPPA may not actually improve access for New Zealand’s Dairy exports to overseas markets.

Daily Review 13/08/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, August 13th, 2015 - 27 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.

TPPA Protests this week – Its our future

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, August 13th, 2015 - 33 comments

A large anti TPPA protest is scheduled for Saturday in Auckland and throughout the country during this week.

David Seymour is a Puppet

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, August 13th, 2015 - 77 comments

Bruce Robertson and Key have played Seymour like a Puppet. It’s like this was all ready to go. Just needed the right person and the right time. And what better day than a day when Westpac again issues a warning about the predictable downturn in the economy that this Government has simply ignored while telling […]

Corbyn and the Overton Window

Written By: - Date published: 4:09 am, August 13th, 2015 - 100 comments

A recent YouGov poll in the Times predicts Jeremy Corbyn will win the UK Labour leadership on first preferences alone.  If he does win, Corbyn will shift the “Overton Window” of acceptable ideas leftward in the face of formidable opposition.

#Sheepgate and the war of metaphor

Written By: - Date published: 7:57 am, August 12th, 2015 - 96 comments

The war of metaphor requires the continuous repetition of a simple statement in the hope it becomes the accepted truth.  Most of the time it works.  But with #sheepgate it is starting to unravel.

Sunshine Coast holiday a life changing experience for our Children

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, August 11th, 2015 - 139 comments

…is swimming all day in a pool at the luxurious Denarau suite of high class hotels a learning experience? Spending days in water parks in Queensland life expanding? Is this sufficient to justify thumbing your nose at our education system, its principles (and principals) and making teachers re-teach these children to catch them up? What happened to the notion of “one law for all”?

 

Colin Craig’s electoral return

Written By: - Date published: 4:32 pm, August 10th, 2015 - 43 comments

John Stringer has accused Colin Craig of filing a false electoral return. But even now it looks like the complaint may be doomed to failure.

National’s terrible deal making

Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, August 9th, 2015 - 114 comments

A brief analysis of a number of deals that National has negotiated suggests that its reputation as a supposedly tough dealmaker is misplaced.

The Flag will make us rich

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, August 6th, 2015 - 66 comments

John Key thinks the new flag will make us all rich and be worth billions.

The dump of the #sheepgate papers

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, August 5th, 2015 - 97 comments

The sheepgate papers have been dumped and despite John Key’s claims to the contrary the only evidence of a change in position on live sheep exports is that of the National Government, not the previous Labour Government.

The modern precariat and the Unconditional Basic Income

Written By: - Date published: 2:09 pm, August 2nd, 2015 - 127 comments

A UBI would allow ordinary people to shift their daily focus from doing paid jobs making money for others, to doing useful work of their own choice, under their own control.

Maori language is not boring, John Key

Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, August 2nd, 2015 - 146 comments

John Key has managed to insult an idealistic young woman and Maori at the same time by saying that her suggestion that Maori Language week should be extended was boring.

Breathless children

Written By: - Date published: 12:39 pm, July 29th, 2015 - 46 comments

Tim Groser has some advice for us on the TPP – “We need adults to do this, not breathless children to run off at the mouth when the deal is not actually finished.”

The great state house sell off – small groups need not apply

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, July 21st, 2015 - 10 comments

Treasure has indicated that the sell off of State housing should occur in minimum lots of a hundred houses.  Only large wealthy organisations need apply and claims that the sale was about the building of capacity amongst local social service providers cannot be reconciled with this.