Nats desperate to silence grassroots activists
An email from a reader: “A friend and I were putting up some Vote with Both Eyes Open posters on Lambton Quay the […]
zzero use
election 2008
Why National won’t win
National has four fatal problems that will prevent it from winning the election. Or, rather, it has two problems, both with two parts. […]
Diversion tactics
Key’s three defences on the share scandal are ‘no-one asked how many shares I had’, ‘it didn’t matter how many shares I had’, […]
Credit where it’s due
I’m usually no fan of Paul Henry as an interviewer but I’m prepared to give credit where it’s due. He certainly didn’t let […]
Both Eyes Open shows activism alive and well
The Vote with Both Eyes Open posters had a star turn yesterday when Annette King presented them as evidence that activism is alive […]
PSA launches campaign
The PSA’s campaign looks to get past National’s simplistic ‘tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts’ mantra and ask voters to consider what they […]
Can he look himself in the mirror?
John Key on August 30 “The appointment of a minister to Cabinet has to be done on the basis that as Prime Minister […]
Defining dirty politics
Dirty politics and personal attacks. They’re two of the phrases of the campaign so far. The Sunday Star Times took the time to investigate what […]
Questioning politicians
We’re keen to help you get active this election campaign. That’s why we’ve launched Campaign Hub 2008 and its Facebook group to give […]
Roy Morgan has Winston on 5%
If the latest Roy Morgan poll is to be believed, John Key’s big gamble of ruling Winston Peters out of any future coalition […]
Unacceptable
From Newzblog: “Local activist James Sleep was today exercising his democratic right to protest when he was approached by an entourage of 4WDs […]
Burned
Under the headline “National MP ‘least prefered’ in own website opinion poll” the Kapiti News reports that Nathan Guy trails Darren Hughes 5% […]
Greens good for workers
Work rights should be a big issue this election. National is proposing to strip workers of their rights to undermine wage increases. The […]
Key still wishes we had invaded Iraq
Helen Clark made foreign policy judgement a campaign issue today when she told a Grey Power meeting that if New Zealand had invaded […]
Poor
I’ve just come across Labour’s tragic new campaign website, Labour08.co.nz, and I’m of the firm opinion that someone needs to get their shit […]
More slippery attacks, still no solutions
Yesterday, John Key “attacked Labour’s economic record, which he said amounted to overtaxing voters so it could put money into its pet projects” […]
Billboard ideas for Left and Right
I see the National billboard on the corner of Dixon and Victoria in Wellington is already down. Are they pulling them all because […]
Jessica Alba says “Declare Yourself”
Some commentators have pondered whether an election in NZ so close to the election in the States should be a concern for Labour. […]
How would Nats cut tax? Where would the money come from?
Bill English has confirmed that National still intends to give the average worker a $50 tax cut. That’s $18 a week more than […]
Nats’ dirty tricks exposed?
Cameron Slater, aka Whaleoil, is a nasty piece of work. If you’re a leftie and you get into the media, he’ll dig whatever […]
Old battles
When John Key responded to the PM’s announcement of the election date on Friday he stated: This election is not about the past. […]
Nothing to Hide? + more moaning
Prime is running a series of interviews every Sunday until the election with the leader of each party in Parliament, starting with Rodney […]
Video: Slippery as a snake
08 wire are staying on the case – coming to a screen near you:
Govts do keep promises, some more than others
It’s an old saw among those who think knee-jerk cynicism is a replacement for healthy skepticism that politicians always break their promises. That’s […]
To ask the real questions, you have to know the details
Agenda this morning showed, in several ways, that if you want to ask difficult questions, you have to know your topic. Guyon Espiner […]
Negative vs dirty
There’s an important difference between negative campaigning and dirty tricks but it already seems the two are getting confused in the media. Negative […]
Election date to be announced
So, Helen Clark is expected to announce the election date at 12.30. $20 says it’s November 8. UPDATE: The 8th it is. I’ll […]
National: for a more confused future
On Sunday, John Key, apparently off-the-cuff, announced he would dismantle the Families Commission and give the money to church groups, who just happened […]
Introducing Campaign Hub 2008
Helena Catt, head of the Electoral Commission, says the EFA has had a ‘chilling effect’ on democratic participation. I’m convinced that that is […]
Nats’ leaked health policy full of holes
Having just read the National health policy and background paper released by Labour, a few things stand out to me. 1) There is […]
The truth behind the Shawn Tan affair
For the last several weeks the EPMU has had to weather an extraordinary series of attacks from ACT, ACT candidate and EPMU employee […]
End of the line for Peters
Winston Peters will be wondering why he has let his political legacy be destroyed by not simply declaring donations that came from legal […]
What I want from a 4th term Labour-led Govt
With the election fast approaching, here’s a non-exhaustive list of policies I would like to see from a 4th term Labour-led Government. Hopefully, […]
What are National up to?
A puzzled reader sent me this question – what is National up to? Their environment policy is leaked, and John Key says that […]
Fewer bureaucrats
OK. They were laughably bad before but now they don’t even have the grammar correct. If you can count it, you use fewer: less […]
The hypocrisy of the Right
Today, we have National’s Judith Collins attacking the Government because the number of Kiwis on the unemployment benefit rose from 17,710 to 20,465 […]