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? […]
zzero use
election 2008
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 […]
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 […]
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Brenden Sheehan, the high profile spokesperson for the Muliaga family has withdrawn as Labour’s candidate in Botany.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 […]
Yet more government waste
Following a series of National Party questions to the house the Herald has discovered the Labour government has spent nearly $27K on sausage […]
Key: Vietnam War was “right thing to do”
Yesterday, the leaders of the parliamentary parties apologised to the veterans of the Vietnam War for the treatment they received both while fighting […]
“pretty similar”
I noticed an interesting comment from Ferdinand in our Kiwisaver thread yesterday: I signed up to Kiwisaver based on the 4% employer contribution […]
Show us ya policy
Steve posted this morning that even Granny Herald’s patience appears to be wearing thin waiting for National and Key to announce some policy […]
Kremlinology: Nats’ tax plans
National is still refusing to give us any detail on its tax cut plan, indicating it doesn’t have one. But let’s do a […]
Even Granny’s patience can wear thin
With a loving smack that would have brought a smile to Bob McCoskrie’s face, the Herald‘s editorial today rebukes John Key in the […]
Budget 2008: Analysis
The tax cuts are smaller up front than Labour had been hoping to deliver but the economic position at present means there is […]
Budget 2008: Spending
The tax cuts are the cornerstone of this budget but there is also important new spending. New Spending in the Budget: $172.3 million […]
Budget 2008: Tax cuts
Labour has announced a three year tax cut package worth $10.6 billion. Here’s a table showing the changes: Current 15.00% 21.00% 33.00% 39.00% […]
Telling porkies
The Herald and National have started attacking every piece of government spending as pork-barrelling. Here’s some of what they’re calling ‘wasteful, needless spending’: […]
Spin Bingo: Budget Edition
Well it’s Budget day tomorrow and we’ve got our man Steve Pierson going to the lock-up so we can get you a good […]
National – more women-friendly?
Colin Espiner pointed it out the other week, National “needs more women. Never over-represented in National at the best of times, the party […]
Herald gets it right
Good to see the New Zealand Herald is starting a campaign to let us know the policy cost of National’s likely massive tax […]
A change to what?
As we all know the latest Fairfax poll has shown a huge lead for the National Party. Now I’m of the opinion it’s […]
Batman Politics
Who would have thought? Murray McCully as The Penguin. Hat tip: onegoodmove
New Zealand, a great place to be a mum
We hear an awful lot from the Right about how much New Zealand sucks: ‘crime is up’ they cry (when it’s down), ‘taxes […]
Mythbusting: Winning a fourth term is impossible
It has become a media mantra that winning a fourth term of government is nigh on impossible, but is that claim actually based […]
Clarkson not standing in Tauranga
Clarkson has jumped before he was pushed – he won’t be standing in Tauranga. Peter’s hasn’t confirmed yet whether he will stand or […]
How Boris won London by not being Boris
Tory candidate Boris Johnson has triumphed in the mayoral race for London in a campaign masterminded by the Australian political tactician Lynton Crosby. […]
Would Key scrap GST on food?
With hints that regional fuel tax could be put on the “go slow” list, along with parts of the emissions trading scheme, it […]
For whom the Toll bells
The Government has bought back the rail stock and ferries from Toll for $655 million. The privatisation of these vital assets, which are […]
CTU Secretary selected for Maungakiekie
CTU Secretary Carol Beaumont is set for a change of career later this year. She’s been selected as the Labour candidate for the […]
Talking down the economy
National is a party weak on policy. It has had to drop nearly every one of its principled but unpopular policies to get […]
Electoral donations reported
The Electoral Commission has published the parties’ donation returns for 2007. It is worth noting from the outset that under the electoral law […]
Who do you want answering the phone?
Just received this parody of Hillary Clinton’s 3am ad, but with a New Zealand twist. Very funny.
Child beating petition falls short
Family First’s petition for a referendum on reversing the amendment to s59 of the Crimes Act that removed the defence of reasonable force […]
Put it on the kids’ tab
Some may have noted an odd series of questions in Parliament and press releases from Bill English around government borrowing over the last […]
Mistakes, I’ve made a few
David Farrar’s three more prominent weaknesses came together in a speculator PR disaster yesterday. The weaknesses are his ego, his trick of using […]