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Daily review 22/06/2026

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, June 22nd, 2026 - 11 comments
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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 …

11 comments on “Daily review 22/06/2026 ”

  1. Drowsy M. Kram 1
    22 June 2026 at 6:53 pm

    Christopher Luxon knows the truth about mediocrity
    [Emily Writes Weekly, 17 Nov 2022]
    And he's saying the quiet part out loud.

    In the interview the reporter points out that parents taking their children out of school before and after the school holidays is a contributing factor to the ‘truancy’ rates. Luxon scoffs, and says ‘go see some decile one and two schools’.

    He says, as they say, ‘the quiet part out loud’.

    We’re not talking about families like mine. We’re talking about ‘bottom feeders’.

    Luxon to me is just the latest rich white man in a line of rich white men who lead National. Personally, I don’t think it’s really worth knowing their names – Ched Muller, Simon English – whatever….It doesn’t matter. They’re all the same. And who and what they stand for never changes.

    Poor kids and their poor parents are an easy target for Luxon and the other capitalists. They have always been the target. And they’re almost surprised I think, that journalists get this confused when they’ve never hidden their loathing of the working class, the bottom feeders, that they profit from.

    Today's classroom visitor is Mr Luxon from the National Party [The Press (paywalled), 12 August 2023]
    Don't become bottom-feeders, boys and girls.

    Luxon's Government nearly halves food bank funding as demand hits record high [4 June 2026]
    “Food banks shouldn't need to exist. But while they do, there is no excuse for halving their funding,” says Davidson.

    The Pencilsword: On a plate [be careful now, be very careful now RNZ, 22 May 2015]

    Reply
  2. Dennis Frank 2
    22 June 2026 at 6:53 pm

    Larry the Downing Street cat is on guard in a nice photo here: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/jun/22/keir-starmer-resignation-timeable-andy-burnham-labour-leadership-prime-minister-latest-news-updates

    The crucial event is not in the diary, because it has not been confirmed, but these are the timings we do have.

    11.30am: Downing Street is expected to hold a lobby briefing.

    2.30pm: Andy Burnham is due to take his seat in the Commons as the new MP for Makerfield.

    After 3.30pm: Keir Starmer is expected to make a Commons statement about the G7 summit last week.

    “What’s interesting is that the last four prime ministers have each been the most unpopular ever,” Polly adds. “That’s extraordinary. Maybe we’re in a time of such hatred of politics, after 20 years of stagnation and disappointed expectations.” … the British used to joke about Italy being a country where prime ministers kept changing all the time. These days Italy looks like a beacon of stability…

    Reply
  4. Bearded Git 4
    22 June 2026 at 7:55 pm

    It was reported on RNZ this arvo that the small cock-up in the Greens tax proposals was missed by the firm of economists the Greens got to review their tax proposals.

    They have apologised for missing it. It's largely immaterial in any event given the tax proposals relate to many billions of dollars.

    The Greens have corrected their figures and the new numbers have been released on the Green Party website.

    Reply
  5. Ad 5
    22 June 2026 at 8:49 pm

    Starmer has resigned.

    Jesus you just can't help that loonie caucus. Idiots.

    Reply
    • SPC 5.1
      22 June 2026 at 10:04 pm

      Tory 1975-1997

      Labour 1997-2010

      Tory 2010-2024 (big defeat)

      Labour 2024-2029

      Starmer saved the party from antisemitism (and regards Palestine Action as a terrorist group – adopting Trump like policy) – a narrative alienating for many on the left (Greens).

      With the party being bound by promises of fiscal responsibility and no increase in taxation – improvement in workers lot is incremental over time (better NHS, higher MW).

      The large caucus had a failure of nerve over current polls showing working class disappointment (Reform).

      Also bound by not seeking a mandate for a return to Europe (now popular)(Liberal Democrats).

      It is the failure of Labour Together (fixated on winning by purging the party of the left and on a limited mandate and subject to the centrist influence of Blair's think tank). Starmer barely survived McSweeney lacking competence in governance.

      Burnham will have to survive the drumbeat for more spending on defence and have a plan for 2029.

      1.a referendum on an increase in defence spending – and means of funding this (either raising taxation or borrowing)

      2.what the path back towards to Europe would be before 2029 and after 2029.

      Reply
    • AB 5.2
      22 June 2026 at 11:21 pm

      Starmer's resignation speech was a disgrace that exemplified why he had to go. He claimed that before he took over the Labour Party was politically, financially and morally bankrupt.

      • Politically bankrupt. It was not. Labour got 40% of the vote in 2017 despite attempted sabotage from within the Labour party, and in 2019 it got only a slightly lower percentage than in 2024, but more actual votes. Party membership under the previous leadership was over 550,000 and is now below 400,000 and probably continuing to fall below 300,000.
      • Financially bankrupt. Financial health of political parties is dependent on donations, with big donors very important. Social Democratic parties can be expected to get fewer big donations than centrist neoliberal parties for the obvious reason of whose interests they primarily serve
      • Morally bankrupt. This is particularly egregious. The Labour party was never any more anti-Semitic than the UK population at large, and probably significantly less anti-Semitic than the Tories and the Faragists. The pro-Palestinian activists in the Labour Party were primarily ant-racist and anti-colonialist, and a lot of them were Jewish. Starmer's statement is made even more offensive because he is someone who has idly watched and indirectly endorsed ethnic cleansing/genocide of Palestinians for the last three years. Then of course there are the '10 Pledges' which won him the Party Leadership through deception and which he rapidly dropped since becoming leader.

      These three incredibly stupid comments will evaporate much of the sympathy he might have expected. The hopeless centrist Blairite unable to cope with the historical moment in which he finds himself might be a tragic figure that attracts sympathy – rather like Shakespeare's Richard II. (But with Starmer's dull, wooden prose instead of Richard's elegant and moving pentameter.)

      Then again, it seems likely that Starmer was already the hapless tool of the Labour Together project that set out to destroy Corbynism and install a compliant leader who was too clueless to understand what was going on. He thus happily complied with their strategy of leveraging false accusations of antisemitism to destroy Corbynism, not realising that this painted him into a corner where any criticism of Israel by anyone (including himself) could be characterised as antisemitism – resulting in the astonishing violation of free speech involved in proscribing Palestine Action. It is hard to feel sympathy for such a man.

      The Labour caucus made the right decision. Starmer didn't save his party, he took it to the brink of destruction by that transparent charlatan Farage. If he had stuck more or less to the policy programme of Corbynism, so that this vision was emerging from a man that (unlike Corbyn) gave off the class signifiers that were acceptable to the broader media establishment – 'proper' education, accent, standard of dress, manners, associates etc – things may well have turned out much better..

      Reply
  6. tWig 6
    22 June 2026 at 10:33 pm

    That 12% increase in our electricity price comes because the proposed Southland data centre is to be 4x its original submission, and use twice as much power as Tiwai, currently our largest user. The smelter must also have negotiated a cheap rate, because it's signed off for another 20 years. Therefore we're paying for their power needs. At least Tiwai employs people and makes stuff. The data centre will just use our resources, and give off heaps of heat. Looks like the LPG is for them, too, as guaranteed supply. Wonder what their tax rate will generate, too?

    https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/06/11/is-giant-data-centre-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Bluesky#Echobox=1781206514-3

    In the US, data centres are quickly becoming the cuckoos in local communities, forcing up power prices, generating noise and heat, and polluting water.

    Reply
  7. bwaghorn 7
    23 June 2026 at 6:28 am

    Kat the huha about whether total remuneration should or shouldn't be used is a waste of oxygen and time, any one working out wages is going to take total cost into account, might as well be upfront about it.

    Better to fight the 6% if that's the issue, and fight for better wages imho.

    Reply

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