The Business Roundtable has invited Nigel Lawson, British Chancellor of the Exchequer under Thatcher, to speak to them on climate change. Inevitably, Lawson is a climate change denier. His message is that climate change is a replacement for communism and mainstream religion. He says people…
Today the New Zealand Herald's waning tantrum over the Electoral Finance Bill has been relegated to Page 5. Perhaps Granny has paused, had a cuppa, and is coming to her senses. The Herald reports today, a tad ingenuously, that the government might be about to…
The Roy Morgan poll results have been included in the latest rolling poll from Molesworth and Featherston and shows that National - despite John Key's confident prediction of a landslide victory (The Press, 9 Jun 2007) - is going to have to lift its game…
Google's launched some great new online tools for the Australian election. Check out: www.google.com.au/election2007 where you'll find Google maps called maplets, with electorate boundaries, seats held and margins as well as electorate profiles and member information. Links are also provided to videos and associated electorate…
Granny Herald tries to defend itself against National Party bias by saying it ran a headline "I am not a liar" over Brash after he admitted on bFM knowing that the Brethren were going to issue pamphlets attacking labour, three days after saying he knew…
Tony Milne's got a good piece on the Electoral Finance Bill over at his blog I See Red - electoral finance reform is a way to safeguard democracy: "New Zealand history tells an interesting story about the battle for democracy. Whenever progressive forces have mobilised…
Interesting to see Onslow College is giving its students a say over the hiring of their teachers. Recognising students as stakeholders in their schools is a fundamentally progressive and democratic move, and it'd be good to see it happening in other schools too. From this…
Interesting to see National Party blogger David Farrar is inciting his readers to start a political party to bypass/oppose the Electoral Finance Bill. Even more interesting is the fact that his rabid hoard are already calling for him to be its leader. Here at The…
Bob Clarkson's never been one of the sharper tacks on the National party backbench, his only contributions to the debate being his infamous 'left testicle' remark and his call for Muslims who wear the burqa to 'go back to Islam'. According to Frogblog he's now…
The other day we published an extract from Evan Thornley's speech to the Labour Party conference. We've finally managed to get hold of a digital copy, so here it is in full. It's quite long, but well worth a read: LABOUR IS THE PARTY OF…
Nigel Richards, formerly of Christchurch, has become our first world Scrabble champion. Richards apparently led from the start, needing just three of the five available games to clinch victory. Stuff reports that "In the final game, Richards got four bonus scores for getting all seven…
From the BBC: "The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing nearly double the amount previously thought, according to a report set to be released by Congress". The Washington post has the full story: The economic costs to the United States of the wars…
The BBC has a good roundup of the top 10 climate change denier arguments with rebuttals from scientists who agree with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: that it's happening, it's due to us, and the potential damage is serious. Worthwhile reading for those who…
Thanks to the reader who sent us the latest edition of Cosmopolitican, a nifty little publication that did the rounds just before the last election. This month's edition has John Key as its coverboy, which sure makes a change from 2005 when old man Brash…
So the Herald links to us from the front page of their website this afternoon, and the resulting traffic knocks out our server. Bugger. We're back online now, but I guess the moral of the story is we're going to have to start paying for…
Matt Robson's newsletter has a real scoop on the Herald's next propaganda campaign: NZ Herald investigation into large, secret party funding I have it from good sources that any day now the NZ Herald is going to launch a full, in-depth investigative report into the…
During the debate over the Electoral Finance Bill John Key's made a lot of noise about National's willingness to clamp down on anonymous donations and the need to regulate third party expenditure. This makes a lot of sense from his perspective - inoculate the real…
There's a famous line from Joyce's Ulysses in which the main protagonist Stephen Dedalus states "history is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake" and when I opened the Herald this morning I suddenly understood what that can mean: Now look at this…
The Dominion, election day 1938: If the socialist government is returned to power your vote today may be the last free individual vote you will ever be given the opportunity to exercise in New Zealand. NZ Herald, 12 November 2007: When is the Government going…
Grannywriter Audrey Young's story headlined "Exclusive Brethren's email sets stage for Electoral Finance Bill" is more National Party spin. The Brethren's email to Chief Electoral Officer Henry on 8 June 2005 followed their letter to Don Brash and John Key on 24 May 2005 in…
So the NZ Herald has finally admitted it's running a campaign against the government. Check out this ridiculous, chest-thumping, self-congratulatory piece from their website: Public opinion has swung behind the Herald's call for the Electoral Finance Bill to be scrapped. Hundreds of people have joined…
Laila Harre's Bruce Jesson Memorial Lecture is now available in full over at Scoop. It's titled Union Relevance in Aotearoa in the 21st Century, and while it's nothing new to those of us in the movement it provides a good overview of the challenges unions…
I'm not always a fan of Colin Espiner's work, but thank goodness someone's injected a bit of sense into this morning's hysteria over the EFB. This morning's blog post kicks off by pointing out the credibility hit the Herald will take for its shameless National…
Last week Stats NZ announced unemployment had dropped to a record low of just 3.5%, after reaching double-digit figures under National in the 90s. That reminded me of an old press release from Bill English just before the 1999 election where he called unemployment in…
You do have to wonder sometimes who's making the judgment calls in our newsrooms. Last night One News decided to use a National Party staffer, David Farrar, to comment on a poll that showed the Maori Party leading Labour in the Maori seats. As you'll…
Charles Chauvel has withdrawn his nomination for Wellington Central. This leaves Grant Robertson the uncontested Labour candidate, likely to be confirmed on November 17th. Chauvel will instead seek to re-enter Parliament by means of the Party list.
Thought that we had a worldwide monopoly here in NZ on right wing flip-floppers with Don Brash, John Key et al? Think again. Turns out the right wing flip-flopper isn't as rare as you might have thought - they're found in other continents too. The…
The Herald reports that "Dunedin South MP David Benson-Pope says he will not stand as an independent if he is not selected as the Labour Party's candidate in the seat." There was speculation following the nominations of Clare Curran, Olivier Lequeux, Don Pryde, and Keith…