Revealing comments here from some establishment players. General Lord Dannatt, former UK Army Chief of Staff 2006-2009 and Peter Ford, former UK ambassador to Syria. Presented here with no additional comment: Lord Dannatt said the Russian's had aptly demonstrated how to counter the extremist threat…
Yesterday I attended the Gay Pride parade in Auckland. Variations of the parade have occurred for a long time and the idea is that sexual diversity should be celebrated. I was part of the Labour contingent which included Andrew Little and a number of MPs.…
Cyclone Winston is the strongest ever southern hemisphere storm. Part of the expected pattern of increased extreme weather events due to climate change. Fiji has been hit hard. The best coverage is from RNZ: Winston leaves trail of destruction See also in The Herald: Cyclone…
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This week saw the release of yet another report on the appalling state of child poverty in NZ - State of the Nation 2016 report. Here's coverage on Newshub - New report criticises Govt targets as ineffective The Salvation Army has released its latest State…
The views of various commentators are starting to percolate through and range from the obsequious to the surprisingly well informed. Obsequious is the only word available to describe this pitiful attempt by Larry Williams who is starting to write in the Herald. He shows that…
' National Ltd™ sponsors and corporate scum, Talleys, have been found to have broken the law - again - and fined record $144,000 by the Employment Relations Authority. The Authority's decision relates to the Talley-owned, AFFCO-managed, South Pacific Meats company's systematic and on-going refusal to comply with the law…
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The latest Roy Morgan poll has been released. Presented with no additional comment: During February support for Nationals was up 1.5% to 48.5% well ahead of a potential Labour/Greens alliance 41.5% (unchanged) in the second Roy Morgan New Zealand Poll for 2016. If a New…
Congratulations to blogger No Right Turn for the complaint and to the new Ombudsman Judge Peter Boshier for deciding that the text from Rachel Glucina to John Key concerning Amanda Bailey, victim of Key's ponytail pulling, should be revealed. It is brief but sums up all that is wrong…
For a change I'm not going to have a rip at our local idiotic politicians. The most extreme case recently being the now infamous Dildo Baggins as discussed by John Oliver. Instead lets have a look at Obama commenting on his (from here) rather naive…
' Bus drivers are on strike in Auckland today. The strike is an escalation of on-going industrial action designed to bring bus company bosses back to the negotiating table with more of a humanitarian, rather than fiscal, attitude to the plight of their workers. A pamphlet recently…
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Good news for law abiding bloggers, the foolish Cameron Slater has to find about 8k to pay for his latest legal hiding by Matthew Blomfield. I can summarise the judgement as this. If a judge orders you to take down a post to avoid contempt of court, then it pays to do…
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 …
John Oliver's piece on Dildo Baggins is great, applying the satirical boot to the nuts of the NZ body politic. Why is it that it takes an American show to perform this public service? There used to be, long ago, great satirical current events shows…
This makes you wonder if the tip line has reopened. Someone has leaked details to the Herald from the draft report on whether or not to award compensation to David Bain. From the Herald: David Bain has suffered another blow in his compensation claim for wrongful imprisonment following…
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It's been a while coming, but it may well be that the Collins coup is underway. She's finally found an issue that John Key can't just shrug off; the flopping flag referendum. Key's offside with the majority of Kiwis and it's caused a serious split…
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 …
' What would the adoption of John Key's flag symbolise? Well, nothing, really. There's no change to New Zealand's governance, there's no adoption of a new constitution, no change in the relationship between the Crown and tangata whenua, nope, there's nothing nationally significant about it…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
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 …
There are different views on The Standard about growth and whether we really need it. I'm all for environmentally-, socially-sustainable growth, and I'm a programmer, so I'm in a fairly "weightless" part of the economy. But here's one bit of growth that really seems pointless…
' In between slurping simpers during his most recent session of MediaWorks virtual fellatio, John 'The Liar' Key managed to express concern for the emotional well being of Cantabrians after yet another earthquake rattled their region. Whether John Key is actually concerned is moot, but he…
This local campaign to buy a little nondescript beach shows that ownership of New Zealand by New Zealanders really matters politically. Thousands of New Zealanders have pledged money to buy a bit of beach in Abel Tasman National Park. Whether they win the tender or…
Picture courtesy of Foxy. Helen Kelly is not in great health. I am expecting her a la Matt McCarten to eventually completely vanquish the cancer she is suffering from but so far she is battling. She is still going strong and pumping out social media messages…
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