Explore the archive
Find articles and conversations by date, subject or search expression.
Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 61–90 of 103
Post
Arrrrg, the starrrrs must be aligned. Not only is it international talk like a pirate day and a day of significance to Pastafarians worldwide but it's also the day before the government announces its carbon emission trading scheme. Having not yet seen the scheme the…
Post
Ten Commandments? Nope. Never heard of them. Mr Copeland had insisted on Monday that he did not know what was going to be announced at yesterday's press conference called by Destiny Church head Brian Tamaki to confirm the new political party. He also insisted in…
Post
A reader has just alerted us that there's a political discussion raging on a thread over at the TradeMe message boards. Looks like users there aren't so keen to trade Helen and Labour for John and the Nats.
Post
Brian Tamaki's announcement yesterday that he would be deregistering the Destiny Party raised a number of questions, but there's one that just keeps bugging me - Why Was Their Press Release Written Entirely In Title Case?
Post
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the opening of the Labour Government's first state house by Michael Joseph Savage. The aim in 1937 was to build 5000 new homes a year in an effort to rid New Zealand of sub-standard housing. No mention of any…
Post
National's ad campaign in 2005 was assisted by the creative wit of John Ansell a self-described "wordplaying loon". Nicky Hager's 'The Hollow Men & a study in the politics of deception' drew attention to Ansell when it described in some detail his cozying up to…
Post
From The Guardian: It isn't easy being green. You have to turn the thermostat down to a chilly 18C in winter, spend ages taping up draughty windows, eat nothing but muddy parsnips all through February and wear charity shop cast-offs instead of proper clothes. Oh,…
Post
An American doctoral student has found that there may be a silver lining when it comes to higher petrol prices - they might help people lose weight. Perhaps this is the policy solution to fighting climate change and obesity? ;) Courtemanche's study found that a…
Post
Colin Espiner writes in the Press that "Prime Minister Helen Clark has become a polarising figure in New Zealand politics, but voters have yet to make up their minds about John Key, a new poll shows". Hardly a surprise. As far as I can tell…
Post
Your prize? A second interview in one day with failed National Party candidate-turned-broadcaster, Paul Henry.
Post
UPDATE: Whew! Trey and Matt were evidently thinking ahead.
Post
In a perceptive potshot at the perennial broadcasting gnome, Paul Holmes, Jane Bowron in her Dominion Post 'Televiews' piece of 13 September described the aforementioned wee fella's return to TV One with Whatever happen to.? in unflattering terms. It seems that Bowron is unimpressed by…
Post
Earlier this week I posted on National's attempted inoculation of the "nuclear issue". Chris Trotter's just written a related analysis of Key's comments to the NZ/US Partnership Forum. In it Key states: "I have little interest in debates, either economic or political, that simply relitigate…
Post
One of John Key's first rebranding exercises after he took over the National Party was to dump Wayne Mapp from his position as PC Eradicator and try to distance the party from some of the more reactionary rhetoric that had become its stock-in-trade under Don…
Post
Feeling guilty after watching An Inconvenient Truth? Want to do your bit to help save the planet but don't have the cash to buy a hybrid? (and too lazy to walk or ride a bike?). Perhaps you should consider becoming a "hypermiler". The best of…
Post
In her defense, I don't remember there being a chemistry component to Play School.
Post
Ok. To celebrate The Standard's one month anniversary, and to thank you for visiting dear reader, we're going to run a competition. Forget Deal or No Deal. That's for chumps. Today we're launching New Zealand's hottest online "gameshow" (we use the term liberally) - "Lockwood:…
Post
He's been thieving her policies and now he's thieving her words. When will John Key say something original? Colin Espiner notes that while for days, Key has been baying for O'Connor's blood, yesterday on Breakfast Key did an abrupt about-face. As if to signal what…
Post
A reader just sent me a link to a piece in The Guardian entitled: "First world results on a third world budget". It's an investigation of Michael Moore's claim in his recent documentary, Sicko, that Cuba's health system puts America's to shame on just an…
Post
Captions welcome. Via nznationalparty on flickr
Post
The LA Times has a story today about Freegans - "a growing subculture of people who have reduced their spending habits and live off consumer waste". I'm probably not quite ready to forage for my food just yet, but the article's a good read. The…
Post
Congratulations to Unite for ending youth rates at McDonalds. Not that you'll get that story from the media coverage, which gives the impression McDonald's just decided to give up youth rates to be nice and fails to even mention the role of union campaigns like…
Post
a) stays on tour? b) stays on tour until there's political capital to be gained by raising it? Colin Espiner is worth a read: Sure, it wasn't the smartest thing in the world to invite a suspended prison guard along on the trip... But it's…
Post
Did anyone else see the anti-John Key posters in Wellington yesterday morning? It was every National Party spin doctor's worst nightmare: a picture of John Key looking rattled and wrinkled, placed on a black background next to the words that will no doubt come to…
Post
I dropped into the National Party's Kiwiblog again last week and I must say it looks like party insider David Farrar may well be losing his "mojo". I mean really? He's been comparing Helen Clark's policies to "gassing the Jews"? and running lines like: "the…
Post
Twenty years ago this year, the fourth Labour government passed legislation that made New Zealand nuclear free. At the time, the legislation was controversial and was opposed by National. Jim Bolger ever called it "an exercise in futility". In the intervening years, parties opposed to…
Post
Someone just sent me this. Pretty cool site which uses Google Maps to track the US presidential candidates. Map the Candidates is a nonpartisan site that tracks the presidential candidates' campaign stops across the country. Utilizing public schedules provided by the campaigns, we publish an…
Post
Go check it out. You know you want to. Via swissmiss
Post
Last night's debate on the Youth Minimum Wage Bill was (as noted earlier) a triumph for progressive politics and for young people. It was not such a triumph for David Bennett, who apparently is National's MP for Hamilton East. His speech (mp3 - 2MB) during…
Post
Greenpeace seems strangely surprised at John Key's statement that George Bush and John Howard are "going in the right direction" on climate change and his refusal to criticise them for not signing up to Kyoto. Here's Greenpeace executive director Bunny McDiarmid: John Key's support for…