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More and more schools are standing up and doing what is best for their children's education: Quarter of schools fail to comply on standards Nearly a quarter of all primary schools have refused to comply with National Standards requirements - but none appear to have…
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Celebrating Youth Unemployment Written by The Jackal at 8:02 PM There's a major problem with National's policies that was highlighted in Parliament today; Youth Unemployment levels are the highest since records began and higher than in the great depression. The dysfunctional process that has led…
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Urgency As expected, the House has gone into urgency to pass assorted bills through their final stages. I was going to say that this was uncontroversial, part of the usual practice of the House in the leadup to an election. But of course this is…
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Every Child Counts released their 1000 days to get it right for every child report at the weekend. It has some pretty scary statistics in it - that we rank 28th out of 30 OECD countries for child outcomes across measures like youth suicide, teenage…
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Having decided to beat up on a few thousand of the most hard done by young people in the country, National is now refusing to acknowledge the problem of disconnected youth that has ballooned under their watch. There are enough young people who aren't in…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Food Cards already exist and are charged up when applications are made for food grants. As it stands at present, the money charged on them can be spent at supermarkets; must be spent within 3 or 4 days and cannot be used to purchase cigarettes…
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Today Warren Buffett, the third wealthiest man in the world, has come out demanding his mega-rich friends play a part in the American economic recovery. He is recognised as one of the smartest and most successful investors alive, his words should not be dismissed lightly,…
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I don't have a problem with paying rent and utilities direct for beneficiaries. Food stamps are fine in theory. Just shit in practice. But the bigger point is this: the problem is not enough jobs. This is $25 million spent for not a single new…
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The private operators of the new Mt Eden remand prison are using desserts as a reward for good behaviour. It seems to work. But the Right doesn't know quite how to react: on one hand, it's mollycoddling prisoners, on the other hand it's a private…
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Fran O'Sullivan before the Nat conference... John Key is primed to take an axe to welfare when he fronts his party faithful in Wellington tomorrow. As an election plank it will go down well with hardline National Party members, who believe beneficiaries should stand on…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Two things stood out for me about the National Party conference, both on the Friday - John Key once again saying his Labour opponents were driven by the "politics of envy", and Peter Goodfellow telling delegates National had more money for this campaign than ever…
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So John Key's bright shiny new policy to attract the masses is getting tough on the 1600 16 and 17 year-olds who receive benefits. They can't vote, so there's no downside for John. He can grandstand about how they're spending all their money on booze…
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National has been attacking our youth since taking office. With youth unemployment at an all time high, the kids look up and say, 'can you help'? Yes, little one, we can help. Let’s talk about youth rates. Let’s talk about 90 day fire at will.…
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A better than usual interview of John Key by Guyon Espiner on Sunday's Q+A. On the plus side Espiner was raising some serious issues. On the minus he let Key get away with his usual lies and evasions. GUYON So you're still expecting 170,000 jobs…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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Like the UK, we have a crisis in youth poverty. We don't have riots, yet, because we lack the population density. There's no jobs. Increasingly, no hope. Key's solution? Tinkering. A bureaucratic, easily beatable system where young people on benefits get food stamps and basic…
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Bernard Hickey writes compellingly on the coming fall of capitalism. Click through and read the whole thing, here are some highlights. Capitalism - top heavy and toppling The last fortnight's dramas on financial markets is really just the sound of investors waking up to some…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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English is facing attacks at the Nat conference over asset sales. The neolibs vultures treat the state as a carcass to pick clean. But old school conservatives believe in investing the nation. And business types know you don't get rich by selling profitable assets. English…
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A few weeks back, I wrote that Labour's policies are popular but it hasn't secured the trust it needs to sway swing voters, partly people don't feel they really know Phil Goff. Today's Herald piece, reminiscent of one on Key in 2008 (except we get…
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Fran O'Sullivan reveals her softer side today. No, she's not against National's benefit cuts for the unemployed, the sick, and invalids. Nor against cutting the wages of the 103,000 working 15-19 year olds on the half-baked premise that will create more jobs. But leave single…
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This editorial by Peter Oborne in today's Telegraph on the riots and moral decay in Britain is up to 3370 comments. It's worth a read.
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Another Roy Morgan poll: The latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows support for Prime Minister John Key’s National-led Government is at 55.5% (down 2%). Support for Key’s National Party is 51.5% (down 0.5%), ACT NZ 2% (unchanged), the Maori Party 1.5% (down 1.5%), and…
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the mike...
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It seems that the US has lost an experimental hypersonic space plane: Fastest-ever plane goes missing on test flight A US military plane developed to fly anywhere in the world in an hour has gone missing on its second test flight. The unmanned hypersonic plane…
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42% Murdoch-owned Sky could be in the market to buy debt-laden TV3 and Radioworks from hedge fund Ironbridge, according to John Drinnan's Media page in today's Business Herald. Drinnan says that "Sky owning Mediaworks opens up a myriad of issues, not least the degree that…
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Weekend social is for non political chat. What's on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no aggro, why can't we all just get along?