As part of the right's never ending pursuit of confusion and diversion we have a proposal surface recently to address what they obviously think is the country's most pressing problem. Not falling income from Dairy exports, not child poverty or increasing unemployment, not the failure…
Jonathan Freeland in the Guardian recently offered an opinion on why Labour lost the UK election earlier this year. He said this: Long before Labour lost the election, it lost the war of metaphor. The origins of the defeat go back at least to the long…
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.
Recently while on Holiday in a very sunny spot, without children of my own, several sets of parents explained to me that although they had taken the children out of school, it was a good opportunity for the children to experience a different way of…
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 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo7P1ERN5uY 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.
The two largest Labour Party affiliated unions are going to merge. From the EPMU website: Members of two of the biggest private sector unions in New Zealand have voted in favour of a merger. The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, with over 30,000 members, and…
Seems Colin may have more legal issues to deal with. From 3News: Colin Craig is under fire for allegedly omitting election expenses on his 2014 electoral return that would have put him over the permitted spending cap. The former Conservative Party leader is being accused…
Today’s strike and rally by 1000 members of the Meat Workers Union at AFFCO plants has been called off. This came about after a meeting yesterday with MWU AFFCO Shed Delegates and Andrew Talley, organised by Iwi leaders, Tuku Morgan and Ken Mair. No agreements…
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 …
To have any chance of avoiding very dangerous levels of global warming and the climate change that rides shot gun on the warming, the world must be burning absolutely no fossil fuels by, at the latest, 2050. In a world that cannot burn fossil fuels, there…
(Graphic from Lamia) We are well into this National Government's third term and the weaknesses are now very clear. John Key's reputation as a formidable wheeler dealer deal maker is clearly mythological rather than real. And a series of deals have been completed based entirely on…
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 …
This week something notable and overdue occurred in the Courts of New Zealand. The first all women Court of Appeal bench presided over a case. Amy Adams posted the following tweet to celebrate this event. https://twitter.com/amyadamsMP/status/629466565738500096 But I am not sure that Finlayson deserves the praise Adams…
Unitec is resturcturing. Again. This is the third restructure in 15 years. Ok, they are not farmers. But of 1100 staff between 250 and 300 of them are losing jobs. That is a lot. This government is shrinking funding and directing tertiaries that if they…
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.
A while back, and on a few occasions, I’ve opined that NZ Labour ought to essentially cut and paste the policies and announcements of the SNP - who have themselves occupied ground abandoned by Labour. Some people seemed to think the suggestion was too simplistic…
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?
National must be hurting over this issue. Yesterday morning we had contributions from two of this Government's strongest leaders saying there is no issue here and we should just move on. John Armstrong says that National has outmanoeuvred the opposition parties by saying it was…
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.
Hannah McGill has written a lengthy, thought provoking piece on the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US. 'Seventy Years on from Hiroshima Devastation' appeared in Saturday's edition of The Scotsman. Two short excerpts are reproduced here. “Even if the…
From the you have to be joking file, John Key thinks that the new flag will make us rich. As reported on stuff: People say it will cost $26 million, it will cost less than that," he said. He argued that the flag would make…
Next Monday 1,000 workers at Talley's owned AFFCO will take strike action. After 18 months of trying to drive down their terms and conditions, Talley's are the first company to take advantage of the government's new employment laws to walk away from bargaining. This is…
I'd hate to count the number of times that political pundits have said that New Zealand First is dead for one reason or another. I'd really hate to have to find and read John Armstrong's stash of them. He has been consistently wrong about the…