Viruses love liberty – they can breed more.

Written By: lprent
Date published: - 25 comments

Viruses and other diseases simply don’t care about abstractions like ‘human rights’. They just want to breed. We need a better legislative toolkit to deal with epidemics. There is only so long that a draconian state of emergency should be maintained. Like 1918 we need to start thinking about the future Health Act with reserve powers like level 2 and 1. In the meantime, we’ll deal with the virus with this imperfect act as a tool.

Open mike 14/05/2020

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 73 comments

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Jacinda is not like Muldoon

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 97 comments

National has decided to play politics with Covid 19 and is opposing the Government’s attempt to pass legislation to secure level 2 arrangements. And has made the extraordinary claim that Jacinda Ardern is just like Rob Muldoon but with slogans.

Open mike 13/05/2020

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 209 comments

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Bloomfield and the empire strikes back

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 41 comments

Dr Ashley Bloomfield has responded to allegations by Simon Bridges that the government has suspended the Official Information Act and the Emergency Response Committee has made multiple requests for information from the Ministry that it is waiting for by advising publicly there are no outstanding requests for information.

Covid19 and the Stock Markets

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 33 comments

In this time of uncertainty when mass unemployment beckons you would expect that stock exchanges would be plummeting. But think again. Because they seem to be doing fine.

Open mike 12/05/2020

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 237 comments

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Dimwitted habeas corpus duo

Written By: lprent
Date published: - 28 comments

The well-known duo of Dermot Nottingham and Robert McKinney were the appellants in habeas corpus High Court case against Arden, Bloomfield, and Stuart-Black over the covid-19 lockdown. As was usual for this pair, the grounds that they made their case on were completely flawed, failed to be presented correctly, and make a damn good case against self-representation from vexatious litigants like them.

Open mike 11/05/2020

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 213 comments

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Open mike 10/05/2020

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 159 comments

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UK: Too soon to end the lockdown

Written By: nickkelly
Date published: - 17 comments

First Secretary of State Dominic Raab has said that lockdown changes being announced this coming Sunday will be ‘modest’ and ‘small’. This is hardly surprising when earlier in the week the national statistician Professor Ian Diamond said that COVID-19 infection rates could be increasing. In particular, the number of cases being reported in care-homes appears to be increasing. Adding to the pressure both the Scottish and Welsh ruled out any significant relaxation of the lockdown rules.

Go Joe.

Written By: Bill
Date published: - 50 comments

The clock is ticking on Joe Biden.

Open mike 09/05/2020

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 151 comments

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Open mike 08/05/2020

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 201 comments

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UK Labour – the leaked report

Written By: nickkelly
Date published: - 27 comments

In July 2019 BBC current affairs show Panorama did a report on antisemitism in Labour. Ironically many of the whistleblowers from this Panorama documentary were the people named in this leaked Labour report as having frustrated antisemitism investigations. Were it not for COVID-19, we can be sure the BBC would ensure this was properly reported on to ensure a balanced and factual news service had been provided. Or maybe not?

Transmission Gully PPP

Written By: lprent
Date published: - 56 comments

I’d agree with what No Right Turn says..
“The entire project looks to be an expensive failure. Rather than transferring risk to the private sector, it turns out to be the usual scam of privatising profits and socialising losses.”

Bridges pulls a stunt

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 93 comments

Simon Bridges threw two stunts yesterday, firstly threatening to try and summons senior Public Servants to publicise confidential legal advice and then by attacking Dr Ashley Blomfield for not answering emails quickly enough despite the existence of a pandemic which the country appears to be handling pretty well.

Open mike 07/05/2020

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 110 comments

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Open mike 06/05/2020

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 107 comments

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Open mike 05/05/2020

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 169 comments

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What would President Biden do?

Written By: advantage
Date published: - 59 comments

With President Trump doing what we all expected, and killing 67,000 people and counting through chronic poor leadership, and utterly ruining the U.S. economy as well, it’s time to look at what policies the alternative candidate has on offer.

Open mike 04/05/2020

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 96 comments

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A Response to ‘No Exit’.

Written By: Guest post
Date published: - 91 comments

In a recent post, Bill hit his straps with – “Either way, wind power won’t save us. Solar power won’t save us. Carbon capture and storage won’t save us. Your God won’t save us. Nothing but ourselves will save us.”

I felt miffed and more than a little grumpy at Bill’s flippant reference to God, and so sent through this long form response.  ~ Adam.

Covid-19 and climate change

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 55 comments

The International Energy Agency is forecasting that disruptions caused by Covid-19 will reduce CO2 output this year by 8%. To avoid the worst excesses of climate change the world has a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 7.6% for the next decade. How are we going to keep repeating the reductions that we achieved this year for the next decade?

Open mike 03/05/2020

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 134 comments

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