Open mike 28/02/2019
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 27/02/2019
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 …
Why New Zealand needs a capital gains tax
Expert comment suggests that a capital gains tax will redress inequality, improve the economy and make housing more affordable.
Cameron Slater slithers into bankruptcy
Yesterday Cameron Slater announced that he would be seeking bankruptcy. It is unlikely to help him to avoid the stress of dealing with the legal consequences. The three current defamation cases that he is defending so badly have very little to do with money and a lot to do with making sure neither he nor any other arsehole dares to use his vile tactics again.
Open mike 27/02/2019
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 26/02/2019
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 …
‘Taxpayers union’ – too ‘stupid’ to understand tax?
There is a classic piece of waffle in the NZ Herald about when capital gains tax will apply to the family home. But the conditions when this applies are extremely simple and obvious. However professed experts on taxation like the so-called ‘taxpayers union’ can’t understand them. Probably because they are paid not to.
Brexit; Labour Finally Backs A Second Referendum
Events in recent days have forced UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn into backing a second Brexit referendum. Labour are now aligned with the majority of British voters, but is it too little too late?
Tamihere has some strange friends
John Tamihere has been endorsed by Jordan Williams for Auckland’s mayoralty. And his campaign has commissioned the Taxpayers Union to do a cost cutting exercise.
Open mike 26/02/2019
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Daily Review 25/02/2019
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 …
Can we have a future, with capitalism?
The concentration of wealth and power insufficiently regulated capitalism has caused, now works against the survival of human civilisation. With the wealthy opposing any attempts to limit the damage which affects their wealth.
Spare a thought for our poor impoverished landlords
Spare a thought for poor landlords who are aghast at the thought that they should have to share capital gains on properties they have purchased with no intent of making a capital gain.
Open mike 25/02/2019
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All hail our computer overlords
IBM has staged a debate between an IBM computer and the world debating champion. The human won but the debate suggests that it may be just a matter of time … and the computer had remarkable things to say about poverty.
Open mike 24/02/2019
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How To Get There 24/2/19
Welcome to TS’s Sunday think piece. It’s a blank sheet, a tabula rasa, waiting for your thoughts on the future and How To Get There.
The Big Operation
A life changing operation is a big decision and there are no easy answers.
Open mike 23/02/2019
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Daily review 22/02/2019
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 …
GCSB head Hampton gazumped by Pompeo
On Wednesday GCSB chief Andrew Hampton told a Select Committee there was absolutely “no pressure” publicly or privately on his decision to block Huawei. On Thursday US Secretary of State Pompeo publicly warned that “United States would not be able to partner with or share information with countries that adopt Huawei Technologies Co Ltd systems.” What a difference a day makes.
It’s the kiwi way
National is engaging in hysterical levels of hyperbole in its response to the Tax Working Group’s reform package.
Open mike 22/02/2019
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In defense of taxing the family home
Let’s talk about why houses, art, and basically everything should be in the new Capital Gains Tax that Labour and New Zealand First should get onboard with, contrary to their reservations.
Daily review 21/02/2019
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 Tax Working Group proposals
The Tax Party working group’s recommendations have been released.
Musing on independent breakaways in the UK.
Britain has an interesting political system, one that in many respects we share. The effect is to realise new streams of political effect without revolution. Usually not as a result of actual electoral success, but because it causes shifts in the positions of the major parties that form the governments.
The Independent Group Grows
In the UK, 3 Conservative MP’s have now aligned themselves with the 8 dissenting Labour MP’s in the ‘Independent Group’. What does this mean for both parties and how will it affect Brexit?
The handling of Pike River evidence was diabolical
The Pike River families have released an internal police document describing the handling of evidence from the crime scene as diabolical.
Open mike 21/02/2019
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Daily Review 20/02/2019
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 …
23 dinosaur councils refuse to sign Climate Change commitment
Thames-Coromandel mayor and former National Party MP Sandra Goudie has called a request to sign up to LGNZ’s Climate Change declaration irresponsible at the same time as the Council has entered a coastal inundation notation on the titles for a Retirement Village development it issued consent for.
Bernie runs again
Bernie Sanders has announced he will seek the Democratic candidacy for the presidency and has described Trump as being a pathological liar, a fraud, a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and someone who is undermining American democracy.
Open mike 20/02/2019
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Pollwatch: Colmar Brunton 18/02/2019
Do good things come in twos? This Pollwatch suggests that perhaps they do, and that maybe the news is rosier than the last one suggested.
Daily review 19/02/2019
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 …