Open Mike 16/06/2018

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Daily Review 15/06/2018

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 …

In defence of Eugenie Sage

Eugenie Sage has been criticised for granting OIO consent to the foreign buy out of a water bottling company and a piece of sensitive land.  But from the looks of the details that have been released she may have had no choice.

Open Mike 15/06/2018

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Daily Review 14/06/2018

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 …

Solitary man

Gerry Brownlee has been caught playing solitaire during Question Time in Parliament.

Open Mike 14/06/2018

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Daily Review 13/06/2018

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 …

Liberalism Uber Alles

If the political class think liberalism has failed, then why is it that the process of killing off NZ Post is approaching completion?

Open Mike 13/06/2018

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Daily Review 12/06/2018

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 …

New World Disorder.

Liberalism was meant to be the New World Order and even (so the briefly celebrated  Fukiyama reckoned anyway) an End to History. Big stuff then. But it seems the placid and complacent consensus is fraying round the edges.

Winston sues

Winston Peters has commenced legal proceedings against Anne Tolley and Paula Bennett because of the leaking during last year’s election campaign of private information about a superannuation overpayment he received.

Open Mike 12/06/2018

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Daily Review 11/06/2018

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 …

Killing Them Softly With…

In New Zealand there is sufficient evidence to show that poor peoples’ lives are cut short because of poverty related  poor nutrition. While food banks are alleviating the worst impacts of hunger, their kindness may well be contributing to the problem. Food poverty is a systemic issue and requires a systemic response, a response that successive governments are able to avoid while charities continue to provide a buffer for the system.

Open Mike 11/06/2018

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Who gives a hooton about climate change?

Matthew Hooton and Fran O’Sullivan have claimed that the Government’s decision to ban off shore petroleum exploration is “Orwellian”, part of an attempt to divert attention from other issues, bad for the environment and bad for jobs. Are they right?

Open Mike 10/06/2018

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Populism and population decline

As we enter the era of relative world wide population declines, we are are seeing populist movements trying to put the finger in the dike. The two are related. Big cities beset by congestion and housing issues as the young flood into them. Populistic movements driven from left-behind areas. Voting patterns show the distinct differences between the large urban centres and those in the declining regions.

Open Mike 09/06/2018

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Daily Review 08/06/2018

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 …

Fair Pay Agreements – a no-brainer

Remember when you could pay a mortgage, keep the kitchen cupboard full, take the kids to the movies now and then, by working as a bus driver, a freezing worker, a journalist, or any number of other solid middle-Kiwi jobs? When a decent working life was a given…