The Standard

John Key – Mr 2%

Written By:
Date published: 8:00 am, February 20th, 2017 - 43 comments

John Key’s support as preferred Prime Minister has plunged in the latest Colmar Brunton poll.  And he has been seen playing sponsored golf for a Japanese businessman with unusual characteristics.

National’s one-trick election pony – the eternal mirage of tax cuts

Written By:
Date published: 7:04 am, February 20th, 2017 - 46 comments

As Finance Minister Bill English effectively ruled out tax cuts, but it’s election year, and so of course the Nats can’t help but trot out their one-trick election pony again.

Open Mike 20/02/2017

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Date published: 6:00 am, February 20th, 2017 - 75 comments

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 …

Colmar Brunton poll

Written By:
Date published: 6:20 pm, February 19th, 2017 - 111 comments

1 News: “The gap between National and the centre left block of Labour and the Greens has tightened in the wake of John Key’s departure as leader, according to the first major poll since his shock resignation.”

The Trump bump

Written By:
Date published: 9:30 am, February 19th, 2017 - 27 comments

This week’s Economist looks at the resurgence in the business of the more effective mainstream media in the US. But the effect reaches all the way over here. Even I’m reading more on a the ongoing debacle that is the incompetent Trump White House. Good reporting and perfect reading for the summer season and I suspect that it is impacting all of the blogs at present.

The Standard Book Club – Small is Beautiful, Economics as if People Mattered

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Date published: 8:00 am, February 19th, 2017 - 16 comments

The Standard’s inaugural book club looks at E. F. Schumacher’s sustainability classic.

Open Mike 19/02/2017

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Date published: 6:00 am, February 19th, 2017 - 113 comments

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 …

Greg O’Connor responds

Written By:
Date published: 11:00 pm, February 18th, 2017 - 86 comments

In a guest post, Labour’s Ōhāriu candidate Greg O’Connor responds to some of the topics of comments in the post “Greg O’Connor selected for Ōhāriu” and elsewhere on the blogs.

The new world order

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Date published: 12:00 pm, February 18th, 2017 - 60 comments

With former adversaries USA and Russia now the best of friends and with China now emerging again as the preeminent economy in the world the question is will the transition of power be handled smoothly?

Bungling Brownlee under fire

Written By:
Date published: 8:23 am, February 18th, 2017 - 34 comments

Gerry Brownlee is a walking disaster. Such is the depth of National’s talent pool that he is ranked number 4 in their lineup.

Helen White for Auckland Central

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Date published: 7:28 am, February 18th, 2017 - 33 comments

Looks like a strong candidate – all the best in Auckland Central!

Open Mike 18/02/2017

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Date published: 6:00 am, February 18th, 2017 - 56 comments

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 17/02/2017

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Date published: 5:30 pm, February 17th, 2017 - 6 comments

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 …

Good ideas in Gisborne

Written By:
Date published: 1:28 pm, February 17th, 2017 - 97 comments

Andrew Little’s announcement yesterday in Gisborne of Labour’s pledge of up to $20million to build a prefabricated timber plant there is a much-needed boost to the area and a sign that Labour’s 100,000 new house pledge first made by David Shearer in 2012 has legs.

English wants Pike River out of the headlines in election year

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Date published: 10:58 am, February 17th, 2017 - 4 comments

Any sign of progress is welcome, but let’s hope English is not deliberately stringing along the Pike River families with false hope.

What’s the deal? There isn’t one.

Written By:
Date published: 7:17 am, February 17th, 2017 - 132 comments

What are the Greens up to then?

Fires are the new normal

Written By:
Date published: 7:03 am, February 17th, 2017 - 65 comments

Hey Bill English, it’s not the case that “no one could have anticipated the large-scale fire on the Port Hills”. Just about every relevant organisation could and did predict it. Most of the other predictions relating to climate change will come true too.

Open Mike 17/02/2017

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Date published: 6:00 am, February 17th, 2017 - 47 comments

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 16/02/2017

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Date published: 5:30 pm, February 16th, 2017 - 14 comments

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 …

State care inquiry

Written By:
Date published: 1:22 pm, February 16th, 2017 - 6 comments

credit: Aaron Smale RNZ

We need one – and an apology.  Bill may wonder aloud whether we’ll learn much, but I wonder if he’s more concerned we’ll learn too much…

Treat her right

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Date published: 11:15 am, February 16th, 2017 - 34 comments

The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1972. It’s now 2017 and it’s never been enforced. It’s time to ‘Treat Her Right’.

Cadburys Dunedin to close with hundreds of jobs lost

Written By:
Date published: 10:49 am, February 16th, 2017 - 121 comments

Another blow to Dunedin.

Kia Kaha Canterbury

Written By:
Date published: 8:00 am, February 16th, 2017 - 35 comments

It seems almost inevitable that the recent fires in Canterbury and the Hawkes Bay are the result of climate change and the harbingers of things to come.

Christchurch fire coverage

Written By:
Date published: 7:30 am, February 16th, 2017 - 9 comments

Kia kaha Christchurch.

(photo credit: Michael Hodgson).

Watching the journalists

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Date published: 7:00 am, February 16th, 2017 - 86 comments

“The obligation of a journalist is to serve the public”

Marama Fox vs Bill English – who will blink?

Written By:
Date published: 6:49 am, February 16th, 2017 - 167 comments

Marama Fox and Bill English have painted themselves into a bit of a corner, and Fox is threatening to “walk away from the Government”. Key would have handled this better.

Open Mike 16/02/2017

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Date published: 6:00 am, February 16th, 2017 - 49 comments

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 15/02/2017

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Date published: 5:30 pm, February 15th, 2017 - 62 comments

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 …

John Oliver returns – calls Trump ‘a pathological liar’

Written By:
Date published: 2:32 pm, February 15th, 2017 - 11 comments

Our long Oliver-less nightmare is over.

Your government MPs in the news

Written By:
Date published: 11:23 am, February 15th, 2017 - 20 comments

Who can even keep up with it all?

Hypocrisy watch – Michael Flynn

Written By:
Date published: 9:35 am, February 15th, 2017 - 35 comments

Over in the United States of Trumpsville National Security Advisor to the Trump White House Mike Flynn, who famously said that Hillary Clinton should be locked up for threatening national security by having a private email server, has been sacked for threatening national security and for lying to the vice president.