Open mike 16/10/2015
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 …
Caption competition
Daily Review 15/10/2015
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 …
Christine Fletcher’s dear Phil letter
Christine Fletcher has penned an open letter to Phil Goff where she criticises in trenchant terms super city’s current performance and offers some thoughts on where improvement can be made.
Court’s decision on TPP OIA has both Nats and Ombudsman squirming
The High Court recently found that Government and Tim Groser improperly considered Prof. Jane Kelsey’s application for information concerning the TPPA negotiations. The Nats aren’t happy. The Ombudsman isn’t happy. Tough.
Labour’s deputy
An anonymous editorial in The Herald this morning is a mostly well balanced discussion of the issue of Labour’s deputy leader.
Open mike 15/10/2015
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 14/10/2015
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 …
Thanks Canterbury for the surplus
The Government books have hit surplus. But it looks like treatment of the financials for the Canterbury Earthquake may account for pretty well all of it. Update: Underspending on special education accounts for much of the “surplus”.
Helen Kelly’s speech to the CTU Conference
Speech notes from Helen Kelly’s address to the CTU Conference given today where she talks about the importance of the union movement and some of the achievements she has been involved in over the past few years.
Cancer patients and punitive policies
We need a welfare system that acknowledges the realities of cancer and other major medical conditions. That isn’t “special treatment”, it is basic human decency.
NRT: Dictatorship in Canterbury, dictatorship in Parliament
I/S at No Right Turn writes on the continued suspension of democracy in Canterbury.
Just another coverup
The Nats changing lines on the Taji report look like just another routine coverup of just another routine lie. At least, I hope so, because not knowing / caring about the report would be worse.
Open mike 14/10/2015
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 …
Bottom lines weaker than tissue paper
Today, Labour showed the commercial world that its non-negotiable “bottom lines” are actually very negotiable, and even disposable.
Daily Review 13/10/2015
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 …
Congratulations Jane Kelsey
The High Court has upheld Jane Kelsey’s application for a declaration that the Government and Tim Groser improperly considered her application for information concerning the TPPA negotiations.
CYF Review: Great work if you can get it
Radio New Zealand has reported that Paul Rebstock, chair of the Government appointed committee engaged in the review of Child Youth and Family, is being paid $2,000 a day to perform her job. This is the equivalent to the daily pay of thirteen social workers.
Briefing Papers: Refugees and inequality
Briefing Papers have been busy recently, check out some recent articles. How long can wealth keep sucking up before a society breaks down completely?
The Taji report
An American report which came out shortly before Key’s visit to our troops at Taji camp in Iraq is strongly critical of conditions there, and of the efficacy of the training process. Key claims he didn’t know, yet another of his outbreaks of “convenient ignorance”.
Open mike 13/10/2015
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 …
Dodgy reviews
Oh look, Whaleoil sponge Pete Belt has faked an Amazon review of Slater’s “book”.
Daily Review 12/10/2015
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 …
Medicinal cannabis
Helen Kelly calls for the government “to get real about medicinal cannabis”. Seriously – what are we waiting for?
If journalists reported the real news
Journalist Jonathan Pie presents the real news.
The Ankara massacre
Terrible news from Turkey where over a hundred protesters have been killed by explosions at a peaceful protest organised to seek an end to the violence between the Kurdish separatist PKK militants and the Turkish government.
Oram on the TPP
Rod Oram’s Sunday Star-Times column, as made available on Facebook, is a level-headed evaluation of the TPP. He lists five points of concern…
Open mike 12/10/2015
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 …
The news is broken – pledge for Scoop
Scoop has a Pledge Me page: Establishing The Scoop Foundation for Public Interest Journalism. We need Scoop. Please give them a hand…
Anat Shenker-Osorio on the creation of left metaphors
Communications Anat Shenker-Osorio has some simple messages for Labour in its quest for Government. The left’s strongest advantage is its care for people rather than the economy and the message that will resonate is a positive one emphasising the care of people and the environment.
Unions good for society and economy
Great post on the UK based NEF Blog: Don’t be fooled, dismantling the rights of workers is not good for you, or for the economy.
Open mike 11/10/2015
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 …
Climate and Trade
The proposed TPP is a protection racket – not a trade deal.
TPP aims to kill filesharing
According to the EFF “The Final Leaked TPP Text is All That We Feared”…
Film review: The Martian
And now for something slightly different for the Standard, a film review of the Martian.
What happened to Mike Sabin’s bill?
In March of this year National recycled a private member’s bill that Mike Sabin originally championed. The bill if enacted would have permitted […]