Open mike 25/04/2015

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 24/04/2015

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standarnistas 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.

Pillock of the week

Although John Key clearly wins the award this week for unbecoming insensitive and bizarre behaviour there is a media figure who did their best to provide him with competition.  And it is not Rachel Glucina.

Hip throw to the lions

For once I agree with Mike Hosking – the Hip cafe owners are also losers in the fallout from John Key’s ponytail-pull fetish. But not for the same reasons as Mike. It seems Grant and Brown threw their employee to the lions for quite selfish motives. They appear to have betrayed their responsibility of trust and confidence to their employee.

Abusive and creepy

Of all the ways Key could have shot his leadership and his legacy in the foot – this really was the stupidest.

Image from Emmerson in The Herald – definitive.

Open mike 24/04/2015

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 23/04/2015

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standarnistas 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.

NRT: National’s hand-wringing on housing

Auckland house prices have exploded again. Houses get more capital gains than their inhabitants do in salaries. So what is the government doing about it? Nothing. They haven’t tried the economic basics.. Capital gains tax to decrease demand, or a building programme to increase supply. Meanwhile National’s landlord MPs laughing all the way to the bank…

Chaos and Mayhem at the Herald

The Herald has responded to criticism of its role in publishing the identity of the victim of John Key’s creepy behaviour by publishing, at this stage, three different responses.  What is going on?

International laughing stock

John Key has finally achieved the world fame he has clearly always wanted, but not in a good way. Here’s a roundup of the international coverage of his harassment.

Open mike 23/04/2015

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 22/04/2014

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standarnistas 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.

Record-breaking Government

Not satisfied with setting records for biggest deficit and largest total deficit over term, the Key government is now going for most deficits in a row. They now look to equal the National government’s 7 deficits from 1966-72. And this is the stuff they want to be judged on…

My Little Ponytail

A really strange story has appeared on The Daily Blog. It claims to be a first person account of PM John Key regularly physically harrassing a staff member in his local cafe over the summer. While it may be much ado about nothing, the Prime Minister really should tell NZ his side of the story. Or resign if it’s true.

Update: It’s true. Key’s office has confirmed the harassment.

Open mike 22/04/2015

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 21/04/2015

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standarnistas 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.

Dirty Politics on Nine to Noon

Matthew Hooton’s attack on Nicky Hager’s journalistic credentials on Nine to Noon yesterday was straight out of the “Dirty Politics” playbook. Kathryn Ryan wasn’t impressed and neither was I. Coincidentally Hager spoke last week about his investigative journalism – you can judge for yourself who spoke the truth.

Parsing John Key

John Key’s recent public response to the news of the likely interception of Chinese diplomatic communications resemble those of a used car salesman rather than those of a New Zealand Prime Minister.

ANZAC 4 SALE

Has the spirit of ANZAC Day become subsumed by the commercial imperative?

Open mike 21/04/2015

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 20/04/2015

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standarnistas 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.