Unintended Consequences

Winston Peters is poised to announce who will replace him on the NZ First list. It may even be someone who can lead the party after he retires. There’s one really obvious candidate; an ex MP suffering from relevancy deficit syndrome and keen to get back in the political spotlight. It’s ….

Open mike 01/04/2015

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Drill baby drill will not work

Simon Bridges announced yesterday the release of the 2015 block offer. Potentially oil companies could be drilling in deep sea pristine environmental areas off the West Coast where the endangered Maui’s Dolphin lives. He calls for a “mixed balance” of energy generation. But all this means is that he wants the good mixed with the bad.

Open mike 31/03/2015

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Bait and switch

Congratulations to Labour for a very clever strategy in the Northland by-election – lulling and gulling John Key into thinking they were going to run a conventional proxy-partyvote campaign, where National would have the upper hand.  Key, the rockstar politician, also thought Andrew Little would be on the training wheels.  He got that badly wrong; Little’s handling was superb.

Sledging sucks

Hey, all you folk angry with Aussie cricket team sledging – how do you put up with John Key PM?

Open mike 30/03/2015

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Some random thoughts on the Northland result

Winston Peters’ win in Northland yesterday was based on turnout that was significantly higher than turnout for any other recent by election.  And occurred in no small part because of some adept handling of messaging of support by Andrew Little.

Open mike 29/03/2015

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By-elections are FPP

Paddy Gower and Duncan Garner don’t understand our electoral system: “that’s MMP”. By-elections are pure First Past the Post – and that’s why Andrew Little didn’t need to do a deal, and Northland doesn’t stink like Epsom.

International reaction to our spying

How are other nations going to react to our spying on them? Key’s response when the question arose in Korea was very typical of him – bullshit and bluster. So far Brazil, Fiji, and Latin American countries have all proved him wrong.

Open mike 28/03/2015

Today being buy election day in Northland means that everyone should refrain from making comments about the buy election until polling booths close at 7:00 pm. There will be a post up at 7:01 pm where you can comment to your heart’s content. Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike …

Trying to get the truth out of a Nat

Russel Norman tries to get the truth out of Simon Bridges. Bridges really really doesn’t want to admit that NZ’s emissions have increased by 20% from 2008 to 2012. 5 minutes and 10 seconds of painful nonsense to get an answer…

Open mike 27/03/2015

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 …