Body of evidence
Trendy polls
The last three polls have all been good for the Left. I’d like to be able to point you to a poll of polls to have a look at the trend, but both Curia and Pundit are stuck in an April time warp.
Update: Great to see the Pundit poll of polls up to date again – check it out.
Open mike 11/06/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Nats try and fail to inoculate Key from Budget mess
The Prime Minister chairs Cabinet, which signs the Budget off policy by policy. A competent Prime Minister would be intimately familiar with the major policy changes. So, it was very interesting to see Audrey Young’s ‘insider’ piece on the education debacle yesterday. Chock full of tidbits supplied by Murray McCully. All the blame sleeted home to Bill English and Hekia Parata. Crucially, John Key barely mentioned.
Spot the difference
25 years nuke free
Open mike 10/06/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Caption contest
The Nats’ agenda
You don’t usually see it stated as succinctly as this.
Do Economists have the answers?
Austerity: another great idea brought to you by the same people who got us into this mess. But some economists are able to think outside the orthodoxy: There Are Real Alternatives. See you at The Voyage.
Open mike 09/06/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Police Liaison = Police Trap
Last week I wrote about how the mass arrest of protesters last week was planned by police from the beginning. A couple of days later I was told that 10 minutes before the march a Police Liaison Officer spoke to protest organisers and stated that police were only there to facilitate the march. I have now managed to track down the video of this conversation.
Weekend social 08/06/2012
Weekend social is for non political chat. What’s on for the weekend, gigs, film or book reviews, sports, or whatever. No politics, no […]
Nats ramp up attacks on local government
The neoliberals hate democracy. It tends to get in the way. Especially local government. It’s easier to control a single unicameral Parliament than it is to control 70-odd territorial authorities. National has attacked local government, particularly in Auckland and Canterbury but now they’re going all out with more dictatorships and forced mergers.
While I have your attention class…
While the public’s attention is focused on educational issues, use the platform to press for change on the Nats other damaging educational initiatives, national standards and charter schools.
Nats to slam through asset sales
After hearing 150 oral submissions and receiving thousands more written ones, National’s members of the Finance and Select Committee shut down the Committee’s consideration of the evidence they had heard on the asset sales bill after just 1 hour. And why not? They had had Treasury write the Committee’s report before the submitters were even heard. Now, the legislation goes back to the House 6 weeks early to be slammed through its final stages.
Schadenfreude
The hysterical right are pretty pissed that the Nats have backed down on class sizes. Let them rant all they like – the Nats can’t afford to listen.
Reaching Tipping Point
Two major new reports out yesterday (from the UN and in Nature) show the earth is headed for a tipping point: our consumption is unsustainable, and we’re degrading the environment. Soon it will be beyond the point of return.
Flip-flop still leaves hole in education budget
With its polling slip-sliding away, National had no choice but to dump its ideological class size increases. But why did they dump the spending on teacher quality too? If that was such a priority that it justified sacking 1,000 teachers, couldn’t something else be cut? And what other education spending will now be cut to fill National’s budget hole?
Open mike 08/06/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Parata to the Headmaster’s office?
Nanaia Mahuta has a wicked sense of humour, as well as being a very smart politician. Her report card on National’s performance on education gives Parata an F for failing to do homework. Parata may also risk expulsion., judging by John Key’s comments from London that she should talk to the unions. Looks like a call to the headmaster’s office coming up.
Update: Sure enough the Nats have backed down completely from upping class sizes.
Class sizes vox pop
Public opinion is massively opposed to cutting teachers. When 50,000 people marched down Queen St the Nats dropped plans to mine conservation land. Time for another show of people power.
Don’t feed the troll
Bennett is running misdirection for the Parata. Not letting bad parents have more kids is nothing new. It’s just the existing powers courts have to order CYFS to take newborns into custody and to ban people from contact with kids. With the meaningless addition of making these orders before a woman is pregnant. Good talkback bait though. Bennett’s just trolling again. Which is all she seems good for.
Serco incompetence should put a halt to Wiri
A year in to its 10-year, $300 million contract, and Serco is making a real hash of running Mt Eden Prison. A second escape this week, along with two late releases, failure to meet drug testing targets and failure to report as agreed. And this is dealing with mostly only remand prisoners. Why are we spending $900m on an unneeded prison at Wiri for these clowns to run?
The problem with Treasury’s broken crystal ball
The Budget was released on May 24th and Treasury’s numbers are already proving to be wrong. It’s not just a laughing matter. When you’ve got a government making its decisions based on a arbitrary, binary bookkeeping target: surplus by 2014/15 – yes/no, then you’re going to get problems when your chief bookkeeping agency doesn’t have a clue what’s going on.
Open mike 07/06/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Lifestyle “choices”
Last year John Key said that the poor and those on benefits had made lifestyle choices. If they budgeted properly, they’d be fine. Things aren’t fine, and they’re getting worse, which is why a 40-yr-old DPB Mum in Christchurch – facing an $80/week rent increase, because Key hasn’t done anything about Christchurch’s housing shortage – has had to resort to the lifestyle “choice” of prostitution.
Basher Bennett rides to Hekia’s rescue
Same old National – when they’re in trouble, out comes the club for a distracting headline. Hekia Parata’s under fire and digging herself into a very deep hole, so Paula Bennett rides to the rescue with the “news” that Cabinet is discussing allowing judges to direct miscreant parents not to have children. Who knows what the judges think about this hospital pass – let’s hope the media sees it for what it is.
People make a mess
Like the character, Nick Taylor, in the movie, ‘Thank You For Smoking’, self-styled “Oil lobbyist”, David Robinson is a highly paid apologist for the fossil fuel lobby. But even he says he wouldn’t want fracking in his neighbourhood.
Transit of Venus
The transit of Venus is in progress. If cloud cover allows you a view it’s a pretty special astronomical event…
Coward
Hekia Parata has refused to front up to education groups against her bigger class sizes.
Only money matters
How did National get it so wrong on the cuts that would costs too many schools far too many teachers? Did the Nats do any consultation at all?
Open mike 06/06/2012
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
At least Parker’s onto it
The news out of Europe, China and Australia is looking worse by the day. What’s coming at us doesn’t look pretty. I was about to do a post saying I hoped someone in Labour was doing some scenario planning and was very pleased to see today that Parker’s eyes are open.
Class sizes: show National you care
Here’s a petition against Hekia Parata’s class size increases. Show the government what a big mistake they’ve made. If Federated Farmers can spread it, so can you…
Postcards from the “brighter” future
Hey John – where’s our “Brighter Future”? Hey National voters – was this what you voted for?