National want it both ways. They’ve brought us economic recovery through their brilliance (we’ve just not felt it yet), but also the lack of a recovery is not their fault and is in fact why all the stats are so bad. Here’s a reminder of what they’ve said…
The first of the CTU’s online election ads.
The Fairfax Research International poll looks disastrous for Labour, but it’s a new poll with no track record. Laugh at me if I turn out to be wrong, but I’m calling it rogue. In contrast a Herald Mood of the Nation poll today is much better reading for the Left.
There’s a line in, I believe, a Terry Pratchett book that goes ‘a leader has to get up very early in the morning and work hard all day long to make a society go backwards’. I was reminded of that when Key said “I work 19 hours a day, seven days a week to try and make New Zealand a better country”. Given the country’s going backwards, what does Key get up to in those 133 hour weeks? Let’s see.
All these things operate underground. There are two near identical pairs. But only one of these things is really not like the other. Let’s not forget John Key’s mirror trust that let’s him keep an eye on the investments that are supposed to be held in a blind trust while he’s PM.
Nothing separates the political Right and Left like their attitude to welfare. The difference is very starkly highlighted in the recent policies from National and Labour. Which approach better serves the children of New Zealand? How much do we care?
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Not as much fun as a Letterman Top Ten, but here’s John Key’s vital statistics – his record to be judged on. (h/t Phil Goff…)
Key seems to want ACT to beg even more for his endorsement in Epsom. No wonder their hard working supporter is getting a bit tetchy. But as for ACT being “very stable” – WTF?
I was going to write about the release of Labour’s environmental policy – and the resounding silence from National – but NRT has done a great job aleady.
Yes, that’s an actual quote [sans ‘serfs’] from David Farrar lying about his master John Key’s lies about not raising GST.
hattip: frank macskasy
Labour released its excellent children’s policy yesterday that will lift 150,000 children out of poverty and enhance families’ quality of life. The Right is wailing. Fuck ’em. They’ve turned a blind eye while 32,000 more kids have fallen into poverty. Only a Labour-led government will have the policies for a truly brighter future for all Kiwis, especially our kids.
The focus of attention has moved on to costing the policies, promises and projections of the major parties. The Nats’ are desperate to have the media focus stay on the mote in Labour’s eye, and ignore the beam in their own. In the interests of informed choice, let’s hear both sides of the story…
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In an Editorial that would not have been out of place as a post on ‘The Standard’ The Herald praises the Occupiers of city squares around the country, (and around the world).
Interesting to see a high profile, popular celebrity come out and speak her mind on John Key. Nothing like calling a shovel a shovel…
We’re three weeks out from the election, and there’s something funny going on. National has hardly any policy out. Parties typically go into an election with a pretty comprehensive lineup of policy covering a very wide range of issues. Do the Nats really not have any plans, or are they just keeping them quiet to win a second term?
The number of people attending adult community education has fallen by 80% since National’s cuts in 2009. National’s cuts have saved only $24m (vs the $1.1b cost of the ‘fiscally neutral’ tax cuts) but have denied over a quarter of a million people the opportunity to broaden their horizons and acquire new skills. National is leaving a poorer society behind it.
Political equality – 118 years and counting – still some way to go….
We live in a time of inter-related crises of the environment and the capitalist economic system. So, I guess it’s not surprising to see Labour becoming more environmentally aware at the same time as the Greens propose economic policies that would normally be out of Labour’s playbook. Don’t worry about them becoming too alike, welcome the solid platform for a new government.
Sunday morning’s RNZ Insight program was an excellent examination of poverty in NZ. Labour’s policies were slowly reducing poverty. National’s are making it worse again. How much do we care?
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Bill Rosenberg from the NZCTU and Massey’s School of Banking Studies David Tripe will speak tomorrow at St John’s Church in Wellington at 5:30pm on the credit down grade and the banks. All welcome, register at www.fabians.org.nz. Bernard Hickey in today’s Herald was also interesting about the banks’ profits.
In which which Winston Peters rules out working with any possible government. Not that it matters, but, way to make your party irrelevant Winston.
John Key has been asked if he will be giving an explicit order to National voters in Epsom to vote for John Banks. He said ‘not today’. He said that a few weeks ago too. No photo-op of Key shaking Banks’ hand either. Why the hold-up? What could possibly be behind National wariness of linking Brand Key to Banks?
Last year and the year before, the portions of the assets National wants to sell paid over $400 million in dividends. Labour estimates lost dividends from those assets would total $11 billion by 2026. That’s an $11 billion hole in National’s budgets they haven’t accounted for. When will National front up and show us the money?
Campaign for MMP has recently started selling T-shirts as part of their campaign fundraising.
Their “Keep Calm and Vote MMP” T-shirts are a very reasonably priced $40 and come in a stylish black.
1980 saw the election of Ronald Regan as US president. On taking office at the start of 1981 he ushered in a package of right wing economic policies that soon picked up the nick-name “Reganomics”. How did that work out for workers and for inequality?
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Unemployment up again. Key had bet on some kind of economic boost from the RWC. It didn’t happen. 3,000 more jobs lost in the last quarter. There’s 59,000 more people out of work since the Nats won power. It’s like a whole city the size of Hamilton has gone out of work under National. This government has the worst economic record in generations.
Labour’s fiscal strategy takes National’s projections and adds or subtracts money for its policies. The clever thing is they alter the Nats’ projections to remove all the dividend revenue from assets they want to sell. How much is taken off National doesn’t affect if Labour gets back to surplus in 2014 – but it makes National’s projections more accurate. The Nats are complaining.
Predictions on global greenhouse gas emissions have turned out to be wrong. The real emissions are higher than the worst case projections. Models of warming, however, have been confirmed as accurate. Here in NZ a joint VUW / Otago study makes damning criticisms of the Nats’ record on climate change.
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