George on tax
It isn’t often that I find myself in agreement with Garth George. But he’s written a scorching indictment of right-wing greed that feels right at home here on The Standard…
Open mike 05/08/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
It’s who you know
Who cares whether or not the SIS briefed Phil Goff over whether or not some Israelis were Mossad? What does interest me it this: Secretive SIS denied Fairfax a copy of the briefing paper on the non-agents. Days later it magics up a copy of this classified paper for Nat muckraker Cameron Slater. Who’s the SIS’s minister again? Oh yeah, John Key. Updated
Economist on US debt politics
KAL (the cartoonist for The Economist) expresses my feelings about the political process over the last couple of months in the US. Their […]
Let he who is without sin….
It’s gotcha season in Parliament. First Labour was pulled up for a couple of election ads not having authorisation statements or not having big enough ones. Then Labour responded with unauthorised ads from National. Now, The Jackel has been told an unauthorised letter sent by Key to every pensioner is an electoral ad.
Clusterf*ck in Epsom
It looks like the race for Epsom is about to get a whole lot more exciting. Former ACT funder Colin Craig seems set to throw his hat into the ring against ACT’s John Banks, National’s Paul Goldsmith, and Labour’s David Parker. It only needs Winnie to join in to make a real party of it. Can Parker slip through the middle and win?
Greens tackle child poverty
The Greens have launched their policy to get 100,000 kids out of poverty. It’ll cost just 0.3% of GDP. We have a moral duty to do what we can to eliminate child poverty. Labour made a start. WFF basically ended working poverty. But there’s the kids of beneficiaries. 270,000 kids below the poverty line while the elite live in mansions. Not good enough.
Compulsory Kiwisaver?
Good to see the government considering a move that would significantly boost KiwiSaver uptake – even if it does highlight their ideological inconsistency!
Open mike 04/08/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
It’s getting crowded on the right
What does Colin Craig’s new Conservative Party expect to accomplish, other than to siphon off and waste a tiny percentage of right wing vote?
Hickey’s prescription for the currency
The neoliberal myth is that government economic policy doesn’t really matter, it can’t affect the economy – apart from being an anchor on growth. The truth is, government is the biggest actor in our economy. What it does matters. Bernard Hickey has listed 10 ways that the government could act to get the exchange rate down.
Graph of the day: 1 in 20 jobs gone in Chch
120 jobs per weekday lost but nothing to worry about. The market will right itself.
Free market quake
The “free market” exists to make profit. It does have some advantages when everything is running smoothly. But the free market is hopeless in tough times. It never wants to pay out or clean up the mess.
Key’s own goal on poverty
A bad mistake by John Key in the House yesterday. Phil Goff asked him about the gap between rich and poor. Key cited a new report on falling inequality. But he should have read the report properly. It credits Labour policies for driving down poverty and inequality.
Open mike 03/08/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Open debate
Key has refused to include the leaders of minor parties in TV3 debates, and Goff has agreed to debate one on one. Another step towards “presidential” style politics that does not serve our country well.
NoRightTurn on the ETS
I/S reviews the ETS so far. It has worked, as Labour promised, to bring down emissions – helped by the recession. But don’t forget there are still massive subsidies for the emissions that are happening thanks to National’s changes. It’s nuts that you and I are forking out so that foreign-owned factories can spew out carbon dioxide on a more profitable basis.
PSA launches myth busting campaign
The PSA is launching its election campaign this evening. Our big challenge is to break through the government’s narrative (now reaching mythic proportions) […]
Chart o’ the day: the real world
The Peters principle
There’s been a lot of coverage of Winston Peters lately. Most of his announcements have been perfectly predictable, but for me there have been two real surprises.
Open mike 02/08/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
You paid to get Try-hard John on the telly
Remember John Key’s awful Letterman appearance? Supposedly worth a fortune in tourism. We know that was complete crap. It was a stunt meant to impress us saps. Now we learn that we paid for it. PM’s office pleaded for months to get on Letterman. Try-hard even sent a demo tape. When that didn’t work, they paid a US PR agency $10K to seal the deal.
Generation Zero
It is one of the failures of our society that far too many young people are politically disengaged or apathetic. Many – but not all! Meet Generation Zero. Please go visit their website, join up, or spread the word…
All hail our vampire overlords
How did the wealth of the 151 richest people grow by 10% of GDP when the economy grew only 1.5%? Mostly by revaluing existing assets. Not a lot of ‘wealth creation’ from our self-appointed Randian Heroes, just book changes. But, apparently, we owe everything to the elite and need to let them suck up more of our wealth for themselves.
Breeding for a business?
A typical shock horror headline on Stuff in the weekend – “Pre-teens dream of kids and dole”. So what’s going on here, and is it an argument for “welfare reform”?
Let it out
The polls show that New Zealanders, quite rightly, prefer the policies of the Left, such as capital gains tax, over National/ACT’s ‘plan’ to hock off our assets. But the majority still seem to favour returning a Key-led (and Key’s the, um, key) government, even if they won’t like what it does. What the Left needs is Goff to build personal trust with the people.
Open mike 01/08/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Pharmac’s a treasure – watch out for pirates
Geoff Simmons will speak on the importanceof Pharmac at a Fabian seminar today at St John’s Church at 5:30pm. Pharmac is also “on the table” in negotiations with the US in the Trans-Pacific Trade agreement. It is no secret that the US pharmaceutical industry would like to clip Pharmac’s wings; but our government’s approach is secret as they have refused to release draft negotiating texts. Geoff and Gareth Morgan have written to government arguing that a US free-trade deal isn’t worth it if Pharmac is sacrificed.
All are welcome to the free seminar.
All the World’s A Square
Some inspiration as Monday morning looms.
20% of Schools Break the Law!
Why is it that the Ministry of Education has at least 20% of the school boards unwilling to put National’s standards into their charters. They are doing this despite the blatant bullying by the Anne Tolley as the minister. They can’t see what the standards would positively achieve for their kids. Perhaps Tolley needs some education?
The Heart of Utoya
So Breivik has given us an eyes wide open gaze into the abyss. Chilling isn’t it? Much has been written in the last […]
Out of sight out of mind
Many other countries have cleared beggars from the streets in advance of big international sporting events. Such a thing would never be needed in New Zealand though. Would it?
Open mike 31/07/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Cooperation vs the tea party
Cooperation is one of the characteristics that defines humans in evolutionary terms. However true to their intellectually intransigent nature derived more from their enjoyment of a good old randian tantrum, the tea party is holding everyone to ransom. I suspect that the republicans are not going to like the consequences because voters value cooperation more.
Boggled
I/S at No Right Turn on the public’s perception of the management of the economy, and National’s “dismal non-performance “.
Reconnecting with voters
On paper Labour is doing everything right, but they are not yet getting traction in the polls. Labour needs to get voters’ attention again, and then their trust. So how to “reconnect with the public”? What should Labour be doing differently?