National Standards Mk 2?
Michael Gove, Britain’s Conservative shadow Children’s Minister, has unveiled their version of National standards. Like Anne Tolley, he is sure he knows what […]
The climate change industry
It turns out that there is a climate change industry after all.
It is the denier industry, bought and paid for by ExxonMobil…
Recentralisation? A whole lotta nothing
During the neoliberal revolution, the 4th Labour Government and the Nats decided to break up the big ministries into lots of little ministries […]
Hartevelt on bashing the yoof
A contact at the Ministry of Transport tells me that 15 year old drivers have been involved in only a handful of fatal crashes, 1 to 1.5% of the total, in recent years and they’re not all the 15 year old’s fault. But no, National’s solution is to prevent all 15 year olds from driving. Dumb. It’s a carpet-bombing approach to policy
Open mike 07/03/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
NZ Fabian Society lectures
This looks to be a fascinating set of lectures. I’ll be going – will you?
Economic orthodoxy continues to fail New Zealand. This failure is systemic, not cyclical. Despite this, prevailing political and economic orthodoxy has become almost immune from scrutiny. It seems that policymakers have yet to comprehend that the status quo will inevitably lead to economic collapse.
Come on Granny
Come on Granny Herald. You’re almost there…
Key supports return to commercial whaling
In January, we were told that John Key had some secret plan to end whaling. Now, we learn that Key wants to let […]
Armstrong and class interest
The poor don’t need tax cuts for the top 12% to to inspire them to want to get out of poverty. Poverty is inspiration enough. But thepoor cannot all become rich. To function capitalism needs poverty. There’s got to be lots of people doing the shitty, dangerous, hard jobs for cheap. And the wealth will always flow to the elite few who own capital or defend their interests.
O’Sullivan and Garrett, strange bedfellows?
Fran O’Sullivan is a pro-business liberal or libertarian, David Garrett is a knuckle brain conservative. But actually, they’re not so far apart. It seems both believe in freedom for the rich and control over the poor. Incredibly O’Sullivan goes into bat for Garrett over his sterilisation comments.
John Key lies about “surgical” mining
Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee is refusing to rule out landscape-scarring mining on our most precious conservation land. This makes a liar of John Key who promised the government was considering “surgical mining”.
Open mike 06/03/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Ashcroft – “dead horse pong gets worse”
Only days ago, British Conservative leader David Cameron told journalists they were “flogging a dead horse” when asking about Tory deputy chair Lord Ashcroft’s donations and tax status. Now new information has come to light about destruction of documents, tax avoidance, and offshore funding of the Conservative party.
Labour says ‘hands off Radio NZ’
The campaign to save Radio New Zealand from funding cuts and commercialisation is going well. Well attended rallies have been held in Wellington, […]
On Gattung’s revisionist history of Telecom
Over at Scoop, Gordon Campbell takes Theresa Gattung to task for her revisionist history of Telecom in the Dominion Post this morning.
More than anything, her latest outburst reveals her clanging naivety and complete inability to take personal responsibility for her failures.
Mickysavage on Tolley’s standards meetings
mickysavage reports on Anne Tolley’s meeting in West Auckland. He relates her complete inability to understand the issues. He concludes that national standards was a dog whistle policy that in action will actually only consist of spending $50 million a year on reports with pretty graphs and standardising grading for writing. Everything else is already standardised. There will be no improvements in education standards.< more>
Legitimate spending vs rorts
It’s pretty rare that I agree with John Key but he got it right when he voiced concern that journalists are attacking MPs for legitimately using their budgets to do their jobs. Do we really want to force parties to rely on private funding for communicating their positions? That makes politics a rich man’s game. There are plenty of actual rip-offs and rorts for the media to root out.
Drinking Liberally presents the Roger Award
The first Drinking Liberally of the year in Wellington is next Thursday and it looks to be a good one. The Roger Award […]
Listening to the evidence on national standards
All available evidence and expert opinion suggests that National Standards, as the government intends to introduce them in our primary schools, won’t work. They may even do damage. Will Key and Tolley ever take heed of the evidence, or is this just a blind ideological crusade? Bring on Diane Ravitch…
Open mike 05/03/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Nats kill another crim rehabilitation scheme
For just $2.4 million a year, the Prisoners’ Aid and Rehabilitation Society and its 500 volunteers help 25,000 inmates and ex-inmates with rehabilitation and readjustment each year. Their efforts help turn people away from crime. But the Nats cancelled the funding. All they believe in is putting the boot in harder even though it doesn’t stop crime.
Alternate forms of protest
Now this is pretty damn funny and just adds to todays absurdities over the waste of money on rugby world cup TV in 2011. Veteran Springbok Tour protester John Minto has found himself at the centre of a new Eden Park storm, with a controversial plan to name a nearby $3 million road after him.
Will the supercity transition authority now want to stop community boards from naming streets?
Gender gap alive and well
Next Monday is International Women’s Day (8 March). I know a few readers will ask Do we still still need to worry? According to Asha-Rose Migiro, UN Deputy Secretary-General, the answer is yes. Among the areas where progress has lagged is in tackling the scourge of violence against women…
Obey the moderator
This is the shortened and lyrical version of the policy.
Collins and the fist of the state
An ugly side of the Right, one that a lot of people thought was long defeated, has reemerged in recent weeks. Yesterday we had David Garrett’s ‘sterilise the poor because they might become criminals or breed criminals’ and last week we had arguably more disturbing comments from Judith Collins about how she wanted to restore “fear” of the Police.
Glorious school building opened by honourable leader
Beloved Leader of People’s Constitutional Monarchy of New Zealand, Honourable John Key, attended glorious opening of school building on Tuesday.
Several youths were overcome by the glory of Honourable Leader’s appearance as were several members of the press corps.
World Cup TV fiasco
How’s this for insanity: the finals in the World Cup will be broadcast live on four free to air channels as well as Sky. That’s pretty much the definition of overkill and it has got to have cost a bomb, thanks to the Government’s disastrous handling of the issue.
Open mike 04/03/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
ACT tearing itself apart
ACT policies are electoral poison, and the inevitability of that growing realisation seems to be creating strains that are tearing the party apart. Heather Roy’s speech to ACT’s conference suggests that last year’s failed leadership coup is far from over…
National’s vision: employment without dignity
National’s latest proposals to strip away workers’ protections against unfair dismissal must surely put to bed any idea that this is a moderate, centrist government.
The proposals are a breach of National’s election promises and go further than even the ECA. They are a charter for employment without dignity.
Garrett: Sterilise the poor
ACT MP David Garret has called for a programme to sterilise the “likes” of Chris Kahui and Maxine King. By which we can only assume he means poor, brown, people. Sack him.
150k comments and rising…
Well the discussion keeps going on, and as you know I like marking these occasions as the database steadily grows (and my backup […]
Camels, Eyes, Needles
If you agree that money is power, and that power corrupts, then it follows having a lot of money may be a corrupting […]
Ex leaders
Comparing the post-leadership careers of Clark and Brash is quite a study in contrasts. Clark’s has been stellar, Brash’s an embarrassment. But the world of difference between these two leaders is much clearer with the perfect hindsight of 2010 than it was when they were locked in a tight electoral battle in 2005.
How will history look back at the leadership of John Key?
Kick in guts for recesson victims
The recession has forced tens of thousands of people out of work. There are now 276,000 jobless Kiwis. The lucky ones (only a […]