Open mike 14/02/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes […]
Columnists slam Key’s lack of plan
Tracy Watkins awards the first week of Parliamentary politics this year to Phil Goff, and points out that it’s as much due to his and Labour’s much improved performance as it is to Key and National’s shambolic, over-promise, under-deliver governance.
Maintenance
There will be up to 15 minutes of maintenance around 5pm. I have to shove some directories around to better structure the server […]
Economically incompetent ACE cuts
National love to tell us what we want to hear. Among their many pre-election policy lies they waxed lyrical about the value of education, before effectively cutting funding in the budget. On Adult and Community Education (ACE), Bill English was particularly supportive…
No love for workers, no quarter from National
Protests are taking place around the country today against the National Government’s miserable 25 cent increase to the minimum wage.
A fair tax
Click through for today’s Tom Scott cartoon.
He hits the nail on the head.
Putting up GST hits the poor the hardest.
For Kiwis who are barely scrapping by every cent counts.
Open mike 13/02/2010
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the […]
Logorama
Update: Link’s dead but I found this trailer on youtube
I won’t raise GST
This is pretty classic. Found it on one of The Standard’s old posts. I think we’ll be seeing a bit more of this […]
No help for the invisible
Relating to what I wrote yesterday about the Right and much of the media being largely blind to the existence of those of […]
John remembers his underclass, briefly
The other day I wrote: I reckon we probably will see a passing reference to the ‘underclass’ for appearance’s sake [in John Key’s […]
Evidence on drugs ignored
Minister of Justice Simon Power has unfortunately decided to completely ignore recommendations made by the Law Commission on drug reform. This is an […]
GST is not a tax – suck it up
The best political commentary these days doesn’t come from the political journalists. As Zetetic shows, they have turned themselves into government minders. But […]
Nats & Maori Party headed for foreshore & seabed showdown
It turns out that the silly ‘no-one owns it’ option for the foreshore and seabed is John Key’s ‘elegant solution’. Here he is defending […]
Learning from example
In chronological order: John Key: “[I never promised I wouldn’t raise GST]. I said I would not raise GST to cover deficits, and […]
The lie behind the Right’s attack on wages
Paying a person doing the same work as another person less money because of their sex or religion or ethnicity or any other grounds […]
Open mike 12/02/2010
Open mike is your post. It’s open for discussing topics of interest, making announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. Comment on whatever takes your […]
Campaign for a living wage
Campaign for a living wage is protesting the offices of National MPs this Saturday to protest increases in GST and the miserly increase […]
Trivia: the milk bottle mystery
Enough of all of this politics. Lets look at something that is more mysterious than the hole that John Key is digging for […]
Nats eyeing up youth minimum wage?
Over the last month or so National’s pollster David Farrar has been running a series of posts desperately trying to pin the spike […]
South Africa honours Nelson Mandela’s walk to freedom
Twenty years ago, on 11 February 1990, after 27 years of incarceration, Nelson Mandela walked out of Victor Verster prison on a hot Sunday afternoon. And history changed.
Gerry’s gift to future generations
The beleaguered PM
My my, things are turning quickly for John Key. We now have the first sighting of the red flag term “the beleaguered PM” […]
Nats need to follow Labour’s lead on GST
“Last GST hike had little impact, say tax experts” – Herald The article is about inflation but it is also true of growth. […]
Quick comments
The Government and the secretive Iwi Leadership Group are looking at an option where no-one owns the foreshore and seabed. It’s often forgotten […]
Jeanette Fitzsimons’ valedictory
As I have mentioned before, Jeanette Fitzsimons is one of the very few members of parliament for whom I have the utmost respect. […]
Maori Party/Nat breakup over GST?
Yesterday, Rahui Katene said the Maori Party could walk away from National if they didn’t adequately compensate low and middle income people for increasing […]
Trouble brewing for govt on GST
“An unscientific poll yesterday of 846 readers asking whether they would be happy to pay more GST if it meant they paid less […]
The Right’s blindness towards middle New Zealand
I find it frustrating that the debate over tax concerntrates on the top rate rate, which doesn’t apply to 90% of taxpayers. It’s […]
Open mike 11/02/2010
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the […]
No plan to get Kiwis into work
Number of jobless Kiwis = 276,000 Number of jobs plans from Key Government = 0 Key can make all the vague references to […]
Liar, liar, pants on fire
Apparently promises made before the election don’t count. GST was different then anyway.
Destroying our heritage
John Key is hell bent on carving up our most pristine National Parks for mining. No matter what. The areas most at risk […]
Key’s magic money-pot
John Key has indicated that the Government will lift the GST rate to 15% and remove depreciation from investment houses. According to the […]
John Key’s “step change”
Any questions?