Tolley keeps empty schools open
Well, there can’t be any doubt now, Anne Tolley is this government’s worst minister. A failure that stands out among failures. She had […]
More jobs lost, govt does nothing
Telecom is threatening to throw up to 1,500 workers out of their jobs so it can increase profits by offshoring. A good government in this situation is […]
Granny sez: look over here!
Does anyone else think it’s a coincidence that Granny Herald has tried to start a meaningless debate over the national flag – ’11 […]
Not a good look
So, John Key and Pita Sharples put Hone Harawira in charge of deciding which flag will fly to represent Maori on government buildings […]
Open mike 04/02/2010
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the […]
On a purely personal note…
I’m totally rapt with Lyn Collie & Briar March getting the recognition for their documentary “There once was an island”. Lyn talked about it on Nightline last night.
Translating Tories: “Incentives to get ahead”
This is the first post in an occasional series that will translate Tory speak into plain language (fellow writers and guest posters are […]
Wages dropping under Key, as promised
Remember how John Key said he “would love to see wages drop“. You might remember the big corporate media refused to run it, […]
Do little still do nothing
Welcome back, John Armstrong. In your piece today you wrote about John Key’s emergency efforts to cover for Anne Tolley’s disasterious handling of […]
DPMC: The “Key” to increasing the PM’s power
Last October I posted on National’s plan to fold the State Services Commission into the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Yesterday, Labour’s […]
Unionised workers win pay rises, others get cuts
The latest round of the Labour Cost Index is out and it shows that the nation’s 400,000 union members are the workers holding […]
Open mike 03/02/2010
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the […]
Banks gets bitten
In a sure sign that the political phone is off the hook for John ‘Mayor for Remuera’ Banks, the deputy mayor of Rodney […]
Werewolf on the Defence White Paper
Gordon Campbell has written in Werewolf an excellent pre-review about the Defense White Paper due for release in March. Needless to say whatever it returns with will be controversial because it helps to define the direction of the next few decades of expenditure and focus for our military.
Then we will not have some of the remarkably stupid ‘debate’ by the ossified that happened in the early 2000’s as the Labour government implemented the Quigley review of the armed forces. This pushed the army to the fore, and relegated the other two services to a support role.
It was clear that many in that debate never bothered to read the Quigley report.
Don’t go, oh mighty Atlas. We’ll give you tax cuts
So, I’m at a cafe having lunch and there’s some fat middle-aged businessmen having lunch at the table beside me. One of them […]
Nats soft on crime
Oh, sure, the Nats will lock a person up longer after they commit a crime, if they get caught. But what they won’t do is prevent them […]
Minimum wage myths: unemployment
One of the old saws that the Right brings out whenever the topic of increasing the minimum wage comes up is ‘oh no, […]
Speak up, Pita. We can’t hear you
TVNZ reports: “Associate Education Minister Pita Sharples has labelled the National Standards policy as damaging to Maori but later refused to comment after […]
Reminder – Drinking Liberally Auckland
The first Auckland Drinking Liberally of 2010 takes place TODAY upstairs at The Purple Bar @ The Naval and Family and features new […]
Open mike 02/02/2010
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the […]
XT Outages
Last week thousands of Telecom XT network customers were without service, some for three days. This comes just weeks after a similar outage […]
Anonymous Dom editor has a cry
I see the DomPost is running a sniveling editorial claiming Labour’s commitment to raising the minimum wage can’t be done. It then breaks […]
Tim Watkin slams tax cuts for tax cheats
On the Q+A blog, Tim Watkin rips into the proposed tax changes. Part of the post: …You might think that such a new […]
Colin James on Labour’s election record
Dancr linked to Colin James’ piece in the Press the other day, in which he writes: Here’s Labour’s record for the five decades […]
Police recruitment campaign steps up a gear
It was probably well intentioned – and to be fair we don’t know the full facts yet – but on the face of […]
That made my Auckland anniversary day
Peter Dunne on his record against Jeanette Fitzsimmons is really an exercise in ego instead of substance
Penny-wise, pound foolish in Afghanistan
Foreign Minister Murray McCully is refusing to contribute any New Zealand money to a fund that will buy-off the Taliban’s foot soldiers. The […]
Goff on Q+A
A good appearance from Phil Goff on the first Q+A of the year. I liked this part especially: Guyon Espiner: You spoke in your […]
Open mike 01/02/2010
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the […]
Colin James on Labour 2010
I know Standard readers follow politics closely almost by definition, but for those who don’t here’s Colin James’ observations on the year ahead […]
Government by knee-jerk
John Key has told us that his government’s unrelenting focus this year will be the economy. He has also said his government will […]
Nats’ polling
Fran O’Sullivan wrote about how she was called by David Farrar’s Curia, National’s polling company, recently. What she was asked is revealing. She […]
The Great Giveaway
From where I’m sitting the Left will never be back in power, not because they will never win elections, but because the power […]
John Key – still clueless
John Key is now stands as being first in NZ for being ‘clueless’ on searches in Google. He is number seven in the world as being clueless. The google-bomb is still running! It will be interesting to push him to number one in the world.
Open mike 31/01/2010
Topics of interest, announcements, general discussion. The usual rules apply (see the link to Policy in the banner). Step right up to the […]
Key, the ABs, & the election date
I’ve been talking with some people about when John Key will call the next election. Two common points emerge: 1) it will be […]