A beautiful mind – read it and weep
An email doing the rounds of the women’s networks found its way to me today. It’s link to an article about the late […]
Fran lets the plan slip
Fran O’Sullivan has rather given the game away on the MMP referendum. Frog has explained it so well, I can’t do better than […]
Wee gripes: speakering
John when you say ‘overtly’ you mean ‘overly’. Like on Monday when you told Paul Henry “I’m not overtly stressed..”. Sometimes, you say […]
Clueless
John Key has admitted he didn’t bother to get detailed briefings before sending our SAS to kill and possibly die for a corrupt regime in Afghanistan: […]
Climate cast aways
That prolific climate campaign – Sign On – has been casting its mark across the Capital, with a new motif popping up on […]
Abuse of process
National put Parliament back into urgency yesterday. It is ramming through the extension to the retail deposit guarantee, the RMA amendments, changes to […]
Look what I found
Does anyone really believe a Treasury official just happened to accidentally drop a notebook full of secrets on The Terrace then one of […]
Key’s lies on housing rort exposed
As I alluded to yesterday, the claims from John Key that he has slashed hundreds of thousands of dollars from the cost of […]
Backdown from Infratil?
Infratil-run NZ Bus has called off its planned capital strike for tomorrow. The company had been going to prevent bus drivers and other […]
Owning Auckland
Last Friday the report of the Select Committee on Auckland was tabled in Parliament. The lack of media attention is a measure of […]
Who is Kate Wilkinson taking aim at?
By John Ryall, SFWU National Secretary While The Standard readers know that the air traffic controllers were the excuse that Kate Wilkinson used […]
A rort is a rort is a rort
And by any other name it smells as bad. John Key has annouced a reform of the rules for ministerial accommodation allowance. A […]
Soak the rich
Coming soon to a workplace near you, if Kate Wilkinson gets her way: According to this report by Roll on Friday, a receptionist […]
Shock, Horror – Infratil managers strike for more pay!
Yesterday Infratil got their NZ Bus hand-puppets to announce that they will be going on strike. On Wednesday, if the bus-drivers refuse to […]
Rod Oram: Burn after reading
As usual Rod Oram presents an insightful argument: New Zealand’s climate change credibility is hanging by a thread. If the government indulges in […]
Tim O’Reilly on “Gov 2.0”
Five years ago Tim O’Reilly coined the phrase “Web 2.0”. Now, in this post at TechCrunch, he argues it’s time for “Gov 2.0”. […]
Michael Laws, ambassador
From The Guardian: It used to be loony left local government that attracted ridicule. Now it is the outpourings of mad mayors. …[UK mayoral […]
Angry sadsack still at it
Michael Laws: get on with your job and stop prancing around on the media stage. Laws has put out a second (yes, a […]
Going forward…
Like r0b, I’m the new kid on The Standard’s block. Sounds like he got the cool initiation. I, on the other hand, had […]
Heavy-handed tactics from NZ Bus
Auckland bus drivers have been in negotiations with NZ Bus (which is owned by Infratil) for a 70 cent an hour pay rise. […]
Political debate done right
The last video I posted had Democratic Congressman Barney Frank taking the fight to a woman in the audience of a townhall meeting […]
Let’s have a proper debate
Larry Baldock (organiser of the “smacking” referendum) has decided to launch a petition for another referendum on whether such referenda should be binding. […]
Flood Maps
Marty G’s last post just reminded me of this – visualise who goes under as the oceans rise with Flood Maps. And yeah, […]
Climate change in action
The world’s oceans reached a record high temperature in July of 16.37 degrees, 0.59 degrees above the 20th century average. That might not […]
The mire
Last month’s Time magazine has an article that starts “to understand why the United States is losing in Afghanistan…” It’s a bombshell phrase, […]
Sohole.
In Ponsonby there is a bloody great big hole which is all that remains of the unlamented DYC Vinegar factory. It has been […]
Climate change is racist
Climate change is racist. Not literally of course, but in the sense that how people are affected by climate change is going to […]
The song of the sewer
An old favourite came around on the playlist. It sounded like the ostriches that occupy the sewer and appear here for our entertainment… […]
A return to elected dictatorship?
Back in the days of First Past the Post elections, we had what Geoffery Palmer termed ‘the fastest law in the West’ and […]
Diffusion of responsibility
Diffusion of responsibility means that the bigger the group the less chance that anyone in the group will take action. In a typical […]
Why blog?
So, against my better judgement I’m now a card carrying Standardista. Finally managed to get through the initiation ceremony without fainting. I’ve been […]
Kate’s pretext falls over
Yesterday, National’s Kate Wilkinson tried to use a dispute over how to apply the new rest breaks law for air traffic controllers as […]
OECD child poverty report
I’ve been having a look at the OECD’s report on child poverty. A lot of the data is quite of of date and […]
Wanganui: a Laws unto itself
The Wanganui District Council (Prohibition of Gang Insignia) Act 2009, which prohibits the display of gang insignia in a public place, so clearly infringes of […]
10:10
The scientists say we need to reduce our greenhouse emissions by 40% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 if we want to even […]
Rest-breaks under attack
In 1908, the miners at Blackball took a famous strike over the right to take rest breaks at work. For most of the […]