One small step for a man . . .
It took just a few seconds, it was reasonable and considered, yet, amazingly, a suggestion from David Slack of Island Life has achieved […]
Bennett must resign
I’m no expert in these things but Paula “bully” Bennett appears to have put herself in breach of the cabinet manual by disclosing […]
Spin cycle
Normally, $9 million in government spending is such a puny amount it’s not worth covering but as Key has nailed his crediblity to […]
Nice try, Roger
Sir Roger Douglas has a go at my post that looks at the GDP per person gap between Australia and New Zealand and concludes […]
Bully Bennett
Stunned. I’m simply stunned. After speaking out against Paula Bennett’s cuts to the Incentives Training Allowance two solo mothers have had their entire […]
Truly ambitious for America
America faces a hell of a lot of problems at the moment, but if there’s one man with the ability to inspire and […]
Our traditional allies
It seems the US want us to commit our elite SAS troops to Afghanistan. I’m not a big fan of the Taliban but […]
What they’re really playing at
Business Roundtable chair Rob McLeod has a piece in today’s Dom Post motivating the case for amending anti-discrimination laws to allow “affirmative action” […]
Productive editorial
Interesting editorial on National’s new Productivity Taskforce in Saturday’s Herald. Australia’s Productivity Commission (independent, highly successful, and enjoying cross-party support) could have served […]
More cycleway spin
[At the outset of this, let me restate, once again, I’m all for cycleways. Indeed, I wish the Key government hadn’t cut millions […]
‘Green-shoots’ wither in UK
Like New Zealand, the UK has had a deluge of ‘green-shoots’ news from the corporate media and the financiers desperate to jawbone the […]
Govt opts for weak climate change target
As expected, the Key Government has decided not to listen to the scientists on climate change. Rather than the 40% reduction in emissions […]
Sunday reading: Life in sub-prime America
Exiled Online, a US site, has excellent coverage of the recession and the sub-prime crisis from a ground-level view. Yasha Levine moved to […]
Goff: yes, stuff-ups: no
Bill Ralston quotes me and some other Left bloggers on the Burgess debacle suggesting it means Goff’s neck is on the line and […]
Dark visions
I still get the chills some times remembering how close the Left came to losing the 2005 election. If it hadn’t been for […]
Coated in privatisation pixie dust
I like Colin Espiner’s writing. He’s got he best of the journo blogs. He’s focussed on issues rather than politicking. But does he […]
Back to the future: electricity privatisation
Bill English says he doesn’t much care whether monopolies or businesses with monopolistic power are owned by private companies or the Government does. He doesn’t […]
Wobbling boobs distract Darby from Global Warning
Just saw this…pretty good. Didn’t realise Darby was another Signer Oner. Nice to see a bit of humour injected into something as grim […]
John Key, centrist
IrishBill commented last night that “John Key the centrist” is a narrative we’re not hearing much from the commentariat any more. I thought […]
Nats grandstanding on legal reform
Today we saw Justice Minister Simon Power get a front-page story for proposing a ‘reform‘ of the justice system that is actually just […]
More facts on the table
Now, yesterday a couple of righties didn’t want to believe the evidence in front of their eyes that the GDP per person gap […]
The house built on sand
Pick up the paper. The stories are ‘consumer confidence recovering’, ‘house prices stablising’ etc. These are taken as indications that the recession is […]
Left needs to unite in Supercity race
A UMR poll out yesterday suggests that Len Brown, currently mayor of Manukau, would be the Left candidate with the best chance of winning […]
Quick question
What does the Maori Party think of National’s plan to relax rules on foreign investment?
The reform that wasn’t there
Justice Minister Simon Power: I believe we need to have an open debate about the way in which sexual violence cases are conducted. […]
This is the secret agenda
Remember the mantra about John Key being a centrist? Doesn’t get much play nowadays does it? And it shouldn’t. Not with the government […]
DL Wgtn and Palmy tonight
No Right Turn reminds us: Drinking Liberally is happening tonight in both Wellington and Palmerston North. In Wellington, the guest speaker will be […]
Show-pony
Y’know, as John Key tries to get stuck into Phil Goff, I think it’s time for a quick recall of recent history. Key […]
Provoking change
Good interview with Labour’s Justice spokesperson, Lianne Dalziel this morning on her private members Bill in the ballot that would remove the defence of […]
Closing the gap
I take it all back. Key really is a genius! I didn’t think he could do it, but I underestimated him. Under his […]
UMR has Len Brown ahead of Banks
UMR’s just released a poll showing Manukau mayor Len Brown as the preferred mayor of the Auckland Super City, slightly ahead of John […]
Back to the future
Winston rising
Like some bad horror movie, from beyond the political grave, it stirs again. Christine Rankin? Unbelievably – yes. Don Brash? Well yes, him […]
Phil, get your shit together
Phil Goff. Please get your shit together. This latest fiasco of running up a guy who owns several properties as a case of […]
Justice, provocation, and the media
Provocation is a partial defence to a charge of murder. It reduces murder to manslaughter if the jury accepts that actions of the […]
Those who don’t learn from history…
Supposedly, we need Don Brash and a gang of his right-wing cohorts to tell us how to close the wealth gap with Australia. […]