Act MP caught out
Rethinking Crime and Punishment Director, Kim Workman, has caught Act MP David Garrett being less than honest about how many extra prisoners his […]
Tax cuts no help for those worse off
According to RNZ: Official papers confirm low income families will be worse off under the National Government’s tax cut package, compared with Labour’s. […]
Shepard Fairey
Good Copy Bad Copy (repost)
I posted on this in the early days of The Standard but now might be a good time to check it out if […]
Once bitten
After his gaffe last time Key’s made a point of openly announcing his next meeting with the Tories’ deputy chairman, strategist and largest […]
Don’t kill the Cullen Fund
Michael Littlewood has made a career of advocating superannuation privatisation and is part of an international organisation called Pension Reforms dedicated to the […]
The ink’s red, there’s less of it, and no-one’s reading it
New circulation figures show that the number of papers sold by the major dailies continues to slide. In 2007, the big three (Herald, […]
S92A deferred
Looks like the introduction of s92a has been deferred… It is still a bit of a rumour (at least until I find the […]
DL Wellington with Grant Robertson
Under Patrick’s iron fist, things seem much more organised with DL Wellington. For just about the first time ever, there will be a […]
Judith Collins – nascent Minister of Embarrassment?
Should have seen it coming Judith Collins has been vying politically with Rodney Hide to become the NACT’s Minister of Embarrassment (and Comedy). […]
Flashback from way back
Anyone else read Audrey Young’s interview of Bill English in the New Zealand Herald and get a massive feeling of deja vu? Here’s […]
Fitzsimons to step down from Greens’ co-leadership
Jeanette has announced she will be stepping down at co-leader of the Greens. Technically, she will just not be putting her name up […]
Being stupid on the economy
Brian Fallow has some extraordinarily good analysis of the economic situation in his piece today. Here’s some important passages (and my, unfortunately, extensive […]
Protest mode on Section 92A
This Saturday, February 28th, Section 92A of the Copyright Act is due to come into force. It is currently unworkable. This website has […]
Granny’s baked some patsies for you, dearie
Can you spot the question that wasn’t asked of Key by Armstrong and Young in their six page interview with him in today’s […]
Education lesson from UK
Last year we saw how unpopular National’s “national testing” policy was going to be. Now a major study in the UK is highly […]
A sign of the times?
This item in the Brisbane Times caught my eye as to how the whole nature of campaigning is changing – and the mixed […]
The praiseworthy and the pitiful
The praiseworthy and the pitiful is our weekly post on the little things that caught our eye but didn’t lead to a full […]
Actions speak louder than words
Remember this infamous PowerPoint presentation from National’s 2005 campaign? Remember the Nats’ vote-winning strategy of targeting female voters as outlined in The Hollow […]
Clare Curran on s92(a)
Yesterday, Labour’s communications and IT spokesperson, Clare Curran, sought Parliament’s leave to introduce a Bill to attempt to fix s92(a), the ‘guilt by […]
Roy Morgan poll
Well, that’s slightly better. The new Roy Morgan poll has the Nats on 48.5%, still a solid result but well down on the […]
Web/community
I spent a very fruitful day at webstock in Wellington today listening to some heavy hitters from the US and UK talk about […]
The Standard and s92a.
I’m not going to go over the whys and wherefores of this clause of the new copyright act. No Right Turn, Just Left, […]
Copyright protest pics
A reader has sent in some pics from today’s protest at Parliament against the ‘guilt by accusation’ copyright law. Looks like quite a […]
Thankfully, the election isn’t tomorrow
When John Key and Pita Sharples were jostled by two Maori men opposed to the National-Maori Party alliance, the thing that stuck in […]
Standing up for landlordism
So, National has decided to scrap a raft of tenant protections proposed by the last Labour Government and tilt the deck back in […]
Tories bulldoze human rights, your rights
The Attorney-General, National’s Chris Finalyson, has declared that the ‘3 strikes and you’re out’ Bill that National/ACT (and Finlayson himself) are about to vote […]
Obama’s elf
I’ve tried all day not to post this, now I’m giving in to get a good night’s sleep.
DL Christchurch with Therese Arsenau
Drinking Liberally Christchurch has its first meeting of the new year on March 5, with political commentator and academic Therese Arsenau to speak. […]
Protest against copyright law
Creative Freedom NZ has organised a protest against the “guilt by accusation” copyright law tomorrow in Wellington: When: 12:00, Thursday 19 February Where: […]
On ACT’s three strikes policy
ACT’s infamous three-strikes-and-you’re-out policy will get a first airing in the House tomorrow when the Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill is introduced. Violent […]
Bill English – Ashamed of being a hypocrite?
David Cunliffe has been doing something that Bill English really hates – asking questions about actual accounting and fiscal practices. The reason that […]
Nat Minister unhappy, leaks Key email
Well, that didn’t take long. In the first 100 days of the new National government we’ve seen a clamp-down on workers’ rights, tax […]
Sleight of hand
We’ve been saying for some time that the $9 billion of fiscal stimulus that the Government claims it is putting into the economy […]
Free doco
There’s been a lot of talk over the last couple of days on Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and the controversial referendum on removing […]
Ryall sacks DHB Chair
Health Minister Tony Ryall’s decision to sack Richard Thompson as Chairman of the Otago District Health Board on the grounds of historical fraud […]