California to ban cell phone use for teen drivers
Apparently California is, on July 1, to become the 15th US state to ban cell phone use for teen drivers. In what looks […]
Facing up to peak oil
The Government’s independent report on petrol prices is bit of a sop to be the public, really. The world oil price is driving […]
Matt McCarten from the Herald on Sunday
Worth a read: Remember when George Bush’s administration promised the world that the invasion of Iraq would be over in a few weeks? […]
He would say that wouldn’t he
Stuff reports that National Party energy spokesman Gerry Brownlee has labelled the government’s inquiry into petrol pricing a cynical move that would not make […]
Kremlinology: National on ACC
In most countries, accident insurance is big business. Insurers and lawyers make billions off premiums, claims, and court cases but many people don’t […]
Key’s slippery promises on waste
National has staked it all on delivering bigger tax cuts than Labour. To remain credible, they need to deliver $20 a week on […]
The Standard Week – 06-13 June
Another week of shadow boxing, as National tried to keep its policy secret and hints leaked out. But it gave us the chance […]
Why is reported violent crime up?
As you know, crime is down in New Zealand, which is not surprising – crime is a symptom of social deprivation and we’ve […]
Political monogamy
Thought this might make a good followup to Steve/Trotter’s comments in the post below. It’s from the group TruthThroughAction.org – a group of […]
The dark side of the Right
Trotter is on the money today: …[A]ll of you young, confident women of the 21st century urgently need to pause and reflect upon […]
The gods of greed
The Guardian has extracts from a new book by Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson, The Gods That Failed: How Blind Faith in Markets Has […]
Comparatively, gingers have it easy
Last month Mike Hucknall, lead singer of Simply Red, asserted that ‘ginger jibes’ were a form of racism. Opinion was divided. As you ponder that […]
Monte Ohia
It’s sad to learn of the sudden death of Monte Ohia, the Maori Party candidate for Te Tai Tonga. Ohia was a prominent […]
Treating the voters like children
Keith Holyoake used to say “tell the people, trust the people”; be honest about the benefits, trade-offs, and costs of policies and trust the people […]
The wage gap and the Nats’ crediblity gap
Remember when National was all about the wage gap, whinging about it every day? Heard them talk about it lately? The last mention […]
Behind the secrecy
Reading a_y_b’s piece on National’s policy talks with the Real Estate Institute I’ve got to say it struck me as having shades not […]
Benson-Pope rejects Legalise Cannabis Party offer
Reported today in the ODT: Dunedin South MP David Benson-Pope will not be accepting an invitation to stand as the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis […]
I did not have policy relations with REINZ
With tones of the Brethren debacle we’re getting conflicting reports from the National Party as to whether or not they have haven’t have […]
With friends like these
One thing that puzzles me about righties is that half the people on their side of the fence are racists, bigots, misogynists, homophobes […]
BBC/TVE Earth Report special: NZ
BBC and TVE screen an Earth Report special this week focussing on New Zealand’s objective to become carbon neutral: New Zealand, host for […]
GWOT comics
Ah, Iraq invasion satire. thank god that war is over, eh John? [GWOT – Global War On Terror, official acronym. You can’t make […]
Happy families
The New Zealand Herald’s latest anti-Labour beatup took an unfortunate twist this afternoon. Having spent the best part of a day making hay […]
Why Key really wants super-fast broadband
Remember National’s broadband ‘plan’ that reads like it was drawn up on the back of a napkin? Notice how the only gains they […]
Centre party? Yeah, right
Why is it that UnitedFuture is branded a centre party? We all know they’re socially right wing, in bed with the Christian fundamentalists, and […]
Obama-Clinton
Dreamticket or not?
Lovin’ our corner of the world
Wanting something that’s great to be even better is no bad thing – but the Mercer 2008 Quality of Living survey our today […]
Mythbusting: Labour’s just had golden economic weather
The amazing economic run we’ve experienced under the Labour-led governments is just down to international forces, so National would have us believe. Of […]
If you’re against abortion then kindly don’t have one
Today we’re proud to present a guest post from Julie Fairey, often found posting at The Hand Mirror: I’m trying to see the […]
Body image gone bad
We’re used to the importance of presentation in the world of politics, but no-one does it quite so blatently as the fashion world. We’ve […]
The vision thing
No sensible analysis could conclude that the Labour-led governments of the last 8 years have been anything but excellent for New Zealand. As […]
Which is the waste of money?
Every now and then a ‘commentator’ pops up who is so hilariously incompetent you don’t know whether to ignore them or mock them. […]
Spinbusting: the biggest party must govern
A National line that is doing the rounds goes that if National wins more votes than Labour but can’t govern alone it would […]
National’s policy vacuum
From the editorial in the ODT today we learn that Bill English is keen to dampen down concern within the party at the […]
Spin-busting: ‘Hardworking kiwis’
‘Hardworking kiwis’ is National’s new ‘mainstream New Zealanders’. Referenced by Key ad nauseam, it is the population at which National purports to target […]
Mythbusting: The govt gets rich off high petrol prices
We regularly hear calls (not backed by any major party, including National) for the taxes on petrol to be lowered or removed because […]
Anyone for more pork pies?
On TV3 last night John Key was continuing to tell outright porkies about how advanced National is with its “policy” development compared with […]