Political Blogs Survey
A survey on political blogs has been on a number of blogs. If you haven’t filled it out, then why not? I can’t […]
Interview the Leaders IX – Questions for Peters
We’ve chosen the questions for Winston Peters in the final installment of our ‘Interview the Leaders’ series. The first question remains the same, […]
The status of KiwiSaver
Tracy Watkins reports: “National has been forced into an embarrassing u-turn on KiwiSaver after its industrial relations spokeswoman Kate Wilkinson appeared to put the […]
Getting blood from a stone
A reader has just written in as a followup to IrishBill’s post earlier today on National’s plans to line the pockets of oil […]
ToryAid: The Standard resurrects Wastewatch
Remember wastewatch.co.nz? It’s National’s site listing all the ‘government waste’. From six years of Labour government it managed to find a grand total […]
Grueling
Nats announce launch release consider rural doctors bonding scheme. Here’s the link, but honestly, don’t bother.
Ambitious for big oil
We’ve all heard John Key bang on about his ambitions for New Zealand’s infrastructure and now one of my sources within the National […]
Vote National, get ACT
A source present at the University of Victoria debating society event last night tells us that Heather Roy referred to herself frequently (but we’re told […]
Pumps are baulking at the price of gas too
As the price of our petrol continues to climb, having recently crossed the $2 a litre barrier, spare a thought for some US […]
Back in the real world
Let’s have another look at our friend, the distribution of income graph. The red circle is what most people earn. The blue circle […]
Predictions on Parliament
We’ve seen many of the commentators suggest that National is coming up short on policy proposals after the Budget last week. What I’ll […]
Down the club
National party activist and spokesperson David Farrar has surpassed himself this time with a post attacking Helen Clark for not having children that […]
Kiwi Scott Dixon wins Indy 500
Astronomical world dairy prices are to see the traditional champagne replaced with milk on motor race winners’ podiums around the globe next year. […]
Bloody Marys for breakfast
Nevermind has this: “Our favourite National Party Hack unbiased political commentator weighs in on rat hygiene when the Bloody Marys it seems he had for […]
Show us ya policy
Steve posted this morning that even Granny Herald’s patience appears to be wearing thin waiting for National and Key to announce some policy […]
Kremlinology: Nats’ tax plans
National is still refusing to give us any detail on its tax cut plan, indicating it doesn’t have one. But let’s do a […]
Political logos
[lprent: This post has been revised due to an on-going copyright dispute] A week or so ago someone sent me this link to […]
Hidden costs of private hospitals
If you’re paying for your health care you’d expect good service wouldn’t you? The release of four health commissioner decisions over the weekend and […]
Game on
Even Granny’s patience can wear thin
With a loving smack that would have brought a smile to Bob McCoskrie’s face, the Herald‘s editorial today rebukes John Key in the […]
The pragmatist
Asking the second question
Key’s best trick is to answer questions with impressive or technical sounding assertions that stop the line of questioning but don’t actually tell […]
The Ministry of National Affairs
Here’s a good ten minutes from the middle of Winston’s post budget address yesterday. The highlight is around four minutes in, on National’s burgeoning bureaucracy: Did […]
Cumulative Effect
The Press (Budget Doesn’t Impress Family) looks at the effect of the tax cuts on an average family with a combined income of […]
Where’s the beef John?
Key kicks off this Close Up interview by trying to dampen down rising expectations of National’s tax package and make himself some wiggle […]
National’s cruel hoax
Well the budget is out and across the country the public are looking at their tax cuts and asking “is that it?” and […]
Roy Morgan
There was a Roy Morgan poll out yesterday showing a gap of 14 between National and Labour. Party support varied only slightly from […]
“As slippery as a snake in wet grass”
John Campbell interviews John Key on the budget, refusing to let him get away with merely repeating his focus-grouped lines. At about the […]
Tax cut graphs and full calculator
Here are graphs of the portion of income going on tax and the portion of reduction in tax for Kiwis under the Budget’s […]
Happy 1000th.
Well that happened fast. This is the 1001st public post on The Standard. That is assuming I get it in before the next […]
Drinking Liberally liberally attended
The launch of Drinking Liberally at the Southern Cross last night was a blast. The organisers had been hoping for 20 plus people […]
Tax cut calculator
As much as I despair to see our political discourse descend into a bidding war on taxes, it’s worth looking at Infometrics’ online […]
Commentators on the Budget
From John Armstrong in The Herald: Is it enough? Michael Cullen has given it his best shot. He has been about as generous […]
Budget 2008: Analysis
The tax cuts are smaller up front than Labour had been hoping to deliver but the economic position at present means there is […]
Budget 2008: Spending
The tax cuts are the cornerstone of this budget but there is also important new spending. New Spending in the Budget: $172.3 million […]
Budget 2008: Tax cuts
Labour has announced a three year tax cut package worth $10.6 billion. Here’s a table showing the changes: Current 15.00% 21.00% 33.00% 39.00% […]