Not all research is created equal
A recent “research” report on alcohol, funded by brewing company Lion, has been in the news lately. Sadly, not everything that purports to be research is honest research.
alcohol
Thanks for the Piss, Collins.
Karol has already mentioned this in her post from this morning. But in the interests of splitting milk from alcohol…
Conscience votes
Two high-profile conscience votes are coming up in Parliament over the next two days. It will be interesting to see the breakdown of who votes which way on the issues. But the level of malice expressed by some of those opposed to marriage equality is disturbing.
Govt opts for show over substance on alcohol
The government’s alcohol reforms are so typical of this government: criminalise someone to be seen to be doing something, while ignoring the root causes of the problem. This is a government that would rather make a criminal of a good parent who lets their son’s mate have a beer at a BBQ than make it harder for booze barons to hook kids into drinking.
Raise the drinking age
I was neutral in the debate on lowering the drinking age back in 1999. There were arguments on both sides. But ten years later it is clear that the experiment has failed. There have been several recent calls to raise the drinking age and take other effective action to restrict the damage that alcohol causes in NZ. Come on Key – show some leadership.
Henare’s bigoted attack on poor proven false
Tau Henare is opposing Labour’s suggested policy of taking GST off fruit and vegetables saying “If they can’t afford to buy a lettuce or a tomato then they should give up the drink and the smokes,” and “It’s a well-known fact that poor people, if they don’t have enough money, will buy smokes and not bread.” Really? Well, it took two minutes checking on the Stats’ website to prove him wrong.
Fags bad, piss good
Here’s a great interview by RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan with Professor Doug Sellman, Director of the National Addiction Centre, on Government’s bizarre inconsistency in […]
Conscience and alcodollars
How does the government decide which are good drugs and which are bad?
And how much does it have to do with big money?
Campbell and McCarten on McKay
The latest piece from the ever excellent Gordon Campbell has a go at the beat up of North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams. Towards the end he raises some interesting points about Auckland’s new boss.