Chris Trotter argues that those who oppose the Treaty Principles Bill aren’t fair. But are his arguments accurate or is his repetition of David Seymour’s human rights narrative a potential red herring?
Earlier this year Andrew Marr wrote in the New Statesmen, that Britain’s problem was that it wanted Scandinavian levels of Public Services and North American levels of taxation. His view was that Britain was overdue for an honest debate about tax and public spending. In New Zealand, there is a similar challenge.
Chris Trotter recently asked the question about why there isn’t more resistance to the degree of inequality that we face in New Zealand. He’s partially right, we do spend an awfully amount of time arguing with each other about matters of smaller and smaller moment while inequality slides downhill from glacier to avalanche. But intersectionalism isn’t the primary cause of activist cooling.
Throughout the world there is an increasing consensus emerging that the free market approach is failing and principled intelligent leadership from governments provide the optimum result.
I was reading one of Chris Trotters reflections which looked at the Corrections Amendment Bill 2018, that just passed its 3rd reading. “Putting The Check In Right-Wing Prisoners’ Mail”. It sounded odd and oddly lacked detail. I came to the conclusion taking press releases at face value without thinking was a very bad idea.
Radio New Zealand recently published a piece penned by well known supporter of the right Matthew Hooton. What has happened to the concept of balance?
The police are “visiting” TPP activists – Key is cynically trying to blow the “law and order” dog whistle. But would he really go so far as to try and provoke open violence for political gain?
“What differentiates the Left from the Right is the former’s fundamental rejection of the strongest human-beings’ proclivity to dominate, coerce and exploit the weakest. Without this proclivity, none of the economic and social systems elaborated by armed minorities throughout history could have endured.”
Indeed.
For many decades Galbraiths has been a local watering hole for some of the unionists, academics, and commentariat on Friday night. I have been known to go along to stir participate in the bemoaning lofty debate and to spend a few coppers. David Parker is going to be there on Friday evening. I suspect I may have to go along to observe. 🙂
Writing in The Press yesterday morning, Chris Trotter argues that politics is essentially dirty. No Right Turn rejects that. So do the authors on this site. None of us do this kind of crap. Nor do most people in the political arena. Why taint us with the brush of John Key’s blackops team.
Yesterday, Rob Salmond offered Chris Trotter a bet based on Chris writing an over-excited interpretation of an online poll. Who writes posts on the basis of online polls of less than 400 people? It is the same problem as interpreting small junk “markets” like iPredict which are rife with idiots of the right trying to push the odds away from reality with small amounts of cash. Really!
A response to recent exchanges between Pablo (on Kiwipolitico) & Chris Trotter. I agree and I don’t. I argue that Pablo’s Marxism needs some updating to include the politics of various kinds of oppression & the intertwining of and interaction between cultural “superstructure” & “economic base”.
The current direction of Key’s government, and the challenging circumstances of the 21st century create a need for urgent attention to the form of a new left politics; one that embraces the working class, trade union solidarity, gender, diversity & the emerging “precariat”.
John Key’s government has been gradually dismantling NZ’s democratic processes. Various activities this week are a major part of a frightening shift: a Bill enabling mining conservation land; punitive social security Act; Key’s control over NZ’s “intelligence community”.
As an outsider watching the struggles in the Labour Party unfold, I am becoming increasingly despondent about the state of Left wing politics in NZ. Right now, NZ, and those of us who party vote Green/Mana, require a strong, democratic and solidly left wing Labour Party.
Chris Trotter, like myself, was at the Labour party conference a week and a half ago. Like myself and damn near every left wing blogger who was there, he saw a massive discordance between what was being reported and what was actually happening in the conference. The hysteria at having a carefully constructed fiction of media and the beltway PR being torn to pieces by ordinary citizens writing has been extraordinary. The implications for the poorly constructed Law Commission report on cyber-bullying is sobering.
Chris Trotter invented the myth of the so-called ‘Waitakere Man’. It assumes Labour has lost voters because we’re all contractors now or in roles where we could be contractors, and don’t need their union-based labour policies and benefit system but want simpler rules for small business. No factory or retail workers in this model. Problem is, it’s not true.
RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan talks to Mike Williams and Chris Trotter about Chris Carter’s expulsion.
A few good posts today that are worth a look if you missed them: Chris Trotter reckons the police and the media are […]
Chris Trotter has a new blog. Good to see he’s left those creeps over at policy.net and gone out on his own. I […]
Newswire have a new poll “Is it a done deal? What the polls don’t tell us” which makes for some interesting reading. It […]
We finally get to welcome Chris Trotter to the blogosphere as he’s started a new blog at http://www.policy.net.nz/blog/ I’ve often thought Trotter’s solid […]
Trotter is on the money today: …[A]ll of you young, confident women of the 21st century urgently need to pause and reflect upon […]
Further to ZKM’s post below it really was a great article last week from Chris Trotter on John Key’s weak National Party conference […]
Chris Trotter’s article last week in the Independent is worth a read & when I find a link I’ll provide it. Trotter says […]
