Over recent periods National has run a very tightly focused campaign against state support for Tesla owners. But news that Christopher Luxon actively sought a Government supplied Tesla when he already owns one suggests that he thinks that the rules should be different for him.
Flying kites is…
May claimed she couldn’t wait until Monday before unleashing compassion on Syria on Friday night. Which brought a line from this to mind….
The Nats are desperate to make big concessions for a coalition with the Greens. The establishment is lining up in The Herald to beg for this to happen. Promises to strengthen environmental and social policies in order to cling to power – but not for the last nine long years when it was simply the right thing to do…
A dose of reality on National and taxes, and wise words on the media circus surrounding tax.
I guess it’s kind of hard to anchor something that’s all up in the air…
There’s a very good / depressing long read in The Guardian on the dangerous “weaponising” of cynicism by climate change deniers. One of the most interesting sections was a discussion of the way that voters are more forgiving of lies than hypocrisy.
Directing welfare spending where it will do most good makes sense. But let’s make sure that that is what it is, not an excuse to simply cut funding, stigmatise, and target “undesireables”. National’s record does not inspire confidence, to say the very least. Then there’s the hypocrisy…
“During the day we spent with Shipley she said New Zealand needs to take the “blowtorch” to middle class welfare, with student allowances and healthcare areas where middle and higher income earners should pay more.” “I believe in leadership, not political occupancy.”
Firstly, remember how you’re meant to feel about even the mere accusation of the use of barrel bombs. Now put those feelings aside.
Someone should ask English whether he still believes the opinions stated in the press release, and if not, why not?
As Finance Minister Bill English effectively ruled out tax cuts, but it’s election year, and so of course the Nats can’t help but trot out their one-trick election pony again.
Over in the United States of Trumpsville National Security Advisor to the Trump White House Mike Flynn, who famously said that Hillary Clinton should be locked up for threatening national security by having a private email server, has been sacked for threatening national security and for lying to the vice president.
The Paris agreement is now in force. NZ is committed to reducing its emissions. What, specifically, is this governments plan for doing so? How does support for continued coal mining and oil exploration, the use of phony carbon credits and the like, fit in with reducing emissions?
The whitewash of the rugby players who assaulted a woman at a post season piss up has been released. A mightily relieved rugby boss Steve Tew can now go into the rest of the season knowing that the All Black squad will not be affected by the loss of any players to suspension. The only person to have lost their job over the incident is the victim. How cool is that?
My apologies to Mohammad Jamal, the man in the photo, for using his largely unknown story to make a point about free-trade and Western privilege.
Seeing is believing they say, and Paula Bennett says that she has taken on board the climate change message after a Pacific visit. So what now Paula? It’s a tough question for sure. But at least you’re blessed with an opposition that will cooperate, instead of trying to whip up people’s fears and obstruct progress for political gain.
While Key is fighting to make sure our country remains a haven for his rich mates, he’s about to hit you and I with yet another tax. I don’t have a problem with taxes, but I do take issue with the hypocrisy.
Turns out the Education Minister overrode Ministry advice to protect National’s pet charter schools from being evaluated on their actual outcomes. Plus a bonus side order of hypocrisy on class sizes.
Key’s little lecture to the UN would have been delivered with a lot more moral authority if it wasn’t built on the heights of hypocrisy.
Well that’s the opinion of Judith Collins at least.
Nice to see English acknowledging the importance of Kiwisaver – thanks Michael Cullen, thanks Helen Clark! I certainly support default enrollment. But – isn’t this Big Government Nanny State Gone Mad?
Two politicians with very similar names and practically identical, terrible excuses for their lies. But does it mean the honeymoon’s over for John Key?
One of these principled statements is not like the other.
Evidence on levels of welfare and willingness to work suggests that yet another nasty right-wing myth is wrong. Reality and its well known liberal bias strikes again.
Yesterday the mask slipped and John Key admitted the real reason our deployment to Iraq is only for two years: so he can win an election.
It seems that just as the 30’s offered the chance to turn dreams into reality, Syria is offering that chance up to ‘the left’ today. Suddenly, for me, the recent travel bans and the passport confiscation laws etc make sense since we are potentially looking at an international influx of non-nutters and non- psychopaths as happened during the Spanish Revolution of the 30s.
The Labour Party is organising a petition against the $140 million bailout SkyCity is demanding – and John Key is insisting we have to pay to prevent getting an “eyesore” of a convention centr
The Government canned a report on the costs of various kinds of economic crime. RNZ obtained a copy under the OIA, and we can see why the Nats would never have wanted it released…
If ACT were made up for a show like “The Thick of It”, or “Veep”, they would be dismissed as too ridiculous and extreme for the audience to swallow…
David Farrar in his usual burst of hypocrisy and curious selectiveness about detailed numbers is proclaiming a headline rise in manufacturing. As is usual he is only interested in the top level numbers and doesn’t provide a link to even the summary data. I guess that is because they are rather depressing for his 9th floor of the Beehive view of employment and wage packets, which is what most voters expect from growth. There has been a slight decline in manufacturing jobs while we have a 11% growth in “manufacturing”.
The Herald’s John Armstrong on Key’s “outrageous pragmatism”, National’s “great leap backwards”, and their “over-choreographed” Conference…
At the moment there are plenty of racists trying to accuse Labour of racism. I might put together a post on the Iwi/Kwi Orewa Nats later on, but in the mean time I give you – John Banks.
