Wool. Eyes. Pull.

As though politicians with a social democratic bent don’t have enough to contend with…

Where to for National?

National need to apologise to the country for dirty politics and blatant lies. They need a huge clear out of dead wood, starting at the top. Then they need to try and figure out how MMP works.

Peters’ greatest hits

Lloyd Burr at Newshub rounded up 23 of Peters’ most quotable attacks on the Nats and their failed government. Add them to the collection of issues that Peters will have to disown if he goes wrong and picks Right.

Nats’ secret tax plan

Newsroom (Shane Cowlishaw) reports that the Nats were considering significant hikes to fuel taxes, described in a document that was supposed to be released before the election – but somehow wasn’t.

Young on coalition options – an edge to Labour

Audrey Young on the coalition dance: “Labour would probably have an advantage because of the greater policy overlap”, “Keeping deputy leader Paula Bennett out of the first pro-forma courtesy meeting was an appalling decision by English that simply says he was desperate to please Peters at any cost”.

Coalition of liars

The right wing clobbering machine is already calling a possible Labour Green NZF a “coalition of losers”. Well under MMP a coalition of losers can be the winners. But however you cut it a coalition of liars will always be liars.

Gilbert calls out Nat “tribalists” who continued to back the lies

Outspoken sociologist Dr Jarrod Gilbert on the “tribalists” who continued to back the Nats despite their brazen lies – “if Labour had made the same accusation against National and not a single economist supported it, would you have reacted the same way? No. Of course not. And that’s what defines you as a moron.”

Cling to power vs the right thing to do

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…

Why are we angry about tax and apathetic about low pay?

National’s one and only strategy this election was lying about Labour, specifically Labour’s budget and their tax policy. The $11.7bn hole lie just made the Nats look stupid, but the evidence suggests that the tax lie did real damage. Why are we so angry about tax and so apathetic about the much more important issue of low pay?

An MMP government

On current polling the next government could be Labour + Green + NZF. That would annoy a lot of Nats if they have more votes than Labour alone, but that’s how MMP works. English lied about this in the last debate, but apparently has since walked it back.

Is NZ doomed to lying politics now?

Bill English and the Nats are now running firmly on a platform of lies – Gower calls them on this for a second time this week. Should the political left get down in the gutter too? Is NZ doomed to lying politics now?

The election of truth vs lies

Even those who have supported National in the past must see that this current bunch have lost their way. National needs to renew itself, some time in opposition will do them good. Don’t vote for liars.

Joyce and English now laughing stock

Post John Key all National ever had going for it was an undeserved reputation for financial competence. Now that is gone too. It doesn’t get any worse than this 3 weeks out from an election.

National’s weekend of blind panic

What a weekend of National panic that was. From desperate lies on water costs to repeating failed policy from 2008 to plans to wake parents up in the middle of the night to administer “instant fines” in a youth curfew. Jacinda Ardern’s Labour has got them on the run.

Skepticism cynicism lies and hypocrisy

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.

What the National Party president and board knew

Newsroom has another investigative piece on the Barclay debacle. This is not only about a single MP and a lying Prime Minister. It’s also about the governing structure of the political party in charge of running the country, and who was involved in the coverup and dishonesty.

English still digging

Burying the last shred of his credibility in a deep hole forever, Bill claims that nobody realised Todd Barclay recording of secretary might be a crime. It’s like the events of 2008 and 2011 never happened.

So English lied to Parliament too

Labour and Peters have both made complaints over English’s lie to Parliament. Peters is calling on English to step down. That’s going to make any post-election NZF/Nat coalition a bit tricky.

Brownlee lying to the UN over Operation Burnham

The UN called for an investigation into Operation Burnham. Very inconvenient for the Nats who would rather sweep any dead civilians under the carpet and forget them. So naturally Gerry Brownlee responds with a lie.

Billions of lies

The Nats are settling in to election mode – smoke and mirrors. Steven Joyce feeds us billions of dollars worth of lies.