Author Archive

Labour concedes 2011 election

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, June 13th, 2010 - 56 comments

In a short statement outside the Beehive today Labour leader Phil Goff conceded the 2011 election to National.

You can’t drink shit

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, June 11th, 2010 - 25 comments

On Wednesday night John key was in Christchurch. He was met by protesters, angry at the abolition of democracy in Canterbury, and the plans of the newly installed dictatorship to allow over-farming to poison the water and kill the rivers. How did TV news handle the coverage? I think it’s fair to say that it was up to their usual standards…

Best blog award

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 pm, June 10th, 2010 - 12 comments

The “Air NZ” best blog awards are out. Congratulations to Cactus and to Dim Post, the other winners, and all who took part. You can certainly learn a lot about the vibrant NZ blogging community by reading through the many nominated links here.

Welfare debate already ugly

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, June 10th, 2010 - 74 comments

According to Social Development Minister Paula Bennett, the welfare debate could get nasty: “we may even see an ugly side of New Zealand”. Well here’s a newsflash – the welfare debate is already ugly. The Nats have worked long and hard to make it ugly. Paula Bennett the ugly side of New Zealand is you.

Nanny state on the roads

Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, June 8th, 2010 - 70 comments

Last Queen’s Birthday Weekend 10 people died on the roads and 32 were seriously injured. Last Easter another 12 dead, the highest toll in 18 years. This Queen’s Birthday police announced a massive crackdown on speeding. Idiots such as DPF denounced it as a “revenue gathering exercise”. But events have proved them very wrong, with the lowest toll in 54 years.

Trouble ahead foreshore

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, June 7th, 2010 - 67 comments

At a recent meeting about 100 Iwi leaders rejected the Government’s proposed reform for the Foreshore and Seabed Act. That means the issue remains a ticking time bomb for Key. He is going to have to enrage either the Maori Party or his core Iwi/Kiwi constituency. Either way there’s trouble ahead.

Denier dissected

Written By: - Date published: 7:49 am, June 6th, 2010 - 35 comments

“Lord” Christopher Monckton is a high profile climate change denier. Professor John Abraham examines his claims in detail, and shows Monckton to be a serial liar, misrepresenting the science at every turn. What makes a person tell lies that are going to cost us the earth?

Unbelievable

Written By: - Date published: 8:49 am, June 4th, 2010 - 4 comments

John Key is responsible for enforcing the Cabinet Manual on members of his Cabinet, including himself. And that manual includes very specific provisions about pecuniary interests and conflicts. The idea that he is not responsible for this is as unbelievable as it is unacceptable.

Key avoiding Morning Report

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, June 4th, 2010 - 78 comments

Key is avoiding Morning Report, and word is beginning to get around. Is it just lazyness caused by (until recently) stratospheric poll ratings? Or is he scared to front up? Either way it’s not a good look, and it’s an abdication of his responsibility as PM.

It could never happen here

Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, June 3rd, 2010 - 39 comments

Fresh from a stinging rebuke from the public over mining, Gerry must have hoped he was on to a winner with the announcement of offshore oil exploration. But of course the timing could hardly be worse, with an environmental catastrophe unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. The Greens are right to call for a moratorium until the industry proves that it has the ability to rapidly and effectively deal with leaks.

Climate change deaths

Written By: - Date published: 7:34 am, June 2nd, 2010 - 26 comments

Worldwide it is the hottest Jan-Feb-March-April on record. Heat waves have already killed tens of thousands in the last few years. In India 2010 is believed to be the hottest summer in the country since records began in the late 1800s, and hundreds are dead. While ACT and Federated Farmers bitch and moan about the costs of the ETS, the deaths will keep coming.

A big hand for DPF

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, May 31st, 2010 - 20 comments

A shadowy cabal calling themselves “The NZ Bloggers Union” set out to create a grass-roots “Air NZ” blog award. Apparently a bunch of blogs have entered, The Standard might even be one of them, which is pretty organised for us! But we were deeply disturbed to hear that DPF will not be entering, apparently because he does not believe in awards. What’s up with that? Well, we’re from The Standard, and we’re here to help…

Dirty oil

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, May 30th, 2010 - 38 comments

I knew that disasters in rich white countries get much more media than disasters anywhere else. I knew that oil was a dirty business. None the less, this article on the real costs of cheap oil surprised me.

Nats not trustworthy

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, May 29th, 2010 - 47 comments

Key’s assets are supposed to be blind to him. Before the 3 News report he claimed that they were blind. Now he is claiming something much much narrower (no “beneficial interest”). Why? We’ve been here before. Bill English claimed no “pecuniary interest” in his accommodation rort trust. The Auditor General found otherwise. Key’s case should go to the Auditor General too.

National’s ETS chickens home to roost

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, May 27th, 2010 - 23 comments

National is under extraordinary pressure on its ETS, and it seems to be starting to panic. While I can commend them for sticking to their guns (better a gutted ETS than none at all), I don’t have any sympathy over the backlash they are facing. They bought it on themselves.

Leaky homes

Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, May 26th, 2010 - 44 comments

While it rains, thousands of homes are rotting, a legacy of the stupid deregulation of the building industry by National in the 1990s. The current government is proposing that huge costs be passed on to ratepayers, and tonight Wellington City Council votes on the plan. There are no good solutions to this mess.

Nats floundering on inequality

Written By: - Date published: 7:16 am, May 25th, 2010 - 35 comments

Pointing out that a “rich get richer” budget is going to increase inequality in NZ seems to be making the Nats uncomfortable. Bill English tries to simply deny the facts. DPF tries to divert attention to “social mobility”. Lame efforts in both cases. The truth is that inequality isn’t on the Nats radar. They simply don’t care.

Tax cuts don’t cause growth

Written By: - Date published: 6:51 am, May 24th, 2010 - 30 comments

Tories claim that tax cuts “cause growth” in the economy – they “grow the pie”. But it’s rubbish. No honest review of the long term historical picture can sustain the claim. Tax cuts don’t cause growth.

Good news!

Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, May 23rd, 2010 - 30 comments

It occurs to me that I’m always writing about bad news. Bloody Tories. Climate change. Oil spills. Financial collapses. Countries torn apart. It’s a depressing diet. Time for a change! How about a post about good news? Let’s give it a try.

Domesticated

Written By: - Date published: 6:27 am, May 22nd, 2010 - 38 comments

Amongst all the budget reaction, there is a group of people that I don’t understand. They are the small group who are very well off, and who are nevertheless exulting about tax cuts that give them a few tens of dollars a week. Is your allegiance really purchased so cheaply?

Thai protests

Written By: - Date published: 6:59 am, May 20th, 2010 - 7 comments

The anti-government protests in Thailand are part of a complex internal struggle. Yesterday the main protest camp was cleared by government troops. But the protests are far from over.

Inequality Aspiration Envy

Written By: - Date published: 11:04 am, May 19th, 2010 - 71 comments

Inequality is terribly damaging to society. National want to increase inequality by transferring wealth from the poor to the rich. They argue that this provides “incentives” for the vast majority of the rest of us to “get ahead”. But this aspirational argument is both incoherent and absurd.

More dim bulbs

Written By: - Date published: 1:22 pm, May 18th, 2010 - 11 comments

Yesterday I posted on John Key being named “Dim bulb of the week” by the San Francisco Examiner. Continuing with a dim bulb theme – let’s talk about Edison Hour, as it is explained to us by a budding genius from ACT…

Green alternative budget

Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, May 18th, 2010 - 53 comments

The Greens have released their alternative budget, “Mind the Gap”. It focuses on the inequality between rich and poor in NZ (rightly called “the scourge of modern societies”). It’s great to see the Greens tackling this issue head on.

Key a dim bulb

Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, May 17th, 2010 - 42 comments

Our PM is now an international laughing stock, having been nominated by the San Francisco Examiner as “Dim bulb of the week” for his cannibal joke. Nor are Key’s most recent comments on the Tuhoe deal likely to help matters…

Corporal punishment bullshit

Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, May 16th, 2010 - 33 comments

Family First have a history of trying to make political capital out of stacked questions. They’re are at it again, distorting the results of a survey question to push for bringing back corporal punishment in schools. They are aided and abetted by some spectacularly bad journalism.

What could possibly go wrong?

Written By: - Date published: 2:05 pm, May 13th, 2010 - 11 comments

The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico could be stopped with an underground nuclear blast, a Russian newspaper reports. Excellent idea, what could possibly go wrong? That was sarcasm, by the way.

Smile and wave

Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, May 13th, 2010 - 18 comments

These online polls are always silly, but it’s interesting to track the spread of the “smile and wave” meme.

Science fights back

Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, May 12th, 2010 - 18 comments

A recent open letter from 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences (including 11 Nobel laureates) calls for “an end to McCarthy-like threats of criminal prosecution against our colleagues …, the harassment of scientists by politicians seeking distractions to avoid taking action, and the outright lies being spread about them”.

The brains deficit

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, May 11th, 2010 - 4 comments

A headline on Newsroom caught my eye a couple of days back: “Deficit Falls Further”. Good news, so, well done the Nats? Turns out no, not so much…

Tory / Lib Dem

Written By: - Date published: 2:45 am, May 11th, 2010 - 4 comments

By the time you read this the result of the post election coalition talks in the UK will almost certainly be known. At time of posting the momentum towards a Tory / Lib Dem coalition seems just about unstoppable. A steady stream of positive announcements and minor leaks all point to a form of deal which some are calling “supply and confidence plus”.

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