Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, May 18th, 2012 - 42 comments
Austerity is reducing the opportunities for social mobility, for reducing income inequality, for a fair society. The increased class sizes, the removal of Adult and Community Education, the removal of Training Allowances, and many more things National are doing in the name of “austerity” are undermining our society.
Written By: - Date published: 10:03 pm, May 15th, 2012 - 19 comments
Rebekah and Charlie Brooks have been charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to the News International phone-hacking affair. Now it’s in the courts, this albatross will hang around Cameron’s neck through to the next election.
Written By: - Date published: 6:35 pm, April 30th, 2012 - 34 comments
David Cameron’s defence of embattled Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has been called a “firewall” that’s failing to hold.
Cameron needs Hunt to stay or else Cameron is the next to go. It is the same for John Key.
As the stench of corruption around John Banks grows, he desperately needs him to stay or else all he loses legitimacy for asset sales and potentially his majority on the issue as well.
Written By: - Date published: 4:46 pm, April 27th, 2012 - 37 comments
Stayed up last night to watch Robert Jay QC question Rupert Murdoch at the Leveson enquiry. It was riveting – you can see why top lawyers like Jay are called silks. Murdoch denied, deferred, demeaned, derided and defended but couldn’t help himself – ended up with more damage than control. This affair has more legs than a millipede.
Written By: - Date published: 1:19 pm, April 26th, 2012 - 40 comments
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here.
The United Kingdom is in recession again. Thanks austerity!
Written By: - Date published: 10:11 pm, April 25th, 2012 - 7 comments
James Murdoch has confirmed to the Leveson enquiry that he did discuss News International’s bid to take over BSkyB with Cameron at a dinner at the home of Rebekah Brooks. Cameron had previously denied this. Also Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, charged with ensuring that the takeover was according to law, was briefing Murdoch on the back channel via his staff. His tenure looks very shaky. Cameron will also be under severe pressure. There are lessons for us as well.
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, March 24th, 2012 - 42 comments
The government has introduced their welfare changes to parliament. In addition to making mums of 1 year-olds seek paid work in addition to raising children, it introduces private companies profiting from unemployment misery with welfare to work schemes. The UK has been trying this for a couple of years – let’s look at how that’s going…
Written By: - Date published: 7:40 pm, February 16th, 2012 - 46 comments
“The idea that ultimately the poor must help themselves as social mobility grinds to a halt is illogical; it is based on a faith for which there is scant evidence. Yet it is the one thing that has genuinely ‘trickled down’ from the wealthy, so that many people without much themselves continue to despise those who are on a lower rung.”
Written By: - Date published: 6:43 am, February 7th, 2012 - 218 comments
The Herald looks like it has an excellent series this week, on Auckland: A city divided by income. It’s an issue that has been waiting to be examined in the local context in more depth. It’s been quite a big issue in the UK for a while, with The Spirit Level making an impact before …
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, December 17th, 2011 - 14 comments
A quick post on sentences handed down in the wake of riots in England.
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 pm, December 16th, 2011 - 5 comments
Investigative journalism (remember that?) has opened up Bell Pottinger, the UK’s top PR/lobby firm. Inside they’ve found some seriously dodgy dealing that goes right to the top of British Government. There’s a call for a register of lobbyists and their interests – isn’t that something we should have here as well?
Written By: - Date published: 4:35 pm, November 28th, 2011 - 37 comments
In 2005 the UK Conservatives badly lost a third election in a row and their leader announced his intent to resign. But they organised a well-run contest to replace him, and by the time he won David Cameron had gone from unknown outsider to popular public figure, and the once ‘toxic’ Conservatives were electable again.
Written By: - Date published: 1:33 pm, October 31st, 2011 - 77 comments
National’s “Future Fund” asset-sale money will be spent on modernising schools we are told. Is the future they have in mind like Conservative Education Minister Michael Gove’s so-called “free schools” now being set up in Britain? It would be no surprise if our public assets were sold down by National to pay for private interests to get a stake in the school system here. We shouldn’t be under any illusions that the agenda is just short-term.
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 pm, October 26th, 2011 - 24 comments
Paddy Gower at TV3 reveals Lord Ashcroft, billionaire Tory donor and International Democratic Union treasurer, has come to talk to Key again. Just discussed politics generally, said Key. Politics yes, generally no. Ashcroft’s interests are now devoted to polling and blog communication, and he is very interested in our election. Having seen Cameron miss out on a majority, he’ll want to help Key to one here.
Written By: - Date published: 7:06 pm, October 24th, 2011 - 16 comments
David Cameron has cancelled his planned trip to Japan and New Zealand. He is facing a backbench revolt over European Union membership at the same time as he is trying to intervene in the crucial financial summit trying to sort out problems in the Euro zone on Wednesday. Oh well, one less photo op for John Key – perhaps its just as well as Britain’s future isn’t getting brighter.
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, August 18th, 2011 - 46 comments
Cases being tried in England raise the question – what is an appropriate punishment for inciting a riot on Facebook?
Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, August 13th, 2011 - 35 comments
This editorial by Peter Oborne in the Telegraph on the riots and moral decay in Britain is up to 3370 comments. It’s worth a read.
Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, August 10th, 2011 - 228 comments
A standard reader based in London has sent us this account of the riots.
Good to get some of the context the UK media doesn’t seem to want to talk about…
Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, August 9th, 2011 - 201 comments
There have been two nights of rioting, looting and burning in London. The trigger was the police shooting of Mark Duggan. But the cause is the alienation of the permanent underclass, and the stresses of the current austerity programme.
Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, July 21st, 2011 - 5 comments
When David Cameron was asked did he ever discuss the BSkyB bid with News International, he said “I never had an inappropriate conversation.” It would be interesting to know whether he had an “appropriate” conversation about it with Rupert Murdoch when they met after the recent British election. Murdoch, who was asked by Cameron to go in the back door, said they had a cup of tea and no other conversation took place”. He was asked to go in the back door and they just chatted about the weather?
Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, July 10th, 2011 - 9 comments
Murdoch-watchers have long known there’s something rotten in the Newscorp media empire. The extent and reach of the phone hacking scandal in Britain has finally seen the biter bit by its own corruption. Murdoch sought power over governments around the world to entrench his extreme right-wing ideology. From Thatcher to Cameron, all were supported by Murdoch’s tabloid papers into Parliament. Now Murdoch may need the BSkyB deal to provide enough cashflow to stay alive as Miliband proposes to introduce legislation to stop it.
Written By: - Date published: 8:47 pm, July 5th, 2011 - 14 comments
New revelations out today that hacker Glenn Mulcaire who bugged celebrity phones for Murdoch’s News of the World also hacked into the phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler after she went missing. NoW journalists deleted messages which gave Milly’s parents false hope that Milly might be alive. This happened when Rebekah Brooks, friend of David Cameron was the paper’s editor, and Andy Coulson, later Cameron’s communications director was deputy editor. This won’t stay under the carpet.
Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, May 7th, 2011 - 22 comments
Hard to feel sorry for Britain’s Liberal Democrat Party, who have just been hammered in local elections. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
Written By: - Date published: 9:36 pm, May 6th, 2011 - 15 comments
Results are coming in for council elections in England and for the Welsh and Scottish Assemblies.
The most interesting result will be the referendum on Alternative Vote for the whole UK.
It is likely to go down according to the polls.
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, April 22nd, 2011 - 14 comments
Buckingham Palace cleaners aren’t even paid the London living wage while the British taxpayer will have to pay for the royal wedding cleanup. That’s one reason why I’m a republican. The Globe and Mail reports: “The cost of cleaning the streets of Westminster the day before the wedding is estimated by the council at $83,000.”
Written By: - Date published: 6:03 pm, April 17th, 2011 - 4 comments
The News of the World phone hacking saga involving the Murdoch media has opened up with news that there could have been over ninety people whose phones were affected. The police have announced that they are looking into possible criminal activity following Rebekah Brooks’ earlier statement that papers paid police for tips. James Murdoch hasn’t …
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, April 9th, 2011 - 15 comments
When I went to China on a private visit in 2008, Helen Clark sent me a text message telling me on no account to leave my cellphone or computer unattended. Over the last few years I noticed baskets in Ministers’ offices for visitors and officials to deposit their cellphones before they went in to see …
Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, March 28th, 2011 - 36 comments
I’ve been checking out some of the amazing footage and photos from friends who were in the London ‘March for the Alternative’. 500,000 people turned out to show the depth of feeling against the slash and burn budget of the Conservative-Lib Dem government. As the Nats plan their own shock doctrine budget, I hope they’re taking notes.
Written By: - Date published: 11:47 pm, January 12th, 2011 - 147 comments
The Great Depression saw the rise of rightwing reactionarism. Out of reactionary movements came fascist governments from Brazil to Romania. We had the 100,000-strong New Zealand Legion. The Great Recession is spawning a new wave of militant reactionarism, now reaching our shores.
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, January 6th, 2011 - 4 comments
It’s not just about fees, or cuts, but about the essential corruption of the current system; so it replays the confrontation between the great British radical movements of the past and the landed-gentry “Old Corruption” that they fought to tame. Compared to 1968, the student movement is now much larger and more broadly based, with deeper roots into the working class and society in general, and so the revolt is, if anything, more profound.
Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, December 5th, 2010 - 29 comments
David Cameron made the commendable decision to create a national happiness index to compliment GDP but there’s a lot of unhappiness in Merry Old England under his rule. To avert fiscal disaster, while allowing bankers and the elite to keep their wealth, Cameron is making savage cuts to public services. And the Police are going old school on the resulting protests.
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