The opposition and other progressive forces in the country must maintain a sustained attack against the bias in the media.
Target the main puppets and always question their impartiality.
When being interviewed live make these accusations.
Control the corporate media, don’t let it control you.
It will never accept a progressive victory in the elections unless the opposition exists on its terms.
Follow the SNP and break your dependence on the corporate media.
Need to remain cautious, of course…could be just the usual cock-ups…long-time Labour Party activists, members, even former candidates being told their application to vote has been rejected.
But, read through the above stories – along with the Twitter accounts of both Owen Jones and JeremyCorbyn4Leader over the last 24 hours – and you’ll get the distinct impression that it’s specifically the known Corbyn supporters who are being rejected.
A lot of those being purged are young members who are the future of the party.
It just shows what the old guard of a dying party will do to hang on to their privileges and control. They’ll keep it out of office, they’ll trash every principle it once stood for, they’ll destroy its future, but God damn it, they’ll keep their expense accounts!
If that proves to be the case then it’s an extraordinary scandal.
Corbyn’s been packing out 1000+ venues throughout the UK for weeks (2000 at Newcastle a night or so back). They’ve had to move rallies to larger auditoria and set up overspill rooms. It’s a “democratic explosion unprecedented in British Political history”, as The Guardian’s Seumus Milne puts it.
He’s 32 points ahead of his nearest rival in the latest Leadership poll and 7 points ahead among the voting public. And he’s probably personally responsible for inspiring more than 100,000 new members / sign-ups.
The notion that this is all the product of some sort of nefarious Trade Union manipulation or Militant Tendency ‘Entryism’ is hilarious. What’s more it was the Blairite David Miliband who advocated this whole ‘3 Pound sign-up’ inclusiveness campaign to widen Party participation a few years ago and Tony Blair was reportedly highly enthusiastic (he welcomed it as “something I should have done myself”)……Right up, of course, until it all backfired a few weeks ago.
But the Entryism accusation does give New Labour establishment Grandees – its College of Cardinals – a motive to try and turn this election if they want to (doomed as such attempts may be).
It’s a real concern, though, that UK Labour announced a couple of weeks ago that it will: (1) continue to purge / reject voters even after they’ve voted in the leadership election – ie right up to the moment the results are ready to be declared (a decision that shocked the British Electoral Reform group whose commercial arm is overseeing the vote) (2) provide no details of the final vote (numbers/breakdowns) publicly. They will simply announce the winner.
Ample opportunity, perhaps, for A Very British Coup.
Even Le Pen in France has had to save the Party and break with Daddy who keeps rising like a zombie to utter something notable in the negative racist style he favours.
It all seems very very familiar.
Party apparatchiks actively working against the clear wishes of the people it purports to represent whilst distorting information, ignoring the public voice & openly manipulating the process of the candidacy selection. The name Henry A Wallace springs to mind.
Have often wondered what the US [& the world] might have overcome had the peoples’ choice won the 1944 nomination for President.
We all understand how private schemes and public dreams are different beasts in the political machinations of an election. We all know history is written by the winners. But one truth exists regardless of poll results, all societies get faced with diverging pathways now and again. 1944 America had its choice made for it. 21st Century Britain now faces a similar situation. Once again it seems the will of the people is powerless against the influence of the powerful.
Back in 1944, the World War was ongoing. It consumed whatever resources it demanded and devoured people as easily as oil and steel. Externally, the USA was seen as a cohesive strong society with a proud and longstanding belief in freedom for all the world.
Internally, the USA was in nothing short of social turmoil as the people were steadily and progressively forging their will for equality and stating clearly how the increasingly invasive influence of big business was destroying the country’s ability to deliver Lady liberty’s promises.
In the build up to the 1944 Convention Henry Wallace was Vice President. An intelligent experienced administrator with many years of public service under his belt. He was an editor, a mathmatecian, he meditated. He was a practicing statistician and had a degree in animal husbandry. A man from the land who who laid the groundwork for hybrid crop development. He was the Secretary of Agriculture and Wallace chaired the Economic Defense Board, the Supply Priorities and Allocation Board, and the Board of Economic Warfare as a member of President Roosevelt’s secret “war cabinet”. He was President of the Senate, and would lead several diplomatic missions to Latin America and Asia and the Soviet Union.
Truman sold socks. Yes that is a bit harsh but what had he actually done to equal the experience and the ability of Wallace? Truman had been a Senator of no real accomplishments for ten years and prior to his rise to the senate had spent time as a Presiding Judge on a County Court. He was not a lawyer. His biggest achievement prior to winning the ’44 nomination for Vice President was as head of the Truman Committee which was formed to expose waste fraud and corruption in wartime contracts. (the irony is palpable when one considers the unfettered growth in such activity once he was ceded the Presidency in 1945) Basically he was a small businessman, who was co-opted into public office with zero hands on experience of the complex issues facing a post-war world.
Truman was barely on the radar as a candidate until a few weeks before the Convention began. The stories of what happened at the ’44 Convention are varied but there are few who would dispute the final vote was a sham fuelled by career promises and crony deals. Overnight, after a dubious adjournment, the delegates supporting Wallace were effectively locked out. As is the way with politics, big business won out and Truman was elected as running mate for Roosevelt. A year later Truman dropped the first atomic bombs before going on to oversee the biggest growth in peacetime arms manufacture the world had ever seen.
Henry Wallace spoke freely with anyone and had a huge public following but once he delivered the ‘Century of the Common Man’ speech his big plans for a better world were quickly becoming thorns in the paw of big business. His comprehensive real world grasp of the post-war challenges was head and shoulders above any other candidates. His policies were plans for the very world that the War was supposedly being fought for. No wonder that some inside (& outside) his party became dedicated to derailing his nomination.
Wallace campaigned on better health care, better social services, fair pay for fair work, free education, progressive tax systems. He spoke passionately on peace as a means to progress, he saw opportunities for better race relations and most importantly wanted the US to lead a downscaling of the industrial military machine that had been borne in the battles raging across the globe. Wallace was an obvious threat. Is it any wonder he is a minor footnote rarely referred to in US politics.
Things are not much different today, in fact many arguments could be put forward to say things are far worse.
The post war world was a gold rush in waiting and claim jumpers were ready to fight for every scrap of power they could claw at. The social policies of Wallace were anathema to the avarice we now witness as the status quo. He believed in the potential of people, the rights of workers, the rights of minorities, the rights of all peoples of the world to have the opportunity to live in peace. Your basic left wing nutbar some would say. I hazard a guess that Corbyn would agree, it all seems very very familiar.
Thanks freedom. I suppose you have seen the comments I put up on Hiroshima Day. I found a detailed and apparently authoritative story in The Atlantic I think about the methods used to decide about dropping the two nuclear bombs. And whether their terror balanced fairly against some more war dead over months of face-saving negotiation as the USA held onto the bombs as a last resort.
With Truman out of his depth and people like Byrnes running around doing god knows what behind the scenes, it is little surprise that cool heads like Secretary of War Stimson resigned only weeks after the bombs were dropped. Then again, he was seventy three. But I am not so sure he would have left so quickly had Wallace been in the oval office instead of Truman.
As the information you pointed to shows, history does suggest there were many in the administration who were beginning to see a post war world of atomic threats as a very destabilising apparatus for global peace to be built upon. There were certainly some experienced bodies in the administration who appear to have become very uncomfortable with the direction their caretaker President was taking. These views were largely based on simple and sparse knowledge of the device’s existence, without even seeing the weapon in operation. It is not unreasonable to assume that after the Trinity Test the cacophony of protest behind closed doors was much louder than the historians can prove. We can only daydream about alternative decisions in the days that followed.
As far as the decision to drop, well, no matter what details emerge, what battle plans are uncovered, what meetings are declassified, I will forever hold the opinion that inviting the nations of the world to send representatives to further test firing of the weapons would have immediately achieved the desired peace. If peace was what the powerful desired.
2. Congress Is Sick of the Secrecy Around the TPP
And Senator Sherrod Brown is blocking a key Obama nominee to show it.
““The Administration would rather sacrifice a nominee for a key post than improve transparency of the largest trade agreement ever negotiated,” Brown said in a statement. “This deal could affect more the 40 percent of our global economy, but even seasoned policy advisors with the requisite security clearance can’t review text without being accompanied by a Member of Congress. It shouldn’t be easier for multinational corporations to get their hands on trade text than for public servants looking out for American workers and American manufacturers.”
Refinery and their boss strikes black gold then turns pipe off for the workers down below. Left to scrap over the occasional drop ‘a 0.5 per cent pay rise’.
This article by Mike Treen on Nationals legalisation of zero hours contracts is pretty much a must read
I believe that the government is vulnerable on this issue. Whatever the initial intention of Woodhouse and his advisers it is clear that what has come back from Cabinet is so watered down as to be less than useless. They law is a danger to workers and will legitimise practises that they government had promised to end.
Considering that this is a National government I don’t suppose we should be surprised by the attacks on the workers. What we should be is angry.
You do know that Key and NZ would be well to the left of centre from the USA political perspective. I also find it cute that some in NZ think the USA and multinationals spend their days trying to subvert NZ for their own evil needs.
NZ MoH web site defers and links to the CDC on many pagesof the web site, and takes direct inputs from the CDC when making decisions on multiple levels
Nz and USA only two countries which currently allow direct consumer marketing by pharmaceutical companies
As two examples of how NZ is the USA. There are more that involve the CDC, FDA & MoH which as a doctor you must surely be aware of
You’re being deliberately misleading or extremely ignorant
You can’t dispute the examples which showed up the stupidity of your “usa isnt nz” comment, so once again you come back with a facile imbicilic comment
butbutbut the MoH website taking direct inputs from the CDC when making decisions on multiple levels (or whatever the fuck BH was trying to say) is totally relevant to drug companies offering inducements to doctors who prescribe their drugs.
The funny thing is that all of the recent incidents in my opinion demonstrate that the police have the tools to deal with these incidents with the equipment they have.
Thus far they have aprehended all suspects with no injury to any officers or the public and without (so far) any of the suspects being killed either.
The US police would love this sort of a positive outcome. Of course they armed all their police long ago and we can see how that turned out.
I certainly have no love for the law but from from what I’ve heard about the incident here in Whanganui this was attempted murder.
Seems the offenders fired at arms length but missed because they were so pissed and stoned and when the cops legged it ditching their high-vis gear and headed off into a paddock Dolphy* and co spent considerable time staggering around in the dark trying to hunt them down.
(nice enough kid but never had a chance, unwanted, uneducated, dreadful family violence, institutionalised at fourteen etc etc..)*
Yeah but at the same time we don’t want it to turn out like the US, where some cops level lethal weapons at anyone poor or brown they pull over for minor traffic infractions.
Well folks, on a lighter note, I have just prepared a cheese/tomato tart ready for dinner this evening, I had just sat back, logged in to see the comments for the day and the darned phone goes, I thought typical – well would you believe it, it was a young woman asking for me by name, when confirmed, she then went on to say “this is a phone call from John Key ” – I interrupted her and said “I can’t stand the bastard” and hung up on her – my partner is chuckling away here – oh boy did it feel good – I am still chuckling away myself – the poor girl is probably still getting over it – it would be interesting to see how many of these cold callers are getting a tirade of abuse from people. Have a good weekend.
One “northshoredoc” asserts, without bothering to back up his assertion with any evidence, the following….
Key and NZ would be well to the left of centre from the USA political perspective.
On what basis does he/she make such a claim? I see that our friend Blue Horseshoe has already pointed out that northshoredoc is stupid, so I’ll resist hurling any further epithets at the poor fellow.
I am willing, furthermore, to allow northshoredoc the opportunity to redeem himself by explaining why he made such a remarkable, evidence-free statement.
If you can’t figure out how NZ even under the current government is well to the left politically of the Democrats I would suggest you concentrate on your job as a second rate stenographer.
NZ even under the current government is well to the left politically of the Democrats
You did not say that. You said: “well to the left of centre from the USA political perspective.” Key and his cronies may be “to the left” of the people that have been prosecuting illegal wars in the Middle East and Africa, jailing whistle-blowers and murdering and terrorizing political dissenters. But they are NOT “to the left” of mainstream political thought in the United States or New Zealand. The political establishment is far to the right of the general public in America, just as it is in New Zealand and Australia and the United Kingdom and Canada.
The two main political parties, which have a stranglehold on political institutions, are notoriously corrupt and do not represent the public’s views in any meaningful sense.
Your confused comments indicate that you have little or no understanding of the depth and complexity of political debate in the United States. Are you aware of how popular Bernie Sanders is? Have you even heard of him? Or Ralph Nader? Or Noam Chomsky? Or Elizabeth Warren?
I would suggest you concentrate on your job as a second rate stenographer.
Geezus mate, the US Democrats would be considered a war-mongering crony corporate right wing party of state sponsored terrorism and torture in most developed countries in the world.
Let’s invite Hilary to give us a speech shall we? It’ll only cost us US$275,000.
Meanwhile let’s not forget that it was Clinton who eviscerated social welfare for poor families and their children, and passed NAFTA which gutted the US blue collar working class and American industry.
“Geezus mate, the US Democrats would be considered a war-mongering crony corporate right wing party of state sponsored terrorism and torture in most developed countries in the world.”
Most people in the United States want a fully funded public health care system, and they do not want the poor to be punished for being poor. That’s been shown in poll after poll after poll.
You are conflating the stance of the political class, which serves the private medical lobby and the armaments lobby, with the views of the population, which it ignores. You can recycle the deranged rhetoric of the extreme right all you like, but that doesn’t change the facts of the matter.
The US websites I have been looking at are commenting how over the last 30 years both Democrat and Republican parties have moved so far to the right that Reagan and Nixon would these days be considered too left wing to be presidential material. So I guess Key must be “left wing” somewhere between Reagan and Nixon in his politics.
Fair comment Glenn. But, as the Professor picked up, the political parties are not representative of public opinion. Poor old northshoredoc confused the brutal policies of the political establishment with “the USA political perspective”.
American people are much more serious and moral than the small elite that has control of the levers of power.
This is interesting as well. A fierce advertising effort has been launched by Saudi Arabia to convince U.S. lawmakers to oppose the nuclear deal with Iran, and they’ve recruited a cadre of former Senators to carry it out.
“I’m a big fan of tasers.”
Jim Mora’s light chat show is actually getting WORSE. The Panel, Radio NZ National, Friday 21 August 2015
Jim Mora, Andrew “Dire” Clay, Neil Miller
Incredibly, this dog of a program somehow continues to decline in quality. But then what else can we expect with guests of this calibre?
First discussion for the day: Should the police be armed or not? Miller opined that New Zealand is an “out-lier” on this issue, but that nothing will change until not only policemen, but members of the public start getting shot.
Of course, members of the public are getting shot—by the police. Sadly, however, neither Jim Mora nor Andrew “Dire” Clay had the presence of mind to remind him of this.
Miller then announced how much of a fan he is of police using tasers. Clay, who often refers to himself as a “liberal”, endorsed Miller’s view, burbling: “I’m a big fan of tasers.”
To introduce some informed comment on to the program, the producers had arranged for Mora to cross to Deakin University Associate Professor in Criminology Dr Darren Palmer, who quickly and eloquently showed that neither Clay nor Miller had a clue what they were talking about. Politely but devastatingly, he showed that every single point that they had made was fallacious.
Neil Miller had nothing at all to offer by way of counter-argument. However, once he had departed, Miller said: “Very cynical comments from an academic, I must say.”
It would be interesting to see if Clay and Miller maintained their enthusiastic pro-taser stance if either—or preferably both—of them were to be set upon and perhaps paralyzed by a gang of licensed thugs in police uniforms.
Neither of them has any discernible talent, as far as I can see. Clay has made some astonishingly ignorant comments on his many appearances on this chat show—-on one memorable occasion he expressed anguish at finding out “that the Khmer Rouge was SUPPORTED by the United States for political reasons! It just does my head in!” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-28032013/#comment-611053
That revelation of horrifying government cynicism has not stopped him from going to Afghanistan to “support our troops”, which is really, of course, supporting our government’s decision to send them there. His anti-war comments have ceased since his government-sponsored trip.
Thanks for that Gabby. Now I am totally embarrassed. I am a more abject human being than any of my critics here has rated me in the past, and Neil Miller is a far better human being than I have been portraying him to be.
I thought I heard him say “cynical”, but there you are—-another Breen mis-step.
What’s even more impressive is that Mr Miller made that generous comment after Dr Palmer had shown him to be utterly ignorant and out of his depth.
Well done, Neil Miller—and thanks for correcting my horrible misconstrual, Gabby.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
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What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
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When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
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The opposition and other progressive forces in the country must maintain a sustained attack against the bias in the media.
Target the main puppets and always question their impartiality.
When being interviewed live make these accusations.
Control the corporate media, don’t let it control you.
It will never accept a progressive victory in the elections unless the opposition exists on its terms.
Follow the SNP and break your dependence on the corporate media.
Is there a purge of Corbyn supporters currently underway in the UK Labour leadership election ?
The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leadership-longtime-supporters-of-party-claim-they-have-been-barred-from-voting-in-purge-10464046.html
The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/20/labour-leadership-election-rejected-supporters-express-their-anger
Need to remain cautious, of course…could be just the usual cock-ups…long-time Labour Party activists, members, even former candidates being told their application to vote has been rejected.
But, read through the above stories – along with the Twitter accounts of both Owen Jones and JeremyCorbyn4Leader over the last 24 hours – and you’ll get the distinct impression that it’s specifically the known Corbyn supporters who are being rejected.
Snap, I was just about to post this:
https://opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/michael-chessum/great-labour-purge-is-underway
The author of this article is less equivocal.
A lot of those being purged are young members who are the future of the party.
It just shows what the old guard of a dying party will do to hang on to their privileges and control. They’ll keep it out of office, they’ll trash every principle it once stood for, they’ll destroy its future, but God damn it, they’ll keep their expense accounts!
If that proves to be the case then it’s an extraordinary scandal.
Corbyn’s been packing out 1000+ venues throughout the UK for weeks (2000 at Newcastle a night or so back). They’ve had to move rallies to larger auditoria and set up overspill rooms. It’s a “democratic explosion unprecedented in British Political history”, as The Guardian’s Seumus Milne puts it.
He’s 32 points ahead of his nearest rival in the latest Leadership poll and 7 points ahead among the voting public. And he’s probably personally responsible for inspiring more than 100,000 new members / sign-ups.
The notion that this is all the product of some sort of nefarious Trade Union manipulation or Militant Tendency ‘Entryism’ is hilarious. What’s more it was the Blairite David Miliband who advocated this whole ‘3 Pound sign-up’ inclusiveness campaign to widen Party participation a few years ago and Tony Blair was reportedly highly enthusiastic (he welcomed it as “something I should have done myself”)……Right up, of course, until it all backfired a few weeks ago.
But the Entryism accusation does give New Labour establishment Grandees – its College of Cardinals – a motive to try and turn this election if they want to (doomed as such attempts may be).
It’s a real concern, though, that UK Labour announced a couple of weeks ago that it will:
(1) continue to purge / reject voters even after they’ve voted in the leadership election – ie right up to the moment the results are ready to be declared (a decision that shocked the British Electoral Reform group whose commercial arm is overseeing the vote)
(2) provide no details of the final vote (numbers/breakdowns) publicly. They will simply announce the winner.
Ample opportunity, perhaps, for A Very British Coup.
Even Le Pen in France has had to save the Party and break with Daddy who keeps rising like a zombie to utter something notable in the negative racist style he favours.
It all seems very very familiar.
Party apparatchiks actively working against the clear wishes of the people it purports to represent whilst distorting information, ignoring the public voice & openly manipulating the process of the candidacy selection. The name Henry A Wallace springs to mind.
Have often wondered what the US [& the world] might have overcome had the peoples’ choice won the 1944 nomination for President.
We all understand how private schemes and public dreams are different beasts in the political machinations of an election. We all know history is written by the winners. But one truth exists regardless of poll results, all societies get faced with diverging pathways now and again. 1944 America had its choice made for it. 21st Century Britain now faces a similar situation. Once again it seems the will of the people is powerless against the influence of the powerful.
Back in 1944, the World War was ongoing. It consumed whatever resources it demanded and devoured people as easily as oil and steel. Externally, the USA was seen as a cohesive strong society with a proud and longstanding belief in freedom for all the world.
Internally, the USA was in nothing short of social turmoil as the people were steadily and progressively forging their will for equality and stating clearly how the increasingly invasive influence of big business was destroying the country’s ability to deliver Lady liberty’s promises.
In the build up to the 1944 Convention Henry Wallace was Vice President. An intelligent experienced administrator with many years of public service under his belt. He was an editor, a mathmatecian, he meditated. He was a practicing statistician and had a degree in animal husbandry. A man from the land who who laid the groundwork for hybrid crop development. He was the Secretary of Agriculture and Wallace chaired the Economic Defense Board, the Supply Priorities and Allocation Board, and the Board of Economic Warfare as a member of President Roosevelt’s secret “war cabinet”. He was President of the Senate, and would lead several diplomatic missions to Latin America and Asia and the Soviet Union.
Truman sold socks. Yes that is a bit harsh but what had he actually done to equal the experience and the ability of Wallace? Truman had been a Senator of no real accomplishments for ten years and prior to his rise to the senate had spent time as a Presiding Judge on a County Court. He was not a lawyer. His biggest achievement prior to winning the ’44 nomination for Vice President was as head of the Truman Committee which was formed to expose waste fraud and corruption in wartime contracts. (the irony is palpable when one considers the unfettered growth in such activity once he was ceded the Presidency in 1945) Basically he was a small businessman, who was co-opted into public office with zero hands on experience of the complex issues facing a post-war world.
Truman was barely on the radar as a candidate until a few weeks before the Convention began. The stories of what happened at the ’44 Convention are varied but there are few who would dispute the final vote was a sham fuelled by career promises and crony deals. Overnight, after a dubious adjournment, the delegates supporting Wallace were effectively locked out. As is the way with politics, big business won out and Truman was elected as running mate for Roosevelt. A year later Truman dropped the first atomic bombs before going on to oversee the biggest growth in peacetime arms manufacture the world had ever seen.
Henry Wallace spoke freely with anyone and had a huge public following but once he delivered the ‘Century of the Common Man’ speech his big plans for a better world were quickly becoming thorns in the paw of big business. His comprehensive real world grasp of the post-war challenges was head and shoulders above any other candidates. His policies were plans for the very world that the War was supposedly being fought for. No wonder that some inside (& outside) his party became dedicated to derailing his nomination.
Wallace campaigned on better health care, better social services, fair pay for fair work, free education, progressive tax systems. He spoke passionately on peace as a means to progress, he saw opportunities for better race relations and most importantly wanted the US to lead a downscaling of the industrial military machine that had been borne in the battles raging across the globe. Wallace was an obvious threat. Is it any wonder he is a minor footnote rarely referred to in US politics.
Things are not much different today, in fact many arguments could be put forward to say things are far worse.
The post war world was a gold rush in waiting and claim jumpers were ready to fight for every scrap of power they could claw at. The social policies of Wallace were anathema to the avarice we now witness as the status quo. He believed in the potential of people, the rights of workers, the rights of minorities, the rights of all peoples of the world to have the opportunity to live in peace. Your basic left wing nutbar some would say. I hazard a guess that Corbyn would agree, it all seems very very familiar.
oops: “……. had the peoples’ choice won the 1944 nomination for Vice President.”
an inconvenient phone call made me miss the edit -sorry
Thanks freedom. I suppose you have seen the comments I put up on Hiroshima Day. I found a detailed and apparently authoritative story in The Atlantic I think about the methods used to decide about dropping the two nuclear bombs. And whether their terror balanced fairly against some more war dead over months of face-saving negotiation as the USA held onto the bombs as a last resort.
With Truman out of his depth and people like Byrnes running around doing god knows what behind the scenes, it is little surprise that cool heads like Secretary of War Stimson resigned only weeks after the bombs were dropped. Then again, he was seventy three. But I am not so sure he would have left so quickly had Wallace been in the oval office instead of Truman.
As the information you pointed to shows, history does suggest there were many in the administration who were beginning to see a post war world of atomic threats as a very destabilising apparatus for global peace to be built upon. There were certainly some experienced bodies in the administration who appear to have become very uncomfortable with the direction their caretaker President was taking. These views were largely based on simple and sparse knowledge of the device’s existence, without even seeing the weapon in operation. It is not unreasonable to assume that after the Trinity Test the cacophony of protest behind closed doors was much louder than the historians can prove. We can only daydream about alternative decisions in the days that followed.
As far as the decision to drop, well, no matter what details emerge, what battle plans are uncovered, what meetings are declassified, I will forever hold the opinion that inviting the nations of the world to send representatives to further test firing of the weapons would have immediately achieved the desired peace. If peace was what the powerful desired.
QFT
Oliver Stones Untold History of the U.S. tells the story of Wallace very well.
thanks freedom,
ive learnt something today,
well written.
Some recent articles on TPPA
1. “NAFTA countries reignite negotiations over TPP auto-parts dispute
Negotiators for Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are meeting in Washington to try to break a deadlock over autos – one of the biggest stumbling blocks to a massive Pacific Rim trade pact between 12 countries.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/nafta-countries-meeting-in-washington-over-tpp-auto-parts-dispute/article26029777/
2. Congress Is Sick of the Secrecy Around the TPP
And Senator Sherrod Brown is blocking a key Obama nominee to show it.
““The Administration would rather sacrifice a nominee for a key post than improve transparency of the largest trade agreement ever negotiated,” Brown said in a statement. “This deal could affect more the 40 percent of our global economy, but even seasoned policy advisors with the requisite security clearance can’t review text without being accompanied by a Member of Congress. It shouldn’t be easier for multinational corporations to get their hands on trade text than for public servants looking out for American workers and American manufacturers.”
http://www.thenation.com/article/congress-is-sick-of-the-secrecy-around-tpp/
3. Even Climate Change denier is convinced !!!!
Lord Christopher Monckton: TPP is Anti-Democracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk20WiYgp_4
4, http://www.bilaterals.org/ for news from several TPPA countries
Refinery and their boss strikes black gold then turns pipe off for the workers down below. Left to scrap over the occasional drop ‘a 0.5 per cent pay rise’.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/71289199/refining-nz-posts-strong-half-year-profit-of-652m-pays-dividend
Video from Wikileaks on TPP published 18 Aug 2015.
Includes Pilger and many other speakers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw7P0RGZQxQ&feature=youtu.be
+1
This article by Mike Treen on Nationals legalisation of zero hours contracts is pretty much a must read
Considering that this is a National government I don’t suppose we should be surprised by the attacks on the workers. What we should be is angry.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YQZ2UeOTO3I
John Oliver ‘- marketing to doctors
USA isn’t NZ.
Not yet, but if we give John Key enugh time and a TPP to back him then it may not be long until we are.
You do know that Key and NZ would be well to the left of centre from the USA political perspective. I also find it cute that some in NZ think the USA and multinationals spend their days trying to subvert NZ for their own evil needs.
Stupid response
NZ MoH web site defers and links to the CDC on many pagesof the web site, and takes direct inputs from the CDC when making decisions on multiple levels
Nz and USA only two countries which currently allow direct consumer marketing by pharmaceutical companies
As two examples of how NZ is the USA. There are more that involve the CDC, FDA & MoH which as a doctor you must surely be aware of
You’re being deliberately misleading or extremely ignorant
I quite agree that your response is stupid.
You can’t dispute the examples which showed up the stupidity of your “usa isnt nz” comment, so once again you come back with a facile imbicilic comment
If those examples had in fact exposed any stupidity you’d have a point.
butbutbut the MoH website taking direct inputs from the CDC when making decisions on multiple levels (or whatever the fuck BH was trying to say) is totally relevant to drug companies offering inducements to doctors who prescribe their drugs.
I thought that was HAARP. Oh well.
Greg O’Connor again calling for all police to be armed with firearms.
I wonder if he has shares in Glock…
The funny thing is that all of the recent incidents in my opinion demonstrate that the police have the tools to deal with these incidents with the equipment they have.
Thus far they have aprehended all suspects with no injury to any officers or the public and without (so far) any of the suspects being killed either.
The US police would love this sort of a positive outcome. Of course they armed all their police long ago and we can see how that turned out.
pretty much.
I certainly have no love for the law but from from what I’ve heard about the incident here in Whanganui this was attempted murder.
Seems the offenders fired at arms length but missed because they were so pissed and stoned and when the cops legged it ditching their high-vis gear and headed off into a paddock Dolphy* and co spent considerable time staggering around in the dark trying to hunt them down.
(nice enough kid but never had a chance, unwanted, uneducated, dreadful family violence, institutionalised at fourteen etc etc..)*
Yeah but at the same time we don’t want it to turn out like the US, where some cops level lethal weapons at anyone poor or brown they pull over for minor traffic infractions.
The dark side of low milk prices – heavily pregnant cows being sent off to the meat works – http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/71202444/Culling-of-dairy-cattle-increases-as-farmers-look-to-maximise-milk-profit-in-hard-season
So, the price of veal will be going down?
I am considering becoming a vegetarian.
News like this stengthens my resolve.
Well folks, on a lighter note, I have just prepared a cheese/tomato tart ready for dinner this evening, I had just sat back, logged in to see the comments for the day and the darned phone goes, I thought typical – well would you believe it, it was a young woman asking for me by name, when confirmed, she then went on to say “this is a phone call from John Key ” – I interrupted her and said “I can’t stand the bastard” and hung up on her – my partner is chuckling away here – oh boy did it feel good – I am still chuckling away myself – the poor girl is probably still getting over it – it would be interesting to see how many of these cold callers are getting a tirade of abuse from people. Have a good weekend.
Sweet as Barbara , thanks
One “northshoredoc” asserts, without bothering to back up his assertion with any evidence, the following….
On what basis does he/she make such a claim? I see that our friend Blue Horseshoe has already pointed out that northshoredoc is stupid, so I’ll resist hurling any further epithets at the poor fellow.
I am willing, furthermore, to allow northshoredoc the opportunity to redeem himself by explaining why he made such a remarkable, evidence-free statement.
Away you go, northshoredoc. The floor is yours….
Go away Morrissey.
If you can’t figure out how NZ even under the current government is well to the left politically of the Democrats I would suggest you concentrate on your job as a second rate stenographer.
Go away Morrissey.
?!!!???!?!?!?!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLezV_FmX38
NZ even under the current government is well to the left politically of the Democrats
You did not say that. You said: “well to the left of centre from the USA political perspective.” Key and his cronies may be “to the left” of the people that have been prosecuting illegal wars in the Middle East and Africa, jailing whistle-blowers and murdering and terrorizing political dissenters. But they are NOT “to the left” of mainstream political thought in the United States or New Zealand. The political establishment is far to the right of the general public in America, just as it is in New Zealand and Australia and the United Kingdom and Canada.
The two main political parties, which have a stranglehold on political institutions, are notoriously corrupt and do not represent the public’s views in any meaningful sense.
Your confused comments indicate that you have little or no understanding of the depth and complexity of political debate in the United States. Are you aware of how popular Bernie Sanders is? Have you even heard of him? Or Ralph Nader? Or Noam Chomsky? Or Elizabeth Warren?
I would suggest you concentrate on your job as a second rate stenographer.
Oooohhh, now THAT hurts.
“Go away Morrissey.
?!!!???!?!?!?!?”
Your sock puppetry has been well outed in the past as has your putain de poulet.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17032014/#comment-787979
Ouch! A palpable hit, sir!
Touché!
Geezus mate, the US Democrats would be considered a war-mongering crony corporate right wing party of state sponsored terrorism and torture in most developed countries in the world.
Let’s invite Hilary to give us a speech shall we? It’ll only cost us US$275,000.
Meanwhile let’s not forget that it was Clinton who eviscerated social welfare for poor families and their children, and passed NAFTA which gutted the US blue collar working class and American industry.
“Geezus mate, the US Democrats would be considered a war-mongering crony corporate right wing party of state sponsored terrorism and torture in most developed countries in the world.”
Yes my point exactly.
I can confirm that I’d vote NZ National Party ahead of US Democratic Party any day of the week…heaven forbid those are the choices given to us.
The US political establishment would consider our healthcare, education and social welfare system a step away from communism.
Most people in the United States want a fully funded public health care system, and they do not want the poor to be punished for being poor. That’s been shown in poll after poll after poll.
You are conflating the stance of the political class, which serves the private medical lobby and the armaments lobby, with the views of the population, which it ignores. You can recycle the deranged rhetoric of the extreme right all you like, but that doesn’t change the facts of the matter.
The US websites I have been looking at are commenting how over the last 30 years both Democrat and Republican parties have moved so far to the right that Reagan and Nixon would these days be considered too left wing to be presidential material. So I guess Key must be “left wing” somewhere between Reagan and Nixon in his politics.
Fair comment Glenn. But, as the Professor picked up, the political parties are not representative of public opinion. Poor old northshoredoc confused the brutal policies of the political establishment with “the USA political perspective”.
American people are much more serious and moral than the small elite that has control of the levers of power.
As are the people of the UK well to the left of Labour there.
Good point Paul. I note that the Labour Party’s Blairite establishment and its media parrots are working round the clock to smear Jeremy Corbyn.
Here’s an interesting fact. The second biggest shareholder in Rupert Murdoch’s parent company for Fox News is the nephew of the King of Saudi Arabia – http://bigthink.com/Resurgence/sharia-prince-owns-stake-in-fox-news-parent
This is interesting as well. A fierce advertising effort has been launched by Saudi Arabia to convince U.S. lawmakers to oppose the nuclear deal with Iran, and they’ve recruited a cadre of former Senators to carry it out.
A https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/08/20/wave-anti-iran-deal-tv-ads-organized-saudi-arabian-lobbyist/
“I’m a big fan of tasers.”
Jim Mora’s light chat show is actually getting WORSE.
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Friday 21 August 2015
Jim Mora, Andrew “Dire” Clay, Neil Miller
Incredibly, this dog of a program somehow continues to decline in quality. But then what else can we expect with guests of this calibre?
First discussion for the day: Should the police be armed or not? Miller opined that New Zealand is an “out-lier” on this issue, but that nothing will change until not only policemen, but members of the public start getting shot.
Of course, members of the public are getting shot—by the police. Sadly, however, neither Jim Mora nor Andrew “Dire” Clay had the presence of mind to remind him of this.
Miller then announced how much of a fan he is of police using tasers. Clay, who often refers to himself as a “liberal”, endorsed Miller’s view, burbling: “I’m a big fan of tasers.”
To introduce some informed comment on to the program, the producers had arranged for Mora to cross to Deakin University Associate Professor in Criminology Dr Darren Palmer, who quickly and eloquently showed that neither Clay nor Miller had a clue what they were talking about. Politely but devastatingly, he showed that every single point that they had made was fallacious.
Neil Miller had nothing at all to offer by way of counter-argument. However, once he had departed, Miller said: “Very cynical comments from an academic, I must say.”
It would be interesting to see if Clay and Miller maintained their enthusiastic pro-taser stance if either—or preferably both—of them were to be set upon and perhaps paralyzed by a gang of licensed thugs in police uniforms.
Masochists can read more about Andrew “Dire” Clay HERE…..
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04122013/#comment-738941
Miller-watchers might like to peruse the following….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10082012/#comment-505179
Miller and Clay sound appalling.
Do you know what they have done in life to get a platform to espouse their repugnant views?
Neither of them has any discernible talent, as far as I can see. Clay has made some astonishingly ignorant comments on his many appearances on this chat show—-on one memorable occasion he expressed anguish at finding out “that the Khmer Rouge was SUPPORTED by the United States for political reasons! It just does my head in!”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-28032013/#comment-611053
That revelation of horrifying government cynicism has not stopped him from going to Afghanistan to “support our troops”, which is really, of course, supporting our government’s decision to send them there. His anti-war comments have ceased since his government-sponsored trip.
While Clay comes across as well intentioned but a bit dim, Miller is an altogether nastier case. I’ve written about him before….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02122013/#comment-737424
As the late great Bruce Jesson used to say, a lot of people go a long way by being pushy and self-centred. That’s certainly the case with Neil Miller.
To be fair, he said “Very SENSIBLE comments”
Thanks for that Gabby. Now I am totally embarrassed. I am a more abject human being than any of my critics here has rated me in the past, and Neil Miller is a far better human being than I have been portraying him to be.
I thought I heard him say “cynical”, but there you are—-another Breen mis-step.
What’s even more impressive is that Mr Miller made that generous comment after Dr Palmer had shown him to be utterly ignorant and out of his depth.
Well done, Neil Miller—and thanks for correcting my horrible misconstrual, Gabby.
This is front page news in the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/21/new-zealand-conservationists-apologise-over-accidental-shooting-of-endangered-takahe
Didn’t seem to get much attention over here and it’s our endangered species.
It’s been in the news all bloody day.