Posts Tagged ‘chris trotter’

Tax or quality public services – which is more important to NZ voters?

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 pm, September 27th, 2023 - 16 comments

Earlier this year Andrew Marr wrote in the New Statesmen, that Britain’s problem was that it wanted Scandinavian levels of Public Services and North American levels of taxation. His view was that Britain was overdue for an honest debate about tax and public spending. In New Zealand, there is a similar challenge.

Resistance

Written By: - Date published: 3:24 pm, March 31st, 2021 - 50 comments

Chris Trotter recently asked the question about why there isn’t more resistance to the degree of inequality that we face in New Zealand. He’s partially right, we do spend an awfully amount of time arguing with each other about matters of smaller and smaller moment while inequality slides downhill from glacier to avalanche.  But intersectionalism isn’t the primary cause of activist cooling.

The end of partisan politics?

Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, April 8th, 2020 - 71 comments

Throughout the world there is an increasing consensus emerging that the free market approach is failing and principled intelligent leadership from governments provide the optimum result.

Small start to inflated bullshit.

Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, October 29th, 2019 - 14 comments

I was reading one of Chris Trotters reflections which looked at the Corrections Amendment Bill 2018, that just passed its 3rd reading. “Putting The Check In Right-Wing Prisoners’ Mail”. It sounded odd and oddly lacked detail. I came to the conclusion taking press releases at face value without thinking was a very bad idea.

Matthew Hooton and the Radio New Zealand post

Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, May 15th, 2016 - 192 comments

Radio New Zealand recently published a piece penned by well known supporter of the right Matthew Hooton.  What has happened to the concept of balance?

National – trying to provoke TPP violence?

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, January 29th, 2016 - 165 comments

The police are “visiting” TPP activists – Key is cynically trying to blow the “law and order” dog whistle. But would he really go so far as to try and provoke open violence for political gain?

Chris Trotter is on fire

Written By: - Date published: 8:32 am, November 19th, 2015 - 160 comments

“What differentiates the Left from the Right is the former’s fundamental rejection of the strongest human-beings’ proclivity to dominate, coerce and exploit the weakest. Without this proclivity, none of the economic and social systems elaborated by armed minorities throughout history could have endured.”

Indeed.

Will Chris Trotter give up his table?

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 pm, October 23rd, 2014 - 64 comments

For many decades Galbraiths has been a local watering hole for some of the unionists, academics, and commentariat on Friday night. I have been known to go along to stir participate in the bemoaning lofty debate and to  spend a few coppers. David Parker is going to be there on Friday evening. I suspect I may have to go along to observe. 🙂

NRT: Politics does not have to be dirty

Written By: - Date published: 8:34 am, August 20th, 2014 - 30 comments

Writing in The Press yesterday morning, Chris Trotter argues that politics is essentially dirty. No Right Turn rejects that. So do the authors on this site. None of us do this kind of crap. Nor do most people in the political arena. Why taint us with the brush of John Key’s blackops team.

Polity: Chris Trotter – “gaseous exhalations”

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, February 20th, 2014 - 71 comments

Yesterday, Rob Salmond offered Chris Trotter a bet based on Chris writing an over-excited interpretation of an online poll. Who writes posts on the basis of online polls of less than 400 people? It is the same problem as interpreting small junk “markets” like iPredict which are rife with idiots of the right trying to push the odds away from reality with small amounts of cash. Really!

The Pablo-Trotter interchange – whither the left?

Written By: - Date published: 8:50 pm, January 23rd, 2014 - 169 comments

A response to recent exchanges between Pablo (on Kiwipolitico) & Chris Trotter.  I agree and I don’t.  I argue that Pablo’s Marxism needs some updating to include the politics of various kinds of oppression & the intertwining of and interaction between cultural “superstructure” & “economic base”.

The disconnected: the future of the left?

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, April 18th, 2013 - 42 comments

The current direction of Key’s government, and the challenging circumstances of the 21st century create a need for urgent attention to the form of a new left politics; one that embraces the working class, trade union solidarity, gender, diversity & the emerging “precariat”.

The stealthy dismantling of democracy

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, April 12th, 2013 - 27 comments

John Key’s government has been gradually dismantling NZ’s democratic processes. Various activities this week are a major part of a frightening shift: a Bill enabling mining conservation land; punitive social security Act; Key’s control over NZ’s “intelligence community”.

Something rotten in the state…

Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, December 11th, 2012 - 88 comments

As an outsider watching the struggles in the Labour Party unfold, I am becoming increasingly despondent about the state of Left wing politics in NZ.  Right now, NZ, and those of us who party vote Green/Mana, require a strong, democratic and solidly left wing Labour Party.

The political media and the blogs

Written By: - Date published: 10:34 pm, November 29th, 2012 - 110 comments

Chris Trotter, like myself, was at the Labour party conference a week and a half ago. Like myself and damn near every left wing blogger who was there, he saw a massive discordance between what was being reported and what was actually happening in the conference. The hysteria at having a carefully constructed fiction of media and the beltway PR being torn to pieces by ordinary citizens writing has been extraordinary. The implications for the poorly constructed Law Commission report on cyber-bullying is sobering.

Mythbustin’: Waitakere Man

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, March 15th, 2012 - 54 comments

Chris Trotter invented the myth of the so-called ‘Waitakere Man’. It assumes Labour has lost voters because we’re all contractors now or in roles where we could be contractors, and don’t need their union-based labour policies and benefit system but want simpler rules for small business. No factory or retail workers in this model. Problem is, it’s not true.

Williams and Trotter on Carter’s expulsion

Written By: - Date published: 10:06 pm, October 12th, 2010 - 13 comments

RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan talks to Mike Williams and Chris Trotter about Chris Carter’s expulsion.

Some stuff to read

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, May 25th, 2009 - 10 comments

A few good posts today that are worth a look if you missed them: Chris Trotter reckons the police and the media are grossly underestimating the turnout at today’s hikoi. If we assume lower Queen Street to be roughly a kilometre in length and about 30 metres wide we get an area of 30,000 square […]

Trotter back blogging

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, November 18th, 2008 - 16 comments

Chris Trotter has a new blog. Good to see he’s left those creeps over at policy.net and gone out on his own. I don’t always agree with Trotter, in fact at times I find him infuriating, but he’s a smart guy and always worth a read. Welcome back, Chris. Hat tip: Jafapete

Why the polls suck.

Written By: - Date published: 6:49 pm, September 20th, 2008 - 34 comments

Newswire have a new poll “Is it a done deal? What the polls don’t tell us” which makes for some interesting reading. It was a limited poll done around Wellington on Monday using a true random polling technique. It also reported all of the figures including the numbers for which there was no answer. As […]

Another leftie in the ‘sphere

Written By: - Date published: 7:32 am, August 22nd, 2008 - 11 comments

We finally get to welcome Chris Trotter to the blogosphere as he’s started a new blog at http://www.policy.net.nz/blog/ I’ve often thought Trotter’s solid smart writing and love of a robust argument would be suited to blogging and I fully expect his new blog will go on the must-read list of NZ political commentary. It’s also […]

The dark side of the Right

Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, June 13th, 2008 - 118 comments

Trotter is on the money today: …[A]ll of you young, confident women of the 21st century urgently need to pause and reflect upon what is happening especially all you young, confident women thinking of voting for the National Party. Why? Because behind National, hidden by all those glossy placards depicting the handsome John Key, marches […]

Trotter on Key’s conference speech

Written By: - Date published: 4:12 pm, August 22nd, 2007 - 1 comment

Further to ZKM’s post below it really was a great article last week from Chris Trotter on John Key’s weak National Party conference speech that asserts: A disastrous speech to the National Party conference puts an end to John Key’s honeymoon with the voters. I normally just link to the complete article but the online […]

Trotter on the Key man

Written By: - Date published: 11:18 pm, August 19th, 2007 - Comments Off on Trotter on the Key man

Chris Trotter’s article last week in the Independent is worth a read & when I find a link I’ll provide it. Trotter says that John Key’s disastrous speech to the National Party Conference puts an end to Key’s honeymoon with the voters. It’s worse than that. The National Party strategy is based on keeping Key […]

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