Posts Tagged ‘hollow men’

Local Bodies: National’s Campaign Strategy Stinks

Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, June 20th, 2014 - 25 comments

We all know from reading Nicky Hager’s The Hollow Men (or watching the documentary) that the National Party actually advocates for a small section of society. Their policies rarely support most New Zealanders and after each period of a National led Government we have costly messes like leaky buildings and dead miners as the aftermath. This isn’t to say that Labour shouldn’t take responsibility for not repealing dodgy legislation, but National has always stood for less regulation, fewer protections for workers and the environment and an upward flow of money to the already rich.

Swivel-eyed loons

Written By: - Date published: 2:44 pm, May 20th, 2013 - 24 comments

Why do right-wing leaders have such low opinions of their activist supporters?

You can’t make this stuff up

Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, June 12th, 2011 - 95 comments

The Nats, a party which runs as a franchise of an Australian company (Crosby Textor), reckon that the presence of a mate from Australia at a regional Labour Party meeting shows that Labour is “subject to foreign influence”.

Armstrong on Brash+Key

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, April 30th, 2011 - 37 comments

John Armstrong doesn’t get much wrong in the assessment of the Brash take over.  Brash, with his Hollow Men legacy, anti-Maori posturing, and loony economic policies,  is very much Key’s problem now.

Who were the Nat leakers?

Written By: - Date published: 2:09 pm, March 9th, 2010 - 40 comments

Michael is dead right. The most important thing about the Hollow Men is not how Nicky Hager got the information but what the information is. It reveals National’s modern politics in all its unprincipled ugliness. Nonetheless, which Nats gave Hager the information is a subject of legitimate interest. I have some theories.

Talleys: Corporate scum

Written By: - Date published: 2:14 pm, April 6th, 2009 - 41 comments

I’ve long been of the opinion that the Talley family, owners of the Talleys food empire, are a corrosive force in this country who have a complete contempt for their workforce, the public and our democratic institutions. Sure enough, they’re at it again. NZPA reports: The New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) plans to call […]

ACT snaps up Hollow Men star

Written By: - Date published: 1:50 pm, December 1st, 2008 - 5 comments

The Sunday Star Times reported yesterday that ACT had “snapped up” former Brash advisor Peter Keenan, one of the lead stars of Nicky Hager’s The Hollow Men. The Hollow Men revealed, among other things, that Mr Keenan counselled Dr Brash to campaign on populist issues such as law and order and the Treaty of Waitangi […]

In case you missed it

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, October 10th, 2008 - 14 comments

Here’s the footage from 3News last night on the fresh National Party cocktail revelations. Bill English’s comments again serve to reinforce the message of The Hollow Men: this is a group of people who are about winning at all costs, principles be damned.  

Video repeat: Leaking Hollow Man

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, September 9th, 2008 - 1 comment

Apologies if you’ve seen this before – but I had a reader request a replay.

Havoc interviews Hager

Written By: - Date published: 5:44 pm, July 7th, 2008 - 15 comments

Hager confirms that his info comes from a leak from within the National Party, not as the Nats would have you believe, a devious external computer hacker intent on exposing them.

Who’s driving the ‘truck strike’?

Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, July 3rd, 2008 - 100 comments

So, let’s get this straight the Government has increased road user charges for diesel vehicles by half the amount recommended by the Ministry of Transport to cover the roading costs of those vehicles. The increase is 7-8%. Road user chargers account for 10% of trucking costs. So, we’re talking a less than 1% increase in […]

Misdirection

Written By: - Date published: 11:44 am, June 27th, 2008 - 66 comments

There’s a technique that sits at the heart of conjuring tricks called misdirection the act of drawing attention away from the trick itself. You all know how it works: the conjurer will flourish a brightly coloured handkerchief in one hand, while the trick is quietly taking place unnoticed in the other. The same thing happens […]

Hollow Men film to premiere next month

Written By: - Date published: 4:57 pm, June 20th, 2008 - 108 comments

The Unionist reports Nicky Hager’s book The Hollow Men has been made into a film and will be screening as part of this year’s New Zealand International Film Festivals. The 98 minute documentary is directed by Alister Barry, whose previous work includes the excellent In a Land of Plenty and Someone Else’s Country, and is […]

Behind the secrecy

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, June 12th, 2008 - 8 comments

Reading a_y_b’s piece on National’s policy talks with the Real Estate Institute I’ve got to say it struck me as having shades not so much of the Brethren fiasco as the leaked Insurance Council memo from the last election. According to a letter given to Labour’s Clayton Cosgrove by a member of REINZ, the real […]

An emerging threat to MMP?

Written By: - Date published: 5:36 pm, January 24th, 2008 - 100 comments

After Brash and the extreme right were exposed in The Hollow Men the Nats changed their leader hoping for a fresh start. What’s becoming apparent is that National’s shady backers haven’t changed. The policy and the cash are coming from the same people they always have – people like Peter Shirtcliffe who’s evidently now helping […]

Same old faces, same old tactics

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, January 23rd, 2008 - 251 comments

Well it looks like Free Speech Coalition founder Cameron Slater has taken a break from stalking John Minto and photoshopping underage bloggers’ faces onto porn and decided to finally publish the Coalition’s updated donors list (and only a month after he said he would). Interestingly, a “P Shirtcliffe” is listed as having donated $5000. Now […]

Fairer electoral funding

Written By: - Date published: 3:38 pm, August 25th, 2007 - Comments Off on Fairer electoral funding

Today in the Dom: Tracy Watkins gets National Party blogger David Farrar to coauthor share his views in an article on the Electoral Finance Bill. The Nats are campaigning hard against changes to the Act. You would too if you had as much to lose. The loopholes in it nearly allowed them to buy the […]

Remembering Richard

Written By: - Date published: 3:11 pm, August 22nd, 2007 - 1 comment

Somebody pointed out recently that the Dominion Post, while continuing to run opinion pieces by Richard Long following the fallout from The Hollow Men, has stopped signaling his obvious bias. To his column, they used to add: “Richard Long is a former Chief of Staff for National leaders Bill English and Don Brash. These views […]

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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