Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, February 18th, 2010 - 19 comments
John Armstrong: “Anne Tolley’s reluctance to explain [national standards] left the distinct impression she was less than 100 per cent sure.†It was a bit more than an impression, and it was a bit less than 100%. Tolley clearly had no clue what she was talking about.
Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, February 13th, 2010 - 110 comments
Tracy Watkins awards the first week of Parliamentary politics this year to Phil Goff, and points out that it’s as much due to his and Labour’s much improved performance as it is to Key and National’s shambolic, over-promise, under-deliver governance. (more…)
Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, December 3rd, 2009 - 7 comments
So Hone Harawira has been readmitted into the fold of the Maori Party. It’s hard to see how excluding him from Parliament until the end of the year is a punishment, given that he has repeatedly said he detests the place (and who can blame him?). It seems more like political convenience for the Maori …
Written By: - Date published: 2:19 pm, September 26th, 2009 - 5 comments
John Armstrong joins the list of commentators saying Bill English shouldn’t get a cent for his housing rort: The time has come for Bill “Double Dipton” English to end the charade. Now, being Armstrong, the reasons aren’t principled, it’s all about limiting the damage to National: The possibility of the watchdog of public spending investigating the Minister …
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, August 20th, 2009 - 27 comments
Good on Chris Hipkins. The other day, he wrote: “National won the last election quite comfortably. Kiwis are fair minded people and will be willing to give them a fair go at the job before they pass judgment. I expect that will be reflected in the opinion polls for most of the current parliamentary term. …
Written By: - Date published: 3:49 pm, July 24th, 2009 - 22 comments
IrishBill commented last night that “John Key the centrist” is a narrative we’re not hearing much from the commentariat any more. I thought this was strange given that was the brand they were all so dutifully selling us in the leadup to the election campaign. John Armstrong couldn’t get enough of it. I wondered what …
Written By: - Date published: 10:53 pm, May 19th, 2009 - 19 comments
from Beck Vass: “With an average jury trial taking at least 12 months, and judge-alone trials taking just six months [that's actually from charging to end of the case, not the length of time in court], trial times would be halved, reducing the trauma for victims and backlogs in overloaded courts. Mr Power said his …
Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, March 22nd, 2009 - 19 comments
John Armstrong March 21 2009 – “So the National Government is variously inching, shifting, drifting, veering or lurching to the right, depending on where you stand on the political spectrum. Surprise, surprise… John Key may have portrayed himself as a moderate pragmatist in Opposition – indeed he is still doing exactly that as Prime Minister …
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, February 2nd, 2009 - 36 comments
I have a crime to report. Someone has kidnapped one of our most insightful journos and replaced them with an illiterate wowser. How else to explain writing an article called “Collins must collar rising tide of crime ” when any journalist with a modicum of professionalism knows, having read the stats, that crime is not …
Written By: - Date published: 11:12 am, January 29th, 2009 - 31 comments
Surprise, surprise, it’s Garth George. “The economic situation is without a doubt the most urgent of predicaments to be dealt with, but so far this year all John Key and Co have offered is a talkfest scheduled for next month. Now we all know that the one thing that one does these days when one …
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