Oh Manchester …

Written By:
Date published: 2:19 pm, May 23rd, 2017 - 142 comments
Categories: democracy under attack, International, uk politics
Tags:

Terrible news from Manchester where two explosions have killed at least 19 people and injured many more. This post will be updated as more news comes in.

What Now?

Written By:
Date published: 11:30 am, May 24th, 2017 - 3 comments

Where to from here?

Nat tactics Ngaro and third term arrogance

Written By:
Date published: 10:27 am, May 24th, 2017 - 3 comments

Ngaro has fronted up with another grudging apology. English should have fired him and it speaks volumes of third-term arrogance that he hasn’t.

Tipping vs fair wages

Written By:
Date published: 9:46 am, May 24th, 2017 - 12 comments

I don’t know of a single piece written in support of Bennett’s proposal. She has been in the bubble too long, and lost touch with the values of NZ.

Open Mike 24/05/2017

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, May 24th, 2017 - 32 comments

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

Budget details “leak”

Written By:
Date published: 11:03 am, May 23rd, 2017 - 46 comments

Richard Harman at Politik: A “Families’ Income Package” is likely to be at the core of this week’s Budget. Sources close to the Government have “leaked” details of the Budget to POLITIK.

Stuff – online survey on NZ direction

Written By:
Date published: 10:28 am, May 23rd, 2017 - 9 comments

Stuff is running an online survey – Is New Zealand on the right track?

Geddis on TPP11

Written By:
Date published: 9:46 am, May 23rd, 2017 - 10 comments

Geddis: “So either Bill English was lying to Susie Ferguson on the radio, or his advisors lied to him about what TPP11 will require, or the Crown’s lawyers are lying to the Waitangi Tribunal.”

Strong and Stable – guess National’s campaign slogan!

Written By:
Date published: 8:34 am, May 23rd, 2017 - 34 comments

We’ve had the Brighter Future (it sucks). We’ve had The Cusp of Something Special (it wasn’t). What will National’s soundbite slogan be this time?

$14 billion to meet Paris Agreement targets

Written By:
Date published: 7:01 am, May 23rd, 2017 - 14 comments

Why isn’t National taking active steps to curb our emissions? We committed to reduce to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, instead we are expected to increase. This is a massive failure of vision, commitment, and competence.

Open Mike 23/05/2017

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, May 23rd, 2017 - 184 comments

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

Daily Review 22/05/2017

Written By:
Date published: 5:30 pm, May 22nd, 2017 - 22 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Caption contest

Written By:
Date published: 3:45 pm, May 22nd, 2017 - 32 comments

Pre budget positioning for a government that says it is “doing all it can”

Written By:
Date published: 1:37 pm, May 22nd, 2017 - 9 comments

National does the bare minimum that it thinks it can get away with for those in need. This positioning is just preparing the ground for a budget that does more the same not enough.

No one owns water, apart from corporations who sell it …

Written By:
Date published: 12:43 pm, May 22nd, 2017 - 27 comments

The Herald has reported that ordinary New Zealanders are paying 500 times as much for water as corporations who export it.

Voter transitions 2011 2014

Written By:
Date published: 10:25 am, May 22nd, 2017 - 31 comments


Peter Ellis from Peter’s Stats Stuff

Let’s green the red zone

Written By:
Date published: 8:00 am, May 22nd, 2017 - 88 comments

A Christchurch community group has come out with an outstanding solution for what to do with red zone land that is currently unusable.

The Greens – Budget for All Mothers

Written By:
Date published: 7:02 am, May 22nd, 2017 - 33 comments

Some great ideas in The Greens “Budget for All Mothers”. Surely no “data driven” “social investment” party could be opposed?

Open Mike 22/05/2017

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, May 22nd, 2017 - 45 comments

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

President Pence

Written By:
Date published: 6:21 pm, May 21st, 2017 - 47 comments

Mensch and Taylor report that: “Multiple sources close to the intelligence, justice and law enforcement communities say that the House Judiciary Committee is considering Articles of Impeachment against the President of the United States.”

The UK elections – Has Labour got the big mo?

Written By:
Date published: 10:58 am, May 21st, 2017 - 66 comments

And in the United Kingdom the election that was meant to be a foregone conclusion suddenly is suddenly tightening.

Book review: Here on Earth – An Argument for Hope

Written By:
Date published: 10:01 am, May 21st, 2017 - 11 comments

A brief review of Here on Earth: An Argument for Hope, by Tim Flannery. An argument for hope is exactly what we need, but does Flannery make the case?

Slater v Craig – battle of the has beens

Written By:
Date published: 8:55 am, May 21st, 2017 - 22 comments

The High Court this week has been asked to dissect the decline of the Conservative Party and of the 2014 form of dirty politics.

Open Mike 21/05/2017

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, May 21st, 2017 - 38 comments

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

New Zealand’s Neoliberal Drift

Written By:
Date published: 2:23 pm, May 20th, 2017 - 85 comments

In New Zealand, neoliberal reforms have widened inequality and undermined the country’s self-image as an egalitarian paradise.

Sitemeter is broken – no Open Parachute stats.

Written By:
Date published: 1:35 pm, May 20th, 2017 - 6 comments

Over months, the readings from Statcounter had gotten increasingly inaccurate. Since the other public site stats packages have significiant other flaws on highish volume sites, we stopped running any. That means that the blog rankings for this site at Open Parachute stopped. Bomber can claim a empty position because he can’t check his statistics.

Campbell on the TPP cargo cult

Written By:
Date published: 9:22 am, May 20th, 2017 - 17 comments

Gordon Campbell: “The TPP has literally become a cargo cult ritual that’s being performed in the hope that someday, one day, the Americans will return, bearing gifts.”

Assange and Manning

Written By:
Date published: 8:15 am, May 20th, 2017 - 36 comments

Swedish prosecutors are dropping their seven year old preliminary investigation into an allegation of rape against Julian Assange. Chelsea Manning has been released from prison after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence.

Open Mike 20/05/2017

Written By:
Date published: 6:00 am, May 20th, 2017 - 52 comments

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

Daily Review 19/05/2017

Written By:
Date published: 5:28 pm, May 19th, 2017 - 16 comments

Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

Little replies to property specualtors

Written By:
Date published: 1:21 pm, May 19th, 2017 - 55 comments

Good piece by Andrew Little where he addresses the arguments of the property speculators. “It’s common sense. Taxpayers shouldn’t be subsidising speculators and helping them outbid home buyers.”

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