Archive for October, 2008

How big is big enough?

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, October 3rd, 2008 - 21 comments

The first round of the tax cuts that National derided as the ‘block of cheese’ tax cuts kicked in on Wednesday. Next week, National will show us how they would do better. How much on top of Labour’s cuts do you expect National to offer? Given National has guaranteed all major areas of spending except […]

Rhetoric vs reality

Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, October 2nd, 2008 - 25 comments

With expectations about National’s tax cuts justifably very high (thanks to National talking them up for nine years), National is suddenly trying to change course. John Key, who has promoted tax cuts as the solution to doctors’ strikes, the wage gap, and petrol prices along with every other issue facing this country, is now saying […]

Reminder: Drinking Liberally Wgtn tonight

Written By: - Date published: 1:53 pm, October 2nd, 2008 - 1 comment

Just a wee reminder for anyone in Wellington. Scoop.co.nz political editor and former Listener journo Gordon Campbell is at Drinking Liberally tonight to talk about ‘Covering the issues – how to escape from the who’s winning, who’s losing style of election coverage’. Gordon Campbell is one of the best journalists in the country and has […]

Key’s leadership questioned again

Written By: - Date published: 11:26 am, October 2nd, 2008 - 27 comments

When a commentator like Jenni McManus raises questions over Key’s leadership ability in troubled global economic times you know National should be getting worried. In today’s Independent Financial Review she writes: Just as the United States House of Representatives this week rightly refused give a US$700 billion (NZ$1.04 trillion) blank cheque to Treasury Secretary Henry […]

Speculators stuff up, put us all in peril

Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, October 2nd, 2008 - 59 comments

The formula to determine the fair value of a share is pretty simple – take the expected future dividends,adjust them using the discount rate, and add them up, there’s your fair share price. Of course, expectations on future dividends and people’s discount rates vary but it should all be pretty simple. It isn’t though because the […]

Here’s an idea, ask the expert

Written By: - Date published: 12:29 am, October 2nd, 2008 - 33 comments

Don’t take it from me. Certainly don’t take it from a National hack, who despite being a professional statistician, is too dishonest to even adjust his stats for population growth. No, listen to the Assistant Police Commissioner explain (in a measured and charmingly earnest tone) the details and meaning of the latest crime stats here.

Nats testing plan proves unpopular

Written By: - Date published: 8:51 pm, October 1st, 2008 - 18 comments

Just one in 10 school principals support the type of national standards for pupils being proposed by the National Party, a study reported in the NZ Herald suggests: National education standards are favoured by: * 10% of the 196 primary school principals surveyed. * 13% of the 912 primary school teachers surveyed. * 38% of […]

Insulting

Written By: - Date published: 4:58 pm, October 1st, 2008 - 139 comments

David Farrar really is a disgusting person at times. He writes that we shouldn’t look at overall crime rates (although he made a big fuss when the overall recorded crime rate went up because of changes in recording practice in 2006). Instead we should just look at violent crime, after all “having 1,000 less [sic] […]

Great expectations

Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, October 1st, 2008 - 25 comments

John Key is being pretty evasive on his tax cut plan. He won’t say whether the famous ‘$50 a week for the average worker’ (note that’s not every worker, your income has to be $47K plus) is additional to Labour’s cuts, the first round of which came into effect today. Given the evasiveness, it’s safe to […]

National lies, again

Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, October 1st, 2008 - 69 comments

National just can’t stop lying. We’ve covered National’s lies on wages and migration in the past and our last two posts have debunked National’s lies on crime, the economy, compliance costs, corruption, press freedom and, well, just about everything. Now they’ve resorted to repeating David Farrar’s discredited lies by deliberately misquoting Helen Clark on tax. […]

Crime falls again

Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, October 1st, 2008 - 26 comments

Crime fell 1% in the last year from 1025 recorded crimes per 10,000 people to 1014. This is part of a pattern that has continued since National was booted from power and living conditions for the poor started to improve. The only big increase after 2000 you see in this graph (05-06) is a result […]

Nats’ ‘NZ sucks’ campaign vs the facts

Written By: - Date published: 1:45 am, October 1st, 2008 - 69 comments

08wire produces some of the most well-thought out and best argued pieces on the blogosphere, as well as great videos. Well, I know what to do when I see gold  – thief it. From 08wires’ post, here’s a table of arguments that comprise National’s ‘New Zealand sucks’ campaign and how they stack up against the facts: (sources) I […]

On the standard of proof.

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 am, October 1st, 2008 - 9 comments

On occasion I’ve had my ire raised by Danyl Mclauchlan over at The Dim-Post, usually after he repeats crap from the sewers about this site. Every so often (quite frequently) he manages to do something that is almost perfect satire. Poneke has captured such a comment and put it up as a post “The kind […]