Archive for November, 2008

Peak traffic

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 pm, November 10th, 2008 - 16 comments

Some comments on Sunday about this site performing well induced me to have a look at the traffic over the last week. I was extremely surprised at how much load the system can now take without stalling. From the WordPress blog stats, It turns out that the traffic for the week was 34.6% higher in […]

LolKeys

Written By: - Date published: 4:46 pm, November 10th, 2008 - 77 comments

Hat tip: Sam Vilain

Designer needed

Written By: - Date published: 4:15 pm, November 10th, 2008 - 4 comments

A couple of mates of mine are working on a new left-wing project and are in need of some design help to get it off the ground. It sounds interesting and should be a bit of fun, so if you’re a leftie with design skills and you’re happy to donate a bit of your time […]

08wire signs off

Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, November 10th, 2008 - 8 comments

As a kid at a decile two high school in under National in the nineties, the one thing I did get a good education in was heavy metal. So, I appreciate 08wire setting their final video to the great Metallica ballad ‘Nothing Else Matters’. You’ve done fantastic work, see you in 2011, if not before.

Campaign to save MMP underway

Written By: - Date published: 2:19 pm, November 10th, 2008 - 79 comments

The Right hates MMP. The old system, FPP, advantaged the Right by about 1.5% according to this study. In 1978, 1981, and 1993 the Right governed despite the Left having more support. Under FPP, National was the ‘natural party of government’ and that has changed under MMP. So, the National/Act government plans to have a […]

Onward

Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, November 10th, 2008 - 31 comments

I am incredibly proud to have worked with some many great people during the election campaign, and to know that many times more put in the hard work as well to defend what we believe in. Organisations like Both Eyes Open, Drinking Liberally, and The Standard have shown it is still possible to build grassroots […]

Don’t mourn, organise.

Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, November 10th, 2008 - 70 comments

In 1984 I watched the incoming Labour government move on a set of policies they had no mandate for and I also watched the Left flounder to resist them. Given it was only three years since we had mobilised so strongly against the Springbok tour that failure to act was unacceptable. In 1990 when we […]

Fare thee well

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 pm, November 9th, 2008 - 37 comments

Firstly I must say congratulations to the winners on the night, and sympathies to those who did not succeed. We may not hold politicians in high regard but they put themselves on the line.  The voting public have had their say and that, if nothing else, we must celebrate and respect. But for Labour the […]

What will happen with the specials?

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 pm, November 9th, 2008 - 25 comments

There are about 240,000 special votes still be be counted. That’s about 11% of the vote in total. Special voters include large numbers of students and late-enrollees, which tends to favour the Left. Last election, Labour and the Greens together took 45.8% of the first count and 51.4% of the specials, ending up with 46.4% […]

National Spinners

Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, November 9th, 2008 - 91 comments

David Farrar wrote… “Funniest moment was talking to a few of John’s staff, and one of them asked whether their imminent transfer to the 9th floor meant they would get to take over The Standard. It was hilarious as they started fighting over who would be all-your-base and who would be Irish Bill etc” Wow! […]

Musical interlude for John

Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, November 9th, 2008 - 12 comments

I’m a money lender I have fortunes upon fortunes Take my hand for tender I am tortured, ever tortured And if you don’t love me Let me go

The distances between parties

Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, November 9th, 2008 - 5 comments

Just before the election They Work For You released some impressive work on the voting distances between parties based on:- There are 110 final bill reading votes included in the analysis. All the votes are from the 48th New Zealand Parliament which was in term between 7 November 2005 and 3 October 2008. The plot […]

Congratulations

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, November 9th, 2008 - 77 comments

It’s been a hard fought campaign but it’s clear that we’ve got a firmly right wing government now. Congratulations are in order for John Key and the ACT party. Of course I’m not happy with the outcome and I expect it will bode badly for a lot of New Zealanders but that’s the democratic result […]

Damn close election. Now the coalition fun starts

Written By: - Date published: 2:02 am, November 9th, 2008 - 141 comments

That was incredibly close. National plus Act plus probably Peter Dunne have scraped a small majority. How close is shown in the election results table. 59 (nat) + 5 (act) + 1 (dunne) = 65. Less one for the speaker is 64 in a parliament of 122. That would mean that they have extra seats […]

Election Night Live Blogging: The Live Post

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 pm, November 8th, 2008 - 195 comments

If the existence or nature of this post confuses you hopefully you will find the answer over here. 7.01pm Ok here we go! I expect there won’t be too much to live blog for the first hour or so… 7.15pm Party vote currently: Nat 48%, Lab 32%, Greens 6%, NZF 4.4%, Act 3.3%, Maori 1.5%, […]

Election Night Live Blogging: The Explanatory Post

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 pm, November 8th, 2008 - 32 comments

Thanks to the Standardistas for giving me a method of distraction for the evening.  I’m usually to be found at The Hand Mirror, with a group of feminist left-of-centre women blogging about various things.  Tonight though I’ll be live-blogging here at the heart of the leftwing portion of the blogosphere, and I hope I can […]

Contrast the ways of ‘democracy’

Written By: - Date published: 6:56 pm, November 8th, 2008 - 6 comments

I’m happy to say that when I crawled out of my sickbed and voted this morning, it was nothing like the photos on the top and left. I gather that we had queues at some of the major booths later in the day – Edendale primary (my old school) in Mt Albert for instance. However […]

Making the decision

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, November 7th, 2008 - 56 comments

Have you still not decided who you’ll vote for? The final poll shows the race between a National/ACT/United Future or a Labour/Green/Progressive/Maori government is neck and neck, so your choice matters. Here is some advice and tools that may help: When choosing who to vote for there are three things you should consider: policy – […]

What a National/ACT Govt would mean

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 7th, 2008 - 44 comments

National/ACT would would implement several major policies: – it would weaken work rights. You could be fired without justification in the first 90 days of a new job if your employer employs fewer than 20 people. – wages for low wage workers would fall. National would not increase the minimum wage and it would weaken […]

The fundamental question

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, November 7th, 2008 - 45 comments

The fundamental question of politics is how the wealth of society should be divided among the members of society. We live in a capitalist society. That means it is the people who own the capital (businesses, factories, farms) who own the things that are made and get to choose how to divide the wealth between […]

Final Roy Morgan poll

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, November 7th, 2008 - 43 comments

The final Roy Morgan poll is out and the Left (LPG+M) has it by a nose with 62 seats out of a 122 seat Parliament. The Greens will be happy with 10% – that puts them in a strong negotiating position after the election and gives a 17 seat voting bloc in conjunction with the […]

Key the opposite of Obama

Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, November 7th, 2008 - 23 comments

Supports a Woman’s Right to Choose This is abortion rights. John Key was asked about abortion rights in the debate and he lied as usual. From I/S’s post: Last year in Parliament two failed amendments were attempted trying to replace the government’s status quo nominees with anti-abortion ones. One attempted replacement was a doctor who […]

Key used Nat research unit to search for smear on Clark’s husband

Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, November 7th, 2008 - 47 comments

After weeks of griping about dirty tactics, it has been revealed in the NBR that Key ordered the tax-payer funded National Party research unit to rake over the records of Prime Minister Clark’s husband Peter Davis’s academic grants looking for a smear. Clark revealed the attempted smear in an interview on AltTV. ‘In June this […]

Endorsements

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, November 7th, 2008 - 41 comments

Steve Pierson: Greens – I want a more left-wing Labour-led government. The Greens’ work rights and environment policies are better than Labour’s and these are the two issues that matter most to me. The Greens will keep Labour moving in the right direction. Tane: Greens – because we need a strong Green influence in the […]

John’s walkabout itinerary

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, November 7th, 2008 - 44 comments

We’ve been emailed a copy of the itinerary for John Key’s last day of campaigning. It looks like he’s doing a last minute dash around heartland Labour seats which fits with their strategy of going into their opponent’s base. If you are in Auckland later today you should pop along and have a chat with […]

Election day

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, November 7th, 2008 - 26 comments

On election day, we won’t doing any posting until the polls close. We will lock off comments, as well, until then. As the results come in, we will have live blogging from guest poster Julie Fairey and any other Standardista who feels like it. On election day, not only vote yourself but go down to […]

Down to the wire

Written By: - Date published: 7:09 am, November 7th, 2008 - 30 comments

The last polls are out, except for Roy Morgan, which will presumably be out later today. Here are how the blocs sit (assuming 7 seats for the Maori Party. If they get just 4, the majority to govern will drop by 2 and the Left bloc will drop 3, giving bigger leads to the Right): […]

Key to work rights activist: you’re an idiot

Written By: - Date published: 4:14 pm, November 6th, 2008 - 97 comments

You know, you can fly around acting all presidential if you like in a cheap attempt to wow the press gallery but that doesn’t make you the Kiwi Obama. Obama, for one, is a big proponent of work rights and raising the minimum wage. Key is not. His party’s vague work rights policy looks like […]

Video: Get the vote out

Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, November 6th, 2008 - 12 comments

Want a say in who will run the country – let’s get the vote out. Just as long as they know it’s Saturday 8th November!

More unemployed but more employed too

Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, November 6th, 2008 - 14 comments

Unemployment has risen to 4.2%, the first time in four years it has topped 4%. That’s lower than the experts expected, they thought the rate would blow out to 4.5% or more. But that’s the power of a full employment policy. Because we’ve had such low unemployment for so long, employers are reluctant to lay […]

Greens’ closing broadcast

Written By: - Date published: 12:23 pm, November 6th, 2008 - 4 comments

Via frogblog, the Greens’ closing campaign broadcast. I’d put Labour’s up too, but I can’t find it.