Archive for 2020

Trump’s not so bad: the disappearing hospital data during a pandemic edition

Written By: - Date published: 1:51 pm, July 18th, 2020 - 48 comments

An occasional series

Open mike 18/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 18th, 2020 - 194 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 17/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, July 17th, 2020 - 42 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 …

National’s next Auckland Central candidate?

Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, July 17th, 2020 - 38 comments

With Nikki Kaye’s shock retirement announcement National urgently needs a new candidate.  One name springs to mind.

Chloe Swarbrick should stand strong in Auckland Central

Written By: - Date published: 6:07 am, July 17th, 2020 - 63 comments

Having two strong left wing women standing in an electorate is great for women, the left and New Zealand. It may also help us move away from macho politics towards both/and politics.

Open mike 17/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 17th, 2020 - 176 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 16/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, July 16th, 2020 - 100 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 …

Auckland Central; Should Chloe Swarbrick Stand Aside?

Written By: - Date published: 12:33 pm, July 16th, 2020 - 127 comments

The Auckland Central electorate will elect a new MP in September. The Greens have a responsibility to make sure it’s the Labour candidate.

Will the last remaining National MP please not forget to turn off the caucus room lights

Written By: - Date published: 7:44 am, July 16th, 2020 - 149 comments

The Herald is reporting that Nikki Kaye will announce her retirement from politics today.

What Could National Do To Win?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 16th, 2020 - 37 comments

Ok sure, they won’t. You list why.  But here’s the top five things National could do to give themselves a better shot.

Open mike 16/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 16th, 2020 - 96 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 15/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, July 15th, 2020 - 74 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 …

Roy Morgan Poll July 2020

Written By: - Date published: 11:17 am, July 15th, 2020 - 41 comments

The latest Roy Morgan Poll is further bad news for National and a stark warning for NZ First.

If Judith and Gerry are the answer it must have been a desperate question

Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, July 15th, 2020 - 189 comments

In a great leap backwards Judith Collins and Gerry Brownlee are now leaders of the National Party.

Open mike 15/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 15th, 2020 - 195 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 …

Collins crushes caucus vote

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 pm, July 14th, 2020 - 155 comments

Twitter confirms that Judith Collins is now National leader.  She is the perfect candidate if your goal is to stem the bleeding of support.  She is not the candidate if you want to win the election …  

Daily review 14/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, July 14th, 2020 - 70 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 …

National needs a safe pair of hands: Amy Adams

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, July 14th, 2020 - 98 comments

I realise that National probably won’t appreciate my advice. However I actually would like to have a viable competent opposition. I don’t even want an election to be as much of a pushover as this one is likely to be. If I was a stalwart National supporter or a member of their caucus, I’d be pushing for Amy Adams.

Muller goes, bring back Simon?

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, July 14th, 2020 - 181 comments

In breaking news Todd Muller has resigned for “health reasons”, effective immediately.

Time to bring back Simon?

Updated with some breaking links.

Open mike 14/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 14th, 2020 - 120 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 13/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, July 13th, 2020 - 42 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 …

SFO to Investigate Labour Donations

Written By: - Date published: 4:32 pm, July 13th, 2020 - 39 comments

The Serious Fraud Office has commenced an investigation in relation to donations made in 2017 to the Labour Party.

UPDATE: The investigation may involve donations made at a ‘silent’ art auction, something that Labour was upfront about back in February.

National’s ethics

Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, July 13th, 2020 - 49 comments

There is a particularly resonant piece by Tim Watkin in Pundit. “National’s problem with privacy and privilege”. I’m only surprised that he seems to think that the National party is redeemable. They’re so into their internal myths that they fail to regard anyone or any threat as unless their voting base poll well on it. But that is National for you – they’ve consistent…. Stupid, unhelpful and short on ethics.

Of course it’s dirty politics

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, July 13th, 2020 - 39 comments

National’s latest attempted spin is to try and suggest that last week’s clusterfuck of rolling events did not involve in any way the slightest trace of dirty politics.  How wrong they are.

Open mike 13/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 13th, 2020 - 138 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 …

Greens policy announcement: Our Clean Energy Plan

Written By: - Date published: 1:37 pm, July 12th, 2020 - 26 comments

Our Clean Energy Plan is the first part of our transformational proposal to end the use of fossil fuels in Aotearoa. It will help to ensure our grandchildren inherit a world where they can not only survive, but thrive.

The Christian Right and the 2020 election

Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, July 12th, 2020 - 90 comments

A variety of Christian parties have attempted to gain a place in Parliament.  What are the chances in 2020 of a conservative Christian Party succeeding in gaining seats?

Open mike 12/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 12th, 2020 - 286 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 …

Union peak bodies: a beacon of hope for all workers

Written By: - Date published: 11:02 pm, July 11th, 2020 - 21 comments

My view is that neither big nor small unions function particularly well in the modern-day workforce. There are many notable exceptions to this where both do very good work. But few have found the balance of good local support for members, tackling national and international issues and crucially not wasting considerable time and resource fighting another rival union encroaching on their patch.

Open mike 11/07/2020

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 11th, 2020 - 179 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 …

Local Government: crucial and undervalued

Written By: - Date published: 12:27 am, July 11th, 2020 - 4 comments

On the day of the council vote, we organised for the effected Citi-Ops workers to sit in the public gallery in the Council rooms wearing their High Viz’s and work gear. I was one of three speakers for the union, expressing opposition to axing these jobs. The Council debated the issue for about 30 minutes. Those councillors in favour of making the workers redundant argued that they should not interfere with management decisions. Those against the decision felt that management did not have the mandate to make this decision. The vote ended up being 7-7, so Green Party Mayor Celia Wade-Brown used her casting vote to uphold management’s decision to outsource these workers jobs. The Citi Operations staff were sitting in the room, so Celia and the councillors were looking at these workers as they made them redundant.

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