Author Archive

English, Joyce, Bennett et al desperate to keep their power?

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, September 30th, 2017 - 60 comments

This might look like smart politics for National to draw the Greens in with National but a more primary motivation might be that English/Joyce and co. are desperate to form a coalition with anyone, otherwise as individuals, they’ll certainly lose their power within the party in the inevitable shakeup.

Opposition to Nats’ attack grows

Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, October 25th, 2014 - 79 comments

Labour’s petition against National’s attack on Kiwi’s rights including the right to a break at work is growing like topsy with over 22,000 people signing up to it in the last day and a half.

The first hustings

Written By: - Date published: 8:29 am, October 23rd, 2014 - 128 comments

The leadership contest has kicked off with a bang.

Why I’m voting for Andrew Little

Written By: - Date published: 10:41 pm, October 15th, 2014 - 231 comments

Andrew has a lower public profile than some of the other candidates seeking the Labour leadership so here’s some info on him and why I’ll be voting for him.

And then there were four

Written By: - Date published: 6:33 pm, October 11th, 2014 - 156 comments

David Parker is likely to join the leadership race tomorrow…

Update: Confirmed – David Parker is standing.

Kumbaya

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 pm, September 24th, 2014 - 88 comments

Musings from Captain Obvious

NZ Inc

Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, September 14th, 2014 - 119 comments

David Cunliffe has announced his final big policy. It’s called NZ Inc and it’s a bloody smart move.

Some thoughts…

Written By: - Date published: 2:04 pm, August 30th, 2014 - 113 comments

The English faction is now calling the shots inside the National party.

Good news, National are afraid of David Cunliffe

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, June 18th, 2014 - 222 comments

The weak and transparent smear attempt from National says more about them than David Cunliffe.

The National party are in bed with the insurance industry but it’s Christchurch residents that are getting shafted

Written By: - Date published: 1:29 pm, June 12th, 2014 - 117 comments

The Insurance Council and National are desperately trying to pour cold water on Labour’s popular earthquake court policy.

Farrar lies again

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, June 9th, 2014 - 61 comments

For the second time in as many weeks, David Farrar has lied to his readers over at kiwiblog.

Labour to set up ‘earthquake court’

Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, June 9th, 2014 - 86 comments

Labour will set up a special earthquake court to speed up the claims process for Cantabrians waiting on insurance settlements.

Why does David Farrar hate Winston Peters so much?

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 pm, May 29th, 2014 - 207 comments

David Farrar has quite a thing for Winston Peters…

Gower’s immigration beat-up

Written By: - Date published: 2:14 pm, May 28th, 2014 - 16 comments

There’s been a lot of heat on Labour from the usual beat-up suspects and not a lot of light until now.

Tilting at windmills

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, May 21st, 2014 - 11 comments

!!BREAKING NEWS!! John Key is locked in a fierce battle with….a previous government.

National don’t know and don’t want to know about foreign ownership of housing

Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, May 20th, 2014 - 43 comments

National’s pandering to foreign money is disturbing their supporters

Denial

Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, May 19th, 2014 - 112 comments

There is no housing crisis. Everything is fine.

Judith vs John

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, May 12th, 2014 - 46 comments

Judith Collins has her back against the wall. Weeks of intense scrutiny finally took its toll which culminated in her crazy attack of journalists last week. And the very last thing John Key wants in the lead up to the election is a damaged relationship with the media. So was Judith’s media-attack an irrational outburst? […]

Moving Collins on

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 am, May 9th, 2014 - 89 comments

As Judith Collins enters her second day of lying low it’s instructive to look at how the establishment Nats are slowly and strategically removing Collins’ influence so they can ditch her.

National’s cows coming home to roost

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, April 26th, 2014 - 79 comments

As interest rates crank up in debt-laden NZ, we’re about to reap the consequences of 5 years of do-nothing, anti-worker, National government.

Politics by numbers

Written By: - Date published: 7:57 pm, April 13th, 2014 - 125 comments

The first rule of politics is learn how to count. And, as much as we would all like to see Labour and the Greens govern by themselves, 13 and 32 don’t add up to 50

That’ll be why, when the Greens came to Labour with a plan to campaign together, Labour said no.

David Farrar…..Busted.

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, April 7th, 2014 - 134 comments

  David Farrar has let slip that he has been privy to information which is only intended for select committee members. Tim Watkins covers this over on pundit: The most interesting part is in relation to a letter that Countdown sent to the commerce select committee…. “Third, I’m curious how you know about the contents […]

What are we in for if National win?

Written By: - Date published: 9:55 pm, April 3rd, 2014 - 150 comments

According to some in the MSM National has already won the election.

But given they’ve come to that conclusion they seem oddly unconcerned about what it would actually mean…

his precious $

Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, March 22nd, 2014 - 41 comments

As reported on TV3 news a few nights ago, John Key said that “I have a very strong sense of how precious children are…” The children, that is, of Chinese consumers who are buying milk powder… As for kiwi kids, well…how precious are they, John? National cares so much for kiwi kids they were prepared […]

Out of the Loop

Written By: - Date published: 9:49 pm, March 17th, 2014 - 155 comments

As I’ve previously pointed out, John Key’s National government only serves the privileged elite.

But their policy of only favouring the favoured few is not only venal, it’s really stupid economics as well.

Elitist Fools

Written By: - Date published: 11:18 pm, March 12th, 2014 - 142 comments

So the latest from National is Judith Collins ‘promoting’ her husbands’ company and Amy Adams promoting the interests of river-polluting Canterbury dairy farms when she herself owns Canterbury dairy farms.

Naturally, neither minister can see any problem with this.

Update: And now Nathan Guy – National’s immigration minister…

Filibustering

Written By: - Date published: 2:51 pm, March 9th, 2014 - 14 comments

On the odd occasion when the media has picked up on the magnitude of a big issue, eg GCSB, Key was under the spotlight and he was sweating…

Silver linings

Written By: - Date published: 10:12 pm, March 4th, 2014 - 124 comments

When I first heard a Labour staffer had accidentally sent Amy Adams’ office a document on ICT my first thought was “here we go again.”

But then I heard Adams’ weird and defensive interview on Checkpoint. So I took a look at the actual paper and realised just why she was so awkward and nervous on what should have been an easy political hit.