political parties

Where’s the Whip?

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 1:23 pm, September 23rd, 2014 - 146 comments

Our Labour MPs seem to be in disarray. Somehow the party that teaches solidarity keeps on being fractured, while the party that teaches individualism is a strong union.

Why are they talking to each other through the media instead of picking up the phone?

Labour’s leadership

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:24 am, September 23rd, 2014 - 216 comments

David Cunliffe has just announced that he will seek to continue as leader of the Labour Party and will let the party decide. A contest for the leadership is almost inevitable.

Our children in Wellington

Written By: lprent - Date published: 9:06 am, September 23rd, 2014 - 282 comments

I’m pretty sure that David Cunliffe would win a members and affiliates vote. So suck it up MPs, stop playing your silly caucus games and do some frigging work this term rather than the self-indulgent posturing you wasted time with last term. We have to start building campaigning machinery as soon as possible. You are getting in the way.

NRT: MMP, electorates, and misaligned incentives

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:18 pm, September 22nd, 2014 - 165 comments

No Right Turn points out the underlying truth of voting in an MMP environment. For the party electorate seats don’t matter much. Running electorate only campaigns are not productive. He is wrong in ascribing them no value. They provide a base for campaigning.

National’s promises to you. #1.

Written By: KJT - Date published: 1:57 pm, September 22nd, 2014 - 31 comments

Nationals promises to you. #1.

The lurch to the right begins

Written By: Stephanie Rodgers - Date published: 9:20 am, September 22nd, 2014 - 129 comments

Expect to see a lot of drastic rightwing policies this term as John Key redefines the term “centre ground.”

Lessons

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:02 am, September 22nd, 2014 - 482 comments

Greetings from the sanity of Dunedin North. Every pundit and their dog is opining on the lessons of Saturday, so I might as well have a go too.

Looking Ahead

Written By: Bryan Gould - Date published: 12:26 pm, September 21st, 2014 - 145 comments

Win or lose, there are never any final battles in politics. A defeat simply means the firing of the starting gun for the next round in a never-ending struggle. And, especially for the left, it is the struggle that matters. Without that struggle and the effort that has gone into it, the values of fairness, […]

Three more years

Written By: Stephanie Rodgers - Date published: 9:00 am, September 21st, 2014 - 141 comments

This election result is not the end of the world for me – because I am very, very lucky.

Next time …

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:59 am, September 21st, 2014 - 174 comments

National has an outright majority and the left has gone backwards. Some thoughts on what may have happened.

Green Watch

Written By: karol - Date published: 8:00 pm, September 20th, 2014 - 43 comments

I am hoping for a good proportion of the vote for the Green Party. They got !!% of the vote in 2011, resulting in them having 14 MPs. Updated

Seat Watch – Epsom

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:05 pm, September 20th, 2014 - 11 comments

Who will win Epsom? Will enough people rebel at John Key’s instruction to vote for the ACT candidate or will ACT’s extreme policies and Jaime Whyte’s weirdness mean that the people of Epsom will rebel and vote for Paul Goldsmith? Updated: Early, but the Act guy ahead.

From Moira

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:03 pm, September 20th, 2014 - 4 comments

Moira Coatsworth, Labour Party President, sent this notice out to the members, supporters and volunteers.

The tweets are alive….

Written By: karol - Date published: 9:48 am, September 19th, 2014 - 5 comments

… with pre-election day fervour. It’s an election that’s going down to the wire. The energy is there for the left to keep talking to people, and to encourage as many as possible to get out and vote. It’s Suffrage Day – reporting via the telegraph in 1893 to the internet today. On-going updates

“We may as well kiss democracy goodbye”

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 8:13 am, September 19th, 2014 - 104 comments

The words of the title of this post are those of the Ombudsman, reflecting on yet another typical Nat government scandal as broken by David Fisher in The Herald this morning.

Three final polls

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:15 am, September 19th, 2014 - 98 comments

Three last polls and National’s support is declining, Labour’s improving and the Greens are stable. Things are getting very close with Winston Peters looking more and more likely to hold the balance of power. This election will be decided vote by vote.

Shout out to The Standard

Written By: lprent - Date published: 6:50 pm, September 18th, 2014 - 61 comments

A special call to work from David Cunliffe. http://youtu.be/0UK8ZPtjaxo If you don’t already have an date with a political party of the left on Saturday, then the best thing you can do is to Firstly vote left (and maybe Labour). Find a party that can employ you constructively on Saturday on turning out the vote. […]

Greens buoyant

Written By: karol - Date published: 5:53 pm, September 18th, 2014 - 14 comments

John Key & National’s empty facade – its lack of vision for NZ – has been exposed. Opposition parties have continued to campaign positively, focusing on people, fairness, & the environment. [Update] NZ Herald video

The Conservatives in a shambles

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:03 pm, September 18th, 2014 - 29 comments

This direct mail has gone out without an authorisation statement to who knows how many kiwi households. Add this on top of losing their press sec today and you have to wonder if the Conservatives are going to make it to election day in one piece. In case you can’t read the text at the […]

Vote Key, get Colin

Written By: Stephanie Rodgers - Date published: 12:00 pm, September 18th, 2014 - 97 comments

With the latest poll results it’s basically a coin-toss whether a vote for National gets you Colin Craig and his extremist mates at the Cabinet table.

Stability vs Change

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:22 am, September 18th, 2014 - 79 comments

This election there are two very different visions of the future on offer. I know which I prefer.

Leader’s debate IV

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:34 pm, September 17th, 2014 - 155 comments

The fourth and final leaders debate has now finished. John Key will be pleased at his decision to limit it to 30 minutes.

Jackal: A conspiracy theory too far

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:15 am, September 17th, 2014 - 114 comments

Over the last month John Key has been displaying behaviour of being a raving right wing conspiracy theorist. Over the weekend megalomaniacal John Key even said that he wants the governor general to stage a coup to allow him to remain in power. The Jackal summarises recent nutty right wing conspiracy theories from the PM and others.

Flashback post: Poetic justice

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:39 pm, September 16th, 2014 - 11 comments

Irish Bill originally posted this on 1 December 2007. For no reason at all we thought it warranted a reprint, with a guest comment from David Farrar.

Eminem sues National

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 3:11 pm, September 16th, 2014 - 182 comments

Eminem is suing the National Party for breaching his copyright in the song “Lose yourself” used by National in its campaign video. Stephen Joyce previously claimed that National had the full rights to use it. But it appears that this may not be the case. Update: There may be some interesting legal issues for National if it loses in terms of its spending cap and the Electoral Commission broadcast allocation.

NZ Inc: Frightening the invisible horses of the market

Written By: Stephanie Rodgers - Date published: 12:15 pm, September 16th, 2014 - 15 comments

The Herald is scathing of Labour’s NZ Inc policy, which defies all logic and reason by assuming that there are better ways to build our economy than flogging off profitable assets, built by New Zealanders, to foreign investors.

The blowoff stream

Written By: lprent - Date published: 6:02 pm, September 15th, 2014 - 348 comments

The queue is enormous. But here is the feed. Thanks Selwyn for the link….. 19:05: Liala Harre has been improving her speaking since I last heard her. Introduced the speaker guests. Looking at the progressive achievements of the NZ past. 19:07: Glenn Greenwald is first up. 19:10: Greenwald calls John Key an adolescent 🙂 John […]

John Key On Trial

Written By: Bryan Gould - Date published: 4:35 pm, September 15th, 2014 - 27 comments

The latest instalment in the saga of John Key’s struggle to maintain his image as someone above suspicion has produced the amazing spectacle of a Prime Minister in free fall. Faced with the threatened revelation that he has been – not just economical with, but contemptuous of – the truth as to whether or not […]

John Key planned our mass surveillance

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:07 am, September 15th, 2014 - 65 comments

John Key and National let the GCSB spend 12 months on plans to conduct our mass surveillance. Without telling us. And he intends to release the details now only for political considerations. Without Glenn Greenwald’s presence we probably would never have learned about this.

Jackal: A coalition with Winston Peters

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:54 pm, September 14th, 2014 - 79 comments

Jackal has compiled a number of the reasons why NZ First and particularly Winston Peters are unlikely to form a coalition or even to support National and John Key. Probably the way that National through their sockpuppets Act, David Farrar, and Whaleoil attacked with spurious charges in 2008. That he came back must have been a shock…

Blue on the polls

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:04 pm, September 14th, 2014 - 62 comments

Landline polls are a traditional gripe for lefties. But this election polls look seriously out of whack with reality. Is National at 55%, 50%, 48% or 46%? But it’s always far too large for a party at National’s current stage in the political cycle. Just unbelievable and highly unlikely.