political parties

National’s dead cat strategy

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:41 am, December 6th, 2018 - 56 comments

National has attempted to drown out news of further leaks, bad poll results and a reference of Maggie Barry’s behaviour to the Auditor General by staging a big stink in Parliament.

Child poverty reduction

Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:00 am, December 5th, 2018 - 65 comments

It’s likely that Labour’s new Child Poverty Reduction Bill will get through its third reading by the end of this year.

Memo from Crosby Textor – National’s leak problem

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:34 am, December 5th, 2018 - 23 comments

The Standard has been leaked an internal memo from Crosby Textor to the National Party concerning its current situation.

National; Leaking Like a Sieve

Written By: te reo putake - Date published: 1:02 pm, December 4th, 2018 - 60 comments

Another day, another leak from the National Party. If it’s not JLR, just who is poking the borax inside the Tory caucus?

Jesse Mulligan deserves a medal

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:15 pm, December 4th, 2018 - 24 comments

Maggie Barry is facing fresh allegations of staff bullying. And Jesse Mulligan has responded to her criticism of him by saying it shows he was doing his job properly.

Latest Colmar Brunton poll

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 6:21 pm, December 2nd, 2018 - 189 comments

The latest Colmar Brunton poll result is out suggesting a slight rebound in National’s fortunes.

Another National MP accused of bullying

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:27 am, December 1st, 2018 - 135 comments

The Herald has reported this morning on allegations of bullying being made by staff against Nati0nal MP Maggie Barry.

National wants there to be no unions

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:06 am, November 30th, 2018 - 76 comments

Dan Bidois this week in Parliament confirmed what we have always known, that National want there to be no unions around.

Stuff is banning climate change deniers from articles and comments

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:12 am, November 29th, 2018 - 261 comments

Stuff have adopted a policy of banning opinion pieces and comments from climate change deniers on the basis that the science is settled and allowing space for deniers is a dangerous waste of time.

The strange case of the missing text from Bridges’ speech

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 5:04 pm, November 27th, 2018 - 25 comments

National’s social media team have sent out a tweet with a quote from Simon Bridges that does not appear in the speech that he gave.

National and its no tax promises

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 1:51 pm, November 27th, 2018 - 38 comments

National have got out the old “no new taxes” songbook and are singing it as loudly as they can.

Bridges believes fictional character is definitely a male

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:22 am, November 27th, 2018 - 91 comments

Simon Bridges is going for the under 10 misogynist vote by claiming that Santa Claus is definitely a man.

Academic freedom and relationships with China

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:07 am, November 26th, 2018 - 108 comments

A number of prominent academics and researchers have signed an open letter to Jacinda Ardern urging her to take the allegations of Chinese involvement in crimes against Professor Anne Marie Brady seriously and to make a clear statement in defence of academic freedom in New Zealand.

Twyford’s big announcement

Written By: advantage - Date published: 12:46 pm, November 24th, 2018 - 71 comments

The government has just announced the creation of the most massive and powerful housing and land development agency that we have ever seen.

Judith is getting ready

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:40 am, November 24th, 2018 - 125 comments

Judith Collins appears to be ramping up a leadership campaign using Fox News type references to climate change, social change and young people.

Bridges Billion dollar bungle

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:42 am, November 23rd, 2018 - 126 comments

Simon Bridges has claimed that Labour’s Kiwisaver fund is $18 billion short of the amount needed to meet the Government’s goals of constructing ten thousand Kiwibuild houses a year. The claim has as much credibility as National’s claim that Labour’s budget figures had an $11.5 billion hole in them.

Simon who?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:52 am, November 22nd, 2018 - 43 comments

National MP Simon O’Connor is thinking of a tilt at Auckland’s mayoralty.

Another day and more Simon Bridges f*&k ups

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:30 pm, November 19th, 2018 - 54 comments

Simon Bridges has in the last 24 hours blamed Labour law changes for increasing rentals but has forgotten which ones, and has disagreed that an apology is owed to the families of the Pike River miners on the 8th anniversary of the disaster.

Will Andrew Little be responsible if the Pike River mine gets hit by a meteor?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:10 am, November 18th, 2018 - 102 comments

Stacy Kirk has made the outlandish claim that Andrew Little is prepared to risk someone’s life in his desire to have the Pike River mine properly investigated.

The strange case of the astroturfed Energy Voices organisation

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 3:34 pm, November 13th, 2018 - 18 comments

It has been discovered that the person behind the Energy Voices website is a National Party operative and former staffer.

Electricity again

Written By: advantage - Date published: 3:05 pm, November 12th, 2018 - 146 comments

It is time for the Government to down the electricity corporates and regulate them in the interests of the citizen.

Latest poll results – National in freefall

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:11 am, November 9th, 2018 - 81 comments

A recent UMR poll has put National support at 37%, deep in danger territory for Simon Bridges.

ILG, a Rock, and a Hard Place

Written By: te reo putake - Date published: 6:40 pm, November 8th, 2018 - 91 comments

The Sroubek beat up is still with us. Why won’t National tell us what they knew and what they agreed to?

Proxy Music

Written By: te reo putake - Date published: 5:37 pm, November 7th, 2018 - 39 comments

Jami-Lee Ross has passed his proxy vote to NZ First, elevating waka jumping to an Olympic sport. How bad does it have to get before the Tory caucus puts Simon Bridges out of his misery?

Simon’s sure fire way to deal with difficult questions

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:37 pm, November 6th, 2018 - 45 comments

Simon’s strategy is that cunning you could be tempted to pin a tail on it and call it a weasel.

Simon Bridges wants a new senior social media advisor

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:00 am, November 6th, 2018 - 36 comments

Simon Bridges has advertised for a Senior Social Media advisor.

A Democratic Cakewalk.

Written By: Bill - Date published: 12:52 pm, November 5th, 2018 - 48 comments

Cenk Uygur might be said to have “skin in the game” when it comes to the US Mid-terms, and given that much of this post revolves around, or bounces from his commentary and analysis – which may not be quite as objective as he thinks – that should be borne in mind when reading this post.