political parties

Owen Jones’ and the Guardian’s Corbyn mea culpa

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:30 pm, June 11th, 2017 - 57 comments

Owen Jones of the Guardian has posted a mea culpa about his pessimism that Jeremy Corbyn would succeed as Labour leader. But meanwhile blairites are claiming that Corbyn missed an open goal while at the same time calling for unity.

Lessons for NZ Labour?

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:02 am, June 10th, 2017 - 159 comments

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour just reshaped the political landscape of the UK.

Lessons for NZ?

Labour excels in the UK

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 4:04 pm, June 9th, 2017 - 132 comments

Labour’s performance in the United Kingdom is phenomenal compared to expectations from even three weeks ago. What are the lessons for New Zealand Labour?

$2.3b Health funding shortfall

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:06 am, June 9th, 2017 - 45 comments

The Nats are under-funding the health sector to the tune of $2.3b. That’s a lot of real people not getting the care that they need.

We’ll see.

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:26 pm, June 8th, 2017 - 12 comments

There’s the heel of a boot, and then there’s the lifting of it.

30 Years nuclear free!

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:28 pm, June 8th, 2017 - 10 comments

Slum rentals in the brighter future

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:01 am, June 8th, 2017 - 24 comments

The Sunday Star Times had some gut wrenching coverage of the conditions in some of Auckland’s slum boarding houses. How can anyone vote for three more years of this?

Trying to wedge the Greens

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:02 am, June 7th, 2017 - 120 comments

The political right try it on every election year, in an attempt to sow a bit of discord. I expect this sort of obvious and clumsy wedge politics from Hooton and the like, but I was a bit surprised to see Duncan Garner having a go.

Once upon a time

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:44 am, June 4th, 2017 - 44 comments

Once upon a time this country stood up to American and said no to nuclear weapons. Now we dare not say yes to saving the planet.

UK Labour campaign ad

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 5:01 pm, June 3rd, 2017 - 30 comments

Andrew Little – Last Labour PM of NZ?

Written By: Bill - Date published: 4:48 pm, June 3rd, 2017 - 136 comments

A wee bit of speculation for a long week-end.

Postcards from the brighter future

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:58 am, June 1st, 2017 - 3 comments

Part of an occasional series. It all seems to be going according to plan.

Tax cuts and 1600 deaths per year

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 2:53 pm, May 31st, 2017 - 16 comments

One of the nasty little fishhooks in the budget was the cutting of the home insulation scheme (Warm Up New Zealand). The scheme had a benefit-cost ratio of $6 for every $1 invested. Around 1,600 people die in NZ a year of cold-related factors. Hope the tax cuts are worth it eh?

A generous donation to Labour

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 11:13 am, May 31st, 2017 - 34 comments

Thank you Robert Smellie QC, I’m sure your donation will be put to great use. Smellie said: “I am a practising Anglican and as such I see socialism as being far closer to the Gospel than free enterprise.”

Green Party List announced

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:18 am, May 31st, 2017 - 21 comments

Climate change, human rights, indigenous rights, Māori and Pasifika, and fresh, young faces on the 2017 Green Party List.

National’s social media is starting to suck

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:13 am, May 31st, 2017 - 46 comments

National’s social media have chosen a picture that sums up its policies well.

English on our low wage growth

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:38 am, May 30th, 2017 - 40 comments

Bill English knows that our low wage economy is a ticking time-bomb for the government. He must be starting to get worried. The repeated promises of jam tomorrow are well worn out now.

Green Party position on National’s 2017 Budget

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:34 am, May 30th, 2017 - 92 comments

“The Budget is what allows National to govern. If National failed to pass the Budget, all its legal ability to tax and spend would dry up and the Government would fall apart. There is no way we would vote for the Budget, because that would be supporting the National Government and its agenda.” Metiria Turei and James Shaw, Green Party blog.

National promise to “monitor the rental market” – so where do tenants send reports of rent gouging?

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 7:21 am, May 30th, 2017 - 35 comments

In the wake of the accommodation supplement fiasco Joyce has promised that the government will monitor the rental market.
Questions that the media may wish to ask Mr J – Where do tenants send reports of rent gouging? – Exactly what action will the government take when they receive these reports?

Government was advised the Accommodation Supplement increase will not work

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:25 am, May 29th, 2017 - 70 comments

Radio New Zealand has reported that the Government ignored two year old treasury advice to implement the increase in the accommodation supplement.

Family package that punishes families

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 7:42 am, May 29th, 2017 - 6 comments

Apparently the Nats can’t even run a lolly scramble.

The Greens and voting on the Budget

Written By: weka - Date published: 6:45 am, May 29th, 2017 - 150 comments

Wondering about what the Greens are voting for? It might not be what you think.

The Greens on record

Written By: weka - Date published: 6:25 am, May 29th, 2017 - 13 comments

Despite rumours to the contrary, the Green Party was highly critical of National’s Budget.

UK Defense Secretary on Corbyn

Written By: Bill - Date published: 12:22 pm, May 28th, 2017 - 49 comments

A quite remarkable interview of Michael Fallon by Channel 4 News in the UK.

What the feck Greens

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:56 am, May 28th, 2017 - 138 comments

The Green Party caucus decision to support the Government’s tax reduction legislation is hard to comprehend and has created a perception of messiness in the way the Labour-Green MOU operates.

Corbyn on terrorism and UK settings.

Written By: Bill - Date published: 11:44 am, May 27th, 2017 - 26 comments

Full speech given by Jeremy Corbyn yesterday.

White middle class male privilege

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:07 am, May 27th, 2017 - 19 comments

Rohan Lord this week pulled out from being a Labour candidate because he thought his prospects of being elected were remote because he was a white middle class male. His comments displayed a complete lack of understanding of how the Labour Party works and ignores the fact that having a truly representative caucus is a virtue.

NRT: A constitutional change

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:01 pm, May 26th, 2017 - 8 comments

I/S at No Right Turn writes: “The Court has ruled that the High Court was right to declare that National’s 2010 prisoner voting restrictions (the ones which were so shabby and shoddily passed that they brought Parliament into disrepute) were inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act“