bill english

Polity: The game is the game

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:24 am, June 20th, 2014 - 24 comments

Rob Salmond offers some advice to the National smear team. When you screw up and start contradicting each other’s stories, you look like a pack of low-rent numpties. And it reveals your tactics for all to see, which is what you were trying to avoid in the first place. Bill English and John Key should really communicate so they don’t trample over each others stories. And the  spectacle of Michael Woodhouse changing his mind within hours about when he first saw the letter, and what he did with it? Pure comedy

National tacks left with its fudge it budget

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:30 am, May 16th, 2014 - 174 comments

National must be worried about its prospects in this year’s election.  Because its budget did not have the normal hard right policies that we have come to expect of it and it is trying to lessen the attraction of some of Labour’s announced policies.

National’s proposed public spending to GDP ratio – the election’s clear blue line

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:22 am, May 15th, 2014 - 72 comments

The real story of the coming election is what was revealed in Bill English’s reported pre-budget speech to the National Party’s Southern Region conference at the weekend. He signalled an intention to reduce the proportion of government spending to 26% of GDP over the next 6 to 7 years. The current level at 30% already places NZ in the lowest quartile of OECD countries, having fallen from 35% of GDP in 2008. Most developed nations spend a significantly higher proportion of GDP on government goods and services.

Tell the police, New Zealand has been robbed …

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:56 am, April 17th, 2014 - 72 comments

Genesis Energy’s shares have been sold at a price well below their value.  And despite considerable demand from local mum and dad investors one in four of the shares has been sold to overseas institutions.

LB: Bill’s Busted Budget and Tim’s Exploding Emissions

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 4:28 pm, April 9th, 2014 - 13 comments

Local bodies points out a couple more of the National government’s sad-sacks. For some strange (but obvious) reason a warmish market for milk powder doesn’t do much for NZ apart from destroying our environment. English’s taxcuts for his wealthy mates have destroyed the fiscal base of the government and done nothing to cause any investment in the productive and employable parts of our economy. Tim Groser has also made an artform of making NZ worse off.

Polity: Buy low, sell high. Except National.

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:06 pm, March 24th, 2014 - 27 comments

Rob at Polity points out National’s intensely unstrategic view about investments and asset sales. In a down market where all the indications said “buy,” National sold our assets for a pittance, and refused to invest in the Super Fund. The Super Fund has been making returns of 21%, far exceeding the Crown’s cost of borrowing. And National will only start investing in the Super Fund when equities are expensive again.  It is almost as if they wanted to waste taxpayers funds eh?

The Genesis share float – or is that share sink?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:03 am, March 14th, 2014 - 24 comments

The Government is continuing with the Genesis share float.  Shares with an anticipated yield of 15% are being sold to pay off debt on which interest at 5% is being charged.  What sort of economic lunacy is this?

The Genesis share float has problems

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:21 am, February 27th, 2014 - 17 comments

The Government has effectively conceded that the Genesis share float will not meet expectations and is softening New Zealand up to the prospect that only 30% of the shares may be sold. It makes you wonder why they are still going a head with the sale.

Polity: English lies on impact of tax switch

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:22 am, January 15th, 2014 - 15 comments

Rob Salmond at Polity has been having a look at Bill English’s “neutral” tax change in 2010…

Bill English recently heralded his tax switch as making net tax more progressive. He lied. It actually made net tax at least $500 million more regressive.

Key and English – best of friends.

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 3:30 pm, November 25th, 2013 - 34 comments

In a surprising development, John Key has taken to bringing “a friend” with him to serious media interviews. Key was accompanied by Bill English. Key justified the new approach stating that their unique “chemistry was obvious to all in parliament” and he wanted the public to know, just how well they got on. When questioned whether this was relevant and important in the lives of ordinary Kiwis he said “…frankly its one of the key platforms we will be contesting the 2014 election on”.

Like nats leaving a sinking ship …

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:49 am, November 8th, 2013 - 48 comments

So far seven National MPs have announced they will not stand in next year’s general election and more announcements are rumoured to be in the pipeline.  Is the writing on the wall for this Government and will it become the first two term National Government in history?

Outsourcing poverty: Paula Bennett’s shame

Written By: karol - Date published: 8:30 am, October 29th, 2013 - 51 comments

A charity is taking on the funding of the essential work on monitoring poverty, in the face of Paula Bennett, Bill English and John Key et al failing to do their job: a return to Dickensian & Edwardian times.

Fight you bastards fight

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:26 am, October 23rd, 2013 - 49 comments

At least one MP if not the whole of National’s caucus knew that the news concerning Len Brown and Bevan Chuang would break soon eight days before it did.  Slater’s and Palino’s claims are becoming more and more difficult to believe.  And in a comment yesterday Bad12 sums up why this is such bad news for National.

This is/is not democracy

Written By: karol - Date published: 1:05 pm, August 12th, 2013 - 106 comments

The Nats’ PR-managed conference stifled democratic debate & bright ideas, and diverted from significant issues.  Armstrong attempts to talk it up, while exposing Key’s win-at-all-costs ruthlessness. Meanwhile: speakers announced for democratic meeting to Kill the GCSB Bill [Updated – Hagar also speaking]. [Update: Gordon Campbell – ‘Nanny National‘]

Post Key leadership struggle goes mainstream

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:25 am, July 2nd, 2013 - 67 comments

The simmering leadership struggle in the National party doesn’t get a lot of attention in the mainstream media, but here’s an exception. Judith Collins will not be pleased.