helen clark

Categories under helen clark

  • No categories

Fare thee well

Written By: - Date published: 10:54 pm, November 9th, 2008 - 37 comments

Firstly I must say congratulations to the winners on the night, and sympathies to those who did not succeed. We may not hold politicians in high regard but they put themselves on the line.  The voting public have had their say and that, if nothing else, we must celebrate and respect. But for Labour the […]

Making the decision

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, November 7th, 2008 - 56 comments

Have you still not decided who you’ll vote for? The final poll shows the race between a National/ACT/United Future or a Labour/Green/Progressive/Maori government is neck and neck, so your choice matters. Here is some advice and tools that may help: When choosing who to vote for there are three things you should consider: policy – […]

Key used Nat research unit to search for smear on Clark’s husband

Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, November 7th, 2008 - 47 comments

After weeks of griping about dirty tactics, it has been revealed in the NBR that Key ordered the tax-payer funded National Party research unit to rake over the records of Prime Minister Clark’s husband Peter Davis’s academic grants looking for a smear. Clark revealed the attempted smear in an interview on AltTV. ‘In June this […]

Clark takes round 2

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 pm, November 3rd, 2008 - 149 comments

A much better performance from Clark saw her best Key in tonight’s debate. As well as being on top of all the issues, as always, she took the fight to Key, calling him up on his lies. After not doing as well as she had expected in the first debate, Clark had adapted. Key was […]

The Standard line: Photoshop

Written By: - Date published: 10:03 am, October 24th, 2008 - 132 comments

So, you’re talking with someone about politics and they say something really dumb and wrong and you know it’s wrong but you don’t have the arguments and facts at your fingertips to make a decisive point. That’s where our election series, The Standard line, comes in. The info you need in bite-size form. Today: photoshop Points: […]

Video: Election campaign, 22 Oct

Written By: - Date published: 5:34 pm, October 22nd, 2008 - 19 comments

Observations of the campaign trails from TV3’s Ali Ikram…. Not sure what I think of those “bleeps” on the John Key excerpt…

Telling lies

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, October 16th, 2008 - 9 comments

With the wit we’ve come to expect, 08wire has Key up on his many lies during the Tuesday debate. To my surprise, TV One didn’t bother doing fact checking even during their tedious hour-long run-down after the debate, whereas we were fact checking live on The Standard. I wish TV One would be our CNN […]

Advice

Written By: - Date published: 10:35 pm, October 14th, 2008 - 63 comments

Labour has made two serious mistakes in their campaign today. One was specifically rejecting a policy to take the minimum wage to $15 an hour and the other was tonight’s debate. The first was an easy policy supported by every party other than National and Act that would have ensured a large chunk of people […]

Lying to win

Written By: - Date published: 9:02 pm, October 14th, 2008 - 65 comments

A narrow victory for Key in tonight’s TV1/Youtube debate. A forum where he could repeat his tired slogans to his heart’s content suited him. No-one could pull him up on his lies, except Clark who, inexplicably, failed to do so. And when Clark spoke, Key just yelled his lines over the top of her. That […]

‘Give me warning next time’, Key whimpers

Written By: - Date published: 4:08 pm, October 13th, 2008 - 44 comments

While Key was blathering on about who-cares-what yesterday, Clark announced a radical and forward-looking economic stimulus package. Now, Key is having a cry over Clark not notifying him beforehand of the deposit insurance scheme. As if the Prime Minister needs to seek the approval of an opposition party before setting government policy. Key whines that monetary […]

Labour takes bull by the horns, Nats left standing

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, October 13th, 2008 - 25 comments

One of the first rules of politics is don’t set yourself up to be snookered; don’t position yourself in a way that your opposition can and will undercut, don’t run attack lines that your opposition can and will invalidate. National has repeatedly done this. They ran on tax cuts as their sole platform when it […]

Tories still bigots at heart

Written By: - Date published: 11:56 pm, October 12th, 2008 - 47 comments

When I saw this guy using the guise of a Youtube debate question to attack Clark on her appearance, I felt sorry for the little jerk – what a pathetic life he must lead. When I saw Bill ‘do what it takes to win’ English do the same thing (at 1.30), while an audience of […]

Expect the unexpected

Written By: - Date published: 2:36 pm, September 28th, 2008 - 44 comments

I’m probably going to be at odds with my fellow Standardistas in this but I support having debates featuring just Clark and Key. One of these two people will lead the country after the election and we deserve to see to them in a forum where they go head to head against each other, rather […]

Peters stands down

Written By: - Date published: 5:49 pm, August 29th, 2008 - 145 comments

Peters has stood down. Clark has taken over his portfolios. It’s good that Peters appears to have accepted that this is a necessity and hasn’t turned on the Government. Clever of Clark to take the portfolios herself too. [we nearly had the scoop on this too but it took too long for me to get […]

PM loses a mate

Written By: - Date published: 4:53 pm, August 15th, 2008 - 55 comments

The death at just 59 of alpine legend Gottlieb Braun-Elwert will be greatly mourned around the Tekapo community, and much further afield too. Braun-Elwert was one of those Europeans who came here and found our great outdoors intoxicating. He arrived in his 20s on a hitch-hiking tour, fell in love with the country’s natural splendour, […]

Nasty

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, July 10th, 2008 - 58 comments

On Tuesday, Helen Clark was asked what she thought of the fact that both John Key and Bill English have been unavailable for comment when the media have had questions about National policy this week (not being available for comment is a Crosby/Textor tactic for shutting down stories). Clark, who is renowned for the hours […]

Did Clark endorse push-polling?

Written By: - Date published: 3:59 pm, July 3rd, 2008 - 18 comments

Some of the more excitable righties on the blogosphere and John Key have taken a throw-away comment in Audrey Young’s blog to mean that Helen Clark said Labour will be doing push-polling. Here’s what was actually said, according to Young’s recording: Reporter: Will Labour use push-polling with ‘the truth?’ Clark: Well I’m not sure how […]

Helen, stop critiquing polls

Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, June 25th, 2008 - 318 comments

Everyone in the know is aware that Colmar Brunton is the worst polling company in New Zealand and constantly over-rates National. We also know Fairfax isn’t much better. There’s no use in going on about it. It’s not a good look. The fact is Labour is well behind National in the polls. There’s no point […]

Helen Clark answers your questions

Written By: - Date published: 12:35 pm, April 25th, 2008 - 62 comments

We’re very pleased to have Prime Minister Helen Clark respond to your questions as part of our Interview the Leaders series. Question to all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? I am proud to lead a government which has worked so hard to restore fairness, opportunity, security, and hope to many New […]

Clark’s answers delayed

Written By: - Date published: 4:33 pm, April 23rd, 2008 - 25 comments

We had hoped to have the answers for our ‘interview the leaders‘ series from Helen Clark today. I talked with the PM’s office and they explained the questions are with Clark, she’s been busy travelling, and we’ll have them as soon as they come back. So, they’ve asked for an extension and I said ‘fair […]

Interview the leaders IV: ACT

Written By: - Date published: 3:06 pm, April 14th, 2008 - 34 comments

A big thanks to Greens’ co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimmons for participating in our ‘Interview the leaders’ series. Her answers provided an insight into how the Greens view themselves as influencing political culture as much as promoting specific policies. Our next leader is Prime Minister Helen Clark of Labour. The general question remains: Of which of your achievements in politics are you […]

Interview the leaders III: Labour

Written By: - Date published: 5:14 pm, April 7th, 2008 - 64 comments

A big thanks to Progressives’ leader Jim Anderton for being the first participant in our ‘Interview the leaders’ series. The quality of his answers has set a standard for the others to emulate. Our next leader is Jeanette Fitzsimmons of the Green Party. The general question remains: Of which of your achievements in politics are […]

A dereliction of duty

Written By: - Date published: 3:20 pm, April 7th, 2008 - 39 comments

John Key’s failure to ask a parliamentary question last week exposes a crisis of confidence in National’s ranks. It is unprecedented for an Opposition leader to be in attendance in the House for a full sitting week, and to not once challenge the Government. This never happened when Helen Clark led Labour in Opposition from […]

Sir Ed and Helen Clark – admired Kiwis

Written By: - Date published: 6:39 pm, April 6th, 2008 - 15 comments

From the Sunday Star Times: A new poll suggests that National Leader John Key may be up against a bigger obstacle than he thought in knocking Prime Minister Helen Clark off she is the person New Zealanders most admire after Sir Edmund Hillary. The much-loved mountaineer topped the Roy Morgan Poll with 17.4 per cent support, followed by […]

Helen Clark on BBC’s “Hardtalk”

Written By: - Date published: 7:43 pm, April 5th, 2008 - 17 comments

Sarah Montague from BBC’s Hardtalk interviews Helen Clark – starting with a question about whether the time might be right for a New Zealand referendum on republicanism. I’ve got to admit that I found it thoroughly refreshing to watch an interview where the interviewer doesn’t pull punches but also isn’t competing to be the centre […]

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.