Written By: - Date published: 3:04 pm, January 1st, 2020 - 8 comments
Throughout the world 2019 was the worst year for the left since 1979. What will 2020 bring?
Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, December 12th, 2019 - 18 comments
Millions of people and an entire region of the UK left out of polling calculations….
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, November 9th, 2019 - 6 comments
Nick Kelly gives a summary of each major United Kingdom political party.
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, October 30th, 2019 - 55 comments
The UK will learn its political fate on Friday 13 December. MPs have voted in a one-line Bill to have an election on Thursday 12 November, in the middle of winter. BoJo’s got his way if not quite the way he wanted. All bets are off.
Written By: - Date published: 1:03 am, September 25th, 2019 - 75 comments
Lady Hale and the UK Supreme Court have torpedoed Boris Johnson’s cunning plan to prorogue Parliament. His request to the Queen was “unlawful, void, and of no effect.” Her Maj will not be pleased. Johnson is now boxed in – ask for an extension to Brexit, or resign.
Written By: - Date published: 2:09 am, September 19th, 2019 - 21 comments
France President Macron’s remarkable and wide-ranging speech to French ambassadors after France hosted the recent G7 conference in Biarritz is well worth a read. He lays it all out – so much better than Trump’s tweets or BoJo’s bluster.
Written By: - Date published: 1:47 am, September 12th, 2019 - 57 comments
Phil Syrpis, Professor of EU Law at Bristol University, tweeted in July Johnson’s plan to force a general election as the defender of the people’s decision against the UK Parliament’s indecision and Brussels bureaucratic intransigence and be in power for the next five years. It was rumbled and it failed.
Written By: - Date published: 12:14 pm, September 3rd, 2019 - 57 comments
Boris Johnson has threatened a general election if Parliament opposes his self imposed hard deadlines on Brexit.
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 am, July 27th, 2019 - 29 comments
Boris Johnson’s ruthless purge of Cabinet and hard right shift looks like preparation for an early election. Reminds me of 1984 at home, as a right wing coup is on the way. He lied his way to Brexit – will it work again?
Written By: - Date published: 12:52 am, July 24th, 2019 - 99 comments
67% of the 160,000 UK Conservative Party members have voted for Boris Johnson as their leader. An attempt to block him as PM has been circumvented by the Speaker. The Queen has had to delay her trip to Balmoral to receive him as Prime Minister. I’d have more faith in the Ukraine’s comedian. At least he can command a majority in Parliament.
Written By: - Date published: 4:15 am, June 6th, 2019 - 7 comments
London feels surreal. Joined the demo against Trump, in town to see the Queen, see off the Prime Minister, and plunder the NHS in the name of ‘free trade.’ Saw the play “The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson,” which might be prescient.
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, May 25th, 2019 - 20 comments
The results of the European parliament elections are due. It’s the first election they’ve had since the refugee crisis, the Brexit referendum, and the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. There’s a reasonably high chance that the far right are going to increase their share of this Parliament.
Written By: - Date published: 8:32 pm, March 29th, 2019 - 73 comments
Jacinda Ardern will get a very warm welcome in Beijing based on immense respect for her and for New Zealand. Xi Jin-Ping has just returned from a very successful visit to Europe, joining Italy to the Belt and Road initiative and buying 300 jets from Airbus. Pepe Escobar outlines the implications for Eurasia. Much food for thought.
Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, February 26th, 2019 - 104 comments
Events in recent days have forced UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn into backing a second Brexit referendum. Labour are now aligned with the majority of British voters, but is it too little too late?
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, February 21st, 2019 - 25 comments
In the UK, 3 Conservative MP’s have now aligned themselves with the 8 dissenting Labour MP’s in the ‘Independent Group’. What does this mean for both parties and how will it affect Brexit?
Written By: - Date published: 12:58 pm, February 18th, 2019 - 52 comments
Claims that New Zealand is at a crisis point in terms of its relationship with China appear to be somewhat overegged.
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, February 8th, 2019 - 58 comments
Donald Trump has announced that the US will be withdrawing from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and Russia has also given notice. Stand by as the nuclear arms race restarts.
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, January 18th, 2019 - 103 comments
What if Brexit is not a threat to democracy as a system of government or a threat to liberal values? And what if it is an example of British democracy’s best modern exemplars to the world of institutionalised democracy and the rule of all under the law since universal franchise was first granted?
Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, January 17th, 2019 - 22 comments
Live feed of the UK debate in Parliament.
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, January 10th, 2019 - 67 comments
Another day, another humiliating defeat for Theresa May. Surprisingly, the news is no better for Jeremy Corbyn.
Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, December 26th, 2018 - 68 comments
It’s going to be a strong year for democratic politics.
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, December 22nd, 2018 - 114 comments
What will happen in 2019?
Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, December 15th, 2018 - 39 comments
Here’s your chance to vote in the Standard’s Politician of The Year awards. The SPOTY’s are recognised worldwide as the leading indicator of political success in NZ and have been awarded annually for over two hundred years.
Now it’s your turn to prick the Thorndon Bubble, dear reader. Who’s your Politician of the Year?
Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, December 13th, 2018 - 34 comments
With the UK Tories self imploding, the US President contemplating jail time, Angela Merkel moving on and the conservative parties on both sides of the Tasman looking increasingly irrelevant, what should the left do to fill the gap?
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, December 10th, 2018 - 41 comments
With a vote on the Brexit deal soon and with defeat a distinct possibility both Labour and the Conservatives need a Plan B and they need it inside 48 hours.
Written By: - Date published: 1:02 pm, November 15th, 2018 - 91 comments
The unsolvable problem that is Brexit is reaching it’s denouement with Theresa May’s leadership on the line, talk of a no confidence motion, a very leaky cabinet, and no possible achievable resolution in sight.
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, November 13th, 2018 - 15 comments
There is still seven weeks of this year left but it appears likely that the tweet of the year has been tweeted.
Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, October 29th, 2018 - 90 comments
Brazil has elected as its next President a 63-year-old former paratrooper who built his campaign around pledges to crush corruption, crime and a supposed communist threat.
Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, September 19th, 2018 - 33 comments
In short, I think not.
Written By: - Date published: 6:17 pm, September 18th, 2018 - 83 comments
A quick smorgasbord of reported news from Syria, to China and Sweden, to antisemitism and (hidden behind the links) an interview with (hopefully) the first woman who will serve as President of the USA.
Updated
Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, September 13th, 2018 - 67 comments
Fonterra has just reported an after tax loss of $196 million for the 2018 year. It’s never had an annual loss in its history.
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