I don’t know if it hurts my eyes or my heart more
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5:06 pm, September 16th, 2009 - 55 comments
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WTF is this? I mean look at it. It’s got to be the worst website I have ever seen and I’ve been around since well before the web existed.
More to the point, how did this get up? What kind of process could possibly have let this through? Who signed off on it?
I wouldn’t normally do any analysis of something like this as I would expect it would speak for itself but it seems there are some pretty senior people in Labour (senior enough to sign off on the use of the brand) who clearly need a little 101 education on basic communications.
So here we go:
It’s ugly, not just “oh I don’t like that much” ugly but “it’s so ugly its bad vibrations (and it seems to literally vibrate!) hurt my eyes so much I can’t read it.”
It’s cynical. If you can manage to read the pixelated text you’ll realise it barely makes any sense. It’s about the ETS but we don’t really know why. Then it asks for money. It doesn’t tell you why it needs the money or how this will help “fix emissions trading” as the url promises. It’s like some mad guy that rushes up to you on the street, screams some gibberish and shoves a tin under your face demanding money just to leave you alone. It even looks like it’s roughed itself up a bit first to get your sympathy.
And it doesn’t engage the target audience or bring people into the campaign. In fact if you got a team of experts in and gave them the task of deterring engagement whatever they came up with would be Zsa Zsa Gabor compared with this.
It damages the brand. Not only does it use the Labour logo but it also links through to the official party site. If I were a Labour Party member this would make me consider resigning.
But like I said earlier the problem is not how bad this website is but that someone high-up in the party thought it was good enough to put the Labour brand on. That’s just not good enough.
Update: They’ve taken it down and redirected it to Chauvel’s excellent piece on Red Alert. Good.
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- Greens stand in solidarity with Whakaata Māori on sad day
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...1 week ago
- Sanctions regime to create more hardship for families
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...1 week ago
- Govt gifts renters housing anxiety for Christmas
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...1 week ago
- Release: National Party urged to support modern slavery legislation
Labour is urging the Prime Minister to walk the talk and support legislation combating modern slavery. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour has lost confidence in the Speaker
The Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament made an unprecedented decision on the government amendment to the Fast Track Approvals Bill last night. ...2 weeks ago
- One year on, still no progress on new ferries
Today’s announcement from the Government on its plan for new ferries throws more uncertainty on the future of the country’s rail network. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Nicola Willis’ smaller ferries will cost more
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...2 weeks ago
- Bill to sanction unlawful occupation of Palestine
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour fully supports greyhound racing ban
The Government has done the right thing in moving to ban greyhound racing. ...2 weeks ago
- Greyhound racing industry ban marks new era for animal welfare
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...2 weeks ago
- Rangatahi voices must be centred in Government’s Relationship and Sexuality Education refresh
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt introduces archaic anti-worker legislation
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...2 weeks ago
- Winston Peters – Kinleith Mill Speech
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...2 weeks ago - Swarbrick calls on Auckland Mayor to end delay of revival of St James Theatre
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...2 weeks ago
- He Ara Anamata: Greens launch Emissions Reduction Plan
Today, the Green Party of Aotearoa proudly unveils its new Emissions Reduction Plan–He Ara Anamata–a blueprint reimagining our collective future. ...2 weeks ago
- Internationally-trained doctors jump at chance to boost health workforce
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...19 hours ago - PM appoints business leader to APEC Business Advisory Council
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...3 days ago
- New intelligence oversight appointments
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...3 days ago
- New housing developments able to progress more quickly
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...3 days ago
- Actions to speed up air travel delivering results
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...3 days ago
- Ending contracted emergency housing in Rotorua
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...3 days ago
- Vocational education and training decisions support return to regions
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...3 days ago
- Reducing the environmental impact of synthetic refrigerants
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...3 days ago
- Ngāruawāhia section of Waikato Expressway back to 4 lanes for Christmas
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...3 days ago
- Appointments to the ENZ board
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...4 days ago
- Government to celebrate Waitangi Day around NZ
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...4 days ago
- More gangs added to Gangs Act list
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...4 days ago
- Judicial appointment announced
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...4 days ago
- GDP data highlights importance of growth
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- Strengthening Free Speech in Universities
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- Launch of Emergency Cellular Priority Service
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- Minister reopens Mangamuka Gorge
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...4 days ago
- Funding confirmed for second Ashburton Bridge
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- Government boosts support for avian influenza response
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- Levelling the playing field for media advertising
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- Inspector-General of Defence appointed
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- Fire and Emergency New Zealand final levy rates confirmed
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...5 days ago
- More AML relief on the way for Kiwi businesses
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...5 days ago
- Hawke’s Bay Expressway moving at pace
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- Government seeks partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned-land
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- Wide ranging legislation to make justice system more efficient
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...5 days ago
- Diverse skills in community trust appointments
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...5 days ago
- Torture redress for survivors of the Lake Alice Unit
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- A busy year in the House
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- Consultation opens on working with engineered stone
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...5 days ago
- Greater reporting on Treaty settlement commitments
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- New appointments to the Charities Registration Board
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...5 days ago
- Building consent processing times improve
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...5 days ago
- Faster access to support through Innovation Fund
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...5 days ago
- New Zealand to assist Vanuatu on earthquake response
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...5 days ago
- Government takes steps to reduce card fees for Kiwis
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...5 days ago
- Review recommends ECE regulation shakeup
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- Offshore Renewable Energy Bill passes first reading
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...5 days ago
- Local Government (Water Services) Bill passes first reading
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- Gene Technology Bill passes first reading
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- Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 23 December
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 23 December appeared first on Newsroom. ...7 minutes ago - Govt walks away from infrastructure alliance
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.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles article .entry-title { font-size: 1.2em; } .wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles .entry-meta { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; align-items: center; margin-top: 0.5em; } .wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles article .entry-meta { font-size: 0.8em; } .wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles article .avatar { height: 25px; width: 25px; } .wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles .post-thumbnail{ margin: 0; margin-bottom: 0.25em; } .wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles .post-thumbnail img { height: auto; width: 100%; ...7 minutes ago
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I hate it so much.
I hate the way when you move your eyes it feels like the text moves and the box changes size… it gives me a headache before I can read any of the words, and when I do read them they are just a bit of whining about how the Nats aren’t playing fair and then ‘gimme money’
Fire whoever did this and sort your stuff out.
Labour are very busy today.
Chris Carter put up a post about warm fuzzy gay stuff. Nearly everyone who comments is banned
Would it have been so hard to… I don’t know… not use a jpeg?
Any other image format? Or html? Something?
Actually, what galls me most is that it claims that Labour’s ETS would “fix” the problem.
Perhaps someone is playing a prank on the Labour party and they didn’t set this up?
Nope
“Refunds will provided at the discretion of the New Zealand Labour Party
For further information or enquiries please contact the New Zealand Labour Party, PO Box 784, 160-162 Willis St, Wellington
Authorised by Mike Smith, 73 Brougham St, Wellington”
…and just when you thought they’d reached the height of imbecillity with the smear mission to Melbourne, come on Labour get your act together NZ needs a strong and credilble opposition – it can’t be that hard to score some hits against the Nats they’re hardly the slickest political machine the world’s ever seen
Isn’t that ( the donation page you refer to and the authorisation) a part of the official Labour Party site gargoyle rather than the ‘death by a million fluorescent satsumas’ shite site?
Yeah, that’s where you go to donate. One links to t’other
If that is representative of the Labour Party for the coming few years then the Labour Party ( with apologies to Frank) needs to be rented a nice French bomb to poof them from existence.
Actually. From the looks of that page they already swip-swiped their credit card…
A whois lookup reveals that all the details are registered to Charles Chauvel.
http://whois.domaintools.com/fixemissionstrading.co.nz
And I’ve just had a look at Charles’ Twitter, and there is indeed a link to it. It appears authentic.
Clearly, it’s in my interests to allow this type of thing to perpetuate 🙂
Politics aside, this should be a crime against web usability and design principles.
Blame charles.chauvel@parliament.govt.nz according to http://www.domainz.net.nz/whois.asp or whoever registered under his name but it does look kosher.
With Drupal or any other OS cms, they could have hand a similar site up and running without resorting to this amateur effort.
Urrgh. Something came back from the dead 90’s. It looks like it was designed run on ie3
Mike Smith is not even the secretary as of the weekend.
and Steve, knowing your warm fuzzie types of remarks, don’t try them where I can see them
Iprent,
I merely suggested to Carter to take his self gratification to a chat room. No swearing or insulting.
Moderators went septic. See Kiwiblog for others who were deleted or banned.
I mean the duct tape was screaming off the roll.
Red Alert and Labour expect future votes when they ban critisism?
Note the page was generated from MS word.
Oh dear! It is indeed.
Very environmentally friendly, a thousand odd lines of HTML sucking up bandwidth and server resources every single hit to present a single image tag with a link. What idiots.
That truly is incredible, but it looks like they’re intending to put something else there.
There’s no way anyone would write all those css declarations to display one pic.
Then again, it was made in word so god knows what kind of abortion they’re intending to put there later eh?
felix
A single line of plain text generated as an web page via word creates hundreds of lines of declarations. Try it. Type a single line of text and save as an html page. Great for the kids to build pages if you can’t be bothered teaching them some basic html or you don’t understand the principle of good tools.
Good lord it really is just malware, isn’t it?
Well yes and no – it’s a waste of space and resources in that the same could be published with a single line of html, however it allows people with the tiniest understanding of the inter-web to publish shit.
(although in this case I’m not saying that is a good thing)
Only if you do it in word. I always write directly in HTML because the tools generally write crap HTML/CSS. You spend more time trying to get the clumsy things to get the effect that you want than you save.
If I wanted to write “Hello World” then it takes exactly 11 characters. If I wanted it big or bold than it takes about 9 more to put a H1 tag in.
Also not the author is: [taken the name out, it’s just a dude doing what he was told, not his fault] – whoever that is.
That dude’s name is published in the web page source – No digging past clicking on ‘view source’ was required to find it.
Hell – moderation gone crazy.
Mike Williams was just a dude doing what he was told…
OK, so the dude’s name has been removed from the web page source – I take back the ‘moderation gone crazy’ since the name published here would have been saving something that has been removed elsewhere.
Lesson for junior web publisher – Word might be easy to use but is a pig of a tool for authoring web pages.
It looks like they hired a web designer who got drunk last night, has a hangover and was rushing to meet their deadline.
This is what Labour get when Helen sends a txtda to the web designer telling them how they must do their job 😉
From the code, the author is mentioned as [taken the name out, it’s just a dude doing what he was told, not his fault], who has a page on Grassroot Labour page:
Ok, I’ve put his details up on 4chan for interwebs stupidity.
The last guy that did something like this got 14,600 wooden flooring samples sent to his house, along with a veritable flood of religious callers.
Let the love flow.
/joke
More seriously, WTF?
Edit – alt text for the image is “Planned_screen_for_ETS_website.gif”
so maybe put up a little early. How did you find it Bill?
Still ugly but.
Rules 1 & 2, singularian.
Rules?
catchpa – experiment…….ah
Did Labour fire their web designer?
Wow that’s incredible! The whole website consists of an image and a link. Perhaps Charles Chauvel did it himself?
@ steve – you were banned from Red alert not for dissent – and if you look carefully through the comments on Chris’ and my posts today you wil see that that is not a reason for moderation – but for offensive comments and trolling. We just apply a higher standard than you do on kiwiblog and your other natural homes If you look at http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2009/09/16/money-laundering-hypocrite/ you will see that sometimes we are harder on supporters than opponents.
It was made in word… enough said.
truly awful
I’ll just be clear on this. I don’t blame the person who made this, they were probably just an enthusiastic amateur and god knows we all do things we’re not really that good at and get really proud about them. You should see some of my DIY from the 80’s.
However just as I wouldn’t expect the Labour party to sign off on me renovating their head office I wouldn’t expect them to sign off on this. That they did shows that someone high-up who should understand this stuff clearly doesn’t.
Couldn’t agree more and this could easily be a cross party thing.
There’s a worrying trend that the web is becoming so pervasive that everyone thinks they are now a web expert and that they know better. Because you can do DIY doesn’t mean you should.
There is a worrying process – or lack of it – behind this.
Actually, I’ll interested in the whole splash page concept at labour.org.nz – again, it’s another “trend” that’s almost 10 years late.
Seriously, you would think that there’s a core here of people who could advise Labour from within and do a better job – and connect with the activists. God help me if I’m starting to offer Labour strategic advice 🙂
I reckon it’s part of a master strategy to fundraise for a new ETS website. They’re implicitly saying “We can’t do any better than this. Please do us and the internet a favour, by donating to consign this website to history”
Mr Foxglove, that’s genius
Also no macron on MÄori.
Also a capital letter after a comma.
Also the double “each” in the third paragraph is just poor.
It’s not just a website debacle, it’s badly written and probably unedited as well.
Is there anything not bad about it?
Wow, you actually read it.
Restecpah.
Yeah the content is crap as well. They have to learn to see what things look like from outside the beltway.
Is this normal, washing your dirty linen in public?
What?
Oh I get it, we don’t criticise Labour enough for your liking, therefore, we must be Labour hacks but when we do criticise Labour, rather than re-examining your conspiracy theories, you attack us for that too.
In case you hadn’t noticed
1. We aren’t a labour site – please read the policy.
I don’t appreciate even implied attempts to say that we are. My lack of
appreciation and the way I express it are well known.
2. We all spend large amounts of time on the web, and get offended
by crap sites. This one is a particularly bad example.
3. Most of us probably have strong feelings about that useless piece of
junk ETS that the Maori party are about to foist on us. Sites like this
detract and impede more effective sites.
4. Labour has a particularly fraught relationship with its computer-savvy
volunteers. It could do with the criticism. Especially after I went to
a conference that kept saying that they are going to do this better.
I think fixemmissionstrading is really a veiled reference to Sio:
Fix em! Is Sio ons th Radling?
felix-mission-straddling 😉
Poor Mrs felix. He keeps telling her a big climactic change is coming, but …
Cats are not generally known as considerate lovers.
lol,
“it damages the (labour) brand”
No help needed, its poked already chaps.
Simple question
What exactly is donating to the Labour Party going to do to ‘fix’ the emissions trading scheme? The one they cooked up the first time around was shit (the greens should’ve voted it down…) so I don’t know why I’d want to give them money to go back to red mediocrity instead of the slightly worse tory scheme we’re getting now