Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 4:18 am, April 15th, 2024 - 15 comments
Categories: gaza, International, Iran, israel, Palestine, Peace, United Nations, war
Tags: gaza, iran, israel
Originally posted on Nick Kelly's Blog. In the last few hours, Iran has launched 300 missiles at Israel. Most of these were shot down by the Israeli missile defence system, and by Israel's allies including the UK. An antimissile system targets an Iranian …
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 6:54 am, February 5th, 2024 - 12 comments
Categories: tech industry, uk politics
Tags: Fujitsu, nick kelly, Post Office, tech
Originally published on Nick Kelly's blog Many question the value of the performing arts and drama. At the start of 2024, the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office did what journalists, politicians and broader civil society have failed to do over the last…
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 8:13 am, December 6th, 2023 - 9 comments
Categories: Christopher Luxon, election 2023, national, uk politics
Tags: Christopher luxon, NZ National Party, public health, Rishi Sunak, Tobacco ban, UK Conservative Party
Originally published on Nick Kelly's blog In October, UK PM Rishi Sunak announced that he would follow New Zealand's policy of gradually lifting the age at which people can buy tobacco. This would mean anyone born after 2009 would never be legally allowed…
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 8:06 am, November 16th, 2023 - 2 comments
Categories: humour, leadership, Satire, uk politics
Tags: nick kelly, Rishi Sunak, satire, Suella Braverman, UK Conservative Party, UK Home Secretary, UK politics
Originally posted on Nick Kelly's Blog One has to really feel for those trying to write political satire these days. How can a satirist be more ridiculous than many of our political leaders they wish to lampoon? Case in point, yesterday's "resignation …
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 6:03 am, October 17th, 2023 - 45 comments
Categories: act, campaigning, election 2023, greens, labour, maori party, national
Tags: greens, labour, national, nick kelly, NZ Election 2023
Originally published on Nick Kelly's blog On Saturday Labour lost of General Election in New Zealand. Whilst there are special votes still to count, which make up roughly 20% of total votes cast in this election (including this author who voted from …
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 6:05 am, October 10th, 2023 - 5 comments
Categories: election 2023, elections, labour, national, political parties, uk politics
Tags: covid-19, MiQ, NZ Labour, Team of 5 Million, Wellington Protests
… collapse during the pandemic. http://nickkelly.blog/2023/01/23/jacinda…
Thank you.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 6:15 am, October 6th, 2023 - 42 comments
Categories: election 2023, elections, housing, labour, national
Tags: housing crisis, KiwiBuild, labour, Managing Expectations, nick kelly
… way can be devastating. http://nickkelly.blog/2018/04/01/hope… poverty in recent years. http://nickkelly.blog/2020/10/19/nz… strong stance in opposition. http://nickkelly.blog/2020/08/09/jacinda…
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 10:31 pm, September 27th, 2023 - 16 comments
Categories: budget 2023, capital gains, chris hipkins, Economy, economy, election 2023, elections, grant robertson, greens, gst, health, labour, Long Read, maori party, tax
Tags: capital gains tax, chris trotter, green party, GST, Labour Party, Quality Public Services, tax
Originally published on Nick Kelly's blog Earlier this year Andrew Marr wrote in the New Statesmen, that Britain's problem was that it wanted Scandinavian levels of Public Services and North American levels of taxation. His view was that Britain was …
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 9:07 am, September 21st, 2023 - 7 comments
Categories: business, conservatives, economy, Economy, election 2023, national, tax, uk politics
Tags: Christopher luxon, Liz Truss, nicola willis, NZ National Party, tax
A year ago this month, the Liz Truss/Kwasi Kwarteng mini-budget destroyed once and for all the myth that the Tories are better at managing the economy. The New Zealand National Party could not even wait until they were in government to prove the same …
Thank you Corey, Re Bill English, in 2017 the combined Labour/Green vote was ahead of the National Party vote (just). Regarding key policy, NZ First aligned much more with Labour and the Greens than National. The ACT Party was on 1% and had one MP in 2017 ...
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 6:01 am, September 20th, 2023 - 15 comments
Categories: act, campaigning, chris hipkins, Christopher Luxon, economy, election 2023, elections, First Past the Post, greens, inequality, labour, leadership, Long Read, maori party, MMP, national, national/act government, nz first
Tags: act, chris hipkins, Christopher luxon, green party, Labour Party, maori party, national party, NZ General Election 2023
Originally posted on Nick Kelly's blog From the outside, the New Zealand 2023 General Election seems both lacklustre and slightly strange. The Labour Government, having won a huge majority in 2020 is now fighting for its political life. Yet National, the …
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 1:09 am, September 4th, 2023 - 20 comments
Categories: Austerity, Jeremy Corbyn, labour, uk politics
Tags: jeremy corbyn, keir starmer, nick kelly, uk labour
… Privileges Committee have confirmed. http://nickkelly.blog/2023/07/09/decoding… of the 1917 revolution. http://nickkelly.blog/2022/05/03/the…
Craig, Scotland will be important. But so too will outer London and the South East. Since the pandemic, there has been considerable demographic change, with many working-class Londoners now moving further out. In recent council elections, Labour gained ...
Peter - I realise there is a real difference between opposing Israel's expansionist policies etc and antisemitism. I can tell you that there were genuine cases of antisemitism (Jewish conspiracy theories etc) that the Party were slow to act on under Corbyn...
The Lib Dems do not stand strongly for MMP. They support proportional representation but would be quite happy with the transferable vote system or some other form of PR. They are more focused on the Somerset constituency where they will almost certainly ...
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 3:22 am, July 10th, 2023 - 13 comments
Categories: boris johnson, by-election, elections, labour, political parties, uk politics
Tags: Boris Johnson, nick kelly, Sadiq Khan, uk labour, UK politics
Originally posted on Nick Kelly's blog I spent the last UK General Election canvassing in Uxbridge, trying to unseat the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In the 25 years I've been politically active, this was the second most depressing canvassing …
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 12:46 am, May 5th, 2023 - 111 comments
Categories: leadership, uk politics
Tags: Feudalism, monarchy, nick kelly
Originally posted on Nick Kelly's blog On Saturday, the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla will take place. The last coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place on 2 June 1953 and was one of only five such events in the 20th century. The …
Ok so please listen to women. But also do not quote Stonewall who represents the other marginalized group(s) we are talking about. Not all trans people are men to women btw. On the issue of suicide, I take the point about presenting it in this way. However...
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 6:31 am, March 20th, 2023 - 259 comments
Categories: feminism, gay rights, gender, gender critical feminism, misogny, Nicola Sturgeon, pasifika, sexism, sport
Tags: feminism, Gender Recognition, nick kelly, nicola sturgeon, trans rights, Woke
Originally published on Nick Kelly's blog In late January, just days after the Government in Westminster blocked Scotland's Gender Recognition Bill, the UK media widely reported the story of Isla Bryson the Trans woman being sent to a women's prison in …
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 4:48 am, February 19th, 2023 - 1 comment
Categories: chris hipkins, Christchurch Attack, Christopher Luxon, covid-19, disaster, Environment, health, labour, national, Politics, terrorism
Tags: Auckland Flooding, chris hipkins, Christopher luxon, Cyclone Gabrielle, leadership, nick kelly, Wayne Brown
Originally published on Nick Kelly's blog The first real test of any political leader is how well they perform in a crisis. For New Zealand's Prime Minister Chris Hipkins this test came very quickly. At the time of writing, New Zealand is recovering from …
Correct, they won a majority of seats.
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 9:19 am, February 16th, 2023 - 56 comments
Categories: Brexit, democratic participation, jacinda ardern, Nicola Sturgeon, Politics, referendum, uk politics
Tags: Boris Johnson, nick kelly, nicola sturgeon, scottish independence, scottish national party, SNP
Originally posted on Nick Kelly's blog The resignation of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today took many by surprise. Her leadership of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Scotland since 2014 has seen support for her party, and the cause of …
Sorry, that was a technical hitch on my end. I will fix that now
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 9:19 am, January 30th, 2023 - 18 comments
Categories: Austerity, Brexit, electoral systems, First Past the Post, Jeremy Corbyn, uk politics
Tags: austerity, brexit, First Past the Post, jeremy corbyn, keir starmer, nick kelly, UK Conservatives, uk labour
Originally posted on Nick Kelly's blog Labour in the UK currently has a double-digit lead in polls ahead of the Conservatives. The Polls immediately after the Truss/Kwarteng mini budget gave Labour their biggest lead ever, with a lead of 33% over the …
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 12:26 am, January 27th, 2023 - 5 comments
Categories: Austerity, boris johnson, Brexit, uk politics
Tags: brexit, Rishi Sunak, UK Conservatives, UK politics
Originally Published on Nick Kelly's blog On October 25 2022 Rishi Sunak became the fifth leader of the Conservative Party since they came to power in 2010. Having lost the membership ballot in the summer, Tory MPs having seen the polls after the Mini …
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 7:13 am, January 24th, 2023 - 52 comments
Categories: Andrew Little, assets, bill english, chris hipkins, election 2017, election 2020, election 2023, elections, helen clark, jacinda ardern, labour, polls, privatisation
Tags: chris hipkins, coronavirus, jacinda ardern, Labour leadership, Labour Party, leadership, nick kelly, nz labour party, they are us
Originally published on Nick Kelly's blog Last week people in New Zealand and around the world were shocked to hear that Jacinda Ardern had resigned as Prime Minister. An unexpected end to her extraordinary five years in this role. Her exit, like …
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 6:53 am, January 20th, 2023 - 6 comments
Categories: Andrew Little, election 2017, election 2020, jacinda ardern, labour, news
Tags: andrew little, jacinda adern, nick kelly, nz labour party, they are us
Dear Jacinda You probably will not remember me. I was the campaign manager for Andrew Little when he ran for Labour Leader back in 2014. The last time we met was in Burger Fuel on Cuba Street the day after you took over as Labour Leader in 2017. I was with…
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 6:57 am, January 17th, 2023 - 34 comments
Categories: Austerity, Brexit, Financial markets, uk politics
Tags: Boris Johnson, LIbertarians, Liz Truss, neo-liberalism, One nation Tories, UK Conservatives
Originally published on Nick Kelly's blog The premiership of Liz Truss will be remembered for many years to come. She will be remembered as being the shortest-serving former UK prime minister (for now), resigning after seven weeks. It will be remembered …
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 7:02 am, January 15th, 2023 - 1 comment
Categories: Abuse of power, boris johnson, Brexit, conservative party, leadership, making shit up, Politics, uk politics
Tags: Boris Johnson, brexit, covid-19, Dominic Cummings, nick kelly, tories, UK Tories
The demise of Boris Johnson's premiership in 2022 was both a surprising political upset and entirely predictable at the same time. It was a political upset when considering the large majority the Conservative Party won in 2019 under his leadership, the …
Written By: nickkelly - Date published: 1:39 am, January 14th, 2023 - 4 comments
Categories: activism, Brexit, Economy, Politics, uk politics, Ukraine
Tags: 2008 financial crisis, austerity, neo-liberalism, nick kelly, occupy aotearoa, occupy wall street
Originally Published on Nick Kelly's Blog As the world currently goes through a post-pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine fuelled economic crisis, it is interesting to reflect on the economic crisis of over a decade ago and how the public responded at…
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