Yes they're different things, but there was discussion about "making it difficult to get back into the country". So yay, you're an NZ citizen who can't get into NZ... What would that leave you? Effectively Stateless.
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 2:17 pm, November 14th, 2014 - 6 comments
Categories: humour
Tags: mr men, scooby doo, Stewart Lee, thatcher
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVPYFsTlp4Y Scooby Doo jungle canyon rope bridges as a commentary on Thatcherite and Tory socioeconomic policy and Stewart Lee's existential despair. Also, (h/t Polity) – these Mr Men book reviews are superb: For indeed, …
To be fair, I had trouble coming up with a picture for "middle". Although Key is certainly a joker on the right, and some of the Labour caucus have been clowns... (although they're not really to the left of me...)
I'm not saying they didn't do damage, but did it in a way that didn't scare the horses. as it were. They keep working by marginalising (and doing real damage to) some, but leaving the mass undeterred, even as their rights are slowly chipped away at too. ...
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 8:23 am, October 28th, 2014 - 133 comments
Categories: housing, john key, national, workers' rights
Tags:
In its first term, National was very careful to be incremental – Key hung to the middle, chipping away carefully at workers' rights without doing anything dramatic. Having gained the public's trust by continuing (outside the House) to be a clown they'd …
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 8:50 pm, October 17th, 2014 - 308 comments
Categories: david cunliffe, labour
Tags: sherman
Surely this should put Paddy Gower and co to bed once and for all. With great grace despite Shearer's baiting, and with great clarity, Cunliffe has declared he will never seek the Labour leadership again. It was Shermanesque. Now surely he can get on with …
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 5:42 pm, October 16th, 2014 - 70 comments
Categories: john key, national
Tags: oia
As story after story comes out about Official Information Act requests, it shows how much contempt for transparency and the law this government has, and how little it intends to be held to account. Judith Collins ushering OIAs out in 2 hours to Slater. …
And yet still 1360 party votes more than Little got in New Plymouth. that game can be played either way...
He hardly had 9 long years as Minister of Energy - he only came in in 2002 after winning the incredibly blue seat of Otago in 2002, and was only a minister from 2005 - with time out when he admirably stood down while facing trumped up allegations of filing...
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 6:25 pm, October 14th, 2014 - 62 comments
Categories: john key, Judith Collins
Tags: dirty politics, dishonour
Has John Key now read Dirty Politics? Because having set up his incredibly narrow inquiry into Judith Collins – to try and investigate her for the one thing she didn't do – he's now scared to give her her 'Honourable' title, before she is 'cleared'. …
I don't think you can characterise Grant or Parker as "right". That's not where their policy platforms sit. But I'm very pleased to have Nanaia join the race. She'll offer a different perspective and make sure it gets discussed at the meetings. Much like ...
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 8:24 am, September 27th, 2014 - 10 comments
Categories: act, national
Tags:
So National will continue their rorts by giving ministries to their tame poodles, Rimmer and the Hair. Despite each making the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party look like it has a serious electoral mandate. I guess it makes it look like National has …
Yes, thanks Maryan, Moana, Raymond, Carol - you're all great people. I wouldn't want the job, but I'm glad you were willing to do it, and I'm sad you're not still there fighting the cause.
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 1:23 pm, September 23rd, 2014 - 146 comments
Categories: labour
Tags:
Our Labour MPs seem to be in disarray. Somehow the party that teaches solidarity keeps on being fractured, while the party that teaches individualism is a strong union. Why are they talking to each other through the media instead of picking up the phone? …
classic
As Snowden and this old Atlantic article say: Mr Briscoe wouldn't know.
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 1:48 pm, September 16th, 2014 - 82 comments
Categories: john key, slippery
Tags: #dirtypolitics, GCSB, mass surveillance, Snowden
John Key will no doubt – like with Dirty Politics – keep saying that "most of it is proven false" about the Snowden revelations… while slowly admitting most of the charges against him. The bulk of it is wrong, just all the details are right, or somesuch….
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 7:39 am, September 13th, 2014 - 34 comments
Categories: david cunliffe, john key, Media
Tags: analysis, Josie Pagani, paul henry
For my sins I watched the Paul Henry analysis of the TV3 leaders debate. It was unsurprising to see the pundits question Cunliffe's authenticity and whether he really means what he says again. It's a meme repeated often enough that it is now 'a thing' …
It is insidious - because there will be a gut feel that has been formed from the drip-drip-drip of stories and is very hard to get rid of for a large number of voters. Our meat-brains don't switch our emotions/feelings so easily just because a fact is ...
It regularly amazes me how little the political punditry understand political parties. They had it that the Labour Caucus would kick Cunliffe out against the party's wishes - both when the party would immediately vote him back, and in that 3 month pre-...
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 7:06 am, September 12th, 2014 - 55 comments
Categories: blogs, Media, same old national
Tags: #dirtypolitics, brook sabin, david farrar, jared savage, john armstrong, whaleoil
Frank Macskasy at The Daily Blog has a good timeline of the Donghua Liu OIA. And the times on the 18th of June – a date set for the John Banks resignation debate in parliament, and just 2 days after Jared Savage & Brook Sabin put in revised OIAs (their …
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 7:50 am, September 7th, 2014 - 69 comments
Categories: bill english, david parker, Economy, tv
Tags: the nation
So on The Nation yesterday David Parker and Bill English squared off. Repeatedly asked what changes he would make in the next 3 years, Bill English couldn't come up with one new idea. Nada. Nil. Zip. David Parker had heaps to say, but the plan under …
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 12:13 pm, September 4th, 2014 - 34 comments
Categories: education, uk politics
Tags: anne tolley, lunch, whaleoil
Network On Net has an explosive post detailing the bullying attacks on Principals who disagreed with Anne Tolley – particularly over the controversial National Standards. A sample: What is incontrovertible is that unpleasant things happened, indeed, are …
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 9:58 am, September 4th, 2014 - 20 comments
Categories: Economy, Hekia parata, john key, national
Tags: dodgy statistics, lies
So Hekia Parata has been crowing 15% more teachers under National for months – but it turns out to be a combination of Nat lies and another Novopay fuck-up. In fact the number she should have been quoting is 6.5% increase in teachers by headcount, but that…
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 1:49 pm, September 3rd, 2014 - 26 comments
Categories: blogs, john key, Judith Collins, national
Tags: #dirtypolitics, cameron slater, cgt, dirty politics, ethics
John Key has been pushing the "they blog on the left too" line, but he's deliberately missing the point. It's ethics that matter. Not whether some in the Leader's Office used to blog, but what they did and wrote. John Key's coup de grace is about "the left…
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 7:18 am, September 3rd, 2014 - 37 comments
Categories: john key, national
Tags: #dirtypolitics, inquiry
When John Key pushed his GCSB amendments through – amendments with over-reaching powers and too little oversight (see: JK – I don't look at SIS OIAs…) he told us that if you had nothing to hide, there was nothing to fear. Well John, the worm turns, and …
Especially: recording Bill English saying they'd do otherwise than their promises at a cocktail party - blatant public interest vs Whale Oil's panty sniffing and trying to break up marriages (or pimping for SFO-investigees).
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 9:45 pm, September 2nd, 2014 - 181 comments
Categories: david cunliffe, john key
Tags: election debates
Stuff had it so – and they ran the debate. But I think Andre Alessi on Twitter had it best: Cunliffe started best, Key got in a zinger and put him off his stride, Cunliffe dominated the second half – particularly on Christchurch issues. Also on twitter: …
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 11:47 am, September 2nd, 2014 - 34 comments
Categories: accountability, blogs, john key, Judith Collins, national
Tags: dirty politics, The Political Scientist
Puddleglum at Political Scientist has an excellent post that you should read all of Here are a couple of lengthy extracts, but go and read it all: Having just listened to an item featuring John Key on Checkpoint (National Radio) I now have to announce …
Written By: Bunji - Date published: 12:39 pm, August 30th, 2014 - 228 comments
Categories: Judith Collins
Tags:
Press conference is running late, but Judith Collin's statement is out – resigning as Minister, but not as MP. New allegations of her undermining SFO head Adam Feeley have finally been too much. Not too much apparently was: Oravida conflict of interest …
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