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  1. Granny gulled by National and Brethren spin

    Written By:  John A -  Date published: 4:32 pm, November 15th, 2007 -  58 comments
    Categories: brethren, election funding, Media
    Tags: , ,

    Granny Herald wants to run a campaign against the Electoral Finance Bill when it doesn’t understand the Electoral Act. Worse, because it doesn’t understand the Act it makes assertions that are neither true to the law or in line with the facts. So it keeps repeating National and Brethren spin. One example is in yesterday’s […]

  2. Speech: Labour is the Party of Ideas

    Written By:  Tane -  Date published: 10:14 am, November 14th, 2007 -  10 comments
    Categories: labour
    Tags:

    The other day we published an extract from Evan Thornley’s speech to the Labour Party conference. We’ve finally managed to get hold of a digital copy, so here it is in full. It’s quite long, but well worth a read: LABOUR IS THE PARTY OF IDEAS NZLP National Conference Keynote Speech – Auckland 4 Nov., […]

  3. What’s National got to hide?

    Written By:  Tane -  Date published: 11:39 am, November 13th, 2007 -  54 comments
    Categories: election funding
    Tags:

    During the debate over the Electoral Finance Bill John Key’s made a lot of noise about National’s willingness to clamp down on anonymous donations and the need to regulate third party expenditure. This makes a lot of sense from his perspective – inoculate the real issues (which National is weak on) and beat up the […]

  4. Larry Lessig talks creative freedom at TED

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 7:02 am, November 10th, 2007 -  1 comment
    Categories: interweb
    Tags:

    About a year ago I discovered the TED website. It’s rapidly become a staple in my internet diet. From their ‘about‘ page: TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and […]

  5. More confusion from National over bulk funding

    Written By:  Tane -  Date published: 5:02 pm, November 7th, 2007 -  39 comments
    Categories: education, national
    Tags: ,

    Some people just never learn. After National’s conflicting statements on bulk funding the other day you’d have thought they’d get their messages in order, if not their policies. But take a look at these comments from Alan Peachey in Parliament yesterday: Hon Marian Hobbs: Has the Minister seen any reports on alternative approaches to supporting […]

  6. Trotter in the Independent

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 2:48 pm, October 17th, 2007 -  Comments Off on Trotter in the Independent
    Categories: articles
    Tags:

    Apologies to The Independent Financial Review and to Chris Trotter for this rather large cut and paste from the second half of his article but it’s good stuff. If you enjoy it perhaps you’ll consider either buying or subscribing to the The Independent. The Press political editor Colin Espiner, in his “On the House” blog, […]

  7. Deja vu: alle par dejeuner

    Written By:  Dancer -  Date published: 3:34 pm, October 12th, 2007 -  9 comments
    Categories: national
    Tags:

    Reading Hager’s observations in his select committee testimony got me thinking. That big business lobby which used to sit behind Dr Brash now sits behind Mr Key. I’m sure McCully has explained to those monied types that National has to be careful about how to describe the true policy agenda. But Mr Key and his […]

  8. Video: John Key meets Brethren

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 11:23 am, October 12th, 2007 -  8 comments
    Categories: brethren
    Tags:

    Here’s the clip that aired on One News during the 2005 election campaign. It was produced after it became apparent that the Brethren were covertly involved but before the full extent of National’s lies were subsequently revealed. There’s a great shot of John Key meeting two of the (pixelated) Brethren and them asking that the […]

  9. More from the Hollow Men

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 10:37 am, October 10th, 2007 -  8 comments
    Categories: national
    Tags:

    National doesn’t want you to see this. If you read five pages today, read these. It’s the transcript of Nicky Hager’s submission to the Justice and Electoral Select Committee on the Electoral Finance Bill. Gems include: “…Don Brash, John Key, Murray McCully, Gerry Brownlee were all able to use the secrecy of the situation to […]

  10. A disturbance in the force?

    Written By:  IrishBill -  Date published: 5:36 pm, October 9th, 2007 -  23 comments
    Categories: blogs, dpf
    Tags: ,

    I might be coming to this belatedly (forgive me if you’ve already noticed it) but it seems the left/right blog war has heated up considerably in the last couple of weeks, and there’s some palpable right wing cyber-paranoia going on. It seems the right have got rather used to New Zealand’s blogosphere being their own […]

  11. May the best team win

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 4:15 pm, October 7th, 2007 -  1 comment
    Categories: sport
    Tags:

    I’m aware that I run the risk of being called a bad loser with this post but I’m going to do it anyway 🙂 It’s always struck me as a bit odd that in many games, soccer, rugby, tennis and so on, the outcome of a championship is often decided by a single game – […]

  12. Obama stops wearing flag pin

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 5:19 pm, October 6th, 2007 -  2 comments
    Categories: International
    Tags:

    The big political news in the US in the last couple of days seems to have been Barack Obama’s decision to stop wearing a flag pin on his lapel. The pins have become more or less standard political attire since 9/11. Barack apparently believes the pin has become a “substitute” for true patriotism. “I decided […]

  13. Conservative humour

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 11:15 am, October 6th, 2007 -  1 comment
    Categories: International
    Tags:

    Paul Krugman of the New York Times reports that “On Wednesday, President Bush vetoed legislation that would have expanded S-chip, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, providing health insurance to an estimated 3.8 million children who would otherwise lack coverage.” He goes on to cite numerous instances where Republicans appear to think that if people […]

  14. DigiPoll: Nats down, Labour up

    Written By:  Natwatch -  Date published: 11:26 am, September 29th, 2007 -  2 comments
    Categories: polls
    Tags:

    The Herald DigiPoll survey puts National on 44.8 per cent support, down 5.5 points on the August poll. That’s its lowest rating in the survey since February. Labour is up 2.8 points to 39.6 per cent. This is a dramatic closure. The Herald puts it down to “a month when National’s leader, John Key, has […]

  15. A hollow man

    Written By:  Tillerman -  Date published: 3:20 pm, September 25th, 2007 -  1 comment
    Categories: national
    Tags:

    Mark Blumsky’s crocodile tears about the tribal nature of Parliament leaves me absolutely gobsmacked. What planet did this cretin drop from? Before he agreed to stand as a candidate someone in the National Party should have explained to him that politics is a dog-eat-dog business, a sometimes torrid contest of ideas, where only the fit […]

  16. All Black is New Zealand

    Written By:  Z K Muggletonspofin -  Date published: 3:32 pm, September 22nd, 2007 -  5 comments
    Categories: labour
    Tags:

    Symbolism should never be underestimated in life, as it can’t be in sport and politics. Take the Rugby World Cup where the symbolism of the All Blacks has prompted many New Zealanders to scornfully view the French team’s sudden change of playing strip to dark blue. Sacrebleu, what’s going on? This means that, if the […]

  17. Is the world voting for.nothing?

    Written By:  Z K Muggletonspofin -  Date published: 10:23 pm, September 16th, 2007 -  1 comment
    Categories: john key
    Tags:

    In a perceptive potshot at the perennial broadcasting gnome, Paul Holmes, Jane Bowron in her Dominion Post ‘Televiews’ piece of 13 September described the aforementioned wee fella’s return to TV One with Whatever happen to.? in unflattering terms. It seems that Bowron is unimpressed by Holmes parading a level of opportunism and shallowness, having returned […]

  18. Q. What goes on tour…

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 10:48 pm, September 11th, 2007 -  3 comments
    Categories: Media
    Tags:

    a) stays on tour? b) stays on tour until there’s political capital to be gained by raising it? Colin Espiner is worth a read: Sure, it wasn’t the smartest thing in the world to invite a suspended prison guard along on the trip… But it’s not a sacking offence. If these are the standards we’re […]

  19. He’s whatever you want him to be – except if you’re a worker

    Written By:  Eddie -  Date published: 2:39 pm, September 5th, 2007 -  Comments Off on He’s whatever you want him to be – except if you’re a worker
    Categories: john key, workers' rights
    Tags: ,

    John Key’s swallowed a lot of rats to make National look electable: nuclear free, war in Iraq, fighter jets, paid parental leave, climate change etc,etc. But you can always trust a Tory to stay true to type over the one thing that they care about more than anything – cutting workers’ pay and conditions. It’s […]

  20. National fights for its right to outspend others?

    Written By:  IrishBill -  Date published: 3:31 pm, August 31st, 2007 -  2 comments
    Categories: election funding, national
    Tags: ,

    I was having a look at David Farrar’s National Party blog this morning and I came across an interesting comment from one of Farrar’s regulars about why National might be so keen to knock over the Electoral Finance Bill. I’ll make it quite clear right now I’ve got my issues with the bill but I […]

  21. Trotter on Key’s conference speech

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 4:12 pm, August 22nd, 2007 -  1 comment
    Categories: articles
    Tags: , ,

    Further to ZKM’s post below it really was a great article last week from Chris Trotter on John Key’s weak National Party conference speech that asserts: A disastrous speech to the National Party conference puts an end to John Key’s honeymoon with the voters. I normally just link to the complete article but the online […]

  22. About

    Written By:  all_your_base -  Date published: 1:24 pm, February 13th, 2007 -  12 comments
    Categories:
    Tags:

    Who are you? Why “The Standard”? What’s your political ‘angle’? Why don’t you say who you are? Who pays for this? Are you getting rich from blogging? Why don’t you post more often/more regularly etc? Where is/was The Standard? I have an idea/comment/suggestion, how can I contact you? No – you must…. Who are you? […]

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