Posts Tagged ‘labour’

In Praise of Key

Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, May 27th, 2015 - 331 comments

Hardly a comprehensive take, but in the interest of stating some obvious stuff…

Dear NZ Labour. Listen up.

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, May 12th, 2015 - 48 comments

For the sake of reference – Nye Bevan was a Labour mp and the architect of the British NHS. Michael Sheen’s  speech was a defense of that institution, but the underpinning message is, well…

Fear, Loathing and Denial.

Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, May 10th, 2015 - 49 comments

There’s a major and rather obvious contributory factor to UK Labour’s failure in the UK general election that doesn’t seem to have drawn any comment. Until now…

Miliband:Dangerous Muppet?

Written By: - Date published: 12:58 pm, May 3rd, 2015 - 40 comments

Is Ed Miliband fighting democracy? Well…

Swings

Written By: - Date published: 11:26 am, May 1st, 2015 - 41 comments

A snippet on Labour’s prospects in Scotland.

A Very British Jamboree

Written By: - Date published: 12:22 pm, April 18th, 2015 - 33 comments

Is Thatcherism finally to be laid to rest?

On Navel Gazing and Looking Out.

Written By: - Date published: 2:38 pm, October 6th, 2014 - 63 comments

As the NZ Labour Party stands on the cusp of some soul searching, it might want to note that there are alternatives to pointless navel gazing.

The Monkeywrench

Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, September 29th, 2014 - 75 comments

Some thoughts from a different angle on ‘what went wrong’, or maybe just saying stuff along the lines of what plenty of other people are thinking

Note to Media – check your facts.

Written By: - Date published: 12:55 pm, January 29th, 2014 - 202 comments

Sometimes I despair for our media. I mean, the latest parroting of Key’s line on Best Start is the stuff of black comedy. Apparently Key’s claiming David Cunliffe misled people about eligibility because they don’t get the payment while they also get paid parental leave. And the media are trumpeting it all over the place. […]

A little exploration?

Written By: - Date published: 12:22 pm, January 23rd, 2014 - 23 comments

On the pipers, the dancers and the great unwashed.

David Cunliffe on the State of the Nation

Written By: - Date published: 4:11 pm, January 22nd, 2014 - 185 comments

Following your great response to Micky’s recent post David Cunliffe has got in touch about your comments, his policy, and his big speech on Monday.

Some gentle advice for Labour peeps

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 pm, August 27th, 2013 - 58 comments

The contest for the leadership of the Labour party heralds a new era of democracy for the Labour party, and for New Zealand, and people are quite rightly excited about it.

As I’ve said before, this is a great opportunity to bring unity to the party and to get a head-start on the election campaign.

Do Not Press!

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, November 20th, 2012 - 51 comments

Funny thing about winnning the war is that it can take a bit of time to sink in.

Shearer or Labour?

Written By: - Date published: 12:58 pm, November 19th, 2012 - 247 comments

Between writing this post and submitting it I see rumours are flying like demented monkeys. So perhaps this post is a timely call to sort shit out democratically. Now. And once and for all.

Break For The Future

Written By: - Date published: 9:18 am, November 14th, 2012 - 102 comments

When Margaret Thatcher was asked about her greatest achievement, she promptly answered: “New Labour.” And she was right: her triumph was that even her political enemies adopted her basic economic policies. True victory over your enemy occurs when they start to use your language, so that your ideas form the foundation of the entire field. Today, when neoliberal hegemony is clearly falling apart, the only solution is to repeat Thatcher’s gesture in the opposite direction.

To the Back Teeth. And Beyond

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, August 17th, 2012 - 141 comments

Pagani wrote it. Robertson cleared it. And Shearer uttered it. To summarise; those living by sickness entitlements are probably dodgy b’stards. Nice. Before I go on, I should be clear that this post isn’t some insightful fiction. This is the reality of getting by with a sickness benefit.

118 years on – what would Kate say?

Written By: - Date published: 4:15 pm, September 19th, 2011 - 15 comments

118 years to the day when NZ became the first country in the world to give women the vote.  You can imagine how incredibly proud Kate and the sisterhood must have been. You can imagine them lifting their eyes to the future and seeing women standing shoulder to shoulder with their brothers, equal in political rights (and determined to […]

Privatisation: Day Of Action

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, June 11th, 2010 - 22 comments

John Key continues to let his attack dog do his business, and take the heat. So on Saturday there’s some more heat with a big Day Of Action to fight Rodney’s latest nasty bill. The Greens, Labour and the Maori Party are all fighting this odorous piece of legislation that aims to allow privatisation of water, amongst other attacks on local democracy.

Time for a Just Transition?

Written By: - Date published: 4:28 pm, December 30th, 2009 - 15 comments

With so much attention on climate change, and such a lack of concern, urgency and commitment to action from the current Tory government you would think it would be something labour would be working hard on, and be busy drafting detailed policy and vocally demanding action be taken. The Copenhagen climate summit was a cop […]

From the archives

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, July 10th, 2009 - 14 comments

I figured this was deserving of a post of its own. It’s a cartoon from The Standard (v1.0) sent in by Anita in reference to the post on Labour and Nazis below. Thanks! Front page, 23 May 1940. Click for enlargements.

Nice touch

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, June 16th, 2009 - 4 comments

Stolen from the Grassroots Labour site.

Will your house get bulldozed?

Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, May 14th, 2009 - 15 comments

Labour’s just launched an interactive Google map showing National’s plans for the Waterview connection. Click the map below to check it out.

Conservatism and Progressivism

Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, January 27th, 2009 - 99 comments

Conservatism is all about maintaining the status quo. It assumes that the status quo is essentially ok, while change is best avoided. The idea comes from philosophers like Edmund Burke who figured the reason conventions and structures get to endure in the first place is because they work. Of course if you’re in the middle […]

Live: Helen Clark launches Labour campaign

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, October 12th, 2008 - 9 comments

Labour’s 2008 list

Written By: - Date published: 2:39 pm, August 31st, 2008 - 40 comments

Comment soon but for now here’s their full list (PDF link). Scoop’s got their presser up. [lprent: Handmirror: A Woman’s Place: The Labour Party List. No Right Turn: Labour’s list: looks like New Zealand. Granny Herald: Surprise picks in Labour party list. Salient: The Labour list has been announced. Grant Robertson: Wellington central candidate ]

National – more women-friendly?

Written By: - Date published: 4:52 pm, May 20th, 2008 - 52 comments

Colin Espiner pointed it out the other week, National “needs more women. Never over-represented in National at the best of times, the party is looking increasingly estrogen-lite.” So there would have been a sigh of relief in National circles that they can now distance themselves from comments such as these from declared departee Bob Clarkson: […]

Workers be careful, says Aussie Unionist

Written By: - Date published: 10:13 pm, May 7th, 2008 - 158 comments

Sharan Burrow (President of Australian Council of Trade Unions) talked to Morning Report about the union experiences in Australia under a conservative government, and their hope for the future with Kevin Rudd. She also had some words of warning for NZ workers: “We say to your workers here, be very careful, you don’t want to […]

Would Key scrap GST on food?

Written By: - Date published: 3:12 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 5 comments

With hints that regional fuel tax could be put on the “go slow” list, along with parts of the emissions trading scheme, it seems like we shouldn’t take any policy on taxes for granted. For example, there’s a belief that National and Labour have consensus on not removing GST on food. A couple of comments […]

CTU Secretary selected for Maungakiekie

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, May 3rd, 2008 - 49 comments

CTU Secretary Carol Beaumont is set for a change of career later this year. She’s been selected as the Labour candidate for the safe Auckland seat of Maungakiekie currently held by Mark Gosche. As we know, Mark is standing for the list only this year, in order to spend more time with his family and […]

Electoral donations reported

Written By: - Date published: 9:50 am, May 1st, 2008 - 52 comments

The Electoral Commission has published the parties’ donation returns for 2007. It is worth noting from the outset that under the electoral law then in force only donations over $10,000 had to be declared and anonymous donations, including the use of anonymising trusts, were legal. Labour has the largest return, at $1,030,446.39. But $700,000 was […]

On child poverty

Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, April 29th, 2008 - 26 comments

The Child Poverty Action Group has released a report [PDF, 400k] showing there were 185,000 children living in poverty in New Zealand in 2004. That’s a big number but it is out of date and already well down from the dark days of the 1990s. It is estimated that higher employment, higher wages, paid paternal […]

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