Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 7:59 am, November 5th, 2008 - 34 comments
Ahead of the final leaders’ debate tonight, 08wire has produced a video on John Key’s lies in the second debate. What strikes me about these lies is how they are, for the most part, of the ‘New Zealand sucks’ ilk and that they are quite petty. I guess telling lots of smaller lies lessens the […]
Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 7:53 am, October 21st, 2008 - 56 comments
Colin James has a column in today’s Herald in which he lays out the difference between perception and reality in New Zealand politics. In it he goes through seven points: crime, healthcare, education, the treaty, immigration, poverty and social engineering and points out that in nearly every case Labour has taken action and in each […]
Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 1:45 am, October 1st, 2008 - 69 comments
08wire produces some of the most well-thought out and best argued pieces on the blogosphere, as well as great videos. Well, I know what to do when I see gold – thief it. From 08wires’ post, here’s a table of arguments that comprise National’s ‘New Zealand sucks’ campaign and how they stack up against the facts: (sources) I […]
Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:56 am, September 26th, 2008 - 39 comments
I remember the first time I met Simon Power, when he had just come into Parliament. He struck me as a man who would be a future leader of National and an excellent one at that – articulate, informed, and moderate. Oh, what he has let himself become over 9 years in opposition – just […]
Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 6:30 am, July 14th, 2008 - 40 comments
Yesterday on Agenda, SOE Minister Trevor Mallard said that the Government was undertaking an exploratory study to see whether the factory that currently repairs trains could also be used to assemble trains. If its economical, specialised parts would still be imported but a major manufacturing job would take place in New Zealand, building up New […]
Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 12:05 pm, June 23rd, 2008 - 72 comments
The cornerstone of National’s ‘New Zealand sucks’ campaign is that Australia is much better (and we have to lower taxes and slash work rights to catch up). Now, the Sunday-Star Times produced a well-researched article on standards of living here and in Australia. A year late, but good to see, nonetheless. The conclusions: Your tax […]
Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 4:01 pm, June 20th, 2008 - 49 comments
Every month, Stats releases migration figures. Each month, they show little change in the pattern from last month. And each month, National comes out all in a fury over the figures as if they herald Armageddon while offering no substance, just a lot of bluster. Nothing has changed from April. In the month of April, […]
Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 5:01 pm, June 12th, 2008 - 32 comments
Remember when National was all about the wage gap, whinging about it every day? Heard them talk about it lately? The last mention we can find is three weeks ago. Has the issue suddenly gone away? No, there is still a wage gap and solutions to it require serious debate. But National wasn’t talking about […]
Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 4:02 pm, May 12th, 2008 - 48 comments
We hear an awful lot from the Right about how much New Zealand sucks: ‘crime is up’ they cry (when it’s down), ‘taxes are too high’ (when they’re down), ‘too many dole bludgers’ (when benefit numbers are way, way down), ‘everyone’s leaving for Australia’ (when fewer than 0.7% of people went last year), ‘labour costs […]
Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:19 am, May 2nd, 2008 - 57 comments
National is a party weak on policy. It has had to drop nearly every one of its principled but unpopular policies to get itself in a position to win an election. This raises the question of why someone would vote for National, rather than keep the current lot. One of National’s answers is to claim […]
Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:15 am, May 1st, 2008 - 67 comments
It’s hard to know why people keep interviewing Garth McVicar from Sensible Sentencing. The organisation has no credibility, no research every statement on policy is really just ‘Garth guesses X’. And of course, they made those disgusting comments around the death of Pihema Cameron. Nevertheless, he was on National Radio this morning regarding new stats […]
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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