Posts Tagged ‘spin’

The Bullshit

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 pm, September 12th, 2017 - 84 comments

National up, NZ Labour down, Greens dead? Really!?

National’s 18 new taxes

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, September 4th, 2017 - 14 comments

A dose of reality on National and taxes, and wise words on the media circus surrounding tax.

Incrementalists ‘Brick It’

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 16th, 2017 - 11 comments

Meet Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and original negotiator behind the Paris Agreement. She’s co-signed an article, published in Nature and signed by over 60 scientists as well as business leaders and other ‘pillars of the global community’ that headlines – “Three years to safeguard our climate”

Counterfeit Bill

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, July 2nd, 2017 - 31 comments

Bill English has an active social media strategy, likely well funded and professional. While most commentators are cringing at it, plenty of people are probably buying the counterfeit Bill.

Employers don’t like Labour’s new employment relations package

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, June 30th, 2017 - 43 comments

In shocking news, it turns out that employers don’t like Labour’s new employment relations package. They (and the usual suspects) are running lines about a return to the 1970s. A time when workers’ share of the wealth was higher, poverty was lower, inequality was lower, and workers had more rights. Sounds awful.

Keith Ng’s four tax myths

Written By: - Date published: 7:31 am, May 25th, 2017 - 23 comments

A useful piece from Keith Ng on myths about tax. It’s an extract from The PSA’s “Progressive Thinking: Ten Perspectives on Tax” booklet.

How much information is being withheld from us?

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, May 13th, 2017 - 13 comments

Covering up inconvenient truths is an old pattern for this government. What percentage of their effort goes in to obfuscating and hiding the facts?

Still spinning “social investment”

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, May 7th, 2017 - 36 comments

Directing welfare spending where it will do most good makes sense. But let’s make sure that that is what it is, not an excuse to simply cut funding, stigmatise, and target “undesireables”. National’s record does not inspire confidence, to say the very least. Then there’s the hypocrisy…

Nats cut police resources then demand the impossible

Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, August 30th, 2016 - 46 comments

We have had years of systematic under funding of the police and front-line numbers are falling. None the less police are now expected to attend every burglary. For the sake of this exercise in public perception other areas of police wrok will suffer.

Interest rates and banks

Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, March 16th, 2016 - 185 comments

Yesterday Andrew Little criticised the banks’ failure to pass on the cut in Official Cash Rate (OCR) to we the people via mortgage / interest rate cuts. Naturally the political right went ballistic.

Key Derangement Syndrome

Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, March 1st, 2016 - 232 comments

A term made up by the usual suspects to mock and belittle any criticism of their primary asset.

TPPA ‘National Interest Analysis’ – get both sides

Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, January 26th, 2016 - 86 comments

The Government has released a TPPA ‘National Interest Analysis’. It should be read along with TPP Legal’s extensive analysis of the costs and risks.

Musings on Dead Cats and Sick Parrots

Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, January 24th, 2016 - 100 comments

A self explanatory post by McFlock.

“Jihadi brides” and Peter Dunne

Written By: - Date published: 12:08 pm, December 10th, 2015 - 19 comments

Like a stopped watch, Peter Dunne sometimes gets it right.

WINZ dysfunctional

Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, October 5th, 2015 - 22 comments

I guess it’s not exactly news that WINZ is dysfunctional, but its interesting to have some actual data on one of the symptoms. Bonus feature – one of the Nats’ worst excuses ever.

Diesel Bomb

Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, October 1st, 2015 - 37 comments

Last Friday I wrote a post on Volkwagen gaming NOx emissions. This is a follow up.

Pandas WTF?

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, October 1st, 2015 - 41 comments

Pandas – one lightweight piece of fluff too far?

NOx-ious shit all around.

Written By: - Date published: 7:49 am, September 25th, 2015 - 109 comments

Been trying to get my head around the implications of Volkswagen’s rigged diesel performance tests. Predictably, and unlike most stories covering this, I couldn’t give a rat’s arse for the financial woes the company might be facing.

Inside National’s spin machine

Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, September 11th, 2015 - 81 comments

A very interesting post in The Herald yesterday by Grant McLachlan (former Parliamentary researcher and a Nat campaign director) detailing National’s well resourced and well organised spin machine.

Away with the economic fairies

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, September 1st, 2015 - 40 comments

The ANZ survey shows business confidence at the lowest levels since the financial crisis. Yesterday John Key insisted that it was “reasonably positive”. He was either completely wrong or lying through his teeth. Either way it’s unacceptable.

The surplusgoround

Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, July 8th, 2015 - 56 comments

The on again off again surplus is on again. Key will be kicking himself for telling us all that we’re not interested in this artificial target.

Polity: Reductio…

Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, June 22nd, 2015 - 29 comments

Rob Salmond at Polity: DPF and Chris Bishop have conspired to come up with a new canard-of-distraction de jour. Today’s trope: “Labour are the conversatives, National the progressives, and Labour is the party of No.”

Rod Oram on the RMA and spin

Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, April 5th, 2015 - 66 comments

An excellent piece by Rod Oram on the RMA and the government’s attempts at spin.

WANTED: new ideas on child poverty

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, September 24th, 2014 - 88 comments

It’s great to see John Key taking a sudden interest in addressing child poverty in New Zealand. But why the change of heart?

Dirty Politics Watch I

Written By: - Date published: 6:10 pm, September 9th, 2014 - 72 comments

A new series on happy mischief and paying back double.

Naming the game

Written By: - Date published: 6:34 pm, August 12th, 2014 - 78 comments

It’s been interesting to watch the nats and their busy little helpers working away at branding the election campaign as a nasty one.

It’s been disappointing to watch the media falling for it so hard.

National standards nonsense

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, June 12th, 2013 - 34 comments

If there was a national standard in scientific method than the right wing spinsters talking up yesterday’s national standards results would all fail it.

Hooton spouting nonsense

Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, June 11th, 2013 - 179 comments

Matthew Hooton is spinning like mad to talk up the economy. Unfortunately his spin sometimes bends the truth beyond breaking point, and there were three examples of that yesterday.

Economic apocalypse – not

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, April 29th, 2013 - 15 comments

National and their proxies have claimed that Labour / Green NZ Power announcement has crashed the stock market and wiped out savings. Lies lies lies. Here’s the data.

Fletcher GCSB Change manager – and QLD

Written By: - Date published: 10:38 am, April 5th, 2013 - 87 comments

Key & a government source responded to Ferguson’s criticisms by attacking Labour & Ferguson.  They claimed Fletcher was the best person to “change manage” the GCSB. Yet, in Queensland Fletcher was publicly criticised for the management of his department. [Updated]

Spinning the job market

Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, March 27th, 2013 - 11 comments

Audrey Young and Simon Collins should get danger money for spinning this hard on jobs. But at least they’re trying, the best that Key can manage is some waffle about a “fluid market”…

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