There are a few experiments going on here now that this blog is on the new server. Massive thanks to my friend who has been working tirelessly to get us on to the new box and into the 2020s. First, there’s a post counter, though as it’s freshly installed, it doesn’t show a true count. […]
Tag: Labour
Targets painted, opposition misses again
Our government’s response to COVID-19 has been better than many nations’, but it is far from perfect, as Ian Powell points out in a well reasoned blog post, and in his article for Business Desk. It’s backed up by a piece by Marc Daalder for Newsroom. To me, Powell’s piece makes a great deal of […]
The British media are telling you they want you to vote Conservative
George Hodan Those who remember Visual Arts Trends, a publication created and edited by my friend Julia Dudnik-Stern in the late 1990s and early 2000s, might recall that I didn’t have kind words about the Rt Hon Tony Blair and his government. In those pre-Iraq war days, one reader was so upset they wrote to […]
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TPPA-11: same thing, different face
Neil Ballantyne/Wikimedia Commons How much has TPPA changed? Not a lot, according to this petition. The full content is below, and if you agree, click through to dontdoit.nz and add your signature. Point (e) is the one that most of us understand, and according to the petition, it’s still there. While all trade agreements […]
Does TPPA redux protect Big Tech?
SumOfUs/Creative Commons Prof Jane Kelsey, in her critique of the still-secret Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership (formerly the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement [TPPA]) notes in The Spinoff: The most crucial area of the TPPA that has not received enough attention is the novel chapter on electronic commerce—basically, a set of rules that will cement […]
All I really know is who I won’t vote for
One thing I love about New Zealand is that we’re not mired in an election cycle years before the event. We’re three weeks or so out from our General Election, and only now am I feeling things are heating up. It’s not that we haven’t had drama. Weeks ago, Metiria Turei was co-leader of […]
The political caricatures of old have taken human form, but they’re still nothing like us
That’s another British General Election done and dusted. I haven’t followed one this closely since the 1997 campaign, where I was backing John Major. Shock, horror! Hang on, Jack. Haven’t the media all said you are a leftie? Didn’t you stand for a left-wing party? Therein lies a fallacy about left- and right […]
Little Big Man was antiestablishment, as is big man Little: straight talk is what Labour needs
The Hon Andrew Little MP has had a good first week as Leader of the Opposition. Some are saying what a breath of fresh air this straight-shooter is. He’s been an MP for three years. And in the context of Labour, which has factions within, that’s a good thing. A guy who isn’t tainted […]
About Labour, I was nearly on the money in May
In May, I wrote (in the wake of the Oravida scandal): The problem with all of this is: where’s Labour, in the midst of the greatest gift an opposition has been given for years? One friend of a friend noted that maybe Labour shouldn’t be attacking, because we Kiwis don’t like whingers. It is […]
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I thought political division got you nowhere in New Zealand
A week and a half ago, I appeared on Back Benches to talk about Winston Peters MP’s “two Wongs” joke, and confined my comments to that. My response, ‘There are still people who enjoy watching Rolf Harris, just as there are still people out there who enjoy listening to Winston Peters.’ And, ‘We have […]
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