A Study in Party Stability

In terms of long-term stability, one party above stands above all others, with the exception of personality-driven groups such as NZ First and United Future. That party is the Greens.
Read More →Cunliffe vs Robertson – Round 2

If Cunliffe can’t show he has listened to the damage that disunity has produced, then he isn’t fit to be a leader. One means available to Cunliffe for this is the symbolism of who he picks as a running mate for this primary. In this Stuart Nash has the edge.
Read More →The tasks before the left and labour movement

Anyone on the left would have been disappointed at the result of the election.
Read More →From Fiji’s dictatorship to ‘democracy’ – the AUT student team on the job

While the Fiji general election arguably legitimised Voreqe Bainimarama’s so-called 2006 “coup to end all coups”, a student team from AUT University performed something of a coup themselves.
Read More →David Cunliffe Resigns As Labour Leader – Forces Robertson Out of the Beltway

David Cunliffe has made a smart move, resigning as the leader of the Labour Party so as to force a leadership primary campaign. The move draws rival Grant Robertson out of the beltway to parts of the country where he can be truly tested. The alternatives would have seen Robertson become leader uncontested, a tactic […]
Read More →Deep thought vs Deep prejudice

. . This letter to the editor appeared in The Listener, on 27 September, and caught my attention; . . Mr Dawson wrote in response to one of those typically unthinking comments which condemned the poor for their “unbridled, reckless breeding“. The previous letter writer, a Mr Smith, parrotted the usual prejudice, For too long, […]
Read More →GUEST BLOG: Kate Davis – The post election postmortem is giving me post party depression

Just get back on the horse and giddy the fuck up Labour. You may have been lapped but we need you still in the race.
Read More →A dictionary of education terms and definitions, brought to you by the letters R E F O R and M

Free to all TDB readers, please enjoy your very own cut-out-and-keep handy primer of terms that I predict you will need to know over the next three years…
Read More →A Mines Rescue brigadesman’s perspective on the Pike River Mine

John Key got his 3rd term, Peter Whittall is a free man and men in suits are still lying to people in tears.
Read More →The Left Triumphant! A Counterfactual History of the Last Twelve Months.

DID IT REALLY HAVE TO END LIKE THIS? Reading through the commentary threads of the left-wing blogs it is impossible to not feel the anger; the sense of betrayal; the impression of having had something vital ripped from their grasp; that many left-wing voters are still experiencing.
Read More →GUEST BLOG – Myles Thomas: The media won it!

Make no mistake, John Key is a clever communicator – reasonable, authoritative and relaxed – but without the media he wouldn’t be PM.
Read More →Not Learning Lessons Past: the West’s Response to IS

In an earlier posting Ukraine, United Kingdom, Ireland, Scotland, I noted that the first lesson of conflict learned by Robert McNamara was “understand your adversary”. If we have honourable objectives, our first and most important weapon is empathy.
Read More →GUEST BLOG: Dr Jarrod Gilbert – Proof of David Farrar’s deception: my own experience of Dirty Politics

In the lead up to the election the Minister of Corrections Anne Tolley launched a gang policy. In order to justify the government’s approach she used gang figures that overstated the gang problem. Not by a little bit, but a lot. And I mean a lot.
Read More →UPDATED FEATURE: Will Labour’s Caucus Pull Off A Back-Room Deal To See Robertson Win Uncontested?

SPECIAL FEATURE – UPDATED by Selwyn Manning. ON THURSDAY NIGHT pressure mounted against all contenders to withdraw their intention to replace David Cunliffe as Labour leader. That is, apart from one: Grant Robertson. The factions inside Labour’s caucus are manoeuvring to decide on a new leader through back-room dealing rather than see the contest go […]
Read More →UPDATE: Has the one party state crackdown begun already? Left wing NZ activist group removed from Facebook

Well known left wing activist social media group, ‘John Key Has Left Down NZ’ has been shut down on Facebook.
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