When Maggie Thatcher was elected the first female Prime Minister of the UK in 1979 there were many who hailed her victory as a victory for women. The argument went that irrespective of your political views it was worth celebrating the fact that a woman had finally made it to the top political job in the UK by popular vote.
The ACT Party were out on the weekend with 100 people supporting their Auckland march to oppose the closure of charter schools.
In their first 100 days Labour has offered us “not-National” policies but little else – unless a Woman’s Weekly Prime Minister is considered in the common good.
Most of these people spend their working days earning fat salaries advising wealthy corporates and rich listers how to minimise their taxes.
DOC has great people doing a fantastic job but it’s had nasty, venal ministers like Nick Smith and Maggie Barry who have done their best to drive it into the ground.
Israeli singer Victoria Hanna is due to perform at the New Plymouth WOMAD festival (17-19 March 2018). She should never have been invited to come. Hanna is currently based at the University of California as part of the Visiting Israeli Artist Programme of The Israel Institute who describe their role in these terms –
Brash’s comments criticising the use of the Maori language on Radio New Zealand are childish and pathetic. And that’s before we get to the underlying oppressive racism.
Can we expect any significant change from the Cullen tax working group?
Labour says it has negotiated a softening of some of the most odious of the TPPA’s provisions, but this doesn’t pass the sniff test. The ISDS (Investor State Dispute Settlement) process remains intact. All that has been negotiated is a small reduction in the circumstances where it can be used.
It was sad reading Stephen Hickson’s defence of capitalism in the Press (25 October 2017). Sad because capitalism has delivered so much outright misery to so much of humanity over the last 300 years that it’s hard to believe anyone could be so blinkered.