Why I’m Not That Concerned About ACT Twerking Its Way To 2020 Victory

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  June 20, 2018  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  3 Comments

it’s probably useful at this point to take a bit of a closer look at the prediction being advanced in certain quarters that David Seymour’s efforts on a certain reality tv show of late might somehow singlehandedly revive the ACT Party. As an actual “party”, I mean, rather than an entity whose Parliamentary Caucus can currently be counted using the single finger of one hand. 

“If This Is Marxism Then I Am Not A Marxist” – What Would Karl Think Of The PRC Claiming His 200th Birthday?

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  May 13, 2018  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  5 Comments

It kinda amuses me, kinda infuriates me how much of a big deal the People’s Republic of China’s been making in relation to Marx’s birthday over the weekend.

On A Potential Future For The Commonwealth

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  May 1, 2018  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  5 Comments

Slightly odd thought (which requires further development): The Commonwealth is at something of a crossroads at present, and understandably so. After all, it’s never truly made a ‘proper’ transition from a sort of vestigial “ashes of empire” into a properly multi-national bloc on any but a talking-shop level.

Nothing Sensible Nor To Trust In Garth McVicar’s Sentence On Shooting

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  April 2, 2018  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  8 Comments

If McVicar’s a genuine enthusiast for summary executions in lieu of judicial process [and I’m *not* saying that that’s what yesterday’s occurrence was, by any stretch of the imagination – simply that that appears to be the logical next step to McVicar’s public advocacy], then that’s his business.

And a sorry business it is, too.

For NZ First De Nile Is A River That Runs Through Warkworth

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  March 29, 2018  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  4 Comments

Marcroft is supposed to have asked for a meeting with Mitchell, turned up, and bluntly laid out that Mitchell was to cease his support for a particular river restoration project if he wanted it to see funding from the Government.

On The Greens’ Transition From Voice In The Wilderness To Ventriloquism Through Handing Their Questions To National

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  March 20, 2018  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  7 Comments

Unquestionably the biggest news in politics of the past week – despite several somewhat sensationalized stories that’ve been in circulation recently – was the Green Party announcing a bold move to give the National Party their Primary Questions in Parliament on occasions when the former are not using them. 

National’s Anti-Aircraft Fire At Ron Mark Proves To Be Blanks

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  March 16, 2018  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  12 Comments

Good grief. The National Party’s attempted attack on Ron Mark would be farcical if it weren’t so downright facile. They’re claiming Defence Force aircraft were illegitimately used to transport Ron to official commitments in his capacity as Defence Minister from “Mark’s hometown, Masterton”.

Get A Grip: Forcing A Handshake Is Not a Right

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  March 12, 2018  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  7 Comments

I’m not quite sure what was going through the head of the academic at the University of Auckland who sought to coerce a Muslim student into grasping hands with him, although for him to then go to the subsequent effort of attempting to run the poor girl through the University’s official complaints process for alleged sexual discrimination presumably suggests that it was quite some level of (faux) outrage. 

On English’s Billexit And Why This Means National Is In Trouble For 2020

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  February 14, 2018  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  11 Comments

I’m frankly a bit puzzled when it comes to yesterday’s shock political news, and for one simple reason: Contrary to what a number of people are saying (particularly the “SECOND ELECTION LOST IN A ROW” style of comments) – Bill English leaving the National Party Leadership and Parliament may not actually help contribute to a National-led government in 2020.

On National’s Recent Leadership Rumblings

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  February 1, 2018  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  7 Comments

I was thinking about the recent rumblings in the National Party towards their ‘leadership team’, and something didn’t quite add up.

On Pregnancy-Induced Irrationality & Mood-Swings In The Nation’s Electorate

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  January 20, 2018  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  14 Comments

The specter of a woman having a child out of wedlock whilst drawing tens of thousands of dollars a year from the state in income must cause absolute paroxysms of political pyroclasmis! 

Bitcoin – A Glimpse At Our (Grim) Economic Future

By Curwen Ares Rolinson  /  December 14, 2017  /  Curwen Rolinson, Most Recent Blogs, Setting The Agenda  /  28 Comments

There’s been quite a lot of mainstream media attention on the Bitcoin phenomenon recently. And while any amount of prognostication about whether its runaway increases in value represent a bubble can be found pretty much wherever one cares to look, there’s one aspect of the present Bitcoin boom that I think’s been somewhat under-discussed.