Political analysis and commentary shaping the progressive debate in Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on power, policy, and accountability.
REDACTED: Well, as REDACTED predicted, SB’s refusal to grant JLR everything he asked for back in February sent him into a black fury and made him extremely receptive to the idea of getting his own back. It really was very clever of you, REDACTED, to identify JLR’s acute sensitivity to even the slightest of slights. I’ve seldom encountered anyone more willing to allow their passion to over-rule their reason.
WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING inside the National Party Caucus? Are we witnessing a genuine intra-party meltdown or merely the political and personal disintegration of a single individual? When all the dust has settled, will very much have changed?
Our unprecedented protests against the TPPA, from small rural towns to the main cities, moved the political ground on secretly negotiated international treaties that entrench corporate rights, handcuff elected governments and disempower peoples. Politicians were shaken. The Holy Grail of free trade agreements was now a political liability.
I bet Simon Bridges wishes he had been born a Smith, Jones or almost anything rather than bridges. After Winston’s little musical stunt “Burning Bridges”, and extremely punny headlines in the Press two days running, he will be sick of his own name.
NICKY HAGER’S latest revelations concerning the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) could not be more timely. In the year of #MeToo, he has exposed a culture of toxic masculinity extending from the top to the bottom of New Zealand’s armed forces.
The most important lesson to learn from the Israeli court case which saw “fines” handed down to Justine Sachs and…
Neither Melania nor Donald inspire much human sympathy. While the story of Charles and Diana was a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions, D and M are simply a farce, albeit one whose consequences the world is forced to live with. Melania is certainly not a Diana. I can’t see her holding babies with Aids in her arms. It might muck up her pristine white shirt.
The West should choose it’s friends in the Middle East more carefully.
And New Zealand should have as little as possible to do with Israel and Saudi Arabia as possible. They are both rogue states.
News that the Government’s books are better off, to the tune of several billion dollars, means access to medicinal cannabis can now be made quicker.
IN A RECENT POST Jane Kelsey identifies some of the more important challenges posed for the Left by Donald Trump. His peculiar mix of worker-friendly policies and corporate concessions. His willingness to advance protectionism – along with a host of other ideas long-declared “verboten” by neoliberal ideologues. His brazen rejection of globalism. His reaffirmation of the citizen’s indissoluble duty of loyalty to the nation state – and vice versa.