MEMO TO THE Prime Minister’s Office: Please tell Stephen Mills to stay off the radio. When the boss of Labour’s polling agency, UMR, comes across on RNZ’s Nine to Noon “Politics” slot (14/10/19) as considerably further to the right than both Kathryn Ryan and Matthew Hooton then, believe me, it’s time to tell your pollster, very politely, to stick to his stats.
It is neither ethically nor morally acceptable to be on the wrong side of the climate crisis. And New Zealanders see it as socially unacceptable.
It’s a harsh lesson for Labour that allegations in the age of social media trump actual guilt or innocence but as insane as that is, that’s where we are now.
So while the democratic principle of one (adult) person, one vote gives us the semblance of equal access to power, that power and wealth remain inaccessible and unjustly distributed, and no-one’s even talking about deconstructing the CCO system that castrates politicians, dwarfs their income, undermines their accountability to their voters, and short changes the workers on the ground.
Where were the in-depth pieces, regionally or nationally, about rates increases, service shortfalls, how Councils will deal with key issues such as water in the future and a myriad of other issues? There was virtually no analysis at all.
Even at the height of accusing Jacinda of covering up a sexual assault, only 2.5% more liked Simon Bridges. When you can’t win any more favour off the person being accused of covering up a sex crime, you really do need to ask some serious questions.
There needs to be a wholesale re-investment into Local Government so that instead of being a faux democratic choice, citizens actually feel like their vote means something rather than an act masquerading as democracy for the illusion of legitimacy.
Goff limps home to victory in an election that barely a third of the City has bothered to vote for and will preside over a divided Council. Who are the winners and who are the losers in Auckland Mayoralty 2019?
Over the past week or two, there’s been quite a bit of buzz about New Zealand First out there in the media.
Great news, because this segment has become so stupidly popular on Magic Talk radio, from next week it’s being extended from 30minutes to a full hour! That’s 60minutes of cutting political commentary from 3 white heteronormative cis males that you can’t get anywhere else, except almost every where else.