Information Opinion The blackest day in our nation’s history was election day 1935 when the Labour Party first became the government. This ragtag band of mean-spirited, spiteful, envious losers ushered in a welfare state and other silly socialist measures which did untold damage to our nation. Fortunately, half a
A few years ago I took part in an online discussion with various political junkies, mostly psephologists from British universities including a couple of well known ‘election experts’ from Nuffield College, Oxford, and I gained a certain reputation when I pointed out where they were mistaken. Typically for left wingers
Information Opinion Opinion pollsters when conducting focus groups try to encapsulate the opinions of everybody taking part into a simple sentence: often not the easiest thing to achieve, but if you can, the results can be devastating. The most amusing example of this was across the Tasman in 2004. The
Information Opinion As I have mentioned on numerous occasions to you, dear reader, I am a great student of Macchiavelli. His “rules” set out in The Prince are like Adam Smith’s rules in The Wealth Of Nations: absolutes which you ignore at your peril. Just as 2+2=4
Information Opinion One of the paradoxical aspects of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency was the strong criticism he received from the Anti-Slavery League (of all people!). Many members of that league had earned a good living and received a great deal of attention, which was unlikely to otherwise be directed towards
Information Opinion As the “Noah’s Ark” period of Liz Truss’s UK Prime Ministership (hint: “reigned” for 40 days and 40 nights) draws to its humiliating close, the big question is whether Rishi Sunak is the rainbow: God promising never to do it again. The odds do favour nobody
Information Opinion About twenty years ago a silly book was published called What’s The Matter With Kansas? Boiled down, it claimed that Kansas was stagnating economically and expressed astonishment the people living there didn’t want handouts from the government. The fact that Kansans had ‘self-help’ values and a
The classic movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore has an amusing opening scene: the boy is lying on the floor listening to All The Way From Memphis and the eponymous Alice asks, “Why do we need to listen to Mott The Hoople 24 hours per day. Can you tell
It was ten years ago this week that former American senator and Ppresidential candidate George McGovern died. McGovern hailed from South Dakota, where his father was a Methodist minister and experienced all the trials and tribulations – from the dust bowl to the Great Depression – that afflicted the American midwest during
In a surprise move, Dr Sharma has resigned his seat in Parliament and there will be a by-election in the Hamilton West electorate. Unlike most socialist MPs the good Doctor does have “something to go back to” (as Bob Jones famously observed), hence having little desire to remain – bored to
Yesterday on the AM show Ryan Bridge interviewed a couple of people lamenting the bizarre decision by Creative NZ to stop funding Shakespeare due to colonialism or some such nonsense. Presumably, everyone finds this a little odd and it’s made international news, making New Zealand a laughing stock (hint:
Since it opened around 25 years ago I’ve always referred to the Museum of New Zealand on the Wellington Waterfront not as Te Papa but as “Milo Mama” (geddit? milo/tea?). Inside that underwhelming tomb of cultural cringe, there are numerous displays, videos and ephemera paying homage to such
Information Opinion In February 1746, various political heavyweights threw a massive tantrum with King George II. One thing led to another and the entire cabinet, including Prime Minister Pelham, resigned en masse. The King, scratching his head as to what he should do next, asked William Pulteney, Lord Bath, to
In predictable “New Zealand Disease” fashion there has been a lot of pearl-clutching and hand-wringing about the recent local body elections. In particular, they are asking whether the system is broken because of the low voter turnout in most parts of the country. No, the system isn’t broken and
Information Opinion On Wednesday in Parliament, there was some shocking racist abuse hurled at a Maori ACT member. It was covered by TV3 news (and others), causing a predictable uproar due to the double standard involved. All well and good. But ACT missed the boat on another question and needs
Warning Satire The Prime Minister looked down at the assembled reporters for her daily infomercial, cleared her throat, checked her notes, and began her address to the nation: “We have a health emergency facing New Zealand. It’s important that we address this now rather than kicking the can down
