No, I am not talking about this woeful government. They are most certainly a major handbrake on the economy, but they are going to cost us much more than $3.5 billion. Yes, really. But there is another major handbrake on the economy, and it is going to cost us
The government is proposing a parliamentary watchdog to provide costing information on the proposals of political parties in their election campaigns. National is not keen on this idea, claiming that the government will ‘screw the scrum’ on the Opposition, as they can’t even manage to get a Treasury ‘secondee’
The Maori Party were slaughtered at the last election, with all the Maori seats going to Labour. You may be forgiven for thinking that this would mean that Labour looks after Maori, but we all know that is not true. Don’t get me wrong. I like race-based politics no
The fairy dust really does seem to be fading fast. If even our sycophantic media are starting to criticise the government, hopeless as it is, then you know we are in trouble. Until now, our precious fourth estate has been pandering to the government with shameless form, giving them chance
Well, well… Alison Mau has finally come out and spoken about the Labour Party sexual harassment scandal going on behind its doors. I wasn’t sure if she would, as she said very little if anything about the Young Labour sex scandal last year. However, as the face of #metoo
The botch-up that was last years Census has a lot of ramifications – more than most of us realise. One of the things that will be affected is the 2020 election. Normally, a census will result in the redrawing of electoral boundaries, which are often adjusted because of population changes. Because
Jacinda sees herself as a climate warrior. Let’s face it… climate change is her generation’s ‘nuclear moment’, even though she does not seem to understand that there have been no nuclear explosions (Thank God) since 1945, other than tests, and they have mostly been condemned. The North Koreans
There has been a lot of talk about Christopher Luxon’s political career. Certainly, he has done nothing to dampen the excitement about him being National’s answer to the Holy Grail. Now that Paula Bennett has decided not to contest her electorate seat at the next election, speculation is
Darling Jacinda. She has never met a high horse she cannot preach from, and she never misses an opportunity to insult our closest neighbours. Doing her bit for the planet by wearing the same dreadful boots that she has worn for the past 2 years has given Jacinda the right
Let me start by apologising to those competent current and former members of our police force (we have a couple in the BFD community) but it seems that there is not much that the police manage to do these days to give us all confidence in their ability to keep
This government and most local councils are hellbent on getting people out of cars and onto public transport. This works well in cities like London or Hong Kong, where population numbers are sky high and there are huge numbers of tourists. It doesn’t work quite so well though in
Jeanette Fitzsimons was once described as the most respected person in parliament, which was an honour indeed for someone who was really only ever a minor player in the political game. Still, in the days when she and a tartan bow-tied Rod Donald sat in the house, both were recognised
There was a time when only landowners could vote. I’m not saying that is the way it should be now, but I do think that voting eligibility should depend on a number of things – maturity, skin in the game and a bit of life experience all count as important
We said it at the time… whenever Winston has gone into coalition with other parties in government, it has ended badly. First of all, there was his Gang of Four approach to the Bolger government, and then there was the Owen Glenn saga that didn’t quite sink Helen Clark’
Duncan Garner has written one of the silliest and most patronising articles of all time. At a time when the OCR has reached an all-time low, and everyone knows it cannot mean happy times ahead, Garner has bought into the myth that, as business hates Labour governments, all that we
I have been amazed at how bad Wellington traffic has become in the last 5 years or so. Just this week, there were 2 major traffic incidents that caused tailbacks for literally miles. This is happening far too often, and while something desperately needs to be done, the current council
