Politics
Everything about politics
Bryce Edwards Is on the Naughty Chair
Last Thursday, April 1st, Dr Bryce Edwards, political analyst in residence at Victoria University of Wellington, ruffled the very considerable plumage of species Iratum dominae – better known to us as Megan Woods, Minister of Housing, earning him a personal rebuke: Arousing Woods’s ire was Dr Edwards’s column for
Daily News Roundup – 6 April 2021
Mental health crisis Kyle MacDonald (Herald): Jacinda Ardern has failed us on mental health – and it’s only going to get worse (paywalled) Henry Cooke (Stuff): ‘A lot of data and negative statistics’: Inside the battle behind dramatic edits and huge delays to a Government mental health report Tess McClure
Ordinary Grunts Refuse to Bend the Knee
As I’ve written elsewhere, claims of America descending into fascism were four years early. It wasn’t in the Trump era that the US Capitol was patrolled by thousands of troops while the rulers hunkered down behind concrete barriers and miles of razor wire. It’s only since the
‘White Supremacy’ or White and Supremely Great?
Call me a reactionary, but the contemporary leftist obsession with “racial justice” seems an awful lot like a Revolution of the Envious Losers. Dispute it as they will, the modern world was largely built by the brains and sweat of white, Christian, male Westerners. The left, of course, will cherry-
Unfunded Chemotherapy Drugs to Be Administered for Free
The National Party wants to see the law changed so that Kiwis can have their unfunded chemotherapy drugs administered in DHBs and cover the cost of this, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says. “At the moment cancer medicines unfunded by PHARMAC can only be administered in expensive private
Ocasio-Cortez Named ‘Least Effective Lawmaker’ in All of Congress.
Lawmaker effectiveness is something that never seems to be measured in New Zealand although I’m not sure why. It certainly is something that is measured regularly in the USA. The Center for Effective Lawmaking, based at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, is a non-partisan group tasked
Auckland’s Light Rail
Michael Bassett bassettbrashandhide.com The story on Thursday’s front page of the Herald (our Nervous Chihuahua) about a revival of the project to build light rail from central Auckland to the airport encapsulates much that is wrong with this government. Yesterday, the two MPs for Mt Roskill, one former
Letters to Jacinda
A letter from Billy: We’ve set up an email address so you too can submit letters to the Prime Minister. We will format your letter in a suitable child-like font, perhaps make it look like crayon, so she will read it, then we will publish it and send
The World Has Gone Mad
It is extremely troubling when you feel that April Fool’s is no longer relevant, as things that happen on a daily basis make the average April Fool’s joke look fairly bland. The biggest April Fool’s joke of course was Siouxsie Wiles winning New Zealander of the Year.
More of Jacinda’s ‘Kindness’ as Mental Health Stats Worsen
Jacinda Ardern has made much of “kindness” in her approach to politics. Sadly, like almost everything else she touches, it is more of a slogan than anything else. It isn’t a surprise then that the nation’s mental health statistics have actually worsened under this government’s policies, rather
The Week in Review
Vaccination System Has a Bug, Government Refuses Target In the last week we’ve seen some troubling news around the vaccination rollout, with a data privacy breach within the booking system being used for household contacts to book their COVID-19 vaccination. People accessing the system were able to pull
Face of the Day
“In my country, Myanmar, while I’m doing a speech on this day, there are so many people dying, more than 100 people died today. I deeply feel sorry for all the people who have lost their life.” The words of the Miss Grand International beauty pageant’s contestant from