Everything about politics
No one can say that Boris Johnson has had a good year. Few premiers in the world have had a good 2020, Jacinda Ardern being one notable exception. But 2020 was doubly difficult for Boris; he already had the Herculean task of dealing with Brexit when the pandemic took hold,
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December 23rd 2020 The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) recently conducted a survey of their members’ views on the subject of taking the knee before all professional football games in the UK. Over 400 players responded to the survey and around 80% expressed their support for taking the knee. This was
“Pathological altruism”, a phrase popularised by the book of the same name, refers to altruism that is taken to an unhealthy extreme, such that either it harms the altruistic person, or their well-intentioned actions cause more harm than good. As the famous proverb puts it, the road to hell
We all know the type: the person who demands, “Do you know who I am?” and insists on standing on every pettifogging point of ceremony. Occasionally, it’s amusing, such as when Prince Charles gently chided Molly Meldrum’s reference to “Your mum”, with, “You mean, Her Majesty the Queen”
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As has been obvious since at least Tocqueville the most astute observations about the national character are often made from the outside. However much it hurts. But Australians are notoriously prickly to even constructive criticism from non-Australians (excepting New Zealanders: as our siblings, you’re allowed to pick on
The Government has promised light rail to Auckland Airport for two elections now. In 2017 they promised that light rail to Mt Roskill would be delivered by 2021. Now it appears, after three years of inaction, that no public body has the skills or wherewithal to even begin the project:
David Theobald As I sit here in my rural idyll North of Auckland I am extremely worried about the new mutant virus that has been stealing all the headlines over the last few days (note the timeline there, very important – this thing is quick to move). Am I concerned about
Parliament, and end of year reviews Chris Trotter: 2021 will be about brown poverty and white guilt Steve Braunias (Guardian): Photos of New Zealand politicians and their bookcases are creepily revealing Claire Trevett (Herald): The lol-lights and comedy awards of 2020 (paywalled) Brent Edwards (NBR): Fact or Fiction: the
The Government fought the election on the basis that they did a stellar job on saving us all from the Chinese Plague. Except they withheld key information and reports from us which showed that they were far from being in control, and only really got through the crisis through good
Although the hapless Neville Chamberlain has borne the historical burden of the disastrous appeasement policy prior to WWII, the reality is that it was an enormously popular policy on nearly all sides. Cheering crowds greeted Chamberlain’s “piece of paper”. Even after the war began, many left-wing groups in
