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Politics

Posts on government and governence at national and local level, political parties,politicians, and political participation

Categories under Politics

T’was the day of Christmas

Written By: - Date published: 10:37 am, December 26th, 2019 - 13 comments

National’s social media team spent Christmas day deleting tweets suggesting there was any link between its MPs and members of the #turnardern campaign.

MMP Mark II*

Written By: - Date published: 11:57 pm, December 25th, 2019 - 24 comments

What beats MMP? Open-list proportional representation with a low threshold would be a good option.

Democratisation by Social Media and the Internet Is Just Meaningless Waffle

Written By: - Date published: 1:35 pm, December 24th, 2019 - 22 comments

Social Media and the Internet are literally in our faces 24/7 but our political engagement is diminishing.

The future of Capitalism

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, December 23rd, 2019 - 128 comments

2019 has been a remarkable year for those wanting social, economic, and environmental renewal. The level of protest remains high, the idealism as strong as ever, but the ferment is not generating progressive wins, is weakening democratic reflexiveness to challenge, and is weakening pan-national institutions. It’s not that easy to get on the shelves here, […]

How To Get There 22/12/19

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, December 22nd, 2019 - 28 comments

Welcome to TS’s Sunday think piece. It’s a blank sheet, a tabula rasa, waiting for your thoughts on the future and How To Get There.  

What Cheeto, Bojo and Scomo are up to

Written By: - Date published: 3:56 pm, December 21st, 2019 - 76 comments

It has been a tough week for conservative leaders with Trump impeached and the evangelical magazine Christianity Today calling for his resignation, Johnson in the UK announcing voter fraud measures reminiscent of the American deep South, and in Australia Morrison being criticised for missing in action, upstaged by a 13 year old girl and pushing through protection for religious bigotry that Israel Folau would be pleased with. 

The British Election result 2019

Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, December 20th, 2019 - 21 comments

Democracy is a precious thing, and not something that can be taken for granted. Having an electoral system where every vote matters is crucial to creating a decent society. It is time that the UK started seriously debating electoral reform and how to improve its democratic systems.

Rush to Judgment redux

Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, December 20th, 2019 - 151 comments

Barrister Maria Dew has delivered a strong conclusion in the report concerning allegations of sexual assault by one Labour Party member against another member.  And Paula Bennett has not as yet apologised for her totally unfounded allegations against third parties.

No Right Turn: Impeached!

Written By: - Date published: 6:03 pm, December 19th, 2019 - 17 comments

The US House of representatives has just voted to impeach Donald Trump.

Bridges fights losing twitter battle with Nigel Latta

Written By: - Date published: 7:52 am, December 19th, 2019 - 18 comments

Simon Bridges’s twitter account has chosen to celebrate Christmas by engaging in a twitter spat with well known Media personality Nigel Latta.  And has not fared well.

Labour raise the minimum wage

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, December 19th, 2019 - 32 comments

“Around a quarter of million workers will be better off next year”

How to counter angry boomer campaigns

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, December 17th, 2019 - 154 comments

The UK election was won not by Russian bots but by older voters with limited technical skills circulating poorly designed ads.  What can be done in New Zealand to counter what is clearly a right wing campaign tactic?

Listening to left wing dissent

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, December 16th, 2019 - 178 comments

What stands out for me are the voices of the people who are saying actually, there were solid reasons for abandoning Labour, this is why I did. There’s something important here about really listening to dissent and being willing to engage with views that don’t make sense in the context of our own personal ideologies.

What next after the White Island silence?

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, December 15th, 2019 - 60 comments

At 2.11pm on Monday December 16, New Zealanders are being invited to hold a minute’s silence to respect those who have died in the White Island/Whakaari explosion. Once that’s over, it’s time to start turning to what might occur to prevent this kind of disaster happening again.

How To Get There 15/12/19

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, December 15th, 2019 - 33 comments

Welcome to TS’s Sunday think piece. It’s a blank sheet, a tabula rasa, waiting for your thoughts on the future and How To Get There.  

Is it better to deliver in Government or better to shine?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, December 14th, 2019 - 180 comments

Let’s frame this in leftie terms: can you get in, do grunty policy moves, and stay popular?

Lefties on The Standard: UK election edition

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, December 13th, 2019 - 197 comments

A dedicated post on The Standard providing a discussion space for left-wing people only.

Free Broadband

Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, December 12th, 2019 - 7 comments

Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog

Brexit – sorry its not getting done anytime soon.

Written By: - Date published: 11:23 am, December 12th, 2019 - 5 comments

Can the Conservatives get brexit done by January 31st as they are promising in the election? The short answer is no. The slogan is catchy, and taps into public sentiment. But it is also pure unadulterated bullshit. If the Conservatives do form the next government these words will haunt them, especially Boris Johnson.

The Missing Millions

Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, December 12th, 2019 - 18 comments

Millions of people and an entire region of the UK left out of polling calculations….

Bouganville and Brexit

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, December 12th, 2019 - 2 comments

The island of Bouganville has just had a vote towards independence from Papua New Guinea.  The result has interesting similarities with the Brexit vote.

Thawing after the BRR

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, December 12th, 2019 - 27 comments

“The purpose of fiscal policy should be to ensure ongoing wellbeing for all and the health of our environment.”

Green Budget win backs public sector leadership on climate change

Written By: - Date published: 2:34 pm, December 11th, 2019 - 9 comments

“We want to make sure hospitals, schools and other public institutions can use energy in a more climate-friendly way, cut emissions, and lower their energy bills.”

Pop Media Bullshit – another example.

Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, December 11th, 2019 - 10 comments

It’s said that in times of war, the first casualty is truth. Well, since truth is taking such a pummeling these days, it follows that we are at war, no?

Then they came for public art

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, December 11th, 2019 - 6 comments

The conservative leadership in the United States and in Australia are both taking steps to attack the sustainability of public art.  Shame on them.

The freedom to lie during an election campaign

Written By: - Date published: 6:55 am, December 11th, 2019 - 75 comments

Two recent National advertisements involving drastically inaccurate graphics have attracted attention.  And at the same time National is opposing changes to the Electoral Law that would extend the time that it is an offence to publish a false and misleading advertisement during an election period.

The NHS and privatisation

Written By: - Date published: 12:14 pm, December 10th, 2019 - 18 comments

The NHS is well loved by the British public. It is seen as something which makes British society decent and civilised. That the NHS is now stretched and badly underfunded is seen as a national outrage. Fears of even further privatisation of the NHS due to a US trade deal has unsurprisingly made the NHS the number one election issue.

Rent increased over 40% under National (Key years)

Written By: - Date published: 10:24 am, December 10th, 2019 - 137 comments

Now Simon Bridges as a bridge to sell you.

Crash ‘n Burn

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, December 10th, 2019 - 17 comments

A chuttering PM and…well, I guess being left speechless.

Northern Ireland’s precarious peace

Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, December 9th, 2019 - Comments Off on Northern Ireland’s precarious peace

On Friday, UK leader of the opposition revealed a leaked Treasury Paper which undermines the Prime Ministers claims that there will be no checks on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. My earlier post on each of the party’s Brexit positions pointed out how critical Northern Ireland has been in the Brexit debate.

Can UK Labour do it?

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, December 9th, 2019 - 164 comments

Very unlikely. From the polls taken in the UK few hours ago, the Conservatives are in for an historic fourth consecutive term in Parliament.