Gordon Campbell on the Police tactics at Parliament
Canada is better known for being the home of relentlessly nice people. Yet its trucking protests have become an unlikely model for social disruption, as […]
lockdown
Gordon Campbell on Australia’s failed model of Covid best practice
In decades gone by, New Zealanders tended to diss this country by comparing it to how much better things were in the States, or in […]
Gordon Campbell on fostering the culture of Covid complaint
Success can be its own worst enemy. If the plane doesn’t crash or the ship doesn’t sink, that doesn’t prove the safety measures were unnecessary, […]
Gordon Campbell on the politics of anger, plus a music playlist
Angry? Are you talkin’ to ME? Of late, the Code Red levels of resentment inspired by the government’s Covid policy almost make one hanker for […]
Gordon Campbell on the politics of vaccine toughlove
Vaccine mandates begin to kick in today for education and healthcare workers. All of them will need to have taken a first dose step towards […]
Gordon Campbell on the calls for “freedom” from Covid restrictions
Free markets, free minds, free choices, Freedom Days. In recent years, has any notion in the English language been so overused and so abused as […]
Gordon Campbell on juggling Covid, and France’s Trump-like populist
It is the age-old Covid problem. How to balance the needs for firms (and schools) to re-open against the need to protect public health. In […]
Gordon Campbell on the perils of declaring premature victory
Sure enough, Saturday’s Vaxathon was a barrel of fun and a throwback not merely to the Telethons of the past. It also revived memories of […]
Gordon Campbell on lifting the lockdowns, and the Covid pill
One can sympathise with firms struggling under the financial stress caused by Covid restrictions. Yet business (and other critics)appear to be demanding that the government […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s Covid re-opening plan
After banging for what has seemed an eternity about how the government doesn’t have a plan for removing restrictions and re-opening the country, National’s own […]
Gordon Campbell on how Delta has changed the endgame for the pandemic
Lockdown vs Delta. Day by day, New Zealand is learning whether a Level Four lockdown can confine and eventually defeat the Delta variant. Yes, the […]
Gordon Campbell on our polarised attitudes to the Covid response
Thesis meets antithesis again, this time in the pages of the New Zealand Herald. A week ago, Liam Dann wrote a column pondering how in […]
Gordon Campbell on the latest lockdown, and on Air NZ’s Saudi military sales
A three day Covid lockdown feels like the pandemic equivalent of T20 cricket. Just as T20 isn’t really cricket, this three day breathing space isn’t […]
Gordon Campbell on why herd immunity isn’t a valid option, and what’s with our reluctance to wear masks ?
Herd immunity has recently bounced back into the headlines as a tool for managing Covid-19, and as a supposed alternative to lockdowns. In the US, […]
Gordon Campbell on the challenges we face in securing Covid-19 vaccines
The early wave of Covid-19 vaccines appear unlikely to deliver a complete shield against getting the infection, as (say) a measles inoculation comes close to […]
Gordon Campbell on kneejerk negativism, Cardi B, and Linda Manz
Yesterday, Victoria recorded 216 new Covid-19 cases and twelve deaths. An inquiry released a couple of days ago found that 90% of Victoria’s second wave […]
Gordon Campbell on the election delay
Hi, team. While the majority of the team of five million has gritted its teeth and obeyed the rules throughout the Covid-19 crisis, a sizeable […]
Gordon Campbell on the new lockdowns, leadership and Lebanon
As Melbourne has shown, the webs of urban life overlap so extensively that community transmission can be very hard to trace, let alone control. Each […]
Gordon Campbell on the problems the pandemic is causing for Big Oil
Chances are, climate change won’t kill you overnight, and that’s got to be significant. Yet while we were all in lockdown listening to the birdsong, […]
Gordon Campbell on the media collusion with National’s attack lines
For most of the past week, any consumer of this country’s management of Covid-19 would think New Zealand was actually Brazil, or Texas. The media […]
Gordon Campbell on negating Covid-19 success, and K-pop’s links with black activism
National MP Michael Woodhouse took his party’s credibility to a new low this morning via his inability to prove his claim that a homeless man […]
Gordon Campbell on managing Covid-19 better than the Australians, and the Ellis case
If anything the Covid-19 outbreaks occurring this week in and around Melbourne are a timely reminder of the bullet we dodged by not having a […]
Gordon Campbell on Level One, and living with predatory markets
Welcome to Level One, earthlings. This is the new normality while the virus still roams beyond the border walls. Those borders will remain closed and […]
Gordon Campbell on not buying what Todd Muller is selling
Chloe Swarbrick is number three in the Greens Party list released this morning. Todd Muller has released his new party line-up today, which will excite […]
Gordon Campbell on Level Two, and Little Richard
Level Two will be life Jim, but not as we’ve known it. At 4pm today, PM Jacinda Ardern will announce the Cabinet decision on when […]
Gordon Campbell on one of the shadows over Level Two
For many New Zealanders, the imminent shift to Level Two is going to be a momentous occasion. Here’s another looming landmark likely to be just […]
Gordon Campbell on the dodgy politics of easing Level Three
As countries around the world tentatively emerge from lockdown, a lot of political noise is being generated by politically-driven arguments that (a) the safeguards need […]
Gordon Campbell on exceptions for tourism, and on the quest for a Covid-19 vaccine
As David Foster Wallace famously pointed out, each of us regard our own precious selves as the realest, most vivid and important persons in the […]
Gordon Campbell on the “ Where’s Winston?” question
Deputy PM Winston Peters has kept a low profile over the last month or so, partly because he belongs in the category of people most […]
Gordon Campbell on living at Level Three with residual anxiety
Two weeks. That’s roughly the length of time the government has given itself between moving to Level Three, and making a decision on May 11 […]