On censorship – bring back Worth!
Click to enlarge One downside of Richard Worth’s exit from his ministerial post at Internal Affairs will be to further postpone any fix of the […]
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Recent News
Rodney Hide’s latest plan for gutting local democracy
Rodney Hide’s agenda for local government involves – as Scoop reported six months ago – the importation of an American model that has resulted in […]
Art politics in the 2000s
Helen Clark’s legacy to the arts, and will it survive her?
Smackdown over the S59 law
Why the citizens referendum in July is a futile way to spend $10 million
Countdown Lebanon
Will the Byzantine voting system confound the doomsayers about the election in Lebanon?
Absolute Bollard
Gordon Campbell interviews Reserve Bank Governor, Dr Alan Bollard
Classics : Abel’s Island by William Steig (1975)
Gordon Campbell on the children’s author and illustrator William Steig
Left Coasting : Bus Trip to the Summer of Loss
Rosalea Barker reports from the US about California’s social and budgetary meltdown
From the Hood : How To Misunderstand Satire
satirist Lyndon Hood on the mechanics of the trade
Travelling Light : 37 Hours in Fez, Morocco
37 Hours in Fez, Morocco
Sporting Life : Can Andy Murray break the British hex at Wimbledon?
Lamont Russell on Andy Murray’s chances at Wimbledon
The Complicatist : Lonesome with Elvis…
Lonesome Elvis, and Will Sheff on a soul classic
The Tiananmen Massacre, and Richard Worth
Today is the 20th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square. In the early morning hours of June 4th 1989, thousands of unarmed students and […]
Gordon Campbell On The Greens Leadership Change
Talk about the bleedingly obvious. In the aftermath of the last election, the Green Party moved a few floors upwards into more spacious digs in […]
The Budget’s tightening noose
Judging by the Budget, the good news is that Finance Minister Bill English is not the beady eyed ‘lets take this theory and see if […]
Budget to push the “P” button?
The tone of the Budget is almost as important as its content, and while everyone – for good reason – is expecting a grim Budget […]
On the power company rip-offs
Spot the difference. A Rotorua couple get $10 million overpaid by Westpac into their bank account and hive off with it, with Interpol and the […]
The need to control loan sharks
As jobs vanish and incomes shrink during the recession, loan sharks can be expected to prey more avidly on poor and vulnerable communities. After all, […]
Campbell on the Christine Rankin appointment
For all his considerable media skills, Prime Minister John Key has a tendency to wing it on the details in ways that must be terrifying […]
The Melissa Lee Factor
Click to enlarge Melissa Lee’s emergence as the poster child of the Key government is so apt, it makes the process of politics seem karmically […]
On Auckland's Recession
Is the recession something that is mainly happening to Aucklanders? Last Thursday’s Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) contained evidence to support that notion. Nationally, the […]
On Auckland’s Recession
Is the recession something that is mainly happening to Aucklanders? Last Thursday’s Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) contained evidence to support that notion. Nationally, the […]
McCully’s oversell of changes to our foreign aid programme
The belated release yesterday of the April 23 Cabinet papers on the changes to New Zealand’s aid programme suggest that Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully […]
The Labour re-shuffle (And Mt Albert)
The Labour re-shuffle of its front bench and shadow portfolio areas is an understandable move. Six months into a new leadership, senior figures such as […]
The risks of cutting wages during this recession
Obviously, the jobs situation in New Zealand is deteriorating. On current trends, unemployment is now expected to reach 8 per cent before this recession is […]
Russel Norman, and our SAS in Afghanistan
So David Shearer is to be the Labour candidate in Mt Albert. The claims by Greens Co-Leader Russel Norman on Morning Report that this leaves […]
Gordon Campbell on the swine flu epidemic
Interesting that John Key began his press conference on Monday by covering off the politics of the swine flu epidemic first. No false modesty from […]
The Greens' deal with National
Click to enlarge The decision by Greens Co-Leader Russel Norman to stand in the Mt Albert by-election on June 13 is the latest example of […]
The Greens’ deal with National
Click to enlarge The decision by Greens Co-Leader Russel Norman to stand in the Mt Albert by-election on June 13 is the latest example of […]
Selling our defence bases to property speculators
The proposal to sell our defence bases and lease them back to the armed forces from their new, private sector landlords is a pretty good […]