Archive for February, 2011
Friday, February 25th, 2011
As Libya’s dictator Muammar Ghadaffi continues to murder and terrorise his people in an attempt to cling onto power, surely Education Minister Anne Tolley will sometime soon – but don’t hold your breath – move to annul the deal she signed with the Ghaddafi regime last October, on behalf of ...
Posted in Articles | 4 Comments »
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Bureaucrats and academics tend to enjoy playing God with the lives of the vulnerable – but evidently, even the Welfare Working Group members couldn’t agree on some of the loonier recommendations contained in their final report this week. Only ‘a majority’ of WWG members for instance, endorsed the notion that ...
Posted in Articles | 13 Comments »
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
At his post-Cabinet press conference yesterday PM John Key identified the root cause of the unrest in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and Libya in terms that sounded like a roll call of his own administration’s failings: ‘It appears to be a popular reaction to the root problems of youth unemployment, ...
Posted in Articles | 6 Comments »
Friday, February 18th, 2011
The current problems facing the retail book trade – and music stores – in New Zealand will increase the pressure on Revenue Minister Peter Dunne to impose a tougher tax collecting system on purchases made online. Currently only items worth $400 (or more) attract tax, locally. Unless this ceiling is ...
Posted in Articles | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
The notion of a Maori Party suffering patiently for five years with an untrustworthy and disruptive Hone Harawira requires a rewrite of history that isn’t credible. Let's get it straight. The Maori Party wanted a genuine radical on the team. It recruited one in Hone Harawira. His mana helped ...
Posted in Articles | 5 Comments »
Monday, February 7th, 2011
Last year, and despite the objections of its own Attorney-General, the Key government removed the right of all prisoners to vote. That puts us outside normal practice in most of the developed world.
This week, Thomas Hammerberg, the European commissioner of human rights told the British government why a proposal ...
Posted in Articles | No Comments »
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
So if voters return Winston Peters in government, the National Party will not work with him in any governing coalition. Fair enough. It is up to any party to decide when co-operation with a rival would entail an intolerable compromise of its core principles. For similar reasons, it would be ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
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If regime change does eventually occur in Egypt, a truly representative government in Cairo would be less pro-American, and less likely to collude with Israel’s plans for the region. To take the most obvious example, a truly democratic Egypt would be highly unlikely to share the Mubarak ...
Posted in Articles | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
All very well that John Key is New Zealand’s third Jewish prime minister, as the Jerusalem Post described him at the time of his election.
However, on Monday’s TVNZ’s Breakfast programme Key seemed to be regarding a nation’s stance towards Israel as being the basis of our foreign policy attitude towards ...
Posted in Articles | 20 Comments »
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