Archive for August, 2014
Friday, August 29th, 2014
Debating is a peculiar discipline in that what you say is less important than how you’re saying it. Looking poised, being articulate and staying on topic generally wins the day – and on that score, Labour leader David Cunliffe won what turned out to be a bruising encounter with Prime ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Thursday, August 28th, 2014
So in the latest 3News-Reid Research poll, New Zealand First and the Conservatives have been the big winners. It is only one poll, but rather than cannibalising each other’s vote, Colin Craig and Winston Peters do seem to be managing to find the room to co-exist. For all the talk ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on Winston Peters’ latest bout of immigrant bashing, and Bob Dylan in the basement (again)
Tuesday, August 26th, 2014
Amidst the day-to-day reports about the military advances of the Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, one remarkable aspect of this war has barely been mentioned. Namely, the complete 180 degree turn of US foreign policy whereby its former enemies – the Assad regime in Syria, the Sh’ite regime ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on the US foreign policy somersaults over Syria and Iran
Monday, August 25th, 2014
So, as many as 90,000 people could derive some benefit from National’s housing assistance plans for low and middle-income earners. As much as $218 million might be spent on the programme that was announced yesterday by Prime Minister John Key. Yet in reality, the benefits seem likely to be ...
Posted in Articles | 4 Comments »
Thursday, August 21st, 2014
The media, as its critics regularly point out, is far too easily diverted by political sideshows and slanging matches, from its duty to cover the real issues. Yet this week gave an interesting example of how hard it is to untangle the reality from the slanging matches. The issue that ...
Posted in Articles | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, August 19th, 2014
When future historians seek to identify the exact moment when the prime ministerial career of John Key hit the downward slope, they may well point to Key’s interview yesterday with Guyon Espiner on RNZ’s Morning Report. In particular, they’ll cite the broken record moment when Espiner repeatedly asked Key whether ...
Posted in Articles | 57 Comments »
Friday, August 15th, 2014
Call me old-fashioned, but ad hominem attacks have almost seemed the last refuge of a scoundrel. That doesn’t mean you can’t reach a conclusion or make a judgement call – but you need to be guided by the evidence. You don’t start with personal abuse, to try and distract people ...
Posted in Articles | 51 Comments »
Thursday, August 14th, 2014
Illustration by Tim Denee
According to Minister of Everything Steven Joyce – whose duties now extend to fielding questions about Nicky Hager’s new book Dirty Politics - Hager has got it all wrong, and the apparent collusion recorded in its pages between the prime minister’s office and blogger Cameron Slater is ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on Nicky Hager’s new book
Wednesday, August 13th, 2014
Getting yourself criticised by the educated elite is a well-worn path to electoral success in this country, dating all the way back to Rob Muldoon and the Citizens for Rowling campaign, which played right into his hands. Winston Peters’ Chinese “joke” was a similar attempt to bait the same elites, ...
Posted in Articles | 6 Comments »
Monday, August 11th, 2014
It isn’t often that unilateral US bombing raids within a foreign country can be supported, but the current US bombing campaign in northern Iraq is one such case. The fighters of the Islamic State (IS) appear to be intent on committing genocide against the Yezidis, Christians, Turkmen, Kurds and every ...
Posted in Articles | 3 Comments »
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