It is probably just as well that the Idiot at No Right Turn does not allow comments on his blog, because the drivel that he writes would attract the very worst of trolls. And terse comments from the MacDoctor. Take one of today’s offerings: John Key’s response to introducing charter schools despite never having campaigned [...]

The MacDoctor has seen a plethora of reasons why people think Labour did so poorly in the elections. Arrogance, poor targeting of messages, same lineup as before, nasty to John Key, The thrill of Phil Goff etc. The MacDoctor think that most of this is baloney. Sure, Labour comes across as arrogant, distant and privileged. [...]

It seems that all the parties have produced mini budgets over the past couple of weeks, presumably to steal the thunder from National’s budget. Slim pickings there, then. As a service for those with little time for politics, the MacDoctor provides a brief summary of the various “budgets”: National: The “Nero” Budget Fiddle a bit [...]

The past two weeks certainly have been interesting in New Zealand politics. Buccaneer Brash sails into the Act caucus and makes Rodney Hide walk the plank one week and Hone the Horrible blunders through the political landscape in true barbarian fashion in the next. Suddenly, the rather colourless election looming in November looks like it [...]

I see Don Brash has learned no new political skills since ceasing to be a National MP. I don’t know who is advising him, if anyone, but the man really does need some significant help. What on earth possessed him to try for the leadership of ACT? Much has been made of the fact that Brash [...]

Do politicians take the hypocritic oath when they are sworn in? Phil (Walking in Her Footsteps) Goff reached new heights of hypocrisy as he baited John Key today with readings from the ministerial manual: Opposition leader Phil Goff used the rules of the Cabinet Manual to attack Mr Key in the House yesterday about his [...]

Okay, so most of my readers know that I am relatively right-wing in my politics, but I must say I find it hard to get excited about the likely demise of the ACT party. As far as I am concerned, ACT died when Richard Prebble left, but its zombie has been walking around chewing up [...]

Turns out that I was right about the Left-wing blogs and the media continuing to rabbit on about John Key’s “cannibalism” joke. And, yes, it does make them look like complete prats. The editor of the Herald on Sunday even goes as far as to suggest that the coalition between Maori and National is falling [...]

Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. Once more the Tabloid on Sunday manages to make the gutter look positively clean. The notorious Ms. Carolyne Meng-Yee manages to come up with another scurrilous bit of rubbish on Rodney Hide, adding smear and slime to their campaign against him. [...]

This is the section on health from the 2025 Task Force summary: 10. Health: a. A funder-provider model should be reintroduced in the hospital sector, allowing much greater private sector involvement in the provision of taxpayer-funded services. b. Universal (unrelated to income or health status) subsidies for doctors’ visits should be abolished. c. Subsidies for [...]