The scenes outside the National Party conference serve only to remind me that the left apparently continue to favour unreasoning force rather than reasonable debate to promote their views. I would be interested in someone with socialist/union leanings explaining exactly how storming a police cordon, and trespassing on private property, with the express purpose of [...]

I have been following the frenzying of Labour and their aligned blogs on the John Key “Blind Trust” saga with some amusement. I note that there does not seem to be a lot of traction with this in the print media, although the Tabloid on Sunday will surely have something tomorrow, as, undoubtably, will the [...]

I am not a big fan of GST. I appreciate it is a consumption tax and therefore inherently much fairer because it taxes all people, equally. I also understand that it has a small positive effect on savings, as it discourages spending (a little). The reason I am not a fan is entirely personal – [...]

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 [...]

I’m willing to bet that there was a nervous tinge to the laughter when John Key made his joke about being on the Tuhoe “menu”. Everyone there would have instantly spotted that it was a very politically incorrect remark, for a Prime Minister. True to form, the left wing blogs have spent the day making [...]

The debate on the size of the public service is always fun to watch. Labour has been digging for information on planned cuts to the public service and has some cabinet papers that show National is planning to cut 470 jobs by the end of 2011 (Labour managed to read this as 460 jobs by [...]

Yesterday Steven Joyce finally announced he was raising the driving age. Unfortunately, he is only raising it to a timid 16 years. Still, at least we won’t have the lowest driving age in the developed world and one of the highest youth fatality rates. I find it hard to believe that there is so much [...]

Congratulations to Tony Ryall who has, in a first for a government, delivered his primary election health promise – a significant rise in elective surgery. And handsomely too: The number of elective operation increased by 11,900 on 2008 and National’s target was a mere 4,000. This post is not about Mr. Ryall’s good news, but [...]

I confess I do not really understand the debate on national standards for education. This is a sad admission for an opinionated bloke like myself, but I really just don’t understand the teacher’s unions objections to them. I have tried to follow the debate but the union’s response makes no sense at all to me. It [...]

No one has said that living on the minimum wage was fun or comfortable. The 25c per hour increase that the National Government has approved will not change that. It barely keeps pace with inflation. But that is not the point of the minimum wage. It is the minimum. It is not meant to be [...]