We've got the latest polls all mixed up together and come up with some thoughts on Winston Peters and a bunch of questions for you to discuss. So off you go...
Read MoreNational
My outlook for 2014: Your guess is good as mine
Inspired by the rash of speculation this week, I figured it's time I gave people a chance to make fun of me a year or two from now by giving my take on where we stand ahead of next year's election
Read MoreOn coming first, yet losing
John Key is claiming that the party with the most seats after the next election has a "moral mandate" to govern. Well, you would expect him to think that, wouldn't you?
Read MoreAfter Ikaroa-Rawhiti - everyone has something to worry about
Mana and the Maori party must now co-operate or perish. All parties, including Labour should be worried about the low turnout - where's the mood for change? National is losing coalition partners at an alarming rate. But the big question - will the Maori Party survive? Does it deserve to?
Read MoreMore bad process - is this the new National normal?
A week of poor process continues for the government as it side-steps consultation with its decision to approve mining on the Denniston Plateau
Read MoreThe frayed orthodoxy
Beyond the cries of 'Muldoonism' and 'North Korean', the Labour-Greens power announcement is an important landmark on the road to the 2014 election – a challenge to orthodoxy and the rise of an alternative
Read MoreWhat is the alternative to Labour’s energy policy?
Blowing raspberries and calling names is what politicians do when they have nothing else to say. When you have substantive alternatives, and you know they are popular, you argue for those.
Read MoreBeneficiary 'impact' highlights poverty of social policies
Auckland's first-ever beneficiary 'impact' demonstrates poverty of policies as well as of people
Read MoreThe art of not predicting politics
Matthew Hooton has done a 180 degree turn on his prediction for the 2014 election. Yet the new prediction seems as risky as the last one
Read More2012 Apocalypse Edition: The Year of the Black Dragon
Political Notes from 2012: o'seas & domestic political rants of a purely existential nature - no strings attached version
Read MoreDemolition derby: National's approach to solving unemployment
National announces cuts to minimum youth wage levels - a disastrous policy that will destroy jobs, not create them
Read MoreWelfare protest - back to the cells
Arrested for the first time in over a decade in protest against welfare reforms - a response to the critics - and I also stage a return to Pundit
Read MoreStat games: National nonsense about employment
If National is going to keep shining up shit and calling it gold, then I am going to keep exposing it as shit.
Read MoreGDP growth: Further nonsense from government Ministers
The government makes plenty of excuses for New Zealand’s poor recent GDP growth. Unfortunately for its excuses, data exist.
Read MoreThe cautionary tale of a successful welfare system
Of all the organisations that might have become champions of the welfare state, it's Treasury that has shown why we need it -- and why it is at risk
Read MoreColin Craig explained -- a little John, a little Sir Rob
Colin Craig has been hogging headlines this past week. Many have laughed him off - most notably the PM literally rolled his eyes - but that would be perilous in the extreme. Here's why
Read MoreNo doubt the precogs have already seen this (redux)
When National revealed its "law and order" policy before the last election, I wrote this post on it. Now that Judith Collins reportedly is preparing to introduce legislation to deliver that policy, here are some more thoughts.
Read MoreAli Baba & the mining of New Zealand
The government says it wants to balance green growth with digging holes, but can we do both? Perhaps we should slow down, rather than end up somewhere we don't want to be
Read MoreOn the matter of coming 2nd and yet winning
The latest opinion polls raise the prospect of a scenario that's new to modern New Zealand politics – the party that comes second leading the government. And it's something we need to front early
Read MoreGreens growth: The political maths of the centre-left
If the Greens thought the past three years were challenging, just wait for the next three. They – and Labour – need to figure out a new way of growing the centre-left bloc without tearing each other to pieces
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