Shane Jones wouldn’t be quitting if he thought he was going to be in government next year. His resignation is a very clear warning bell; Labour cannot win if it loses people like Shane Jones and voters who support him.
Read MoreLabour Party
Labour does not need to promise a coalition with the Greens
The Greens were getting ahead of themselves with their offer to Labour to campaign as a coalition government in waiting, and Labour was right to reject the offer.
Read MoreNational’s muddled message on economy could help Labour
How the left could still win
I wrote a column in the National Business Review this weekend, and it’s driving right-wingers there nuts.
The left missed a chance to score today
The announcement of the election date was an opportunity for the left to define the campaign. It can’t afford any more missed opportunities.
Read MoreFor there are three that testify … and these three agree
David Cunliffe was dumb. The Taxpayers' Union have a challenge. You can say what you like about Colin Craig and gay people.
Read MoreWon't someone please think of poor Lesley?
DPF is very, very concerned about how Labour is selecting its Invercargill candidate. Where was that concern back in 2008?
Read MoreThe Common Good - parallels in the UK’s economy
The challenges faced by Labour in opposition here and in the UK are similar. Both face an economy that is entering a modest cyclical upswing, and right-wing governments wanting to claim it as their recovery.
Read MoreThe left must stand up to abuse
It’s time for the tolerant, open and compassionate left to stand up to vilification and abuse when it is practised by sections of the left.
Read MoreOrganise to Win
Of six by-elections since 2008, only one, Mt Albert, looks anything like Christchurch East in the scale of the Labour result.
It's no coincidence those two seats had similar results: They were planned and run on the same organisational template. None of the other by-elections were.
Read MoreThe Herald's post-2014 election fantasy
Some nameless person at the New Zealand Herald thinks either Labour or the Greens may have to support National after the 2014 election. And that person gets a salary to write this sort of stuff!
Read MoreWhy I voted for Shane Jones
Cunliffe's the man for the job -- here's why
The three candidates for Labour Party leadership are all strong. A voter explains his choice
Read MoreFour easy pieces
In which your esteemed author tells you who the Labour leader must be, explains why the Government had to appeal the "Quake Outcasts" case, warns you that your right to wear silly lapel pins on election day is under threat, and calls on David Farrar to save Great Britain.
Read MoreLabour needs more than a new leader - it needs change
David Shearer was elected leader of the Labour party because he had an outstanding leadership record outside parliament and he represented a chance for Labour to make a new beginning.
He never found a way to show us his skills and he never created the new beginning Labour needs.
Read MoreRemember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors
Who'da thunk proposing that women should get representation equal to their share of the population would be such a controversial notion?
Read MoreAbout that 'Man Ban'
Labour stuck talking about 'man-bans' and social engineering rather than jobs and social mobiltiy. How have they let this happen again?
Read MoreNZ Labour - as crazy as the UK Tories
What sort of crazy, ideologically blinkered party would require that a set proportion of its candidates be women? The UK Conservative Party, that's who.
Read MoreAnd the winner of the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti by-election is ... Winston Peters?
The Ikaroa-Rāwhiti by-election result is bad news for the Maori Party. That's good news for Winston Peters and New Zealand First.
Read MoreIs Shearer Gillard-esque? And if so, who's our Rudd?
No points if you guess the answer - it's pretty obvious. The real question is if and when the electoral maths could compell New Zealand Labour to follow the same path
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