On Sunday 13 March, the Alternative for Germany party enjoyed stunning electoral success. The party won 15% of the vote in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg, pushing the Social Democrats into fourth place behind the Greens and the CDU. In Rhineland-Palatinate, a smaller state to the north, the 12.6%...
A long thin country, marked by its diversity of landscapes. A small population, outflanked by bigger and more powerful neighbours. An increasingly multicultural society with a significant indigenous group. It could be New Zealand. But it’s Sweden. Like New Zealand, Sweden long had a tradition of personal, retail politics in which...
1. Advance voting Gareth Hughes at The Daily Blog, 2 September 2014 I believe advance voting will be a game-changer this Election. Young Kiwis in particular are notorious for voting in low numbers but this Election it doesn’t matter what the weather is like on September 20, how big the...
Below are some of the top tweets on tonight’s TVNZ leaders’ debate between John Key and David Cunliffe. In roughly reverse chronological order. (To be updated) Good point from Gordon Campbell: "hard to imagine David Shearer carrying Labour’s banner in that debate last night" http://t.co/Dxg9wpGxfp — Mr Howell (@jeffieh) August 29,...
On Sunday 17 August, the Herald on Sunday published a “Top 100” list of Twitter accounts to follow for the 2014 New Zealand General Election. The list was curated by myself and Bryce Edwards. Here is the reaction from Twitter to the list. Top100 tweeters to follow this election. “Dotcom’s...
In my previous post, I looked at why Simon Lusk is such an important figure in Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics. His strategy to change National from within represents the end which justifies the means – the questionable tactics which have been covered extensively by New Zealand media since the...
Largely lost in the discussion of Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics is a key figure – Simon Lusk. Simon Lusk has his own chapter in the book– Chapter 5, “Simon Lusk’s Plan”. He also features heavily in Chapter 6 – “El Rushbo of Aotearoa”. In this chapter, the role of Lusk...
On Monday, Martyn Bradbury posted “3 guesses about Nicky Hager’s new book” on The Daily Blog. The post is so short that it’s worth quoting in full: 3 guesses about Nicky Hager’s new book Nicky is about to inject some critical analysis into politics with the launch this Wednesday of...
#81959809 / gettyimages.com In New Zealand, this week has seen some discussion about Mike Hosking hosting leaders’ debates on state-owned, but independent and commercially-driven broadcaster TVNZ. It has been reported that Labour leader David Cunliffe is considering boycotting them because of Mike Hosking’s alleged leanings towards National, the main centre-right...
This post was originally published at Liberation. The majority view seems to be that David Cunliffe’s apology on Friday for ‘being a man’ was a mistake. But a contrary view could be that the apology was a very deliberate and calculated risk. Here are three reasons why Cunliffe’s apology might have been a...