Who’s Afraid of Jeremy Corbyn?
What is it about Jeremy Corbyn that sends shivers up the collective spine of his fellow MPs? An alternative to Maggie Thatcher’s, Tina (There is No Alternative) embrace of the Market, that’s what.
Category archive: Viewpoint
All you need is love…
‘Humanity washed ashore’ wrote a cartoonist as his brush strokes re-created the heart-stopping photo of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi.
Renewal – Christchurch in Spring
Much has changed between my occasional visits to Christchurch in the last four and a half years.
On my first post-earthquakes visit I was awed by wrecked buildings, broken roads, tell-tale see pages that told of cracked water-pipes, portable toilets in the streets, tangles of steel reinforcing on what looked like bomb-sites, barricades, soldiers, and silence in a city echoing sorrow.
Spokes in the wheel…
In Nelson, the City Council has appeared hell-bent on introducing shared pathways – where walkers vie with bikes.
Hell-bent? In February 2015 the editor of Nelson Mail in Don’t get carried away over cycle ways appealed for common sense.
Selling Godzone in Secret
Tens of thousands of Kiwis out in the rain over the weekend to protest against the TPP which many thought had been killed off in the last, failed round of talks. But no. In the collective race from commonsense and responsibility to their peoples and institutions, governments are expecting the deal to be finalised later this month. Meanwhile some Ministers have already dismissed the protests.
Mt Eden’s Fight Club…
The recent news about the violence in Mount Eden Prison has many elements. Political, naturally; Labour will be pleased to have been given the opportunity to rub National’s nose in the troublesome policy of privatisation. The Prison Officers’ Union will be equally pleased to say I told you so.
Three cheers for Greece?
Before Euro-politics wandered into Alice in Wonderland territory, we asked if anybody else out there was quietly cheering for Greece as it took on the bullying bean counters of the IMF and the European Central Bank.
My Kingdom for a Commissioner…
When the government announced it was appointing a commissioner to take over the Southern DHB, it was signalling that enough was enough.
Party time for National – but not all is tip-top
John Key will be celebrated this coming weekend. The National party owes him. In the corners and corridors of its conference, though, there will be some pondering. Things are not humming so well now.