Archive for May, 2005

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  Chinese censor PM

  
  
  
  This just in from NZPA: Prime Minister Helen Clark became a victim of China’s censorship regime when she did an interview on international broadcaster CNN today. Miss Clark was doing an interview summarising her talks with China’s political leaders when the CNN interviewer asked her about human rights in the region. Despite Miss Clark consistently treading [...] read more
  May 31, 2005 6:19 pm - 2 Comments
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  United in terrorism

  
  
  
  United’s attacks on the Greens are almost always vicious. But this one is particularly so. The following is an exchange between Peter Dunne and Agenda host Simon Dallow: Simon Dallow: The reality of MMP is you are going to probably have to work with some parties with whom you have fundamental differences … One MP we [...] read more
  May 31, 2005 4:37 pm - 8 Comments
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  Flying away with our future

  
  
  
  The Independent in Britain recently printed this excellent article about the environmental cost of the cut-price airline fad (hattip, bloggreen). It begins: It might be cheap, but it’s going to cost the earth. The cut-ptrice airline ticket is fuelling a boom that will make countering global warming impossible. The article includes some eye-popping “facts about flying”. Some [...] read more
  May 31, 2005 1:47 pm - 12 Comments
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  Labour fudgery

  
  
  
  Last Friday, I noted that Labour had announced increased funding for solar water heating the day after we launched our energy policy, which included a plan to get 500,000 solar water heating panels into Kiwi homes within five years. What a coincidence, I mused. Well, not so much. The extra funding had actually been announced a [...] read more
  May 31, 2005 1:00 pm - No Comments
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  The state of the environmental movement

  
  
  
  Colin James is respected around Parliament as someone who, more than most people who write on politics, takes the long view. He is perceptive and, generally, fair. That’s why all parties take his prognosis seriously. His column in the Herald this morning about the state of the environmental movement deserves to be read, by Greens and [...] read more
  May 31, 2005 11:52 am - 2 Comments
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  Clean cars

  
  
  
  Cleaning up our vehicle fleet is a vital step towards doing our bit to combat climate change. There’s currently a debate happening in Britain about how to go about this. Some of the options: Have a compulsory traffic light labelling scheme on cars. vehicles would have green, amber or red labels which tell you how fuel-efficient [...] read more
  May 30, 2005 10:57 am - 18 Comments
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  Turning the other cheek

  
  
  
  United’s been having some fun attacking the Greens at its conference at the weekend. As the Dominion Post reports, the insults included “irrelevant”, “distraction”, “fringe element”, “ideological”, and “nature-worshipping”. I could be facetious and ask why a party that considers us “irrelevant” and a “distraction” would spend so much time bagging us, but I shan’t [...] read more
  May 30, 2005 10:56 am - 1 Comment
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  The USA leading the way

  
  
  
  Trying to get junk food and soft drinks out of our schools should be a no-brainer. The Government is perfectly within its rights to decide the kind of food and drink that is sold in state schools, just as it decides what is taught. So, why won’t the Government act? The only plausible reason [...] read more
  May 30, 2005 9:40 am - 6 Comments
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  All problems have been solved

  
  
  
  All political parties have mantras. Can I suggest that Labour’s is: “Under this government, all problems have been solved!” By which I mean, whenever a problem is raised – no matter from which place on the political spectrum – Labour’s response to is say, “Don’t worry. We’re on it. Either we’ve already solved that problem [...] read more
  May 29, 2005 3:22 pm - 1 Comment
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  Guarding NZ’s reputation

  
  
  
  It’s a fun game: pick which party individual newspapers’ editors vote for. In England, they make it easy – the editorial line is clear and partisan, and widely-trumpeted. Here, where papers tend to be single players in local markets, there is a greater need to straddle the middle so as not to offend big chunks [...] read more
  May 29, 2005 2:41 pm - No Comments