Archive for June, 2008

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  Half of all tomatoes contain endosulfan. ERMA happy with this

  
  
  
  The Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA New Zealand) has just released its assessment of endosulfan and recommended its continued use in New Zealand. Wikipedia says of endosulfan: Endosulfan is one of the more toxic pesticides on the market today, responsible for many fatal pesticide poisoning incidents around the world.[17] Endosulfan is also a xenoestrogen—a synthetic substance [...] read more
  June 30, 2008 9:56 pm - 8 Comments
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  The Greens’ not so secret Australian political operatives

  
  
  
  Russell Brown over at Public Address seems to be obliquely fingering the Greens for using a political operative in 2002 in the same vein as Crosby Textor: Political strategy is a cynical business by its nature. Labour’s people were not appealing to higher ideals when they ran the “slippery” campaign against Key this year. Even the [...] read more
  June 30, 2008 4:54 pm - 23 Comments
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  NZ’s big diplomatic threat – Twenty20 cricket

  
  
  
  Keith is calling for a New Zealand to support a boycott of Zimbabwean cricket, including the upcoming World Twenty20 cup next year. We’ve got to use every bit of leverage we have against the Mugabe regime. I am appealing to New Zealand Cricket to stand squarely behind the England and Wales Board in this matter at the [...] read more
  June 30, 2008 3:09 pm - 6 Comments
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  Get your policies here, John

  
  
  
  Brian Rudman adds this morning to the growing media meme that it is time National let voters know what it they are actually going to be voting for.  He uses the example of the electrification of Auckland rail to build his argument.  National’s transport spokesperson, Maurice Williamson has spent a lot of time declaring his [...] read more
  June 30, 2008 10:35 am - 31 Comments
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  Key keeps bad company

  
  
  
  My grandmother, who, believe it or not, would be 108 this year, always said that you could judge the character of a person by the company (s)he keeps. She always made an exception for politicians, because they would inevitably end up associating with the odd scoundrel by dint of being in politics. But she did [...] read more
  June 29, 2008 4:17 pm - 50 Comments
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  South Auckland – the real issues

  
  
  
  It’s worth picking a few quotes out of Sue Bradford’s speech on crime in South Auckland to Parliament earlier this week: The law and order parties in this House were given a tremendous bonus a couple of weeks ago when the sequence of four tragic murders in South Auckland sparked a ferocious law and order reaction [...] read more
  June 28, 2008 10:29 pm - 73 Comments
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  Herald DigiPoll

  
  
  
  Another poll. But nothing new to see here, unless perhaps you’re in the Prime Minister’s office and you didn’t believe what you saw the first dozen or so times. National with a whopping big lead, Labour limping along in a distant second, knowing that National is unlikely to remain comfortably above 50% but even [...] read more
  June 28, 2008 9:21 pm - 26 Comments
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  A food pricing inquiry

  
  
  
  Sue Kedgley set off a bit of a flurry with her parliamentary line of questions yesterday calling for a pricing inquiry into supermarkets and a possible supermarket code of conduct: Sue Kedgley: Does she agree with Consumer New Zealand that with a concentrated market dominated by a very small number of players, consumers need better information [...] read more
  June 27, 2008 10:57 pm - 20 Comments
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  Oil breaks new records. Again. Is it a demand bubble?

  
  
  
  Oil touched a new high over night, but that wasn’t very exciting. What is interesting is the cacophony of voices trying to explain it. So, what will be the price of oil ten years from now? Any takers? A Bloomberg article a couple of weeks ago was full of explanations for the rise, from the threat [...] read more
  June 27, 2008 9:10 am - 58 Comments
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  Rural public transport

  
  
  
  I was a bit surprised that my rather flippant comments about the relationship between cyclists and cars drew criticism yesterday that I secretly wanted to ban all cars and didn’t care about rural people.  I would have thought people living in rural areas have the most interest in townies like me saving petrol, kyoto carbon [...] read more
  June 27, 2008 8:06 am - 21 Comments