Th government isn’t amending Treaty clauses in good faith, obviously, but it’s true that descriptive/specific clauses are preferable to general/operative clauses

The age of, to use the British parlance, “big beasts” is over: Clark, Key, and Ardern’s dominance of their parties and PPM polls seems like a relic now

NZ First is cutting the left’s lunch: structural separation of both the gentailers and the supermarket duopoly. This is actually based

It may not be scientific and yet it’s an empirical fact that the Scottish genetic material will overpower any and all admixtures. Intermarriage between Māori and the Scots is proof of this

Last week I was in Dunedin simply trying to enjoy myself, privately, and yet I somehow managed to bump into what I think was every single person I knew from Dunedin

I remember I once missed an AKL-WGTN flight and I was on the “final call” list of shame and people were tweeting at me to get on my flight. This is a very small country

Blockbuster start by John Campbell on Morning Report. In the course of a single morning he’s back to serving triple shot black coffee. The cold, soggy porridge of old is off the menu

Let’s say that I’m on a 9.30am flight from Dunedin to Auckland (scheduled landing at 11.20am). What do punters reckon the chances are this flight will actually still go ahead tomorrow?

In the midst of the war on Iran, it’s clear the end of the Long 2016, and its attendant interregnum, was October 7. It wasn’t Trump’s first election, or the pandemic, or AI-led growth. The end of the Western artifice was in Gaza in 2023, and history will remember it as the turning point of the 21C

People still send me pictures of them in bloom in Wellington, which warms my heart, and I think most people don’t even remember why sending pohutukawa pics to me is a thing

We just read news stories from RNZ and forget the concept of political columns even exists.

Completely vindicated on this

Bullseye

Now that Stuff’s mastheads are behind a paywall, and the Herald’s premium content too, where do normal people get their political news when Stuff’s website is just a portal to TradeMe Property and the Herald’s to OneRoof? The political journalism is usually behind the paywall…

The sheer injustice of it all is overwhelming and (yes, first world luxury) difficult to process cognitively

Asking for a factcheck on the following vibes
- highly developed countries are unlikely to experience dramatic *physical* fuel shortages, but they’ll pay through the nose
- these huge price rises will be felt across almost every product in the economy; and
- the least developed countries will starve

Ms Willis is projecting a sense of calm and confidence, but with very little action to sustain it more than a few weeks. Phases 2, 3, and 4 are still largely undefined. This is a scary level of complacency. Mr Bishop was more frank, and gives the sense of someone who can foresee what’s ahead

MBIE’s snapshot on stocks in-country and on the water are worse than useless. We need the curve - what is the depletion timeline if supply reduces? Sensible countries including Australia are identifying trade in strategic resources to vouchsafe at least some diesel. We need to plan the same for food

This is the foil Nicola Willis needs to send her polling to highs not seen since, uh, Jacinda Ardern vs Simon Bridges in 2020

He’s so back

The 6th Labour government was criticised for its response to the pandemic, which any rational person knows was in fact world leading, but where they failed was in preparation for the next disaster: the economy was not electrified, a small degree of autarky was not achieved; etc

It’s also obviously correct that New Zealand is uniquely well positioned to electrify its economy, including much of the food supply chain, but equally correct that that cannot happen on the timeframe of the diesel shortage which is barrelling down on New Zealand in a matter weeks

Mr Hooton is obviously correct that diesel rationing must begin at once, and that the consequences of a diesel shortage are catastrophic, and that a “diesel for food” arrangement is New Zealand’s best leverage, and thus the chances of the government actually acting now are low to nil

There is a great deal to be said in favour of a highly educated, competent, and morally robust governing class, as opposed to whatever it is the English-speaking world has

A nation of warrior scholars vs a government of real estate fraudsters. I am so surprised the fraudsters are losing

KAWERAU DISTRICT 3X MORE SENSITIVE TO OIL PRICE SHOCKS THAN THE NATIONAL AVERAGE MR SHANE JONES WHERE IS OUR ELECTRIFIED RAIL LINE

1PM PODIUM OF TRUTH IS SO BACK

I think this government really do drink their own Koolaid, and genuinely believe that their projects just don't face the same kinds of risks as previous governments, because they are just inherently Better Managers.

Mr Luxon is one of those very rare people whom its impossible to apply a theory of mind. Can you imagine his inner life in any form but its absence? The only books he reads are self-help. He cannot maintain an exchange of complex thoughts. Every interview descends into banalities within minutes

Just envision that a Government came to power and cancelled a whole raft of essential programmes which would reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels, only for there to be a once in a century oil crisis.