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Gordon Campbell - Latest News [Page 16]
On The Blockade Against Chloe Swarbrick’s Right To Speak Freely About Gaza
Wednesday, 8 November 2023, 9:10 am | Gordon Campbell
The tut-tutting about what Green MP Chloe Swarbrick said and how she said it, and whether she could have/should have expressed herself in other ways has been farcical. Yes, emotions are running high about the Israel/Gaza conflict. Arguably though, it ... More >>
On The Third Person In This Political Marriage
Monday, 6 November 2023, 11:08 am | Gordon Campbell
Depending on the recounts and the by-election, the centre-right will still have won only 59 seats in what will be a 122 or 123 seat Parliament. So it needs Winston Peters, big time. In return for him getting them across the line, it stands to reason ... More >>
On Breaking Up The Supermarket Duopoly
Thursday, 2 November 2023, 10:39 am | Gordon Campbell
Someone better tell Mark Mitchell, because the two big supermarket gangs – the New World Crips and the Countdown Bloods – seem to be operating with flagrant disregard for the revised version of section 36 of the Commerce Act 1986. Arguably, their market ... More >>
On How The Americans Helped Put Hamas In Power In Gaza
Tuesday, 31 October 2023, 10:50 am | Gordon Campbell
To all intents, Hamas suddenly sprang out from behind the Oort Cloud on October 7 as a force of incomprehensible evil... Just when some important items on Israel’s agenda had been proceeding more or less according to plan. With strong backing from ... More >>
On Why Chris Hipkins Is Living On Borrowed Time
Thursday, 26 October 2023, 10:44 am | Gordon Campbell
Currently, Chris Hipkins is serving as a place-holder leader until other colleagues do the numbers and figure out their capacity for taking on what can be a highly stressful and thankless role in opposition. On his career record to date, Hipkins’ skills ... More >>
On Church And State In Mt Roskill
Tuesday, 24 October 2023, 11:11 am | Gordon Campbell
The interval between election night and the formation of a new government has been restfully free of bickering and posturing, and it would be nice to think this could last until Christmas. No such luck. Come November 3, and when all the special votes ... More >>
On New Zealand’s Selective Morality On Gaza
Friday, 20 October 2023, 11:45 am | Gordon Campbell
Here’s the sound of MFAT blowing its own trumpet as it celebrated the 25th anniversary of our genuinely heroic role in alerting the international community to the Rwanda genocide: Calling for the Council to recognise that genocide was being perpetrated ... More >>
On National’s Divisive Plans To Heal Our Divisions
Wednesday, 18 October 2023, 1:15 pm | Gordon Campbell
As we wait for crime to cease, rents to fall, and food prices to plummet, how does the Luxon government propose to heal the divisions that have come to divide this divided nation? Allegedly, these divisions have been caused by the twin hobgoblins ... More >>
On The Election, And Labour’s Options
Monday, 16 October 2023, 10:39 am | Gordon Campbell
On Saturday, the Labour-led government suffered a defeat of Biblical proportions, some of it self-inflicted. Years ago, veteran political blogger Jesus Christ had tapped into Saturday’s public mood pretty accurately, with this soundbite at Revelations ... More >>
On Labour’s Last Stand
Friday, 13 October 2023, 11:14 am | Gordon Campbell
The surge, the surge. It was within the margin of error in one poll, and the increase in Labour support in the other poll still wouldn’t change the outcome. Yet to the relief of the mainstream media, the surge has provided a hint of drama to talk about ... More >>
On The Attacks On Israel And Gaza
Wednesday, 11 October 2023, 12:50 pm | Gordon Campbell
On the day after the Hamas attacks, the Jewish newspaper Haaretz concluded that only a few options were available to Israel’s leaders and all of them were bad: 1. Urgent negotiations on a prisoner exchange agreement, in which Hamas will demand ... More >>
On Why Winston Peters Could Be National’s New BFF
Monday, 9 October 2023, 11:36 am | Gordon Campbell
Over the weekend, some classic double speak from National. Christopher Luxon is saying he’ll be able to make a deal with whatever power configuration the voters hand to him. (He’s been a CEO deal maker with an international airline, don’t ... More >>
On The Centre-right’s Cynically Divisive Messages On Race
Thursday, 5 October 2023, 3:13 pm | Gordon Campbell
Could be wrong, but I have a hunch that if a male Maori activist entered the home of a National Party candidate uninvited, it would be safe to assume the Police would have done more than wag a finger at them and send them on their way. The National ... More >>
On National’s Disdain For The Press Debate
Tuesday, 3 October 2023, 2:40 pm | Gordon Campbell
Christopher Luxon evidently thinks this election is SO in the bag that he can afford to spurn the still-undecideds, the entire South Island, and the old Christchurch money that still reads the Press and shops at Ballantynes. We should all shed a tear ... More >>
On National’s Myths About The Desolated State Of The Economy
Monday, 2 October 2023, 3:03 pm | Gordon Campbell
Familiarity breeds consent. If you repeat the line “six years of economic mis-management” about 10,000 times, it sounds like the received wisdom, whatever the evidence to the contrary. Yes, the global pandemic and the global surge in inflation that came ... More >>
On The Cynical Brutality Of The Centre-right’s Welfare Policies
Wednesday, 27 September 2023, 12:48 pm | Gordon Campbell
The centre-right’s enthusiasm for forcing people off the benefit and into paid work is matched only by the enthusiasm (shared by Treasury and the Reserve Bank) for throwing people out of paid work to curb inflation, and achieve the optimal balance ... More >>
On Whether Winston Peters Can Be A Moderating Influence
Tuesday, 26 September 2023, 12:27 pm | Gordon Campbell
As the centre-right has (finally!) been subjected to media interrogation, the polls are indicating that some voters may be starting to have second thoughts about the wisdom of giving National and ACT the power to govern alone. That’s why yesterday’s ... More >>
On Chaotic Coalitions, Drinking Water And Useless Debates
Thursday, 21 September 2023, 12:00 pm | Gordon Campbell
This week’s ONE News-Verian poll had the National/ACT coalition teetering on the edge of being able to govern alone while - just as precariously – having its legislative agenda vulnerable to a potential veto by Winston Peters in the House. So close, but ... More >>
On National’s (Lack Of) Plans For El Nino
Tuesday, 19 September 2023, 10:27 am | Gordon Campbell
Debate time: In contrast to most debates, political debates aren’t simply about winning on points of logic, but are also about looking likeable on television – which is why good political debaters often have to pull their punches on TV, lest ... More >>
On The Centre-right’s Credibility Problems
Thursday, 14 September 2023, 12:21 pm | Gordon Campbell
Supposedly, people get the governments they deserve, but what on earth did we do in our past lives to deserve an Opposition as shambolic as the one on offer this election, on the centre-right? Surely these days, no-one in their right mind would ... More >>
