Gordon Campbell - Latest News [Page 41]
On The Coronavirus Outbreak
Tuesday, 28 January 2020, 11:30 am | Gordon Campbell
The coronavirus – its official World Health Organisation designation is 2019-nCoV – is believed to have originated as a seafood-to-human transfer, with ground zero for the transfer believed to have been a fish market in Wuhan, China. The coronavirus ... More >>
On the double standard that’s bound to dominate the Election
Monday, 27 January 2020, 12:53 pm | Gordon Campbell
Are National really better political managers than Labour, particularly when it comes to running the economy? For many voters – and the business community in particular - their belief in National’s inherent competence is a simple act of faith. (For ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on dealing with impeccable, impeachable lies
Thursday, 23 January 2020, 12:30 pm | Gordon Campbell
By now, the end game the Republican Senate majority has in mind in their setting of the rules for the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump is pretty clear to everyone: first deny the Democrats the ability to call witnesses and offer evidence, and then ... More >>
On why the dice are loaded against women in public life
Tuesday, 21 January 2020, 11:05 am | Gordon Campbell
If they enter public life, women can expect a type of intense (and contradictory) scrutiny that is rarely applied to their male counterparts. If they are relatively young and conventionally attractive, such women will tend to be written off as lightweights ... More >>
Chilling The Warm Fuzzies About The US/China Trade Deal
Friday, 17 January 2020, 12:29 pm | Gordon Campbell
Hold the champagne, folks. This week’s China/US deal is more about a change in tone between the world’s two biggest economies – thank goodness they’re not slapping more tariffs on each other! - than a landmark change in substance. The high ... More >>
On The Excellent School Climate Change Resources
Wednesday, 15 January 2020, 10:10 am | Gordon Campbell
Inevitably, children hear a lot about climate change - on the news, on the street, from their friends – and a lot of that news is pretty scary, even for adults. Until very recently, one place where children haven’t heard much about climate change ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on the Harry/Meghan affair, and Iran
Monday, 13 January 2020, 12:16 pm | Gordon Campbell
Those “Meghzit” headlines seem apt, given how closely Britain’s January 31 exit from the European Union resembles the imminent departure from the Royal Family’s top team of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. In both cases, there will be a quest ... More >>
On the Iran aftermath
Thursday, 9 January 2020, 11:33 am | Gordon Campbell
So, evidently, you can get away with murder. It looks as though a further escalation in the ongoing war between Iran and the US has been avoided – mainly thanks to Iran NOT responding in kind to the recklessly unhinged behaviour by the United States. ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on the Aussie bush fires and Suleimani
Monday, 6 January 2020, 12:20 pm | Gordon Campbell
In popular culture, Australia is often portrayed as Western civilisation’s last unspoiled frontier, or as its final refuge from planetary disaster. In Nevil Shute’s best-selling 1950s novel On The Beach for instance, Melbourne served as the backdrop ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on the best music of 2019
Thursday, 19 December 2019, 12:55 pm | Gordon Campbell
A ny best music list of this sort has to live under the shadow of this offering on the Reductress site . Especially in a year where so many of the highlights came from female musicians. And not just from the obvious names (Lana Del Rey, FKA twigs, ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on Scotland’s renewed independence battle
Wednesday, 18 December 2019, 12:31 pm | Gordon Campbell
Gordon Campbell on a White Island inquiry
Monday, 16 December 2019, 11:57 am | Gordon Campbell
Presumably, if there is to be a ministerial inquiry (at the very least) into the Whakaari/White Island disaster, it will need to be a joint ministerial inquiry. That’s because the relevant areas of responsibility seem to be so deeply interwoven : Police ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on welfare vs infrastructure spending
Thursday, 12 December 2019, 11:27 am | Gordon Campbell
If New Zealand has a pressing need to stimulate its flagging economy, it seems very weird that the government is choosing to meet this need with a $12 billion package of infrastructure spending – mainly on road and rail projects – that by definition, ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on the Whakaari/White Island eruption
Tuesday, 10 December 2019, 11:04 am | Gordon Campbell
A dventure tourism is a central theme in New Zealand tourism, and by definition, adventure always includes a certain level of risk. That said, New Zealand itself is also at risk of being seen as a tourism destination where commercial factors – ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on the recent upheavals inside Iran
Thursday, 5 December 2019, 3:03 pm | Gordon Campbell
I n the fortnight since the Internet got switched back on in Iran, the ferocity of the crackdown on the recent demonstrations has become evident. Reportedly, hundreds of people have been killed, thousands wounded and thousands more have been arrested. ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on stoking fears about cannabis law reform
Wednesday, 4 December 2019, 9:53 am | Gordon Campbell
I t was always going to be hard to have a rational debate on cannabis reform. Far easier for politicians to win votes by stoking alarm. With National and New Zealand First already competing for the “who’s the toughest sheriff in town” badge ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on PPPs and Labour’s infrastructure plans
Monday, 2 December 2019, 10:54 am | Gordon Campbell
Yet the same argument that Robertson has been making (ie, that this is a good time to launch these projects, while interest rates are so low) should apply equally to why it would make more sense for the government to borrow the money to build these ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on the alleged sins of New Zealand First
Thursday, 28 November 2019, 10:30 am | Gordon Campbell
U pon his retirement – assuming the day ever arrives - Winston Peters will deserve a knighthood for services rendered to the media industry. Be it the scandals he has uncovered (eg the Winebox) or the scandals he has featured in… Peters is, as they ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on China’s bad week, and Labour’s tribalism
Tuesday, 26 November 2019, 11:06 am | Gordon Campbell
Even before the local body election results came in from Hong Kong, China had been having a p.r. nightmare this week. More >>
Gordon Campbell on restoring prisoners' right to vote
Monday, 25 November 2019, 10:56 am | Gordon Campbell
The coalition government still seems unable (or unwilling) to respond in any meaningful way to the Welfare Export Advisory Group report... On another front though, the government has now done the right thing, and has partially restored the right of prisoners to ... More >>