Superb as always - thanks for the smiles your cartons so often bring to the faces in our house

Used to be that there were so few unemployed in NZ that the PM allegedly knew their names. Nowadays the only region with jobs growth was Marlborough, and it was just three - and Luxon knows these three people- he calls them growth growth and growth.

Not to mention how for many VC appointments are career progressions, where their goal is to achieve measurable changes so they can then progress higher to the next step in that career, not whether it’s actually needed for the institution

"ANU's audited income statement shows a surplus of $89.9 million," the ACT leader of the National Tertiary Education Union, Lachlan Clohesy, said. "Of course, ANU then excludes certain income through a process which is not audited to come up with an operating deficit of $142.5 million," Dr Clohesy of the National Tertiary Education Union said.

Is ANU playing silly buggers with the finances? Wouldn’t be the first time Australia has seen a big institution get creative with accounting (a la Qantas). www.canberratimes.com.au/story/902659...

Funding to councils to be throttled for using too many road cones The minister of transport says too many councils are still using an outdated guide to using traffic management, leading to quiet streets "covered in road cones".

Bishop has put on his Fonzie jacket, fired up the Honda Step-tru, put a rubber duckie in the para paddling pool & totally jumped the shark.

What next 'Doctors recommend a min speed of 50km & a packet of Marlboro while driving through construction zones'.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Honouring the memory of the late Janey Godley. Brilliant.

Good to see the coalition getting NZ back on track - sigh

Truly petty. How can these people lie straight in bed at night. What a legacy to leave behind.

Fonterra is NZ’s biggest polluter.

Most of our rivers are too polluted to swim in, and many rural families have drinking water with dangerous levels of nitrate contamination.

Just finished it. Great read with a well constructed narrative with clear explanations of things scientific.

Chronic Mansplaining (n.) A common condition where symptoms persist following treatment for an acute mansplain. Risk factors include being an older businessman with a national media column.

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Why the London Stock Exchange is failing — and why tax cuts won’t fix it

The UK’s CBI claims the London Stock Exchange is in crisis because of tax and regulation. But that’s nonsense. The real issue? London’s stock market has stopped funding business growth and is now a playground for speculators.

youtu.be/WQqtxLkWVkI?...

The hunt for inflation scapegoats amps up 46.5% butter price hike, 10.4% power price shock & 12.2% rates rises fire up hunt for scapegoats; RBNZ just keeps pushing up unemployment in response; Home sellers triple listings withdrawals

FYI, monetary policy is increasing unemployment pointlessly and unfairly. Also, how come butter prices rose 46.5% in the last year, while dairy commodity prices rose 15.7%? Asking for some friends at the RBNZ and in Nicola Willis' office, before she goes to visit Fonterra. #nzpol

Ydays post: Ancestry and Immigration in the US and UK mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/07/ance...
If nationality is all about ancestry, then immigrants can never become true nationals. They automatically become outsiders for those with socially conservative views, which is what the right wants.

Really great piece/research thanks @michaelplanknz.bsky.social - especially as there seems to be this shifting narrative that because we didn't all FLOURISH during lockdowns etc, the response was wrong/bad. Collective amnesia seems steadily increasing

well done - and again, very sorry for all the crap you get thrown at you. take care

He sold vaccine cards and injected kids with saline so they thought they were vaccinated. There are no rules anymore

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Why I write, why I speak, and why I won’t stay silent. Justice demands it.

Why do I write five blogs before breakfast? Because injustice doesn’t sleep. I’ve spent my life exposing how power and money rig the system. And I won’t stop — because we need a fairer world. Subscribe, comment, and share. Campaigning isn’t a spectator sport

youtu.be/bhmkCz0Rzf0?...

Revealed: Overwhelming majority of Brits support wealth tax on super-rich, according to new poll Three-quarters of the public support introducing a 2% tax on wealth above £10 million

A new poll has found that the majority of Brits support a wealth tax

Number of Kiwis leaving for Oz in 2024 highest in more than a decade New Zealanders continue to leave the country in record numbers.

Back on track

www.nzherald.co.nz/business/num...

The Invasion of Waikato and the 9 July 1863 Proclamation In July 1863 the Crown launched a premeditated war of conquest and invasion directed against Kīngitanga supporters in Waikato and their relatives living...

My latest newsletter looks at the proclamation issued on this date in 1863 that resulted in large numbers of Māori living in South Auckland being driven from their lands at gunpoint, days before the invasion of Waikato.

buttondown.com/unsettling/a...

Wolf in FT: "Indubitably, a serious government would be devoting vast intellectual resources to the question of how to raise the growth rate. None has, including this one. A starting point, in my view, must be recognition that the Thatcher experiment failed: ...

They used to call John Key The Smiling Assassin 'cos he would smile while showing you the door

They should call Christopher Luxon The Smiling Fool, he's over here grinning away while his 2 deputies undermine the very ground he stands on, & the only person going out the door will be him #NZPol

The Numbers How the Electoral Act complicates the Government's plan to be rid of the Census

I wrote a short (for me) piece about the electoral law complications for Statistics NZ's proposal to scrap full censuses.
In short: the census is mentioned in a reserved (ie entrenched) section of the Electoral Act, so this may need a 75% vote in the House.

edgelered.substack.com/p/the-numbers

A Labour government is driving disabled people into poverty.

This is a scandal, a stain the party will never be able to wash itself of.

Every Labour MP who votes for this disgraceful legislation must be voted out and replaced by someone who stands up for the struggling.

“If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the fucking window and find out which is true.”

This principle should run through journalism like the words in a stick of rock. Yet somehow, day after day, it seems to evade the BBC's finest minds.