As the dust settles on another wall collapsing in the crumbling house of parliamentary democracy, this time in the (currently) United Kingdom, there are many interpretations of what happened, how it happened, and why it happened. These range from AI Facebook bots to the new nationalism. The realignment of political forces around strange new faultContinue reading “UK election 2019 : lumps, bumps and pimples”
Tag Archives: Politics
The 2035 New Zealand Poet Laureate writes on the occasion of the election of the Tenth Term of the National Government
Let’s make sure this remains a morbid fantasy not a fact. Vote on 23 September. – VB Fellow citizens, we celebrate today The Surplus. From all levels of the Survival Dome, we gather in solemn appreciation in a National Minibreak of Gratitude. Could all digital devices and personal teleportation equipment be turned to apocalypse mode.Continue reading “The 2035 New Zealand Poet Laureate writes on the occasion of the election of the Tenth Term of the National Government”
Bea$t of the Hour
Covfefe – a poem
Meta Mnemonics help him recollect his nuclear codes jammed in somewhere behind his twitching frontal lobes. His fish eye lens compulsively filming the inside of the zoo as he dials the Kremlin hotline to ask what should I do? A pumped up alpha politico steaming with roid rage, his fingers tap compulsively before his mind’s engaged. AContinue reading “Covfefe – a poem”
Refugee resettlement in New Zealand
A published opinion piece
Retirement crisis looming
There is a retirement crisis in New Zealand. Experts have made a compelling case for an imminent “zombie apocalypse” of retired Kiwis, stalking the streets and cannibalising the disposable incomes of innocent passers by.
Advice to mum and dad investors
I was impressed and excited to read a local finance broker’s advice to potential “mum and dad” investors in privatized public assets in the Otago Daily Times (Friday 6 July 2012). Mr Chris Timms of Craigs Investment Partners says any complaints about ordinary Kiwis not being able to get in on the sale of theContinue reading “Advice to mum and dad investors”
Cocktails and corporate warriors
The following article appeared in the Otago Daily Times on 9 November 2010 in response to reports of private “war games” for businessmen with the SAS in exchange for donations.
Left of liberal
Must be that time of the year again. Speaking at Drinking Liberally Dunedin this Thursday 1 July.
Beyond the sea: New Zealand’s ports at risk?
The following article on New Zealand ports and maritime issues was originally published in Foreign Control Watchdog issue 123 (May 2010), the magazine of CAFCA, and is also available online at their site.
Broke, Anxious or Seriously flush
The following article appeared in the Otago Daily Times, on Wednesday 3 February 2010, in response to an article by Dr Mathew Zacharias entitled Patients’ rights trampled in drive for equality and ongoing talk about user pays models at the Dunedin Public Hospital.
Drinking liberally
An appearance this Tuesday 23 April 7pm at Velvet Underground, Dunedin for the Drinking Liberally series. Facebook version here.
That’s very generous of you . . . sir
A small mention here at Tumeke for my comments today about our Prime Minister who craves to see the warm and friendly hand of charity extended to the dispossessed. John Key is a confused man. He wants a British “honours” system, an American “generosity” system and presumably a Burmese employment system to pay for itContinue reading “That’s very generous of you . . . sir”
Paths are made by walking
New Zealand’s leading public intellectual of the Left, Chris Trotter, seems to have been genuinely unsettled by the defeat of Labour in 2008. Toys have been thrown, and targets targeted. In an initial attack of post-election spleen Chris railed against those voters who brought in National as ” . . . the men who justContinue reading “Paths are made by walking”
