Yes! It's not some arcane mystery accessible only to people with once in a generation skills and charisma. Have practical policies that help people. Communicate them simply. Be authentic. Don't cave to bad faith attacks and misrepresentations. Run a serious ground game - meet the people.

It’s disappointing that The Post chose to focus on something so trivial for the cover when there are far more important stories to tell. I’ve moved on from the mayoralty, and it’s time The Post did the same. 3/3 #nzpol

I had been wondering the same thing. Some papers have been using his name and some haven't. This seems a plausible and reasonable reason.

A complete, connected, comfortable network of protected bike-lanes is a climate mitigation strategy. It’s a healthy cities strategy. It’s a social equity strategy. It’s an affordability strategy. It’s an economic devt strategy. It’s a smart mobility & space saving strategy. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc.

The question of asset sales seens to arise three or four years after tax cuts. 2010: tax cuts 2014: partial asset sale of powercos & AirNZ 2024: tax cuts 2026/27: asset sales? (If Nats win next year) The reason is blindingly obvious: tax cuts means less tax revenue.Nats have to make up shortfall.

It's surely one of the great tragedies of contemporary Britain that it enjoys enormous soft power through the worldwide respect for the BBC's journalism and for British universities and that the media eco-system demands governments be constantly at war with both.

It’s also a mistake politicians make. It’s actually a very common human mistake: to try and change the minds of people who dislike you, rather than focus on those who already love you.

Solar’s price drop is astonishing: panels are now 98% cheaper than when I first analyzed them in 2004. Today, building a fence with solar can be cheaper than using wood.

Free speech always means 'I'm free to be as bigoted and appalling as I like, and the rest of you are free to agree or keep quiet' for these people.

Line goes up! #nzpol www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3608...

I used to think the speedy overthrow of the Shire was a bit of a writing failure by Tolkien, because how could things fall apart so badly, so fast. I don't think that any more.

Luxon thinks we need a "mature conversation" about selling state assets... But I don't think he really means that, because a mature conversation would look at the history of failure and the shortsighted focus on profit ahead of public interest. He wants a conversation where we agree with him.

Really seeing once again, it seems, that the real divide in the Democratic coalition is not left/lib/moderate or anything like that. It's the fight/no-fight divide. And the 'fight' dems are the ones winning elections.

what’s remarkable about this is that there are zero winners at all, one of the biggest lose-lose deals I can remember the Dem cavers will catch incandescent shit for it the rest of the Dems will catch collateral fury the big R win is… jacking everyone’s health care costs ahead of midterms

That the Free Speech Union's conference audience is applauding the suggestion of basically banning non-Christian religions should pretty much put an end to their being taken seriously by media as a voice for principled free speech advocacy. But it won't

Why are they poking it?! 😱😱 Have they never seen a horror movie?

The article says he doesn't have name suppression any more, but they're still not naming him for 'legal reasons'. What does that mean? #nzpol

This, from OUSA's President, is very good and warrants reading: "For decades, governments of every stripe have treated universities as businesses to be managed rather than institutions of learning and curiosity. ... Students are rebranded as customers, research, degrees and graduates as outputs."

He’s a disaster. A completely incompetent man who’s failed upwards and has mistaken that for confirmation of his own brilliance. He’s just oblivious to anything outside of his narrow sphere of experience.

Palm Beach, Waiheke. Right now Nerd fact (I’m a marine biologist after all), when luciferin and luciferase (gotta love the biblical names) join together, they react with the oxygen in the air to make an oxidised complex. After that, luciferin emits a photon, and that is what you see when it breaks

Humans forget that we too are animals, & that we only survived thru eons on this planet because of the “Goldilocks Zone”. If we continue to increase temperatures, that “just right” zone will become unliveable, not just for Amazon’s dolphins but for most/all of us. Act now to cut emissions.

What would we no longer have if fireworks were banned? Terrified pets, yet more pointless plastic released into the environment, antisocial moronic noise. Call me crazy but I reckon we can just about cope with that kind of loss, as a species.

🧵Out Now! Tiny Moments of Joy: Spotted on Market Day in Aotearoa New Zealand It's officially live! Today's the launch day for Tiny Moments of Joy and we couldn't be happier to share the news with you. You can get your copy here: www.swashbucklerpress.com/tiny-moments... (1)

Interesting article about the contradictions faced by women in a patriarchal society. Women who want power and influence often have to get it by conforming to male values, which gets us women like Tia Billinger and Phyllis Schafly, who are opposite sides of the same dynamic according to the author

It’s kind of crazy the level of wealth propaganda we are exposed to. In movies and tv shows everyone has nice homes and food on the table, orange juice in glass jars out of the fridge, socials are full of people with STUFF. And when the disconnect is no longer bearable fascism shows up.

Just want to take a moment to savour this combination of insolvency company and practitioner names. "McDonald Vague practitioner Keaton Pronk says demand has surged after a very quiet period. In past downturns, trouble spread unevenly, but not this time."

When you’re equating human beings who need wrap-around support in a situation that has been made vastly worse by deliberate reduction of access to services, with rubbish that just “needs to be tidied up”, our values of humanity have also shifted, and perhaps something needs to be done about that.

Here's today's pūtangitangi update! They have another huge fan in the form of a dear old lady who walks a little black dog. Today we caught up in the carpark and she said the other day the whole family had a good old fight with a pair of seagulls trying to colonise their pond 😂🪶🇳🇿 feisty little guys.

I keep on coming back to the irrefutable fact that the people in New Zealand that don't want to address the impact of colonisation and argue "it's in the past, the current generation are not responsible for that" continue to enjoy benefits that flowed directly from that colonisation.

Rangiora Borough School has recently marked 10 years since it established a bilingual unit, Ngā Rākau e Rua.

‘The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.’ ~ J.R.R. Tolkien. #BookWormSat 🖼️ Tolkien

Every person in Aotearoa knows an average of 70 words in Te Reo and the average has been increasing for two decades in part because of courses like those supported by govt departments. Fuck Seymour for wanting to take us backwards. #nzpol

No fireworks here so far tonight, but Pip still isn't willing to go for a walk. I hope he can feel safe again soon.

You know what shouldn’t happen ‘on the taxpayer’s dime’? The unnecessary Ministry of Regulation, a vanity project created to purge government of things to which its creator is ideologically opposed.

Oh my fucking god

This author of this empathy-free article, and Luxon and Brown have cruely dehumanised the homeless. Nowhere in this article is there any thought given to why the homeless are actually there, why they have to beg, etc. The journalist hasn't interviewed or quoted any of 'them' as people. 🤬 #nzpol

Have you heard of “The Populist Playbook?” A few years ago, I posted what I still consider one of my most important messages. It was about “The Populist Playbook” that I’ve watched play out often over my 33+ years of city planning. Since then, it’s only gotten worse. Do the steps sound familiar?

#30DayMapchallenge Day 8, Urban. People don't realise what a big deal it is for acceptance of place names to change in such a short time without wars/dictators/invasion/etc. Just people, within a generation, deciding it is the right thing to do. mapdata::NZHires baseman + Affinity Publisher.

It’s a good day to talk about women scientists. Let’s also remember Margaret W. Rossiter, who died in August of this year. She coined the “Matilda Effect” (named after suffragist Matilda Gage), which describes bias against acknowledging women’s achievements.

Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).

The faith in a free market over the last 25 years, and belief that world trade agreements will hold (we're already breaking ours) means we've lost the capacity to make the things we need. What could possibly go wrong? There are things we can do, but I doubt we have political will to do them. #nzpol

Alex Winter on fame, AI and reuniting with Keanu Reeves: ‘Sometimes we’re on a groove and go, ‘God damn, that was good!’

Under new head of Paramount David Ellison, the studio has drawn up a list of actors who opposed the Gaza genocide and will not allow them to appear in its films and TV shows. Does this sound familiar? Also, "Ellison is reportedly aiming to take over Warner Bros. next."

1. This is a thread on freedom, and how easy it is to lose. Over the past 2,000 years in Europe, there have been few periods and places of freedom. For much of the time we lived under highly oppressive tyrannies of various kinds, whether small or grand, local or imperial, secular or religious.🧵

My poor dog is huddled against me trembling every time there's a bang or crack outside. He's had a very stressful few evenings this week. I hope the local enthusiasts will run out of fireworks soon.

There are a lot of wonderful, passionate people on the centre/left in AoNZ who sincerely think once you get into office, you *have* to be more moderate, less outspoken, govern The Proper Way, and that's one reason (out of many) the 2017-2023 govts didn't achieve as much change as we all hoped for

NZ Professional Firefighters Union keep responding to David Seymour’s lies about the state of fire trucks. #nzpol

I’m noticing this too. Typing a correct sentence involves fighting a pitched battle with autocomplete. It now changes whole words to completely different words apparently at random.

My fireworks display, during the day.