Will Starmer pull a Luxon and hope that no factions have the majority and lame duck it to the next election? Can we do better than this level of stupid?

Keir Starmer on his way to cabinet this morning

Footnote.

Watch this interview. Yeah, it's long, but this is of Drunk Muldoon Level #nzpol, but in a different way. This is a pivot. I have thoughts. Rant incoming.

I have so many thoughts about this, and there's still 20 minutes to go. Cannot recommend this enough.

And in 45 years in #nzpol, what will Winston be remembered for? A Gold Card. That's it. The rest is fluff.

Worst. Decade. Ever.

Great chat with columnist for @stuff.co.nz Verity Johnson about idea NZ Govt is too indebted & we can’t have nice things.We’re actually rich & have low debt/gdp. The budget cutting obsession is ideological, moves wealth from young to old, & stunts NZ Inc. #nzpol open.substack.com/pub/thekaka/...

Ever since reading PJ O'Rourke's Republican Party Reptile ages ago, I've been dumbfounded on how US govt legislation can include any old "earmarks" irrelevant to the purpose of a Bill. Absolutely bonkers way to make law.

These two headlines are in no way related. #nzpol

Paywall now lifted: Analysts from the world’s foremost economic forum have rebuked the Government’s plans to import liquefied gas and spark a renaissance in domestic fossil fuel production. newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/11/o...

Economic Co-operation and Development? Not on this govt's watch. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Best film adaptation of The Odyssey, wrong answers only

"AI, write me a Prime Minister's speech promising change."

Goddamnit. You made me pull out the historical spreadsheets. To put this in some perspective, the last time emigration was this bad was in 1979, when the population shrank 0.39 percent.

"Trust me. I used to run a hairline."

For a very long time I had considered my old man to be a shit Dad. I'd even told him so. 25 years after his demise, I'm beginning to respect his observations more. As a lawyer by profession and a poacher by choice, I was aware at an early age to beware of rabbit holes.

Winston defends his shtick.

From the saluting the flag discourse of around 8 months ago

New Gone By Lunchtime podcast out. Totally agree Winston's eating Luxon's lunch. Nat strategy going into election is Willis and Brown forefront while Homer disppears into a hedge. thespinoff.co.nz/politics/06-...

Muldoon-era Minister of Education Merv Wellington tried to make school kids salute the NZ flag. The only thing that happened was a lot of flag poles were cut down.

A couple of notes: "Instead, councils would form voluntary groups" It's not voluntary if there's a gun to your head. "Watts was explicit that proposals should focus on creating "larger, more efficient unitary authorities" Errr, like the Auckland SuperCity? www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Some of the nicest people I've met were migrant workers. The Philippine nurse looking after my dying Mum. The Brazilian who installed my internet. Fuck Seymour's unskilled labour trope.

A Madame once said that you can tell a man three things and he will always believe you. He is handsome, he is smart, and he makes love well.

What's really amazing about Trvmp is that he brings War, Pestilence, Famine and Death and he can't even ride a horse. Even his golf cart has a driver.

I should really get around to digging out that photo I took at an Act election night command centre at the exact moment Prebble lost the Wellington Central electorate. Like Auckland Central, Wellington Central oscillates wildly as the pendulum swings.

would be pretty hilarious for the greens to target SMEs with a "this is a receipt of all the extra costs you'd be paying under ACT" campaign

Bob Jones used advertising stickers like this during the 1984 election for the New Zealand Party. While every other party was pasting up easily ripable posters, this adhesive was a bugger to remove.

Shrinkflation

Fish Pie a la Edmonds Cookbook for dinner, with curry powder caramelised onion added to the bechamel before folding in the flaked fresh snapper. Glad I know recreational fishers. I refuse to buy commercial seafood.

Winston sure knows how to chew the scenery.

Prime Minister condemns Field Marshall Rommel for his part in the attempted assassination of Hitler.

Police Academy reboot, anyone? www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Pretty sure 'veteran political journalist' is code for burned out Press Gallery journo who never got kicked upstairs to PR. See also Duncan Garner, Sean Plunket.

That'll be de Nile.

If this is the studio that's on Lambton Quay up a few stories, I know which one you're talking about. I was interviewed there once on TNNZ7. Only Luxon could Spinal Tap it up.

PM upset with Press Gallery for doing their job.

I stand corrected. At least I got one end right.

As a teenager, I invested all my meager savings in the stockmarket. It was 1987. Lost it all. I never went near a stockmarket again. Give teenagers a $500 TAB account or $500 in chips for a casino instead. Same good it would do. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

NB Stuart Smith National whip at the centre of NZ PM future debate has denied climate change for years & was lead whip who blocked the NZ climate minister from attending the world adaptation conference NZ was hosting last October - you couldn’t make this stuff up www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/science-o...

I am constantly fascinated by this survey map showing how Wellington was filleted like a fish for colonial property. The image doesn't show it clearly, but that green blob in the bottom is the Basin Reserve. There's a reason for calling it the Basin, coz all the surrounding hills drain into it.

Before climate change super-charged the atmospheric rivers, weather only went to 11, not 77.

77mm in one hour in Berhampore. That’s just an incomprehensible rain intensity anywhere at any time, let alone in Wellington in Autumn. We used to use 7mm an hour as a threshold for “heavy rain”, and this was more than 10 times that.

Goldsmith's culture war is going to come back and bite his govt. Me so old, etc. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zea...

The era of Assymetric Wars were foreseen by COIN expert David Kilcullen. Unfortunately, that's three syllables too many for US public consumption. They will now be known as the Ass Wars.

It is rather funny that NZ could have three different Chrises in a row as PM, after having no Chrises in the previous 40 (there have been 4 Johns, 3 Georges, and 3 Williams—plus two PMs commonly known as Bill for whom William was not his first name: Wallace Rowling and Simon William English)

Alas, he can only pull on the Unilever and roll on with Lynx.

Calligraphy alert.

Cris-crossed crisis of Chrises, Batman!

If anyone thinks this is a batshit idea, remind them that the first govt to electrify part of the Main Trunk Line (Wellington to Palmy) was the Fourth Labour Govt.