Will de Cleene
@zippygonzales.bsky.social
📤 231
📥 209
📝 1217
Burned out hospo droid
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?
about 22 hours ago
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Will de Cleene
Larry the Cat
about 23 hours ago
Keir Starmer on his way to cabinet this morning
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Footnote.
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about 23 hours ago
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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.
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Bernard Hickey & Verity Johnson bust the NZ debt myth
A recording from Bernard Hickey's live video
https://thekaka.substack.com/p/bernard-hickey-and-verity-johnson?r=akd4&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
about 23 hours ago
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I have so many thoughts about this, and there's still 20 minutes to go. Cannot recommend this enough.
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1 day ago
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And in 45 years in
#nzpol
, what will Winston be remembered for? A Gold Card. That's it. The rest is fluff.
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1 day ago
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Worst. Decade. Ever.
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1 day ago
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reposted by
Will de Cleene
Bernard Hickey
1 day ago
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/...
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Bernard Hickey & Verity Johnson bust the NZ debt myth
A recording from Bernard Hickey's live video
https://open.substack.com/pub/thekaka/p/bernard-hickey-and-verity-johnson?r=akd4&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
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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.
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1 day ago
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Will de Cleene
Watershitdown
1 day ago
These two headlines are in no way related.
#nzpol
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reposted by
Will de Cleene
Marc Daalder
1 day ago
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...
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OECD tells NZ there's no future in gas
NZ could achieve electricity security, affordability and sustainability by breaking the power sector's reliance on gas, economic forum advises
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/11/oecd-tells-nz-theres-no-future-in-gas/
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Economic Co-operation and Development? Not on this govt's watch.
www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
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Luxon calls OECD warning on government's LNG plans 'load of rubbish'
The Prime Minister says he is not interested in the OECD's recommendations.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/594954/luxon-calls-oecd-warning-on-government-s-lng-plans-load-of-rubbish
1 day ago
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Best film adaptation of The Odyssey, wrong answers only
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4 days ago
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reposted by
Will de Cleene
Jolyon Maugham KC
4 days ago
"AI, write me a Prime Minister's speech promising change."
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These election results don’t mean tacking left or right, but delivering for the whole country | Keir Starmer
In the coming days I will be setting out our path to break with the status quo once and for all by building a stronger and fairer UK, says the prime minister, Keir Starmer
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/08/election-results-left-right-uk-keir-starmer?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
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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.
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7 days ago
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"Trust me. I used to run a hairline."
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7 days ago
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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.
7 days ago
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Winston defends his shtick.
7 days ago
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reposted by
Will de Cleene
David Hood
7 days ago
From the saluting the flag discourse of around 8 months ago
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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-...
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The National Party’s five-point comms plan to seize back the agenda
A strategic reboot seeks to put Luxon above the fray and the party on the front foot.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/06-05-2026/the-national-partys-five-point-comms-plan-to-seize-back-the-agenda
7 days ago
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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.
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7 days ago
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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...
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Government gives councils amalgamation ultimatum
"Lead your own reform, or we will do it for you," Chris Bishop says, as a deadline is set.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/594289/government-gives-councils-amalgamation-ultimatum
8 days ago
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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.
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10 days ago
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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.
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10 days ago
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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.
10 days ago
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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.
10 days ago
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reposted by
Will de Cleene
Keith Ng
10 days ago
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
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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.
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10 days ago
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Shrinkflation
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11 days ago
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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.
11 days ago
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Winston sure knows how to chew the scenery.
13 days ago
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Prime Minister condemns Field Marshall Rommel for his part in the attempted assassination of Hitler.
16 days ago
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Police Academy reboot, anyone?
www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
18 days ago
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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.
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18 days ago
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That'll be de Nile.
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19 days ago
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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.
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19 days ago
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PM upset with Press Gallery for doing their job.
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Bloodhound Gang - Why's Everybody Always Pickin' On Me?
YouTube video by BloodhoundGangVEVO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaGKxAgCguU&list=RDEaGKxAgCguU&start_radio=1
19 days ago
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I stand corrected. At least I got one end right.
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20 days ago
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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...
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David Seymour floats giving year 11s $500 to invest, taking from annual KiwiSaver subsidy
But it is not an ACT policy "yet", he says.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/593243/david-seymour-floats-giving-year-11s-500-to-invest-taking-from-annual-kiwisaver-subsidy
20 days ago
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reposted by
Will de Cleene
Bronwyn Hayward
23 days ago
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...
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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.
23 days ago
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Before climate change super-charged the atmospheric rivers, weather only went to 11, not 77.
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23 days ago
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reposted by
Will de Cleene
23 days ago
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.
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Goldsmith's culture war is going to come back and bite his govt. Me so old, etc.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zea...
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24 days ago
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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.
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24 days ago
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reposted by
Will de Cleene
André Brett
24 days ago
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)
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Alas, he can only pull on the Unilever and roll on with Lynx.
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24 days ago
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Calligraphy alert.
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24 days ago
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Cris-crossed crisis of Chrises, Batman!
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24 days ago
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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.
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24 days ago
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