Who will be the next Labour leader?

[Bob Kane]

The rot started under Helen Clarke, when they became too intrusive into people's every day lives when they tried to legislate the water flow on shower heads. There's a couple of other instances but at the moment they elude me.

Light bulbs, essence, light bulbs.
And same-sex marriages - they made them optional but were soon to be mandatory.

[eri]

"It's quite obvious that a big part of the reason that he won is simply by the fact that he is not David Cunliffe. That's a bit of a negative reason to be elected."

Dr Edwards felt the election of Grant Robertson as Mr Shearer's deputy may prove to be the more significant decision.
"In this contest it is him that has been outshining all the other contenders for both the leadership and the deputy. There will be an ongoing discussion that whenever Shearer falters, whenever he trips, there will be discussion maybe Grant Robertson should be leader. Is it just a matter of time before Shearer is rolled by Grant Robertson?"

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10772962

[Bob Kane]

It seems the Labour caucus were listening.
Let's hope they noticed the proposed Capital Gains Tax wasn't the vote-winner they expected it to be.

[eri]

leading with their head

not with their heart

steps to success

[eri]

the shearer

standing up for the shorn

"Not a vision to help 157,000 unemployed New Zealanders into productive employment so they can pay taxes."

dangerous man, staking out the middle ground like that

the nats better grow the economy


http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...Labours-leader

[eri]

................

And that's when the problems start to arrive.

The people who say "we want jobs" but then in the next breath say

"but you can't do that ... you can't build that there ...
you can't expand that ... you can't explore for that there ...
you can't live here ... you can't invest in property here

- you just can't do that!

"And very quickly we start limiting our options.

Through the 2000s, as a country, we progressively boxed ourselves in more and more

to depend on fewer and fewer industries based on what the "can'ts" said.
........................
That attitude made it much harder to pay our way in the world and, as a result, we went into recession before the rest of the world in early 2008.
.............................
The reality is you don't build an economy by lopping off an arm and both legs before you start.

A small country like New Zealand has to make the best of all its natural advantages to lift incomes and give more people more chances to make it while staying right here.

And we should learn to stop listening to people who in the one breath chant "more jobs, more jobs" and then in the next breath say "but don't do that, or that, or that".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/employment...ectid=10783758

[eri]

the unions look to be shutting down ports of auckland for several weeks

they feel worker conditions are more important than business efficiency

seems they either don't know or don't care

what's happening in europe

where structural reform looks like the only thing that will save them

hopefully they will be forced to follow tauranga's lead and save us going down

the european dead end

"Although structural reforms may boost long-term growth prospects, they take years to bear fruit.

In the short term they can raise unemployment and reduce incomes. Groups which have been protected from competition are likely to fight, sometimes violently, to keep their perks and privileges.

The promoters of two previous labour-market reforms in Italy were both assassinated. Elections loom not just in Greece but also in France in April this year and in Italy in early 2013. The political weather in any of these countries could change overnight."
..........................
Sentiment about Europe has improved, and that is welcome. So is the greater sense of political direction.

But as the immediate danger to the euro recedes, another looms: that the urgency which has driven progress so far dissipates. That must not happen. Europe is on the road to recovery, but the way is long and dark.


http://www.economist.com/node/21547790

[eri]

labor australia

once again doing what they do best

vicious in-fighting while in the dog house

how they think they could run a country of 20,000,000

when they collectively don't have the discipline to run a party of 103

i don't know

Former Labor leader Simon Crean launched a scathing attack on the foreign minister Monday, saying he had been “internally disloyal.”
He said Rudd needed to be a “team player” and that he should “put up or shut up” to resolve the long-running speculation.
“If Kevin Rudd can’t be part of the team, let him exit the team,” he told ABC radio. “If he thinks he’s got the numbers, let him challenge. But he’s well short of anywhere near a majority. He can’t win.”
The Australian newspaper reported that in the 103-member Labor caucus, Gillard currently had the support of 51 MPs while 31 were behind Rudd with 21 undecided.
In a separate interview with Sky News, Crean said the dispute was “starving Labor of oxygen. This has got to end.”

http://www.japantoday.com/category/w...dership-fracas

[Bob Kane]

Turns out David Shearer is only photogenic.
Thank goodness.
Labour won't win the next election.

[Bob Kane]

Anyone catch David on tv without his autocue?
What a bumbling mess!

[mattinvestor]

hehehe. is there any youtube vid of it? post here, i want to watch it

[donna]

They need to promote that gay guy - I can't remember his name - I think he is the current deputy too - ha ha There was an article on him in the newspaper - you know you're doomed when they're already talking up the next leader.

Cheers,

Donna

[essence]

charles Chuval?? (excuse my spelling!!)

[mattinvestor]

Labor party's doing it tough in Australia - Bligh just resigned in QLD.High
High probability that they won't win next election considering the many political woes and squabbles faced by Labor lately

[eri]

The Conservatives’ slogan was striking: ‘We are the new workers’ party.’

Tax rates would be cut for workers, and welfare cut to pay for it.

High welfare levels, he says, can inflict cruelty in the name of compassion. ‘People emigrate from the labour market.

Unemployment traps capture a lot of people in social exclusion.’
..............
What even Borg did not expect was that his tax cut for the low-paid would increase economic growth so much that it has almost entirely paid for itself. Borg had created something that Osborne’s critics say does not exist: a self-financing tax cut.

‘There was some criticism at the time that we were borrowing to finance tax cuts,’ he says. But Sweden could do it, because it was expecting to return to surplus soon; Britain has no such luxury, he says.

His main advice to Osborne is: ‘Keep on dealing with the deficit, because deficits destroy everything else.’

http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/al...t-recipe.thtml