Brexit

The Bulletin: British politics implodes with defections left and right

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: More defections shake British politics, massive hole in NZ’s biosecurity defences revealed, and Privacy Commissioner makes intervention in self-ID debate. We’re going international today, because there have been hugely significant developments in British politics overnight. The established party system in Britain is imploding, with MPs from both … Read more

The Bulletin: Despite Auckland cooling, housing still wildly unaffordable

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: New study lays bare housing unaffordability, a return to the news of a Roast Buster, and inequality continues to widen.  Housing unaffordability in New Zealand is among the worst in the developed world, reports Stuff. That’s not necessarily a measure of prices alone, rather it’s a measure … Read more

The Brexit deal is dead, but Theresa May survives. So what happens now?

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With the PM’s withdrawal agreement shot down, but Britain still set to leave the EU on March 29, a new course of action is needed – and fast, writes Leeds University political scientist Victoria Honeyman. As the clock ticks down to March 29 2019, all of the political manoeuvring, negotiating, arguing and fighting is coming … Read more

The Bulletin: Is Britain about to get a new PM?

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: British PM a few hours away from vote on her future, government quietly debating compensation for coastal property owners, and Google makes Millane case blunder. UPDATE – 10.02am NZT: Theresa May has won the vote of no-confidence against her, by a margin of 200-117. The word ‘omnishambles’ … Read more

The Bulletin: Will NZ back UN migration pact?

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Foreign policy fault line opens over UN migration pact, mental health report released and waiting on govt response, and yet more leaks about the National Party.  Fault lines have opened up in New Zealand’s foreign policy over whether we should sign up to the UN Global … Read more

Meanwhile in Britain, Brexit keeps lurching from debacle to disaster

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This week British PM Theresa May thought she’d finally come up with a Brexit deal that her own MPs would accept. Things didn’t quite turn out that way, writes RNZ. After two years of discussions and negotiations with the European Union (EU), British Prime Minister Theresa May announced three days ago that her Cabinet supported … Read more

But seriously, wtf is going on with Brexit?

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Could there finally be a solution to the destructive drama of Brexit? In today’s Cheat Sheet, Alex Braae explains why even the latest plan to come out of Downing Street could be shot down.  What’s all this then? Brexit was once famously described by football hooligan character actor Danny Dyer as a “mad riddle”. “Nobody’s … Read more

The Bulletin: Labour Day World News Special Edition

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. It’s a public holiday, so we’re going to have a slightly different edition of The Bulletin this morning. We’ll cover off a few major world news stories that are worth keeping an eye on, and if possible, what they mean for New Zealand. Don’t worry, normal service of the … Read more

The Bulletin: A rollercoaster day for the government

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Government gets timely economic figures boost, Whaitiri’s ministerial career is over, and tax working group hedges bets on capital gains. Sometimes the news just comes at you fast, and yesterday was one of those days. For the government, some of it was the best of times, and … Read more

The Bulletin: Looking real strong and stable there Britain

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: British politics loses the plot completely, Gareth Morgan winds up The Opportunities Party, and defence minister Ron Mark gets some new planes.  The wheels have completely fallen off British politics, over what the government wants out of Brexit negotiations. Yesterday, Brexit secretary David Davis resigned, just a … Read more

The Bulletin: What will Waikeria Prison be?

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Government will unveil plans for Waikeria Prison, Nicky Hager vindicated after unlawful police raid, and Auckland councillors getting restless about Goff. The government’s new plans for Waikeria Prison are set to finally be revealed today,reports Radio NZ. There has been endless back and forth on this since … Read more

The Bulletin: Trump delights base, appalls allies on world tour

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Donald Trump behaves like Donald Trump overseas, National wins Northcote by-election, and PM Ardern reassures nation about imminent reign of Lord Winston of Whananaki.   It’s been a massive weekend of news for international politics, centred around the US President Donald Trump. The photo above of Trump … Read more

The Bulletin: Good signs for trade with post-Brexit Britain

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Free trade with Britain moves closer, police and government at odds over drug driver testing, and EQC checks may be recalled. The PM is in London reassuring Britain that New Zealand is very keen on a post-Brexit free trade deal. The meeting between Ardern and Britain’s Theresa … Read more

Podcast: Andy Zaltzman can’t stop talking cricket

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Podcast host, comedian and big-brained Brit Andy Zaltzman will be coming to New Zealand later this year for the comedy festival. He spoke to Alex Braae about politics, satire, and the game he can’t get enough of. “Half an hour later, the entire foundation of English civilisation had collapsed. It was the lowest point in … Read more

Why the Cambridge Analytica scandal matters

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Facebook’s shares have taken a nosedive after something to do with data used by Cambridge Analytica. Confused? Here’s what it means, and what could come next. This piece was originally published on Radio NZ. Cambridge Analytica is a London-based consulting firm. It is under pressure over allegations it uses illegally obtained data and social media manipulation to … Read more

Outdated and increasingly toothless, the Official Information Act needs an overhaul

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Democracy around the world is under threat, and New Zealand is not immune. Here, government attitudes to official information are hampering democratic debate and accountability, writes Sir Geoffrey Palmer. Throughout the western world, democracy is facing challenging times. People are trusting politicians and political processes less than they used to. Brexit and Donald Trump are … Read more

‘She’ll be right, Britain’ll be right’: the UK’s man in Wellington on Brexit, the snap election, the Lions and more

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With a snap election amid a divorce from the European Union, there’s plenty afoot in Britain. Toby Manhire sits down with the UK high commissioner, Jonathan Sinclair, to find out what it means for him, along with his thoughts on NZ rugby crowds, dossing with the Australians post-earthquake, and how many Pitcairn Islanders he knows by name. The British … Read more

Facing an opposition in disarray, May will seek a big mandate for a hard Brexit

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By the logic of politics the real surprise was that the UK prime minister hadn’t called a snap election earlier, writes the Guardian’s Richard Adams. In the end Theresa May’s decision to call a snap election was a surprise but not a shock. A surprise because May herself had repeatedly and unambiguously ruled out calling … Read more

Britain braces for a May election, in June, and the prediction industry roars back to life

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Theresa ‘I’m not going to be calling a snap election’ May has called a snap election. And Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn must be crapping himself, writes Jonathan Hutchison from London.  If there’s one thing journalists and commentators ought to have learnt from the past year in politics, it is this: never ever ever predict anything … Read more

Summer reissue: The political elites foisted a new system on ordinary Brits. Little wonder they’re grabbing it back

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In June, Britain voted to leave the European union. The Brexit decision was entirely understandable, wrote former NZ prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer. Across western democracies, some sense of democratic renewal is needed to avoid alienation Originally published on June 29, 2016 Brexit resulted in my view from a break down in accountabilities. It is … Read more

UK, USA… NZ? Why the Greens’ surrender to the dark side of immigration should scare us all

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During last week’s election madness, many of us comforted ourselves with the belief that it couldn’t happen here. But how true is that? Thomas Coughlan sees ominous signs in the New Zealand left’s embrace of anti-immigrant rhetoric. The youngest voters to participate in last week’s US election would have been only ten years old when … Read more

Robert Muldoon rises from the grave to join the Brexit debate in London

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Well, not literally. But a 1976 NZ judgment involving PM Muldoon and a public servant has played a cameo role in the English High Court ruling that the prime minister, Theresa May, cannot bypass parliament in triggering the UK exit from the EU. Asher Emanuel explains. New Zealand, late 1975. A television ad warns that … Read more

‘It was New Zealand’s Brexit’ – weighing up MMP on its 20th birthday

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Geoffrey Palmer, Winston Peters, Judith Collins, Andrew Little, Richard Prebble, Metiria Turei, Willie Jackson and more on two decades of a proportional system, how they’ve changed their view of MMP, and what still needs fixing. On Saturday October 12, 1996, New Zealanders voted under the Mixed Member Proportional system for the first time. After 143 … Read more

The reality of Theresa May’s new vision? Make Britain Shit Again

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Registers of foreign workers and attacks on human rights lawyers show the poison of Trump seeping into the Conservative government’s new, cynical strategy, laments London-based New Zealander Tze Ming Mok This time last year Theresa May, not yet the prime minister of the UK, dominated the Conservative Party conference. To my outsider ears, her message … Read more

Brexit through the gift shop: An open letter to NZ leave voter Alex Hazlehurst

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‘Don’t call me racist for voting leave,’ wrote expat Kiwi and controversy magnet Alex Hazlehurst earlier this week. How about we call you short-sighted, self-centred and sadly misinformed instead, suggests New Zealand-born Londoner Paul Gallagher. Dear Alex, The upheaval and recriminations following the EU referendum result have seemingly left everyone in the UK on edge. … Read more

Millions of Australians join global chorus saying ‘screw you’ to political establishment

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Amid Australia’s election deadlock, independent candidates have become a lightning rod for discontented voters, and there are lessons for NZ political parties, writes Jennifer Curtin. It might not be as internationally extraordinary as Brexit or Trump winning the Republican nomination, but the result of the Australian election has revealed a profound disaffection with both major … Read more