UK-based New Zealand journalist Nicola Kean on Boris Johnson’s big victory, and the conundrum of voting under a FPP system. Politics is a brutal business. My clearest memory in the sleep-deprived aftermath of New Zealand’s 2017 campaign was Te Ururoa Flavell weeping in the Mediaworks carpark after stepping down as Māori Party leader live on … Read more
For the third time in five years, the United Kingdom has gone to the polls today. From the summer islands of New Zealand, join The Spinoff as we follow the results rolling in. 5.10pm: Right, that is probably about where we can wrap up this live blog of the UK elections. It is very clear that … Read more
Once again, Britain is going to the polls in an attempt to dig themselves out of the utter mess they’re in around Brexit. Will this one finally sort it all out? What’s all this then? A dream outcome for those who want nothing more than the chance to see big, dramatic elections: The home of … Read more
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
Radical populism arises on the left, the right and in the centre. In this essay, from the newly published Journal of Urgent Writing, Simon Wilson makes a radical proposal for New Zealand. It was a time when New Zealand was sick of being New Zealand. It was the 1980s, a high old time, a time of … Read more
A selection of responses from those who had said it was simply unthinkable that Jeremy Corbyn could lead a Labour election revival. The UK Labour Party might have finished second in the snap election at the end of last week, but Jeremy Corbyn carried the air of victory throughout his weekend media appearances. By contrast, … Read more
What the hell just happened? The Guardian’s Richard Adams attempts to make sense of the shock UK election outcome. The UK election result is the biggest upset of conventional wisdom since, well, last November. After Trump, the Brexit referendum, Leicester City winning the premier league and the 2015 UK general election result you’d think we’d … Read more
Wait, Jeremy Corbyn could actually become the prime minister? How might the Labour Party in New Zealand copy its British counterpart and lessen the electoral despair, asks Hayden Donnell in a dispatch from somewhere or other in the UK Read more: Grant Robertson, Judith Collins, Jacinda Ardern, Metiria Turei, Jim Anderton and more on what … Read more
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
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
Leftwing outsider Jeremy Corbyn has stormed to an emphatic victory in the British Labour leadership race. An all-star cast of politicians and commentators assess the impact for the Spinoff. Britain’s Labour Party has swung dramatically away from Blairism and elected veteran backbench leftwing MP Jeremy Corbyn its new leader, with an astonishing 59.5% of support in … Read more