Desperate to turn away from trivial controversies here in New Zealand about Santa’s true gender, I looked to the British press and found The Times and The Telegraph reporting on claims of racism in J.R.R. Tolkien’s depiction of orcs in The Lord of the Rings. Read more
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade must have a psychedelic drug in its watercoolers. How else does one explain MFAT’s new consultation on the pipedream of a future free-trade agreement between New Zealand and the UK? Read more
The trouble isn’t so much the things we don’t know, as the old aphorism goes, but rather the things we know that aren’t so. Simply not knowing things can often be fixed. Read more
Unless we are good friends, my picking the restaurant when you are paying the bill can be a recipe for trouble. Central and local government are not always the best of friends. Read more
Question: What costs three moon programs, puts nobody in space, and makes no difference to emissions? Answer: Energiewende (or energy turnaround), Angela Merkel’s plan to cut Germany’s emissions. Read more
New Zealand’s screening regime for foreign investment in sensitive land conjures images of a madman waving a big stick in a public place. He is as likely to hit his own head as anyone else’s, but it is bad either way. Read more
If you were not already alarmed about the state of education in New Zealand, two stories in the media last week should shake you from any complacency. The first story was about a commonplace word, trivial. Read more
In 1898, the first publicly funded pension was introduced in New Zealand. Back then, those aged over 65 comprised only 1.3 per cent of the population, with the average life expectancy for males being 54. Read more
What Brexit is in the early 21st century, the Schleswig-Holstein Question was in the mid-19th century. That international calamity of dazzling complexity also gave one of the most memorable quotes in diplomatic history. Read more
As the Interim Climate Change Commission decides how to implement the government’s commitment to 100% renewable electricity generation by 2035, it could learn from the renewables policy disaster unfolding in Germany. Germany’s Energiewende (‘energy turnaround’) policy aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 95% by 2050 by investing in solar and wind generation. Read more
The Government has copped much criticism lately for its Kiwibuild policy, including from our chair Roger Partridge writing in Insights two weeks ago. So it is only fair to praise Housing Minister Phil Twyford when he deserves it. Read more
The American mid-term elections were brutal. Indeed, no liberal democracy may have ever witnessed an electoral campaign so characterised by lies, racism and hate. Read more
New Zealand was never home to a great empire for one simple reason. We don’t have enough trees. Read more
The Labour-Green coalition agreement promised a referendum on the personal use of cannabis at or before the next election. The next election must be held by 21 November 2020. Read more
Few outcomes of the US midterm elections could have been predicted with certainty. Except that President Trump would call the result a “tremendous success” no matter what. Read more