Tag Archives: Voting

‘Not Electioneering’, Key-style

Posted on 10th Feb, 2012 by Puddleglum

‘Nothing to do with me‘, says Key (and Joyce). After all, John Key explicitly announced in the first minute of the one hour Radio Live ‘PM’s Hour’ that it was an “election free zone”. But that raises the question of … Continue reading →

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Out of control

Posted on 2nd Feb, 2012 by Puddleglum

Sometimes, you just can’t keep things under control in politics. You know how it goes –  somehow Treasury documents get accidentally posted on websites; somehow the government’s majority ‘control’ over partially privatised state assets just isn’t what you thought it … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Free Market, New Zealand Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Boil; Pour; Stew – Drink?

Posted on 30th Jan, 2012 by Puddleglum

The way to get tea so strong you could stand the teaspoon up in it and produce that almost unbearably metallic, bitter tannin taste in your mouth is to follow the age old recipe: Boil; Pour; Stew. Well, they call … Continue reading →

Posted in New Zealand Politics, Political Polls, Political Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Election Prediction No. 1 – Fewer than 30,000 people will vote for John Key

Posted on 12th Nov, 2011 by Puddleglum

It’s clear that fewer than 30,000 New Zealanders will end up voting for Prime Minister John Key in the upcoming elections. It’s also clear that somewhere north of 1,000,000 New Zealanders will, after voting day, think that they have voted … Continue reading →

Posted in New Zealand Politics, Political Polls, Political Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Cut throat politics

Posted on 11th Oct, 2011 by Puddleglum

It doesn’t take long to collect examples of throat-slashing gestures on the internet: Here, here, here and here – and that’s just for starters on the first google page. Interestingly, they are all incidents in highly charged, competitive, high stakes … Continue reading →

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Flagging Voters

Posted on 31st Aug, 2011 by Puddleglum

Elections depend on votes. What do votes depend upon? Well, flags, for one thing. There’s a lot of other studies that show that many seemingly trivial or even irrelevant factors result in perceptible movements in people’s tendency to vote for … Continue reading →

Posted in New Zealand Politics, Political Polls | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Who we didn’t vote for

Posted on 22nd Oct, 2010 by Puddleglum

The Christchurch City Council local body elections showed, beneath the bare figures of the election returns, some interesting patterns. (Figures for number of enrolled voters per ward can be accessed here.) There are seven wards in Christchurch City: Banks Peninsula; … Continue reading →

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