Utopia, you are standing in it!

If Labour ministers and our left-leaning media knew more about New Zealand’s political history they would stop giving so much publicity to National’s tax-cut plans, ill-advised though they might be. The attacks are only increasing the likelihood that National will be elected. In one celebrated election, 1928, the government and the media concentrated so much…

MICHAEL BASSETT: OUR MEDIA STILL DON’T GET IT

I recently wrote a column about five facts that justified the start of an impeachment inquiry. While I have stressed that I do not believe that there is currently sufficient evidence for an actual impeachment, I am mystified by the claim that there is not ample evidence to warrant an inquiry into possible impeachable offenses.…

CNN’s Makes the Case for an Impeachment Inquiry

Populism at the country level is at an all-time high, with more than 25% of nations currently governed by populists. How do economies perform under populist leaders? We build a new long run cross- country database to study the macroeconomic history of populism. We identify 51 populist presidents and prime ministers from 1900 to 2020 […]

Populism fact of the day

Is it okay for oppressed minorities to evince blatantly racist attitudes, claiming, for example, that they are “genetically superior to other groups”? (Needless to say, the claim I’m discussing here is not backed by evidence.) I’d argue that no, dismissing entire groups as inferior based purely on stereotypes is wrong, whoever does it. But it’s […]

Co-leader of N.Z.’s Māori Party claims that Māori are a genetically superior group

By Paul Homewood Who cares about whales? Whales might be dying because of sonar surveying, but Greenpeace simply ignores the science that doesn’t suit it.

Why Won’t Greenpeace Admit Wind Turbines May Be Killing Whales?

In my study of European Royalty and the history of monarchy in general one of the things that I’ve learned is that the concept of monarchy has been in a constant state of evolution and adaptation. I even see that here with the development of the title and position of Roman Emperor. To historians, and […]

When is an Emperor not an Emperor? Caesar Augustus. Part I.

That was a weird 24 hours or so. If you had told me a week ago that anything I was involved with would be the lead item on Morning Report and on the two TV channels’ evening news bulletins, I would not have believed you. Election campaigns are funny things. I don’t want to say […]

The fiscal gap that is macroeconomically significant

Throughout the English Civil Wars, it was common for people to switch sides between Parliamentarians and Royalists; these people earned the nickname ‘turncoat’. Dr Patrick Little from our Lords 1640-1660 project explores two obscure figures in the Civil Wars and why they became turncoats. The English Civil War divided communities along religious and political lines. But […]

Changing sides: ‘turncoats’ in the English Civil Wars

By Paul Homewood     A net zero ban on petrol and diesel cars means European car makers risk being wiped out by cheaper Chinese competition, the chief of BMW has warned. Oliver Zipse said mid-market manufacturers in Britain and the EU would be unable to compete with Chinese rivals on price when it came […]

Net Zero ban on petrol cars may wipe out European car makers, BMW chief warns

On October 14th, Winston Peters will most likely be back in Parliament. The reason for this support is simple: he showed up at the Wellington protests. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, the Black Lives Matter protests flared in the US. This was in the middle of the ongoing pandemic. Progressives were all strongly…

ANANISH CHAUDHURI: Why Winston Peters will be returning to Parliament in October

During the 20th century, Sinn Féin officially split three times and from these splits emerged some of the most central parties in Irish politics. In this second blog of a two-blog series, our Public Engagement Assistant, Kirsty O’Rourke, discusses the reasons behind the party splits. As discussed in an earlier blog, Sinn Féin (translated as we […]

Sinn Féin: A 20th Century History of Party Splits

Introduction Under our system of responsible government, the Sovereign or Governor General exercises his prerogative powers on the advice of the Crown-in-Council, and his constitutional powers relating to Parliament on the advice of the Prime Minister alone. Responsible government means that “Ministers of the Crown are responsible for acts of the Crown” and responsible to […]

No Discretion: On Royal Assent and the Governor General

In July, 2021, a group of seven University of Auckland academics (two now deceased) published a letter in the Magazine “the Listener”  saying that the local (Māori) “ways of knowing”, or Mātauranga Māori (MM), while of significant cultural, sociological, and anthropological value, was not equivalent to modern science.  It was written because the New Zealand…

University of Auckland continues to promote indigenous ways of knowing while not allowing a promised debate between that and modern science

Back in 2003, I wrote this for Walter Block’s I Chose Liberty: Autobiographies of Contemporary Libertarians. I’m planning on extending by the end of this academic year (though I kind of already did). Enjoy!High SchoolIt began with Ayn Rand, as it proverbially does.  I was in 11th grade journalism class with Matt Mayers, my friend…

Intellectual Autobiography of Bryan Caplan

In yesterday’s PREFU The Treasury was quite open about the fiscal impulse – the estimated impact of discretionary fiscal choices on demand and domestic inflation pressures in the current year. In other words, a slightly larger degree of pressure on resources/inflation in the year to June 2024 than they’d thought in May’s Budget (and anything […]

Fiscal impulses and fiscal spin