Homepaddock

If your religious regime requires the blood of rioting civilians to remain in power….. maybe God isn’t on your side. pic.twitter.com/ZiapjDVrwP

— Damien Grant (@damienmgrant) January 10, 2026

If you claim to support human rights yet can’t bring yourself to show solidarity with those fighting for their liberty in Iran, you’ve revealed yourself. You don’t give a damn about people being oppressed and brutalised so long as it’s being done by the enemies of your enemies. pic.twitter.com/eK3jjh3pD6

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 11, 2026

The deeper challenge for Swarbrick is what happens when prophecy fails. The polar ice caps have not vanished. Cities are not underwater. Increased atmospheric CO₂ has coincided with widespread increases in global plant growth.

The government, reading the mood accurately, is quietly edging away from onerous international emissions obligations under the Paris Agreement, while maintaining the appearance of compliance. – Graham Adams

The Greens’ fixation on trans rights is also unlikely to broaden their appeal. That ideology has remained largely confined to middle-class enclaves and has been steadily losing influence since the publication of the Cass Review and the release of the WPATH files in 2024. – Graham Adams

Swarbrick, for instance, has an overwhelming obsession with Palestine (but not Ukraine) and pushes LGBTQ+ rights and drug law reform even as she tries to shoehorn climate change, Te Tiriti, degrowth programmes, and social justice into one baffling bundle.

Delivering them in a cohesive form remains a challenge. Swarbrick is the Greens’ most voluble cheerleader and can talk about this policy pot-pourri at length without taking a pause for breath or making sense of the jumble — all the while repeating stock phrases such as “caring for people and planet” and “evidence-based solutions”. In that way, she is the poor woman’s Jacinda Ardern, who could also talk for some time without saying anything meaningful but who was more personable. – Graham Adams

Her belief that turning her attention to reforming the economic system  — including raising tens of billions via extra state borrowing and wealth and inheritance taxes — will lead to electoral success is a heroic assumption given the bitter taste the profligacy of the Ardern-Hipkins government has left in many voters’ mouths.

The Coalition government understands that most voters don’t want to pay more tax; what they want is the tax they already pay to be spent much more prudently. – Graham Adams

People ask, ‘What do you do?’ But I’m going to ask you a different question: ‘Why do you do?’ And you’re going to ask, ‘What?’ and I’ll say, ‘No, why.’ Because problems happen when ‘what you do’ and ‘why you do what you do’ don’t line up. – Jimmy Carr

I get that all human behaviour is purposeful. I believe in rational self-interest. I believe people want to have happy lives. But they don’t half go about it in some fucking stupid ways.

We will do harmful things to ourselves with purpose. The best examples are the most extreme and fuckwitted. Some people are shooting heroin into the last viable vein in their crotch, but not for nothing. Yes, they’re doing it to get high, obviously. But beyond that there’s purpose. They’re looking for something, could be comfort or security, or maybe they’re self-medicating trauma. – Jimmy Carr

Whatever you’re doing, you’re doing it for a good reason. But there might be a better way. You might smoke because you want to relax, but there are better ways to relax that involve less cancer, death and bad breath. Or you might work in a job you hate, because you feel you need the approval of others. That was me.

I believe we’ve got two big adventures in life: the first is finding your purpose and the second is pursuing that purpose. The sad fact is most people get to do neither. I’m hoping you get to do both. – Jimmy Carr

The kindest word I can use is delusional when people pretend someone is born male but somehow magically changed sex. Humans cannot change their biological sex. It’s a lie. I will not personally facilitate it. Femininity/masculinity is individual & various. However a social construct that has changed & moved with fashion & time. But Sex is binary. There is No 3rd gamete. Long term it will do no one (& definitely not society) any favours to go along with a delusion. – Sharron Davies 

Which part of the announcement – back in November of last year – didn’t prompt an instant double-take from anyone who saw it? The waving of a thousand red flags? To reiterate, it’s underage children who are to be used as guinea pigs in this “gender incongruence” trial, set to go ahead within days – 220 of them, between the ages of 10 and 15.

Over the course of the next two years, they will be experimented on with drugs that are known to harm brain development, bone growth, sexual functioning, as well as lead to infertility, among other things (although it’s acknowledged that the full extent of the side effects is still unknown). These drugs were heavily involved in the downfall of the NHS’s only gender-identity development service (GIDS), provided by the Tavistock Clinic. – Celia Walden

Maybe it’s having life’s fundamental certainties constantly queried, or maybe it’s because the gender bullies have got to people and convinced them that to be pro-trans – to advocate for inclusion and against bigotry – you have to be fine with medical experimentation on children. 

This is proof, if ever proof were needed, that we have completely lost our moral compass. – Celia Walden

Censorship isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s just what you’re no longer allowed to see. If they can curate your ability to share and receive information, they can curate your reality. pic.twitter.com/dyYoxu2DR9

— 🗣 Free Speech Union ✊ (@NZFreeSpeech) January 17, 2026

When a regime turns off the Internet during mass killings, and at the same time the leaders of the same regime [use] the privilege of freedom of speech on social media to mislead the rest of the world, it is not about restoring order. It is about destroying the evidence. – Masih Alinejad

This regime … cannot be reformed. Let me be very clear, the Islamic Republic behaves like ISIS, and the Islamic Republic must be treated like ISIS. – Masih Alinejad

It is sometimes instructive to look back into the distant recent, or recent distant, past (distant or recent according to one’s perspective), for we are apt to suppose both that there is nothing new under the sun and that we live in times without precedent, veering crazily from one extreme belief to the other. – Theodore Dalrymple

No doubt we are living on the intellectual, moral, political, and institutional capital of the past, which is not inexhaustible, but it has so far seen me through. The fact that it has done so despite institutionalized incompetence or moral and intellectual corruption gives me hope that the capital to which I have referred will last the rest of my life. If there is to be le déluge, as seems likely, I hope it will be après moi. I am aware, however, that induction—the belief that everything will go on as it did in the past—is not a reliable method of reasoning. – Theodore Dalrymple

I have been thinking recently of the vast debt that we have accumulated. Most people, if they think of it at all, believe it to be a disaster, or at best the brink of a precipice toward which we are all running. We are as lemmings, self-destructing en masse.

From the point of view of governments or governing classes, however, such indebtedness is a blessing, for there is nothing like debt for keeping a population in thrall, at least where bayonets cannot be used on it too liberally. Debt must be managed, and where there is something to be managed, there must be managers. The more there is to manage, therefore, the more managers there must be.  – Theodore Dalrymple

But how and why do governments run up such vast debts? I do not think that they do so as a deliberate plot or conscious policy to enslave, or at least to indenture, their populations, though having run them up, they find that they are useful in keeping themselves powerful and populations in their place, toiling away to pay for their own enslavement or indenture.

Politicians seeking election are engaged upon an auction of promises, and since political competition is for the short-term, the long-term consequences of their promises are unimportant. Those long-term consequences are easily comprehensible to people who think about them, but, electorally speaking, they are in a small minority and therefore of little account. Most people are easily persuaded to believe six impossible things before breakfast, and in any case, it is more blessed for them to receive a benefit from the government than to forgo it once it becomes economically necessary for them to do so. A benefit becomes a right; and a right enters a metaphysical sphere from which no return is possible.

From the point of view of popularity, therefore, better a benefit retained in the present than a debt crisis avoided in the future. The former is visible, the latter invisible. Moreover, when that crisis occurs, and those benefits must be reduced, the blame can be attached to the heartless outsiders who impose conditions for the relief of the crisis. The blame for it rarely falls on those who created it in the first place. – Theodore Dalrymple

With regard to democracies that have not run up vast debts, at least not so far, I should say that they are (1) relatively small and (2) relatively homogeneous and egalitarian. It is far easier in those circumstances for politicians to be morally and intellectually honest than in countries with huge, diverse, and divided populations whose citizens’ interests are not even similar, let alone identical.– Theodore Dalrymple

New Zealand, for reasons cultural as much as political, has become fertile ground for them. We are a small, highly educated country that prizes good intentions. Yet too often, the people who congratulate themselves for their ideals are not the ones who bear their consequences. – Roger Partridge

The Labour Government’s new offshore oil and gas exploration ban exemplifies the phenomenon. Announced with lofty rhetoric about climate leadership in 2018, the ban was a triumph of symbolism over substance. The Government’s own advisers warned at the time that cutting off future gas supply could raise global emissions, not lower them. The message to investors was clear: New Zealand’s fossil fuel sector had no long-term future. When gas supply tightened, generators confronted a simple reality. If you cannot burn gas, you burn coal.

By 2021, New Zealand was running Huntly harder, fuelled by shiploads of Indonesian coal to keep the power on. Electricity and gas prices rose. For households already struggling with winter power bills, the ban landed not as a virtuous gesture but as an added cost of living. For workers in Taranaki, it meant fewer jobs. The moral satisfaction was concentrated; the burdens fell squarely on those least able to absorb them. – Roger Partridge

Nowhere is the luxury-belief dynamic more visible than in the defence of “heritage character” in housing. Protecting historic streetscapes is admirable. In practice, heritage rules have become a tool for limiting development in some of the country’s most desirable suburbs. Homeowners enjoy the amenity value and rising equity that come from scarcity. Young families and renters bear the brunt of the cost. Auckland’s median house costs around seven times the median income. When restrictions on height and density are framed as preserving a city’s soul, the question of who gets to live in that city is quietly side-lined.

Luxury beliefs extend beyond economics. They also appear in the criminal justice system. The belief that prison is inherently cruel and that accountability is “punitive” carries a social reward among the well-intentioned. But crime does not occur evenly across the population. Victimisation is highest among poorer, younger and Māori households. Lighter sentencing is a cost borne by communities that do not attend policy panels or write opinion columns. For those living in safer suburbs, it is an abstraction. For others, it is a typical Tuesday night. – Roger Partridge

 Luxury beliefs flourish when the people who hold them are protected from their downsides. Because the costs often come with a lag or at a distance, the disconnect can persist for years. But eventually, reality reasserts itself – just not for those insulated from its consequences. Coal trains still arrive at Huntly. Housing lists still grow. Infrastructure still decays. Crime still concentrates in the same postcodes.

We should not abandon ambition. Nor should we sneer at idealism. But we should be honest about trade-offs. Public money is finite. Every decision to spend it on something that makes us feel good is a decision not to spend it where it might do the most good. New Zealand’s challenges are too serious for this. We cannot afford nice-sounding ideas that work only to make the comfortable feel virtuous. – Roger Partridge

This is not merely an “economic protest” or reform movement. At its core, Iranians are rebelling against the suffocating fusion of clerical theocracy and state socialism that has crushed liberty, prosperity, and dignity for generations. And yet, much of the Western liberal media remains eerily silent—or downplays the revolt’s true nature. Why? Because honest coverage would force uncomfortable admissions about Islam as a governing ideology and the failures of centralized state control—truths that shatter progressive worldviews. – Roberto Rachewsky

Iran’s Islamic Republic is no ordinary autocracy—it’s a theocratic prison-state exporting death while devouring its citizens. Since 1979, under Ruhollah Khomeini and now Ali Khamenei, the regime has enforced sharia through morality police, public hangings, and acid attacks on unveiled women. Homosexuals face execution; apostates and blasphemers are persecuted; minorities (Baha’is, Sunnis, Christians) vanish into prisons.

The regime’s foreign aggression compounds the horror. Tehran bankrolls terrorist proxies that slaughter innocents and wage war on liberty: Hamas’s October 7, 2023, atrocities in Israel; Hezbollah’s rocket barrages on civilians; the Houthis’ attacks on global shipping. These groups—armed, trained, and funded by Iran—hide behind human shields, commit rape and torture, and pursue jihadist domination. Israel’s repeated defeats of these proxies (through precision strikes and resilience) have humiliated Tehran, shattering illusions of regional hegemony.

Defeated abroad, the mullahs now unleash fury at home. The current uprising—sparked by economic collapse but fueled by decades of repression—has seen security forces open fire on unarmed crowds, including families and the elderly. Hospitals report chaos from gunshot victims; eyewitnesses describe “bodies piled up” and indiscriminate shootings. The regime, weakened by sanctions, lost proxies, and internal dissent, clings to power through terror, proving that when jihadist dreams falter externally, domestic subjugation intensifies. – Roberto Rachewsky

Iran’s savagery stems from Islam itself—not as a personal faith, but as a totalizing political-religious doctrine demanding submission. Founded by a 7th-century warlord whose life set precedents for conquest, child marriage, and beheading foes, Islam’s core texts call for jihad, infidel subjugation, and harsh punishments. From stonings to apostasy executions, these elements inspire terror waves: 9/11, Bataclan, ISIS caliphate horrors.

In practice, Islam rejects secularism, free speech, and equality. “Moderate” variants often prove illusory; silence amid extremism equals complicity. Iran’s theocracy exemplifies this incompatibility with modernity: liberty is criminalized, women enslaved under veils, economy strangled by ideology. The uprising’s core demand—rejecting clerical rule—strikes at Islam’s fusion of mosque and state. – Roberto Rachewsky

Iran’s uprising is humanity’s cry against tyranny: clerical fascism fused with state socialism, fuelled by Islam’s dogmatic conquest ethos, shielded by Western leftist cowardice. The regime funds terror abroad while slaughtering at home; proxies fall, so oppression intensifies.

We must demand: dismantle Iran’s regime via sanctions, strikes if needed; challenge Islam’s spread through secular education and unapologetic critique; ridicule postmodern enablers into irrelevance. Support Iranian voices like Dehbozorgi, Reza Pahlavi, and protesters risking everything.

The free world cannot afford denial. Iran’s people fight for what we take for granted—liberty. Ignoring them betrays them and ourselves. The time for harsh truths is now. The regime teeters; history will judge who stood for freedom and who looked away. – Roberto Rachewsky

If you’ve read the headlines about Climate Clinic Aotearoa v Minister of Energy, you might believe a group of law students marched into the Supreme Court and reshaped New Zealand’s climate policy. The popular narrative suggests a solid victory to the students, with reports that the students created new law, that climate is now a mandatory consideration when offering petroleum permits. But the reality is the decision lands as an own goal against climate activism.

As an adviser to one of the oil companies involved during the permit award phase (the “block offer”), I can confirm the students lost. Completely. The case was dismissed at every stage from the High Court through to the highest court in the land, a result that would typically attract a substantial costs award against the plaintiffs for wasting valuable court time and Crown legal resources. Yet, in this instance, the Crown chose not to seek costs, despite the financial burden on taxpayers and the economic consequences for the energy sector. – Sean Rush

Despite the clear judicial rejection of the students’ arguments, the decision has largely been portrayed as a victory for climate activism. This is misleading. The Court’s decision was a rejection of a clever legal argument that never stacked up on the facts. Because the Crown approached the litigation with kid gloves—no costs, no challenge to the existential-threat narrative, no scrutiny of the manufactured plaintiff—the students walk away ready to fight Government policy in the courts another day.

The risk-free precedent this strategy sets is not good news for any “fast-track” project or for the lawful activities that underpin New Zealand’s energy security and economic prosperity.  This was not a victory. It was a loss—total, deserved, and costly, but not to the losers, but to the winners who have to pick up the pieces and try and make a go of it, five years later. Unless the Crown stops indulging this style of litigation, we will see more of it, with the real-world consequence that the policy arising from our democratically elected Government, may be stymied by a minority who win even when they lose.  – Sean Rush

At one level, the business community isn’t just looking for ‘better than the alternative’. They do want to see rather more than that – some plans and even a vision of what’s different after a very tough few years. The post-Covid environment has been quite unsettling. – Simon Bridges

We will, at Budget, have an energy package which demonstrates our fiscal and regulatory commitment to affordable energy and electricity.

We know through history global economics that affordable energy is essential to good growth … that has been an advantage to our economy. – Nicola Willis

We still need an energy system that can cope when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. – Nicola Willis

We are getting healthy investment into renewables, the challenge is even those renewable firms having access to firming contracts so that if we don’t have the weather and conditions that we would wish for, we still have confidence that there is enough fuel for electricity.

Anyone in Parliament who says that coal and gas don’t have a place in New Zealand’s renewable energy future is barking and hasn’t analysed the problem – Nicola Willis

Rather than simply focusing on how well are the SOEs performing, we actually need to look at how well our asset management is performing across those bigger areas too.

New Zealand has … not a good record of selling things that are no longer needed so we can rebuild things that are.

[A] classic example being, if a school is no longer being used then we should sell that land pretty quickly so that we can build another new school. – Nicola Willis

The value of assets on New Zealand’s social infrastructure balance sheet will increase.

The question is actually about how readily you can build the new things you need. If we’re quicker about managing the assets we no longer need you can get there. – Nicola Willis

At a high level [Treasury] absolutely agree that better converting our natural resources into economic activity, reducing the cost of that, the complexity of that, creating more certainty about consenting conditions are positives for growth.

How that translates in a forecast sense when you need to both look at the implementation timeline of RMA … well, that’s an open question. – Nicola Willis

Politicians think public opinion sits in one place. But the maturity is coming from the public. People know we need capital to build more and improve what we’ve got.– Nick Leggett

We don’t sell unless we build. If we’re releasing capital, it must go directly into new infrastructure that benefits the whole country. –  Nick Leggett

Don’t describe what an asset sale looks like. Describe what the benefit to New Zealand is. – Nick Leggett

Men defining what a woman is, what women should and shouldn’t fear, what women should and shouldn’t say, what rights women should be fine with giving up and, of course, what constitutes ‘real’ misogyny: get a bloody mirror. That’s real misogyny, looking right back at you.

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 25, 2023