Lindsay Mitchell

Regularly we are offered skinks, ghekkos, rats, mice, cicadas, birds. Frequently we sustain injuries in our attempts to save the lives of al...

Walking around Lower Hutt this morning I was shocked at how many newly empty retail spaces and 'for lease' signs there are in and ar...

It's very hard to get excited about a by-election between National and Labour but here's a brave fellow making some sense. Cannabis ...

What is happening in the UK to address the high number of people claiming benefits due to incapacity is probably going to happen here. One o...

The quarterly benefit stats have just been posted at MSD. The statistical information is available by benefit type, region, and office. It i...

I have a bad habit. I immediately suspect 'good news' stories. NewstalkZB reported yesterday that even the Parole Board was surpris...

The problem with the New Zealand attitude is summed up in this headline: Hobbit's makers want more money The automatic interpretation of...

Sue Bradford blogs: National is certainly on the offensive with its employment and welfare reforms, even proposing a law change specifically...

As a country, NZ rates very low on discipline. Talk is tough but actions rarely meet it. Our justice system is very soft when compared to th...

The Nelson Mail reports "Drunken violence" in the city on Friday night, but the headline could just as easily been "Racial v...

There is a certain incongruity about National's plans to time limit tenancies in state houses ( apart from the fact that they can talk ...

The majority of drivers with fatal injuries were in the 0 - 0.03 category. 5 were in the 0.05-0.08 margin but 2 of those (15-19 year-olds) w...

The decision to charge a mother with administering 'p', a Class A drug, to her children is a bit of a worry. When I read the headlin...

Sam, my 12 year-old daughter, has been sketching. I like what she does. The combination of hatching and sureness of line. She is into stars ...

Am I surprised? Mr Wells, the 'artist' who promotes the dignity of using the dole to reduce consumption, has had his benefit re-inst...

A commentor yesterday didn't think the parable of the professor and his grading system bore "any relation to how socialism works....

The following arrived by e-mail. It's a new one on me (although the wonderful quote at the end is not); An economics professor at a loc...

National only needs 4 Maori Party MPs to pass the Marine and Coastal Area Bill. Which has left me wondering why it is conceding ACT's a...

Tragically top Australian jockey, set to ride champion racehorse Shoot Out in the upcoming Cox Plate has been found dead at his Brisbane ho...

"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both common...