Werewolf Edition #49: Laila Harre, The Internet and Mana

Hi and welcome to the 49th edition of Werewolf, which kicks off this month with an extended interview with Internet Party leader Laila Harre. As the new entrants in the centre-left bloc, Harre and her Internet Mana colleagues have been holding old style town hall meetings in rural and provincial New Zealand – mainly to promote policies such as free education, and affordable access for all New Zealand families to a better and faster broadband service. Along the way, Internet Mana has also been delivering a get-out-the-vote message aimed at motivating those people who have hitherto felt unmoved to vote by the policies and communications strategies of the established parties. As Harre explains, her party’s relationship with the Mana Party is crucial, and she expects it to continue well beyond September 20.

The referendum on Scottish independence is also due in mid-September, and this issue contains two stories about it. In one, we examine the motives behind the drive for Scottish independence, and suggest a few reasons why the “Yes” vote seems to be faltering. In another story Leanne Wood, the leader of the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru, shows how the nationalist struggles in Wales and Scotland have a great deal in common.

Elsewhere in this issue, Rosalea Barker reports on the recent Aereo case, in which the US Supreme Court invoked copyright laws to prop up the failing business models of major TV content providers, in the face of technological advances that are rendering obsolete the extortionate fee structures of business-as-usual. We also examine why politicians are hated by the public - and why the reward system inside the Beltway encourages the very same practices that alienate the voting public the most. In another story, Werewolf re-opens the scientific case for re-admitting Pluto to the club of planets within our solar system. In the latest episode in her epic journeys through eastern Europe, Rosalea Barker is this month in Budapest, Hungary- which sounds like a beer barrel of picturesque fun. In his essay on film this month, Philip Matthews celebrates the belated DVD release of After May, a brilliantly un-nostalgic 2012 drama about early 1970s politics, directed by the mercurial Olivier Assayas. This month our music column The Complicatist celebrates blue-eyed soul and white r& b. And finally, satirist Lyndon Hood considers the fine mess that the current combo of climate change denial + political procrastination is landing us in.

Thanks once again to Lyndon H. for helping me post this online. And thanks to everyone who’s shown an interest in reading Werewolf and keeping it going. If you want to be involved and talk over some story ideas, contact me at gordon@scoop.co.nz Next month is issue 50, which calls for some sort of celebration. Or catalepsy.

Cheers,

Gordon Campbell

Werewolf/Scoop

gordon@werewolf.co.nz

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