"No-one will pay more tax on their private pension under Labour," Labour finance spokesperson Michael Cullen said today.

Dr Cullen was responding to National's latest scare campaign - an allegation by Bill Birch that pensioners would have to pay tax on their pensions under Labour. The claim is based on an interview Dr Cullen gave the Independent.

"I made it clear to the Independent reporter, and it is clear in the article, that if Labour moved from the present TTE scheme to a TET scheme, the two schemes would be run in parallel.

"This would mean that anyone under the current TTE arrangement would continue to receive their pension tax exempt," Dr Cullen said.

"Any alternative would involve not taxing capital gains in the funds but taxing the pay-out. This would not affect TTE schemes for those who stayed in them."

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>