'Compulsory Military Training won't create one more job,' Alliance leader Jim Anderton said today in response to the NZ First policy of compulsory millitary training for 18-year old men.

'The $150 million that NZ First would spend giving people compulsory military training would be far better spent on high-skilled new technology industries and training young people for jobs.

'18-ye ar olds would be removed from training or full-time or part-time jobs to do their compulsory military training.

'Mr Peters might not know it, but employers these days resent people leaving their jobs. What employer would take on an 18-year old knowing that the young person would almost immediately have to take three months off for compulsory military training?

'If we have got $150 million to spend on compulsory military training, why aren't we spending that money on training and employment?'

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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>>