Ahiahi mārie, welcome to The Spinoff Daily in partnership with the Brain Drink, Ārepa.
Today on The Spinoff, Toby Manhire hears about National's sometimes "horrific" last five years in opposition from Erica Stanford in part two of a 2017 Candidate Diaries reunion trilogy, Dylan Cleaver ranks all 25 All Blacks and Black Ferns tests played the year and Sela Jane Hopgood learns to swim.
“Adrian Orr went full Grinch yesterday. Had it been in his power, the Reserve Bank governor would most likely have mandated a nationwide $5 limit on all Christmas presents. Instead he said, “may you have a wonderful and sensibly-spending Christmas” and thwacked up the base rate by 75 points to 4.25%, the biggest jump on record, in an attempt to tame the greater curse of soaring inflation.
That didn’t surprise anyone. What really sucked the Christmas spirit out of the room was the outlook for next year. It looked a lot like the actual weather forecast for much of the country right now: rainstorm after rainstorm after rainstorm.”
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Every All Blacks and Black Ferns test in 2022, ranked and reviewed
Dylan Cleaver writes: “Maybe you think ranking all the tests played this year involving New Zealand’s senior 15-a-side representative teams, in other words the Black Ferns and All Blacks, would be a straightforward exercise. More fool you.
Weighing up the relative merits of each of the 25 matches required a heady cocktail of science, maths and feelings to come up with a definitive answer. The formula is too complicated to write down, but if you can imagine a combination of Gödel’s Second Incompleteness Theorem, Archimedes’ Buoyancy Principle and Keith Quinn’s Twitter feed you might get some idea.”
Welcome to the hyper-ageing nation that is New Zealand
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The team behind te ao Māori podcast Nē? pick their favourite episodes of 2022
For our final episode of Nē? there are no guests, no set kaupapa, just your friends Te Kuru, Meriana, Te Aihe and Leonie having a wānanga. It’s not farewell, just goodbye for now!
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.