Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: A week being a long time in politics

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  • Terry Baucher,

    Rich, that' Gold, thanks.

    Devonport • Since Nov 2008 • 91 posts Report Reply

  • Kracklite, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    Alice by Dali, no less.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen, in reply to Rich Lock,

    That really should win a bottle of Zunwohl

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Kracklite, in reply to Terry Baucher,

    It's certainly something people have tried to fob off as iron pyrite.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    what no Jabber waka
    oar Kate er pillar
    or Tweedle twins?
    (Bennett n Tolley?)
    Peter Dunne would
    make a great White Rarebit...
    ...nonetheless, very nice work Mr Lock...

    Given that the original is supposed to be a surreal fantastical farce, the scary thing was how little the original text needed changing.

    There were a whole bunch of other characters who could easily have made an appearance, as you suggest. But I thought I'd leave Goff conspicuous by his complete absence.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Kracklite,

    A Gala more free...

    Alice by Dali, no less.

    He picked up on the inherent politics,
    I like A Caucus Race and a Long Tale
    I wonder if Dali ever did the Iliad ?
    it's almost thru the looking glass...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Kracklite,

    FES2.. fool scold...

    ...people have tried to fob off as iron pyrite.

    don't tell Brownlee, the hills are full of it..
    or was that:
    don't tell the shills, Brownlee's full of it...
    or was that:
    there's Brass in muck, a crystal schloss...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • martinb, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    Quite – and really if I was forced to choose who to ask to hold a pinless hand grenade, I’d pick Turei and Norman in a heart murmur. Peters and Harawira would throw it in a school bus out of force of habit.

    Wow, that's quite a casual slander there. Are we still on PAS?

    Peters was in a shambles of a government with the Nats, who decided they needed an Alliance list mp to prop up their banana republic government, then for 6 years in a stable governing arrangement with Labour. No changes to his party during that 6 year period IIRC.

    Harawira has left a party whose members voted for Labour with their party vote because he couldn't stomach the coalition with National. He has one of NZ's most successful opposition MPs of recent times in Sue Bradford high on his list, who has suceeded in getting two private members bills passed.

    These records are not of particularly unstable behaviour. That's a fairly repugnant image you've chosen there Craig. And when you look at the record of Act over this government term, and you are defending them, I would suggest both Peters and Harawira's records are certainly better, even if you find their politics distasteful.

    Auckland • Since Jul 2010 • 206 posts Report Reply

  • martinb, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Well, wasn't he Foreign Minister during the Labour Government though?

    I know Maori party are claiming the same thing-'we're not in government', but if you're Foreign minister sitting around the cabinet table it's semantics surely? Important semantics maybe, but definitely part of the governing arrangement.

    Auckland • Since Jul 2010 • 206 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to martinb,

    Seems to be largely about the degree of constraint that collective Cabinet responsilbity imposes. On Sky's election show Key acknowledged Clark's inventiveness at creating the looser portfolio-only, outside-cabinet arrangement that he's used this last term as well.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • merc, in reply to martinb,

    This is true. Clark was inventive and I seem to recall that Peters acquitted himself quite well in the role. This is democracy and Peters makes that very valid point,
    "National's leadership has to understand that democratic government, particularly in these times, is not just some business deal for certain shareholders."
    Under MMP no party had been able to govern alone because New Zealanders remembered the "dictatorship" under First Past the Post, he said.
    Key was using "erratic reasoning" to blame NZ First for bringing down a government that hadn't even been elected.
    "All we did was explain our position to voters. We will go into opposition and keep an eye on things."
    It would support good ideas but vote against "dumb stuff" like the partial sale of state owned assets.
    "NZ First will not give any political party a blank cheque to carve up New Zealand and sell it to their mates overseas," Peters said.
    He said the prime minister was ''panicking'' because he wasn't seeing favourable poll results in the Epsom and Ohariu electorates, which are vital for the political survival of ACT and United Future."
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6003681/Key-A-vote-for-Winston-a-vote-for-Labour
    Bazingo! And it is Key who is helping Winston's drum.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Crunchy Weta,

    .

    Mamaku • Since Nov 2006 • 35 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to martinb,

    Wow, that's quite a casual slander there. Are we still on PAS?

    Oh, bless. You know something, Martin, you might want to check out the racist, immigrant-bashing swill I linked to in my post today. Here's all one of Winston's little hench-things had to say:

    Anne Martin, the Warkworth Grey Power president and NZ First Party secretary, says issues around immigration are often thought about but rarely discussed.

    "Nobody comes out and says anything because they're scared of being labelled racist," she says.

    "What's racist about asking for people's opinion? We skirt around these things because it's politically correct."

    When it comes to casual slanders we should be expending righteous indignation on, I know where my focus is - on a party that still regards xenophobia and flat out anti-Asian racism as tolerable. How about you?

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    Immigration dept. does seem to be a basket case though, I’ve been thinking and talking a bit about the Dawn Raids (lived in Mangere at the time), part of the joy to trying to get an 18 year old engaged in political debate.
    My mother used to teach English to newly arrived people on a volunteer basis, boat people among them, recent arrivals here are not well treated and the selection system seems very inconsistent.
    Now out of my depth.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    respect is not a zero sum game.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Sacha,

    respect is not a zero sum game.

    That's exactly what I'd call Winston Peters - zero sum. And after twenty five years of unmitigated contempt for the man, martinb might want to pull up his fainting couch because I've said a lot worse about the man and don't intend to retract a syllable of it

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    I believe your attack on Hone's character is what brought comment.

    Most of us learn at a pretty young age that saying "but he did" in no way excuses your own behaviour.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    Goff is wiping the floor with Key right now according to the TV3 worm. Goff very poised, Key trying the paternalistic approach.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • linger, in reply to Sacha,

    “but you/ your party did too” = the tu quoque fallacy.

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia, in reply to Sacha,

    I believe your attack on Hone's character is what brought comment.

    Oh, and big fucking widdums to his "I don't want my children dating white people" arse too. If you don't get why I find that absolutely contemptible, I'll show you my parents wedding photo some time. And no, Sacha, I don't recall any leader of the National Party expressing his squick around inter-racial dating so don't even try calling me a hypocrite on this.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Craig Ranapia,

    "I don't want my children dating white people"

    =
    will bomb a schoolbus

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Kracklite,

    Well then, if the worm is to be believed, perhaps Phil Goff has saved his own job. Fingers crossed that Mallard and a lot of the other deadwood (Horomia, Curran, Jones...) lose theirs' yet if he loses the election and remains as leader of Labour and is emboldened to look rationally at its need to rejuvenate itself.

    The architect of R'lyeh would know the dimensions into which my fingers have been crossed in order to support that statement.

    Good governance - as opposed to politics, which tends to take precedence - depends not about whom one likes or respects, but who can get the right things done. I don't like or trust Goff for a second (his beliefs seem sincere, but his mind is as deep as a not very deep thing), but I never "liked" Clark because liking her was never relevant. I admire more than any other achievement of the second half twentieth century the Apollo programme, even though I know that the great promotor of it, Kennedy, was ambivalent at best according to the record... but whatever an individual thought, even an individual in a critical position, something great was done (and the legacy frittered, but that's another story). It didn't matter that he really believed in it, it mattered that it really happened.

    So...

    It has to be said, it's pretty unlikely yet that a left-ish coalition of contingency can win in a week, but if the plutocrats lining up behind Key can be bridled at least for three years by the rising minor parties before his bubble bursts, that's good. If... well, that's enough - too many "if's" for now.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz, in reply to merc,

    The plan to hack the worm might have come off then..

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Kracklite,

    It sinks further when he repeats he's been transparent and upfront.

    Hmmm.

    If I may be adventurous... while the 'worm" is supposedly a vulgar, trivial thing, if it makes strong movements, perhaps it represents then the impulses that drive the floating voter?

    Hence, while, as I've said, "objectively", the Teapot Tapes may seem like a distraction to many people, and most will respond to polls asking specifically about that will say that it's unimportant, a subliminal impression of Key and his handlers as insecure, insincere and authoritarian may spread more subtly and inflect peoples' responses to other things that he has to say.

    Still not betting on a Labour-led government, but maybe a Labour-led one in 2014, if they learn their lessons well enough and put them into practice between now and then.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Kracklite,

    his mind is as deep as a not very deep thing

    Not so. Smart enough to have pulled off the China FTA amongst other things.

    He's just not so good at presenting (though it sounds like I have something to look forward to on that front when I rewind the telly).

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

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