Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Up Front: An Open Letter to the Labour…, in reply to Rob Stowell,
and his dad has left a mixed legacy
I'm sure there's a fair few PASers who would like to be judged on their own terms, and not bear some weird blood taint from their parents. (And considering my father didn't talk to me for six months after I 'came out' as a card-carrying National Party member, the converse may well be true.)
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Legal Beagle: MPs' Pay, in reply to BenWilson,
Word. Inflation adjustment isn't enough. They should be pegged to what the middle is earning
No - it would be infinitely more amusing if MP's salary hikes were pegged to those of the education and healthcare workforce. You know, the people who are constantly being told to show "wage restraint" in these difficult, austere times.
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Up Front: An Open Letter to the Labour…, in reply to Hebe,
The message was not entirely taken on board by the voters.
Which means either it was not communicated terribly well, or those damn pesky voters kicked Cosgrove's tyres, looked under the hood and didn't much like what they saw.
This might be a dangerous thing to say on line among politics nerds, but we can come up with all the clever "strategic" votes we like. Doesn't mean anyone does, or should, take a blind bit of notice. Having seen what happened in Wellington Central after Bolger very public fucked our candidate over in 1996, I've come to the conclusion that there is such a thing as being so smart you're stupid. Bolger may well have thought gutting the electorate organization and activist base in Wellington Central was acceptable collateral damage, but it sure didn't seem that way from the flaxroots.
From a very different perspective, I totally agree with Emma. It's very easy for the media/party elite to get fixated on the 'big picture', but elections are fought - and won - on the ground. You want people to engage, do the scut work and (most importantly) turn out on E-Day to vote taking your base for granted - and treating everyone else like idiots who will just come to their senses eventually -- isn't going to get the job done.
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Up Front: An Open Letter to the Labour…, in reply to Deborah,
I don’t think that ‘living in the electorate’ is a necessary criterion to meet.
It really doesn't, but if you're making an argument that the other bastards are out of touch, elitist douche wagons it's a factor you might want to think about.
But I really dont like the practise of any party standing people who are already in parliament on their list,
Fletcher: You have my sympathies, but in the end I think the best place to punish parties that use their lists for incumbent insurance or hack recycling is at the only poll that really matters. Otherwise, as they say in Texas, you dance with the one who brung you.
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Up Front: An Open Letter to the Labour…, in reply to Idiot Savant,
Other than guaranteed representation for the government and opposition due to s28(2)(e) of the Electoral Act
OK, perhaps I needed to be more specific.
Labour and National can (and do) make all the representations and objections and counter-objections they like to the Representation Commission they please, just like everyone else.
Otherwise, I'll pay all the members of the Representation Commission the bare courtesy of presuming they place the law and the public good above all other considerations -- including partisan interest. If the Government and Opposition members can't clear that low bar, they I'm thankful they're outnumbered by career civil servants whose credibility and political independence I've no cause to doubt.
If the above isn't the case, I'd prefer we follow the naked and degrading jerrymanderpalooza that passes for redistricting in the US. It at least has the benefit of full-frontal contempt for democracy.
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Up Front: An Open Letter to the Labour…, in reply to Hebe,
Correct. I expect a scrap by National and Labour over the redraw -- which will have significant changes for the city and province.
And they can scrap away, because (it's worth noting) the Representation Commission is a statutory body and political parties have no more standing than anyone else.
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yeah, those are traditionally safe [insert party/incumbent here] seats
Which fucks me off beyond reason, because... you know, parliamentary democracy and all that jazz. It's a little hard to expect high quality candidates when you're either being treated like a family heirloom or not worth the effort.
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Way down the list of things that's fucked up about Eden Park's "it's just part of the game" attitude is, well... it's pretty damn insulting to straight male rugby fans.
I have plenty of straight male rugby fan friends whose default setting isn't "homophobic, misogynistic, racist dickbag" and, en mass, keep their animal penis brains in check. Really.
Or put another way: I expect more from people, because I have a (perhaps naive) belief that they are capable of getting there.
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This might be a good time to dig up my DVD of Jafar Panahi's Offside. Seems relevant here...
But, hey, at least in Iran women are protected from the gross, icky conduct of men at sporting events (damn animal penis brains strike again!) Amirite or amirite?
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Hard News: Not good enough, Eden Park, in reply to Tom Semmens,
If you can't cope with being insulted, ever, you'd best not to go out at all, ever, just in case you over hear some school kid two steps in front of you pronounce the app they just downloaded "literally gay".
Really crappy analogy there, Tom. I've got slightly higher expectations from sentient adults than children. And for the record, I've had occasion to have the OTHER talk with younglings about using "gay" as a slur. Socialization, FTW!
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