Posts by Craig Ranapia
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to giovanni tiso,
What substance were you expecting?
I shouldn't have expected any, but I keep setting myself up for disappointment every three years.
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to giovanni tiso,
Each of us will come to different conclusions about that, but by god does it raise the level of political discourse.
I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree on that, though we’re not exactly talking about a rigorous or particularly high bar. In Masterchef terms, it was beautifully plated, over-garnished but still lacking substance. And very easy to over-rate set beside National’s disastrously half-baked effort at executing a relatively simple classic they should be able to do perfectly in their sleep.
Sorry, but I still give the win to the Greens for keeping it simple and pulling it off. OK, good plain cooking isn't for all palates but it was the only dish I wanted to swallow.
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to BenWilson,
Also, it’s a great answer to the concerns Gio puts excellent voice to. They have made a conscious choice to show the history of the people in their party to starkly contrast with the virtual absence of history that Key brings to the table.
Gio also Tweeted, “I want to vote Labour – in 1935”. I’m always amused how Roger Douglas managed to replace the whole Labour caucus (including Phil, I guess) with Randroids for so long… The thing about history is it’s seldom convenient to present needs.
But I’ve got used to them apples, that’s been the story of my life.
And why Phil need to get kicked in the nads every time he boasts about Labour having the biggest "balls" in town. I don't think there's anything courageous in putting the burden on the young, the working poor and Maori/Pasifika (who don't vote) and asking white middle-class middle-age Boomers (who do) to make no meaningful sacrifice whatsoever. Sounds an awful lot like business as usual.
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to DexterX,
Thank goodness - I would have never have worked it out on my own.
What I want to know is who the hell got paid for that shit. And, frankly, Labour's was a slicker production than National's bizarre effort but damn... I've really got to stop having expectations of being treated like a sentient adult. (I'd also like to change the Broadcasting Act so party leaders are personally liable for heavy fines when their campaign ads are *cough* economical with the veritas. And, no, I don't draw Jesuitical distinctions between lies of commission and omission.)
Still, if you want to talk about perverse outcomes if the election was held tomorrow The Greens would get my party vote. Norman and Turei faintly annoyed me, but I wanted to bottle Goff and Key.
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to Matthew Poole,
I’d like to see a provision that forces employers to disclose when they are reducing pay increases to compensate for increased employer contributions into KS, with stiff monetary penalties for misleading behaviour.
On the face of it, I'd agree with you - but would be damned if I could see how you make that work. Really. (Though it could be fun if some whey-faced judge had to decide whether the Government was bullshitting the next time teachers and health workers are told to show "wage restraint".) I'm between agnostic and 'not enough of a data ninja to assess the argument' about whether Labour's policy would drive down wages. But, damn, I wish Cunliffe wasn't quite so blithe about it leading to lower wage increases. Yeah, it's easy to be detached when you're in Parliament -- base salary of $130K, generous benefits and all the rest. But if politicians don't like being viewed as offensively out of touch and patronising, it would help if they didn't try and earn it.
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to Matthew Poole,
Increasing at a rate of 0.5% per year. Treasury’s projecting (yeah yeah, I know) wage growth of 3.8% per annum. Even if Treasury’s only got it half right, that’s still a 1.4% increase in wages over and above the employer’s contribution.
I really don't think you get to say "yeah yeah, I know", here Matthew. I don't give a bugger if its Cunliffe or English doing it, but when the benefit of a policy is entirely predicated on projections that have a track record of being only slightly more reliable than staring at a bucket of chicken entrails I think "yeah, right" is more appropriate.
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Hard News: Occupy: Don't call it a protest, in reply to Kumara Republic,
They’re all basically cut from the same macro-nationalist cloth.
Quite, and what people like Ip and Anne Salmond do - as academics and public intellectuals - is remind us how very dangerous it is to grind away the jagged, ambiguous and exquisitely human edges of history to serve present ideological needs. It's become a cliche to say that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. What also needs to be said loudly, and often, is those who fail to respect the past - however inconvenient and uncomfortable it is - have diminished those who came before us, said their lives are meaningless.
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The points she makes are uncomfortable, and hyperbolic, to a degree, but read with even a modicum of charity don’t amount to accusing NZ of apartheid. At least as far as I heard :)
Like Russell, I don't think any degree of charity should be extended to what Mutu said on Close Up. And if nothing else, I really think a senior academic should have some ability to discuss inflammatory issues in the public square with some discrimination and nuance. Her colleague Professor Manying Ip has the knack, and IMO is much under-rated as a true public intellectual who has brought some sobriety to discussion of the so-called "Asian invasion" and ethnic crime waves that don't actually exist outside Deborah Coddington's fervid imagination.
And I make no apologies for saying this: No amount of weasel-word qualifiers excuses anyone from slapping a reductive and untruthful generalization on any minority or immigrant community in this country. She certainly doesn't like it being done to Maori and Pasifika. Nor should she: It's not only intellectually dishonest, but divisive and socially destructive.
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OnPoint: PREFU 2011: "What credit downgrade?", in reply to Russell Brown,
I rather our PM wasn’t meeting with Ashcroft. I think Ashcroft is a dodgy influence-peddler. But I don’t think them having lunch is evidence of anything much.
Quite - Australian politics is full of somewhat odoriferous individuals on both sides of the aisle, but I wouldn't presume there's anything sinister in both National and Labour having quite extensive contacts with their equivalent parties across the ditch.
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OnPoint: PREFU 2011: "What credit downgrade?", in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I find it interesting that he’s starting to participate in *our* politics, obviously without doing anything ridiculous like moving here, taking residency or filing a tax return.
I find it interesting, Rich, that apparently being in the same room with Ashcroft (who happens to also be a senior official in the Conservative Party) is not only "participation in *our* politics" but corruption by osmosis. (Which seemed to be the entire thrust of the rather feeble Three piece Ian linked to which is identical to the equally feeble piece Three ran three years ago.)
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