Hard News: If you can't say something nice ...
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I can't believe no-one has responded to Ian's story, which is very funny and perfect for a sunny afternoon.
I'm told there are Blue Penguins nesting at the wharf at Matiatia on Waiheke, but have yet to see them. Will keep you posted :)Isn't it a goodie. While I can relate to the charm of having your own private Little Blue Buddy, those rather malevolent beady eyes give the impression that they'd bite like hell.
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There's got to be a reasonable chance that Hadyn's middle name is James, so it might be him you were after...
A 100% chance it turns out.
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Hmm. Maybe Tizard is the way Russell describes her, but the whole S92 debacle makes it hard to feel aggrieved that she was voted out. Yes, I know, National voted for it too and were complicit in having the section reinserted, but it's not like we need that kind of bad legislation, surely?
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I can't believe no-one has responded to Ian's story, which is very funny and perfect for a sunny afternoon.
Personally I would die happy if I could find a way to have a family of otters living in my backyard.
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So I've been disappointed by the sheer bile heaped on her before and after her relatively narrow loss in Auckland Central. You know the score: "minister of nothing", "lazy", "arrogant". The MP who would go to the opening of an envelope.
I can't help feel this is partly directed at me; its worth pointing out that three days before the election when ever other major party candidate in the country was trying to cover every inch of their electorate and surviving on a couple of hours sleep a night Judith Tizard popped up on TV3 news at the US Embassy party in Wellington celebrating their election results - champagne glass in hand. All the Aucklanders who were wondering where their Labour candidate was during the campaign - there's your answer. I'm sorry Russell, but there's a reason your friend enjoys such a terrible reputation.
There's certainly been a lot of horrible stuff said about Tizard over the years; slurs about her appearance, private life ect. But there's also been a lot of valid criticism, much of it from within her own party. Aspiring Labour MPs were livid that someone with no ambition and no inclination towards government whatsoever has been allowed to occupy such a high position on the party list and a (previously) safe electorate seat.
Its great that your friend is such a nice person and that she goes to cool concerts and so forth but Judith Tizard was also a senior public servant on a salary of almost quarter of a million dollars a year - more than most company directors - with a multi-million dollar budget. She was supposed to be governing the country not playing Werewolf at Kiwi Foo camp.
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Judith went to parties as a representative of the Government and she enjoyed herself. What is wrong with that?
The rest of the time she was working very hard for New Zealand and her electorate.
And, unlike many politicians, she is a genuinely kind and generous person, who is also very good company.
No wonder the tory boys hate her.
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I'd just like to say in Pete Hodgson's defence ...
A little piece of Pete Hodgson will always live on in my heart because of this.
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He, and the whole population of Feilding.
WARNING CONTAINS PEDANTRY - AND MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF NUTS, MILK POWDER AND OTHER ALLERGENS
Giovanni: "Feilding" is actually spelt correctly -- the town was named after a Colonel William Feilding, who was one of the directors of the company that brought the land the town was originally built on from the Wellington provincal government in 1871. I only know that because I went to boarding school in the neighbourhood, and learned quickly that you shouldn't ask questions when you don't much care about the answers.
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Giovanni: "Feilding" is actually spelt correctly -- the town was named after a Colonel William Feilding,
I know, I know... so is Hadyn. (Spelt correctly, not after Colonel Feilding I mean).
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A 100% chance it turns out.
Bahahahaha. My a priori probability was about 10%. It is a pretty common first name, and also quite popular as a middle-name.
Anyway, sounds like you might be inline to get a call from Fiona at UDC asking about your late payments on a Mitsubishi L200...
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Kyle, first catch your waitorete (there are variant spellings)...I once thought I saw one-
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And, unlike many politicians, she is a genuinely kind and generous person, who is also very good company.
No wonder the tory boys hate her.
The issue is not whether the Tories like or not - they're prerfectly entitled to like their own candidate. The problem seems to be that liberals didn't like her enough.
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Kyle, first catch your waitorete (there are variant spellings)...I once thought I saw one-
As in waitoreke? Please, I'm a sucker for a good cryptid story.
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I know, I know...
I wouldn't be surprised -- it's funny (and more than a little depressing) when people who've learned English as a second language take this native speaker to school. It is a wonderful mongrel of a language, but not the best-behaved. :)
Danyl:
I think the distinction when Russell was trying to draw is that you can critique a politician's performance, without being gratuitously ad hominem or plain squalid about it. I think (well, I hope) Russell finds me a fundamentally agreeable human being -- most of the time -- but I wouldn't be surprised if he'd rather eat broken glass than put a tick next to my name on a ballot paper. (Then again, if I was ever mad enough to stand for Parliament, I hope he'd be at the intervention.)
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While I can relate to the charm of having your own private Little Blue Buddy, those rather malevolent beady eyes give the impression that they'd bite like hell.
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Joe, I was 16 going on 17, nearly at the end of high school, and we were travelling to Arthur's Pass for a rare school-away. As the train passed over the pre-Waimakariri bridge I looked down and saw - what looked like a hare(it was standing on it's hinds with front paws hanging down, was a reddy-brown colour) - except it didnt have a hare's ears, and no scut(I was so bemused I didnt look for another kind of tail.) And then it dived into the river-
that's all. No other evidence - and there never has been physical evidence. There's the names in Maori, and anecdotes (one of the goodies is of kids on the West Coast who caught an...oddity in their possum trap-line.)
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Oh Sara Bee - I lurve Wallace & Grommit!
And if the person who stole my video of "The Wrong Trousers" brings it back, I'll stop putting pins into their image-
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Thanks for that, Islander - a nice tantalising snippet, and spotted in the borderland of hardcore waitorete/waitoreke territory too! I've been fascinated by the legend ever since I heard a radio play on Sunday Showcase when I was very young. No idea who the author was, it was about a false-alarm rediscovery of the animal igniting controversy in the scientific world.
Like those stray Haast's eagles and the occasional small moa, from time to time they slip across the border from Samuel Butler's Erewhon.Who's seen The Wrong Trousers?
Heh! Those little blues never struck me as quite that evil Sara.
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Who's seen The Wrong Trousers?
For a while all that my oldest son wanted for breakfast was "cracking toast".
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She was supposed to be governing the country not playing Werewolf at Kiwi Foo camp.
part of governing the country is to be in touch with what is happening in your country, who your country is.
One couldn't say judith didn't give that a really good go.as assistant to the minister of arts and culture judith did extremely well at letting people know her door was always open to assist, listen, help where she could.
I remember attending a national part house conference with david carter. I asked him what his feelings were on the importance of arts and culture in nz. I was expecting a spiel about how important arts an culture were to national identity, quality of life and general enjoyment of the country you live in. What he said was he had no opinion on it and I should ask another member of the party.
Judith was flawed in her work as minister but it was talking to unenlightened morons like David Carter that made me appreciate a government that took this sort of stuff seriously.
Judith was out of her depth on 92a but it seems her advisors and the opposition were no more in touch than she was.
Judith was out there amongst it and obviously passionate about her work in arts and culture. It could and has been be so much worse and I guess we'll find out soon if it goes down hill. There are plenty of stuffy out of touch dorks in govt, there's room for someone who varies from the mold, surely.
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Craig: "you can critique a politician's performance, without being gratuitously ad hominem or plain squalid about it."
Yes Craig. Dead right. There would be not one MP who didn't have our best interest at heart even if we disagree on his/her method. No call for squalid eh Craig :)
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In defence of Pete Hodgson. I have had quite a lot to do with the Ministry of Health and other ministries over the years and I have seen him 'let lose in a roomful of people' more than once and he was very impressive. He has a sharp intellect, was always on top of the issues whatever they were, but also knew and acknowledged that others in the particular gathering had lived experience that gave them expertise on the issues under discussion that he didn't and couldn't have.
I also think he was the Minister responsible for the $17.5 million autism specific Health Budget allocation.
He and Steve Maharey were the social-democratic philosophers who formed a strategic partnership leading up to the election of the 1999 Labour government, and beyond.
Russell, maybe your negative experience is a geographical thing. He's a Dunedin man and apparently a very good electorate MP.
(Sorry I put this on the thread from yesterday by mistake, but have reposted it as I want my chance to stick up for the underdog in this discussion. I like Pete's style although haven't ever met him in person. I think he's a reincarnated William Pember Reeves, a 19th century NZ Liberal MP and intellectual).
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Roger Douglas __never__raped my mother...
<Does that count?>
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@Danyl:
I can't help feel this is partly directed at me;
"Directed at" would be a bit strong. Partly motived by, let's say.
Even leaving the Wishartians' fantasising, it just seems to me that she's been a safe target, while far less effective MPs wander onwards.
its worth pointing out that three days before the election when ever other major party candidate in the country was trying to cover every inch of their electorate and surviving on a couple of hours sleep a night Judith Tizard popped up on TV3 news at the US Embassy party in Wellington celebrating their election results - champagne glass in hand.
I'd like to believe Murray McCully has been surviving on two hours sleep a night, but I don't. And wouldn't it have been a rum political aspirant who didn't watch the historic US election unfold on TV, somewhere?
Hundreds of of people attended the US Embassy event at the Michael Fowler Centre on the evening of Nov 5. It was a big deal, and ministers would have been invited. No ministers fronting would probably have been written up as a snub.
All the Aucklanders who were wondering where their Labour candidate was during the campaign - there's your answer. I'm sorry Russell, but there's a reason your friend enjoys such a terrible reputation.
It's hard to debate that without seeing her diary for the rest of the day. Should I do you the credit of assuming you know that? Otherwise you've simply constructed a story around 10 seconds of video on the TV news.
Aspiring Labour MPs were livid that someone with no ambition and no inclination towards government whatsoever has been allowed to occupy such a high position on the party list and a (previously) safe electorate seat.
The electorate seat that she took over and won back for Labour, you mean? That could hardly have been taken off her. And she certainly didn't have a high position on the party list this time, as evidenced by her not being in Parliament.
I said I thought it would have been better had she stood down from the electorate this year. I also think she's a convenient target.
Its great that your friend is such a nice person and that she goes to cool concerts and so forth
The one I mentioned wasn't "cool", it was a pain-in-the-ass after-midnight showcase gig that everyone but the minister didn't bother to front at. She could quite easily have stayed at her hotel, but she caught a cab across Austin in the middle of the night and turned up.
but Judith Tizard was also a senior public servant on a salary of almost quarter of a million dollars a year - more than most company directors - with a multi-million dollar budget. She was supposed to be governing the country not playing Werewolf at Kiwi Foo camp.
At 11pm on a Saturday night? Really? Danyl, if she'd been at home watching TV, I presume that'd have been fine with you.
But the fact that she drove herself to Warkworth to spend the day to talking to IT people and -- horrors -- socially interacting with them rather than pissing off as soon as she'd done her turn is somehow an indictment?
I was at pains to her say she wasn't perfect as a minister. But her value in actually getting out amongst people in her areas of responsibility has, I think, been greatly underrated.
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Roger Douglas was part of the Kirk government that did a lot of good things for NZ.
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