Hard News: If you can't say something nice ...
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. . . I am interested as to how many readers did see their candidates, without, say, going to a public meeting.
Brendon Burns came doorknocking here in Chch central.
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Just a quick, regrettably anonymous comment about Judith. I met her when I worked in the press gallery and she was always very charming and friendly in what is often a pretty damn unfriendly place, so I always respected her for that.
But it does have to be said that she was a terrible choice as a government minister. If you ever needed a comment about one of her portfolio's then you called the PM's office. In her nine years in government I don't think Judith ever responded to a media inquiry. She was usually a no-show at Select Committee and if she showed up she'd spend the morning texting on her phone and ignoring the submissions before enjoying a liquid lunch and not coming back. This used to be considered normal behaviour for a politician but anyone else carrying on like this in Helen's government would have been dropped on from a great height.
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Soooo... any truth to the much passed around notion that she went around saying that Roche had conceded to her, when it wasn't the case? If true, I'd find that a lot more damning that any other charge against the woman.
It all seems to emanate from Tim Ellis, who has been tireless in informing the public what a slug JT is, and what a tremendous campaign Nikki Kaye has been running, across the comments sections of quite a number of blogs, for some time now.
All I know is, during the week I spoke to someone who spoke to Denise Roche on Saturday night, who said she was in tears about attracting electorate votes that could have kept the seat with Labour.
It may well be, of course, that the people who voted for were would not have voted for JT. But I'd be wary of attempts to depict ill-feeling between the camps.
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It all seems to emanate from Tim Ellis
That answers that then.
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I don't mean to harsh the general amity, but that's his frigging job -- you stand for an electorate, you should bloody know what that entails if you win. Constituency clinics and going to various events are not some optional extra you "find time for", it's your damn job.
And if you can't do that, as well as ministerial duties, you can always decline to accept the warrant. Or you shouldn't be offered it in the first place.
As my original post pointed out, he wasn't just doing his electorate, and his ministerial posts, he was also doing a whole 'nother minister's work as well. And he hasn't complained, at least as far as I know, about the extra work. Just done it, and competently at that.
I also know that his electorate office used to deal with a lot of work from outside the electorate, because a neighbouring MP's office wasn't particularly satisfactory in that regard.
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You were pretty much completely wrong about everything.
I was, wasn't I? I will concede, through gritted teeth, that I have made myself look like a dick.
I spoke to someone who spoke to Denise Roche on Saturday night, who said she was in tears about attracting electorate votes that could have kept the seat with Labour.
My initial impression, looking at some of those close electorate seats, was that the Greens were fools not to tell their supporters to vote strategically (in Peter Dunne's electorate esp).
On the other hand, what has Labour ever done to deserve that kind of support from the Greens? They shafted 'em three years ago and picked Dunne and Peters over the Greens and the Maori's.
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My initial impression, looking at some of those close electorate seats, was that the Greens were fools not to tell their supporters to vote strategically (in Peter Dunne's electorate esp).
But that's really starting to piss me off -- and though I might be rather biased by National's unfortunate experiment in Wellington Central, why the hell should the Greens be "telling" their supporters any such thing?
For a start, I know a Green supporter or two who wouldn't take kindly to any such instruction.
Second, I'm not a supporter but you've got to respect they've put in the hard yards -- they went out with a good campaign pushing a solid platform. It's a wee bit insulting that, when it's convenient, some in the Labour Party expect them to roll over and do tricks like a circus animal. While the Greens must be bloody disappointed those polls having them breaking double figures didn't pan out, I don't see what the hell Denise Roche was blubbing about. In future, if the Greens (or any other party) doesn't want to attract electorate votes they shouldn't contest it.
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I was, wasn't I? I will concede, through gritted teeth, that I have made myself look like a dick.
No worries. I, too, may have ventured further in rhetoric than logic would strictly permit, in this thread ...
I told myself to shut up and take a bike ride. I discovered that there is, for the moment, an enormous sandhill on Pt Chev beach. We now heading down to frolic on it as a family.
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Good on your Russell for giving us the other side of the story re JT. There are good number of people in parliament who have far worse behaviour/stories to tell who haven't been subjected to the same scrutiny. Some of them with very hefty electorate margins.
We need some balance - and we're not going to get it from New Zealand's very own Fox News, the Herald, or the bevy of skinny gossipers who are dished up to us over Sunday coffee.
Enjoy the beach. -
Goodoh
We had been waiting for you.
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I told myself to shut up and take a bike ride. I discovered that there is, for the moment, an enormous sandhill on Pt Chev beach. We now heading down to frolic on it as a family.
Yes, back and forth in the garden is where I choose to go between posts but I imagine the sandhill will be spread as it was probably intended to be on Monday :) Watch out for those oyster shells.Nature and nurture, somehow, when the sun shines, all feels good outdoors.
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Goodoh
We had been waiting for you.
Beat you to that one ;-)
Thanx Goodoh, we've been waiting for you. ;-) -
why the hell should the Greens be "telling" their supporters any such thing?
Well, Craig. It's called politics. ;-)
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Well, Craig. It's called politics. ;-)
Expecting other people to do your work for you is called 'bone-idle' in my house. But seriously, this is like the lung-busting sulking some ACT-ivists were blaming National not "strategically" telling supporters in Auckland to vote for them. Well, I'd respectfully suggest ACT's real problem was a bad campaign and internal issues that had nothing to do with National.
It's a bit rich to bitch the Greens for getting their shit together (and keeping it together) and earning an entirely respectable result.
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__We had been waiting for you.__
Beat you to that one ;-)
Or maybe I'm Vladimir to your Estragon.
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And... I'm with Craig on this one, we were discussing the very same on the Fundy Post a few days ago. Labour doesn't have a strong history of helping its allies even when the stakes are much higher (see Harre in Waitakere). Not clear to me why it should be expected of the small party should roll over even when it doesn't increase the number of MPs of the centre left in Parliament, and could hurt its list vote due to weak campaigning in the electorate.
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Nor do I know why I should be expected to use human-readable syntax. Apparently.
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Or maybe I'm Vladimir to your Estragon.
After careful consideration, maybe not, but you just couldn't help ypourself Eh?
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Nor do I know why I should be expected to use human-readable syntax. Apparently.
Yes, my dog seems to have no problem :)
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Yo G, let me fix your syntax:
It's not clear to me why the small party should roll over, even when it doesn't increase the number of MPs of the centre left in Parliament -- and could even hurt its list vote due to weak campaigning in the electorate.
And you're right. I'm sure anything in Auckland Central was more in the vein of "shit, that didn't work out well" than "we should have had an arrangement".
Ohariu, though ... it's actually surprising that there wasn't better polling in an electorate where the result might really affect the proportionality of Parliament.
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Yo G, let me fix your syntax:
See, I keep saying we don't need an edit button.
I'm in the process of designing a new widget that makes Russell come to your place and do the housework. Stay tuned!
Ohariu, though ...
Oh, they dropped the ball there, no question. And there's no guarantee that next time Dunne won't win the seat comfortably - think Peters in 2002 vs. 1999. Still, one hopes there's a lesson learnt there.
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Yeah, that Sir Roger Douglas is a blite on society aye. A Knighthood, numerous international awards for economics and successful government reform, consultant to governments around the world, Finance Minister of the Year (globally) in 1985. What a useless prick he has been.
Now, that Judith Tizard, there's another story...............
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Well, I'd respectfully suggest ACT's real problem was a bad campaign and internal issues that had nothing to do with National.
Bad campaign? What election were you watching?
It didn't seem to be the one where ACT improved 135% on 2005.
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Yeah, that Sir Roger Douglas is a blite on society aye. A Knighthood, numerous international awards for economics and successful government reform, consultant to governments around the world, Finance Minister of the Year (globally) in 1985. What a useless prick he has been.
Did you ever live through the Rogernomics era, Nickk? Just interested, mind. Because I suspect most of us here remember it as a generally miserable bloody time in our history. Not more miserable than Muldoonism, but, you know, up there.
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Nickk- Roger Douglas is a failed pig farmer. The other wee baubles mean nothing against his established track record of destruction of a welfare system that - for at least a couple of generations - worked rather better than anything he attempted to institute. Since this is 'say something nice' I can assure him, you, & other ACT supporters, that I have a perfectly lovely poroporoaiki all ready for him (because I actually really like pigs-)
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