Haven't heard of that before. BMT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phWv7l8Lm_A

__There's a silent rumble
In the buildings of the night council
It's a meeting of controllers
Who drive right through the gates
In white roll-tops

And i guess this just goes to show
The lie dream of the…

The only rights that matter, as far as the current regime are concerned.

There's your word of the year right there.

My take is that if the Government can legislate to take away caregivers' rights to compensation and to legally challenge Government decisions, then the precedent has already been set, and the casino company in question should not be surprised to…

Good work, sir.

You mean… work together? Across party lines? How completely ridiculous! A strong leader doesn’t need bipartisan accord on anything, (s)he just…

If you know…

Naturally, as there is from not doing it, too. Which one is worse? A consequence of reneging on the 30 year part of deal would be that other parties in future might not believe the government if they attempted to negotiate such a deal again.…

I've been waiting most of three decades for the government to come to…

They're going botulistic?

Key and cronies are proving there may be some truth in that hoary…

Whoever thought of using Franks is a genius. As a former Act MP he cannot simply be dismissed as a tool of the simpering lefty establishment.

On the other hand,…

Not tampering with the principle of parliamentary sovereignty would be a good starting benchmark. Easily followed, and ought to be obvious why it's a benchmark. If the deal can't stack up without trying to force future parliaments to…

No, you already bid that, and got raised.

tribunals, dude :)

In a technical sense, the government decides. There is no higher authority.

basic humanity is a good guide

But who gets to decide what is a…

It's difficult at the best of times.

I see your tribunal, and raise you "shutting off diplomatic ties".

trade tribunals, sir..

It was also, as the deputy auditor-general's report noted, done via a deeply unsatisfactory process in which…

Precisely. If the deal is only worth doing by way of an "unconstitutional" (inasmuch as such is possible in this country) attempt to bind future parliaments, the deal is probably not worth doing.

It would be a better business practice not to go back on big corporate deals, if you want to make more of them…

And in return for their licence not being put up for public auction when it runs its term in 2021 or whenever it is. The returns from that auction…

I think the Sky City deal was appalling. But I'd be equally appalled if…

Word. Particularly since I don't think you're thrilled about the current government's willingness to stomp all over procedural checks and conventional balances.

Perfectly put Craig. Have…

SHOCK! HORROR! I always like the Opposition to be an effective check and balance on the Government of the day. I don't think Cunliffe would be an unspeakably…

__What is the Green Party’s strategy to avoid the fate of many other minor parties in coalition? Obviously every minor party is different and the Greens are no Lib Dems or Alliance…

At the GCSB protest on Queen Street, Cunliffe was there early and visible, with a young electorate crew all in matching red…

I don't take anything as given, actually. They'll look to make the Greens fight for a lot of things, so they can give some things while denying others. Positions of power will be…

That different circumstances require different approaches? You don't have to be a politician to know that. Hell, I learned that from my grandmother.

I did note that in that Native Affairs interview Cunliffe said he'd learned. What were his words? Something like "there's nothing like being kicked to the backbenches for 18 months to teach you to listen. Also, the new set-up means…

Like Cunliffe actually rallying a group of party supporters rather than talking about how he could, you mean? Saw how that went down with the Thorndon keyboard warriors..

Please do say how you see them.

Perhaps the Nats should look straight into a naming rights deal. SkyCity sums up the values of the…

Unfortunately, in NZ it's historically been an obligatory 3 terms. That's the median stay. If Labour get in, they're actually bucking the trend. Or, possibly more accurately, National have fucked up.

It's back!

Which is why I suggested that there are 3 distinct styles. Plus, pointing out that (I think) Nactional are full of it and that it seemed to work for…

And the account is dead now, which suggests to me at least that if it was a troll, it was a genuine one. A satirical troll wouldn't pack up shop like that.

Afternoon all. @CunliffeLeader is a troll and has nothing to do with our campaign. We’re keeping it positive. Thanks.

The account itself has been deleted, raising the possibility that it was in fact the work of an extremely deluded supporter who has finally got…

One of them will attract more floating votes and get a higher preferred Prime Minister rating than the other two.

The tricky…

And really my bigger question was more…

National has had their obligatory 2 turns and I'm afraid the Sky City thing, GSCB, Meridian and a few other general blunders has weakened their appeal to the public ( in my view.)…

This is true while they were in power. Since then, however, they've been all over the Green Party website mashing Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, so I'm going to give them benefit of:
a) the doubt
b) the Green…

Russell, if you're like me and have Ghostery (or equivalent) installed, it seems that MTV have their content delivered by Brightcove.com, which is one of the domains on which Ghostery blocks cookies; a surprisingly (and irritatingly) frequent problem for me. Disabling…

Labour finally apologised last year for…

You can disagree on that, then. Rich’s answer wasn’t a…

But it is way more complicated than that. Multinationals have as much economic and…

If I didn't know which way you'd party-voted in 2011, I could say something really snarky right now.

We have: twice. John got in.

It has? Going back to to 1949, when we first had a DPM we have had:

Holyoake (not Minister of Finance)
Marshall (not)
Skinner (not)
Marshall again (not)
Muldoon (both DPM and…

Point well made, we can hardly expect politicians to behave like adults it would be just asking too much. Small achievable goals, with a cookie after each.

"Today minister, you will remember wipe your chin after you dribble."

I agree with this so much.

Right up until the 'wrong' guy wins, 2 platoons of favourite pickers retreat to the swing fence, as we saw in the last election. But I've got to hand it to y'all, if nothing else, democracy sure is romantic.

We have constantly heard that no one takes on John Key . That Labour needs a pit bull etc etc. Mr Nice guy didn't work. David Shearer was pilloried. I think the macho dickwaving that…

Oh my giddy aunt! That would require co-operation, true power-sharing and mutual respect in public.

Gee, thank you for the massive Constitutional man-splain there Rich because nobody's ever amended or repealed…

Will you raise taxes? Hell yeah
Will you remain bound to the Sky City deal? Parliament is sovereign

I don't sense the same from…

Which is indeed the longhand version of what Cunliffe said. Key's attempt to bind every government…

There was a link in the original post, and I think somebody embedded a vid upthread.

And it's odd, but I think John Armstrong does a better job of showing [[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11114787|the differences between the…

Well said…

I think as this proceeds we will spot the differences but we really already know them if one watches the Party. The fact is they all need to convince and win over the public, That is…

I'm sure this will piss off the labour-voting Sky City shareholders – both of them.

Particularly since the thought of Norman as Minister of Finance will encourage some people to vote National just to avoid that happening.

I've already seen other people lament that candidates will stress their left credentials in this process and then tack…

And that’s where Labour should start saying “fuckity-byes” to Cunliffe. I get he’s not actually talking to anyone who doesn’t get a vote in the Labour leadership, but posturing to the base can very quickly become a liability in the campaign, let alone in Government where tiresome…

As for endorsing, I've got no problem with them acknowledging each others' strengths, but they're supposed to be campaigning for the leadership. I wanted to see more…

And it may have been a good idea for Jacinda to have thrown her hat into the ring as mentioned up-thread, first to have a woman…

They have to endorse each other. That's vital.

But I thought the answers to the SkyCity question were interesting.

Jones: Dislike…

Yes, that's why. There may be a conversation for the Greens to have in that.

Because he's the one who's put himself out front for a senior role in a coalition, perhaps? Met hasn't been the one talking about being Minister of Finance, which is traditionally given to the DPM.

The difference is the public get a say. If you are a member you get a vote. With 3 very distinct…

I don't think the aim of this exercise is to show any of them as bad choices. Quite the reverse, the aim…

Key's response highlights how pissed off…

Brilliant. Thank you.

Exactly.

I confess, I was watching more for style than content. Although the different flavours of answer to the SkyCity question were interesting.

Amazingly enough, that video played perfectly for me. And that was a nice moment, especially the looks on Shane's and David's faces. I also liked how…

Yeah, it's definitely a troll account. And read that way, less idiotic. It might turn out to be entertaining.

Hum... I might have to watch it a couple more times, but the whole exercise struck me as more insubstantial than Forbes and Native Affairs usually is. All three of them got their talking points out and bunted the softballs lobbed in their…

Unconventional politics, perhaps. But dramatic!

And potentially high risk.

So far however it is working…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwKIFwCWFMI

Still better, this amazing Game of Thrones-themed Australian election campaign rap featuring Julian Assange. Yes, you did read that right:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWU6tVxzO1I&t=64

You mean the slave labour fishing boats, or the wanting to dig up Northland?