Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: The Ides of Epsom

Tim Michie

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 09:51:15 +1200

Aye. Not the subdividing sought.

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 09:25:45 +1200

No carton character, this...
Oh and that Graeme Hart too...
Having just sold the 'just beating' heart of the North Island to Japan
(not to mention a big chunk of NZ's corporate history – Carter Holt Harvey)
He is now thinking 'outside the box' and contemplating [[http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/06/09/us-sigcombibloc-sale-idUKKBN0EK23H20140609|flicking on SIG Combibloc…

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 09:02:04 +1200

men of note...
And lest we forget Salmonella Dub's ever prescient contributions...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0cBXAEV4Fk

and Rosemary McLeod weighs in and finds that John Banks' 'crimes' are not as bad as disposing of children's bodies in a septic tank...
Good to get some reasoned perspective on these things...

TracyMac

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 14:39:34 +1200

Interesting, since most of the IT geeks I know are of the leftie-lite persuasion. Except for the pockets of Christian fundamentalist/evangelical ones you find dotted about in odd places. IT geeks in the financial sector in the UK seemed to be more rightward-leaning.

Tim Michie

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 10:23:29 +1200

Oh and that Graeme Hart too. So unproductive for National's NZ Inc.

Euan Mason

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 07:41:55 +1200

Labour's principled response will not pay off, and so your suggestion that some of their most popular electoral candidates declare themselves as independents is probably the best way to ultimately get rid of coat tailing and the gerrymandering provisions in MMP.

Andre Alessi

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 16:05:40 +1200

Which one? Finance/Insurance/Real Estate? Oil? Military? Police?

Telecommunications. IT geek libertarians and financial climber/grasper salesfolk.

Howard Edwards

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 15:25:27 +1200

Just a coincidence that the richest lifestyle blocker of all happens to be Kim Dotcom, then?

Matthew Poole

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 14:45:47 +1200

Act taking Epsom is moot, they will sit below the 5% list threshold on 0 to 1 of the party vote.

If Act manages to get 1.3% of the party vote it gets a second MP, assuming Epsom voters do as that nice John Key is instructing. So it's not…

Brent Jackson

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 14:25:22 +1200

Hmmm. I wonder which electorate King Kapisi would like to stand in for the Internet Party ? Any chance of IP getting another electorate seat ?

BenWilson

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 14:13:51 +1200

Will an ACT candidate really represent Epsom people? Considering the whole thing seems to be a deal to build a better majority for National in the house.

Well they don't seem to think ACT as a party will better represent them. Only 939 people in Epsom voted for it in…

Kumara Republic

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 14:02:15 +1200

I know that most people in my industry lean right/libertarian, so it’s nice to have a family environment that backs me up.

Which one? Finance/Insurance/Real Estate? Oil? Military? Police?

Richard Aston

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 13:56:33 +1200

Maybe everyone can just stop being so condescending to the electors of Epsom? Sorry if they keep returning MPs you don’t happen to approve of, but to use a technical term: Tough sodding titty. One of the most pleasant, if least remarked upon, features of Election Day is the utter…

DexterX

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 13:44:25 +1200

The thrill had gone – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JLU3dDCVwE

Craig Ranapia

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 13:40:04 +1200

Will the good people of Epsom wake up and vote with integrity or will they just do as they are told ?

Maybe everyone can just stop being so condescending to the electors of Epsom? Sorry if they keep returning MPs you don't happen to approve of, but to use…

DexterX

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 13:16:49 +1200

In 2011 the Act Party Vote collapsed – The obsession with Epsom in the media is just that – everyone, after all, looks at the man in the clown suit.

Act taking Epsom is moot, they will sit below the 5% list threshold on 0 to 1 of the party…

David Hood

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 13:14:45 +1200

I often find myself waking up at 3 in the morning speaking in Chinese and Arabic

I don't think that is quite what the Brethren had in mind about speaking in tongues.

BenWilson

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 13:10:28 +1200

Yes, but she kept my cat. I think it was a symbolic gesture.

Andre Alessi

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 13:03:29 +1200

It most certainly can and does cause massive disharmony in families that have differing political opinions – to anyone that values harmony, they either don’t discuss it, or just adopt the family attitude.

Interestingly, I think something that does tend to impact voters' views of what their vote is worth…

Tim Michie

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 13:03:25 +1200

As many who happen to live within the electorate boundaries without the median income wonder as to when we'll be represented.

Richard Aston

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 12:54:04 +1200

Will the good people of Epsom wake up and vote with integrity or will they just do as they are told ?

Richard Aston

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 12:52:36 +1200

I still have one of those Brethren pamphlets, just for unintentional humour value. It’s one of those ones that basically say “rejoin ANZUS or we’ll all be speaking Chinese and Arabic”.

They could have been onto something Red , I often find myself waking up at 3 in the morning…

DexterX

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 12:48:28 +1200

Did he/she give you back your car?

Moz

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 12:37:58 +1200

I was immensely proud of my special vote cast in London in the 1987 General Election, where it was the only overseas special vote in the Auckland Central Electorate for the McGillicuddy Serious Party. 1 out of 1 – you can't get more meaningful than that :- ).

Darn! The…

BenWilson

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 12:23:13 +1200

I don't even think it's entirely irrational. Outside of the actual business of politics, or peripheral ones like the professional media, what does one actually gain, for the most part, from a strong interest in politics? I'd say it's mostly from how it affects our interactions with people we interact…

Eoin Ryan

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 11:42:01 +1200

Wow. +1, Like, tweet, etc. Just because it describes all the attitudes (others and at time mine, I've to admit) I've encountered over the years.

BenWilson

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 11:09:35 +1200

This is something I’ve never understood, but I’ve met people who vote as though they’re betting on which team will win.

Well politics can certainly be seen as a spectator sport. Everyone's got an opinion, most people have very little influence other than adding to the roar of the crowd,…

Brent Jackson

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 09:45:33 +1200

If they owned tall apartment buildings in Epsom, would they support legislation to ban them?

Probably. Keep the supply side as limited as possible, so their existing building can exhort monopoly rents.

Brent Jackson

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 09:43:39 +1200

People who psychologically prefer to back the winning team will have good reason to hedge and go for one of the little middle parties, NZF, UF, Maori. They might even go Labour.

This is something I've never understood, but I've met people who vote as though they're betting on which…

Ian Dalziel

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 09:37:57 +1200

Banks robbery...
Demise-Day = June 13th
So was John Banks advised to beware the 'ides of June'?

Looks like ACT has his back though...
– and it's quite the target!

Ianmac

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 09:18:54 +1200

Note No 18. Low Carbon tax. So ACT Green could work together? Who would have thought.

Sacha

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 08:15:26 +1200

but wholemeal?

Timmy H

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 06:56:59 +1200

This seems as good a time as any to share part of the 3-page ACT pamphlet I received, laughed at, and scanned a few years ago to provide laughs for future me.

I point especially to number 6, column 'Countries where similar policy works well'. At one point Phil Heatley…

Euan Mason

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 04:42:02 +1200

Yes, it is uncanny how some on the right wing cannot see the parallel between regulating to retain the characters of their neighbourhoods and regulating to avoid stuffing up the atmosphere or waterways where people are used to freely polluting. If they owned tall apartment buildings in Epsom, would they…

Myles Thomas

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 00:11:12 +1200

Polling has revealed National's chances of winning Epsom have risen sharply after viewers watching Q+A assumed the Bag of Flour WAS National's candidate. Many Epsom voters noted that the Bag of Flour made more sense, looked more confident and understood the issues better than ACT's David Seymour.

Sacha

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 23:32:34 +1200

One of the joys of moving away was to feel like a voter again

Please do tell that story, widely.

BenWilson

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 23:27:01 +1200

Perhaps they will stand a candidate if ACT keep up the crazy talk.

I wish, but don't think so (presuming you mean they will support a candidate – so far as I know Goldsmith will be standing). Firstly, it's one more seat for their bloc, which is tenuous. ACT is…

Rachel Noble

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 22:53:36 +1200

Democracy does not exist for the manipulated voters in the Epsom electorate. I know, experienced it time & time again. One of the joys of moving away was to feel like a voter again

william blake

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 21:09:31 +1200

Isn't the intensification of urban housing precisely what the National want to mess up th RMA for? Perhaps they will stand a candidate if ACT keep up the crazy talk.

Ken Sparks

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 21:05:33 +1200

I miss Rodney in his yellow jacket! I remember one morning during the campaign cycling along Market Rd (yes, Market) and there he was standing at the intersection in his eye catching attire appealing to the passing commuters. I wanted to heckle him but he rendered me speechless...

Sacha

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 20:47:57 +1200

Banks is the story of a man who defines his life against something he ends up imitating faithfully.

His inability to identify self-serving advisors has blighted his career and who knows what it has cost him personally.

The man had many chances to do the right thing rather than surrender…

Rich Lock

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 20:47:47 +1200

Banks has now completed all of them apart from the rom-com.

There's probably some Dotcom/Banks slashfic lurking in the murkier corners of the internet.

BenWilson

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 20:06:18 +1200

Some argue that there are really only 7 stories. The rest just build on them. Banks has now completed all of them apart from the rom-com.

Sacha

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 19:51:39 +1200

the 8 Story Limit

if you have more stories to tell than that, you're best off in another suburb

BenWilson

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 19:51:29 +1200

Another memory of Epsom. Although, strictly speaking, that side of the road is not Epsom.

Sacha

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 19:46:08 +1200

where I lost both my virginity and my car (stolen 3 times)

a miracle :)

Sacha

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 19:44:46 +1200

they’ll go full nimby

excellent

Sacha

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 19:44:06 +1200

He doesn't have anything to say about Epsom.

cos he's thinking of Richmond near Nelson. A few dozen houses will make all the difference, eh.

Sacha

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 19:39:15 +1200

National's candidate, international man of mystery Paul Goldsmith, had declined to appear

Entertainingly replaced by a bag of flour. Great to see other candidates with an honest grasp of political theatre.

Naturally in this day and age the bag has the last word.

BenWilson

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 19:32:04 +1200

“the character of their community”

One of the views of Epsom I remember from my childhood.

ETA: The high walls and dense bushes shrouding the character filled doctor's surgeries were beautifully counterpointed by hi-rise above the smog of the angry gridlocked commuters. When I lived in Clonbern Rd, I'd fall asleep…

JLM

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 18:17:35 +1200

Meanwhile Nick Smith is criticizing the selfishness of rich lifestyle blockers who he says are stopping the subdivisions on the outskirts that could be homes for tragically deprived young families who apparently have access to unlimited petrol.

He doesn't have anything to say about Epsom.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10132013/Rich-people-block-housing-growth

Kumara Republic

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 18:15:57 +1200

Yes to all of that except the Bretheren pamphlets, hope you kept those!

I still have one of those Brethren pamphlets, just for unintentional humour value. It's one of those ones that basically say "rejoin ANZUS or we'll all be speaking Chinese and Arabic".

Nora Leggs

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 18:07:59 +1200

Yes to all of that except the Bretheren pamphlets, hope you kept those!

Kumara Republic

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 18:07:25 +1200

More here at TransportBlog on David Seymour's inconsistencies. In fairness, he did respond, but said pretty much the same old get-in-and-shut-the-door-behind dogma.

It only reinforces suspicions that Epsom and Remuera aren't so much localities, but more akin to gated communities.

Robyn Gallagher

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 18:03:47 +1200

Damn, I miss living in the (non-posh part of the) Epsom electorate. Election time was always madness. I once had a pretend polling phone call where all the questions were worded to be pro-ACT propaganda, a voicemail where a recording of Rodney Hide pretended to be leaving a casual message,…

Nora Leggs

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 17:58:50 +1200

Clearly then, Mr Seymour did not take on board the message I gave him when he came door knocking some weeks ago. I could kind of tell by the way he started to back down the steps – probably as I was hitting my stride and critiquing this exact policy…

Russell Brown

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 17:50:16 +1200

So the key issue for ACT voters nationwide is the 8 Story Limit for Epsom. I think we can fairly surmise they’re not going for the party vote any more.

No, they’ll go full nimby in Epsom and still shout to the rest of the country about how the rights…

Ian Dalziel

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 17:45:23 +1200

8 Storey Limit for Epsom
Who knew that Haussmann was redesigning Epsom!

I thought they'd raised his shade to redo Chchch...

BenWilson

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 17:23:10 +1200

So the key issue for ACT voters nationwide is the 8 Story Limit for Epsom. I think we can fairly surmise they're not going for the party vote any more.

andrew r

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 17:22:24 +1200

The people of Epsom it seems would vote for a parrot standing as the local ACT candidate so long as it's screeches were – tax cuts less government tax cuts – clearly, given it's two most recent constituent MPs and lack of moral fortitude there in.
In short – in…

Kumara Republic

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 16:27:23 +1200

Goes to show ACT is no longer a party of the free market. It's a party of rent-seekers and cartelists.

And what if Donald Trump or Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum flew here and decided to build something very tall in the Epsom area?

Public Address

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 16:27:23 +1200

Discussion from blog post.