Posts by Sacha
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to giovanni tiso,
the "two New Zealands" speech by Goff at the party conference
Fair enough. Funny how I had forgotten it..
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Idiot Savant,
But that too would require virtu
Can't see a link to I/S's post about that.
For those who don't know: virtù is a key concept in Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince. Roughly translated it means "political virtue", competence in political management and the application of power. The other key concept is fortuna, or as Harold Macmillan would put it, "events, dear boy, events".
A politician with virtù is able to manage events to their advantage, or at least to avoid serious disadvantage.
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Hard News: It Began ... in Chicago, in reply to Christopher Dempsey,
Oh cool... I'm stoked!
Party at Christopher's place...
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to John Morrison,
I believe Labour has been working hard to provide alternative policies
Please do provide examples, John. Really.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Rik,
Those on higher incomes bear the lions share of personal income tax revenue - is it such a crime that they get a break every now and again?
Let me point you to our Keith Ng fisking that claim with some canny graphs.
So the top 1% of taxpayers pay 15% of the tax, and the top 3% pay 26% of the tax? Does it mean we overtax our rich?
No, and I'm sick of writing about it. So, here are some interactive pies I prepared earlier.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Tristan,
Conor Roberts quit the mayors office they need you in Wellington!
Trust me, we need him in Auckland and for pretty much the same reasons.
Today brings yet another call to hock the family silver from one of the region's rightie dunces who doesn't understand the value of ownership. You'd think the 80s and 90s had never happened or that we haven't seen how these particular neo-lib notions work out in reality (hello, overseas debt):
Auckland's business community believes that in drawing up its funding plan, the Auckland Council must demonstrate greater self-reliance to fund these big infrastructure investment projects.
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The Auckland Council needs to prioritise what it needs to own and what commercial assets it doesn't need to own, and transfer the freed-up capital to areas of most need.
Many people would encourage Mayor Brown to accept that his pre-election undertaking to sell nothing should not be kept at any price.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
What *would* Labour do if elected?
I am sure they have some good and different policy based on what they seem to have been discussing. Fat lot of use though if they don't have the ability to organise themselves well enough to communicate that compellingly to voters.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Richard Aston,
Another strategy could be to form a solid pre election coalition, Labour, Green, Maori + Hone.
And the lack of visible cross-party work is also notable. Goff on Q&A calling Matt McCarten his "political opponent" may have some truth in it but does not come across as someone capable of working with allies on the same side of the House.
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when the country needed an effective, aggressive Opposition
That's the real tragedy, as Matt McCarten noted:
Labour needs more urgency, more mongrel and more seriousness about its obligations to its supporters who are really hurting under this Government.
Yesterday, a tweet from Clare Curran:
Can we please talk about what really matters ...
led me to what I'd have to characterise as her not-our-fault whinge on Red Alert:
There are no new jobs on the horizon. There are no new industries. There are no really good ideas that people can latch onto and think “this is our future” “I get what this is about”.
There is no hope.
Meanwhile our front pages are full of finger pointing and rotten egg throwing at the latest scapegoat in a political scandal.
I was prompted to reply:
I'd love to focus on real issues. managing the opposition's ability to actually oppose is in your own hands
and then to respond at Red Alert along what turned out to be similar lines to McCarten's:
Put forward a bold vision of hope, then. Call the government to account for its slashing. Talk in terms that connect with the public. Get on with it.
Or if you can not actually function as an opposition, get out of the way. Real people are hurting, as you say. What are you doing about it?
I know the conventional political wisdom is not to change leaders, but if the party has already given up on even the prospect of winning this election on behalf of their constituents, then they should all just get out of the way. Incompetence hurts others.
I really do not care about Darren Hughes - but then I'm not the one who dropped the ball for the umpteenth time and allowed the focus to go onto a sideshow. The Labour caucus need to take a good long look in the mirror. And consider the quality of advice they're paying for.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Coddington has written some saner columns of late, but this is not one of them.
I agree; it's disappointingly stupid