Posts by Sacha
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Russell Brown,
one of the more impressive achievements of the Clark government was telecommunications reform
Led by.. Cunliffe
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Arie pleads guilty, maybe eligible for diversion.
Smith-Voorkamp appeared before Judge Colin Doherty at the Rangiora courthouse. He pleaded guilty and was remanded at large until tomorrow.
Defence Counsel Simon Buckingham, who also suffers from autism, said outside court that he was hoping Smith-Voorkamp would be granted diversion at his next appearance.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to giovanni tiso,
There are no obvious or easy solutions.
And yet they managed in the past. What's changed?
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to giovanni tiso,
I personally believe the time has come to risk some of these unknowns and just replace the leader.
I believe the problem is broader than that - and Labour is not the whole opposition either. I want to see commitment from all those with the privilege of being members of parliament to take this fight seriously.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to giovanni tiso,
If you prefer to assume that the audience is some sort of Athenian square
I don't even know what that means (lack of classics education?).
Giovanni, you introduced the term "empirically incorrect". I'm saying it pays to measure the right thing.
You know better than most because of your educational specialisation how meaning is constructed. Reading out a speech is not the same as creating agreement and commitment with an audience. Polling (especially internal party ones) is meant to measure some of the latter. I don't see how that's a particularly controversial observation.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to giovanni tiso,
I believe the measure of success is whether the message landed, don't you? Not whether it was delivered.
In a way that's a microcosm of Labour's problem: not grasping their real task, and blaming the audience for not listening properly.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to giovanni tiso,
It is one thing to say that they didn't define themselves, another to say that the public didn't hear them.
If you define yourself in a forest... :)
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Your insistence that Labour has failed to define itself is also empirically incorrect.
Again, any research results to back that up.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to giovanni tiso,
But you accuse them of not having defined what they were about, which quite frankly they have - the two New Zealands speech is just about as clear a statement as you'll get.
I'd be interesting in hearing if polling suggests most voters are aware of that speech, let alone can say what it means for them and their family. As I say, most voters don't seek out manifestos.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Paul Williams,
there'll be lots of policy released in the lead up to the election
It's going to need to be *promoted* properly, which is my concern. Most voters don't eagerly seek out manifestos. Labour and other parties have proved able to engage the public before, so presumably they can again. However I do not see why that should mean sitting on their hands until after the election.
It's an election they should believe they have at least a chance of winning, given what it seems the government will present as their cunning plan for our salvation - more service slashing and asset sales. I'm inclined to agree with Lew's position that Key's readiness to openly talk about asset sales is one sign of a terminally limp opposition.
If you can't campaign successfully against that kind of nastiness (by pointing to the last time it was unleashed, but updating your framing for today), then it's time to get another job.