Posts by Sacha
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to David Russell,
a new profitable SOE
which ideology will insist can't possibly be properly profitable until it is sold to the private sector.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Thrash Cardiom,
What's the projected impact on Dunedin?
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"No need for servility" says Herald editorial.
Rio Tinto's position is the stronger in that it has made it clear that it wants to sell the smelter. If that is not possible, closure is an alternative response to the sagging world price for aluminium. Even so, there is no reason for the Government to start genuflecting. This country has already given successive Tiwai Pt operators very good deals since it built the Manapouri hydro station to power the smelter more than 40 years ago.
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Greens planning to promote work-life balance.
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There are issues with transmitting all that extra power to where the usage is highest. However there are more strategic ways to use it than to just reduce the current wholesale cost across the board.
Imagine New Zealand hosting a global data centre cluster in Dunedin, drawing on our cheap renewable energy, complementary timezone for Europe and the US, and our (unearned) green reputation. Attracting big players in a high-value forward-looking industry would keep young smart people here. (Not suggesting they would live in Invercargill, or that shaky Christchurch is a viable location for such facilities.)
Imagine converting the South Island's transport systems to electric power, as a test case for natonwide rollout before rising oil prices kill off our current setup. Especially when a future government restores a functioning carbon policy.
Or we could just behave like the craven boys in suits in our cabinet and sell the stuff even cheaper to the bigger lads who stole our lunch money. How they must laugh at us.
Pointing out this government's woeful incompetence also seems a better political strategy than using the silly "hands-off" line.
As Thursday turned increasingly madcap before the Easter break, it became difficult to reconcile National with the Opposition's caricature of a Government that had its hands off the wheel.
National's hands weren't just on the wheel - they were hovering over the hand-brake, while the hazard lights blinked wildly.
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Hard News: Violence in the streets, in reply to dcnbwz,
warrior culture
Warriors know restraint. Thuggery comes from fear. Too many scared little boys allowed to grow up physically without matching social maturity.
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Cracker: It's urs!, in reply to Damian Christie,
just make sure the teachers get paid #novobugs
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Cracker: It's urs!, in reply to Steve Barnes,
You confused me with this:
An oxymoron if ever I saw one
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Hard News: Violence in the streets, in reply to Chris Waugh,
Compare that with how the likes of Zac Guildford and Jesse Ryder are treated
They're alcoholics. Stories about them are a 'safe' way of dancing around that topic.
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Cracker: It's urs!, in reply to Steve Barnes,
How do you take Creative Commons as meaning anything other than credit where it's due?