Posts by Sacha
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Legal Beagle: MMP Review: Trusting Voters, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
That would be the overhang provision that the Commission proposes should be removed?
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There is no athlete at the games who looks like a normal person*. They are all freaky mutants and, in part, that's why they are there.
Indeed. I look forward to when our encouraged exaltation of their abnormality spreads beyond to people exceptional in ways more relevant in modern life than outrunning predators or lobbing rocks. Like geeks. And disabled people.
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Rob Salmond makes some observations about the left-right calculus for Labour. Worth a read.
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Legal Beagle: MMP Review: Trusting Voters, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
do you think the United States' exhaustive (and exhausting) primary processes lead to either better quality candidates or quality decision making on the part of voters?
No. We can do better with less fuss than that. Just a little more information conveyed meaningfully and continuously by an independent agency like say the Electoral Commission. And perhaps civics in schools and other lifelong education channels.
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Legal Beagle: MMP Review: Trusting Voters, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I'd say it's a draw
Only if you're thinking in FPP terms. There are more parties than two.
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Legal Beagle: MMP Review: Trusting Voters, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
giving talking head
very good
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Legal Beagle: MMP Review: Trusting Voters, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
The solution for National Party members concerned about this is to require the party to amend its rules. They have the power!
but the rest of us don't.
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Legal Beagle: MMP Review: Trusting Voters, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
But I'm not sure the market needs that help.
You seem to be assuming some perfect 'market' of electoral knowledge exists, much like an economist's fantasyland. I believe the checks and balances that ethical media and other players provided simply aren't there to the same degree any more. Market failure suggests other solutions are needed. If some degree of regulated and properly publicised disclosure to level the playing field is part of that, then bring it on.
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Hard News: Living with the psychopath, in reply to Russell Brown,
What's being imposed on him now isn't a punishment, it's an effort to protect others.
+1
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Legal Beagle: MMP Review - The Proposals, in reply to tussock,
If people don't want little parties to represent them in parliament they won't fucking well vote for them, eh
Hard to argue with that.
Most worrying thing about keeping the threshold quite high is how hard it is for new political movements to gain any parliamentary experience and resources without riding on the coat-tails of an existing MP originally elected for a different party. Is that the path we want the system to emphasise?