Posts by BenWilson
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Polity: A hazy, intriguing crystal ball, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
That is quite fucked up. If there was evidence that money had actually been laundered through it, that might make a bit more sense. But to shut down a one-of-a-kind service like that because of a vague risk of money laundering is just ridiculous.
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Hard News: The Police Ten 7 State, in reply to linger,
Or even writes that way.
Well, machine translations and lazy pro-forma text search and replaces without proofreading do. Which is what looks like happened here. It's so mechanical that they will make up a bullshit boilerplate excuse that they actually have a computer program doing it.
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Hard News: The Police Ten 7 State, in reply to Sacha,
A right-wing govt knows its on the wrong side of the issue when Greg O’Connor and the Herald editorial oppose you.
Yes, a surprising turn. Not for the first time I would like to know who wrote a Herald editorial - but in this particular case their reasons for anonymity might actually be well-founded. It could be someone who has felt the information stranglehold and the commentary straitjacket personally.
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Hard News: The Police Ten 7 State, in reply to nzlemming,
Thank God it wasn't just me feeling that way.
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Hard News: The Message, in reply to Jason Kemp,
As a regular user I am happy that it is not free for kids as there would just be more people there.
I'll think to myself next time I could take the kids to the pool but don't have the budget for it that at least my absence makes it a nicer experience for you. That will make it feel a lot better.
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Hard News: The Police Ten 7 State, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
That makes them civilians.
Amusing definitional debate that will never end. Like "terrorist". Control the language, control the thought!! We've always been at war with gangs.
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Hard News: The Message, in reply to Sacha,
pools across the whole region are now free to children at least, but yes, huge discrepancies in which areas have them.
Hmmm that's odd. I just called Mt Albert Aquatic Center, and they said the kids were $5.90 each and I'm $8.20. So we're looking at the usual $20 to go swimming, which of course means that I don't do it as regularly as I otherwise would. But yes, every other pool that isn't in Phil Goff's region of influence does appear to be free to kids, and accompanying adults are frequently a nominal sum ($1 in most cases).
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Hard News: The Message, in reply to Keir Leslie,
I suspect they do care about the fact Goff is a hard working and effective local MP.
I expect if you asked a random sample of them to name 3 achievements for Mt Roskill, 9 out of 10 would have no answers at all. But that is not to say that they wouldn't state that he was an effective and hardworking local MP anyway.
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Hard News: The Police Ten 7 State, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
You’d think the Police of all people would welcome sound research informing evidence-based policy that works.
Why would you think that? It's never been their history, nor is it something that anyone (police or otherwise) welcomes from the outside. I would not expect any organization to be happy about being scrutinized externally. Which is why it shouldn't be their call. That's just not how you organize open, fair and accountable systems, especially not ones with extraordinary powers, like the police have.
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Hard News: The Message, in reply to Simon Lyall,
So, you are saying that...
Nope, I'm not saying any of that. There are many strategies by which Labour could grow its vote, and it's by no means a no-brainer that picking up people who are in the opposite camp is the low hanging fruit.
Your apology for Goff's inability to motivate the voters in his electorate to do anything more for Labour than to personally put him in office, at whatever cost to the overall majority that actually matters in our system doesn't wash. He's popular with right wingers because he is pretty much their kind of guy. There's nothing wrong with that a priori but I don't have to like it or support it and I'm not going to vote for it.
As for a centrist splinter from Labour? That would be their death knell (well, it would be one of the final ones anyway), since they're already smaller than National by a country mile. Break them in half and they're pretty much finished, a spent force. Which is not to say it won't happen. I can just imagine the last hurrah of the neoliberal faction of Labour would be to completely disintegrate the party as they pursue personal glory towards the center. Politics does seem to be that kind of game, where sad old buggers never let go because they just love the power and more importantly, the fame, so much.
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