Posts by Tom Semmens
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Seriously though, the situation in Fiji is the proverbial pimple on the arse - annoyingly irritating, but not a life & death issue.
Are you sure?
Whilst the travel ban clearly irritates the hell out of the regime in Fiji, Paul Buchanan says the Chinese are easily negating whatever sanctions we have with lots of "no strings" aid. Maybe we need to do something to send Bejing a message to back off from our backyard?
Surely patience must be running short in Canberra and Wellington with the tiresome Bainimarama and his petty dictatorship? Bainimarama seems to like to play the game of swaggering realpolitik, perhaps the ANZAC's should start to show him what that really means?
I suggest we start with a withdrawl of landing rights in Australia and New Zealand of any airline that continues to fly to Fiji. It would need US cooperation, and would effectively spell the end of air links to Fiji.
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The biggest thing that has struck me watching "Grand Designs" over time is the sheer inefficiency of British building methods.
Does anyone remember the episode where they got a home made in a German factory that was so clean I felt dirty just watching it, and just three efficient Germans turned up on time, on the appointed day, with all the right paper work and plans and they set to work immediately weithout so much as a cup of tea and a think?
Everything fitted, they had all the right tools, they worked hard for the whole day and if the finish was off by .002mm they were horrified, and replaced it. And still the whole place was built in about a fortnight.
Germans are really, really rich and they are the biggest exporter by value in the world, and to me that episode explained everything to me as to why. That episode gave meaning to me about what a high productivity workplace/work force actually looks like. Incredibly high standards, highly automated, highly trained, very well organised, very well equipped and very, very well thought out.
Oh and seeing how the Brits build things on the Living Channel - largely unreinforced brick and mortar held up largely by gravity - I pray they never have an earthquake over about 5 on the Richter scale.
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My ex-brother in law is sitting on a box full of Viking's jerseys he purchased when they went belly up, unloved and unlamented.
He swears that they'll eventually be the hottest NZ Rugby jersey collectable.
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As Kyle Chapman points out here
Ouch! Burn!!!!
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Having a perusal of that site, One would hope random drug testing isn't rigorously enforced for this lot.
Mind you, I just ordered the shirt.
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We can all rest easy - our superiors are going to work it all out for us, without the need for anything as messy as democracy.
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"Party Central" is going to be the Kingsland strip, which is why the brewerys are opening as many bars there as fast as they can. The council should be working out how to close New North road from Bond Street to Kingsland Ave without causing traffic chaos before the huge crowds do it anyway.
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Yup and Tom is suggesting that we could fail to consent to it.
No I am not.
What i am saying to say is the way we interpret it and the way apply it has to evolve along with the evolution of the people and nation of New Zealand, or it will become a faultline in our history that will eventually cause a massive earthquake when it gives way.
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I see your point Keir.
But King John's father is the first post-conquest king known to have spoken the English language, and wasn't until Henry IV 450 years after the conquest that an English king spoke in English as his native tongue.
John's first language would have been French. John would have seen himself as a Frenchman. Magna Carta was an agreement between the Anglo-French ruling elite which didn't include the conquered Anglo-Saxons.
The idea that Magna Carta applied to ENGLISHMEN came later.
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There are parts of Magna Carta that have the force of law, and they remain law in the full sense,
Agreed. But they apply to everyone in the UK, not just Anglo-Norman freemen or people who can trace their family tree back to 1215. Do you see my point?