Posts by Tom Semmens
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I never had a cash bar job at the cossie club when I was on the dole for a while in the early 1990s either.
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I would be opposed to any “reform” that simply de facto legalised pot without a wider review of al policies pertaining to our already drug soaked society.
Simply legalising pot (and therefore pot abuse) to a society that already heavily abuses alcohol will do nothing for the out of control youth suicide rate.
All we will be doing is creating even more completely out of it candidates for A&E on the weekend, and removing whatever few social constraints remain around drug abuse amongst the most vulnerable parts of our society.
IMHO, If I were an MP I would vote to keep pot illegal, until we are ready confront the wider question of alcohol and drug abuse in our society.
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Speaker: Britain: the crisis isn't…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
Yeah, I think the OP could win some kind of award for outstanding un-prescience.
To be fair, none of the liberal bourgeoisie echo chamber picked up any hint of the outcome.
To me, the outstanding thing about the Labour campaign was firstly how accurately they summed up their chances within the existing neo liberal straight jacket and secondly how they parlayed that no chance into a high risk strategy to smash out of the neo liberal straight jacket. They knew they had no chance, so they went for the doctor with their manifesto and attacked conventional wisdom. Bold and visionary and hopeful to the point of madness, but it worked.
The contrast with the Labour party here is painful. You would have to go a long way to find an organisation with a more pathetic collection of talentless and listless bourgeoisie losers. Where Corbynistas smashed the straight jacket, Little Labour welcomes it's embrace. Where U.K. Labour is bold, NZ Labour is timid. Where U.K. Labour is visionary, NZ's seeks nothing but managerialism. About the only thing they have in common is hope, although in NZ's case it is hope they'll make until next year.
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The oddest bit about this whole scandal is how unnecessary it is. All English/Barclay had to do was blame it on the uncertain decision making of the still raw youth of the none the less talented tyro, tossled his hair, apologised profusely to all and sundry, and moved on and (much as one wonders if the equally youthful Chloe Swarbrick would secretly record her staff) the story would be dead.
Instead, you’ve got less a tyro than a shifty wannabe tyrant and a stupid scandal born of arrogance.
One other angle about this interests me. This story was the work of newsroom.co.nz, which meant that TVNZ, TV3 and all the rest of the MSM ran extensively with it as not coming from a major rival. If it had been the work of, say, TV3 would TVNZ have covered it to the same extent? I doubt it. And it would have died quickly.
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Hard News: Barclay and arrogance, in reply to BenWilson,
They could have stood a convicted murderer there and got in with a handy majority.
Oh come now, surely it would depend on who they murdered.
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Hard News: Barclay and arrogance, in reply to Sacha,
factional horse trading
seems to underlie this Barclay debacle
Exactly! How that jumped up toff got the nod in the first place is the real mystery.
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Hard News: Barclay and arrogance, in reply to Jason Kemp,
A tone deaf government who are walking blindfolded and still no traction from the opposition :)
Labour’s caucus is full of political deadbeats and no hopers who are just happy to be in the best paid job they are ever likely to have. They owe their jobs to factional horse trading rather than any discernible skill at the cut and thrust of politics.
Their lack of political cunning and mongrel political ambition shows through time and time again both in omission and commission.
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Ah, so it was public money used to hush up a National party faux-pas, with overtones of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
It will be a test of the media to see if they are interested, or would rather cover the America's Cup, terrorism in Europe and the war of words between Gatland and Hansen.
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Is "the leader's budget" made up of public or National party money?
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Even the Daiily Mail has turned on May over this one.
Her astonishing political ineptitude knows no bounds. The contrast between her and Corbyn's visit to the scene is so stark and the comparisons have been duly drawn by the British public. Teresa May seems to be an authoritarian toff who is genuinely afraid to meet her own citizens lest she be contaminated by contact with the lower orders.
The Tories have nowhere to hide on these issues and no one else to blame. May was the home secretary who oversaw the deep cuts to services the consequences of which are now coming home to roost. Boris Johnson, her likely successor, is just as complicit.She - and her government - are recklessly risking peace in Northern Ireland to cling to office. It can't last.