Posts by Rob Stowell
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Man responsible for the hobbit law gets downed by a contractor working on spec, priceless.
Very sharp, spot on, M!
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to merc,
Yeah, and Key's getting bad advice, if that's what he's following. You can't avoid this issue, and follow the ole- "give the answer to the question you wish had been asked."
People are curious about the recording now in a way that can only be satiated by hearing it - or a good deal of time. The media won't be distracted from that until they get a better story- and even then, it'll linger.
What a strange farcical circus. Is this where 'personality politics' inevitably ends up: talking about Clinton's sex-life or GW Bush's youthful escapades while vultures circle and across the world, nameless people suffer terribly? -
If we’re speculating :) I suspect Bryan Gould was right, on morning report this am: the problem for Key is not so much any specific comment, but the possible erosion of his genial nice-guy image.
Anyone who’s considered the nature of politics for more than a minute can be fairly sure there’s something steely inside ‘the smiling assassin’. It’s not just that he’d never have got where he is today- it’s rather a good thing for a PM to have steel in the spine; to have the guts to stick up for what s/he says s/he believes in.
But in public, Key has kept the hard-man very well hidden- and he’s widely liked, even adored. Hence he's vulnerable to indications he is, in private, in any way contemptuous of the adoring public.
In the same spot, Jim Tully was on the mark about the legal farce we’re now going through, and the silliness of Key playing the victim. (Victim of your own PR stunt= wally innit?) Far closer to Gordon Brown than NOTW.
The interview with Gould and Tully is here -
and on the Greens' "unfortunate" billboard genius
Of course the rule for these types of political 'black ops' is don't get caught. That the Greens responsible for the attack then did interviews and put out a press release is mind bogglingly incompetent and almost rivals the foolishness of having a secret conversation just metres away from an assembled media hordeTotally agree. Whatever they were thinking, 'going public' was an act of idiocy, potentially damaging to the Greens, and clearly opening themselves up to legal problems.
But that's their issue. I reckon Norman should have taken the line: the Green Party in no way endorses or condones this sort of behaviour. We'll investigate, and if any of our paid party employees had any role in this, there will be consequences. But we cannot, of course, be held responsible for the actions of anyone and everyone who joins the party. We have xThousand members. It would be unreasonable to expect any party to be able to control the actions of every member. (Perhaps insert here some egregious action from a member of Labour or National Party :)) But I repeat- if any of our paid employees was involved, they will find there is a clause in their contract (eg,about 'bringing the party into disrepute) and there will be consequences.
Handing them over to the police and National- and setting about using party members to 'repair' National billboards? More damaging to their party. IMHO. -
Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to BenWilson,
Yeah, but y'know, tactical voting and all that. I'll be watching whether they look likely to get two in (hovering around the 1% mark at the moment, so not a bad bet.) Annette Sykes (#2 on the Mana list) would be cool.
Not so sure on Minto (#3). Getting to be ok with Harawira. It's his mum I find... off-putting. And they're keeping her quiet, a blessing in itself :) -
Al Jazeera seems to have the best coverage of the OWS ‘clean-up’. Shame US media!
Annnd Sue Bradford had a predictably scornful take on Norman and his ‘dobbing in’ of Green Party 'activists'.
Less predictably, I found myself agreeing with her. Always liked the Activist
Greens. Crazy Greens didn’t do it for me.
And not sure I like the totally reasonable, morally superior, talk to anyone, ever so slightly bland and blue-green Greens either. Hope that’s unfair. Gotta vote for someone :) -
Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Hilary Stace,
gawd. not sure what it was like an hour ago, but now messy and heading towards horrible.
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Interesting to note who used the story to help bring down Geoffrey Palmer: Ruth Richardson.
And how decent about it (and maybe naive) then PM Sir Geoffrey Palmer was. As opposed to, for example-
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Interesting! Here’s her 2005 write-up in the listener.
(snap. always lost that game :)) -
But much of what universities do these days is sausage factory stuff, which is unfortunate, but reality. You don’t need a world class professor to make pre-cooked sausages.
No. But you do need a bloody good sausage-maker- er, sorry, teacher. Good teachers are not so common we can afford to throw them away, just because they haven't ticked the 'research-inf...zzzz' box.
Many universities overseas recognise the different abilities required, and have teaching fellowships and research fellowships; or flexible models, that allow departments to allocate teaching and research more effectively- between individuals or over time. Some even recognise that research that's done primarily because it ticks a box/satisfies a PBRF requirement/gets published in a journal nobody reads is faux-research, and a poor allocation of resources.
It's a discussion that's only just beginning to get some traction here.