Posts by James Littlewood*
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This is silly. Why be so utterly preoccupied with this left/right malarky when it has no relevance whatsoever for most people. I'd even argue it's of no relevance to most people in this discussion.
Folks votes is driven by tons of stuff: sex appeal, parties' stated intentions, how their parents voted and - lest we forget - what's in it for them: how much break they get promised. "Policy" is boring. "Intentions" are better, especially when they look like tax breaks.
If a party clusters its policies in a certain way, all that really tells you is that it's ideologically consistent. But ideological consistency is probably the least influential vote driver. So, when National legalises gay marriage, it's inconsistent but agile. When Labour flogs off state assets, it's inconsistent but treacherous.
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Managerial government gets a bad press, but my sense is that people quite like it.
I thought so too, until the Greens elected James Shaw (change, of exactly the kind Rob's talking about) ahead of Kevin Hague (stability).
Might also depend on whether you're looking at an incumbent or a challenger.
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I think the language is all wrong. If you're politically agile, you might look like John Key on gay marriage or the flag, or David Lange on SOEs. Arguing whether one is more or less left or right is a pointless distraction.
So when Waitakere man says he's left of x and right of y, he might also mean sometimes he's one, sometimes the other. He's not 'on' the spectrum. He 'spans' the spectrum.
For some reason, this kind of agility seems to benefit National and Greens, yet gets Labour all tangled up, both here and in the UK. I can only guess why. But as long as it happens, Corbyn would appear an obviously appealing choice. Labour in both countries has been so long and so far adrift of its values it doesn't even recognise the people who represent them.
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Hard News: The Sky Trench, in reply to Russell Brown,
On one hand, I'm all for such projects getting a fast track, for whatever reason. On the other ...
A simple little UBD wouldn't had to have slowed things down at all. If it was a really massive, bells and whistles number (which it wouldn't be) then it might have taken a couple of months. Big deal.
Hell, Patrick was even throwing it at them for nix!
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Saw a few in Tokyo once.
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The justification for the rush is a ribbon cutting deadline set by the PM’s office.
Good grief.
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This is very disappointing. Not just because its a lousy solution, and not just that it shows that NZTA clearly don't know much about this new fangled cycling hocus pocus, but because it shows that the user-based design approach which is so obviously required is being equally obviously eschewed.
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we need to think of ourselves not just as consumers, but as patrons
True that. Not spending. Dollar voting.
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Bunch of folks chilling at Hardware cafe, Titirangi. V8 Torana cruises past, throbbing, yellow, shiny as hell. Fat chick in a black wife-beater and not much else hangs out the passenger window. Full bull roar: "You're all a pack of fuckin cunts!" Vroom, schreech, gone.
Good times!
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As you say RB,
this is fucking nuts
Am I right in thinking that charter schools are not beholden to national standards? If so, has anyone found a plausible rationale?"