Posts by bmk
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Gareth Ward,
You do lose a set for speaker but they still currently have enough 60 + Banks + Dunne = 62 - speaker = 61. With 121 MPs that means they have a one vote majority without the Maori party.
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Gareth Ward,
At the moment you are right.
But National could easily drop another seat and then they would be looking to another party.
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Richard Grevers,
Anyone figured how much National has to drop to in order to not be able to govern alone?
They already can't govern alone. As if results held then they would be on 60 seats out of 121. Of course they will be able to govern with Banks and Dunne as well but they will be having a wafer thin majority. And if they were to drop another couple of seats then they would become dependant on the Maori party.
Things are actually much better than I was expecting. I was expecting National to be able to govern outright.
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OnPoint: Fiscal Responsibility is the…, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
If people would just get used to buying what is in season, it is not expensive
Does lettuce have a season? Because I have been loathe to buy that for a long-time now at $4 a lettuce. Not that you can buy frozen lettuce anyway. But frozen mixed veges have long been a healthy, cheap staple for many families and should be included in any GST exemption.
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OnPoint: Fiscal Responsibility is the…, in reply to Sacha,
it would seem simple enough to make the criteria: no added ingredients. If the frozen stuff has no preservatives, etc, it would count.
Yeah that would make sense and be good policy, but that isn't what they have proposed.
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What I don't get with the fresh fruit and veg policy is why frozen vegetables aren't also going to be exempt. Because frozen vegetables are just as healthy, if not more so. And people on a low income can often barely afford fresh vegetables and so largely consist on frozen vegetables. If anything the GST exemption on fruit and vegetables will mostly benefit the middle-class.
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Speaker: Doing the right thing on retirement, in reply to Kate Hannah,
That would be great, thanks. My email icon should work.
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Speaker: Doing the right thing on retirement, in reply to merc,
I have that book and have read it. That is how I first learnt about the Armenian genocide. I was wondering if there is a book more specifically focussed on the Armenian genocide. Yeah the book is gruelling but he manages to somehow maintain a real humanity throughout it.
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Speaker: Doing the right thing on retirement, in reply to Kate Hannah,
I find the Armenian genocide fascinating in that outside of academic circles so few people know about it. I have talked with so many people who had no idea that it happened. And as far as I know Turkey still refuses to accept its actions let alone apologise for them.
Do you actually know any good reading material on it (fiction or non-fiction)? I know only a little about it and would like to learn more.
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Field Theory: A moment of national significance, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
You might want to have all cell phones turned off too. Or you might awake to celebratory texts.