Posts by Keir Leslie
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Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Export industries aren't inherently more virtuous. Industries which substitute for imports are just as good from a foreign-currency point of view. (And they are arguably better if you believe in certain theories of economic development.) Likewise large industries are no more inherently virtuous and are probably worse because they increase national exposure to shocks.
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Yeah Key had to offer Cunliffe the second seat, and Cunliffe had to offer that seat on to Sharples. It was correctly played by both.
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Obviously I have no idea if I'd have been against apartheid in as much as the question makes no sense, but I do know that the political and social movements that I am a fan of managed to absolutely nail the whole "is a racist police state wrong" issue back in the day, and contrarily a bunch of political and social movements I am not a huge fan of managed to come to an answer that was very clearly wrong even at the time.
Solidarity doesn't just go across space, it also goes between times, and I think it's perfectly possible to remember the struggles of the past and feel a sense of solidarity with the people who fought against apartheid even if you weren't born then.
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Hard News: The judge is not helping, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
But if the claims are in fact false, the source having a particular motive to have them put out, and you yourself having a certain (allegedly pecuniary) relationship to the source that involves knowing a lot things you didn't let on to the public, that suddenly is quite an important fact.
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Hang on. Banks says he's announced his retirement from politics because this is going to trial and he asserts he's done nothing wrong. But he's hardly about to say "Oh yes, I am a crook" is he? And isn't it very likely that the lesser time-limited charge would have been sustained? I don't think this is a terribly unjust outcome.
(Obviously I wouldn't think it was terribly unjust. And I agree that in general charging people and leaving it all up to judges is a bad procedure.)
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And you can see why the judge quoted those parts of the Law Commission report, reading William's argument. It's a direct response to the selective quotation at 3.6.
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Hard News: The judge is not helping, in reply to Russell Brown,
And even if in this case he wasn't acting as a paid proxy, the fact he sometimes does really does put him in a different territory to a journalist.
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Another way to think about this isn't to think of the protection as being for the news outlet, but for their source. And I don't think that if you call up Slater and say "here's some slanderous stuff I can't say, but you do it and I'll make it worth your while" (which is definitely a thing that people seriously claim Slater to do, and which would be outrageously scandalous if the NBR or the DomPost did) you should be protected by media shield law.
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Hard News: The judge is not helping, in reply to Russell Brown,
Yeah, but mind you, it’s a District Court Judge making a pre-trial ruling on a pretty grim case, and apparently without the benefit of decent argument. It would be nicer if it were more developed and clearer but I think he’s gesturing towards a reasonably good principle that if you’re an abusive unprofessional dickhead, you can’t shelter yourself and your sources behind a profession you aren’t part of.
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Hard News: The judge is not helping, in reply to nzlemming,
I'm pretty sure the DomPost doesn't publish the kind of actionable nonsense Slater makes a habit of.
People who don't read Slater have, I think, this image of a far right ideologue, with, perhaps, a tendency towards extremity of speech. (A sort of mirror image of I/S, but more evil and with a direct line to various figures in the Nats.) And if that's what he was, I would perhaps have some sympathy with his claims. But he's also a blatantly mercenary serial slimer who'll quite happily say hugely inflammatory and flimsily backed, if at all, things about various people for various other people for various reasons, allegedly including chunks of cash. That's not activity I think deserves protection