Posts by Hebe
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Joe Wylie,
I'm lucky that the dust has always been a long block away in both directions, but you still have to drive through the remains of it (windows up aircon off) and the constant roadworks. But we're a lot better off than many, and on the up side we found out last week the house foundations will be repaired in situ rather than moving it down the end of the yard and plonking it back again as we were first told. I'm so happy, the garden is saved (90 percent of it would have been flattened otherwise)!
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
quote from Wagner: “We’ve gone from this red town and moving to be a stronger and safer blue city.”
I noted that, and many others will have too. Untrue and uncool but a sign that the National are well into the second-term arrogance phase of government.
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Sacha,
Note the passive language. Issues don't raise themselves, though I understand how little resources the movement had to draw on in the absence of proper support
The community groups have been hammered; their HQ in town was lost, most have been working under severe constraint physically and are still doing so and resources are at an all-time low. Meanwhile the disaster relief funds accumulate while those who help those without have nothing to work with.
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Sacha,
Sadly somewhat true though. If citizens and their representatives felt strongly otherwise they could have organised and voted accordingly. They didn't
Too tired, too busy. Everyone here is bone-weary tired in a way I have never experienced before ( and I had twins in middle-age). Everyday life takes longer because the locals just aren't there: no supermarket, no dairy, no Post Office, no local pool, you get the picture. And when you've found the PO that licenses the car (miles and miles away) it's off to the mechanic to replace the shock absorbers from the sinkholes in the road, the air filters from the dust, and it goes on.
We don't have the energy, and most families I know are keeping going, just, hanging on until the Christmas holiday.
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Wow. Even if he's right (and I don't know if that's the case), one might think it's a little tone deaf to be talking about red flight. (One could also note with some asperity that Lianne Dalziel & Ruth Dyson are taking their still-healthy-but-reduced majorities well. Also would have picked Megan Woods' majority in Wigram being larger than it turned out, but still.)
Apples and pears Craig. Chch Central was emptied out in parts, Chch East (Dalziel) was buggered in much of it but people are still there, ditto Port Hills. Megan Woods did well given Wigram was Jim's personal vote.
Burns is right to cite flight as a reason, The less you have (business, home, family, roots and networks) the easier it is to leave. I seriously question myself at least once a month whether it's worth staying, particularly for the children's future. I have all of the above and its a hard call; so I would surmise that small-c conservatives (which I am not) would be less likely to leave.
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I wish Nikki Wagner would stop saying the result is, in large part, some shining endorsement of National's post-#eqnz actions
That comment raised my hackles -- trying to leverage off the earthquake is abhorrent. National did do well as government in its handling of the disaster response, but Labour would have done equally as well. Where National have done appallingly, and Wagner damn well knows it, is the secrecy and non-negotiability of Brownlee's strategic decision-making. A dead heat result in a near-marginal seat (boundary redraw and demographic shift ensured that by 2008)when a large chunk of the voting electorate has buggered off is hardly a ringing endorsement.
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Christopher Dempsey,
parliamentary studs - you know - Nathan Guy and Chris Tremain. These boys are hot studs alright...
Laws against that kind of thing surely? The one thing the MPs I have met have never persuaded me of is their "hotness" quotient. But then media kept referring to John Key as "young" - only in that world or a Grey Power meeting.
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Legal Beagle: Election '11: the special votes, in reply to Islander,
Or should I say "they were good at English at school" ;-)
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Legal Beagle: Election '11: the special votes, in reply to stephen walker,
2008:
National + ACT + Dunne = 64/122
2011 (if Greens take one off National with the Special votes):
National + Banks + Dunne = 61/121
majority reduced from six to one.
the media duopoly’s headline writers seem to have had too much gin on the nightSub-editors are useless at maths (well-known fact) with or without gin. They are good at English.
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Legal Beagle: Election '11: the special votes, in reply to Sacha,
Most have never understood it. Media tend to think in black and white (with honourable exceptions of course). MMP results are a thousand shades of grey.