Posts by Paul Litterick
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@Socrates: and look what happened to the Greeks; greatest civilisation EVAH, completely squandered. It is all in ruins now. That sort of thing is what happens if you let kids cross their legs and chatter.
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Most music writing these days is nostalgic: magazines like Q and Mojo which enable people who were not hip in their youth to catch up in middle-age. Much of the reviewing in the general media is of artists making come-backs or just rolling on. New artists do not get much of a look-in.
Perhaps young folks don't buy magazines and there is no way to monetize the web, while there are hordes of amateurs who will give you their opinions for nothing. So there is not much work for a jobbing music writer. Then again, perhaps the music is not worth writing about.
Oh well, at least the NME has its first fanciable Editor in 57 years.
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[recovers breath; seconds out: round two] Even if supporting private schools represents a saving for the Government (which I still doubt) the schools must also be supported by parents through fees; of course only a small proportion of parents can afford those fees; so it is a subsidy for the rich.
Including building costs for public schools in the comparison does not seem right to me, since this is capital expenditure - an investment for the Government.
I would also like to know how many students with special needs are educated privately. I think this talk of special needs is a canard. I think most money for private schools is spent on rich kids.
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I am lost. Somebody tell me the right answer.
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Good that Graeme's clarified the matter.
Apples and pears. What is the funding per student? Of course state schools will get more than private, because there are many more students in public education.
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Thank you, David, and thank you, Giovanni. The figures for that piece came from QPEC.
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Having worked for a Minister here and several in the UK, I think it very unlikely that Bennett would have direct access to the information. Rather, she would ask one of her staff (who probably would be a party hack) who would ask the office of the WINZ CEO, which probably would ask a regional office. Since there are many people on the WINZ database, it would probably take some effort to identify the right 'clients.'
Several people would have been involved. There might well have been some resistance from the professional staff of WINZ to providing the political staff of the Minister with this information. My point is that anyone making OIA requests should ask both the Minister and WINZ. There might be some interesting dots to join.
Happy hunting.
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As was pointed out, Dalziel and the legal papers regarding the girl that was deported? For which resigned of course.
She resigned for lying about it, not for the disclosure itself.
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It's also been nice to hear balance from journalists. "Bennett did this, however, when Labour was in power their practice was to have ministerial staff leak the information instead of doing it openly." etc
That statement needs to be backed with some examples of this supposed leaking, otherwise it is no more than the sort of cheap slur one would expect on Kiwiblog.
Applauding Ms Bennett for her candour is hardly an appropriate response. What was obvious from her performance on Morning Report was that she revealed the information to stop the argument, which had been going on too long for her liking.
If such disclosure is a good thing, as the Herald editorial claims, then I hope IRD officials will leak details of the earnings and tax avoidance schemes of our political and media masters.
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@Listener:
Bennett is indignant at the suggestions she is allergic to heavy reports. “It’s just ridiculous – there is absolutely no truth in it whatsoever,” she says, rifling through a few reports on her desk.
“You need the information to make the big decisions at the end of the day. Here’s one on the redundancy support package, you don’t do that in a page with your frick-in’ diagrams. It’s a 16-page document!” Here’s another 15-page report, her weekly briefing from the ministry, and a 22-page report on universities.
That many pages; I guess she won't be following the copyright thread.