Posts by simon g
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Hard News: #GE2015: Proper Mad, in reply to carrie onn,
How I would define a “mess”:
- One nation in the kingdom (Scotland) is entirely detached from the rest of it – in popular feeling, but not in legal fact.
- One province in the kingdom (N. Ireland) will provide the seats for the English party (Conservatives) to govern the whole kingdom
- One party (UKIP) will be almost absent from Parliament, despite being the third largest in votes
- Overall, the two core UK questions (are all parts of it in or out of the UK, and is the UK in or out of Europe?) have only become more intractable
So yes, “mess” seems pretty accurate to me.
Now your turn, “Carrie”. Define “clear cut mandate”.
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As a democratic voting system, MMP beats FPP easily.
As election night entertainment, FPP wins. Candidates up on stage, no hiding place for the defeated. British voters/viewers watch human beings, we just watch numbers (and endure commentators instead of returning officers). Great fun, I'll be glued tomorrow.
In 2010 New Zealand was trotted out in the UK media as an example of what to fear/learn from/copy (delete according to prejudice). Expect the same this time ("So this confidence and supply thing, that means an early election, right?" "No").
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What have you done? Dump him off PA and he's gone back to the Herald.
"I'm funny, me!"
Er, no. Only the comedy trombone and laugh track was missing.
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Geoff Lemon's sober truth-telling is an outstanding contribution.
McIntyre's comments were insensitive and fail the basic interweb anger test (i.e. "do you really need to send now, or would you rather take five first?"). But the reaction to them is far more disturbing.
I could go on, but Lemon has said it better than I can. Mostly I just feel sad - the centenary has been a missed opportunity, a national conversation avoided.
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The Prime Minister remembers the great success of the Gallipoli campaign, to help us understand ...
"I think it would be denigrating their service and sacrifice to say they died for nothing. They died for a belief in our country and what we stand for and they stood alongside their Australian mates and their British mates...the most appropriate thing any of us can do is just to look back with gratitude and thanks. To do anything else is to rewrite history."
(italics added)
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I started to feel uncomfortable about all this a few weeks ago, when the Camp Gallipoli Event at Ellerslie (since cancelled) was being advertised.
The promotional material told us:
Kiwis will have the opportunity to sleep under the stars, just like the ANZAC soldiers did 100 years ago, and wake to a Dawn Service on ANZAC Day itself.
Perhaps they were going to include dysentery and typhoid, maiming and screaming, hunger and thirst, and countless other miseries, just like the soldiers enjoyed 100 years ago. But I doubt it. (In a similar vein, TV reporters not knowing the difference between "commemoration" and "celebration" - that really grates).
"We will remember" increasingly seems to mean "we will imagine".
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It's hard to comment on what Currie and the Herald are saying, because by the time I've posted this they'll probably be saying something else.
Here's the Stuff report (with a touch of Schadenfreude?):
The Herald issued three versions of its statement on the issue.
The first said Glucina had approached the Hip Group - which owns Rosie cafe - "to seek comment from them and the waitress for a NZ Herald article".
The second version removed reference to an article for the NZ Herald, and said Glucina approached the Hip Group after The Daily Blog broke the story.
A third version added Glucina "wanted to follow-up The Daily Blog post" when she urged the couple to front-foot the issue.
Translation: Glucina moved fast, and not on behalf of the readers but her friends. Retrospective cloaking (PR as journalism) then followed.
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I felt for those poor reporters standing round in arctic temperatures last night
And here is their patron saint (25 second clip, it made him a TV hero):
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But then again, “Guess today’s live cross location” is the best part of the bulletin.
Story about Ebola in Africa: live cross outside Auckland hospital (not making that up, honest).
Story about Middle East: live cross outside kebab shop (OK, may be making that one up).
The only requirement is that the location is in central Auckland, a minute or two from the studio. Domain, Viaduct, Britomart … they must have a list they go by (Sex? Go to K Road. Immigration? Go to Food Court. Resource Management Act? Go to a park with trees …).
I don’t know how they keep a straight face, nobody watching can.
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Here's a report from 2002.
Note the reduction in hours - to a level we'd dream of today.