Posts by Jonty
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<The Listener joined and guided the national conversation for decades. >
...and look at it now -- a pale shadow of its former self -- its increasing popularity gained by being full of the crap found in NZ Woman's Weekly. A sly lurch to the right over the past few of years with most of its contributors sharing beds with Nats and anonymous editorials relentlessly putting the boot into Labour. Monty Holcroft would be devastated.
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It's an historical fact that the Nats let the good times roll by borrowing, meanwhile transferring the lion's share of tax cuts to their mates and leaving a bloody great debt for Labour to deal with before it can set about improving the lot of working people.
I find it incredible, if there is any substance to the polls at all, that people want a change of government merely for the sake of change.
The past eight+ years have been ones of low unemployment, low interest rates and strong purchasing power for most. Business has been booming and there are even more gin palaces in Westhaven. So why the desire for change when there has been steady hands at the helm? Surely the promise of a paltry tax cut isn't worth putting all that at risk? -
<There are a number of areas ripe for the plucking: for instance the delivery of NZ Trade and Enterprise programmes offshore could be made contestable so that private sector operators could bid.>
Halliburton did that in Iraq (though without the contestability) -- quite profitable I believe?
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Very moving, Che. Underlining the helplessness we all feel.
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Compared to national dailies that hit the streets in most cities of the world, the Herald is a parochial, small-town rag. It's psychotic, biased rantings against the EFA lost it all credibility as a respected national newspaper, in my opinion.
And talking of Key, the big worry with a man who seems to be struggling to find worthwhile policies, let alone articulate a vision for NZ in the 21st century, is that there are always the grey eminences standing in the shadows eager to guide and mentor him -- Richardson, Kerr, Douglas, et al, spring to mind.
Nice guy tho' he may be.
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I'm at an age when Lloyd Scott and Vicky McKay are a godsend to us insomniacs, though I still eagerly await the first birdcall at 6am heralding Morning Report. Sean is a bit wooden sometimes and seems only to really come alive when he's interviewing sports people. I love the first hour or so of Kim Hill on a Saturday before she reaches the recipes. And Chris Laidlaw may be a trifle bland but I frequently enjoy his chats -- unprovocative, tactful, but still elicits interesting snippets from his guests -- the antithesis of Plunket. I dread the Nats shortchanging NatRad to the point of emasculation -- or worse, flogging it off. There'd be nowhere else to go!
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< It's all very well to say that National will continue to fund Radio New Zealand, but the words "at the current level" are notably absent. Will it go back to the starvation diet of the 1990s? >
It will if Bill Ralston is listened to. He claimed in his boring Listener column (this week) that the National Programme was boring. I would say not nearly as boring as he made TVNZ's channel 1 after his disastrous sojourn there. It now competes quite satisfactorily with channel 2 for LCD shallowness. Thank Christ for SKY.
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Two points to your excellent description of the perfect pub -- ice cubes of course are an important management strategy for the 'displacement factor' -- ie, more ice cubes, less booze to give away.
The loud recorded music crime is, of course, the curse of many restaurants also, but it should be remembered that it's there not for the pleasure of the punters, but for the staff -- the volume and quality of the music (invariably crap) is controlled by the staff and is all that makes such mind-numbing work bearable.
On many occasions I've had to ask waitpeople to turn the racket down as I'm there to talk with friends -- a fact that seems to elude them -- the punters are obviously a necessary irritation. -
<Yes, I didn't mean to imply he wasn't a god guy, but the Greens' approach to China as a whole is generally very negative, especially on trade.>
...and I suspect we may all feel the same once we see the disaster that will transpire for NZ after the signing of the FTA.
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I think you need ECT before you can learn the bagpipes anyway.