Posts by George Darroch
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I get all my music through soundtracks now.
Xavier Dolan's Heartbeats is luxurious and indulgent, and its use of music is no different.
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You might think talking about “average voters” like they’re complete venal idiots – at least when they’re voting the wrong way – is endearing. I don’t.
People live in low information environments. There are a lot of things which are complicated and which I have only vague opinions on, or which my opinions are probably weakly founded or incorrect. This is because I lack the time and inclination to seek out information on those subjects. For most people I speak to on the street, in South Auckland at least, this is their experience politics. Now, we can get into a debate about why this is so, the extent that it is structural and the reasons for those structures, but this basic point is important.
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Keir - a very practical question (since electoral law seems very grounded in practicalities): how does the EC determine when a party's candidate is a serious one, with a serious attempt to take the seat?
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if Graham Kennedy wants to raise his profile by running in the Ilam electorate without a chance of winning, he should help meet the costs of his publicity stunt.
I'm running a candidate without a skerrick of a chance of winning (Todd Ross, Mangere, Green) in one of the safest Labour seats in the country. All our costs are being met by either ourselves, or the party. Time off work, petrol, timber, signs, and other associated costs all add up to something substantial. We pay the Electoral Commission a $300 deposit, and if we get 5% of votes it is returned.
To describe this as a rort is strange. It is the minimal cost of democracy. If we were to require the Electoral Commission to decide only to allow 'electable' candidates, we would be in a very precarious position indeed.
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Perhaps the Watergate reference is apposite. It's not the crime, it's the cover up.
I'm also fairly appalled at the response from National. I feel some loyalty to fellow journalists here, and the pursuit of a criminal complaint against an editor who, after all, did not publish the transcript gives me the shits
And I.
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Via our gracious host, Drinkify. Pairing music with concoctions. Just save the Slayer until after work.
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Thank you for voicing possibility so articulately.
We all know that broadcasting and mass media determines a great part of the intellectual ocean we swim in. People still talk to each other about what was on television last night. We all know that we are being failed, and that it has serious consequences relating to the ability of our population to understand the country and world which they live in. And yet, despite decades it seems next to impossible to move forward.
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In light of Auckland dropping Kanye in order to 'save' the BDO, my speculation about OFWGKTA is somewhat different. Losing another international headliner happens to lower their costs. I'm not saying this is why they did it, or that it is a pretext. But I think their current woes are sure to have made their decision easier.
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It is really problematic that if someone living in Blenheim is on the Maori Roll, then it is almost always half a day’s travel to meet the MP, or even see their office.
The Maori MPs are given much greater funding for travel around their electorate and locally based support staff, to help address this problem. It doesn't solve it; still much harder than driving across Mangere, but it's a decent compromise.
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Richard, as I see it, the single electorate rule reduces disproportionality in some instances, but not in others (no electorate, <5%). It's this uneven application that seems wrong to some. Though there is reasoning behind it, it's certainly contestable, and based on a set of ideas and assumptions I don't share.