Posts by Kyle Matthews
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Seriously, what’s the argument against fixing the election date on (say) the Saturday after the third Friday in November? The only exception being the Government losing confidence or supply, in which case the election is held at a time determined by statute NOT the strategic convenience of the Prime Minister.
I'm in favour of this in theory, but I wonder about practicalities. How many similar Westminster systems have a fixed electoral date? Work OK?
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No mostly at the image of them throwing a live hand grenade onto a school bus. I don’t like the comment. Being a racist doesn’t make you a child killer and you have been defending the ACT party who have Dr Don as their leader.
I think you've taken the imagery a little seriously.
I'd imagine if Act and UF don't make it, they'll look to Maori Party and then Greens, first for a coalition, next for some sort of agreement to abstain on confidence and supply.
I would imagine that either one of them would give National the numbers - 61 or 62 depending on how the Maori party go in electorate and party votes.
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This latest debacle, the teapot tapes (at least they are not being compared to Watergate, yet) will go down in history as one of the low points in NZ politics.
I'm thinking that's a short sighted view of some of the lowest parts of NZ politics.
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This was shortly after our first date, which was a big-screen showing of ‘Apocalypse Now’.
So how did that one work out for me? Reader, I married her.
But that was because of the movie right? Such a romantic click flick...
I never read books under the covers. I used to sleep with the door open and after I had to turn my light out, I put the hall light on full bore and put my book on teh floor beside my bed for reading. Much easier to just drop your head back onto your bed in a second when someone came. Suspect it's part of the reason I have been wearing glasses since I was 9.
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It’s an interesting question though: Would FDR’s adultery and Churchill’s heavy drinking and severe depressive episodes make them both unelectable today? And would the world have been a better place if the media then was more like it is now?
Many Americans were unaware that FDR spent much of his time in a wheelchair. There were hardly any press conferences - Eisenhower was the first President to make them commonplace, and the most contact citizens would normally have had with FDR was his fireside radio talks.
Different age, comparisons aren't especially useful to the modern world of politics and the media.
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Farce is one thing: police raids on the media (RNZ!) quite another.
It won't be a raid. Most media organisations have a policy of not releasing their material to the police upon request. Means they can protect sources as much as possible.
Police will therefore execute a search warrant to force the organisation to release the material. It's very standard. No doors will be getting kicked in.
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So why not discourage Green candidacies that aren’t going anywhere?
Apart from the dozen or so of them that look likely to be in the next parliament you mean?
We have a Mixed Member system. Which means that people will stand in electorates to raise their profile and the profile of their party. And we should have the right to question them at electorate meetings and other fora to see if they're going to be good List MPs.
Otherwise we're going to have Labour standing vs National in most electorates, and Labour standing vs Maori party in most of the Maori electorates. Two candidates isn't very good democracy.
I'd almost be in favour of requiring anyone that appears on a party list to stand an electorate (almost, but not quite).
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Maori Party voters split their vote considerably less than Green Party and ACT voters.
That does make sense though. A Green electorate vote isn't going to get close this election, nor is an ACT one except in Epsom. So people who party vote those parties are more likely to give their electorate vote to the best of the Labour/National candidates, if they think it's a marginal electorate.
I live in Dunedin North, so I'm going to reward the candidate I like the best with one meaningless vote while the Labour candidate storms home.
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But you do need a bloody good sausage-maker- er, sorry, teacher. Good teachers are not so common we can afford to throw them away, just because they haven’t ticked the ‘research-inf…zzzz’ box.
Yes, precisely my point. For much of the important work that lecturers do they are chronically undertrained - teaching. The prime qualification to be a university teacher is to have a PhD and be research active. If we're more willing to split those jobs up we can allow people to focus more on one or the other and actually encourage people to be good teachers and have qualifications that make that so.
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I really have no idea what John Key is talking about, but I'm pretty sure he's wrong.
I get that with him a bit.
However fifteen years stuck on denial, anger and spasms of bargaining just isn't healthy.
I prefer to say we're at 18 years, since that's when the vote was that actually got rid of the damn thing.