Posts by Keir Leslie
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The word was encourage. Not all will choose that path. But at present it seems we discourage the best and brightest from choosing that path and instead channel them to law and commerce. We need some of those just not as many as we train now.
Bollocks. At the University of Canterbury, it costs $6,217 per eft in Law for a New Zealand student. It costs $ $25,000 per eft for an overseas student. It costs $ 6,217 per eft in Engineering for a New Zealand student, and then $35,000 per eft for an overseas student.
Now, assuming for the sake of it that the overseas price represents something like a fair market value of the degree (not entirely safe but let’s run with it) that means that the government is subsidising every single engineering student in the country to the tune of nine grand more than a law student.*
That is a fuck load of money. We encourage people into engineering and sciences like mad.
* bench science is subsidised about a grand more than law. An arts student gets about four grand less than a law student, i.e. around 13 grand less than a engineering student.
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Up Front: Safety Net, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
BTW, Sandra Coney still has an open invitation to discuss her role in the Odd Future/BDO canning. Thanks for being open, accountable and engaging with the community Councillor.
Speaking of, did you ever get anything useful from the OIA requests? (I definitely didn't, just a collection of waffle about the Council making no decisions, everything done by the BDO organisers etc.)
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Which is not an industrial dispute between two private parties, it's the administration of the public service, and noticeably, the gov't hasn't given any signal it will back down on MFAT changes.
Arguments based around the claim that Labour should have done more about POAL are basically just Green Lanternism.
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What else can Labour do? They aren't the government guys, that thing that you all went around laughing at them for losing? It means they can't do the things you want them to. The ability of a political party to intervene in an industrial dispute is almost non-existent when in government, when in opposition it really is non-existent.
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A little too little to late – it is game over.
Yes, yes, clearly the major problem in this conflict was the failure of Shearer to put out some press releases. This is just the Green Lantern Theory of employment relations, and pretty obviously not at all useful.
Shearer's job is to get elected and implement good policy. It's not to get involved in industrial disputes. That's Helen Kelly's job.
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Went to the march today and was surprised to see David Shearer there – he had said he wasn’t for or against the watersiders in this dispute,
You've hardly been following the story have you? The position was neither for not against until the mass firing at which point things, obviously, changed.
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David Shearer and Len Brown are not supporting the union/workers – their core constituency/voters – it doesn’t bode well for the next 3 to 6 years - They are neither for nor against the watersiders. This leaves them nowhere - which is the road NZ is on.
Er, Shearer's been very clear about his disappointment in POAL & his support for the sacked workers. The Labour Party is very much behind the workers, for all that the support of an opposition party is worth. Which is basically the problem: Labour can't do anything but put out press releases, and you can't eat press releases.
Brown, on the other hand, is a worthless waste of space who seems intent on wasting the opportunity other people worked incredibly hard to give him. I doubt he'll find it easy to convince people to give him that chance again.
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They’re a bunch of adolescents, literally or figuratively, who do it for the lulz.
Doesn't mean they shouldn't act morally. They won't, but.
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Worked for Haganah, the IRA, the ANC. Didn't work for the Angry Brigade, Baader-Meinhof - they failed to get momentum before getting caught.
Actually, no, it didn't work for the IRA. The IRA failed to reach their goal of a united free Ireland and will almost certainly never reach that goal. It didn't work for the ANC: black people in South Africa didn't need to be "radicalised" by the actions of apartheid police against the ANC, they were radicalised by the actions of apartheid police in enforcing apartheid!
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that’s his job, regardless of our feelings about how well he’s doing it
Eh, I overheard multiple people here who were pretty unhappy with the way he handled himself at the memorials. Now, I actually reckon most of that was unfair, but still, it's bad when someone who knocked doors for Anderton reckons Parker's being unfairly bashed by members of the public.