Posts by Bart Janssen
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If Mr Hosking wants people to be happy he could start by retiring and then perhaps move on to another country ... I hear the 'stans are always looking for lickspittles.
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Hard News: Campbell Live: A Disturbance…, in reply to Russell Brown,
A great effort from the New Hope. Who is he? Will he be back?
It seems so. He’s here on Twitter and here on Facebook.
I'm not sure why but his style reminded me strongly of a certain child of a well known blogger and media commentator.
He also made me feel pathetic for crying yet again over the loss of Campbell as did Ali Ikram's piece.
I'm not sure how long hearing "Ka kite ano" will make me a bit weepy but I suspect it will be a while.
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Hard News: The epitome of reason, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Could all be owned by an SOE like Landcorp and so revenue goes back to NZ government at various stages of the operation.
Sadly our current political dogma argues that state owned operations are always less efficient than privately owned operations.
Of course that data calls bullshit on that but nevertheless the media are happy to accept and repeat that lie as well.
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Hard News: The epitome of reason, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I imagine they believed, as did the equally well paid managers at Solid Energy, and as the similar managers at the banks do, that Chinese growth is unlimited and unstoppable.
More likely they knew perfectly well it would all fall apart and hundreds of farmers would be bankrupt.
But they also knew that their bonuses would be safe up until the final collapse and at that point they can walk away with no consequences.
Then they can get a political sinecure (eg CEO of an SOE) where nobody will ever question their competence and/or buy up some cheap farmland.
My cynicism is deep but not deeper than that f the CEOs and senior executives in charge of these organisations.
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Hard News: The epitome of reason, in reply to Amanda Wreckonwith,
I thought the drop in price was due to the glut of milk coming on stream following the removal of quotas in the EU?
My understanding is Fonterra were actively limiting the amount that went into the auction last year - I thought it was odd at the time.
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Hard News: The epitome of reason, in reply to Matthew Hooton,
I don’t think there is an example
And yet again, past examples are becoming less and less relevant with MMP. What happened in the binary FPP system is not what will happen in the future.
While it is true that National and certain commentators have succeeded in scaring people with the boogy monster of a coalition government I can't believe the next generation believes those fairy tales any more.
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Hard News: The epitome of reason, in reply to Roger Lacey,
profiting from record dairy prices
Funny how those only lasted until the election as Fonterra limited supply to keep the price up. Suddenly after the election we have a mountain of milk to get rid of and the prices have to drop again.
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Hard News: The epitome of reason, in reply to Deborah,
: The Future of Work
That doesn't sound like it will be easy to translate into specific policy.
But having the Labour Party focused on ... well ... labour, doesn't seem like a bad fit.
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Hard News: The epitome of reason, in reply to Deborah,
Andrew has a long and consistent history of working on behalf of workers, and looking for practical ways to achieve gains for workers, without at the same time demonising businesses.
And I trust your judgement on that. And yet I don't feel like he stands for anything other than gaining power. Somewhere there is a disconnect and I accept it may just be me.
Also note that I do trust your judgement on that because you've been here a while and been consistent and honest.
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Hard News: The epitome of reason, in reply to Alfie,
…all politicians are liars…
It’s a world-wide problem.
As far as I can tell the way we select MPs dictates they must be liars. Consider that an MP must be able to stand in front of the local RSA and win their votes and next morning show up at the local Plunket mtg and win their votes and then do lunch with some business wonks and win their votes and do an hour on some campus and win the students votes ...
It simply is not possible for a normal person who naturally tells the truth to please all those audiences.