Posts by BenWilson
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if you have an example of election policy not being implemented, i'd love to hear them.
Does Jim Bolger's "I'm sorry" ring any bells? Or are you looking for more recent history?
And you can't write off 'implementation details'. Where in any of Labour's manifesto in 1984 were the details of their biggest moves - the massive sale of state assets?
I'm sure the academic you refer to had a different idea of what a promise means. To even make statistics it needs to be the kind of concrete statements that politicians don't tend to make, even in their policy documents.
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i agree that the policies are often adapted to sit circumstances, or watered down. but they're still followed.
It's the ones that aren't even mentioned which form the other 99% of what government does that I'm thinking of, Che. I think of such instances as "I'll add heaps of cops" which was true but omitted "I'll disband the traffic police to do it". Or "No student will be unable to afford their fees" which translated to "Every student will be allowed to borrow the money".
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I'm not suggesting we act like Wall Street. You'd need no memory or multiple personalities to do that. Google News has these 2 headlines amusingly juxtaposed this morning:
Stocks rise after Fed cuts rates by half a point The Associated Press
US stocks drop despite Fed interest rate cut International Herald Tribune -
policies are a manifesto of what you can expect from that government. without it you might as well just vote for the candidate you think is best at working on the fly.
They're also bloody vague, and seldom followed. I know they're how it should work, but they just never are. Which in some ways is a good thing - being locked in to a document when times change can actually be a bad thing a lot of the time. I dare anyone to write a prescription for what the Reserve Bank should do for the next 6 months, for instance. It will look really silly really fast.
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Agreed, although the first I hear to complain, but yes
They didn't get rich by not knowing when to complain.
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They would have to reach consensus on issues, as good governance should do, so there would only be be well considered, evidence-based policy.
Heh, or no policy more like. But I agree, except about the consensus part. That's too high a standard for any group of more than a few dozen people.
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It's annoying but not particularly alarming that National publishes so little policy. I don't think that they have a massive stockpile of secret policy documents they aren't releasing. More likely they are just realistic about the fact that all governments just make it up as they go along. Which is how it has to be - what would be the point of human representatives if we were actually voting on policy documents.
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Shouldn't it be "H-bomb", anyhow?
I think the N-bomb is favored in politics because it only kills people but leaves buildings standing. Of course 'hand grenade' might be closer to the actual levels of devastation caused by any political scandal, but politicians think of themselves as Titans.
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And it's not the people with lots of money who are going to suffer the most. It never is and it never will be. One very likely local scenario is that an incoming National government will plausibly use this disaster as an excuse to cut a lot of benefits. I know they usually do that anyway, but it's usually a whole lot less plausible so they can't take it too far.
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Jackie and Craig, I'm sorry but having your head in the sand won't stop this recession. NZ could have been managed like pure magic but we are still massively reliant on international factors. We will hurt bad if foreigners stop spending money. Some more than others of course - if you ride it out without feeling it you're fortunate.
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