Posts by Tom Semmens
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My picks:
NZ First and ACT are going into electoral oblivion. Winston's personality won't do it this time, and he is noew just a bit to old to campaign like its 1999. Rodney won't hold Epsom, where my spies tell me people are sick of having an even more absentee MP than Worth. The Maori Party will win six of the seven Maori seats. Jim Anderton, The Greens, The Maori Party and Peter Dunne will have 20 seats in a 123 seat house and the rest will be a straight fight between the two big parties.
I think Labour and Greens will have enough seats to make Tariana Turia the king/Queen maker.
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As a Hawkes Bay supporter, the demise of Otago is the cause of much deep satisfaction. As we've always suspected in the rugby talent rich Hawkes Bay, when thrown back onto their own resources Otago doesn't actually have any. They pillaged us for years, and what goes around comes around. They should move the university to Napier as well, then the scarfies will get a decent climate and live in the North Island, where the rest of the country is.
Having got that little bit of revenge-is-a-dish-best-served-cold of my chest, the Thursday night rugby thing is a perfect example of how the NZRU screws things up. Come up with potentially a good idea, then make sure you enact it so half heartedly that it fails to capture the imagination. Instead of having Wellington vs. Canterbury on a Thursday, to get the thing going, they tepidly schedule the bottom half of the comp, so punters get to watch low skill levels in front of threadbare crowds on a rainy night in a run-down stadium.
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Sacha, I don't think Peter's has ever been a holier than thou crusader. he has been a populist, the last inheritor of Rob's mob, and the elites - like all political elites from Bangkok to Bainimarama - fear and loath the populist disturbing their cosy exercise of power.
I am not saying Peter's isn't lazy and sloppy, but I don't think he is a false populist like, say, Brash. It just seems to me his biggest crime is be a bit lazy, rather sybaritic wise guy who has gotten away with it - something which irritates the hell out of our self-important, puffed up conservative middle class.
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Sacha: I am not saying this Peter's business isn't a story but, well, it isn't a very big story. Yet it seems from about ten minutes after I stepped on the plane until the moment I returned home (and ongoing) it is the dominant political issue of the chattering classes in this country. Sometimes it is good to get away and get some perspective, and the biggest story to me observing from (thankfully) afar was the size of all the ego's involved. There is no doubt to this observer from Mars that a large part of this story is a large segment of the media and the elites are out to get Peters. Lets face it - none of the money donated was spent improperly, it wasn't in brown paper bags in return for shady arms contracts, and at the end of the day it seems that it boils down to a politician being a shade to economical with the truth. Given how out there in talkback land all politicians are assumed to be compulsive liars, what is all this fuss all about? Like I said. We must not have much real news in this country if this is what dominates domestic news for.a.whole.month.
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I have been out of N.Z. for the last two and a half weeks - all I can say is there isn't a lot of news in this country.
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I live in Eden Terrace and work 13km away in Takapuna. I would cycle to work in the summer if I could.
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Thank God I'm in Thailand, and I plan to stay here for another two weeks.
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Whilst I am delighted for Nick Willis, his frank and obvious relief at having achieved his meal ticket for the next 2-4 years was revelatory to me about the pressures on journeymen athletes on the periphery of the big money.
It was kind of sad to, I am a romantic when it comes to the lost Corinthian values of sport.
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Well, granted, everyone hates Paris, but you get my drift.
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Just an observation: There is nothing wrong with having Paris Hilton on the cover, so long as her interesting (c'mon, everyone loves a bit of celeb gossip) flim-flam helps pay for some serious journalism on page five. After all, isn't that how a good tabloid is meant to work?