Posts by Sacha
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On Parliament TV they are now debating the Education Amendment Bill
Gosh, Metiria Turei is fantastic.
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I think that this might be the first move towards dismantling Pharmac completely, and replacing our buying model with something expensive and less effective.
Agreed, and I am so looking forward to the Nats explaining how boosting foreign pharma's profits fits with any of what they supposedly believe in. Heck, even the Herald editorial understands the core principles involved:
Bioethicists have a term called the rule of rescue. It refers to the powerful human imperative to save identifiable individuals whose lives are endangered without giving much thought to the many nameless people who may, therefore, be denied health care.
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Other pharmaceutical companies, and other groups dedicated to the sufferers of any illness, will be encouraged that they, too, through special pleading, can garner some of the $180 million that the Government plans to spend on pharmaceuticals over the next three years.Other juridictions report well-funded lobbying and cynical promotion of front groups. Add that in and this result seems like an inevitable outcome of NZ allowing direct-to-consumer advertising while resisting rampant spending through Pharmac's capped budget, with lightweight politicians easy meat in that particular sandwich.
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... and then drive off looking for Bruno Lawrence under a sullen nuclear sky.
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I like the way Peter put the decision about educational priorities earlier:
teachers will weigh the cow rather than feed it
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there's no doubt in my mind that funding longer/more Herceptin has real merit, but I'm not a clincian and I don't know the competing interests.
Paul, I'm also not a clinician but I can't quite see how you're deciding on merit from what I've read.
"Competing interests" seems to be a red herring in this case. Not informed enough to get into a substantive debate but didn't Pharmac decide that the available clinical evidence is biased (with some studies suppressed by the drug company) and that it just does not show that 12 months is more beneficial than 9 weeks? I don't think they even made it to a stage where other priorities came into it.
Tony Ryall had better install a revolving door.
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Even education pales when compared to the loss of the planet.
Ah, but not when you're Fran O'Sillivan:
No one is focused on climate change when the very issue of the survival of the world's financial system predominates.
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horse, surely :)
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"big spikes all around" - I'm getting flashes of the urban warrior aesthetic now, Kyle...
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George Lakoff's book "Don't Think of an Elephant" was fascinating reading. He said the two parties have a mindset that selects the language they use. In general, Republicans are father knows best: central authority, success and virtue strongly intertwined, we're in a dangerous world so do as you're told or bad things will happent o us all. Democrats are it takes a village: support, nurture, focus on collective good rather than individual opportunity.
I agree with Nat that Lakoff's strong father/nurturing mother model does seem to fit this situation.
A while ago when we were discussing Council powers to stop boobs watching bikes, I linked to Lakoff's Rockridge institute for more detail.
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“Vincent would just be coming in about now”
Too true. Imagine his frustrated directorial ambition if he had been born in sunny California instead of gloomy old enzed.
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