Posts by Ben Austin
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Damian, is Heartland available for purchase, or if not, will it be made available later on?
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Dunedin was a Free Church settlement wasn't it?
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Legal Beagle: MMP Review #2: Dual Candidacy,
It seems that at least part of the criticism we are seeing results from dissatisfaction as to what an MP is expected to do. Perhaps that could be addressed elsewhere, outside of the MMP review.
The question of local representation vs. Ministers focusing on their ministerial duties is an interesting one. Perhaps we allow for Ministers to be appointed from outside of Parliament, like other countries do (either direct appointments, or appointment to an upper house, then to cabinet?). This may increase the talent pool, while reducing the chance that all MPs toe the party line due to a reasonable expectation of being rewarded with some form of office. I suspect though that most of us would baulk at that as we value the potential accountability that an elected MP Minister has (even if theoretical).
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Legal Beagle: MMP Review #1: The Party…,
Has anyone found if PACE have any more explanation of their adoption of the 3% recommendation? I've found a couple of mentions of it via a quick search, but they seem to be as part of either resolutions or a report. The second link gives a wider explanation but it almost seems to be taken as read
http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc10/EDOC12107.htm
http://assembly.coe.int/main.asp?Link=/documents/workingdocs/doc07/edoc11203.htm#13
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Capture: Better Food Photography, in reply to David Hood,
That sir, is inspired
and for mine, a platter of bear, elk and reindeer meat, Helsinki 2011
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Cracker: On the Weekend: Rotoroa Island, in reply to Damian Christie,
The liberal media certainly have a lot to answer for, promoting recreational usage of what was once a fine curative island.
Sadly I shall have to pine from afar for both Rotoroa and the other one
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Cracker: On the Weekend: Rotoroa Island,
Great post. I was listening to RNZ's Spectrum program, which went to Rotorua Island, so it is nice to put some images to the audio
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Hard News: Name That Food Blog, in reply to JacksonP,
Well I for one am looking forward to your new blog on the photos from the challenging world of professional railroad stoking
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OnPoint: Association of Community…,
Good story Keith. It was very interesting to see the update and the UK link.
On the service station/tight margin point - when I was home last I stayed with a couple who've owned and run a rural service station since the 1980s. They were saying that for the first ten years or so the margins from fuel sales was sufficient to provide quite a nice living, but since that point they have had to diversify and focus on non fuel sales like cigarettes as the fuel companies have squeezed the fuel margin consistently downwards. Apparently that is a common enough occurence
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Hard News: Dispatches from Summer,
At work in London, where, after a mild (apparently 13 degrees C) Christmas Day, things have cooled down to around 1-3 degrees. So much for a London t-shirt Christmas season!
