Posts by Kumara Republic
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to BenWilson,
What positive message could even be sent at this point? A detailed spending policy, promising growth to pay for it all?
Why not both a positive and a negative approach? Something to the effect of, "NZ's future can belong to you (pic of wind farms). Or it can belong to Wall St robber barons (pic of Bernie Madoff)." Didn't it work for the Nats' Iwi/Kiwi billboard to a certain degree? If Maori issues and welfare are the biggest wedge issues of the Right, then the most obvious Left ones are probably job stability and asset sales.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to BenWilson,
I recall a rousing speech by Bob Harvey, "Reclaiming the Spirit", from 1999 (had to look on WebArchive for it - Labour needs a better archival approach):
"And so this coming election is more important than most. For it is the last window of opportunity that New Zealand has to be true to itself and to make a better future.
For believe me, if we are not successful this time, the New Zealand that we pass on to our children and their children in the next century won’t belong to us.
It’ll belong people in boardrooms in countries foreign to these shores.
This landfall in an unknown sea, this isolated outpost of islands, will become nothing more than an ongoing experimental testmarket, with us as the lab rats.
But here tonight is the will, the expertise and the leadership to ensure this does not happen."
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Jan Farr,
If I may add, further, it's always difficult for a party in opposition to get media coverage - I don't remember hearing much about the Nats for most of Labour's three terms - except around elections.
The Exclusive Brethren says hi.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to nzlemming,
Bill English said on RNZ this morning that he "had no masterplan" for down-sizing the Public Service, but he was going to do it anyway. Actually, I think he has no plan at all or, at least, no clue.
To put it succinctly, cut-and-run. Actually, make that the Ministry of Plenty.
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Hard News: Chasing the Trans-Pacific Express, in reply to Ben Austin,
What's driving the whole TPPA thing is a very strong whiff of John Frum economics - when the British cargo cult turned out to be a mirage in 1973, we simply swapped it for an American one.
And Bernard Hickey agrees. Not once, but twice. And what does it mean when libertarians are saying no to the TPPA?
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And last I heard, the sports channels are compulsory irrespective of package. No picking and choosing it seems.
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Is "Waitakere Man" the NZ equivalent of Howard Dean's "Pickup Truck with Confederate Flag" vote?
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Where is Mr Smiley Wavey on this one eh?
I'm guessing they've long since disowned him, after he broke away and formed a new party with Ross Meurant.
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And considering a DVB-T tuner now costs well under $100, Freeview need not cost a king's ransom. That is, if Freeview survives the tsunami of anti-intellectuallism.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Clint Fern,
I really hope you're right Che, but Winston has been pretty active on the sly - seems to be at Nelson airport all the time on his way to the Grey Power meetings. Somehow I've caught a lot of him on TV - native affairs and the news - maybe just unlucky timing on my behalf.
Who'd succeed Winston Peters as NZ First leader when he retires? None of his brothers have thrown their hats in the ring, and Ron Mark is now Mayor of Carterton. No other obvious names come to mind... with the possible exception of Mr Lhaws in spite of his denials. Lhaws would quite easily take it in a BNP-style direction.