Posts by Grant McDougall
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'Travelling Gravely' - droll, Russell, very droll. Still, judging by the description of the heinous traffic in Auckland it really does seem like a case of "strange are the roads I've travelled in my time". I trust you then unwound in Wellington with some "sweet, sweet, wicked wine". ;)
But I digress...anyway, crime: well, the rhetoric from the "hang 'em high" crowd is just gonna increase over the next few months and, sure as eggs, the politicians of all colours will have to pretend to take them seriously, for fear of being seen as "soft on crime".
Did anyone else watch that doco on TV3 last night about gangs? It didn't tell anyone anything terribly new, but it was a joke that all the gang leaders denied any interest in drugs, spinning a "we're here to support the community" line crap.
traffic: traffic jams are almost non-existent here in Dunners. The airport shuttle is $15 - $20.
Dunedin meet-up: if you haven't already gotten in touch, whether you live in Dndn or elsewhere on the mainland, feel free to come along. E-mail me for the details.
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Russell - why are you actually leaving? I presume it's ideological differences over it's current state / direction?
I appreciate you may be unable to fully say so given that Fiona works there, but feel free to be euphimistic. -
While I reckon John "Hone" Carter is a drop-kick as well, I suspect this story wouldn't have caused anyone any concern had Carter been a middle-ranking accountant in a big accounting firm, rather than a middle-ranking MP for a big political party.
Nice headline, too, Graeme. It reminds me of an issue of the NME about 20 years ago. Among the list of bands covered inside were "Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine" and, right below, "Straitjacket Fits". :)
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The Critic story on the Listener is excellent. It takes a very measured, intelligent look at the sorry state of the magazine, without merely slagging it off. I highly recommend everyone to read it.
Very tellingly, Findlay Macdonald declines to comment on the current state of the magazine and his silence is deafening. Gordon Campbell on the other hand does comment, making several insightful comments.
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What's the bet that should National win power, they too will indulge in post-Budget promo guff? I'm not saying it's right, just that they'll be just as tempted to as Labour has been.
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Grant, your comparison with Key's DVD will be valid if the leaflet has to be recalled and the photo removed. Or if they used the photo without permission. Otherwise, there's no comparison at all.
Far call, but I meant in terms of the bad publicity it resulted in, not the actual copyright issue.
As an aside, in the latest Otago graduate magazine law lecturer Andrew Geddis (who specialises in electoral law) slags off the EFA big-time.
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Cheers. I've just realised: will this make us "the Dunedinista" ? :)
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Russell, could you amend your post so my surname is spelt correctly, please? "Mc" not "Mac".
Anyway...yes, there's gonna ba blend in Dunners! I'm keen to have it at the end of this month, or early July.
If you're keen to have a few beers with your fellow Mainland PA-ers, get in touch, asap, so we can reach a consensus about which day at what time is best. (It'd be convenient for the bar that's offered us a good deal if it'd be early in the week, too).
It'll be great to have a yarn and put names to faces. Get in touch!
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I remember the Dancing Cossacks - they were cheaply done cartoonage meant to imply that Labour's new super plan would lead to communism
I believe the animation was outsourced to Hanna-Barbera.
It was. While the Cossacks advert was a landmark advert, people forget that it was only ever screened twice during the campaign and the actual images of Cossacks lasts for four seconds in a 60-second-long cartoon.
Also, it's again little-known that Labour responded with an advert of a child holding a piglet (!) with a background song about dictators, the obvious implication being that Muldoon would be a dictator, of course. -
The actual rights or wrongs of such promo material aside, the simple fact of the matter is that it's another balls-up that's left egg splattered all over Labour's face.
It would've been pretty simple to avoid. They only had to instruct the people that designed the ad to make sure they used an NZ family, simple as that. It wouldn't matter where they were from: Hamiltron, Greymouth, Hastings, even bloody Mataura, who cares, as long as they actually lived here.
This is as much of a balls-up as John Key's dvd music copyright mistake and would have been just as easy to avoid. Instead, Labour's brought the trouble upon themselves and if National gives them grief over it - which they undoubtably will - it's their own fault.
Any prolicy promotion Labour would have been hoping to receive from this will now be disregarded in favour of the actual photo balls-up and having to spend time back-pedalling on that, instead of the actual issues in the promo.