Posts by Rob Stowell
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maybe it's a leftist position, but it's pretty clear the laissez faire policies National holds at its core are damaging both the environmental and social fabric, in a very much connect manner.
of course it's a terrible position for poor national, to have only the one option, NZF. having another would, at the least, give them so much more bargaining clout. But beyond a misunderstanding of green thinking (which sees people and ecology as part of the same whole) has anyone - any of the commentariat who push this unlikely partnership - given any serious examples of what national might offer?
that's the rub, alas. while they keep scoffing 'fart tax' and nanny state, there's just nothing there. -
You don’t believe that Jacinda already recaptured all the ex-Labour voters who had drifted into the Green camp?
absolutely not. im sure because I’m one of them.
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yeah- I think a lot of national supporters a/ look at Winston and think - yeah, nah and b/ look at the greens and see integrity - people you could deal with. what they don't ever seem to grasp is what they might give up to get this desired outcome. give up the tax cuts? increase benefits? change the tax system? nah, no way. serious efforts to reduce carbon? well, only if it doesn't involve tax or farmers paying more ... reckon they think they can get the greens to clean up the rivers - instead of the people who have polluted them - an idea popular in the regions anyway. Pretty sure I'm not the only green voter who thinks f 'em. we can get more from labour and Winny.
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Watch out for a great tribute video from Stuart Page, that specially features Peter Gutteridge. There’s a terrific feature documentary waiting to be made, and Stu would be the one. Gawd I wish – anything could happen.
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As in the US, facebook is the battleground now. So cheap to produce, change, and target.
And yeah, National were more nimble, vicious and (sorry) clever in how they advertised (and ran talking points strategy to match - it was a joined-up effort.)
Labour were also a little tied up by relentless positivity. Running 'let's pollute this' or 'let them eat rent' ads wasn't on the cards - and this far into a National government, there was plenty of ammunition for negative advertising.
In retrospect, imagine an MOE on advertising with the Greens,: we'll stay upbeat, and you unleash a barrage of deeply negative attack ads to cover our back. -
Without endorsing your title, I'm gonna hard-out agree about this supposed, projected, fantasy 'moral authority' BS. O, the NZ public won't accept - ballocks.
You're the government if you have 61 votes in parliament. We should be able to agree on that, surely?
If you win 61 or more seats, sure, you have the moral authority, all over the place. But if you don't win 61 seats, what does this 'moral authority' give you the right to? Seats you didn't win? Seats won fair and square by other parties?
What a load of horse-radish. Why can't some pundit somewhere say it: 61 seats gives you a government. When you can win or negotiate that, you have moral authority. Less than 61 seats? You have the 'moral authority' to be in opposition.
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“Do you intend voting in the New Zealand general election on Sept 23?”
I was polled by curia last night, and they didn't ask anything of the sort.
And it being Curia - polling privately, I assume, for National's strategists/Stephen Joyce - I lied my face off. 5 or 6 minutes of my time were NOT going to be freely gifted to help inform National.
I was polite and friendly, and so was the caller. It felt odd to be amicably lying heartily, but remorse? - not a scrap :) -
Envirologue: Swamp Monsters – the…, in reply to Alfie,
The spill attributed to kauri excavation is in Ruakaka, and there’s a company called Kauri Ruakaka Ltd. By a strange twist of fate, that company used to be known as Oravida Kauri Ltd.
I'm waiting for the cowpoo to hit the rotor blades, somehow, soon - but it's strangely quiet.
newshub "The 170km pipeline was damaged by a digger driver hunting for swamp kauri at Ruakaka three months ago, the New Zealand Herald reports.
The pipeline remained intact but ruptured when pressure was increased on Thursday.
Refining NZ chief executive Sjoerd Post confirmed to Newshub a digger had scraped over it, and it will take 10 to 15 days to fix."
Read somewhere today it was definitely "kauri ruakaka" but now can't find that. So still waiting for Ms Collins to field some tough questions ... -
Hard News: Friday Music: Laneway,…, in reply to Jamie Larnach,
would so love to use this on a video clip I'm editing at the moment. how I'd love some music budget!
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With only two major polls, and this great gulf between them, we can have no clear idea where the real sentiment lies. Undecideds are also fairly high, another indeterminacy to take into account.
Yet the reporting/commentary on 'the latest poll' is ripe with hyperbolic certainty. Still waiting for some pundit to squash the hyperventilating by pointing out the flimsiness of the rationale behind it.
The unseen factor - which we can only judge by the actions of the politicians - is that there's at least as much private polling by the parties as public polling by the media. You can sense it - a magnetic force pushing and pulling the campaign messages and talking points - but we don't get to see it.
Best guess: it's bloody close. (But it might not be!)