Hard News by Russell Brown

Russell, could not agree with your more about the Clark 'burp' in the House yesterday. She is experienced enough to know that with the rising chatter around the dark hand of Crosby Textor, she should have just shut up and run hard on the ACC privatisation revelations. Just when, as you mention, John Key was being hollowed out. A spectacular own goal! Mind you, if the claims that John Key was asking written questions about Transrail when he was an undeclared shareholder are correct, it is actually pretty dodgy behaviour too.

(I was out Drinking Liberally last night)

I trust you has a good time. We got a good turn out so thanks to everyone for coming along. And thanks to David for giving such a good talk.

Next round will be 7.30pm start (come for a drink from 7pm), Wednesday 23 July
Where: London Bar, corner Queen & Wellesley Streets, Auckland City
Who: Hon. Margaret Wilson - Speaker of the House of Representatives/Labour MP

(Ha - shameless promotion)

Pop it in your diary – hope to see everyone there. We’ll be having regular Drinking Liberally events on the fourth Wednesday of every month.

Great show Russell. It seems to me that Greg O'Connor is much more reasonable when engaging with people who have actually done the research, and can call him on his more dubious claims. That didn't stop him retreating into his hackneyed "this is what we see from the frontline policing", though.

Favourite part:

Brown: What would you like to see the media do over this, is there something they could do better ?

O'Connor: Aw, just be better informed...

Brown: You guys have to stop giving them bum tips !

Pwnd.

Ross and Nandor were measured and displayed high degrees of knowledge, a rarity in the context of media reporting of drug-related stories.

Very stimulating thanks - I shall wear a better disguise next time.

Got me thinking: where did that "don't discuss politics, religion or money" line come from? I was told it was "rude" when I was a kid.

If I were a conspiracy theorist (and I'm not - believe me, if it's a choice between a conspiracy and a cock-up, it's likely to be the latter...) I would say that discouraging people from talking about the key things that govern their lives would serve only the embedded power structure.

And that means disconnected, uneducated voters.

And one other thing: in my mind a liberal is someone who believes in minimal state intervention in peoples lives... not someone on the left...

Liberals are the opposite of conservatives, not the right (I'm sure someone will point out the link to that 2 X 2 grid thingy that I can't remember the name of...)

Clark's attempt to slime Key in the House yesterday was unpleasant, counterproductive and inaccurate. And Key's own evasiveness over, well, pretty much everything this week has been equally unattractive.

Unattrative, yes. Equally so -- get off it. If Key is receiving advice from any quarters to stand up in the House today and go tit-for-tat, I'd rather he "burbled' away. It's just not the usual run of bear-pit nastiness for the Prime Minister to stand up and accuse the leader of the Opposition of using Parliament as a tool to covertly line his own pockets. I'm pretty damn sure that any (respectable) media outlet that retailed similar allegations against Clark would be fact-checking that story with a small army of lawyers in the room. And wisely so, without the protection of parliamentary privilege.

Still, I've got to agree with Mr Pointen on one thing. Spectacular own-goal -- though one that's hardly been getting the kind of prominence, or critical attention, it would if the shoe was on the other foot. As far as I can tell.

The Dunedinista :) was out drinking last night, too. We met at the Craft Bar in the Octagon; many thanks to them and Monteith's for their excellent hospitality. The Doppelbock Winter Ale is highly recommended.
Kyle was the winner of the signed copy of The L.E.D.s We Are The L.E.D.s. (The L.E.D.s have a new album out soon, I reckon it'll be another splendid listen).

It was neat to finally put faces to names. While we were introducing ourselves, it became more apparent just how small a country NZ is; a lot of us turned out to have mutual friends and acquantances.

It turned out I've known Sara's brother for years and a lot of us had crossed paths with Kyle's partner, as well. We were also impressed that Melanie's Dad is a popular, very likable technical expert on a well-established consumer affairs TV programme.

We started off by slagging that crappy, cheesey new "office party" Telecom ad (shooting fish in a barrel I know, but, hey...).
We talked about a heap of other things and it would've been great to have shot the breeze even longer. NZ politics was eventually (inevitably?) touched on, I even accidentally committed the malapropism of calling Bill English "Bill Birch" a few times.

It was another of those neat occassions when you realise that the people you're with an endless source of interesting anecdotes, info, views and opinions.

Best episode yet, RB. Nice touch with the Press Gallery etchings. I gather anti-tagger John Banks has his name carved on a treasury bench somewhere...

As for the drugs debate, any media who wants to get another opinion apart from the MethCon conman, please feel free to email me for an interesting soundbite or wider perspective on the issues.

Cheers,

Will de Cleene
Vice President
NORML.org.nz

(I'm sure someone will point out the link to that 2 X 2 grid thingy that I can't remember the name of...)

The Political Compass: http://www.politicalcompass.org/

Thanks!

Yesterday's antics in the House have painted a clear and depressing picture of the choice facing New Zealand. Specifically, this picture and this picture.

Just got Free to Air and it was a pleasure to see you in action Russell
Good show and well run
I do have to say I expected that of you but it was really good

Pity it is not longer and that there were no breaks but that is the medium

Well done!

Pity it is not longer

Yes, and if we beg we may get what we want. It's so refreshing to watch and informative. So here's to begging Russell!

Stanley

you left out what I think is a pretty critical piece of information. John Key was actually opposition spokesperson on transport. It was his job to ask the Transport Minister questions about its thinking on transport issues such as, say, any secret plans to buy back the railways.

If that is dodgy then it must be also dodgy for him to ask about petrol taxes because he has a car, or interest rates because he has a savings account and a home loan etc.

To think and imply that any commercial advantage could be gained from the non answers given to PQs just shows how stupid some people are and how grubby this election campaign is getting. And of course we now know who to blame - Helen Clark beacause she is the self declared chief Labour strategist, so it must be being done at her behest.

Interesting today that Cullen repeatedly refused to say what economic or business analysis had been done in support of buying the trains. This guy is in charge of large dollops of yours and my money, and it appears no-one has sat down and asked "does this add up?". I think that is more scandalous than parliamentary questions that are published and open to scrutiny.