Hard News: The Politics of Absence
523 Responses
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Getting back to the theme of Labour and the media for a moment, this seems well-done to me.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
And is Key’s face – or voice – a branding element for National?
snap, rhinocrates
So would the cartoons of Tom Scott, Mike Moreu et al be C&D'ed? I say let the usual suspects do a Radler on us.
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A constrast in messaging and styles, and some sly porkies: the earlier-mentioned Labour and National candidates for Auckland Central talk about the economy in the latest of their regular paired Herald columns (titled with geriatric humour).
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Getting back to the theme of Labour and the media for a moment, this seems well-done to me.
Until you note the trivial factoid that the same people who clean John Key's office also clean Phil Goff's, and there's not actually anything preventing Parliamentary Services (who I believe are their legal employer) paying them above the minimum wage.
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Stephen Judd, in reply to
If only success in politics rested on rigorous logic applied to undisputed facts.
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izogi, in reply to
I'm pretty sure there's an awful lot of people who would be satisfied that their kind of person was represented by the party of their choice, by a bunch of people who don't live anywhere near them, but share their views, or appeal to them in some other way.
This is true, and I don't think it's necessarily a requirement for me, at least, to have someone represent me in a local geographic way and solve my local problems for me. On the flip-side, however, I still think there's lots of value in ensuring that there's at least one MP in our House of Representatives who's systematically obliged to go and mix with each geographic community, get a feel for the effects of nationwide government policies and decisions on local people throughout the entire country, and be aware of all that stuff when taking part in government. Even if I don't care so much about having a local MP to talk to and sort out my local problems, I'd still like a guarantee that at least one MP will be taking an interest in what effect government policies will have on local issues.
List MPs can linger with the locals in specific places if their party deems it worthy of their time, but that doesn't guarantee engagement with and understanding of every place, even if the people there aren't very talkative or politically aware.
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this seems well-done to me.
By the time she pays $250 in rent, $90 for power and $70 for petrol to get to and from work, Masoe has about $43 left to pay for groceries.
$90 p/w for power? Are prices really this high now?
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Stephen Judd, in reply to
$90 p/w for power? Are prices really this high now?
Doesn't seem excessive for a 9 pr 10 person household (four kids, four grandkids). There's going to be a crapload of hot water just keeping everyone clean and in clean clothes, not to mention heating and cooking.
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chris, in reply to
wow, I took it as a typo. A lucrative industry there.
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BenWilson, in reply to
On the flip-side, however, I still think there's lots of value in ensuring that there's at least one MP in our House of Representatives who's systematically obliged to go and mix with each geographic community, get a feel for the effects of nationwide government policies and decisions on local people throughout the entire country, and be aware of all that stuff when taking part in government.
Which is precisely why the parties would do it anyway, if they had the resources to. It could be their internal policy because it works, not because the system forces them to do it. It's highly appropriate for Labour and National. For the Greens, not so much, there's just not enough of them to be out pressing the flesh in every electorate.
Furthermore, there would probably be no reason to have 60 MPs inaccessible to casual public inquiries. They're representatives, after all, and they come from all over the place. Surely they could have an office near to where they live, by which they can avoid the problem of getting out of touch with ... well whoever it is that wants to see them - I expect it's simultaneously a lot of people, and also a very small fraction of their voters.
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In the house today:
& in stuff
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5737904/John-Keys-cleaner-campaigns-for-better-wages
Goff - the content of his debate is great - his dlivery after the incident is measured for a time - he needs to stop barracking his face off to appear sincere and maintain calm and not elevate to the level of barking.. He needs to pause at times and let the truth of what he is saying resonate.
That National were blindsided by the credit rating down grade really shows they have lost their grip. They have advanced a credit rating down grade this as a part of the reason for assets sale and other policy measures.
OK we have the downgrade already let us just keep the assets OK.
I support Goff's position with the exception of CGT, which is not something I support.
The level of wages and cost of living – very sincere to run this out during election year – but wage and salary earners are always forgotten once their vote is cast and the election result rolls out.
You may recall the mother of the family in Mangere who died when the there power was turned off and her oxygen respirator stopped – in that household her husband was I understand working a 40-hour week.
The seat of a lot of tragedy born out of hardship is that people working 40, 50 even 60-hour weeks don’t make a living wage in relation to their outgoings.
In the economic equation that is the NZ Market economy the only thing that is kept in check is wages.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
That National were blindsided by the credit rating down grade really shows they have lost their grip.
The Stepford gloss was going to start flaking off eventually. As I mentioned before, it's not the same as Keeping Calm and Carrying On.
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Sacha, in reply to
National were blindsided by the credit rating down grade
That's the claim..
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
The Stepford gloss was going to start flaking off eventually.
Just as a matter of interest, have you ever read The Stepford Wives? It's not about what you seem to think it is.
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Tamsin6, in reply to
Just as a matter of interest, have you ever read The Stepford Wives? It's not about what you seem to think it is.
Hmmmm. I know it's only Wikipedia, so might not be as authoritative as it could be, but:
The label "Stepford wife" is usually applied to a woman who seems to conform blindly to an old-fashioned subservient role in relationship to her husband, compared to other, presumably more independent women. It can also be used to criticise any person, male or female, who submits meekly to authority and/or abuse; or even to describe someone who lives in a robotic, conformist manner without giving offense to anyone. The word "Stepford" can also be used as an adjective ("He's a real Stepford employee"), or a noun ("My home town is a Stepford"),[5] denoting servility or blind conformity, or a seemingly perfect society hiding a dark secret.
So, National having a conformist and robotic outward persona, while secretly hiding a darker side...not a particularly controversial view surely?
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
National were blindsided by the credit rating down grade
That's the claim..and all other Financial woes and mismanagement are still Labour's fault!
I think National act like petulant schoolkids
(and most schoolkids aren't even that bad or disingenuous) -
Honest MPs?!?!?!
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linger, in reply to
Maybe Craig’s objecting to the implication that National couldn’t possibly be causing offense to anyone :-)
... nah, more likely to the idea that National is secretly enforcing conformity to their perfect vision of society.
'Cause we know they don't really have a vision :-) -
Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Maybe Craig’s objecting to the implication that National couldn’t possibly be causing offense to anyone :-)
Not at all – if you get through life without grievously offending someone, you’re just not trying. But if you bother reading Ira Levin’s novel (which I warmly recommend) the “Stepford wives” are gynoids created by a misogynistic ex-Disney employee. The women they replace – uppity Ms.-reading castrating femi-Nazis one and all – are killed, of course. I know there’s no evil Stephen Joyce is incapable of, but really…
As a sidebar, it’s worth asking if the whole ‘Stepford wife’ sneer isn’t actually low-grade sexism itself. Wow, so women who don’t act in a manner you deep appropriate are someone less than human, even on the level of a pop culture allusion? Wonderful.
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Have to agree with Craig here. John Key may be carefully crafting and projecting an image of supreme blandness, but that doesn't make him a subservient animatronic puppet.
The Stepford epithet is more applicable to any of the partners of any of the leaders of the main political parties, and not on their part - it's a role they're forced into. Imagine the fuss if Bronagh expressed an opinion, or support for ACT. Or Labour.
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Sacha, in reply to
petulant schoolkids
That childish eye-rolling clip yesterday should be repeated rather a lot.
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Sacha, in reply to
and all other Financial woes and mismanagement are still Labour's fault!
while media faithfully report Key denying all responsibility, exactly as intended
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Rich Lock, in reply to
That childish eye-rolling clip yesterday should be repeated rather a lot.
Yes. When the carefully crafted mask does slip, it's not a pleasant sight.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Imagine the fuss if Bronagh expressed an opinion, or support for ACT. Or Labour.
Well, it was pretty common knowledge that Clementine Churchill was a capital-L Liberal and it's pretty clear (in the biography written by her daughter Mary Soames and) her political opinions, while never expressed in public, weren't kept from her husband and didn't cross the floor along with her husband. Her near-pathological shyness didn't make her the very model of a modern political spouse, either.
In the end, I think you marry a human being not a political party.
And God knows I developed a wee man-crush on Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean, who committed the unspeakable faux pas of saying she though her busy pediatric practice was more important that making cow eyes at her hubby while he hit the presidential primary trail.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
When the carefully crafted mask does slip, it's not a pleasant sight.
Parliament World - where nothing can possibly go worng...
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