Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Unusual Democracy

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  • Sue,

    last festival i couldn't make the same event, but i sold my tickets at cost. To me it seems wrong to make a profit off performance arts when i know so many artists who put on events and loose money but they keep on doing it because it's their passion.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 527 posts Report

  • Nobody Important,

    what Sue just said above ....

    fair enough Sue, especially if you're passing them on to someone you know but ....

    if the gig/event has sold out and you're flogging the tickets on the open market then you should charge a premium. Why? Because: [a] the person who bought them off you may be a scalper and will onsell them again at a profit [b] even if not a scalper, people should learn not to wait till the last minute to buy tickets. They were 'lucky' to get a last-minute ticket so they should pay a 'fine' for their sins. Otherwise you're just enabling their tardiness!


    And besides, you can always give the extra money to the next busker you see around town! That will help keep the arts alive!!

    expat • Since Mar 2007 • 319 posts Report

  • Ben Austin,

    Craig,

    I kind of like the freedom of the Westminster system, for a couple of of reasons. One that it means that the government actually has the power to govern, they have the votes on a week to week basis, if they didn't they wouldn't be in power. In a fixed term situation it doesn't work that way, as the US indicates. Everyone just hangs around waiting for 08/10 w/e and nothing gets done. Secondly I can't think of a Westminster system that does fixed term (its 3am I'm not going looking), so it may just be that our type of government works better with a fluid rather than fixed system. What would the point of the Governor General then, aside from a rubber stamp or figurehead? Given that the only reserve powers that seem to matter or get used are around the formation and dismissal of government.

    The triennial thing I am not so sold on, I'd prefer four years. But you will all remember that the several times we have tried to change the term to four years it hasn't succeeded. Can't remember exactly why because i think i was at primary school last time they tried (National iirc).

    London • Since Nov 2006 • 1027 posts Report

  • Sue,

    actually i sold my tickets to a stranger.

    there is a lovely pin board at the MFC where people wanting to buy or sell tickets drop their details. I just hunted for someone wanting tickets and i made the deal. I've taken advantage of that board for years as it's often the only way to score a ticket to a sold out show, never has anyone charged me more than face price.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 527 posts Report

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Ben:

    I don't really see how your argument extends out to this specific case - I don't think it's entirely facetious to point out that the American Constitution was designed to place checks and balances and diffuse power, while a Westminster-style legislature depends on 'precedent' (which was basically be ignored and abused at will) and the concentration of powers that are wide open to abuse by an unrestrained executive.

    You also wrote, Secondly I can't think of a Westminster system that does fixed term Hum... for over a generation we were also the only Westminster-style legislature that didn't consider having a vagina an instant disqualification from voting. Didn't mean that womens' suffrage was a bad idea.

    As I said, Ben, I'd like someone to seriously argue that there was some pending constitutional crisis that justified the snap elections of 2002 and 1984 -- as opposed to two troubled Governments hoping to catch the Opposition flat-footed. Clark got away with it; Muldoon famously did not.

    Call me naive, but I think we need a slightly better justification to dissolve the Government than Muldoon's infamous "It doesn't give my opponents much time either."

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report

  • Hadyn Green,

    Hope everyone's got their Christina Aguilera tickets.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report

  • Neil Morrison,

    It claims they believed there was fraud, but not enough to turn the result.

    Does that mean we've agreed on something? I must be slipping.

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    __ It claims they believed there was fraud, but not enough to turn the result.__

    Does that mean we've agreed on something? I must be slipping.

    Possibly!

    But they were still pretty keen for third parties to advance the issue, and I don't think all the weirdness was yet apparent.

    I don't know if there was fraud (although I'd be surprised if there wasn't some illicit activity), to what degree or whether it actually turned the result. But the reason I wrote it up the way I did was to illustrate quite how bad the Ohio vote would look if it happened here. At the very best, it's indicative of serious incompetence and woefully inappropriate conduct on behalf of public officials.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

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