Island Life: Unaccustomed as I am
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Does Roger Douglas get another crack at a maiden speech, or are you ever allowed only one maiden?
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Thesaurus: not a small dinosaur
Uh oh. Politicians + thesaurus = "I'm ardent for New Zealand. Together, we can manufacture a more luminous eventuality."
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Like a maiden, touched for the very first time?
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Uh oh. Politicians + thesaurus
In hindsight I can see that was unwise.
It can only conclude in emissions from the lachryl duct.
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Barack Obama wannabes often end up sounding like William Shatner.
Speaking. Individual. Words. As. Complete. Sentences. To. Indicate. Seriousity.
(Also, be careful not to just invent new almost-words on the fly. GWB, I'm lookerating at you.)
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Zippy:
Does Roger Douglas get another crack at a maiden speech, or are you ever allowed only one maiden?
Just the one (assuming he got one the first time 'round). To the Standing Orders!
**350 Maiden and valedictory statements**
(1) A member who has not made a maiden speech during an Address
in Reply debate or has not already made a maiden statement may
make a maiden statement. -
Maiden speeches are often deceptive. Anyone can manufacture a little insight for a one-off and then skulk off to the backbenches to snooze. Or worse, self-immolate; I remember Tuku Morgan's maiden speech being damned impressive and look at his wonderously short political career! No, it's the valedictory speech I enjoy most. Particularly those of MPs who've actually done something.
David, I think your's is a wonderful list, but I worry that new MPs mistake the nature of the occassion. This isn't the culmination of their life's ambition, at least it shouldn't be.
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Yay. Welcome back Keith. I can see "ardent for New Zealand" catching on - in some circles..
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Management language is the curse of the modern world.
Front page of today's Dom Post. Our illustrious leader sez:
There will be some new bodies established and there will be some things that are disestablished over the course of the next three years
Disestablishment is doubleplusungood!
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Disestablishment is doubleplusungood!
I am definitely an Antidisestablishmentarianist!
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Actually, I'm probably not...
I should read the content of my link before linking to it just to make a funny. -
Great post David.
Not to channel Oscar Wilde, but I wish had written that. Will have to suffice with linking to it copiously instead.
This isn't the culmination of their life's ambition, at least it shouldn't be.This isn't the culmination of their life's ambition, at least it shouldn't be.
Not so much the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning. As Winston said. Probably both Winstons.
It gets worse from here on in - now they get to taste the impotence of power, coupled with the expectation of action, and the accusations of responsibility.
MPs, even the PM, have much less power than people think they do. What they do have is varying degrees of influence. They usually can work only indirectly to produce whatever outcome they seek.
I always found it interesting the criticism that people went into politics to get power and for their ego.
For one, they will get more sustained personal criticism as an MP than in any other walk of life. And second, they tend to be seen as responsible, without actually having power to do what they want to do.
I've always found "Yes Minister" a useful text for the work I've done in central and local government. There's an episode where Sir Humphrey explains how Jim Hacker, as Prime Minister is automatically responsible for the actions of every Town Hall in England. The gem from that episode was something like this:
Responsibility without power - the prerogative of the eunuch throughout the ages.
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Not to channel Oscar Wilde, but I wish had written that.
Don't worry, Rachel, one day you will have. (Is that how it went?)
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Yes :-)
Have linked to it on by blog already, so in some sense, I already have! Although I do try not to plagiarise.
It's tricky sometimes, when an idea or concept or metaphor becomes so much part of your belief system - e.g. the Stephen Covey "watering the bamboo" metaphor from 7 habits. I have to remember to give him credit.
Also, all of Malcolm Gladwell's stuff - he's just announced his new book Outliers, and I, for one, am very excited.
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Power to the PM. David Lange was asked if he ever felt powerful as PM.
"Yes," he said. "But just once. I was entertaining the USA Secretary of State in the office when I looked up and there just outside was a window cleaner. I picked up the phone and said there is a window cleaner outside my window while I have a VIP in here. Fire that man! And he was fired. I felt very powerful - until the next morning when the window-cleaner was re-employed." -
It's tricky sometimes, when an idea or concept or metaphor becomes so much part of your belief system - e.g. the Stephen Covey "watering the bamboo" metaphor from 7 habits.
We call it feeding our son Joseph. He was a real shortie until his fourth year, when suddenly he grew 20 metres!
But seriously, we need to talk. I want to write a book about the history of the metaphors in motivational books, I find them endlessly fascinating. (I found Maltz's Psycho-Cybernetics in a bookfair this year and my life hasn't been the same since.)
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(Rachel: nice profile of your man Malcolm in New York magazine).
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Ta, Graeme. And thank you Mr Slack for a good overview of maiden speeches. Makes me proud that the old man used his one to say "Kill all the lawyers."
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Present company excluded, of course!
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maybe you won't mention the thing you have for high school uniforms.
500 points for any new MP who can carry that off. There must be a constituency.
"And then, of course, there is the 'thing' I have about high school uniforms."I recall as if it were yesterday, when I first saw a particular photograph, a piece of history, worn and sepia-toned - I have a copy here in my wallet, a photograph of - please bear with me - of that great statesman Winston Churchill.
"The war was over, democracy was victorious and the blockade was ended; British people could once again import those little luxuries they had so missed. How was this symbolised? By a photograph of Winston Churchill handing a schoolgirl a banana.
"And that's when I said to myself, 'One day, I want to be a politician.'"
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Jolisa - Thanks for the link on Malcom Gladwell.
Giovanni - sounds interesting - I think that we need new metaphors to refresh our viewpoint every so often. It's like the quadrant approach to leadership, or personality, or time management. The value lies not so much in the earth-shattering new paradigm, but at the chance to take a fresh look at things. Or to be reminded that others are not like us.
Have you considered a metaphor-gathering bleg via Freakonomics (or Public Address?)
Kill all the lawyers ..... Present company excluded, of course!
Thanks Zippy - mind you I am not allowed to call myself a lawyer in New Zealand any more (the label costs $1000+ per annum). Oddly, I can use the term in England, where I'm not allowed to call myself a solicitor or barrister. Here it seems I can say "enrolled Barrister and Solicitor", which sounds more impressive. Tricky when it comes to web-marketing.
I tend to think that being a lawyer is a state of mind, achieved via the inculcation of a value system in law school. I watched The Paper Chase at about age 8, and have been able to quote John Huston ever since:
"You will teach yourself the law, I train your minds. You come in here with a skull full of MUSH, and leave, thinking like a Lawyer"
It is perhaps this mindset that needs to be 'killed" ? Or at the very least reined in in favour of a more optimistic mind-set.
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Ohhh, must rewatch Paper Chase... thanks Rachel.
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You have a copy? I wish they put that sort of thing on re-runs.
I haven't seen the show in years, and in fact remember only one episode in any detail (they sat exams and booked a hotel room).But the opening narrative is still burned on my mind.
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Thanks for the nostalgia, Rachel (and the compliments).
I was doing Contracts the year it screened here. Helpful motivation.YouTube has it, but won't permit embedding. See it here
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have been able to quote John Huston ever since
Huston or Houseman?
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