Posts by Craig Ranapia
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No I don't want to start a conventional vs. alternative argument here.
Well, I don't either - because, on level, it comes down to a similar place for me as the whole party pill debate. If you're really chuffed at the thought of ingesting powdered monkey smeg or drain clearer that's your own look out. I just think the folks shoveling this stuff down their necks deserve some clear and accurate information about what's really in the magic pills, and the potential side-effects. You can't legislate to make anyone take a blind bit of notice, though...
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& I think that may be one problem the Greens have - the hippie element have more time & resources to invest in party politics, or at least are more willing to make it a priority. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a silent (perhaps narrow) majority in the party's support that believe in green ideals, but don't have any time to inject some rationality into more specialised platforms
Well, that's really interesting - and I've long suspected there's always been a division in most Green parties between the (for want of a better way to put it) hard-core true believers and 'Mercury Mums' vs, those who don't think the 20th century has been an unmitigated disaster, or science is a hegemonic white corporate discourse, but still think nautre is really nice and worth preserving. Interesting tension - and one Rod Donald actually understood better than most - but I'm glad it's not one I have to resolve one way or the other.
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All you seem to want to say is that politicians are equally snide, snippy and hypocritical.
Um, no - because I'm not really interested in being that glibly cynical. And if you're right, and the Green Party leadership are that far out of touch with their own membership and support, I guess they have their own organisational structures - and a general election next year - to be accountable too.
In the end, I just think if anything is going to bring down 'this government' it's going to be suicide with no assistance from the Greens. With 20/20 hindisight, Clark might have been wiser to tell Dunne to STFU and negotiate a formal coalition agreement with the Greens. She didn't, they've voted against a piece of legislation on grounds I consider fundamentally wrong-headed which they're perfectly entitled to do. Sad, yes. Frustrating, certainly. But it's not the end of the world.
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Now, back to the Greens. Aside from the rash of contradictions in their various stances, those with not such short memories will recall that during the last election they were polling below 5% and that until HC gave them a helpful nudge it looked as though there would be no Green MPs at all in the house.
Sorry, Don, I'm going to call you on that because it's just not true - someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Clark made precisely one public appearance with Fitzsimmons, and at a time when the polls where all over the place but the Greens were still averaging over the 5% threshold. I'd argue it was as much in Labour's interests as much as the Greens, after the nasty sniping during the '02 campaign.
I don't recall Labour doing anything to discourage the perception (and a mistaken one IMO) that Green-supporters needed to 'vote strategically' to keep National out. Nor should they have, from a purely strategic POV, but lets not pretend Helen Clark or the Labour campaign had the slightest interest in doing the Greens any favours. Nor do I think Clark would have shed a single crocodile tear if the price of victory had been electoral extinction for the Greens.
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You can't tell me that headline wasn't chosen deliberately.
Certainly not, Tom. Then again, your mileage may vary on whether the editorial board of the New Zealand Herald are people you'd trust to organise a gang-bang at a sex-addicts convention. Got to say this morning's editorial on the one city chestnut was, to be charitable, deeply superficial. And, yes, I do think both Clark and Key would so us all a favour if they think it all the way through before leaping on the MegaAuckland bandwagon.
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Moore also enthuses on the French system's 35-hour working week and lavish holiday entitlements, among other things.
Will doesn't really mean jack if your life looks more like this festering boil than the photogenically scruffy bits of Provence where emotionally constipated Englishmen get in touch with their inner child.
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I think what you really mean is that Key and his party are seen as a joke by people who are never ever going to vote for them anyway - probably not something their strategy advisers lose much sleep over.
Certainly not. Just as I don't think Helen Clark has had any sleepless nights over the last quarter century or so, due to the folks who think she's the coven leader of the Scumunist Dykeocracy. In the end, I think any politician who wants to keep a shred of sanity just has to come to terms with the idea that you're never, ever going to be universally adored.
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I see Cullen is emphatically claiming that Key and Tim Groser came to Labour looking for a compromise because of their concern about the impact on relations with Australia if the bill tanked -- but Ryall sank it.
LOL... Well, to get all Mandy Rice Davies for a moment, he would, wouldn't he? :) In his position, I'd be 'emphatically' trying to kill any further speculation that I'm just not on top of my game as effortlessly as I used to be. I guess it remains to be seen whether Cullen is going to be tabling any supporting documentation in the House, or whether this is just the usual sledging that's routine but not really to be taken seriously.
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The country that throws a guy in jail on a political whim *after* a court decides to free him? Sorry Craig, no such thing.
Which has precisely what relationship to joint regulation as proposed in the Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill?
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Is it just me or does the Green's current goal seem to be to take down this Government in a sort of death by 1000 cuts approach?
No, Don - it's not just you. according to NRT, that's exactly the line Chris Trotter floated in his Independent column last week. And I agree with Idiot/Savant's *cough* blunt assessment:
To call this arrogant is an understatement. To point out the obvious, the primary purpose of the Greens is not to deliver n% of the vote to keep Labour in power, but rather to represent the interests of their supporters. And contrary to Trotter's assertions, that is exactly what they have been doing. This may be inconvenient for Labour, but at the end of the day, that's their problem, not that of the Greens.
To use a dreadful political cliche, I think there are elements in both National & Labour, as well as most of the commentariat, who haven't quite got their heads around MMP, or the role of 'minor parties' where the Greens and Maori Party in particular are concerned.
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