Posts by Paul Williams
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At the risk of taking things in an entirely different direction - what the hell was Graham Henry thinking when he said this about police investigation of the English rugby team:
You don't want any sporting team to be going through those situations.
"You live in that sort of life yourselves – in the international sporting environment. I think you've got a lot of sympathy for people who go through that situation.
"Certainly you just like to be supportive."
Full story here.
I'd've thought it best say nothing, they're allegations only at present, but this comment invites the obvious criticism that he should reserve his sympathy for the victim(s) surely?
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Ummmm... Paul, would you prefer to have the airport so close that you can be there by taxi in $20, but 747s take-off over your house every 20 minutes?
Or how about the worst of both worlds? My place in Sydney is about 25 mins from the airport - this often equates to a $40 cab ride - plus I get 747s overhead, sometimes, every 5 mins (usually less but for rain and runway extensions)!
And, and... don't get me started on how bad taxi drivers are in Sydney...
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I think I would shatter into a million pieces if it was one of my girls.
Exactly how I feel.
Like all others, my thoughts are with your friends.
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Craig said:
And, meanwhile, anyone remember when Mr. Laws airily (and vilely dismissed the treatment of Louise Nicholas as 'sensual excesses' in his Sunday Star Times column? Or the circumstances of his resignation from Parliament? Someone should send this creep's moral high horse to the nearest glue factory. Stat.
Oh yes please!
Laws is such a sanctimonious prat, you'd be forgiven for thinking he was the pillar of morality yet his parliamentary career was founded on duplicity (floundered on it too).
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The influence of the hotels lobby here is scary. Late last year an independent member of the NSW Parliament and Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, pushed through changes to the licencing laws to reduce the cost of a liquor licence. Her stated goal was to enable smaller venues to develop by reducing the costs of licencing - the logic is that the higher the costs, the more likely booze-barns dominate. The backlash was significant - partly because it was also linked to campaign finance reform and guess where some of the largest donations came from?
It's certainly true that the lane-way culture of Melbourne, where licences are much cheaper particularly for venues with live music, is far better than Sydney's penchant for huge, obscenely-themed glitzy wanker-bars or older pubs (many of which are very pleasant I might add). RSL's and clubs generally are also much more common in Sydney than anywhere I lived in NZ...
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__Sydney radio gave huge airplay to a study late last year that suggested moderate drinking, 3 - 5 standard drinks per night for men, on no more than 5 days a week, was within healthy limits.__
I presume that's the liquor industry's definition of "moderate".
I actually don't recall but I felt better for it...
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I see the new govt has issued a definition of binge drinking: four standard glasses of beer in one day.
Which tells me either Australia has changed one hell of a lot, or Rudd's govt has a death wish.
More the latter, if either.
Rudd's a pretty puritanical character by comparison with earlier Labor leaders however he's got this wrong. If Australia has a drink-problem, and it probably does in the same way NZ does, then this is not going to help because it's not credible. Kids binge-drinking RTDs are not amenable to this kind of campaign; adults might be, but this definition is inconsistent with a lot of the material already in the public domain. Sydney radio gave huge airplay to a study late last year that suggested moderate drinking, 3 - 5 standard drinks per night for men, on no more than 5 days a week, was within healthy limits.
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Craig, I won't argue the point re the EFA, however it's still important to acknowledge that NZ is one of the least corrupt nations on this planet; something I think we should all be thankful for. I think you're right that we should maintain high standards also - it's the only way we'll retain the benefits of transparency.
I've thought a lot about why NZ is so squeaky-clean. I'm sure there's many factors; one that may be particualrly important is the relative size of the country - it's difficult to be a corrupt bastard when you're almost certain to end up living, working or socialising with someone who is the uncle, aunty or cousin of the victim(s) of your bastardry.
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That's quite an exaggeration really - no one was killed when this top drug cop conspired to import 600kgs of ice to pay off his gambling debts ... come on now, a little balance please!
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Back to Craig's earlier point, the latest development in the fracas in the Central Coast is the Police intend to examine the stat decs...