Posts by Tom Semmens

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  • Hard News: No end of mileage,

    Hah, I said to my flatmate this morning as we watched all the hand wringing on breakfast TV that the only solution for boy racers is to wait for them to grow up and keep improving the highways in the meantime. And as for the relative benefits of National's proposed tax cuts vs. Kiwisaver, I'd like to see Working For Families added to that graph.

    National's (and the right in general) response to the budget has been confused and muted and they were very slow in developing any sort of coherent criticism. The government got a week of positive media before the Nat's came up with anything beyond sycophantic praise of Key's response in the house. What they have come back with now is shrill sophistry (typified by DPF) and a tired half-hearted beating on the tax cut drum. Not very inspiring.

    Oh, and how long is the media going to persist with allowing John Key to continually contradict himself depending on the question? Its driving me nuts.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: What's on David Bain's iPod?,

    Meanwhile, in breaking news, scientists have confirmed a sighting of a perfectly formed, beautiful irony...


    www.sirhumphreys.com

    "This Account Has Been Suspended. Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible."

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Claims,

    I almost feel sorry for Mr. Wishart. I don't know what demons he keeps locked in the dark corners of his mind, but I would guess sometimes their pounding on the doors gets very loud indeed.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The People's Choice,

    Jonty said: "...On ya, Tom! That's the stuff to keep the bad decisions rolling and the innocents banged up..."

    Bad decisions? Or perhaps you are indulging the very cultural cringe I am talking about? What says the local interpretation is automatically inferior to our Lords and masters from across the seas? How do you know it was a bad decision? Because someone from overseas told you so? I don't know or care who has made the right decision. But I have to observe that I find it hard to believe that people with zero knowledge of our judicial, political and social culture automatically make better calls than people who actually live here.

    Gabor Toth: Brussels is less that 175 miles from London. New Zealand is on the other side of the world.

    stephen walker said: "...Well, your outrage is based on ignorance, obviously. It has been convention for decades that the top judges from an overseas case's home appeal court sit on cases at the Privy Council..."

    hmmm.

    Lord Bingham of Cornhill,
    Lord Rodger of Earlsferry,
    Baroness Hale of Richmond ,
    Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood, and
    Sir Paul Kennedy.

    I don't know where Sir Paul comes from, he could be a successful farmer from Taihape I suppose. But I would wager a crisp fiver the others are British.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The People's Choice,

    Personally, I don't ever bother with speculation about the outcome of court cases because I am always bemused by the way generally these trials last weeks yet everyone is an expert on the outcome based on 3 minutes of coverage on the infotainment that passes for news.

    What has outraged me though has been the very fact a bunch of British judges, who may not have even ever stepped foot in New Zealand, presume to pass judgment on our legal system.

    Today all sorts of people having been lamenting the passing of the role of the privy council in interferring in our internal affairs.
    To me, that exposes a cringingly colonial mindset of people who want other countries to hold our hand.

    Either we are serious about being a sovereign nation capable of running our own judicial system or we are just a bunch of insecure white settlers pathetically clinging to the last wreckage of a long gone Empire.

    We should be mature enough as a nation to stand on our own two feet without running off to Mummy England's courts.

    Bring on a republic ASAP!

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Graceless Islanders,

    Did you hear about when Buddha walked into Subway? He asked them to make him one with everything.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Compromise,

    Helen Clark re-learnt her political craft and adapted to MMP - something National's leaders to date have spectacularly failed to do. Its early days so its hard to tell, but now National has a leader who came into parliament in the MMP era, maybe a whole new, MMP NZ style of politics in evolving where the opposition can win a few, lose the most and occassionaly get an honourable draw for the good of the country? If thats the case, then the emergence of what effectively will be a one party, two wings centrist MMP consensus environment will be Helen Clark's lasting legacy. The biggest winner will be the country, the biggest losers are going to be Garth George, the people who contribute to the Herald's "your views" section and the religious/political extremists everywhere. As for the crazy new righters who infest the blogsphere - well, I want to be there when it dawns on the folk of Sir Humphreys they are dinosaurs of a past era we aint ever going back to...

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Some actual politics,

    "...And this is different from what we have with Labour?..."


    I never saw the minimum wage go up under a National government, or rises in benefit levels, or Working for Families, or reforms of Labour laws allowing workers to negotiate on a more level playing field... Labour's record in this area is pretty good.

    Most ofthe middle class angst you hear is largely grizzling about how they've missed out on their perceived share of the economic lollies, like tax cuts to save themselves from the the debt mountain they've got themselves into.

    To me, given the gap between rich and poor that developed in the 80's and 90's, the narrowing thats occured is in my mind totally justified. The Pakeha middle class has been looking particularly ugly and selfish in the last two years. Maybe its time it looked in the mirror!

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Some actual politics,

    All up, so far it appears National's policy for dealing with inflation is to basically strip buying power from the poorest New Zealanders to stop all the trickle up bouyancy in the consumption side of the economy.

    I hear Bill English saying the way to solve our economic problems is a return to more "labour market flexibility." I would hope the full meaning this somewhat ominous promise to apparently return ordinary New Zealanders to the powerlessness of the dark days of the ECA is more fully examined by the media than when it was trotted out by Brash in 2005 - especially as it frankly contradicts National's stated goal of closing the wage gap with Australia. But given our media generally completely ignores issues that may affect people who earn less than around 35k a year and don't look like them I won't hold my breath.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Unusual Democracy,

    "...2. You are inserting a middleman. In the free market the price of a ticket has been determined to be $X. You are selling the tickets you purchased for $X at $X+$A. The system is no longer a free market (as far as I see it)..."



    To quote (I think) the odious Eddie Temple in "Layer Cake:"

    "The art of good business is being a good middleman."

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

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