Posts by Angus Robertson
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Hard News: Schnapp Election, in reply to BenWilson,
What sort of drink is a thomw, when made in NZ? thomwnz indeed.
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Cracker: Spotted, in reply to Gareth Ward,
That's just the plural of Libertarian.
The plural of Libertarian is an argument.
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They're very much on the "do-nothing government" line now. Which I think is not an unfair assessment.
If National are "doing nothing" new, it means that National are relying on the work of the previous (Clark) government and are content with the measures already in place.
With a strategy attacking the Nats for not changing existing policy aren't Labour really implying the policies left over from the last Labour government were inadequate? Such a strategy would seem potentially counterproductive.
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OnPoint: PREFU 2011: "What credit downgrade?", in reply to Sacha,
How's that line been working for the opposition?
Labour doesn't follow that line, Labour tries to portray everything the Nats do as a hard right-wing agenda. This isn't working out for them.
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OnPoint: PREFU 2011: "What credit downgrade?", in reply to Bart Janssen,
You think this is us raging?
Its hard to rage against the government, because they haven't really done anything. They've carried on with the centrist, boring, politcally neutral, poll driven theme of the Clark Labour years. NZers are proven to like it and failing a big economic upheaval will probably continue to back the theme.
As Keith points out, in 2008 they did make some commitments to lower the rate at which spending increases in the 2012 - 2014 period and now we've reached that future point. Now we'll see what they will do, if they'll do something right-wingish or do something centrist or procrastinate some more by making promises of even bigger cuts in future spending in 2016 - 2018. Who knows?
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It's kinda ironic that the whole high-carbon beach house/4WD/powerboat lifecycle that many NZers aspire to inevitably fucks up the same environment they're enjoying.
The shiny X3 charging along a yellow sanded beach in the mid-post advert might not be the best spot BMW could have chosen.
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to John Armstrong,
Steady State is based upon the premise that the Earth is a closed system. What if we wish to leave, go to Mars or Venus or Jupiter?
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To delude ourselves that violence is the exception in our make-up rather than the norm might not be helping us deal with it.
There are 7 billion or so of us and only about 5-6% of us live in places which could be described as war zones. Peace is the norm.
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
"Hang the bankers" isn't a useful response, but it's still absolutely true that the banking and financial systems screwed up bigtime, that most of it was predictable, and that some people actively profited off it. Conspirators they may not have been, but they're not exactly scapegoats, either.
Let them jump?
Bankers lost all their money on the bubble bursting.
Some things didn't happen:
Capitalism: your company lost money? Well that's sad, but there are a thousand more companies out there and we don't need you. Better luck next time.
Socialism: you rippied off people and stole the profits? You're despicable, your company is now forfiet to the state and you can be sent to prison.
What happened:
Politicianism: your company lost $trillions? You're despicable, here is $trillions (plus a little bit more for your time), make sure it doesn't happen again.
And here the Americans are 3 years later, $trillions in the hole and with a financial system run by the incompetent idiots. And on top of that they incompetent morons are actually being rewarded for their incompetence. There are protesters from both the right and the left, because in the case of banking they all offer superior solutions to what the centre did.
But... since the USA is a democracy (and neither of the effective solutions would be quick or pleasent) the centrist parties could not have done any different*. If the right-wing solution had been implemented the left would have surged ahead in the polls effectively destroying the centre right, and vice-versa.
* The only way either effective solution could have occured is if the centre-left implemented hard-right policy and the centre-right implemented hard-left policy - think Lange/Douglas v. Muldoon. -
Hard News: Dropping the Bomber, in reply to DCBCauchi,
Whether you're solving a painting problem or a political one, I suggest the process is sound.
Yes, except with political problems the people who get harmed will protest the decision and blame whoever makes it.