Posts by Rich of Observationz
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It should be up to the voters. If they feel an MP isn't working appropriately, then they have the option of not voting for them or their party.
All that's needed is a disclosure regime of attendance and outside commitments.
AFAIK Westminster has no attendance requirement. Many MPs are working barristers, for instance, and Sinn Fein have always refused to take their seats at Westminster - any attempt to expel them for this would have simply resulted in their repeated re-election.
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tunnel between Bowen House and the Executive Wing
Didn't know NZ had tunnels - I guess they aren't as extensive or secretive as the London ones.
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Reformed hardened recidivist criminal likes the budget.
Maybe he should join ACT - although most of their crims aren't reformed.
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Hard News: The Editorial Image, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
It's all very well asserting that the Nazis were incomparably evil, and that any attempt to compare more recent evils to them is an insult to the immortal deceased or whatever.
But it is a fact that right up to 1939 (or 1942 in the US) the "respectable" right was right behind Hitler as taking the neccesary measures to deal with the real problems of the German nation.
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I'd suggest that list MPs who enter parliament mid-term as replacements *were* returned at an election - the general election that decided the composition of the Parliament.
The new MP will have been on a party list. That party got enough votes to elect a number of list MPs. When the original incumbent left, they were replaced by the new MP. That's a continuation of the electoral process that started with the election.
Given that parliament's intention was clearly that all MPs should get paid, I'd suggest that notwithstanding sloppy drafting, it's legal to pay list MPs joining at mid-term.
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I guess a process server is a bit like being one of those bounty hunters in the US, except you don't get to carry the 44 magnum?
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Murdoch is part of perpetuating a form of puntofijismo in the UK.
Political parties (all the mainstream ones) operate within parameters acceptable to Murdoch. In return, they receive broad support/neutrality rather than the vilification applied to Labour under Callaghan, Foot and Kinnock, who were outside this range.
They also furnish Murdoch with the practical help he needs - tolerance of monopoly abuse, illegal and corrupt practices.
Fortunately, this is being broken down along with everything else. [In Ireland, where I'm visiting, there is an upcoming referendum on the EU Fiscal Treaty. In a local version of puntofijismo, all the mainstream parties support the treaty, with only Sinn Fein and a few leftist groups opposed. Despite this, polls are showing nearly a third opposed to the treaty.]
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Hard News: " To prostitute yourself to…, in reply to Russell Brown,
If the print unions had won, what would have happened? Newspapers *were* commercially viable in 1985 (Britain had at least seven national dailies). They'd have stayed so until the Internet came in.
At that stage, we might have gone quickly from expensive newspapers to free websites without going through the intermediate stage.
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OnPoint: Student Loans are Loans (Duh.), in reply to Kumara Republic,
If someone has the pre-requisites to take and pass a course, don't they have a right to take it?
In UK they have an artificial 'points' system where universities are ranked by the grades of the students they attract, and the higher ranked ones are assumed to be 'better'. (Often, they have been shown not to have better teaching or course content). It's a means to perpetuate social division (given that good grades correlate to being able to afford to go to schools with effective exam-focused teaching).
I hope we don't go down that track.
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Hebe; ereaders typically have battery life measured in weeks, tablets in hours. Against that, a tablet has much more functionality and interactivity. (the eink displays use no power but are very slow)