Posts by Lucy Stewart
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Oh, I still am but, I’d like to think, just not a mindless elect-bot. I don’t want anyone, even the right people, having unbound power. I’ve also said more than once, that as a citizen rather than a partisan I also need a strong opposition no matter what tint the government is – our democracy works best when the government of the day is most strongly checked and balanced.
+1. I was thinking about it the other day, and even as a Labour member/supporter I'd much prefer a coalition government where Labour did have to negotiate seriously to pass bills to an outright - or even close to an outright - majority. I think it makes for better laws and more serious debate. Any government being able to do whatever they want without having to consult anyone else is a recipe for Very Bad Things. Even if it starts off well, inevitably some issue will come along that they'll screw up.
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These may be special votes from people who aren’t on the printed electoral roll (because they’re on the unpublished one, or they enrolled after the rolls were closed for printing), but they also include votes cast within that electorate in respect of another electorate
This seems particularly likely to be relevant to the marginal Christchurch electorates, where a lot of people will have left the city because they lost their jobs or their houses were too badly damaged to live in or repair. Although many will probably have re-enrolled in their new electorates, if the move is permanent. I'm really curious as to how many special votes will end up being counted in Waimakariri and Christchurch Central - quite apart from the effect on the preliminary result or lack thereof, it might give a hazy indication as to how many people now outside Christchurch still feel connected to the city and want to move back.
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Keir Leslie,
Hebe, I don’t know how to put it politely, but I don’t think you have a very good grasp of the Christchurch Labour Party’s views on the Greens.
Hey, Keir, for all you know they were having the meetings on how to steal our rightful Labour votes back from those crazy Greens when we were out of the room. It's possible, right?
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Legal Beagle: Election '11: the special votes, in reply to Andrew Geddis,
It's also to allow time for overseas votes to be returned ... Kiwis voting in London, for instance, have their votes flown back to NZ and distributed to their "home" electoral districts.
Only if they voted at a diplomatic post or posted their votes to their local diplomatic post (for instance, we posted ours to the New York consulate.) It's also possible to post or fax them directly to New Zealand; I wonder what the split is on those methods? A lot of Kiwis overseas are near diplomatic posts, but certainly not everyone.
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to 3410,
New Zealanders returned National yesterday because:
a) National is closing the wage-gap with Australia.
b) The “brain drain” has slowed under National.
c) New Zealanders may be generally against asset sales, but they can live with it, since 85-90% of the shares will remain in the hands of Kiwi mums and dads.
d) New Zealanders don’t want to work an extra two years just to save the GST on bananas.Anyone seeing a pattern here?
National are actually from the Mirror Universe?
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Hard News: Democracy Night, in reply to Ross Mason,
So it takes an earthquake to change a staunch labour electorate. The Nats should pray for a few more in the next three years.
Er - which electorate would that be? Christchurch Central was a marginal seat in 2008, with a margin of 935. Doesn't take an earthquake to swing that by any stretch of the imagination.
The most interesting part of the night was overhearing some people in the know, predicting that Key wouldn’t stick around for the next election. What think the prols?
High. He's got his shiny PM certificate, he's won re-election, time to move on out before the asset sales start and the real anger sets in.
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I'll say: having exerted myself to get our votes in from overseas, the low turnout makes me quite irked. It's the future of the country - at least have a goddamn opinion. In a lot of ways I'd be happier if Nact had got back in with a decent turnout, losing that many votes and still getting back in is just depressing.
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Currently streaming TV3 (I was overruled) over the net. It's 3am here and one of the friends who came over is asleep, so it's all a bit weird. We posted in our votes a couple of weeks ago - easy enough, but not nearly the same solemnity. All in all it feels a bit disconnected. I guess that's what you get being overseas for an election.
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Hard News: The Solemnity of the Day, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Oh and gee they were cheeky, the first thing they stated, is the speed of the rebuild, will depend on who we vote for on Saturday, implying a vote for National will keep the process moving.
I have only inarticulate growling noises to describe the level of inappropriateness involved there.
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OnPoint: Brain Drain Et Cetera, in reply to Ben Austin,
That being said, moving to London from Wellington was pretty easy and presented little dislocation, which rather surprised me.
British culture had a direct and very present influence on New Zealand culture right up until - well, the mid-twentieth century, in its most significant form, and it lingered. Plus we have a lot of British immigrants. I've only spent a short period of time in London, but I had much the same feeling; it was very easy to adapt to. Still different, but not that different.
America has been a whole 'nother kettle of fish. I can honestly say in a lot of ways I have far more in common with my Taiwanese-Swazi labmate, with whom I share a sort of generic Commonwealth Expat culture, than a lot of Americans; I'm sure if I went to Swaziland or Taiwan, that would be different, but while we're both here we're adapting to the same things. Same language, technically, but not the same culture at all, or not when you're living there 24/7.