Posts by ScottY
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I apologise and withdraw the suggestion that Scott Yorke is a lawyer.
Apology accepted. Wait a minute...
But not from a real law school or anything... (now Scott, you know I can make the joke right?)
Paul, if anyone but you had said that I'd be suing for defamation.
As for underhand cheating, Rachel's quite right. A large part of my job involves minimising risk for clients entering commercial deals. Cheating, rule-breaking and rule-bending don't generally get very far in my line of work. The downstream consequences to clients (and to their advisers) can be quite painful.
But on the rugby field it's different. The rules around the breakdown are so mysterious that one person's cheat is another person's great player. Thuggery aside, if you can do something without being caught then its probably okay.
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Paul, fair enough. When public money or politicians are involved I think it's fair to require a reasonably high level of disclosure and transparency.
Otherwise a person should be entitled to privacy in relation to their financial and legal affairs, so long as the person stays within the law.
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IRD are on to most of the common ways trusts are used to rort the tax system. Unless you're really clever your family trust probably won't help you to avoid much tax.
Most people I know set up trusts for asset protection purposes. If all your assets are in a trust it can be harder for creditors to get at them.
I have a trust for that reason, and I don't feel a bit guilty about it. If I were to become a partner of a law firm I would have to assume personal liability for what my other partners did, which is a bit silly, but hey that's the law. So most partners of law firms stick their assets in trust so they don't lose the lot if someone they work for is negligent and the firm gets sued for squillions.
Which is reasonable, because just about every other businessperson in the country is allowed to limit their liability by forming a company.
As for public disclosure, why? I don't see what right the public has to know how a person structures their personal and financial affairs if they're not breaking any laws. Although I can see why disclosure might be important where we are dealing with the likes of politicians.
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There was no transparency in the decision to dump Field either.
At least when Field was shifted quietly out the back door we had a basic understanding of the reason why, even if it was not absolutely transparent. With Worth we've heard lots of rumours, but still have no clear idea why he was booted out.
And I'm not trying to justify how Labour handled the Field matter. They'd be the first to admit it was a cock-up from start to finish. But I get annoyed when DPF and others go on attack as if the Nats are somehow holier.
And I realise DPF is just doing his job as loyal National Party lackey. Just as the folk over at The Standard are doing their bit to argue the expenses "scandal" is evidence the Nats are evil and will eat our babies.
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I like your post, Tom.
I salute anyone who can make the Battle of Jutland relevant to a blogpost.
I also think you're right. Give me an ugly underhand cheating win any day. Winners are grinners. The loser never gets the girl.
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I agree. Ask around any family group after a member has been found guilty, and you'll find at least one juicy quote or soundbite.
I don't think Labour's guilty of anything other than political expediency in not dumping Field immediately. They no doubt hoped there was nothing to the allegations and that an enquiry would take the political heat out of the matter.
The likes of DPF are now feigning righteous indignation, which doesn't surprise but isn't justified. At least there was an enquiry over Field's behaviour. How about Richard Worth's? I'm not suggesting Worth's done anything criminal. But there was no transparency in the decision to dump Worth.
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This morning's Herald article on the Field family's reaction made me cringe:
"We were good to them, we let them stay and look what they have done," she said.
Yes, look at all the tiling work they have done. Isn't it fabulous?
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Here's my 10 cents worth. Nothing that astonishing in my list:
- get Dan Carter back. He's got time for a couple more warmup games for Canterbury. Then select him.
- dump Rococoko. He's woefully out of form.
- dump Weepu. As per Rococoko.
- why is Eaton in the squad? What has he done this year? He's gone too.
- lineouts: they're a mess. Find a hooker who can throw properly and who doesn't throw to the back of the lineout on our own line.
- lineouts (II): if the current coaches can't fix the mess, get someone in who can. I simply cannot believe we don't have anyone in this country incapable of working out how to operate a functional lineout
- skills: if they can't catch or throw a ball without fumbling or f***ing up, don't throw the ball around. Work more on ball skills (why they should have to at this level is beyond me though), and until they improve play a simpler gameplan. For example, the Sth African gameplan was simple, brutal and effective.
- the front row aren't performing. Give them a rocket, or wield the axe.
- refuse to play any game that has a Welsh or Irish ref involved (okay, that one might be more tricky...)
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I don't want to see MPs eating grass and sharing a urine-scented doorway with Blanket Man
Not all MPs, of course. Just those we don't like :-)
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Don't think most people do -- within reason. I think what does get people's hackles up (which we saw in the UK) is politicians who think they can get on the public teat and there's no quid pro quo involved in the form of high levels of public disclosure and scrutiny.
I agree there should be full disclosure on all expenses. But that's a slightly different issue to the matter of salaries.
Yes... but so do good teachers, doctors and nurses, firefighters, Police officers and so on. Plenty of people work damn unsocial hours, or under considerable stress that all too often has blowback for the people around them.
I agree (again!). My wife, before she finished work to be an at-home mum, was a secondary school teacher and worked much longer hours than me and for much less money. Teachers, nurses etc are underpaid.
That doesn't mean MPs are overpaid, though.