Posts by BenWilson
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Legal Beagle: A four-year parliamentary term?, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
No it doesn’t. There has been one two-term government in the history of New Zealand.
True, indeed. That's even worse. Amend my statement to "losing here generally means 9 years of the other crowd, using both median and mode as your measure of central tendency. If you prefer means, it's 7.666 years".
If someone who supports a four-year term on this basis would like to explain what they mean, we’re all eyes.
I'd understood that was what you meant. Putting the onus on those want change to show how it means better government. Which means explaining what better government means.
However, it's not clear why you get to put the onus on, unless it's for the rhetorical purpose of showing just how un-evidence-based this decision will end up being. Is there any evidence that it wouldn't be better, either? When the onus goes back on justifying keeping 3 year terms, it's pretty clear that's also an arbitrary line in the sand.
Mind you, I'm often a little bit suspicious of the term "evidence based". It seems like a new word for "rational", that sounds more scientific. Every piece of evidence of good government is always going to come loaded with the preconceptions of the observer. I know several Chinese people, for instance, who will swear blind that the Chinese government is the wisest and best form of government ever invented, and they can pile up endless evidence to that effect. Since they don't give a flying fuck about human rights, they don't find those counterarguments compelling.
-
I have a question for wonks: How many times has a change in the length of term has been offered to a populace, and they have opted for a longer one? And vice versa? Also, similar question, how many times has it been changed by legislature without recourse to referendum, and which way did it go, longer or shorter?
Without any evidence, my guess would be that politicians would generally aim for longer terms, and populations for shorter ones. The middle ground would be that politicians would only ever propose increases, and populations would generally reject that. This is only a guess of course.
This is based on the idea that people vote in the interests of increasing their power, and IMHO, long terms make politicians more powerful, and short ones make the people more so.
-
Legal Beagle: A four-year parliamentary term?, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I don't think it's about the salary. I'd say it's that politicians don't actually like campaigning, with a few exceptions. It's hard work, and it's not the kind of work they like. They want to me making decisions, flexing their considerable muscles, and longer terms give them more of that. Even in Opposition, being in campaign mode is exhausting.
But this might be wrongheaded. To my mind, part of the reason that campaigning is such a big deal, so much work, is because of the long terms, that there is so much more riding on it. The less campaigny the campaigns become, the more I will actually like them.
As for stability of planning, this is mostly brought about by civil servants, rather than politicians. When they're aware that they must cater to multiple governments, they go for the most neutral ground, in much the same way that Wikipedia entries become steadily less controversial, and more caveated over time.
-
I really don't see how this discussion can end up evidence-based. What does "better governed" actually mean? This is hardly a checklist kind of thing, there is no boilerplate for the best governmental system, and even less of one to decide if any particular place has been well governed, or will continue to be. A lot of the time it depends on the challenges they were facing at that exact time.
To me, it's more a moral question, a question about the rights of the populace to have a say, than a practical one. But they're hardly independent, a practical failure ends up being a moral failure too.
I'd actually rather have shorter terms. 2 years, and see how it goes. That's a pretty long job contract. If you've failed to impress in that time, move over. I don't really see why entire agendas get to hold power for so long, why losing an election is basically being resigned to 4 years of not seeing anything you want enacted in Parliament. In fact, given the way it's worked historically, losing power here generally means 6 years of the other crowd, three of which are spent taking low hanging fruit and doing nothing obvious, the second three are spent ramming through a big unpopular agenda.
-
My 2c is that this service is not really much different to borrowing a book from the library. It's not ripping anything off, it's a great service, of tremendous value to people with little money. Children would strike me as very likely users. People who copy music on a large scale would not bother. At least this way the artists get something for the music.. Admittedly the ratepayer is footing it, but thye foot the library in its entirety already, all the books in there, the buildings, the staff, and also all the existing CD stock, which degrades from use. This would probably save the library money, in reality. Might also make it more popular, which is all good the minds of teh yuff.
-
1. A dead tree full of shags after sunset, by the Whau Creek, looking to the Waitakeres.
2. Orion over the Waterview Bore. A copper chopper flies between Taurus’ face and Jupiter. No tripod, just park bench, hence Jupiter looks like a sperm. I think the red flashes on the chopper were about a second apart, so presumably this shot had roughly a six second shutter time.
3. Looking South from the same spot over Oakley Creek. Handheld again, Southern Cross and pointers, and the lower part of Argos, keel and sails.
-
Hard News: What did you do yesterday?, in reply to Jeremy Andrew,
That’s an impressive pile of compost!
I picked an angle that made it look especially huge. It's actually on elevated ground relative to the cat, but it's still a big pile. Mostly weeds, spent vegetable roots, and quite a lot of tree trimmings. What amazes me most is that it will be about one tenth the size by the end of the month.
And also, you get tsunamis in your swimming pool? How big is it?!
It's the biggest pool in the whole world. Covers most of the surface of the Earth!
-
Hard News: What did you do yesterday?, in reply to Martin Barry,
Great to be able to support what is being done there and assuage some of the guilt of a 2 cat household :)
Found a great, big, juicy dismembered rat on my lawn yesterday. I presume it was an offering from the cat I've been courting. I don't want a pet, but if there's to be predators prowling my back yard, I'd rather they were cats. Snapped it camping this hole in the compost this morning. I doubt that it's birds in there.
-
I gardened for most of the day, and then stargazed until midnight. I had planned to go for a swim three times, but every occasion was stuffed up. On the first, the pool was closed because someone pooed in it. The second and third were blown by the tsunami warning. But it was a pleasant day nonetheless.
Turning over compost heaps and tending to the worm farm shouldn't be so much fun, but I'm rather fascinated by the underlying processes. Killing all the worms in the farm is apparently like smoking a motherboard, a basic rite of passage if you want to fiddle with such things.
Oh, and there was a round of golf. I love how he kept his eye on the ball here, despite cleanly missing it.
-
Hard News: What did you do yesterday?, in reply to Russell Brown,
Just you, I think. They’re all working for me.
I’m getting the same as Luke. Using Firefox.
Edit: Wow, that's weird. I see the link on reload, briefly, then it goes away to be replaced by the grey line.
Last ←Newer Page 1 … 379 380 381 382 383 … 1066 Older→ First