Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: The humanity, in reply to Raymond A Francis,
So it was ok when the PM was being given a hard time before the election, I certainly don’t remember you calling for an easing of the questioning
Because he had questions to answer that cut directly to the heart of government, and gave evasive and disingenuous answers for weeks. Because he stood accused of secretive and unethical behaviour, and refused to condemn such behaviour by a minister, and by his associates. Remember, the Espiner interview hinged on his point-blank, repeated refusal to answer a reasonable question about the conduct of a Minister of the Crown.
but not ok when the Leader of the opposition who has just lead the party to a historical defeat is trying to be tricky, is called on his actions
Did you actually read the post, Raymond?
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Hard News: The sole party of government, in reply to Not The Messiah,
There was his f….d up Psychoactive Substances Bill.
It was only after Campbell Live ran story after story on this insidious shit did he finally pull the plug on it. The amount of personal damage this bill caused was devastating and sickening. Did he care…Only when the heat got too much.I'm sorry but that's bollocks. Synthetic cannabis was available for sale for years before the bill and for just over one year in a regulated regime under the bill. All kinds of things were screwed up in the execution of the law -- and basically, synthetic cannabinoids were a very poor candidate for regulated sale in the first place. But the idea that it only arrived with the Psychoactive Substances Bill is nonsense.
I believe he intends on reintroducing an amended version of this bill again this term. What a dangerous experiment again.
No, he isn't. The amendment bill in May got rid of the interim regime and got straight to the "all psychoactive substances are illegal until proven low-risk" stage. Hopefully the MoH will manage to introduce basic things like proper product-testing if and when a product passes the approval process.
There's also a major review of the Misuse of Drugs Act coming up. I'm not very hopeful of the Law Commission's recommendations being followed, sadly.
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Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Like it or not, what I’m hearing is that Kelvin Davis just got the basics right in ways Labour hasn’t in Te Tai Tokerau for a long time – reconnected with a lot of flax roots networks, rebuilt up an effective and energized ground operation, and worked his arse off in a huge electorate that’s really hard to stay visible in because it’s geographically huge and your target voters are widely dispersed.
Yes. And it's not like he was coming from nowhere -- he was bloody close last time. He will make a decent and capable MP and he may well hold that seat for a long time.
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Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to Tim Michie,
In terms of what Labour policy most might’ve been aware of (if not the details) I think some of negative reaction to the CGT plays into the result.
Yes, in that, particularly through Cunliffe's hapless grasp of the details, it created exactly the uncertainty the voters didn't want.
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Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I don’t think Labour needs to do all the soul-searching and so forth that people are talking about.
Worse result since 1922 strongly implies otherwise, IMO.
I do take Matthew’s point about leadership though. National without Key would be a very different proposition.
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Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to Matthew Hooton,
Agree with 1-4.
But not 5.5 is the one I'm least sure about, tbh.
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Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to Tony P,
This is why I’m angry and disappointed in the result as it’s going to make my job more difficult and I can see schools and the children in them suffering. I have around 8 years left before retirement and I would like to enjoy them working with the children I teach. I’m not sure it’s going to be that easy.
The demonisation of teachers makes me so sad. This is going to take a long time to undo.
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Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to David Haywood,
I wonder if part of the reason that voters have not seen Labour as fit to govern is the number of leaders they've gone through in the past electoral term (and the internal divisions within Labour that are highlighted during each campaign for leadership).
I did think about that. But the nature of the defeat is such that it's hard to not hold the leader responsible.
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Hard News: The sole party of government, in reply to izogi,
I’ve yet to meat anyone who habitually took any direct notice of Cameron Slater, but if you’ve had any exposure to media in NZ, chances are you’ve been very subject to the consequences of his involvement.
And that includes teachers and principals who had the temerity to oppose National Standards. What David Slack said about the purpose of the whole Dirty Politics thing being to silence people was apposite. You might never have heard of Slater, but what you saw and heard in the media was often a consequence of what he did on National’s behalf.
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Hard News: The sole party of government, in reply to BenWilson,
Now we’ve got the left being held responsible because it turns out that our government is quite corrupt and that it deliberately set out to spy on us, and feeds a lot of secret attack lines to a guy who churns even right wing stomachs. These are features, not bugs. Initially undocumented.
And I make no apology for caring about all of that. It concerns me, deeply.
I get that in large part these are "beltway issues" but I think what has been discovered is troubling and needs setting right. The overwhelming nature of the victory unfortunately makes that less likely.
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