Posts by BenWilson
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Sacha,
Not if the whole thing is successfully being played to his talkback base as being "principled".
I don't think refusing to answer questions in an interview is ever a good look. Good on them for persisting. He could have just answered very briefly, perhaps taking one question and a follow up, and then switched to talking about the economy (on which any number of harsh questions could be asked since he's presided over an absolutely disastrous economy).
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Which was the whole bloody point of MMP, right? Right?
It was one of the points. Greens would be a powerful advocate for environmental issues under either National or Labour. Indeed they are a more powerful advocate if they sit between those poles, and I'd say they'd pick up as many votes as they'd lose. The real danger is actually to Labour, who might actually lose votes left to a party more representative of the poor, if they find themselves without the padding of the Greens whose environmentalism might have cost quite a lot of working class votes (who have more pressing concerns). I see Mana moving into the vacuum that the Greens will leave, if they slip into bed with National.
Which, I have to say, does actually make more sense to me. It's people voting more directly for representation on the minors, rather than working in unholy alliances that bleed off in every direction. If environmentalism is your thing (and it's actually not my thing, at least not the main thing), then vote for environmentalism.
I'd love to see the Greens kick out Dunne's comfy little nest as the party of choice for centrists. I'd love to see Labour actually fight for the Labouring classes. I'd love to see social liberals who are voting National suddenly realize they can still have right wing economics if they really must. I'd love to see Green economics become centrist economics. I'd love to see the Maori Party actually fighting for those Maori whose tribal affiliations are far less pressing than their miserable poverty. And I would really love to see the look on all the really conservative National voters faces when they hear that they're in bed with the Greens. I'd love to see the Greens seriously confront how they can make an economy that is primarily industrially agrarian work, and actually court rural voters.
This move by the Greens makes a lot of sense. I probably won't vote for them myself, because in this election it's all about the economy for me, and Labour is more convincing to me. I think they have the ideas that will prevent real hardship for NZ over the next 10 years, and set up an equitable future.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Steve Barnes,
I, for one, will not be voting for them this time, the thought of them supporting National gives me nightmares.
I'm in two minds. They could temper National on some fairly major things I seriously oppose. More roads and mining.
Or the latest and most sickening suggestion, that beneficiaries should be drug tested, and lose their benefit if not clear. That's one of the most punitive suggestions towards beneficiaries that's ever been seriously proposed by a major party. To be regularly drug testing hundreds of thousands of people, and then imposing on them punishment that goes well beyond what the employed get if they are caught in possession, is a major violation of human rights, a form of social profiling I find incredibly objectionable.
If the Greens supported that idea, I would never consider voting for them again in my life. There would be nothing they could do to recover from it, in my eyes.
ETA: And it goes without saying that the same would go for National but x10
ETA2: I can't think of a policy more likely to cause an instant spike in crime than to put people who not only haven't got a job, but now are even more unlikely to get one, and who have a drug habit to support, to have no means to support themselves.
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Legal Beagle: Infrequently asked questions, in reply to Tim McKenzie,
What if there was a party of independents?
That's a leftfield idea, most creative. I think it wouldn't work, though, because independents would most likely object to the policy of other independents in a lot of cases. They would therefore not see anything that good about working hard to put people higher up the list than them into parliament and missing out themselves. The same would go for the voters. I might like some independent dude at #10, but if I really don't like someone from #1 to #9, then I'm not going to want them to get my vote.
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Legal Beagle: The New Zealand Election Tax, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
I can read LISP but I can't write it.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Yeah, but y'know, tactical voting and all that.
I think it's taking the idea of thresholds too far to suggest that it's a wasted vote if it doesn't push them over the 0.83% threshold for each candidate on the party list, given an electorate seat is won. That applies to every party. Your vote isn't worthless just because it wasn't the one that tipped a candidate in our out. And even if it is, you never know, for any candidate, if that close vote mightn't happen after all. It's only parties well under the 5% without an electorate that have substantial wasted votes.
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Legal Beagle: The New Zealand Election Tax, in reply to Richard Aston,
I wonder how an experienced lip reader would go with Key - my guess is his lips would be unintelligible.
I pity any lip reader in NZ generally.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to Rob Stowell,
There's Mana. It won't be wasted if Harawira gets his seat, which he probably will. They're probably the least likely party to go into coalition with National, and that includes Labour.
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Hard News: The perils of political confidence, in reply to dc_red,
It's now being strongly suggested that Key said something to the effect of NZF voters "dying out".
It's exactly what Matthew Hooton was saying on iPredict several times, the night before. Seems the smart money thinks that way, and I've no doubt Key follows the smart money.
It's also true. They are. That's why the latest incarnation of Peters is much less of a racist xenophobe. It's still in there, though.
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Legal Beagle: The New Zealand Election Tax, in reply to Richard Aston,
I have suggested elsewhere we need a jester in parliament - especially for some of those tedious third readings of minor bills.
And someone has to wear the baubles.
ETA: Or bauballs as Key pronounced them this morning. I often wonder if he does that sort of thing deliberately, and what's on the secret tapes is him talking with a posh school accent and no noticeable lisp.
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