Posts by BenWilson
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Legal Beagle: Referendum Fact Check 4:…, in reply to Richard Wain,
Who was it said the best argument against democracy was five minutes with the average voter, Churchill?
Heh, that was a post war quote, after he got voted out. He never did get that guys like him are only of value when full scale war is unavoidable, or already happening, and at most other times he was a cold, ruthless barbarian. His life is practically a litany of deliberate attempts to block progress, almost all of them involving large scale violence.
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Legal Beagle: Up to 11, in reply to 3410,
So it seems. Strange then that all references in your post of two days ago to your conversion are in the present tense.
I was so confused by that also, but just didn't have the inclination to go fisking through the threads. I was just glad the Beagle had finally come round, um, officially I guess.
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I'm really enjoying this series, Graeme. Very informative.
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I found the Maori Party broadcast quite powerful. The music went a long way, and the idea of having a female rap in the middle worked. The message "we are Maori and we reprazent!" is something they might as well be straight up about. Their list of achievements at the end, though, scrolled by far too fast to read. I had to go back through it with MySky. At least one of them (repealing the F&S Act) is highly significant, perhaps their main reason for even existing.
It crushed all of the other minor parties, which were just hammy.
ACT's message "We've got Don Brash!"
Libertarianz's message "Foreign corporations avoiding tax will save Christchurch"
Alliance's message: Blinked and missed it
Conservative message "Move over Winston, and let someone with a decent suit have a go"
NZ First message "I'm still here, and I can still block things from the middle!"
UF Message "__I'm__ in the middle, and here to make sure National does what they say, but nothing more. I've also got the most complicated way of dropping taxes you can imagine, because I'm competently in the middle. Did I also mention that I'm in the middle?"
ALMP "Weed is Good" -
Hard News: We interrupt this broadcast ..., in reply to Jackie Clark,
Political discussions, or shouting as we used to call it, were a large part of my growing up. Maybe that's why I shy away from them these days?
Me too. The late '80s were especially fraught as my parents diverged in politics, Mum being faithful to a fault to Labour, whereas Dad is a swing voter. He was very angry at Labour and particularly Goff during that time.
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As someone put it on Twitter last night: Labour won the haka.
<that someone bows/>
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to giovanni tiso,
but if you put them in your campaign broadcast, like National did, you're just trying to lose the election.
I almost expected Key to pop up a Powerpoint slideshow with policy bullets, the way he was going.
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to giovanni tiso,
Each of us will come to different conclusions about that, but by god does it raise the level of political discourse. That really was remarkable stuff.
Yes, I was very surprised, and in a good way. It was like Labour actually listened to me personally. That feels like a first for my life.
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OnPoint: If Wishes Were Horses..., in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Gio also Tweeted, “I want to vote Labour – in 1935”
Yes, followed up shortly by "Seriously, though, the Labour party broadcast is very, very good. The complete opposite of all their advertising and dumb stunts so far."*
Sounds an awful lot like business as usual.
On retirement age it does. But CGT and compulsory savings are genuinely progressive policies and I applaud them for having the courage to raise these as the seriously good ideas that they are, both for fairness, AND as means to economic recovery.
If it is really all about the economy, then Labour is shouting that stewardship is not the same thing as doing nothing.
National's only serious comeback is asset sales. I thought Key made the point clearly enough, that the sales would be to fund purchases of new assets. But I found it extremely difficult to believe him on that. Much more work needs to be done to show what assets he is talking about. "More broadband" is just too vague, and "More roads" is something I don't even want at all. I do want more and better broadband, but I don't think handing the monopoly for a fibre network to Telecom is progressive at all.
*ETA Snap Gio.
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Labour's show was slicker, but I put a lot of that down to a very good decision. They have opted to take Key head on as a team. It made very compelling watching to hear from some of their pool of very competent orators. It's brilliant because it's totally apparent that Goff doesn't personally have enough to take Key head on, and the Nats have pinned their whole campaign on Key's face.
Also, it's a great answer to the concerns Gio puts excellent voice to. They have made a conscious choice to show the history of the people in their party to starkly contrast with the virtual absence of history that Key brings to the table.
I'll admit I didn't really have any idea who he was until I read The Hollow Men and was quite shocked to find just how much influence he was wielding in the party that was set to take control of the nation only a few years later.
As for Labour's policy plank, it's very timely. I fully agree with compulsory saving and CGT. These are good fiscal sense for the long term. Raising retirement, not so much, but it doesn't break my heart. It is my generation that will have to suck on the change, once again the boomers avoid the punishment. But I've got used to them apples, that's been the story of my life. I feel like it's a decision made not so much for fiscal reasons, because it's not even going to begin for until 2020, and not be complete until 2033, a couple of years before I become eligible for a pension. The baby boomers themselves will be all on pensions and in various stages of failing health, the costs of which will mostly be picked up by their descendants too. The reasons seem to be symbolic and slightly punitive to the currently young.
However, that might actually be what it takes to hold back the gradual transfer of boomer allegiance to the political Right. Their last throw at treating their middle aged children like they're still children who need a fiscal spank (again). I'm prepared to wear it, knowing that their time is rapidly drawing to a close. Christ, it's 22 years until 2033. Anything could happen politically in that time.
In short, good start by Labour. Have they drawn inspiration from the French? Could National, drawing inspiration from the All Blacks, actually choke?
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