Posts by George Darroch
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Outside of team sports, I can only think of Eddy Merckx, whose domination of cycling between 1968 and 1973 was almost complete. He won four consecutive Tour de France, four Giro di Italia, and almost every stage race he entered. Unfortunately he was probably doping.
What speaks to me about this team is Kapa o Pango. Executed with such commitment and discipline, it is almost more important than the game itself. There was also a really good article about how the team is now coached by a gang of four, a very collaborative effort. It shows.
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Hard News: Bringing an order Auckland…, in reply to Julie Fairey,
I found it bizarre that the Herald spent a whole editorial castigating Akl Council
I find it fairly normal. The Herald have had a vendetta against the Council ever since the first elections produced a centrist-left majority of Councillors and Mayor.
Negative editorials are as reliable as the rain.
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Hard News: Bringing an order Auckland…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
It's a very strange situation. I worked with councillors on a policy recently, and they were being pushed around by their CEO and senior officers. Policy that the officers didn't like was undermined by the vague threat of "legal action", despite similar such policy being well established elsewhere. Arguably it is the role of the Mayor to ensure that such a situation does not develop. I'm hoping that Lester stands for Mayor this time around; he has the talent and capability.
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Hard News: Bringing an order Auckland…, in reply to BenWilson,
Meanwhile, in Wellington the current arrangement is playing out in interesting ways. The green (formerly Green) Mayor and her centrist (quietly Labour) deputy are being challenged by a National contender and a Labour deputy-contender, and the reasonably workable Council in the middle is a mixture of egos, policies, friendships, and working relationships.
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"Future Auckland" also have a problem, as their name is quite similar to the longstanding (two electoral cycles) and successful Labour-Green-independent grouping called Future West.
I've suggested to Greg Presland that he take a complaint to the Electoral Commission. The names are sufficiently similar that a voter could easily be confused when marking their ballots.
It speaks to either arrogance or incompetence, and neither is a great thing.
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Hard News: The positive option of Red Peak, in reply to chris,
except that any change could be vetoed in the first referendum by a majority who have no confidence in the alternatives.
So why ask them twice, if the objective is not to give people two opportunities to say no, and only one to say yes?
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Hard News: The positive option of Red Peak, in reply to chris,
I ask you if you want a new t-shirt you’ll wear everywhere. Your existing t-shirt is old but comfortable. I show you the choices, you can then decide to keep your existing T-shirt as well as choosing an alternative.
Emphasis added.
That satisfies you if you want the existing alternative. If you want a different alternative you are essentially voting 'yes' in blind faith that an alternative you consider desirable or acceptable may be chosen.
I suggest that a plurality or even a majority of those who want change would vote no in the face of that uncertainty. It's a very poor way of expressing preferences.
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Hard News: The positive option of Red Peak, in reply to chris,
The Greens were presented with the option of either showing solidarity with Labour’s hypothetical proposal which could have potentially saved millions of pages of paper, litres of ink and petrol and kilowatts of electricity or the chance to satisfy a tiny movement running a lucrative fundraising campaign whose petitioned numbers amounted to about 20% of the party’s popular vote.
It is my firm understanding that the referendum would be held anyway, since it was already the subject of legislation. And on that basis, claims about cost and complication are highly disingenuous
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Hard News: The positive option of Red Peak, in reply to Deborah,
handed the Key government a club with which to beat the only other party – Labour – with which the Greens can hope to form a government in 2017. Was Red Peak such a compelling cause that the Greens needed to expend so much political capital on it?
If Labour were intransigent in their opposition to a process that would allow people to vote on their preferred flag before choosing whether to change the flag, then they created the club themselves.
The Government could have run this better, from start to finish. And they've taken a fair bit of political flak for that. But that history could not be unwritten, and the last two weeks were about what could be created from what already exists, not some hypothetical more successful process. And what already exists is four chosen by a panel, and another chosen by a large number of vocal New Zealanders. Demanding a stitch up of the process in order to have that one included is the definition of bad faith, and doesn't deserve a reward.
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Hard News: The positive option of Red Peak, in reply to sandra,
Are you being facetious? A lot of people are.