Posts by Idiot Savant
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Dare I say it, but I think opening up the question of what actually constitutes a Council's core business is a good thing. Let's get it settled once and for all, define it and move on.
Nothing is ever "settled once and for all" in a democracy. And I for one think this is a Good Thing.
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We tried last time already. Mr 3.6 % is like Beelzebub, no matter how unpopular he is, you can't get rid of him.
Hell is other voters?
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An excellent plan, but for one slight drawback: we have not had university electorates for some decades now. Voters are required to register in the electorates where they live, which might be some way from University.
Or it might not. Remember, out-of-town students live in their university electorate too. This is about getting people to choose to register there, rather than whereever their parents live (and arguably, its more their community of interest than whatever Cthulhu-forsaken cowtown they only go back to for the holidays)
For people with multiple residences, where you live for electoral purposes is entirely a matter of choice. Thats why for example John Key is on the electoral roll for Helensville, despite not actually living there in any real sense.
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Meanwhile, in the EU elections, the anti-copyright Swedish Pirate Party has won a seat. Arrrrrr! Take that, copyright mafia!
(Or will this invoke the s92A thread?)
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If the change was permanent then yeah, things would have changed.
But the way things have worked out historically for NZ (government-wise) it's just like shifting sands.
Some of those changes are permanent. National will not, for example, be reducing the minimum wage, repealing civil unions, or doing away with paid parental leave and working for families. And it will not be doing those things because they have now become part of the political background, and the political cost of touching them is too high.
To step back and take a longer view than just the last two governments, homosexuality is now legal, spousal rape is __il__legal, we have a Bill of Rights Act and a Human Rights Act, a nuclear free zone and an independent central bank. None of those things look like they're going to change either.
These changes have happened because of politics. They have made real differences to people's lives. It is simply the height of stupidity (not to mention completely empirically unsupportable) to shrug your shoulders and say, as you have, that it's all swings and roundabouts, the changes made by one government are reversed by the next, and that "nothing really changes". The fact that women can vote and we have pensions and pay GST rather disproves that.
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Rik, you have missed my point completely. I'm not arguing anything about your preference for government. It's your statement that "nothing really changes at the end of the day" that I am taking issue with.
Things do change in and due to politics. Those changes affect people's lives significantly. YMMV on the virtues of any particular changes - that's not at issue here - but to pretend that none of it matters and that "nothing really changes" is simply the height of stupidity.
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Naughty messages to one's girlfriend is embarrassing for leaders, but hardly a crime.
I'm struggling to process the distance from reality needed to use the word "girlfriend" here.
Word.
double word.
Triple word.
If this was scrabble, we'd be rolling in points.
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And inexperience isn't treated as much of a downside at all.
There's an obvious reason for this particular bit in regards to Ministerial appointments, and that is that National spent nine long years in opposition, during which many of their previous Ministers retired or were de-elected.
More generally, no Prime Minister ever complained of having too many talented people for their Cabinet. And with a pool of just over 60 (some of which are from coalition partners), its not really any surprise.
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But nothing really changes at the end of the day.
Yes it does. Labour changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders in its time in government by repeatedly raising the minimum wage, re-universalising the public health system (well, almost), introducing working for families, and ensuring that the Reserve Bank encouraged employment rather than its opposite. National will change the lives of hundreds of thousands more with its tax cuts for the rich and failure to protect jobs (this list is horter because they have only been in power for six months; more for good or ill or YMMV is obviously to come).
What goes on in Wellington is not some amusing sideshow for the entertainment of the beltway elite, or some tiresome distraction from the "real" business of farming mate - it matters. It directly affects people's lives for good or ill, on everything from whether people have enough to eat to whether they can beat their children.
People who don't care about it are simply fools.
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It seems Worth was threatening legal action if the earlier complaint were made public. Typical behaviour for entitled easties, but may have made Mr Eagleson more inclined to half-heartedly pursue his investigations. That and the concerns about the rich vein of blue-blooded party funding drying up, of course.
Because rich party funders just love a sexual harasser?