Posts by simon g
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I was - and basically still am - very annoyed with Jones, Carter and co, for their stupidity as much as anything.
But if there are more performances like Paul Holmes' on Q&A this morning, I'll be forgiving them faster than they deserve.
By any reasonable measure, our MPs are not noticeably worse than those of other democratic nations. Those who report on the MPs, for our "public" television, clearly are.
Somehow I don't think David Dimbleby or Jeremy Paxman would treat us to a Chris Carter impersonation, complete with pantomime fairy voice.
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Close-Up are just taking the piss. Four wealthy men selling the Budget to the rest of us.
I think John Key is the token leftie in the discussion.
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NZPA picks up a report in the Whakatane Beacon:
"The newspaper report quoted a Tuhoe spokeswoman as saying the iwi recently learnt that Mr Key was involved in a telephone conference called by Transport Minister Steven Joyce, involving senior ministers but excluding Mr Finlayson, before the decision was announced by the prime minister.
Those involved learnt a poll of North Shore voters indicated the Government was conceding too much to Maori.
The spokeswoman also gave details of the arrangements put in place by the Crown and Tuhoe to mark the occasion, which included the engraving of 15 Parker pens bearing the inscription Tuhoe-Crown AIP (agreement in principle), Waimana, 2010.
She said 30 Ministry of Justice officials had booked into Whakatane motels and deputy solicitor-general Matthew Palmer and ministry chief executive Belinda Clark were to attend, as were officials from the Crown Forestry Rental Trust.
Representatives from Tuwharetoa, Ngapuhi and Tainui were also invited.
Tuhoe budgeted $160,000 for the event and nine marquees had been ordered.
Whakatane motel Tuscany Villas confirmed a booking for eight rooms for government officials was cancelled after Mr Key said giving Tuhoe ownership of the park was not on the table and was unacceptable to the Government.
The report said Tuhoe negotiators were to meet with the Crown's chief negotiator, John Wood, last night to discuss whether a settlement could be salvaged."
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Please consider this a submission to your opinion page.
Just call yourself 'Deputy Director, Institute of Global Media Studies', that should do it.
But yeah, how desperately sad. When the newspaper editor doesn't even care enough to - well, edit ... we might as well just give up and leave the trees standing.
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There's a piece in the latest North and South (offline) from Guyon Espiner, on Afghanistan. He says (paraphrase) that he has formed a considered opinion on the conflict, because - get this - he has now been there.
I thought "jet in jet out" journalism had been mercilessly mocked off the news pages years ago. The idea that Guyon Espiner, or anyone else on the PM's jaunt (was it 3 days?), has some sage and profound insights into that quagmire, is absurd. All the more so, when you consider that the war has been going on for years, and has produced plenty of in-depth, insightful analysis by long-term (international) reporters, who might really have something worthwhile to tell us. How much of this has reached our TV screens? The media had to cover the Vietnam war with museum technology, and yet it penetrated our living rooms more than Afghanistan has.
"Afghanistan: it's just not there unless we are. Guyon Espiner, One News."
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Well, at least the word "Tuhoe" has been heard around the world, thanks to the John Key Comedy Festival.
The Prime Minister has even won an award from the San Francisco Examiner: Dim Bulb of the week.
That's quite an accolade for Aotearoa, given the competition in the States.
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I love that we in New Zealand have adopted a condescending tone as we see the chaos caused by what we have come to expect since 1996 - no clear winner on election night.
Let's up-smug that tone. We have had a clear winner on election night, in three of the last four elections. ("Winner" here meaning the name of the Prime Minister, not the exact details of his/her government).
The UK media have mentioned 1996 a few times, but not so much the experiences since, as we've learned to do it better. That doesn't fit the "OMG PR chaos!!!" line, so it's ignored.
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Lots to comment on with this deal, much of it better than I feared. Damn offline life is interfering today, so here's the nutshell:
I'd love to believe this will work, but I'm not optimistic. Here's why - the Guardian (not the execrable tabloids, but the great liberal voice) telling its readers:
Sky News has been running snippets from the televised leaders' debate which showed Cameron and Clegg pitted against each other. It offers what I imagine is the unprecedented situation of having a public display of vehement disagreements between two senior members of the same team, simply because they were bitter opponents at the time.
(my italics)
Yes, it's so unprecedented, that it happens all over the world, all the time. They argue, then they deal. And that's just in the campaign. They carry on arguing, in government. We had a "public display of vehement disagreement" from Minister Rodney Hide last month, and Minister Tariana Turia this week. So when's the election?
The parallels with NZ 1996 are uncanny. We stuffed it up first time, and then we got smarter. Because we had to. Thanks to MMP, the rules had changed.
The difference in the UK is that the rules haven't changed. I'm not sure they ever will. I really, really want to be wrong about that.
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Not sure Clegg would appreciate that comparison.
I'm guessing Winston hasn't read "Waiting For Godot" a hundred times:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/apr/30/nick-clegg-my-hero-samuel-beckett
Whether this helps us understand Clegg's political manoeuvring, I really couldn't say ...
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I might have underestimated young Mr Clegg.
On Friday he had a disappointing election result and an offer from Cameron to do diddly squat.
By today he's got Gordon Brown calling it quits and the Tories promising a referendum (albeit not yet the one he wants). Apparently it's their "final offer", like their previous one.
Stick it out for a couple more days and he'll be moving in to Number 10. ;)