Posts by Craig Ranapia
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
I'm sure this doesn't need saying, but "don't be a dick" is the whole of the law. One strike and I will close and delete ALL comments.
-
Oh, and to give the Herald (long over-)due credit, this is what happens when you're focused on something other than the Mayor's penis. Do hope this is a precedent for more actual journalism.
-
Hard News: Schools: can we get a plan up…, in reply to Glenn Pearce,
Without wanting to defend the ministry’s poor planning too much, it is a complex problem.
Sure – but it always has been since people tend not to plan their lives around government demographic projections. Pardon the cliché, but if a business was run this badly the shareholders would trigger a run on pitchforks and burning brands.
-
Muse: The Disappearing of Paradise, in reply to JacksonP,
Do you think it would be suitable for a young reader fresh from the Divergent series?
I'll give you a heavily qualified "yes" on that. Mann is a very dense level up from standard YA prose, but definitely worth the effort. If you're looking for entry level Mann, I'd say get the little boogers hooked on Master of Paxwax -- it worked for me.
-
Test
-
Hard News: Things worth knowing, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
You can see how riled up the right are that no less than three Tories are doing spin in the first hour this was up.
Get back under your bridge, Rich -- can't be bothered today.
-
Hard News: Things worth knowing, in reply to Russell Brown,
But the paragraph you quoted was about the Adams questions, which I think are of a wholly different nature.
It’s on some bizarro spectrum of cluelessness – I think what smacks people’s gobs about all three cases isn’t so much the events themselves, but the high levels of disingenuous cuteness when perfectly legitimate questions were asked. Perhaps I’m getting soft in my old age, but I don’t believe Cunliffe, Collins or Adams are Putin-esque monsters of sleaze and graft. But we shouldn’t have to take that on faith – we should know, and be able to make our own judgements. As far as I’m aware, there’s nothing preventing any politician or political party voluntarily over-sharing instead of trying to game already weak rules. It’s not only bad on principle, but as you say bad politics.
-
Hard News: Things worth knowing, in reply to Russell Brown,
Because they don’t seem equivalent to me.
The political Alzheimers that miraculously lifted the instant it became clear the media weren't going to get bored and go away? Seems two faces of the same worthless coin to me, in that respect, and why we all need genuine transparency politicians can't game, and face meaningful consequences if they try.
I'd also note, Russell, you're very generously drawing a distinction for Cunliffe's legal but unwise leadership campaign financing he and his own party weren't generous enough to extend to National when they were *cough* lightly rinsing donations through trusts. I guess we can agree to disagree on this Russell, but that "internal party election" was for someone who'd go on to present themselves to the nation as a potential Prime Minister. Perhaps I'm on old crank, but if parties want to have US-style leadership primaries I'd like then conducted without US-style backroom chequebook politics.
-
But the questions would be relevant no matter who asked them. When a government takes an extraordinary step like this one did over ECan – dismissing an elected council and appointing its own commissioners – which manifestly benefits a particular group of businesses, it must expect this kind of scrutiny.
No, Russell, all politicians should expect exactly the kind of scrutiny and transparency they demand from everyone else in the public sector all the fucking time. And to entirely cynical, it’s not if politicians of all parties exactly hold themselves to terribly rigorous standards of disclosure, so I’ve got very little sympathy when that comes back to bite the likes of Collins and Cunliffe in the arse.
I know this is blasphemy for pols and their enablers, but I think it's in politicians' own best interests to strengthen not undermine disclosure and genuine transparency around campaign financing, lobbying (I've long argued for a lobbyist register) and pecunary interests.
-
Hard News: Spring Timing, in reply to Sacha,
Doesn’t really sound like staying out of it.
Sounds like a minister of the Crown doing her job in an entirely appropriate and upfront manner unless I've totally missed something in the linked story.