Posts by Matthew Hooton
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I drive on the motorway through Grafton Gully at least once a day when I am in Auckland. There is what looks to me to be a fantastic new cycleway that I understand allows people to cycle all the way from west Auckland to the CBD. I even reflect on how nice it would be to cycle on it. But on only a single occasion have I ever seen anyone cycling down it. This is usually during rush hour, between 8 and 9 am, after I have dropped of the kids at school.
People from west Auckland: why don't you use this new facility? Knowing the answer to this might help AT make better decisions in future.
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Polity: Key Derangement Syndrome…, in reply to John Palethorpe,
Yes. She also led the Northland by-election campaign for National.
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Polity: Key Derangement Syndrome…, in reply to Russell Brown,
For real. Jo de Joux is on the payroll. Her firm, Hannifin de Joux, is CT's local arm. See http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2015/02/hannifin_de_joux_partners_with_crosby_textor.html
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Polity: Key Derangement Syndrome…, in reply to John Palethorpe,
Excellent post John. Only one point that I'd contest a bit, and it's this:
out manouevered, out messaged and out thought by the National comms department
There really isn't some brilliant National Party comms department. There's only John Key and his extraordinary retail political talents. When he is absent, the famed National Party comms department seems to fail: e.g., the Mt Albert by-election, the Northland by-election and now the Vic for Mayor campaign being run by Crosby Texter's Auckland office. Crediting brilliant PR masterminds for Key's success is another example of the left underestimating him (and, if I'm allowed to say, a bit of KDS). This also means that when he is defeated or retires, there will not be any brilliant infrastructure to take the party forward under a new leader, which may give the left some hope.
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Legal Beagle: The flag referendum:…, in reply to andin,
I think messy societies are better than neat and tidy ones.
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Legal Beagle: The flag referendum:…, in reply to Alfie,
You think Anthony Hubbard is part of a pro-government PR campaign???
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Legal Beagle: The flag referendum:…, in reply to william blake,
We're being asked just that, right now. And the overwhelming majority of us voted for the National, Labour or Green parties, all of which had manifesto promises to face a flag-change process. All three parties were also involved in selecting the flag consideration panel.
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Legal Beagle: The flag referendum:…, in reply to william blake,
giving the job to a team of professionals and presenting the result as a fait accompli,
You're aware we're living in a post-Somme/ post-Gallipoli political environment? It has been quite a number of decades since people have been happy to leave decisions to the experts, especially questions of national identity. Decisions which are left entirely to the experts (e.g., Official Cash Rate, which drugs to buy) are quite rare.
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Legal Beagle: The flag referendum:…, in reply to Chris Waugh,
But only after a long, thorough, and properly consultative process in which all the issues, especially the place of the Treaty in the new republic, are properly thrashed out and the best possible new constitution drawn up, then it all put back to the public in a properly organised referendum, perhaps requiring some sort of super majority to pass.
What you really mean as you don't ever want there to be a republic. The process you suggest is not realistic in a messy pluralistic society. Has any new republic come about the way you suggest?
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Hard News: So what now?, in reply to Sacha,
Leadership sometimes involves putting longer-term evidence-based policy ahead of what the polls say right now.
Yes, but that has been very out of fashion in New Zealand for at least 17 years.