Posts by Nick Russell

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  • Hard News: Friday Music: Gobshite vs Adele,

    Sorry y'all, Im with Noel. The way Adele responded to expectation was by doing a simple copy and paste as far as I can see. She's great, her voice is great, but we've heard it all before.

    A bit like Oasis really, when you think of it - except she's plagiarising herself rather than the Beatles...

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 129 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Friday Music: Back to a…,

    I saw JAMC in England when they toured Psychocandy at the time it was released. This was after their initial notoriety when the gigs would only last about 20 minutes because that was all the material they could play, and usually ended in a riot. They played a full set, and while I don't recall them being great, they played well enough for it to be a great night. Or so I remember it...

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 129 posts Report Reply

  • Polity: Cold, calculated and cynical, in reply to Danielle,

    Yes. But that's politics.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 129 posts Report Reply

  • Polity: Cold, calculated and cynical, in reply to Trevor Nicholls,

    Protect them how? Send an aircraft carrier?

    Seriously, I think the Labour Party is walking into a trap here. Unless they can explain exactly what more they would do to support the detainees, and convince the public that it would be a worthwhile use of Government funds and resources to do it, they risk looking like a dog chasing a car.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 129 posts Report Reply

  • Polity: Cold, calculated and cynical,

    I wonder if Labour has backed the wrong horse here. The detainees are, as far as I can tell, people who left NZ, some a long time ago, and who are fighting to avoid being sent back here. Some have serious criminal records. Does the Labour party seriously think the Government is going to lose support over this? And what exactly do they think the Government should do?

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 129 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Fifty thousand preventable deaths, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Well, if you wait for patents to expire the drugs will certainly get cheaper. But how many Hep C sufferers will die in the meantime, or suffer through a course of interferon?

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 129 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Fifty thousand preventable deaths,

    How can the new treatments for Hep C be "cheap and easy to administer" if they cost $80 to $100k per patient? If we have 50,000 people infected, it would cost billions to treat them all at that rate.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 129 posts Report Reply

  • Polity: Meet the middle, in reply to Alec Morgan,

    Rob's point, I think, is that you can't get enough votes to govern unless you can attract some who are not your natural supporters, and that this applies equally to left and right. If your attitude is that these voters are intellectually lazy and zombie mall shufflers just because they disagree with you, you may not be terribly successful in achieving that.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 129 posts Report Reply

  • Polity: In defence of the centre, in reply to Mr Mark,

    You do realise that the Conservative Party just won a general election with an absolute majority, right?

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 129 posts Report Reply

  • Polity: In defence of the centre, in reply to Rich of Observationz,

    I think the only way Labour and the SNP will ever enter into a long-term coalition is if Labour essentially gives up in Scotland, like the Conservatives have. As long as Labour aspires to win Scottish seats in Westminster, it must fight the SNP. That's FPP for you. That doesn't mean there is no prospect of a short-term coalition, like the Conservative-LibDems just did. But it would not be harmonious - Labour would continue to try to kill the SNP even while working with it, in exactly the same way as the Tories have just done to the LibDems.

    Has it occurred to you that some people in England may have voted Tory precisely because they wanted to avoid the risk of Labour-SNP government?

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 129 posts Report Reply

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