Posts by Hebe
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Chris Waugh,
Yep; but the media are increasingly dumb (or am I getting old?)
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Russell Brown,
But does it really make sense to hold what will be a nearly 10 year-old grudge by the time of the election?
No grudge. Some of my best friends are active Labourites. But the Irish in me don’t trust them when it comes to making a government. Good thing I’m not the strategist!
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Bart Janssen,
.....Green if they would stop with the loony stuff and be a serious party with serious business policy as well as serious environmental policy.
By using that term you are playing right into the Joycean spin.
Why should a policy you disagree with be "loony", or any more loony than the unsustainable National growth-at-all-costs economic orthodoxy or Labour's smokestack centrism? I find both those unlovely, but they are not loony, just different ways of living.
Having said that, I would be happier if the Greens would stick to the core environment/sustainability agenda with strong centre-left conomic policy. As it is, they are the only party with the environmental advocacy essential for our times so I swallow some fringe issues that I really don't give a bugger about.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Keir Leslie,
The evidence just doesn’t back this up. Leadership contests are good for parties
Not when the parties are inclined to eviscerate themselves in public.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Russell Brown,
It would have to be a fairly significant lack of understanding to justify delivering centre-right rather than a Labour-Green government, surely.
Yes. Or accommodations by the centre-right that I don't believe are impossible over time (talking 20 years here).
I and others believe a deal could have been done in 2005 had Labour been truly willing to put MMP into practice. They were not and are still not unless they are the self-selected dominant partner.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
It’s way off topic until the election threads start next year, but I’m not going to party vote for anyone who’s going to be part of any support arrangement with New Zealand First
So you're a closet Green ? Hehe gotcha.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Keir Leslie,
You may think so, but most of the population will switch off -- and Key's swingers will particularly hate it.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Russell Brown,
The Labour-Green bloc is absolutely a given. There will be horse-trading a-plenty, but, that’s the only way either of them will get into government.
My view (as a green not as the party, mind) is that bloc is not a given, and that will hold until Labour gains any real understanding of and commitment to genuine power-sharing within MMP, rather than their present rather regal approach.
And I think the belief that the Greens were “shafted” last time was elected doesn’t entirely hold up. They simply didn’t have the numbers to deliver Labour a majority on their own. NZ First did, and Peters declared he wouldn’t be part of any support arrangement that included the Greens.
Not last election - the 2005 election deal. Labour royally shafted the Greens and deserves no trust until proven otherwise.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
You are presuming too much about how willing the Greens are to be screwed over by Labour once again. As a significant and growing voting bloc is developing for the Green Party, eventually Labour's assumption that it is the natural party of the left with others as mere satellites will be proven to be foolhardy. Shaft the Greens again in favour of the likes of Peter Dunne (and remember it was Labour that let that man through the Cabinet door) and that tie will erode to nothing.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I don’t think that’s a problem for Labour – people leaving Labour to vote Green is OK, as they’re coalition partners next government.
<q>That’s a rather foolish presumption to make – there is no constitutional or practical reason why the Greens should do any such thing, as opposed to doing nothing more than guaranteeing a Labour minority government confidence and supply, and everything else contingent on case-by-case negotiations. I know it’s not a popular thing to say around here, but it’s about time both Labour and National got house trained out of their FPP born to rule habits, for once and for all.
This, this, and this again! (Some sort of record Craig: I agree with every single word you say.) My Green vote is not a vote for Labour dressed as a tree.