tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post6166370236142952037..comments2024-03-28T21:25:08.138+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Defending the MiddleChris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-6902877788385849232009-12-22T16:52:24.586+13:002009-12-22T16:52:24.586+13:00Tanya
Another hobby you could take up is correcti...Tanya<br /><br />Another hobby you could take up is correcting my horrendous typos.<br /><br />And, whilst I'm all for blandly moderate politicians, I'm also wholly opposed to blandly sycophantic media, of which we've had far too much over the last half dozen years.<br /><br />So I agree. Bring back 'Facelift', but not at the expence of Coro Street. <br /><br />VictorAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-13808219811307019572009-12-22T08:52:41.138+13:002009-12-22T08:52:41.138+13:00So have I got yopu right, Tanya?
You object to th...So have I got yopu right, Tanya?<br /><br />You object to the 'yawn-inducing middle of the road' not because it's 'middle of the road' but because 'it's yawn-inducing'.<br /><br />Toughen up, Tanya! There are more important issues around than keeping you entertained.<br /><br />If you're life's so boring, why not take up a new hobby......sky-diving, crocheting, flamenco dancing .....the list is endless. <br /><br />VictorAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-46847413487664517452009-12-21T17:55:05.994+13:002009-12-21T17:55:05.994+13:00I was closely involved with the rural sector throu...I was closely involved with the rural sector throughout NZ in the mid eighties. For a decade I was in charge of a sales team of 24 people direct selling to pastoral primary producers. My people knew all about the literally dozens of farm suicides which took place in the aftermath of the Douglas revolution. Sure the measures had to be taken but it was the speed and harshness of them along with the total absence of any safety net which caused so much personal tragedy for so many people. Of course the media dutifully ignored this quiet little massacre in the paddocks and corn fields so most of your readers knew nothing of it.<br /><br />It is for that reason that I deride the loud mouthed shouting of the fundamentalist rightists who seem to live in a secluded community where political pureness comes from a book; where one must have a guru to worship and adore; and where the art of compromise and negotiation is unknown and if encountered, is deemed sinful.<br /><br />Some of you will know I'm a National Party member and with the exception of current policy on Fiji and the ETS I think NACTionalMP are doing a pretty good job and Mr Trotter's analysis in this piece is pretty much spot on.<br /><br />Merry Christmas Mr Trotter and a pleasant New year. Thank you for your entertaining scribbling this past year. I won't wish you prosperity because good Lefties have this inherent need to be poor.Adolf Fiinkenseinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08045358863278087055noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-41855742327823073642009-12-21T15:58:04.080+13:002009-12-21T15:58:04.080+13:00Victor, I wasn't arguing for a radical right-w...Victor, I wasn't arguing for a radical right-wing agenda actually. Just some bottle from our govt, some spine, some daring to be different, and not worrying about what Obama does first. MMP has made politics boring, the robustness has gone.<br /><br />Wish TVNZ would bring back the Facelift series, now there was some political fun.'<br /><br />TanyaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-57758886495415163732009-12-21T11:58:56.214+13:002009-12-21T11:58:56.214+13:00Tanya
Politics is about keeping the country and i...Tanya<br /><br />Politics is about keeping the country and its people as safe as possible from the tides of outrageous fortune. <br /><br />If a politician has a lucky run, he or she may actually make things better for the majority of citizens. Most of the time, however, they're battling upstream to prevent things getting worse. <br /><br />Your comment about the 'yawn-inducing middle of the road ' reveals the self-indulgent inanity behind so much right-wing thinking. Never mind the consequences of our policies, let's just have fun and get radical!<br /><br />But it's people's lives that your radicalism plays with. It could mean elderly or disabled people or the sick having to do without the basic necessities of life. <br /><br />It could also mean hundreds of thousands of lives turned upside down by the maelstrom of economic change, when all that most people (quite sensibly ) want is to live their own private lives (nothing to do with politics, economics or the drivel of business gurus), with a modicum of security. <br /><br />We've been down the path you appear to favour already in recent decades and we know that it's cruel and heartless, no matter how much fun it gives you to strike extremist poses and pretend to logical rigour. <br /><br />We also know that it has the potential to tear society apart. Now that really would be fun wouldn't it! <br /><br />Meanwhile, if you think Coro Street is devoid of excitement, you just haven't been watching.<br /><br />VictorAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-51744406250081940912009-12-20T16:36:52.462+13:002009-12-20T16:36:52.462+13:00I can't help thinking that NZ has become yawn-...I can't help thinking that NZ has become yawn-inducing, middle of the road boring under Key's utterly pragmatic leadership. When it comes to major decisions he seems to be without spine, and is more concerned with what other world leaders may think, rather than Kiwis at large. At least Phil Goff took a major risk, admirable, seeing as he does not have fifty millions smackaroos to fall back on.<br /><br />We are stuck in the past with Key, sometimes a radical agenda is needed, I admire Sir Roger far more, NZ politics these days is about as exciting as Coronation Street.<br /><br />TanyaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-28852785741207672542009-12-20T10:41:29.348+13:002009-12-20T10:41:29.348+13:00Markus 2:
In an earlier thread I briefly discusse...Markus 2:<br /><br />In an earlier thread I briefly discussed the swing at the last election, but didn't quite get around to answering a question 'Ritchud' put to me: "So who did Labour lose in 2008?"<br /><br />Difficult to answer the demographic part of this question without full breakdowns from opinion polls, but I can briefly outline the geographical/regional dimension to the swing.<br /><br />It pains me, as a loyal, born-and-bred Wellingtonian, to say this but Labour's focus has to be AUCKLAND, AUCKLAND, AUCKLAND!!!<br /><br />Most of the largest Lab-to-Nat swings in the Country occurred in the city of sails in 2008. Of the 17 seats there, no less than 15 experienced above-average swings to National. While Otaki, Whanganui, New Plymouth and Taranaki-King Country all recorded swings of between 3.5 and 5.5 percent, many Auckland seats were swinging by 8,9 or 10 percentage points.<br /><br />Compare this with Wellington where every single one of its 6 seats experienced BELOW-average swings to National.<br /><br />It surprised me a little earlier this year when Labour's "Regional Road Trip" focussed on Otaki, Whanganui, small-town Taranaki and New Plymouth. Because if there's any region Labour should feel relatively happy about it's the lower North Island (including the places mentioned above). <br /><br />The fact is every single seat in this region recorded a below-average Lab-to-Nat party-vote swing in 2008 (and from memory it was a similar case at the 2005 election). It's really the last area Labour should be worrying about (although obviously strategist Darren Hughes wouldn't mind winning back his Otaki seat ;-)<br /><br />Labour's second focus should be on Auckland's hinterland immediately to the north and south. Helensville, Rodney and Whangarei all experienced above-average swings in the north, as did Hunua, Waikato, Hamilton West and "Greater Tauranga" (ie Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty seat) to Auckland's south. <br /><br />From memory, some seats - particularly in West also recorded some of the greatest swings to the Nats in 2005. Hence in seats like Te Atatu, you're actually looking at an enormous swing over 2 consecutive elections).<br /><br />And then I'd suggest the third main focus should be on Christchurch which swung almost as heavily to National as Auckland - 5 out of 6 Chch seats recorded above-average swings from Labour to National (blue-collar Wigram being the exception).<br /><br />All this, of course, ignores the crucial demographic dimension.Chris Trotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-7983723397405482802009-12-20T10:36:30.448+13:002009-12-20T10:36:30.448+13:00"Markus" - I have received your "co..."Markus" - I have received your "commentaries-by-installments" (I wish I could help you with the problems you're encountering) and am posting them here under, my own name, for the convenience of Bowalley Road's readers:<br /><br />Markus 1:<br /><br />Yep, Auckland's extremist laissez-faire Right appear to have been around since at least the late 1920s/early 1930s ("The Kelly Gang") when relatively moderate conservative, Gordon Coates, was decried as a "dangerous Socialist".<br /><br />Incidently, I presume one of the right-wing journalists referred to above would be a certain former leading NBR writer turned highly-aggressive, red-baiting "historian" who is occasionally given free rein by The Listener (e.g. the whitewash of Fintan Patrick Walsh, the hatchet-job on W.B.Sutch, the regurgitation of 1950s SIS paranoia with puppy-like enthusiasm). <br /><br />And it's probably safe to assume that the same Auckland Right lobby-cabal has been the driving-force behind the up-coming referendum on MMP (certainly some of its members have recently taken a prominent role in espousing the Supplementary Member cause - all to no avail, SM remains by far the least attractive option according to opinion polls). <br /><br />National/Key have attempted to argue that the referendum's all down to intense pressure from the general public (tragically, Jane Clifton has recently gone down the same road in The Listener). <br /><br />The reality, of course, is that most polls over the last few years have recorded majority or plurality support for MMP, and little interest in a new referendum.Chris Trotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-46363131039724603682009-12-20T02:20:40.200+13:002009-12-20T02:20:40.200+13:00Chris, I suspect the reason you're only gettin...Chris, I suspect the reason you're only getting a few comments is that, like me, others are having real trouble getting through. I've written out the same 4 paragraph response to the article (and by no means a critical one) three times now and they just aint getting through.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-57184587672840781332009-12-17T23:08:52.234+13:002009-12-17T23:08:52.234+13:00Bravo! Victor. Bravo! You've done it again.Bravo! Victor. Bravo! You've done it again.Chris Trotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-8641788039012733952009-12-17T22:58:14.304+13:002009-12-17T22:58:14.304+13:00They came for Farmer Jim
With his jaunty Irish cha...They came for Farmer Jim<br />With his jaunty Irish charm.<br />They kicked him out of office<br />Though not back to the farm.<br />Instead of grog with Winston<br />It was cocktails with the Yanks,<br />Whilst from his true blue legions <br />The Helmsman got no thanks.<br /><br />They came for Auntie Helen,<br />The baby boomers' Queen.<br />The once crusading liberal,<br />Turned Pragmatist Supreme.<br />They picked away and pilloried<br />Until her skills wore thin.<br />And now she's in New York,<br />Our loss,the Third World's win.<br /><br />They also came for Cullen,<br />That deft, acerbic man,<br />With his finely-balanced books <br />And counter-cyclical plan.<br />They mocked him as a skinflint<br />And as a spendthrift too.<br />I don't know how he could be both.<br />Nor, I suspect, do you.<br /><br />But will they come for Johnno,<br />The state-house kid turned rich?<br />Perhaps their plans to scupper him <br />Will end up in the ditch.<br />Or will they yet succeed?<br />And whence will come the blow?<br />It's really quite opaque. <br />Might Fran O'Sullivan know?<br /><br />VictorAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-25721404336297953522009-12-17T22:27:14.741+13:002009-12-17T22:27:14.741+13:00You can see that Chris suggests a banana republic ...You can see that Chris suggests a banana republic for NZ:<br />Chris says:<br />"<br />But Key has enough cash to fund National’s next election campaign single-handed. He can snap his fingers at the Auckland Right (and their threats) with impunity. And so far, and much to his credit, that’s exactly what he’s done.<br />"<br /><br />This is an absurd old world socialist idea from Chris.<br />John Key has 50 million. <br />Thats nothing in International politic.<br /><br />peter quixotepeterquixotehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15873112816453062068noreply@blogger.com