Posts by Matthew Poole
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Speaker: The government's Rules…, in reply to chris,
So long as the general public are kept in ignorance without the education and resources freely available to oversee inspectors’ work and knowledgeably supervise builders.
See, here’s the thing: as much as I am curious about pretty much everything and want to learn about as much different facets of life as possible, I simply do not have the time to both do my primary job and supervise some notional future builder on such notional future home as the economy might be so generous as to allow me to build. I’m very good at what I do, and I’m sure I could learn enough about building to be able to take a passable punt at supervising a builder, but I don’t have the time to become so expert in something totally unrelated to my day-to-day employment that I could spot the things done poorly in the many hours of the day when I would not be able to be present and watching over their shoulder.
We’re a species of specialists. If that builder needs someone to fit their new gas stove at home, they’re probably not going to become a certified gas-fitter; they’ll call an expert. Likewise if they need someone to run their construction company’s computer network, they’ll call someone like myself rather than learning how to do it themselves. Our lives are filled with complex systems that interact in complex ways, and it is beyond absurd for anyone to think that everyone could become even passably proficient in enough of them to be able to do away with regulators and inspectors for the entirety of society. Even historic human societies had specialists. -
Speaker: The government's Rules…, in reply to Steve Barnes,
How many of the builders who spent their early years under National4 would you trust to build you a dog house?
That point is moot, I wouldn’t but then why hire someone to do what you should be able to do yourself. Having a Prime Minister that can’t even hit a nail on the head does not mean the rest of the country are an incompetent hamfisted wunch of Bankers.
Many of us are not similarly skilled. I certainly am not. I could probably knock together a pre-cut canine abode, but I wouldn't want to do it from scratch and certainly wouldn't call myself a builder. I would dare to venture that the vast, vast majority of the country could not put together a garden shed that would still be standing in two years' time, and we absolutely could not build a house. So however skilled and capable you might be, the rest of us have to trust in the work of others. Others who you still have not said you would trust to build your own garden shed; and if you wouldn't, why should we?
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Speaker: The government's Rules…, in reply to Steve Barnes,
I have been a Builder for over 40 years and know what the fuck I am doing.
You mean "was", I think, but anyway. How many of the builders who spent their early years under National4 would you trust to build you a dog house? And how many of their apprentices would you trust to build you a planter box?
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Polity: So who exactly placed conditions…, in reply to Katharine Moody,
This was after [Key] insulted the half of the audience who wanted to keep the existing flag by calling them not as bright as the ones who wanted to change.
Is the now-quoted "mentally deficient" actually accurate? Or simply someone paraphrasing brutally?
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I missed this one at the time of publication, but boy is it looking prescient now. One hopes the headline is indicative.
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Hard News: To have a home, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Mr Key, being the son of a WW2 refugee, has basically “slammed the door behind him”
That's the MO of this Cabinet, really. Pull-ya Benefit hauled up the TIA ladder behind her.
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Hard News: To have a home, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Key himself has whipped up fear of Islamic extremism to justify all sorts of new spying powers. If you trust that nice man Mr. Key, then how can you not believe we are under siege from shadowy ISIS sympathisers, and need to be constantly on the alert?
But That Nice Mr Key has made sure our spy agencies can keep close watch on all those dirty jihadis who hate our freedumb and will be coming here under the guise of fleeing from dirty jihadis who hate our freedumb. He's got our best interests at heart, That Nice Mr Key.
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Hard News: Not yet standing upright, in reply to mpledger,
We should be able to put all our preference on one flag and it count the same as people who split their votes across the fern flags.
We can. You vote 1 on Hypnoflag and then nothing else. That way no other choices get your vote.
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Hard News: Not yet standing upright, in reply to sandra,
I first saw that picture of plastic plates on Facebook yesterday morning, four hours before this post was published.
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Hard News: Not yet standing upright, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
She’s obliged to act on the advice of her Ministers – meaning in the case of NZ, the NZ government.
If a monarch were to start personally refusing to accept advice then that would create an interesting situation. If they did that in the UK, they’d almost certainly come under pressure to climb down, and if they didn’t, the UK parliament would depose them
Oh, it would certainly be very interesting, but there is no statute that mandates it. Only convention, as with most things constitutional in this country.
My point was that because the Queen appoints the GG as their representative, despite the law not mandating such, Parliament's constitutional position vis the GG and on to the Monarch is intact. The flag has nowt to do with that.
Probably my wording was not quite clear, "accept" instead of "appoint" when I meant accept the nominee rather than accept the office.