Posts by Luke Williamson
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Home time for me. Barack has it in the bag. Ya'all don't need to worry.
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87% reported for Florida and Obama with 0.5% lead.
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I try not to be amazed at Fran O'Sullivan's weirdness - she seems to have actually toned down a bit in recent years. However, the weekend one was quite astounding for someone who appears to have some intelligence and be somewhat perceptive. To overlook all the idiocy, lies, glossing over and complete lack of detail in the Romney campaign is quite something. I think Bambam has been pretty damn disappointing in his presidency thus far but he is still soooooooooooooo much better than Romney would be. To quote "The Castle" - Get your hand off it Fran.
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Hard News: And so it begins, in reply to Adrian Humm,
Also being in a smallish town, I agree with you about the school reflecting the community. If/when league tables appear, I think the school needs to be proactive and use the local press and whatever other means available to point parents towards the comprehensive info available at ERO. Use the media to their advantage and don't give up after only one or two outings. Our high school publishes their monthly newsletter (brag sheet) in the local newspaper and it gets read by a large proportion of the community.
The information for league tables will be used no matter what so its about coming up with suitable strategies for countering their influence. -
Congrats Russel. You deserve a good and settled home.
If you're doing Olympic coverage, can we start now? I'm just about tearing my hair out (what little there is) over the poor quality and disingenuous attitude from all but a few of our interviewers at the Olympics. The standard line appears to be, 'So you didn't win - what went wrong out there?' Epitomised by the women's pair in rowing who WON A BRONZE, and the first thing the interviewer said was, 'Gosh, pipped at the line by the Aussies eh?'. They all need a good punch in the face straight after their first stupid and small-minded question. Have we sent all the trainee TV journos up there for experience or something?
And just because I don't like to be all negative, the chap on the Prime highlights programme with beard and glasses is great fun.
I guess it serves me right for not splashing out on full Sky package for the Olympics. -
Presumably, kids pre-load cos the drinks in bars are too expensive for them and, therefore, they drink less once inside. If alcohol was more expensive outside of bars, reflecting the potential damage it causes, then perhaps there would be less pre-loading as well. (It was amazing this weekend to see one of our local bar owners buying up 20 cases of Corona from the supermarket cos it is much cheaper than he can buy it wholesale.)
I only get into the city every couple of months for an evening out and I can handle seeing some drunk, raucous people (used to be one) but I don't want to be threatened and have my evening spoiled. Lots of people having a good time is great but aggresive assholes soon ruin a night out. -
Hard News: Press Play > Budget, in reply to Andrew C,
This all makes good sense. However, I guess the "intent" of a CGT is to stop the obsession with second, third, fourth investment properties and to direct that money into other areas of investment. In doing that, the presumption is that the artificial heat goes out of the property market and capital gains on property diminish to a point where it doesn't matter if the family home is exempt. Maybe?
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Yeah, what Deborah said.
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Hard News: Press Play > Budget, in reply to Andrew C,
Because it feels good? I don't have a good economic argument. I read Gareth Morgan's Big Kahuna and liked the theory of his capital tax but it would be a pretty big leap for people to launch into that scenario. I think the government has just delivered a budget that sums them up pretty well - not much of anything and no clear direction, uninspired, etc. Probably sums up my attempts at the budget also.
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Hard News: Press Play > Budget, in reply to Deborah,
Agreed. If personal rate goes up, then everyone becomes a company, and if company rate goes up, then the company moves offshore. Not easy. My big longterm sell would be continuing to create the sort of NZ that everyone wants to live in no matter what tax rate there is. We already have this to some degree with all the 20-30-year-old brain drainers returning home as soon as they have children because they want to raise a family here. So let's add into the mix, cleaner and greener, world-leading conversion to renewable energy, superior social services, maintaining our excellent teaching standards (while picking up the tail of non-achievers), leading edge film production and music, more walking and biking options, getting to grips with our multi-cultural makeup and embracing that, more and better wine, world's best fresh food, etc. etc. It requires a leader who isn't a glorified accountant with a history of strip-mining foreign currencies.