Posts by James Littlewood*
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Hard News: Five further thoughts, in reply to Jack Harrison,
I'd like to agree. But I think Downbeat dan and Peter Cox are closer. Turnout was stronger than previous election. One party won by a ton. One party got hammered, and a million people stayed home.
Pretty obvious which party failed to motivate its voters.
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Regarding point 5, coalition with Greens, interesting idea.
The Greens have everything Labour need: a progressive outlook (tax the rich); appeal among younger voters; and a philosophy which is widely shared across a range of economic and social strata: the environment is finite, and worth protecting. Labour's neo Marxism-on-a-good-day philosophy won't compete with that in the foreseeable.
Labour have clout history and experience.
Sometime, the Greens are just goings to have to run candidate campaigns: Metiria in Dn North, and possibly some other good folks in urban seats, and possibly Coromandel or somewhere (did I read they beat Labour in the PV in West Coast of all places?).
Perhaps Matthew Hooton would prefer the two parties have a cup of tea. But coalition would be far more effective. And fairer to both voters and candidates. And more aligned with the parties' own values. And maybe even demonstrable of a better, more LabourGreenish way of doing stuff.
In other words, Green cannot grow but at Labour's expense.
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Such an obsequious line of enquiry. But explains the PM's total inability (and lack of interest) as an orator.
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Oookay. Sooo, that’s a yes, they can see my banking. Fucking great (not that it’s very interesting, I can assure you).
Meanwhile, did anyone else read Paul Buchanan on NBR yesterday. Someone asked him what would happen if NZ withdrew from 5 eyes, and if there’d be any security risk.
The answer: the same as what happens when you leave the mafia. Bang bang. Other than that, not so much. Meaning, the main security risk from 5 eyes is 5 eyes.
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Great interview thanks Russell.
Hey, you know that thing Snowden said about how easy it is for NSA analysts to basically see anything they want, and he rattled off a list of like email, Facebook, etc. All things which we go through some kind of charade of security protocols, etc.
Well, what about banking data? Can they see that, too?
Is there, in fact, anything at all which is beyond the eyes of others?
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Hard News: Vision and dumbassery, in reply to Jake Starrow,
I know what you mean. Which is why I agree with Paul Buchanan when he says the best way of managing a spy group is to have robust independent governance of it, which monitors everything it does both before and after it does it.
Clearly, we need something better than what we've got, because what we've got doesn't suit anyone. It doesn't suit Key's opponents because they don't trust Key. And it doesn't suit Key's supporters because the fact that it arouses distrust distracts Key from doing whatever he does that wins him support, like selling state assets or whatever.
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Quite a good Q&A with Paul Buchanan over on NBR.
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Didn't Guyon make a good point this morning though, that if the gummint thinks I'm a baddy, they issue a warrant. Once they've done that, they can pick up the info. But before all of that, they firstly have to have collected the info. And since they don't know whose to collect they just get everyone's.
The former head of GCSB just told him he was confused between surveillance and something else.
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What I like about KDC is his ability to provoke. It was - I think - the first time I've ever attended a do put on by a party that I have no intention of voting for. And I gotta give him cred for that. It was _interesting_.
I suspect that for every 10 votes KDC calls into question across the entire spectrum:
4 L/N votes stay where they are
3 stay home and don't get cast
3 move from L/N to any one of the smaller parties, with a small % of those going to IMP. -
Hard News: Vision and dumbassery, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Yes, live. He interacted with the audience applause. Oh and said "Sorry, I'm not used to this kind of a reception."