Posts by Damian Christie
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Dammit. I tried to get down to the West Coast last week to check that. Got up at 5am, got a plane to Wellington only to find out after landing that Westport Airport was closed due to rain. Would I like to fly to Nelson and then bus to Westport? Um, no thank you. So forgive me if my survey was incomplete :)
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...exactly. I fear that the only situation people think of when they propose no double-ups between electorate and list candidates is one where someone is effectively booted out of their electorate for perceived wrongs and then sneaks in on the list.
It also raises the point as to whether the good folk of Hunua, for instance, are the only ones who should decide whether Jordan Carter gets to be an MP. Obviously they should decide whether he gets to be their MP, and this is the fundamental split really, isn't it.
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>Just biff your watch on the ground and get with the program.
Yeah, the problem as I alluded to, was that we were there for work. Short time frame, lot of island to get around, running late for an interview, fading light, that kinda thing. Otherwise, absolutely!
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Cool - thanks for the heads up re Manono, I'm definitely planning to come back with partner in due course. Small matter of a baby in the next month or so, but once that's sorted...
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No one is going to remember the ins and outs of how the information about the CGT came out in September – they will be far more likely to be simply considering it on its merits, which are many.
I agree, absolutely. And the whole beer-bet-leak-issue thing was only a minor aside, simply because I thought Phil was looking stupid at the time acting coy after an intentional leak, and I figured it would backfire. As Craig notes, the importance of all of which might just be limited to a bunch of jiz-panted beltway types.
And second, the main point in my original post was that CGT is a good idea. Two National MPs have since agreed on this with me. Not publicly of course.
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Cracker: Another Capital Idea..., in reply to Hilary Stace,
Sorry, Damian, you can't change the terms after the event.
Jesus, it's good to see everyone takes this bet of a beer so seriously. I'll pay, I'll pay! God knows I earn enough... and also if it's a beer with Russell, it's tax deductible.
BUT. Far be it from me to know better what I meant by my words than you, but obviously I never suggested that Labour's announcement would get No Coverage At All. That would be ridiculous. And working on Q+A, I knew at the time I wrote that exactly what we would be doing the following weekend.
With respect to Q+A, it isn't watched by a great many people. The Nation, far fewer. As our only political shows, they were always going to cover the announcement, they'd have been scratching for content otherwise. Perhaps I should've put a giant * there to say "apart from blogs, and Q+A...". There was a 6pm track on Thursday, of course, and a number of pieces in the paper.
However from what I can see, there were more pieces about CGT in the week before the announcement than there have been since. By definition, all the pieces before the announcement were missing Labour's voice. Again, Labour MPs were crying foul about being 'upstaged' by Hone. The question is, would Labour have got more coverage with its own people doing the talking if they hadn't have leaked this? I still think the answer is yes.
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(but as someone said above, making the term Radler as generic as possible is the best way to invalidate it, cf Sellotape, Xerox etc...)
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Field Theory: It's not yours, but you…, in reply to LIISA,
Otherwise what will happen with imported beer (correctly) labelled Radler, but now ‘illegal’ in NZ?
...it would be a breach of trade mark. In much the same way as if I imported a bag that was labelled Gucci even if that name wasn't trade marked by the other Gucci in the country the bag was made in.
By that standard, almost anything that is made overseas is neither common nor generic.
@George - well no, but there are a lot of words being used commonly or generically, especially foreign ones, overseas.
Having an trade mark does give you the ability to back-date your application (up to a year, IIRC) in other countries that have signed up to the TRIPS agreement, but in essence it's still first-in-first-served system on a country-by-country basis. That might seem a bit archaic when Google can quickly show what's going on overseas, but it's probably an important part of our sovereignty, and I can imagine the uproar if a little NZ company was excluded from its rightful trade mark in this country because some evil multinational had been using it overseas first.
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By the way, having just caught up with this thread, I'll make a couple of observations about Rik vs The World...
- just as the definition of 'rich' might differ, so might the definition of 'struggle'. If my bank account got down to $100, or my credit card was within cooee of its limit, I'd be feeling uncomfortable. I have a couple of friends who I often shout lunch or dinner when I hear they've been eating 2 minute noodles for the past few meals. I understand the difference, it doesn't mean that on $100k combined income, Rik doesn't feel like things are tight. I don't think he's pretending that the power's about to be cut off, or that the belt couldn't be tightened further if necessary, right Rik?
- I understand accounting, I used to do my GST, but I don't have the spare time to do it these days, because I'm working 6-7 days a week. While it's all very grand to do your own accounts, there's a reason we pay other people to do stuff. I could probably learn to fix my car too, or learn plumbing, or carpentry, but again it's a better use of my time to DO MY JOB and then use the money to pay someone to DO THEIR JOB. Apparently good for the economy too, but let's not get into that debate.
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Cracker: Another Capital Idea..., in reply to Hilary Stace,
By the way, Damian, as far as I can see, the media is still talking about this a week after it was leaked (on purpose), so you owe Russell
Well, given that some Labour MPs have been complaining their announcement was deliberately overshadowed by Hone's oath stunt (they're blaming National, for Lockwood's action), I'd argue the toss on that one. The point was whether they've had as much time explaining their position as their opponents had over the past week. Again, I'd say no, but whether he's buying or I am, I'm always happy to have a beer with Russ.