Posts by Stephen Judd
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The "university graduate" thing is particularly hypocritical for a man with a BA, a Masters and a Harvard fellowship.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
I read "geldings" as a reference to male supporters of the quote proposals, equally offensive but in a different way.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Sacha,
Jane Clifton speculates about caucus factional aspects of Labour’s leaderhip contest.
Clifton, Garner, Armstrong, Trevett, all that crew: they're paid to be entertaining and have opinions, not to be right.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Lilith __,
many left-leaning voters thought National was bound to win and so didn’t bother to vote.
It's really hard to know why people didn't vote. Mostly because it's essentially qualitative research you need to do, not really amenable to polling, and if you assemble a group and ask them, people don't cop to not voting because they know it's shameful.
I know we all have our theories but I don't believe there's any study out there that provides empirical evidence (btw if I'm wrong, please point me at it, I would love to read it).
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Kumara Republic,
And Goff for Defence.
Then that's going to make reform of intelligence services an interesting one.
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The way I see it, many of you think a) Labour is somehow essential and yet b) somewhat shit. And I see two reasonable responses to that state of affairs, if you hold that view. Either work to make Labour inessential, by working for another party, or work to make Labour less shit.
And much to my surprise, yeah, I somewhat agree with Craig. People are in politics for personal ambition and policy goals. They conflict. Sometimes people can compromise, sometimes they can't. One person's "indulgence" is another's refusal to give away something vital.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
[deleted]
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
we all have to accept
Then perhaps you could accept that "Labour", like "National", isn't one person and that attributing a single emotional state to a large group is both insulting and wrong.
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Hard News: So long, and thanks for all…, in reply to Sacha,
indulgently looking inwards
Profoundly irritating, Sacha.
Labour is no more a monolith than any other party. The conflicts over the 80s are still playing out. People in the party are in it to do stuff, not merely to provide an alternative to the other crew, and so politics happens inside the border of the party as well as outside.
What’s indulgent is standing on the sidelines, sanctimoniously carping at the way people do work you want done but can’t be arsed doing yourself.
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Tom, you do seem to be claiming that "a gay machine politician" cannot talk convincingly about issues that matter to blue collar provincial males. Is that mis-representing you?
After Georgina Beyer's successful political career I don't think we can be dogmatic about who has appeal in the provinces.