Posts by Stephen Judd
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: You down with TPP?, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
exactly what the benefit and purpose of “Stuff Nation” is totally eludes me
Sharing the op ed megaphone with citizens who aren't professional writers, in a much longer format than letters to the editor? Not an unworthy goal, I would have thought. (Disclaimer: the technical side of Stuff is a big part of my day job).
-
I hope you'll tweak Fran O'Sullivan about this column, in which she seems perplexed that the majority of voices in the academic world are opposed to the TPPA.
What I think she really hasn't got is that while many business academics might be in favour of trade liberalisation, it doesn't follow that they should favour the TPPA. The leaked copyright and patent proposals are distinctly illiberal (no true liberal regime would forbid parallel importing), and based on previous form, there is no reason to expect the Americans to actually give us access for our agricultural products -- in that respect trade deals with the US are like Charlie Brown and Lucy and the football. O'Sullivan seems to have an oddly naive belief in this area which is at odds with her normal skepticism.
-
I have a bunch of images from the rally here.
I think my favourite moment was when the guy from ACT got his turn to speak and tried to make out he was critical of how the govt had gutted local democracy. A loud dude in an RMTU shirt started heckling loudly and continuously YOU DID IT. YOU’RE IN THE GOVERNMENT. YOU DID IT! A nice woman tapped him on the shoulder, obviously to ask him to give ACT guy a fair hearing, and he turned around, shrugged and in a normal voice said “He did it” to her, and turned back and resumed shouting. I now regret not joining him, but I was too busy laughing.
I also enjoyed hearing Sam Mahon use his chance to speak to tell a very good shaggy dog story about Nick Smith. The rally culminated in the masses singing Happy Birthday to the Wizard (“happy biiiirthday dear wiiiiiiizard”) and finished with a prize draw and a lost property announcement. The injection of these surreal and quotidian moments into a serious political enterprise made me happy that I am the right city at this time.
-
Can we have a round of applause for someone who actually is a farmer coming in and very reasonably arguing their corner?
-
Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Fund winners, don’t pick them.
Is that really what Sir Paul said? It's been a while since that presentation of his was doing the rounds, but my recollection is that he wanted funding for technical education, funding for research, and a general spending commitment to develop the kind of equal society that would make NZ "a place where talent wants to live." My impression of what he advocatedwas of generally encouraging the conditions where high tech winners would flourish, not giving more to those who already were winnign.
-
And I just got to meet Paul Campbell at Nethui South. Another decent person first introduced to me by PAS.
-
Hard News: Triangulated by Fools, in reply to Craig Young,
Why do political journalists turn to people like Tamihere, Trotter and Prebble? Because no one who's a current member, in some sort of good standing, and in possession of the inside word, would ever talk to them on the record. Surely that's obvious. I realise that the horse of party discipline seems to have bolted, but the fact that they have to turn to external tea leaf readers is actually a good thing.
-
Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Where will it be held?
I don't know, and I suspect a venue hasn't been settled on. That might be a reason why there wasn't a big announcement, or perhaps it just wasn't news -- that decision got made yonks ago.
-
Something I forgot to note for Ian Dalziel in my earlier reply to him: next year’s Labour conference will be in Christchurch.
-
I was trying to explain what happened to my partner this evening, and took inspiration from Deborah's comment above, and eventually ended up writing this.