Posts by Rob Hosking
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Had to read this, if only for the title.
As for your rugby memories, its an odd boy who doesn't like sport.
-
OMG woggles. More men should wear woggles.
Woggles sort of go with the whole short trousers and knobbly knees thing, aesthetically.
If 'aesthetically' is quite the right word here....
-
I counted 14 but I'm claiming one of them was the bear.
Officer.
-
Scouts. Had been a cub but Scouts was the real thing. You got to do tramping and everything.
Quite roughhouse at times. Bullrush had been banned at school but we had it at Scouts. In the hall, in the dark. This went on until one guy got a dislocated hip.
Oh, and go in the Anzac Day parade. I thought that was pretty cool, until I found out - or rather, was informed - just how bad at marching I am. You'd think that it would be easy: you know, just one step in front of the other, keeping in time. But no.
First Anzac Parade I was in I was on the rear right corner. Behind me was the District Commissioner. And we'd go a few bars, I'd manage to stay in step, and then the mind would notice something happening by the side of the road, or just have an Interesting Thought, and out I would go. I got these hissed "keep in step, boy, keep in step" the whole way up the Main Street.
The District Commissioner could, on occasion, be a man of rare and wonderful wit. Ex Army type. We had a group inspection one time for some bloody event, he was going along the line inspecting everyone's woggles, scarfs, hats, etc.
Reached a guy about half way along just as this guy lets fly with a rip- snorter of a fart. Very loud. District Commissioner looks him dead in the eye. Not a flicker of a smile. Barks "take two steps back, boy, and pick up your guts."
-
Sorry about the dual post.
Too much coffee this morning produced finger twitch.
-
No, but does it make for efficient government if senior management is ideologically opposed to the policy direction that has been decided upon by the elected government.
There is a thing called professionalism, you know. And quite a lot of senior public servants have it in spades, even if some might cringe at the ideological direction of whoever is in power.
There have been cases of senior public servants with their own agendas which they run regardless of who is in power. Some are later lauded - by some - as heroes (William Sutch, Beeby; Rod Deane, Kara Puketapu, Graham Scott).
But they're rarities, and most can adapt to whoever is in power.
One other point: whenever a party has been out of power for a while they start to view the public service as having gone over to the governing party. Labour felt that way in 1999: as well as Rankin they specifically named some senior civil servants as being ideologically unacceptable.
[Question: how is that more OK than just being more generally critical of 'bureaucrats'?]Some of those named were gotten rid of- Rankin and Doone. Others - Paul Carpinter, Mark Prebble and Howard Fancy - weren't, and in fact came to be highly trusted by ministers.
Again, its about professionalism.
A final - practical - point. We just don't have enough talented people to have an ideological cleanout of the public sector every time the government changes.
-
No, but does it make for efficient government if senior management is ideologically opposed to the policy direction that has been decided upon by the elected government.
There is a thing called professionalism, you know. And quite a lot of senior public servants have it in spades, even if some might cringe at the ideological direction of whoever is in power.
There have been cases of senior public servants with their own agendas which they run regardless of who is in power. Some are later lauded - by some - as heroes (William Sutch, Beeby; Rod Deane, Kara Puketapu, Graham Scott).
But they're rarities, and most can adapt to whoever is in power.
One other point: whenever a party has been out of power for a while they start to view the public service as having gone over to the governing party. Labour felt that way in 1999: as well as Rankin they specifically named some senior civil servants as being ideologically unacceptable.
[Question: how is that more OK than just being more generally critical of 'bureaucrats'?]Some of those named were gotten rid of- Rankin and Doone. Others - Paul Carpinter, Mark Prebble and Howard Fancy - weren't, and in fact came to be highly trusted by ministers.
Again, its about professionalism.
A final - practical - point. We just don't have enough talented people to have an ideological cleanout of the public sector every time the government changes.
-
Carr calls us "pathologically reserved" which seems to be getting a bit carried away.
-
Well, I had a go, but after it disastrously ruined my database of "your mum" jokes in testing, I decided to scrap it :(
"A mainstream consumer is so fat, when I told her to haul arse, she had to make two trips."This dates me, but when I went for an evening walk after reading that I found myself humming 'your mainstream consumer don' t dance/and your daddy don't rock n roll...'
Sorry about that.
-
there are things you can prepare for, and things you can't, but either way, bitching about it doesn't make a blind bit of difference, and is an entirely wasted effort.
To paraphrase The Wire,this is New Zealand; the gods will not save you.Same applies for people bitching and whining on the interweb about, to take some recent examples, mortgages, the economy, food prices, and last night's selection on the television news.
Main difference being that after the RNZ Rural News reporter goes home the farmer will go out and try to do something about alleviating the effects of the drought...