Posts by Jason Dykes
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Ben: "I was going to weigh in on this discussion about the core values of the two main parties, but the more I thought about it, the less sure I became."
Me too. Fun discussing it though.
CR: "... didn't the Labour Government actually increase their majority in 1987? Don't think that was all down to boobs who were thoroughly bamboozled by the Rogernomes"
You may be too young to remember (heh heh), but in my unsubstantiated opinion, things were different before 1987. People weren't boobs, but in general they were more trusting of politicians than they are now. They were more likely to believe parties stood for certain values. Voters actually read printed manifestos (political scientists ran them through SPSSX as a measure of ideological position) and people even joined political parties! These things have changed and it's partly because of that 1987 election where a Govt was voted in on one set of policies and implemented another agenda, working as quickly as possible to outmaneuvre dissent. Then I think that became a trend among various other governments, parties and party hoppers. I make no judgement about the goodness or badness or otherwise, and I certainly don't want the 80s back, that's just how it is.
Given the fluidity of parties' policies over time I have no idea why people now align themselves to particular political parties at all. When I ask this question of the different shades of partisan I come across, often they say it's the "core values" or "core principles". But so far no-one has been able to explain to me what these core values are.
Personally I think it's a moving feast. We just have to accept it's harder work to find someone to vote for these days and that once they're in we'll need to keep a close watch on them.
-
Craig: "... some of us don't actually think the Fourth Labour Government was the parliamentary equivalent of a slasher flick."
I wasn't intending to pass judgement (in this instance), just thought it was ironic that DM's example of a core National principle was actually introduced in practice by a Labour Govt (and might more rightly be claimed by Act today). Before that we had interventionist Govts for a very long time. I think a more genuine core National value is social conservatism, although even that is changing.
I guess my real question is whether Collins' position on these issues is of value to National electorally.
-
DM: "Nationals core principle (that differentiates them from Labour) is that they prefer market based solutions instead of state or government based solutions."
You mean like 1980s Labour?
-
Principles or prejudice?
DM: " ... I'm not convinced National needs to abandon most of its core-principles before they become electorally acceptable."
This is the problem. Exactly what are the core principles that might differentiate National and won't be abandoned? I went here to look them up but the key messages page doesn't work and the "values" are general enough to satisfy almost anyone: http://www.national.org.nz/About/vision.aspx
Labour's are at: http://labour.org.nz/policy/index.html
For example, within social policy, both major parties say they support strong families as well as individual freedoms. But what does this mean in practice, particularly for those individuals that traditionally haven't enjoyed support for their freedoms (i.e. the non "mainstream" folk)?
If National fails to define the above in their policy, and doesn't rein in the likes of Collins, it sends a message about core principles. You'd think if a party felt that message was inaccurate, they'd act to clarify the matter. Unless they thought doing so would lose them votes.
-
I have met many bastards - good, rich, poor, hairy, smelly, boring, stupid, cunning, evil and charming - but the one that comes to mind is the cowardly bastard.
In the early years, CB was entertaining. In a group, over a few drinks, he'd propose ridiculous schemes on which he'd never follow through. Like the time we were hungry and CB hatched a plan to get some food from the bread factory next to X's flat. CB insisted somebody go with him, so X reluctantly agreed. The two had got halfway up the chain link fence when CB "fell" back to the ground. X kept going but once he reached the top, was picked out by a security searchlight and had to abandon the mission. Occasionally the implications of such scenarios were more serious. With a group in town after a gig, CB's friend Y lit up a joint and passed it around. A zealous constable spotted the group and headed toward them. Previously hogging the joint, CB made a frightened hospital pass to Y, who took the rap (and a trip to court).
When accused of cowardice, CB would remind people of his long list of one-night conquests and the relative bravery that implied. In fact, we learned his successful conquests could be put down to a combination of alcohol and one extremely successful pickup line to do with etchings.
A few years passed while I was out of town. On returning, I was surprised to learn CB had found himself a steady girlfriend. She had a young child from a previous relationship. One day he suddenly dropped out of her life, not even returning calls. She was surprised and distressed. I found him at a cafe in town and asked him what was up. He said he really liked her but didn't want to be a dad, and that the relationship had hit a point where she was going to expect him to be. He said in such situations it was best to avoid the arguments, cut all ties immediately, say nothing and move on.
Later, he told me how much of a failure he felt and how he was going to turn his life around. Within 12 months he'd let me down too - on a financial deal he'd persuaded me to back him on and then freaked out about, leaving me to carry everything.
CB is still out there, preying on young women by night and periodically living on an allowance from his mother. A friend has helped him into a seasonal part-time job. Occasionally I see CB walking along the street. If he sees me first, he scuttles down the nearest side alley, google-eyed with fear.
-
"It was also the first time I'd really enjoyed "killing an arab"."
It may have been my imagination, but I thought I heard Smith use the "killing another" alternative lyrics to that song. My partner disagrees with me - maybe someone can clear it up?
Wikipedia has some info on the above happening in 2006: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_an_Arab
-
"All of the originals' keyboard melodies were turned into gigantic guitar riffs that destroyed the song - where was the keyboardist anyway?"
I thought it worked. Similar to when Smith put out some acoustic versions of his songs (in the early 90s?). Both times it has surprised me how well the songs held up to that treatment - which maybe shows how good they really are. Anyways, why go to a concert if you just want to hear the CD?
On Tuesday I stood dead centre about 12 metres from the stage and the sound was fantastic. At times there seemed to be duel between the guitar soloist and the drums, with the drums of course ultimately crushing the guitar. But I could still hear everything underneath. I recall Smith saying a couple of times he was losing his voice at random intervals - maybe that was a comment about sound, but again, it came through fine where I was. My hearing wasn't so good yesterday though.
And guess what? Robert Smith isn't actually fat!
-
After spending some time overseas in various places I decided there isn't a major problem with prices of food and other goods in NZ, the problem is with low wages and salaries compared with other developed countries. I think there's even less of a "bubble" with the housing market here than people are saying. House/land values are increasingly part of a global market for real estate & right now for various reasons it's quite fashionable to buy in NZ.
The challenge is how to raise incomes for NZers so they have a chance of competing with overseas buyers. The double challenge is how to compete when you are export & tourism dependent & current economic practice serves to raise the value of the $NZ and make our exports & holidays more expensive.
Perhaps the answer is to sell our homes and become currency speculators.
-
Any joyous work stories out there? Or do the rotten jobs always make the best stories?
I once worked for a large company that required its business units to create strategic plans once a year. We were allowed a couple of work days and a small budget to go offsite and create these plans. Almost always, such sessions involved renting meeting space in a hotel and working through a tedious list of vision, mission, objectives etc etc which ultimately didn't change much from year to year. But of course you couldn't say that, you had to go through the motions and dress up the nonsense created by the process.
My group was one of the last to plan its strategic planning session & Chris came up with a brilliant idea - take his mate's boat across the Cook Strait, loaded up with full necessary supplies and cruise about the Marlborough Sounds for a couple of days and nights. So we did. The ride across was a bit bumpy but we saw a whale on the way, and once we were there it was idyllic. We spent our time sitting on the back of the boat in the sun, fishing rods in hand, chatting about life and a bit about work. We took turns being scribe while others enjoyed their wine or braved the water. We came up with some great ideas for the year ahead and it was the most creative session I'd been involved with at the company. Afterwards it was obvious to all that we delivered much better work and we'd also spent less budget in doing it. While it wasn't our intention, we made a lot of other employees envious.
Sure enough, the next month a directive came out that said in future, planning sessions would have to occur within an hour of Wellington and expressly couldn't involve chartering a boat due to the appearance of spending large sums of shareholders' money. But that just served to underscore our victory against faceless bureaucracy. And we figured the next year we would come up with something even better.
Has anyone else managed to beat the man at work?
-
<quote>The amount of alcohol that could be consumed during lunchtime at the pub was a feature of a couple of other jobs.</ quote>
As a kid I had various reasons to visit Press House in Wellington in the late 70s/ealy 80s and observed the same behaviour there. The evening subs would finish 95% of their work well ahead of knockoff time, disappear to the pub and return before the close of play to knock of the last page.
Couldn't happen now. Getting horrendously drunk in work hours isn't so acceptable. But still, I assume since then we have changed more than the UK?