Posts by Rob Hosking
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Coupla points:
Firslty, most of the privatisations mentioned - all of them, in fact - were done in a crisis. And yeah, most of them were botched.
Telecom - the process was completed from go to woah in about six months. That's from policy formation through to sale. Incredibly rushed for a sale of that nature. I've seen the paper trail on this and its just scary how fast the Palmer govt shoved that one through. [remember that next time you hear Sir Geoff droning on about due process and all that]
Railways - shit, even some Labour MPs privately said they would have had to sell it if they'd still been in power. And I don't mean hardcore Rogernomes either.
Then when you compare it to say, Government Property Services, which took place over about two years. Contact Energy, which used to be part of what was then ECNZ, something similar.
What I'm getting to is any future sell offs are probably going to be done more in the manner of Govt Property Services and Contact than Telecom, Railways, Air NZ etc. And English was only talking about partial sell offs.
There are sound wider reasons for having at least some private shareholding in such companies. Parltly expertise. Partly it does provide more investment opportunities for NZers - we have a shallow capital market [shit, Labour minsiters themselves are always saying this] and its gotten even more so over recent years with the takeover boom.
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Thank you for sharing. I've just been told off for singing 'Run to You'.
Now this is a Bryan Adams song I actually like.... but mostly for the guitar work.
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I talked to her at a party in London once. She was in the kitchen, wolfing down chocolate cake.
And she's not anything like Little Jimmy Osmond? Because they sound kind of similar.
I have had no close encounters with the internationally famous, apart from falling over semi-conscious in front of some members of Simple Minds at Sweetwaters '84. Chrissie Hynde may have been in the party as well (it was around that time she got together with Simple Mind's lead singer) and if she was, great, because unlike Simple Minds I actually liked the Pretenders.
The "Tracey" song - I remember Marcus Lush playing it on BfM back in the early 1990s and he kept yelling other names over the 'Tracey' bit - they sounded like names of people he was at school with, and usually had five or six syllables instead of Tracey's two.
Simon: was there any temptation, when you got a light off Paul Weller, to say, Shit, Paul, the Jam were a great band, why the fuck didn't you....but he'd no doubt had enough of that sort of comment.
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Craig wrote:
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm beginning to suspect the only reality check is if turnout keeps falling until even the dimmest bulbs realize that low quality candidates and poor decision-making is going to be rewarded with an essentially meaningless mandate.
Yeah. I got into a conversation with a taxi driver last time I was in Auckland - you know, like you do, got to do something to pass the time in the Auckland traffic...he started going on about the politicians in Wellington and how awful they all are - you know, as people do - and I suggested the dimwit/nutbar ratio in Parliament is nothing like as bad as he'd see if he popped along to his local council meeting.
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Emma Hart wrote:
... and as a final insult, the gum on the back of the envelope tastes really disgusting.
Mine wasn't even all that absorbant, and the corners were sharp.
Totally impractical.
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Well, thanks, Aucklanders, you've made me feel so much better about the choice here.
Prenderghast is not someone I can be enthusiastic about but she's a cut above Banks or Hubbard.
I haven't bothered to vote for the DHB. DHBs are like school councils: they have very little real power but are allowed a bit of a platform for people who like that sort of thing.
I've voted against two of our sitting councillors - one Labour, one Nat-leaning - after seeing them in action over a row in our street about a new footpath. The Labour councillor - who I'd voted for last time - was just plain dumb: the other one - who I'd also voted for - lived up to his reputation for having a bit of an anger management problem. I was actually more impressed with the candidates for the regional council.
The city council in Wellington seems to have more than its fair share of plain bile-driven fruitcakes. An acquaintance is standing - not in this ward, unfortunately - and I've suggested her slogan should be 'Vote for me, I'm not a bitter obsessive with a major personality disorder'.
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I'm a bit dubious about Moses anyway. He took 40 years to go from Egypt to Israel - roughly 450 kms, give or take. This is not a bloke I'd go to for guidance on all that much, really.
Oh, and he reckoned God spoke to him from a burning bush...actually, that makes kind of sense. It's the sort of thing God would do.
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Hmmm.... so many themes:
On the Christianity and slavery bit, Christ doesn't say peep against slavery either.
The 'Render Unto Caesar comment' bit comes in the context of people trying to get him to get into politics, essentially. He doesn't buy it. Smart guy.
As for Copeland being part of some plot...can't see it. I've spoken to him often enough, over the years, to get a reasonable handle on the guy's modus operandi.
He's just not very good at this stuff, but he's got a rather high opinion of his abilities. OK, most MPs do, but the gap between reality and their own perception is wider in some cases than others.
The last 48 hours have been entirely in character, I'm afraid.
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What's With All The Capital Letters In Tamaki's Press Release?
Is It Because He Loves All Words Equally?I think it might be a matter of love the pedant, hate the pedantry, or some such.
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Craig's comment about God being a sort of Supreme Cosmic Ironist (actually, that's a great title for the old sod) is on the money, I think.
For those with an interest in these things, read the Book of Jonah. Its quite short and its hilarious, if you look at it in the right way.
One of the things which doomed this whole enterprise was the former United Future christian MPs have never liked Tamaki and his followers. They were full of outrage about the rally to Parliament last term. I suspect they didn't like the competition.
The thing about the Destiny leaders is they are, in both senses of the word, charismatic. None of the former United Future MPs - Copeland, Baldock or Adams - could be called charismatic in any sense.
In short, Copeland and Tamaki has had Bambi meets Godzilla written all over it.