Posts by Graeme Edgeler
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Legal Beagle: The law may be that stupid, in reply to Sacha,
from Question Time yesterday, why is the PM not the ‘responsible minister’ for the conduct of his coalition cabinet?
Because the Government is responsible to the House for the conduct of government. And something John Banks did while he was a private citizen, and not a minister or even member of parliament is not something the PM has to answer to the House for.
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Hard News: #JohnDotBanks and all, in reply to Ross Francis,
Banks should be sacked for mangling the English language! His repeated description of Dotcom as a “donater” last night on TV3 made me cringe.
I checked my Oxford. Donator is a word. It means a person who receives a donation. And in a separate definition, it means a person who makes one.
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Legal Beagle: The law may be that stupid, in reply to Keir Leslie,
Mind you, if Banks stands up in a court and says "I sort-of knew but then I purposely confused myself so I didn't know" he's going to look like such a prat.
It would be a criminal case. It is almost always (but not quite always) a bad idea for any defendant to give evidence.
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Legal Beagle: The law may be that stupid, in reply to Andrew Geddis,
Things get even more odd.
One thing we should bear in mind is that, despite all the arguments we might be able to make over what the laws could potentially mean, we are talking about a criminal statute. Ambiguity is appropriately resolved in favour of the defendent.
If we have concerns with the requirements, or the ambiguity of the requirements, Parliament is to blame for:
1. passing the law; and
2. not fixing it, despite concerns being raised. -
Legal Beagle: The law may be that stupid, in reply to BenWilson,
Are you saying this loophole is perfectly appropriate to our laws?
No. The word loophole is often ascribed to things that aren't loopholes.
But the word loophole is appropriately used here. This really is a loophole (with the underlying position being that loopholes are bad).
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If Paul Goldsmith actually campaigns, and therefore wins, he will surely be elected and the MMP maths will probably award National an additional list seat.
National would go from having 17 list seats to having 17 list seats. "Additional" is one word to use, but it's more applicable to it their electorate seat count, which would increase from 42 to 43.
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Southerly: Liveblog: Moving House (Literally), in reply to Judi Lapsley Miller,
I can just imagine that Bob is beside himself with joy watching all the big machinery in action!
Surely he gets to ride inside the house?
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Hard News: War, now and then, in reply to Raymond A Francis,
The constant wheeling out of the conscientious objector and the faint hint that this was real heroism begins to grate these days. I could never resolve whether it took more guts to go or not to go but bailing out was not braver
I'm not sure that coverage of the conscientious objectors is constant. It's a pretty small part of most ANZAC commemorations, if it's there at all.
Ok, the conchies now hold the high ground and they were badly treated but I feel my old man and uncles would have swopped if they had known their odds of not coming back after each sorty were 1 in 10 as compared with? How many COs died?
I suspect a number of objectors died. Some served as, for example, stretcher bearers, and some received bravery awards, for example, so I can imagine some died also.
Having read what the likes of Baxter and Briggs underwent, I imagine very few would have taken that over just about anything.
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Hard News: War, now and then, in reply to Joe Wylie,
These days the RSA’s website features the experience of pacifist Archibald Baxter as a bona fide part of NZ’s war record.
This Salient feature was particularly affecting. Damn we sucked.
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Can you change the spelling of dissention to dissension, please? I know some places recognise it, but for some reason, it’s bugging me :-)