Everyone loves a referendum
… but only when they serve our political purposes. That’s the message you can draw from the two cases in which referenda have been recently proposed; for s59 and for the future of Auckland. The...
View ArticleHide-ing to nothing
Two topics in this post, because I don’t have time to fully develop them. First, John Key must not ignore the anti-smacking referendum. Although the question was leading, the result was decisive and...
View ArticleDemocratic Service and Repair
In the shadows of chain-store ghost towns Where no-one walks the streets at night A silent nation, hooked on medication Stares into a blue flickering light. – Calexico, Service and Repair This verse...
View ArticleBleg: what do people want in an electoral system?
I wrote most of this before DPF’s post on the threshold, including his link to Chris Bishop’s handy paper on representation and stability went up, so read that first. In fact, you’d also do very well...
View ArticleSue Bradford: hampered by her own effectiveness
I haven’t had a chance to read much of the matter written about Sue Bradford’s resignation today, so I apologise if I duplicate things other, wiser, faster people have said. Sue will probably not...
View ArticleJohn Key spanking behind closed doors
A few days ago the DomPost ran on p2 a generally positive story about John Key’s parenting which contained, without comment, the follow paragraph: “Apparently it’s called planking but I don’t know – if...
View ArticleThe left’s lose-lose SOE strategy
If it wasn’t already over on the night of 26 November 2011, the argument about the popular legitimacy of the government’s plan to partially privatise selected state-owned enterprises was finally put to...
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