Comments on: Mount Albert Labour goes active

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:13:35 +0000

I think the weird Wall Street stuff should be a different sector in its self.

By: Felix

Felix — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:04:09 +0000

NO!! Exposure to insanely rich people IS life experience! That’s what it MEANS! Don’t you lefties understand anything about LIFE??!!?

By: mickysavage

mickysavage — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:22:14 +0000

Stephen

You mean like the good people on Wall Street?

By: BLiP

BLiP — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:02:30 +0000

Hold your breath.

By: The Baron

The Baron — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:46:58 +0000

Ah, noted?

Note the words “high exposure” while I laugh myself silly. I await the headlines, BLiP!

By: BLiP

BLiP — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:18:59 +0000

Note the word “stunts”.

By: Anita

Anita — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:58:51 +0000

QoT,

As I think I said, i wouldn’t expect any better from Labour or National. Yeah they both carpet bag, yeah it bugs me, but as I have pretty low opinions of both it doesn’t strike me as worth commenting on. I like to imagine that the Greens hold themselves a little higher and behave a little better; not in this case

I’d be interested to hear an argument that Norman is not carpetbagging.

As for why I think it’s bad MMP is designed to be a blend of proportional and local representation. The point of the local electorate is solely to provide local representation about local issues without affecting the overall proprtionality of the house. So if, for example, I lived in Motueka I could expect the Greens to represent my political views, but Chris Auchenvole to make sure my local issues were handled. Carpet bagging leads to poor prioritisation of local issues (which the Greens are supposed to believe are very important) and can lead to deliberate distortion of proportionality (which the Greens…).

By: QoT

QoT — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:25:05 +0000

Because the people of Mt Albert totally have a history of rejecting candidates bagged by the nutters of the right for their tertiary education experience.

Captcha: National voguish. Worrying.

By: QoT

QoT — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:21:49 +0000

Sure, Anita. Because National and Labour are both going to totally run their Most Genuine 100% Mt Albertonian candidates, and not the ones with better campaigning skills or higher profiles or anything.

While we’re speaking on a “pointing out the fucking obvious in a condescending tone” basis, just because you call something carpet bagging and state that it’s a bad thing does not actually make it either.

By: Anita

Anita — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:25:32 +0000

QoT,

Local electorates are local electorates. By carpet bagging the Greens are treating the electoral process and the voters of Mt Albert with the contempt that is traditional from Labour and National.

IMO the Greens should run a hard campaign for Mt Albert with a Mt Albert candidate.

By: QoT

QoT — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:19:44 +0000

And … exactly what reason is there for the Greens not to stand Norman?

Because seriously, this argument seems to come down to “Labour has dibs on Mt Albert!”

No one’s forcing Labour to stand a candidate either. This is FPP. They could, just like the Greens, just like ANY party, stand a strong viable candidate to maximise their vote. Or they can not.

End of the day, Mt Albert voters get to choose who they want as their member of Parliament. And just like RAM voters and Workers’ Party voters, they’re not morons who need their field of candidates narrowed to a single left/right choice in order to know what they’re doing.

By: had enough

had enough — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:04:11 +0000

HI Meg have you got some real life skills with which you can actually relate to the real people of MT Albert with?

By: Tim Ellis

Tim Ellis — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:58:07 +0000

I find the whole carpet-bagging accusation a bit tiresome, to be frank. Auckland has a very high proportion of transient people who come in and out of electorates anyway. People don’t normally live in the same houses all their lives. Many MPs on both sides of the House didn’t live in their electorates before representing them: Annette King, Trevor Mallard, and probably a few National MPs as well. John Key, David Cunliffe, and Phil Goff don’t even live in their electorates now.

lp, have you got verification on whether David Shearer has recently lived in the electorate?

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:46:29 +0000

Thanks Meg. I had read your website bio, but it didn’t really say what you just said about what being a head tutor involves, which is more than I thought. What I do like about ‘real world’ (read private sector) experience is that it involves more than a little exposure to issues that the tax base who provide our salaries faces (I work at a uni too). Just a small personal bias of mine – you’re obviously no idiot, so we’ll see what happens!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:45:11 +0000

Might be a good idea to work out the difference between a fact and an opinion. I didn’t say Shearer was a carpetbagger – others did. And that’s opinion.