Canterbury government in exile

Written By: - Date published: 12:51 pm, June 16th, 2010 - 21 comments
Categories: local government, Satire - Tags:

Since the fall of Canterbury to the newly installed dictatorial regime, a few of the deposed representatives have escaped the closing net and set up a government in exile. Vowing to “continue to serve you in your region”, this ragged band will fight to keep the flame of democracy alive.

With the support of powerful external allies the new dictatorship has moved rapidly to consolidate its control of vital infrastructure and resources, and impose its will on the populace. A Soviet style purge of public records has begun. Massive protests in the troubled city center have been ignored by the international media, but video footage shows that a widespread popular uprising is in progress.

The UN Security Council has so far made no official comment, but thoughts of the free citizens of the world are with the people of Canterbury at this very difficult time.

Think this post is satire? Well, – only just.

21 comments on “Canterbury government in exile ”

  • Comments are now closed

  2. vto 2
    16 June 2010 at 1:25 pm

    Yes r0b, only just. Good to see. Keep the issue front of mind. Which I dont think is a problem down these parts.

    Funny reading Farrars posts (even reading kiwiblob fullstop is funny after having not gone near it in an age) on this subject. What a load of sponsored dribble he writes. Unbalanced in the extreme. Highly selective in the sub-issues he chooses to base his post around thereby completely debasing all cred. A waste of time and space.

    • r0b 2.1
      16 June 2010 at 1:50 pm

      As a tribal Cantabrian myself vto, yeah I’ll post on this when I can. And perhaps we’ll make a pinko commie of you yet!

      • vto 2.1.1
        16 June 2010 at 2:01 pm

        ha ha, dont know about that… not pinko but perhaps purple – blue with a red dash.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 2.2
      16 June 2010 at 3:37 pm

      You mean Farragoblog, his sails billow with any cant that is going around

  3. ghostwhowalksnz 3
    16 June 2010 at 1:36 pm

    Will there be a ‘tent embassy’ on the front lawn of Esh*t ?

  4. vto 4
    16 June 2010 at 1:50 pm

    Following John Keys precedent in undemocratic manoeuvres the Council-in-exile should storm the local Council building and barricade themselves in declaring themselves the governing body again.

    Seems to be the acceptable modus operandi these days…

    Now that would be fun… And highlight just what Key and disciples have done.

    • vto 4.1
      16 June 2010 at 2:16 pm

      I’m sure Alf’s Imperial Army would be up for it…ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

  5. Lew 5
    16 June 2010 at 1:53 pm

    Can some of ye declared defenders of substantive rather than symbolic action explain (or speculate) why ECan chose this route rather than the route of calling an early election to force the expiry of the commission’s mandate (as laid out by I/S). Apart from I/S’s presumed reason of “abject uselessness”, that is.

    A serious question, not a wind-up. I don’t get why they wouldn’t fight executive overreach with similar tactics, and at least force the government to roll in with the Panzer divisions and put a halt to it in the full glare of the public gaze.

    Unless they really were just useless. In which case I suppose they deserve what’s coming to them (though perhaps the same can’t be said for the good folk of Canterburistan).

    L

    • TightyRighty 5.1
      16 June 2010 at 2:14 pm

      From my travels in canterbury, it’s mainly the people of the socialist republic of christchurch who care. rural cantabrians are relieved.

    • Richard 5.2
      16 June 2010 at 5:02 pm

      I think I/S explains the likely reason in that post.

      They did in fact pass the required resolution to force an early election.

      The chair ruled it out of order, according to I/S incorrectly (I/S’s reasoning looks plausible).

      So, the answer is because the chairman sucked.

  6. TightyRighty 6
    16 June 2010 at 2:11 pm

    they’ll probably do just as piss poor of a job in exile as they did in power. Where is the water allocation plan? now, with this all this time off, they might be able to catch up on some of that backlog of work.

  7. Helen Isra 7
    16 June 2010 at 4:04 pm

    Wow – Thanks R0B for helping to push todays hit rate at ECan in Exile (http://ecaninexile.wordpress.com) up through the roof.
    However, we are not a ragged band of ECan representatives, just a plain ol’ ragged band.
    We set up the website simply to help Cantabrians continue to: contact their democratically elected councillors, get help with navigating regional city hall and holding the governments unelected commissioners to public account.

    Current ECan democracy issues we are investigating include: Extra expense claims by the $900/day ECan commissioners, how legal the annual plan is if changes are being made without supporting submissions and 1/2 the submitters are denied speaking rights and the significance to ECans demise of Trust Powers Lake Coleridge hydo/irrigation dam proposal.

    Also referring the ECan demise to the UN (Human Rights Council) is something we would encourage as we think some daylight on the process would be beneficially santising and may help promote the NZ Bill of Rights to the status of superior law, as the UN has been asking NZ to do for quite a while.

    Thanks Again
    Helen Isra
    ECan in Exile
    “In democracy it’s your vote that counts, in feudalism it’s your Count the votes!”

  8. Rharn 8
    16 June 2010 at 7:36 pm

    The need to counter all decisions by the ‘dictatorship’ that is detrimental to water quality and the environment.

  9. Helen Isra 9
    18 June 2010 at 8:53 am

    Hello Standard Bearers
    Responding to requests from some of you ECan in Exile (http://ecaninexile.wordpress.com) has now put a social networking sharing/bookmark button on the home page side bar. Please link to us and help spread the word that Canterbury regional democracy is still valued and exercised by it’s citizens even if some of our national representatives do not seem to share our love for democratic freedom and electorate accountability.

    Regards
    Helen Isra
    ECan in Exile
    “In democracy it’s your vote that counts, in feudalism it’s your Count that votes!”

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