Regrets, I've had a few...
Excuse us... the reference to Wham in our last post had us reminiscing on proper music. Interesting exchange in recent comments went something like this:
Anonymous said...
the only person who says they voted for Laws but now regrets it is Carol Webb. So Carol, where's your blog? we miss it. and whats the update on the petition I signed?
Anonymous said...
Wrong again. There's plenty more. In fact, I don't know anyone who voted for him who would do so again.
Anonymous said...
Name one.
Anonymous said...
What, so you can start abusing them? Perhaps you'd do that to your friends
(in fact I'm sure you would) but I value mine.
Alrighty then. Before it's crayons at dawn in Guyton Street, let's do a wee experiment of our own, shall we?
We're asking the good citizens of Wanganui this simple question: If you voted for the Diva before, would you do so again?
Now, before the CoC folks and the ranting acolytes of the Diva start flexing their fingers and preparing to crash the poor polling folks servers by placing more votes for or against than there are people in the whole of Wanganui, there are several protections built in to guard against multiple voting from the one computer. Of course it's possible to circumvent - perhaps by running madly from one computer to another throughout your entire workplace, but then are you really that silly? - but it should give us a reasonably accurate straw poll.
We'll leave it here for several days and the running total is available at any time.
Comments on this post are now closed. The poll will remain open until further notice.
23 comments:
Je vote le non
et
Je ne regrette rien
Le moineau du wangaParis
So far as I can tell, this poll's not working; certainly when I click "view" nothing happens
Eh bien, mon ami, voulez vous un explanation de la merde du jour? Ou avez vous beaucoup de merde avec Jean Marie le Pen?
Thank you to those who told us the poll was not working. As of 10.40pm tonight it appears to be fixed.
There needs to be a 6th option. Not living in Wangavegas.
And a 7th. Depends. Depends on who else there is standing.
We would have been better off with Frog.
You know what? This is just another popularity contest. The way I see it, we have to get our politics out of the celebrity and back into the policy. Geoffrey Palmer described Laws' approach to politics as "subversive and dangerous". Laws himself has summed up his own approach in a recent SST...whatever you call what he writes...
Essentially, according to Laws, politics goes like this: identify a popular belief, then tell everyone who'll listen you believe that too. Get popular. Win votes. get elected. Neither the Confucian theory of doing "good", nor the Taoist ethic of "do-nothing" get a look in. This is sheer me me me politics, which is what makes him a perfect Winston First candidate.
Our pollies, in theory, are supposed to use their collective wisdom to make the right decisions. In reality they behave like a pack of hungry jackals on heat, unable to decide whether to hunt or hump, but if the whole point of being in the Beehive is to be in the Beehive and get more popular, we're gonna get screwed, ladies and gentlemen, by a pack of jackals. Again. And then they'll eat us.
It's your decision...
Then why don't you stand for office instead of raging impotently from the sidelines?
I didn't say there was no-one worth voting for, did I?
Sue Pepperell asked me the same question; I'd be completely inappropriate for the job: I'm too impatient, and I have some pretty extreme philosophies even for an elitist bludger malcontent.
There's nothing wrong with "extremist philosophies" Matt - too many people in politics crawl toward the middle ground, where they think the votes are. But it's like "reality" TV - people will eat tasteless pap, but only if that's all that's on the menu. Go for it, we say, to you or anyone else prepared to do more than pay lip service to democracy - no matter what their political hue.
OK, so these are all positives. There are other reasons, like: I don't want to
That's before we even deal with all the skeletons in the closet ;)
In any event, last time I looked, this blog wasn't about me.
Good point, Matt. If you got elected, it could be ;-) No one (elected) is safe from the scrutiny of LawsWatch, as councillors are soon to find.
Alas, desire to go through what's laughingly caleld "the political process" is immediate proof of your unsuitability to do so, and vice versa. Which we're about to have proven beyond any doubt, yet again :-(
Last time I looked council consisted of 13 elected persons each with one vote. There is no way one mayor could dominate here or anywhere else(go ask poor Dick Hubbard!) without solid backing from his fellow councillors. And I'm not talking the Vision crew because 7-6 votes would soon pail and make it very messy and obvious.
Isn't the reality that at the last election, Wanganui also voted for the anti-arts councillors too - McGregor, Dahya, Stevens and Bullock all voted against the Sarjeant extension. Our strongest supporters were Mayor Chas Poynter, Ross Mitchell-Anyon, Stephen Palmer and Margaret Campion and they all lost their seatss. The guys above didn't even get close to being re-elected.
And then there's the other cabal no-one seems to have picked up - Rangi Wills, Graham Adams and the ratepayers assn. They back Laws all the way.
People we need to understand, if we're to be effective in opposition, that it's not just about Laws. That we have an anti-arts council and he is just its titular head.
Please ... let's face up to what we have - three groups on council united in a common (and wrong) purpose.
And a PS to the above. Matt, if you DON'T stand then you're part of the problem. Not the solution.
Totally totally totally agree with the above. This WHOLE council is the problem. We need an Arts ticket at the next election. There is popular support out there, it just needs to be properly approached and harnessed. Link with the same businesspeople and civic leaders who backed the extension (the Palmers, M-Anyons etc) and then mayoral candidate John Martin and we're flying. Start organising now!
Anonymous said...
And a PS to the above. Matt, if you DON'T stand then you're part of the problem. Not the solution.
8:51 PM
Oh nonsense. You're talking through your hat. If I wouldn't make an effective Councillor, that somehow makes me part of the problem? Get real. It's not about me.
Yeah, give them a taste of their own medicine: install an artists junta and viciously harrass any person deemed "uncreative".
We should never have allowed Council to have any say in the Gallery in the first place.
Now they have Nicki and 'Friends'.
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