Every few years Local Government is required to undertake a review of the number of people around the Council table. This is required by law. One Councillor, has advocated halving the number of Councillors. This demonstrated a complete lack of understanding about how Councillor fees are set. The … [Read more...]
They’re out there polling folks
As I sat typing these notes, we received a phone call on our land line. It was a political poll. A local political poll. It was obviously somebody testing what people think about potential Mayoral candidates for next election. The names polled were Sara Templeton, Andrew Turner, Jake McLellan, Phil … [Read more...]
Garry Writes 20 October 2020
Election campaign: The wrapper around the Sunday Times this morning says it all “Time to get moving. Labour’s historic landslide means the hard work has just begun”. …and so say all of us. I’m not sure whether its just me. But the past election campaign hasn’t been about ideas much. It’s … [Read more...]
A Message to the Next Government
Election campaigns are always painful. They are painful for the politicians as their lives, and livelihoods, are on the line. They are painful for the public who get confused about what the hell its all about. This election has been no exception. The current Government has handled the Covid 19 … [Read more...]
Two elections!?
If you live in Christchurch Central, you may be able to vote in two different elections. One on 16 October. And another one on 17 October. What? Confused? Yes, quite a few people are. The 16 October election is a by-election for the Central Ward of the Linwood-Central-Heathcote Community Board. … [Read more...]
The battle for the “centre” makes politics dull:
This week there was a fascinating article about how Labour and National are essentially the same. Tweedledum and Tweedledumber. The article writes: How did we end up with two main parties that are basically pretending to do things differently? One economist, Harold Hotelling, wrote a … [Read more...]
Garry’s Thoughts 15 September 2020
The first election campaign I was involved in was in 1978. I had signed up as a Labour Party member in 1976 and joined the Labour team in the Lyttelton electorate. Thus, commenced a commitment to the Party, and to politics, mostly as a Party hack for years, and finally running out of excuses on … [Read more...]
Elections GE2020
This article deserves closer examination: Despite Judith Collins’ claim, the caretaker convention – the understanding that in certain circumstances significant governing decisions should have a parliamentary majority, or be consulted on by the opposition – does not apply in the pre-election … [Read more...]