Imagine that this blog is just like our living rooms.
Come in, join the debate, argue long and hard, or read posts quietly. Recommend a magazine, article or book, point out a great website, mention your new greatest theory.
But don’t come here looking for a fight, don’t insult anyone, do not troll, be polite. We know that making everyone welcome depends on civility and commonsense, and the host knows how to show people the door.
Love the cable car shot.
That’s the one in Lisbon right?
Your latest piece on the coalitions roll back of Te Ao misses the context of massive constitutional movement over the last few (at least six) that has had no announcement of campaign for public support and mandate ahead of an election.
I suspect the need for a coalition at all was caused by the desire of so many to return to one person one vote system and meaningful discussion ahead of time of what the future of the country was, in preference to effectively sedition by revision of the treaty.
The fact we have a coalition at all is probably due to ACT and NZ First gaining voters who want the return to one person one vote and a predictable liberal democracy.
Thanks Matt,
And welcome to the blog. Yes, that is a Lisbon trolley. I lived there for a while. Have to watch out for pick pockets.
I find that concerns for “one person, one vote” fundamentally misunderstand what representative democracy is about. It is about achieving an equitable balance of interest representation, not absolute voting parity because the historical socio-economic and racial playing field, then and now, is not level. Think of it as ballast on a ship. In order to keep it stable in rolling (societal) seas, you need to shift the weight of the vessel. MMP and the Tribunal are ballasts in our society, although TBH the results of this last election make me worried about the manipulation of small party results in order to generate a “tyranny of the minority” outcome. In other words, the ballast has shifted too far Right. And that is because the Right has seen the flaws in the system and organized while the Left slept. That is as much true for the Right and Left world-wide as it is here in NZ, which is just a microcosm of a much bigger game.