Comments on: Mayoral race

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 01:33:56 +0000

Agreed, Tom.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:39:35 +0000

Yes, Ray could be interesting. It’s a pity that theyworkforyou.co.nz doesn’t cover local government, as it would be very useful to see his voting record (without trawling through screeds of minutes) before deciding.

By: Daniel B. McClelland

Daniel B. McClelland — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:15:39 +0000

Seriously?

By: jono

jono — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 03:45:43 +0000

Personally I think we need less talk, and more walk.

Such as the effort Matt and I undertook while members of the secret ASAP society, where we dressed in black and snuck across railway tracks and stealthfully rolled the word ‘PORN’ in silver reflective paint over a large and rather attractive pair of boobs on a giant wonderbra billboard in full view of the motorway.

By: richface

richface — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 21:39:52 +0000

Difficult question, Ben, and the libertarian in me says that you are right, and the less the government interferes in people’s lives the better. It gives me the howling fantods to think of the many ways the government could (eg) prevent public worship or reading the Bible or fishing or cycling or other such things that many of us hold dear.

On the other hand, we can’t make an idol out of libertarianism — most people will agree that some things should be kept out of the hands of the general public, or at least be regulated. I’d be surprised if you agree that it is unduly paternalistic to regulate heroin or assault rifles, for example. Pokies seem to fall into a similar category. We just have to make sure that only bad things are regulated.

I tentatively suggest that supporting policies such as ‘no pokies in town’ is a way of showing justice to the orphans and widows of the many one-arm-bandit jockeys out there.

By: Ben Hoyt

Ben Hoyt — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:55:24 +0000

I dunno. Haven’t we as a culture got what we’ve asked for? Isn’t it better to have the choice to do bad, rather than to be forced to do good?

By: Daniel B. McClelland

Daniel B. McClelland — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:31:51 +0000

Richard you hit the nail on the head on #9. Which answers your question to me on #7

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 11:09:04 +0000

I’d like to have my cake and eat it too. I’m also with no pokies and no billboards with boobs.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 10:04:20 +0000

Agreed, Richie & Kathy.

Tax the bads, not the goods.

By: Richard D. Bartlett

Richard D. Bartlett — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 09:36:09 +0000

Maybe someone with a more tightly defined picture of what Wellington is and where they want to take it (i.e. should we be a city that actively sets an example as The City With No Pokies, Billboards, Or Bus Fares).

Seems like the past 6 years we have been The City With Lots Of Public Works (And A Fair Bit Of Culture And Business Development), (which isn’t such a bad thing, to be fair) but I think we could do better.