10th Oct 2007

The nation is in a state of shock, the All Blacks being bundled out of the World Cup rugby competition. As my mate said, the government is not particularly sharp at picking sporting winners to pour sqillions of dollars into (Americas Cup yachting being another hole) and I can't quite fathom why the Opposition aren't baying for the resignation of the Rugby World Cup Minister (Trev). The whole debacle has to be his fault.

The Christchurch Press is bemoaning the lack of interest in the Council elections and can't understand why, seeing as there is a mayoralty race this time up. Perhaps it's the fact that constituents don't particularly like either of the two squabbling front runners who show as much statesmanship and ability for the job as Trev Mallard would have as Prime Minister and the rest of the aspirants don't inspire one with confidence either.
As for the rest of the positions (Councillors, Ward Reps, Environmental Councillors and Hospital Board reps), the potted bios vary little from candidate to candidate and give little indication of why one should vote for one over another. If you live in Auckland, most of the bios of those belonging to a particular faction read word for word the same. My particular strategy in voting was that I didn't think the present lot have done much good the last time round, so I threw the dart at the most likliest of those who weren't encumbents. As most people seem to vote for names that they've heard of, that strategy is probably doomed. At least I will feel that if enough people do the same as me, then the encumbents won't feel quite so smug with their majorities.
With the CCC, the bureaucrats seem to run the show anyway with the councillors rubber-stamping their decisions, so whoever gets in is likely to make little difference.

It's interesting to note how law making and the enforcement of laws by the judiciary shows how arbitary the whole thing can get over time. Looking at the paper yesterday, there were two items which reinforced this.

The first was a Southland woman who was appealing a 3 year prison sentence for having sex with two boys aged 14 and 15 behind a cowshed.
The second was news that a woman who killed a pensioner by driving into his mobility scooter while under the influence of drugs. She was sentenced to 1 years jail, received a
home detention sentence and is being released after serving 5 months.

Make up your own mind whether the law has consistency.

TC