More on stability and effectiveness
National - Brash pre-empted the inevitable leadership coup that had to come from ‘The Hollow Men’ only to be replaced by another of the lead characters from the book. Oh, and there was suspended Brian Connell, Murray McCully and Maurice Williamson’s contribution to stable teamwork. Stability mark 3/10
Act - With just the two MP’s it’s hard to have much internal squabbling, but let’s not forget No Right Turn’s ‘Where’s Rodney?’ exposé. Stability mark 5/10
New Zealand First - Winston has held together a caucus dissatisfied with the ‘Baubles’ deal but not without murmurs of discontent, and an attempt by party members to oust party president Dail Jones. Stability mark 6/10
United Future - Could things have got more ignominious? Gordon ‘quite a lot of mentoring will have to happen‘ Copeland. Stability mark 1/10
Labour - Not realising he was being pushed, Taito Phillip Field has been holding on grimly but, one by one, Labour are prying his fingers off the life line on which he is holding. Oh, and then there was David Benson Pope’s fall from grace and Trevor Mallard’s punch. Stability mark 4/10
Maori - Maybe these guys are still too recently ruptured out of the Labour Party to initiate its own internal ructions. Stability mark 8/10
Greens - Organised a coherent democratic and contested leadership change process without any divisiveness. Subsequently Guyon Espiner called Russel Norman his Party Leader of the Year because of his ‘easy and engaging manner’ with ‘strong command of difficult issues’, and Sue Bradford his backbencher of the year for ‘achieving more from the backbenches than most ministers do from the front’. Stability mark 9/10
November 29th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
This thread is a wind up right?
November 29th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Is being “stable” and falling below the 5% threshold particularly clever?
November 29th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Yes frog, I have not heard a single word of anti John Key sentiment inside the national party, and he and Bill English certainly were not the main characters in The Hollow Men. Plus what have Murray McCully and Maurice Williamson done? I guess there is more chance of a rogue MP or 2 if your party is bigger.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
While this is mostly an interesting blog from what I’ve seen, im not sure I see the point of this post.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Yep, the Greens are stable alright, stable at 3.9%.
You simply cannot have a leader (or co leader) who is not in the house, it is only us political junkies who even know who Russ is.
Dump the PC stuff and appoint Jeanette as the leader, there is no justification or need for two leaders.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
The point of this post Stephen? Is it shameless self promotion? Most definatly! If there are no decent poll results for the greens they try to compare themselfs in other ways, like rating useless things such as stability. Hey, there has to be some advantage to running a bunch of candidates with no personal drive or self esteem!
Anyway, shouldnt the greens supporters feel sad about these ratings? I mean the green party is suppost to be the one that rebels against the establishment! But it turns out that your caucus is really a bunch of conformers.
November 29th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Well they wouldnt get a lot done if they did a walkout every week would they, and EVERY party does shameless self promotion.
November 29th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
In related news, LED Lighting Fixtures of Morrisville, North Carolina has made a technology breakthrough that will dramatically lower the cost of LEDs.
The company is developing a lamp that uses less energy than its current LED fixtures but emits the same amount of light. The National Institute of Standards and Technology confirms that the product is the most efficient in the world. It uses 5.8 watts of power, compared with 60 watts for an equally bright incandescent bulb.
Nice one USA, eh…
November 29th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
er BluePeter have you ever heard of the term anecdotal evidence?
Anecdotal evidence is not necessarily typical; statistical evidence can more accurately determine how typical something is. And thus whether a country (and presumably by extension neocon economics) is deserving of praise.
November 29th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
>>deserving of praise
How ironic.
November 30th, 2007 at 1:16 am
stuey, In the case of LEDs the US has been leading the world in both developing LED technology and implementing it to save electricity.
Japan is the only other country with any significant contribution to LED development. Japan developed blue LEDs followed by white LEDs.
But it has been the US which has been leading the world in using LEDs to save electicity, helped by a little serendipity. Red was the first colour to become viable as a replacement for lightbulbs. It just so happens that the US is the only country where emergency exit signs are allowed to be red rather than green. Thus almost all exit signs use high output leds instead of incandescent or flourescent backlighting.
In the US methods of operating traffic lights in off-peak periods are to either show red lights in all directions till an approaching vehicle is detected then show green for a breif period or, at minor intersections, to show a flashing red which is legally a stop sign. Either way it means the red light is used the most and since red LEDs are cheaper than other colours the US has been able to get most of the energy savings of LED conversion by only replacing one-third of the lightbulbs.
Those simple but dramatic improvements to the cost/benefit ratio is why the US leads the world in these areas of AGW prevention.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:10 am
WTF do LEDs have to do with party stability?
November 30th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
It is relevant to the Green cause.
Is green technology made in the USA off limits for discussion? I would have thought the environmentalists in the Green party - I’m presuming there are still a few left - would be interested in this development, and applaud it. I know I certainly do, because I’m interested in technological solutions to environmental problems. If the Greens got behind these types of developments more often, they would get more of the mainstream vote.
I notice Phil has been allowed to post off-topic. Frog reasoned that posts involving green causes are permitted, even if they sometimes head off on a tangent.
November 30th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Maybe we need to invent the concept of LED miles?
November 30th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
BluePeter is right. It often gets a bit tangential around here, but as long as a relatively green theme prevails, who cares? This would be a most boring lilly pad without the occasional ideological rant or bizarre tangent.
Insider - If we invent LED miles, do we measure the ‘American’ LEDs from the US or from the factory in China where they’re most likely made? Do we want to shed our imperial shackles and demand LED kilometres?
November 30th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Just because it is allowed, does not make it sensible or logical.
Personally I am very glad to hear that the price of white LEDs is coming down. Yay! Why would any Green Party member mind that? What a peculiar idea!
BTW: I always thought tyhe reason that white LEDs were 5 times the price of red or green ones was because they were under patent.
peace
W
November 30th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Another US big business capitalist helps out with practical solutions:
“Cheap renewable energy is not only critical for the environment but also vital for economic development in many places where there is limited affordable energy of any kind,” Google co-founder Sergey Brin said.
Google’s founders believe the firm’s experience in data centres and bot-vs-bot advertising mean this relatively small investment will nonetheless overturn the established energy economy in short order.
“We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centres,” said Larry Page, Brin’s partner.
“We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal… Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades.”
November 30th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
“The technologies favoured by the online ad billionaires are those with few or no visible downsides except cost. The ploy most favoured is solar thermal, in which the sun’s rays are used to produce heat and generate power using conventional turbines, rather than being turned straight to electricity in expensive solar cells.
Solar thermal is not a new idea - substantial plants have been operating in California since the 1980s, though their original developer went bankrupt in 1991 - but there are various solar thermal ideas that haven’t been tried on a large scale. Google also plans to sink cash into Geothermal efforts, taking power ultimately from the Earth’s hot core.
“Usual investment criteria may not deliver the super low-cost, clean, renewable energy soon enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” said Dr Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google’s philanthropic arm.”
November 30th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I really don’t understand the posting filter. My posts contain no profanity, and follow the rules, yet they often get trapped.
Can you outline exactly what and what isn’t permitted?
[frogmaster: we actually have two filters:
We would certainly like to make the process more transparent and we welcome any suggestions you have.]
November 30th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Of course I’m in favour of, and applaud, improvements in the energy efficiency of technology.
And I don’t think it is off-topic to discuss it, or that green technology from a particular country should be ignored.
I’m just against people using single examples of green technology from a particular country to justify that that countries political orthodoxy is therefore a good thing, or that that country is therefore good environmentally, or that corporate capitalism is therefore good environmentally.
P.S. that Google announcement is very interesting, thanks for posting that. A link:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20071127_green.html
November 30th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
My understanding is that white LEDs are actually ultra-violet LEDs with a phosphur coating, much like the coating on a fluorescent light bulb. Other LEDs (red, orange, yellow, green, blue etc are monochromatic which is due to the way a LED works. The two-step process in a white LED adds cost and reduces efficiency. The higher up the spectrum, the more energy is involved which makes the LED technologically more difficult, so the first LEDs were RED then they moved up the spectrum.
I read recently that Taiwan is committed to all-LED traffic signals by 2012. What is the commitment of our local councils?
http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20071121PB204.html
Trevor.
November 30th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Frog I was impressed by the article in Te Awa The Invisible Green Hand re the visit by Frank De Jong:
[Quote]
The green party must stay a step ahead by looking deep within the concept of Green Economics. With that comes the acknowledgement that resources and natural wealth they bestow must be shared amongst the community. Aresource rentals system ensures natures gifts are used efficiently. At the same time we can find favour within business circles by reducing taxation on jobs and profits”
………
De Jong used the example of a property originally bought for $100,000 that ten years later was worth $300,000 simply due to the increase in property values- making a profit of $150,000 (minus inflation). De Jong says such a “profit” should not be kept by individuals especially when it was not earned by “brains or brawn” but rather that ‘unearned increment’ should be redistributed into the community and infrastructure.
[End Quote]
Have I missed that topic here?
November 30th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
From Wikipaedia:
George formulated a comprehensive set of economic policies. He was highly critical of restrictive patents and copyrights (though he amended his views on the latter when it was explained to him that copyrights do not constrain independent reinvention in the manner of patents). He also advocated the replacement of patents with government supported incentives for invention and scientific investigation and dismantling of monopolies when possible – and taxation or regulation of natural monopolies. Overall, he advocated a combination of unfettered free markets and significant social programs made possible by economically efficient taxes on land rent and monopolies. Modern economists like the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize winner Milton Friedman agree that Henry George’s land tax is potentially beneficial because unlike other taxes, land taxes impose no excess burden on the economy, and thus stimulate more rapid economic growth. Modern-day environmentalists have resonated with the idea of the earth as the common property of humanity – and some have endorsed the idea of ecological tax reform, including substantial taxes or fees on pollution as a replacement for “command and control” regulation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_George
Too many people are getting rich by asset (land) inflation. The wrong people are reaping rewards.
A person can live in a beautiful place and have it spoilt by developers with no recompense, (in fact the opposite, they get to contribute to the additional infrastructure required etc).
It has bothered me that a citizens (membership) “ticket” means zilch … ”
I recall the TV program Pay off Your Mortgage in Two Years The poms come to paradise build a villa and walk away with $200,000…. Something skrewy there Frog!!
I don’t think the Propi-tay people would like the idea.
November 30th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
more on Google announcement and useful roundup of green computing and post peak computing
http://www.energybulletin.net/37920.html
November 30th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
I made such a recommendation on Kevyn’s blog on alternative means to fund our transport infrastructure.
The Vice Chairman of Transport for London made such a submission here.
http://sustento.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/transport-urban-spra wl-and-justice.pdf
Even the Chairman of the Reserve Bank is proposing a Georgian (Henry George) Land Tax!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4258411a13.html
December 1st, 2007 at 2:30 am
Sleepy,
I think we may have dabbled with something along those lines in this country when Seddon was Premier:
http://www.petroltax.org.nz/PDF/MastertonBoroughBettermentAct1902.PDF
Sorry, my laptop wont run the Acrobat text conversion tool so this is a straight scan image, a bit of a big file, but it’s only a short Act at 4 pages.
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:29 am
Another more environmentally friendly way of paying for roads was proposed by Natonal’s Roading Advisory Group. GPS based electronic tolling has several benefits over RUCs and fuel taxes.
1) The cost of road capacity in excess of two lanes can be charged entirely to those road users who travel at the times when the extra capacity is actually needed.
2) Road users will receive a monthly bill instead of srip feeding their payments. This is a huge psychological change. It means the cost of road use can be directly compared with the cost of a monthly bus pass.
3) Many expenses which are currently charged on an annual basis could be converted to a per km basis. For instance registration fees, insurance.
4) Kerbside parking would be viable anywhere with demand sensitive pricing. That would go along way towards getting kids walking or cycling to school. It would also remove the “free” parking used by shop assistants and office workers in residential streets bordering commercial centres.
This method of collecting parking revenue would make it administratively simple to allocate the parking revenue to the streets from which the revenue is derived. This money could be used to replace asphalt with cooler textured concrete and install benches, planters, trees and more pedestians crossings and refuges and traffic calming features.
“Turning Small Change Into Big Changes” explains how this approach to parking meters was key to revitalising Old Pasadena and contrasts Old Pasadena with Westwood Village.
http://www.uctc.net/access/23/Access%2023%20-%2002%20-%20Small%20Chang e%20into%20Big%20Change.pdf
December 4th, 2007 at 3:49 am
Sleepy, I just read an interesting paper that proposes using parking meters as a form of Georgian (Henry George) Land Tax that would help reduce inner city congestion and pollution.
http://www.uctc.net/papers/728.pdf
December 4th, 2007 at 6:43 am
Very interesting paper, Kevyn. Anything to stop motorists parking on bus stops (and footpaths)!
December 4th, 2007 at 8:33 am
What’s the link to your blog Kevyn>
December 4th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Pan Party Policy Wiki…. to educate and organise political and economic ideas
Must retain objectivity.
December 4th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
“Georgism, named after Henry George (1839-1897), a U.S. political economist, is a philosophy and economic ideology that follows from the belief that everyone owns what they create, but everything supplied by nature, most importantly land, belongs equally to all humanity.”
In Aotearoa they would belong to Tangata whenua?
December 5th, 2007 at 12:38 am
jh,
http://petroltax.blog.net.nz/
Regards Kevyn