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David Harcourt
Administrator
| Joined: | 31 Dec 1969 |
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| Posts: | 1127 |
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Posted: 15 Nov 2006 06:06 pm |
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I see that Trevor Mallard, the Minister for the Rugby World Cup, or Sport, or something similar, has attacked critics of the Government's plans to build a sports stadium on the Auckland waterfront.
Such people, Mallard says, "lack vision".
Much of what we call "history" is the story of those who have concluded that anyone who disagrees with them is in some way deficient. Mallard is merely the latest in a long line of people who have succumbed to this malaise. Caesar, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Whitlam, Muldoon, Lange ... and now Trevor Mallard. He is in exulted company.
It seems that the response of Aucklanders to Mallard and the Labour Government, just as it eventually was to Muldoon's "Think Big", when allowed a say in the matter, is "spare us your visions, please". I was amused to hear some Labour Party hack say this morning that "people will oppose anything; they opposed the Harbour Bridge". This is a standard debating trick. Pick something which people like and say your opponents would have opposed that. A better example to use would have been the Aotea Centre. That abomination nearly approaches the Wellington Motorway as an act of calculated vandalism in the heart of an otherwise attractive city. Would that its opponents had been as successful as those who opposed the waterfront stadium are going to be.
One person's vision is another's nightmare, of course, but I have considerable sympathy with anyone who opposes Labour's wilder fantasies. Grandiose socialist fantasies are of course no worse or better than other kind; they are just as destructive as Tory fantasies, and differ merely in kind. They tend to be directed towards Making the World a Better Place For Everyone - except, it hardly need be said, those who are going to be ignored or forcibly shoved aside in pursuit of the objective. All too often those whose views are discounted as being of negligible value turn out to be most of us - as, it seems, is the case in Auckland. For my part, I have never thought that the argument that the medicine is believed (on, in this case, little or no evidence) to be good for us makes the compulsion involved any more acceptable.
I was reminded this morning of Bernard Levin's wonderful comment on socialism (in The Times of 24 August 1983). "Deep in the psyche of the Left," Levin wrote, "there is a belief, in itself by no means ignoble, that power is corrupting, and that the Left was put on Earth to resist corruption and to purify. In office, the Left must rub against the inevitable contamination of reality, where bills have to be paid, and Christmas comes but once a year. In opposition, they can dream of a world in which water - or rather milk and honey - flows uphill and the sun never ceases to shine."
The sun is no longer shining on the Clark Government. The vast majority of New Zealanders - including many (the ungrateful swine!) who have been dining at the trough which we, the taxpayers of New Zealand, have been involuntarily filling with very expensive swill - are thoroughly sick of it. We should all be wishing the people of Auckland every success in their efforts to resist the imposition of Labour's puerile "visions".Attached Image (viewed 67 times):
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jaybee2003
Member
| Joined: | 31 Dec 1969 |
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| Posts: | 272 |
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Posted: 18 Nov 2006 08:27 am |
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Firstly, pigs eat bacon - they greedily devour bacon in their swill.
Secondly - We might not be so cynical or so "lacking in vision" if the Govt had made their suggestion of a National Stadium in Auckland right at the time of the bid or shortly afterwards, instead of coming public now, where (cynically) it appears to be reacting to a few decisions of theirs that haven't looked too good.
We can appreciate the vast majority of NZ'ers do live within shortish driving distance of Auckland if a National Stadium if it was to be, but one has to wonder if their motive is political expediency.
With the ANZ Bank taking over Telstra Stadium due to their inability to meet debt, and with thoughts of how an Auckland Stadium might survive long term and bearing in mind the World Cup is a one off event, I was curious as to Westpac Stadium's financial situation. It can be seen online here, http://tinyurl.com/sr7aw
which, while it shows it has an operating profit, without going into the Accounts in detail, it could raise serious doubt to the viability of a large Auckland Stadium long term.Last edited on 18 Nov 2006 08:28 am by jaybee2003
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