I love how ‘Capital Day’ is always fun in The Dominion Post: you can’t believe the mileage I got out of its story implying that I could fix Wellington’s weather earlier this year with a fluxcapacitor. I even think it got me a few votes from people who didn’t see the irony (or the impossibility). […]
Tag: media
Thank goodness I did not have a ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’ moment on Saturday
On Saturday, I called then-Councillor, and now Mayor-elect, Celia Wade-Brown to congratulate her. I felt sure that the special votes would see her ushered in, and in my Sky TV interview that night, I stated much the same: I would offer our new Mayor my support for programmes that would benefit the people of Wellington. […]
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How well we engaged
This was a nice souvenir of the campaign: Brenda Wallace’s summary on how well we engaged on Twitter. I hate to think where I would have been without social media. Although it won’t make the slightest bit of difference to my placing, I would be interested to know where the special votes will finally […]
Winding down after a busy, post-campaign 24 hours
At our campaign after-party: self, Karen King, and Chloe Oldfield and Aaron Hape. It is perhaps no surprise that the last 24 hours saw more Tweets to me than any other period in my life, as the results from the local body elections came in. I was overwhelmed by the messages, which were very […]
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Endorsements from Sir Michael Fowler and others—and why the Paul Henry débâcle matters
Yesterday, as some of you know, Sir Michael Fowler endorsed me, saying that I am the ‘intelligent’ mayoral candidate and he likes the programme I have outlined for our city. It goes beyond what is on my campaign site, of course—the programme includes plans to bring Waterfront Ltd. back under council control, increased transparency through […]
Norman Macrae, RIP
I learned the sad news that Norman Macrae, CBE, 旭日章, passed away on June 11, just shy of his 87th birthday. Norman was one of the great visionaries and forecasters of the 20th century, and served as deputy chief editor of The Economist till his retirement in 1988. Among his forecasts was the […]
It’s time to consider open source
Certain media are reporting the city’s [debt] in the $200 million–$300 million mark but our outside-council research reveals this is a very conservative estimate. It’s likely to be more. Regardless of whether it’s $200 million or half an (American) billion (scary just saying it), any deficit that’s nine digits long can’t be good for […]
Chevrolet doesn’t understand branding
After the chaps at Autocar began following me on Twitter yesterday—after all, I had been reading the magazine since it was part of the Ministry of Magazines, in the post-Iliffe days—I noticed a Tweet about Chevrolet asking its dealers to not refer to the brand as Chevy. What? According to Autocar: A leaked […]
Chatting to TV, radio and internet journalists for the mayoral campaign
There have been a few times in the history of this blog where I stepped away from writing regularly. At the end of 2006, I had a pretty good excuse: I was in France. This time, my reasons for stepping away for a few weeks do not include: (a) I was spending too much time […]
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Yay for ‘None of the above’!
You have to love the thinking behind the local newspaper in Wellington when it comes to the mayoral election. We have five people shown here in their poll, one of whom (Councillor Foster) hasn’t declared his candidacy. Spot anyone who’s missing? I’m very glad to say ‘None of the above’ is leading at […]