Comments on: Pointless populism, parts #3 & #17

By: TimT

TimT — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:07:49 +0000

Nice, Adrien. But their ads and marketing strategies seem pretty clever to this outsider.

By: TerjeP

TerjeP — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:28:48 +0000

MikeM - and you really think they’ll close it down if motorists don’t give a fig.

By: MikeM

MikeM — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:04:58 +0000

I’m surprised that nobody has made the obvious suggestion: stop arguing about Fuelwatch, implement the darned thing and then poll motorists after 6 months to see if they want it continued or think it’s a waste of time.

GetUp’s criticism is fair. It won’t do anything to reduce price in the long run, but if it diminishes or stops the weekly fuel price fluctuation cycle, motorists prefer to have it rather than not.

By: Adrien

Adrien — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:07:36 +0000

GetUp was such a gyp. It was promoted as a non-partisan, grass roots web based mode of criticizing the political scene and maybe influencing it.

That was just nonsense. There’s actually no way an ordinary member can even influence their agenda. It’s just a petition generating machine from persons unknown who’re probably the covert wing of the Kevvie Brigade. Most of what they come up with is the same old tired stuff sans nuance, dissent or contrary viewpoints. They’re not nonpartisan they’re just cartoon leftists. Yawn.

Really dishonest.

By: Legal Eagle

Legal Eagle — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:04:40 +0000

Ha ha ha! Why is it that new leaders feel a need to be seen to be doing “something”, but half the time that “something” is pointless, expensive and achieves nothing?

By: skepticlawyer

skepticlawyer — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:11:06 +0000

I think Jason’s post at Catallaxy pretty much settled this issue, and for once people on all sides of politics could see it was pure opportunism likely to achieve zip (or less than zip). The problem is - as you say - these things are emblematic of ‘mission creep’ and finish up taking on an (expensive) life of their own.

By: TerjeP

TerjeP — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:55:47 +0000

When even proponents of failed socialist economics bag fuelwatch then it clearly is a wanky scheme. However the government is going to stick to its guns and one more wanky scheme now chews up space for the next few decades. The real worry is that these things morph over time and who knows what this monster will become.