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Responses To Sludge, Parliament & School Holidays
On Friday a slightly grumpy C.D. Sludge called for Scoop readers to show solidarity and request Parliament be closed this week - for the school holidays.
Not all readers agreed with him. Below are some of the replies:
“I think they should sit next week! They need to sort themselves out and get on with "running" the country, not character assassination. "He who is without sin may cast the first stone" or words to that effect!”
“ It seems only fitting that tradition should be followed. School holidays are an opportunity for all things juvenile to rest and re-charge. Why should parliament get an exception this year? Also think of this, if they extend their sitting sessions then that means there will be many more things they get wrong and that we the tax payer will have to fit the bill for. Surely we get enough of Clarke, Cullen, Sammuels, Prebble et al not to mention the industry parasites that feed off them. Maybe my first observation was incorrect, perhaps it's us that need a break from them.”
“The correct
position and preferred outcome is for Parliament not to sit
at all - much less potential to do damage.”
These, along with the other 18,000 responses, Sludge has judged will be enough to stop Parliament next week, so he has gone on holiday anyway. Below is the column that started the fuss.
Give Us A Break - Time To Cancel Parliament
Special Notice to all Members and Staff of
Parliament from C.D.Sludge,
Ordinarily Parliament does not sit in the school holidays. Next week however the powers that be have made an exception to what is, in Sludge’s opinion, a very good rule.
This morning it is also clear from Sludge’s mailbox that fed up Parliamentary staff and members wholeheartedly agree.
Sludge proposes therefore that today a petition containing the numbers of a quick poll of Scoop readers views should be sent to the Leader of the House this afernoon to express the clear displeasure of the great unwashed at this shameful turn of events.
Please send contributions to sludge@scoop.co.nz for publication, and delivery, later today.
In the meantime Sludge proposes that the correct solution to this gross oversight will be for the house to convene at 2pm on Tuesday and then immediately move an adjournment debate allowing everyone to get home by tea for a change.
Readers may also wish to email their views on this to
michael.cullen@parliament.govt.nz direct.
We shall
overcome.
C.D.
Sludge
Alastair Thompson
Scoop Publisher
Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.
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