Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Don't tell me what to do about the flag

Since childhood I've resented being told what I think or should think. If the opinion piece in today's NZ Herald is aimed at changing minds (and changing the flag)  it's a great big fail for me. It touched that resentful nerve:

Admit it, the ballot paper is still sitting on the sideboard while you wonder what to do. 
No it isn't. It's been binned.

 One or two of those designs are clearly better than the others.
Really? Isn't that a matter of subjective taste? Yet the writer (arrogantly) thinks his or her selection is superior.

 ... to ignore the ballot paper increases the risk of ending up with a flag we really dislike.

How exactly?
 When the Commonwealth leaders gathered at the weekend, very few flags outside their conference venue featured the Union Jack. It is only a matter of time before we remove it from ours. We might not be excited by the alternatives but we need one.
Or perhaps we'll be the last with it on the flag. Perhaps Australia should change theirs. Perhaps changing their flag should be made a forcible outcome for the loser of the next Rugby World Cup. That's only as silly as the current process has been.

 Please vote.

I will. In the next stage.

11 comments:

Mark Hubbard said...

Binned.

Anonymous said...

Well Jenny Satchi Shipley gave you her instructions today.

You can't ignore such a font of wisdom as her surely!.

Anonymous said...

Your advantage is that, as an orthodox and talented artist (not screwing toilets to the wall type stuff), you know mediocre when you see it.

3:16

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Missed that. Thankfully.

Jamie said...

"No it isn't. It's been binned." Lindsay Mitchell

Not me....I'm scanning mine before I bin it :-)

Barry said...

Ah -Shipley. Isnt she the one who wanted to lower the drinking age because the young ones can handle it (massive fail that was). She cut welfare payments, and cut health budget. In fact she was simply a lap dog for those in the national government who wanted to cut anything that costed.
And she also failed to get School Cert - and indication of her mental ability.

So she likes the fern does she? which one I wonder? and just like many of her past decisions I guess this will be just as big a fail. Like so many others she doesnt explain why its so important to jettison our history.

Stupid.

gravedodger said...

I voted as it is a precious right I will fight and die for.

My hope is that the current flag endures until some dopey morons decide to ditch the very good deal we currently have as a chief of state over seeing the administrative government that we collectively can still choose.

Entering the republican status that will eventuate, will see some truly awful
bast&%ds elected or chosen for all the wrong reasons, by then it will matter so very little what the rag flying over the mess will look like.

My vote went to the least disregarded that should it come to pass will annoy me least.

All that said Chuck's efforts in Paris were cringeworthy and that is being kind, but as the next cab off the rank we can totally ignore the tortured soul and accept he is only a cardboard cutout and when his efforts are measured against his dear old mum they will be judged as very inferior. Elizabeth Regina serves her people whereas old Chucky thinks he can make a difference and that is just nuts, maybe he needs to consider what Mark "facebook" did today and what Bill and Miranda have been doing for years,.
People such as they, will make a difference while Chucky hugs trees and lives above the plebs.

Long live that little union jack incorporating the saltires of Ireland, red, Scotland, White, on the red cross of St George for England with its Blue bulk adorned with the red stars of the southern cross.

Jigsaw said...

I voted for the one I like- personally I think it is really strange that all those people who didn't seem to give fig for the old flag are all suddenly enthused with it and now want to keep it. But that is their right and mine to vote for a new one. It seems it was the Labour party policy to change the flag until someone else had the idea and then it wasn't any more. And then the process cost too much and the money could have been spent in countless better ways (of course it could - so..!)
Anyway at least its democracy - well sort of and Maori don't have two votes ......yet......

Manolo said...

I shredded my voting papers for the first time ever. In the second round I will vote to keep the current flag. :-)

Dinther said...

Initially I wasn't interested. I didn't like the flag to become some marketing icon. But as I don't like nationalism, I started to change my mind. Changing the flag allows us to shed some of that nationalism "Us versus Them" attitude.

Yet New Zealand as a society is doing a lot of things right. To have that celebrated is cool so I started to support it.

There's one design that I find acceptable. If, and only if that design wins will I vote yes for change.

Statistically it should be clear to everyone that this whole cynical distraction has a very small change to actually succeeding as everyone supporting change will reject it if their choice doesn't get selected.

paul scott said...

I do not see shredding the ballot paper as a good choice. Writing 'keep our flag' enters as an invalid vote, and those results will appear in the count. Shredded papers are lost. Then we can massacre the winning flag which may likely receive about 15% of the common vote.
Peters has a good nose for public opinion, and sponsors the Keep Our Flag option.

http://paulscottstories.blogspot.co.nz/2015/11/keep-our-flag.html