Comments by "Laurence Fraser" (@laurencefraser) on "CaspianReport" channel.

  1. Nah, more like crashing on your adult kid's couch after losing most of your stuff in the settlement for a divorce you initiated. ("You" being the UK in this context)... Possibly while very drunk.
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  2. Similar in New Zealand. You can find a few quotes saying the sort of thing NZ politicians say when they don't necessarily disagree with the sentiment, but have absolutely no intention of commiting to the proposed course of action (usually because it's a terrible idea, one way or another). If you look around on the internet. Actual NZ news media? Not a peep, that I can recall. Maybe an opinion piece in the back half of a newspaper once? Not from anyone particularly notable though.
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  3. Nah, convincing Kiwis it's not an empire is easy enough. Convincing them it's actually a good idea? Much harder. Well, at least the ones who know their history or have been paying attention to Britain's handling of Brexit and Covid...
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  4.  @dragonlord1225  intent and willingness are not the same thing.
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  5. The fastest way to see any good idea that would actually benefit the participants go down in flames is to get the USA involved.
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  6. The only people who want to get rid of the monarchy in NZ are politicians who think they'll get more power out of it, the sort of people who think civil wars are a Good idea, and the profoundly ignorant. There's plenty of people who think it would be nice if we were a republic alraedy, none who know what they're talking about who think the transition process is in any way worth it, and most change their minds pretty quickly when you point out the additional powers being a republic would give to elected politicians (most people don't trust politicians as a class, or most politicians as individuals, and almost all of them have at least one party they're so ideologically opposed to that the idea of Them ever getting hold of what are currently the Monarch's powers is terrifying. After all, they might actually Use Them! )
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  7. Most of it's cities, including the largest in each island and the capital, being right on the coast might cause problems along the way though.
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  8. Yeaaaahhh.... You might want to look into the history of the two nations... That ain't happening without Significant extenuating circumstances. The two countries have a lit in common and mostly get along fairly well, but they also have some Very Fundamental differences. There are Reasons New Zealand has never been willing to take Australia up on its offer to become an Australian state (which as I understand it Australia has written into its constitution, even), and that's not likely to change any time even moderately soon.
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  9.  @stephaniemay792  Act has all of one good point: they take mental health very seriously. Pretty much a disaster otherwise. These are the twits who though privatization of the water supply would Improve things! Meanwhile the Greens periodically forget that they're not actually supposed to be a Communist party, National can't seem to go an election cycle without some sort of scandal and it's leadership sometimes forget that New Zealand isn't a US state, New Zealand First has reached a point where it's impossible to tell when they're actually doing something suspect (and not all the actually suspect things are even wrong and/or bad, just to further confuse matters!) vs when it's the other parties having a go at them (oh, and then there's the part where sometimes the Party is a meaningful entity and sometimes it's just straight up 'the Winston Peters Party'), and Labour is a progressive centre left party... Right up until something breaks economically and then suddenly they go full right wing economics on us (whatever their other faults, communists they are Not!) And also have a bit of a shortage of people who actually know what they're doing at the moment... The Maori party (and splinters) are periodically hilariously racist, TOP's got a bunch of good ideas but is so radical that no one's quite willing to gamble on them (and somehow contrives to persistently Seem a bit dodgy despite not actually doing anything wrong)... I'm probably missing a couple. And yet somehow they're All better than the american Republican party or the CCP :p
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