(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

Five Things I Think About The National Party Leadership Thing:

1. I am, on the whole, relieved Brash has finally resigned. On the one hand, Brash continuing to lead the Nats might have been the one thing that would have guaranteed their defeat next election. On the other hand, I hate the man. And less personally, Brash said he'd resign if he lost the 2005 election - they lost and he didn't. He repeatedly campaigned against Labour's so-called disrespect for the instituton of marriage - while having an affair (again, natch.) He gave a speech at Orewa which set back (in my opinion) bilateral race relations in NZ, inciting and validating anti-Maori and anti-Treaty sentiment by encouraging the fantasy of the Maori privilege. (Which, god. Don't you think if there were Maori privilege their health, education and economic statistics would be less depressing? Idiots.) He's also a hopeless politician, has frequently been corrected on his party's policy and is IMO a hopeless party leader and unable to take criticism.The latest, as most of you probably know, is a book released containing a whole bunch of emails that are apparently very embarassing from a politcal perspective, revealing all kinds of corruption and so on. So, you know, goodbye, Don, you won't be missed.

2. Speaking of The Hollow Men, what's that you say, Nicky Hager? The Nats used the leader's budget for advertising very similarly to the way you've been complaining Labour did? My goodness! How shocking.

3. I want to disclaim at this point that I'm not and have never been a big fan of Nicky Hager - although apparently he's a lovely guy face to face, I just can't get over the Corngate thing. On the other hand, come on, I'm supposed to react negatively to an expose of corruption and party politics within the Nats? Please, i'm not made that way. Scoophas some info here and there's more about everywhere. It's all the NZ political blogs are talking about, ha-ha.

4. I'm also interested that the big Exclusive Brethren hoo-ha in the book also seems to smear John Key, who is going to be the next leader of the Opposition (which, yeah, we all picked about a hundred years ago, but me and blademistress were rooting for Bill English anyway. You can do it, Bill: lead national to its greatest electoral defeat! Again!) Anyway, I expect Key will stick around anyway. I'm a little disheartened by this because Key is just young enough for me to count him as a New Conservative and god, I cannot stand the Young Conservatives. They are self-entitled unsympathetic supercilious brats who, because they were raised with every opportunity in the world, cannot conceive of someone not being able o do just as well as they did through anything but lazinss - or natural stupidity, which of course should be punished, probably by burning at the stake.

Yeah, I'm a little vehement about them. Blech. Anyway, since Key grew up in a much-vaunted state house in Christchurch - with headlines like "Christchurch state house boy makes good!" because, you know, being from state housing is just like being a youth criminal! Anyway anyway, I probably can't complain about him being entitled but, you know. I also think the very bright have this same problem - I got out of state housing / made a million bucks / funded my university on scholarship / whatever, why can't everyone else? Which to me fundamentally misses the point - it's not whether or not everyone can or can't, it's that some people don;t and they are not by virtue of that less valuable.

Anyway AGAIN, 5. David Slack linked to a quiz on Key's conscience voting record (it has the answers at the end) which is kind of interesting if a little schizophrenic; he voted against the CUB (black mark!) but for the relationships statutory references (equal treatment of all relationships including de facto and same sex under the law: I suppose this is less surprising since he's younger) and against the gender clarification, hich would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The possible explanation for this is that he was against the CUB on second-class citizen grounds. Otherwise it's mostly unsurprising - he wants lots of tax write-offs for businesses, what a shocker, and he voted to control street prostitution in Manakau and to liberalise shop trading on Easter.

I can only hope that under Key's leadership national will go back to being all about the money, because nobody likes tax cuts, right? Right? oh god.

Comments

[nzlemming.livejournal.com]

Too much coffee, Tui?

For some reason, I read your post at breakneck speed - it seemed to call for it. ;-)

1 agree completely - the man is a sleaze IMHO and won't be missed.
2 It's like homophobia - the worst abusers are usually closeted themselves
3 Corngate was a cock-up, but I wouldn't blame Nicky - that's shooting the messenger - I blame the mishandling by the Government. When there's a case to answer, front up to it. Sure, Campbell ambushed Clark, but that's his job. Mark Prebble screwed up in his handling of the OIA and that's the sort of duplicity that doesn't serve the government or the state well. I sat on publicaddress/system yesterday - always fun watching a scandal evolve in real time.
4 Yeh, don't like Key much. Can't work out what (other than himself) he stands for, and I'm not that keen on being ruled by rich people. I don't care if he was born in a mud hut, it's the man he is now that I distrust.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Hee, I wasn't feeling particularly rushed, but perhaps I was.

3. bah, corngate just annoyed me altogether. I'm too pro-science for it I think.

4. Yeah, I'm witholding my judgement a bit, but it doesn't look especially good.

[nzlemming.livejournal.com]

icon-love!

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

it's cause she's so pretty! And she looks so happy in that icon. ♥

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

I was talking to a co-worker on Friday and fishing for a word to describe Key, and I said "he's a shark". My co-worker (who is in his 50s) said "that's just the word I've been looking for, he's a shark". Key seems a lot like Brash v 2.0, hungrier, meaner, and more responsive to image coaching. But before I start building Key up to be some sort of political razor blade who will slash Labour to ribbons, I think he will face many of the same problems Brash did, because he looks good for much the same reasons Brash did in 2003 - business acumen, rightist credentials, unafraid to 'speak the truth' and all that baloney. That being said, Brash almost brought it home in 2005 and all things being equal Key will have an easier job doing the same, so we might have our first millionaire Prime Minister since the 19th century.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

That being said, Brash almost brought it home in 2005 and all things being equal Key will have an easier job doing the same, so we might have our first millionaire Prime Minister since the 19th century.

God, shut UP. *cries*

[nzlemming.livejournal.com]

shark, yes. Excellent

[mandor700.livejournal.com]

'self-entitled unsympathetic supercilious brats who, because they were raised with every opportunity in the world,' from everyone I've met I don't feel any preference to this between National or Labour. Anyone who is strongly involved in a political party in their youth tends towards an inflated opinion of their own worth and that of their ideas.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Anyone who is strongly involved in a political party in their youth tends towards an inflated opinion of their own worth and that of their ideas.

Absolutely - I for example think I'm the greatest thing since sliced cheese and everyone should agree with me constantly - but that wasn't really what I meant. (i also, by the way, think that youth in general is arrogant, especially bright talented and university educated youth, which frequently are the kinds of youth that have time to waste on politics. on the other hand, at least they care about something.) I was referring to young conservatives' policies which I see to be motivated by lack of empathy - tax cuts, all their economic policy. young conservatives do tend to be more socially liberal though except the ones who are also young christians. My experience with young conservatives is that they think anyone who does not succeed deserves to suffer - teenage mums, solo parents, people on the dole - and that is what I was referring to.

[mandor700.livejournal.com]

I don't necesarily feel that empathy has much correlation to political leanings, you can get all sorts on both sides of the table.

But just because I'm difficult: While we can do everything in our power to discourage teenage motherhood (duct-taping Tariana's mouth closed included) you still come down to peoples choices in the end. So, if we were a state which did everything it could to discourage this sort of thing (insert measures here), which we are far from doing, if a teen still becomes pregnant of their own volition is it not their problem?

[nzlemming.livejournal.com]

No, it's still our problem in that:
a) we will probably be paying her a benefit of some description
b) we will probably be trapping her in a low income situation
c) statistically, low income homes have more health issues, and we will be paying for that
d) statistically, her child will be more likely to wind up on the wrong side of the 'justice' system and we will pay for his/her crime, capture, trial and sentence
e) a human being is wasted

If we don't have any state intervention, the problem will be worse. You may want to ascribe fault to one who puts herself in such a position, but don't pretend it's only her problem.

[mandor700.livejournal.com]

Though don't get me wrong I LOATH Brash, though mainly for his stirring and media-whoring as opposed to his views on governance.
My one regret is that when I'm an MP I wont get to ask in question time:
"Mr Brash- Why did Lange have to die yet you go on living?"

[blademistress.livejournal.com]

Heh, just out of curiosity, how are you going to be an MP if you don't believe in strong activity in political party? (And from what I've read the largest age bracket involved/belonging to political parties isn't the young, but the 50+). I think you can believe in something very strongly and not have an inflated opinion of yourself. :)

Man I wish Lange was still around. He'd have something awesomely cutting to say about Brash and this book.

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

Bear in mind that when Lange was PM he actually put into effect lots of the policies - tax cuts, benefit cuts, etc - that Brash is advocating. Oh and he couldn't control his own party either.

[blademistress.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. I'm not a huge fan of Lange's policies, but damn his remarks were awesome. "Mr Peters would have been with us today, but he got distracted by a full-length mirror." So much pwn.

[mandor700.livejournal.com]

Independent lol, I'm fully intending on knocking annetteout of one of the safest labour seats in the nation.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

in your DREAMS, little boy.

Also, that's still being political, you know?

[blademistress.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting, especially for NZ. No offense, but why would they vote for you? I'm honestly just curious in how you'd go about trying to sell this to the public. Independents don't have a parliamentary history, or a party line to be kept in line with, so they have absolutely no guarantees of what you'd vote or who you'd side with. If they were interested in voting for a left-wing not-Labour option wouldn't the best thing to do be vote for a Greens candidate so they don't have to make it over the 5% mark?

Sorry, I have a weird thing for parliamentary breakdown. Is that Annette health minister, btw? Coz my brain is currently blanking on any others and I'm too lazy to google.

[blademistress.livejournal.com]

Come on, Bill! You can do it! Man, I nearly made a banner. It could have been really nice and had "Labour Endorses Bill English, So Should You" on it.

I really love the "I pulled myself up from my bootstraps" argument. It's so awesome. How are they suppose to do that? Though state-housing, which in the 90s you tried to cut, and didn't keep up leading to a meningitis influx and then you wanted to privatise health care which would have led to them spending money on health care instead of all that nice getting rich stuff. Then they need education, but nah we'd rather have that tax cut anyway so they can stick around in the substandard schools with crappy teachers and a shit pass rate. Oh! And then we'll get rid of the free education thing so they can't even get into university, and refuse to raise the student allowance and allow fees to get bigger.

Hang on...

Fuck. I got logic on me.

How long do you think Don will stay a List MP? If the person who's after his job is ruthless enough to leak those emails etc I don't see them letting him stick around in a top seat like that. (Hey! Maybe National will get girls in its top 10 again!)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Heee. Next leadership round, perhaps! we can have rallies.

Yeah, the I-come-from-state-housing gets you a lot less credit when you want to, you know, SELL state housing and bring its rents up to market. Which the last time they did that, it not only led to the meningitis epidemic you mentioned, but ALSO increased child poverty - like, significantly - I remember there was an interview with Brash about this pre-election and the interviewer brought this up and dear old Don was all "I didn't really bother to CHECK WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME WE DID THIS before making party policy, NO."

I hope he stays a list MP for approximately 3 seconds. And actually, I really don't think he'll stick around - he just isn't that good a politician and he's always been hopeless in Parliament - what would they use him for?

[blademistress.livejournal.com]

Death match!

That interview was hard to read and painful because of Brash's ignorance. Come on, when the opposition is quoting your policy and you don't know it something's not right.

They could keep him to write the excuses for Key when he gets smacked down by Clark. Too bad they've already used the "I went easy on her because she's a chick" one.

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

There's an awful lot of the "I dragged myself up by my bootstraps, you can too" air around right wing opinion leaders - Key, Alan Duff, John Banks, I don't think Brash himself came from a terribly privileged background. It stems from the belief that, as long as it's not 100% impossible for a poor kid to become a millionaire, then the system is A-OK. And while it's heartening to see somebody like Duff or Key or Brash make good on the talents they have (not so sure about Banksy there) and do well for themselves despite the deck being stacked against them, one has to ask how many other people with similar talents fell by the wayside. Answer - probably many, many more.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

one has to ask how many other people with similar talents fell by the wayside. Answer - probably many, many more.

Exactly. It's an excuse for them to say, look, I did so well, so all you others are just malingering...

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

One might equally say, if one had had Key's background and ended up in jail and hooked on P age 32, look, I got screwed, all you others are just lucky. And it is very true that if John Key were growing up today he'd want himself to have less access to education and less affordable housing - in exchange for OMG an extra $5 on every paycheck!

[derrick-reeves.livejournal.com]

Does Key come with any programmatic change in the National Party? He doesn't look like the man to lead them into the inevitable coalition with Labour (at any rate, that has to wait for Clark to be replaced by a younger leader), so it's hard to see the relevance of the event.

It even seems trivial when weighed against other parochial concerns such as the invasion of Tonga.