Hard News: Barclay and arrogance
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Katharine Moody, in reply to
And … Todd’s gone.
That is, he will stay on till the election but will not content Clutha-Southland for the National Party.
Tadpole dispensed with - now for the lying toad who masterminded the cover-up...
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Barclay's statement (according to Stuff)
THE STATEMENT IN FULLI got into politics because I was inspired by the people I worked for, Bill English, Gerry Brownlee and Hekia Parata. I wanted the opportunity to make my contribution too.
It was the proudest moment of my life to have been elected the MP for Clutha-Southland. I have been privileged to serve the people of Clutha-Southland's interests and have thrown my heart and soul into working for them.
I have loved getting to know the 34 communities of this electorate and the people and their concerns have been top of my mind for the past three years. I'm proud of the work I have done, and grateful to have worked with so many passionate and amazing people. Thank you.
I am a proud National Party member. I want to pay tribute to my friends and colleagues in the Party and the National Caucus, who every day are out serving their communities.
In particular, I want to thank Sarah Dowie, MP for Invercargill, for all her support as we've travelled the last three years together.
I don't want the issues that are important to Clutha-Southland and all of New Zealand to be distracted by an employment dispute.
This has been a hard decision to make, but it is in the best interests of our government and the National Party, and I wish the Prime Minister and our team all the best for the General Election.
I want to acknowledge my family and friends, and the local National Party people for all their love and support.
I will not be making any further comment.
At no point does he actually say he's leaving, here, nor does he acknowledge that he's done something he should not have. This is a "It's been great but I'm off to spend more time with my family"-type of valediction.
Somehow, I think there will be further comment, young Todd...
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izogi, in reply to
...and I notice that the Herald's new site annoyingly now has autoplay on videos, thanks for nothing NZME.
If you're using Chrome then I highly recommend AutoMute. (It's possible to white-list sites you visit lots and trust.) There are probably similar add-ins for other browsers.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
At no point does he actually say he’s leaving, here, nor does he acknowledge that he’s done something he should not have
His "I don’t want the issues that are important to Clutha-Southland and all of New Zealand to be distracted by an employment dispute." tries desperately to point elsewhere, anywhere but at himself.
So what is he going to do for the rest of his time in the house - no further comment on anything? - he should leave now, what a waste of carbon and taxpayer dollars. -
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
I highly recommend AutoMute.
Done - thanks for that, I was worried my Chrome may have been too old...
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The question I'd like to hear from Little (or Shaw, Turei, whoever):
"Is Todd Barclay fit to be an MP or not?"
Forget all the parentheses and mini-speeches, just ask directly. Carter will rule it out of order, so just get up and ask exactly the same question again. Worst case scenario: chucked out of house. Headline guaranteed, a bad one for National ("Speaker protects PM").
I doubt this will happen, and the questions will be waffly and pre-scripted, but here's hoping.
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BenWilson, in reply to
Tadpole dispensed with – now for the lying toad who masterminded the cover-up…
They're gone too. Oh, hang on...who are we talking about?
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BenWilson, in reply to
A Soper piece which ends with
Hah, you suffered so that I didn't have to! I read it on Twitter.
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I'm curious: In what world is "I'm not contesting the next election" the same as standing down?
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Dinah Dunavan, in reply to
They could have stood a convicted murderer there and got in with a handy majority.
National could have stood a pro-green candidate and got in with a handy majority. But instead they chose a weasily tobacco lobbyist. Doesn't say much for the Clutha-Southland electorate committees does it.
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
A party nomination is in the gift of a party, subject nominally to its rules.
Being elected an MP is a personal office and lasts until the next election, or until one of various events including conviction for a moderately serious crime occur.Parties have in the past been able to sack their list (but not electorate) MPs but this was repealed. The remedy is with the electors to be careful who they vote for in the first place.
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Katharine Moody, in reply to
Tadpole dispensed with – now for the lying toad who masterminded the cover-up…
They’re gone too. Oh, hang on…who are we talking about?
Yippie, Winston Peters just asked lying toad II (yes I appreciate that lying toad I is gone) in Parliament why he hasn’t resigned over the cover-up.
Hope it leads on the 6 o’clock news.
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"I don't think of itself it is damaging. These sorts of issues arise commonly in politics, and this one has been dealt with I think pretty decisively. Principally because of the decision by Mr Barclay to stand down." Bill English.
Yes, no, no, er yes.
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Katharine Moody, in reply to
Hope it leads on the 6 o’clock news.
And it did - on TVOne anyway - both WP and AL in question time.
And an opinion piece on circling wagons from Tracy Watkins;
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kw, in reply to
The new NZH doesn't work very well on my mobile either - kept trying to open things I didn't give a toss about. So not sure what it's good for. But I do the sudoku.
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Dave Howell, in reply to
The low-bandwidth site http://mobile.nzherald.co.nz (as distinct from m.nzherald.co.nz or www.nzherald.co.nz) keeps working beautifully though. No ads, no vids, just the text and the odd image.
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Todd Barclay and his $80,000 exit package from Parliament - but what will he do for the money?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11880280
And to form, The Herald is on top of the real estate story in it!
Barclay has recently accrued fresh outgoings with the $721,000 purchase of a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Arrowtown
.
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Tom Semmens, in reply to
They could have stood a convicted murderer there and got in with a handy majority.
Oh come now, surely it would depend on who they murdered.
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The oddest bit about this whole scandal is how unnecessary it is. All English/Barclay had to do was blame it on the uncertain decision making of the still raw youth of the none the less talented tyro, tossled his hair, apologised profusely to all and sundry, and moved on and (much as one wonders if the equally youthful Chloe Swarbrick would secretly record her staff) the story would be dead.
Instead, you’ve got less a tyro than a shifty wannabe tyrant and a stupid scandal born of arrogance.
One other angle about this interests me. This story was the work of newsroom.co.nz, which meant that TVNZ, TV3 and all the rest of the MSM ran extensively with it as not coming from a major rival. If it had been the work of, say, TV3 would TVNZ have covered it to the same extent? I doubt it. And it would have died quickly.
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well in some sense it's a good thing, the guy obviously has a character flaw that doesn't make for being a good MP - he also has the safest seat in parliament, he could have been there for 40 years
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BenWilson, in reply to
The oddest bit about this whole scandal is how unnecessary it is.
Not sure about that. It seems that the evaluations of GOP invulnerability are inflated, and they still have to do all the message managing etc, that every other party must. They could clearly see damage from it. But yes, it was a bad gamble, that’s for sure, now that it’s blown up in their faces. It’s particularly unlucky in that it was covered up before English was actually calling the shots, so he’s a victim of decisions predicated on him being a humble functionary, a mere Minister of Finance, his link to it accidental through the holding of the seat beforehand. But now that he is the chap calling the shots, the buck stops with him.
Admirably unctuous though Bridges’ attempts were, to derail every single question on this directed at English in the House on the “hats” defense that served the previous PM and is currently serving his buddy Uber, the Speaker would not take it, and it ended up meaning that Little got to ask the same question about 4 times. It doesn’t matter “in what capacity” someone answers a fucking question about what they did. It’s still what they did, and everyone knows. Especially when quite a lot of it happened the day before on multiple cameras.
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
GOP?
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Hopefully this sort of stuff can't be helping National either:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/93937010/editorial-spies-should-not-help-a-politicians-bid-for-a-job-at-the-wto -
BenWilson, in reply to
I decided not to call them Tories for a bit of variation.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Todd Barclay and his $80,000 exit package from Parliament – but what will he do for the money?
Allowing him to stay on basically endorses his actions.
Or at least minimises the 'punishment' he richly deserves
Just as Theresa May thinks she can have her cake and eat it too on Brexit, our own Baby Tories should realise you can't 'cross a line' and still stay on the side you came from.
Quaint, 'um, politics...
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