Hard News: Jonesing
370 Responses
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Sacha, in reply to
..and Grey Power and the tertiary students' associations. The coalition was heartening.
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BenWilson, in reply to
Not sure why as most of Wellington electorates (apart from Ohariu) are Labour seats.
That probably is why. If the support is to grow then it needs to be in areas that are not already reasonably safe.
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Keir Leslie, in reply to
Wellington Central & Rimutaka are only safe because of good electorate organisation and hard work by the MPs.
[Which is to say, there's some good things about Wellington that aren't just being lucky as to seats.]
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BenWilson, in reply to
Heh, I didn't say it's a good reason.
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Most of the Wellington seats, particularly Wellington Central, are far from safe. Not long since it was held by National (Pauline Gardner) and Act (Richard Prebble). The latter was defeated by Marian Hobbs with some superb organisation and hard work. Grant has followed the same trend. In many ways it is a lot like Epsom. Some very wealthy areas and lots of decile 10 schools. Many of the other Wellington seats are potentially marginal, but stay Labour with good electorate organisation and hard work. Ohariu is ripe for winning with the right candidate.
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Henry Barnard, in reply to
Not sure about this. The person who undermined Shearer was Shearer himself.
I found the Q&A interview with him yesterday very revealing. I don't have a transcript but I picked up on this:
The thing I found most difficult was the pettiness of politics and being in opposition. A lot of it was petty, a lot of it was venal... What you get caught up with, particularly as leader, is point scoring and that kind of pettiness...and [leans forward] I just found it boring, I found it beneath me and I wasn't very good at it because of that. A lot of other people thrive on it, they love it. I mean that's the thing they love about it, the arena of politics. For me, [sneers] I found it a bit below me.
And there's more.
What did he expect? That somehow he could parachute into the Prime Ministership just as he had parachuted into the leadership? That he didn't need to do the hard yards? People like Mallard know what its like to be in opposition for nearly a decade. Why take up the leadership of a party if you aren't going to put in the work? And why sneer at people who have the skills to get the work done? Does Shearer really believe that those who do the work in the `arena' don't also want to be able to make a change to New Zealand just as much as he does?
He seems to want a senior role but he wants others to do the work to get him one.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
particularly Wellington Central, are far from safe. Not long since it was held by National (Pauline Gardner) and Act (Richard Prebble). The latter was defeated by Marian Hobbs with some superb organisation and hard work.
Additionally, it was amusing to hear Prebble kick up a stink about boundary changes in 1999 that moved leafy Khandallah & Ngaio into Peter Dunne’s electorate – a natural fit anyways – and put multi-culti Newtown & studentville Mt Cook into Welly Central. Prebble gloated that it was the smartest electorate in the country – it eventually proved him right.
Also, the public sector purge has been pretty hard to ignore in Welly Central right now.
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nzlemming, in reply to
Does Shearer really believe that those who do the work in the `arena’ don’t also want to be able to make a change to New Zealand just as much as he does?
Perhaps his disdain is for the arena, not the people.
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Henry Barnard, in reply to
Perhaps...but that was not my impression based on the tone of some of his remarks.
I still don't understand why he put himself forward for the leadership in 2011 given what he said in yesterdays interview. Surely even two years would have been enough for him to witness the bear pit at first hand and to work out whether he was prepared to do the kind of work required in it.
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Rob Stowell, in reply to
I found that interview shocking. Saying something is 'beneath you' is NZ political death- especially on the left. We don't like people who think like that.
Makes me cross. Whose time was he wasting? Not just his own. Did he feel entitled to throw it away? What a disaster! -
BenWilson, in reply to
Surely even two years would have been enough for him to witness the bear pit at first hand and to work out whether he was prepared to do the kind of work required in it.
It wasn't only him who chose him. I think they did it too damned fast - it was straight after an election, it would hardly have mattered if they'd taken their sweet time about it.
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Sacha, in reply to
Whose time was he wasting? Not just his own. Did he feel entitled to throw it away?
This
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nzlemming, in reply to
It wasn’t only him who chose him. I think they did it too damned fast – it was straight after an election, it would hardly have mattered if they’d taken their sweet time about it.
This. Cunliffe wanted it, a significant enough group didn't want Cunliffe. They asked Shearer as a compromise (i.e. no-one disliked him enough to oppose), and he said yes. They paired him with Robertson, an experienced operator, did the dog and pony show with Cunliffe and Mahuta and bingo! Shearer is leader. Can anyone point me to a statement before that election where Shearer declared that he really wanted the leadership? I know pundits were saying he was a future leader, but I don't know that he ever did.
People, good people, go into Parliament full of good intentions and high ideals and get chewed up by the brutal process of tribal politics. Shearer is a service-oriented individual. Being asked to serve, he accepted. I doubt he will stay in Parliament, and that's a waste of a good man.
Haven't you ever taken a job and woken up one morning to say "This crap is not what I signed on for!"?
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Henry Barnard, in reply to
Haven’t you ever taken a job and woken up one morning to say “This crap is not what I signed on for!”?
Yes, I have. And I realised I wasn't any good at it nor was I doing anybody any good by trying.... but it didn't take me two years, nor did I try and keep somebody who could do the job out of it.
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The Herald tells me on its website
Prime Minister John Key is tipping David Cunliffe to win the Labour leadership.
I was thinking "Why does the Herald think JohnKey is any better informed about who will be leader than anyone else outside the Labour party? What sources of information might he have that nobody else does?"
And then I thought "Oh.... Minister for GCSB, of course"
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Labour was also right behind, got teams out doorknocking for,
Got me to sign it :)
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Soo, has anyone submitted questions for the online public meeting? Starts today. I figure there must be heaps of queries to SJ from y'all. Good chance to grill him.
Oh I see, must be an eligible voter. My bad...
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This, from Duncan Garner, is sad:
Robertson’s people won’t give up; they seriously dislike Cunliffe, they really do.They really really do.
I have spoken to a number of Labour MPs in recent days who openly despise Cunliffe. The hatred and bile towards him has not subsided. It actually seems to have got stronger and louder in the final stretch of this race. One senior MP in the Robertson camp described him to me over the weekend as "an insincere prat" who is "a fake that would be shown up bloody quickly". Others have described him in similar terms
I do hope there is a significant degree of hyperbole in all this. Clearly, Robertson hasn't got much of a grip on his supporters in caucus. And it would be useful to know the MPs who "openly" despise Cunliffe: if it is open then Garner can name them, surely?
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BenWilson, in reply to
He could be being deliberately vague to stir up a story, and "a number of MPs" is anywhere from zero to all of them. I'm sure there's some people who hate Cunliffe, that was evident last time around. But the bitter hatred might be restricted to actually quite a small group.
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Alex Coleman, in reply to
I do hope there is a significant degree of hyperbole in all this. Clearly, Robertson hasn’t got much of a grip on his supporters in caucus.
Or maybe he has? Who knows? Garner might, but he’s not saying because the all important thing is to ‘protect his sources’, which I gather means something like, ‘protect my relationship with my source’.
It seems obvious that Garner’s source wants this stuff to be reported right? That’s a reasonable assumption to explain why they are telling him this stuff I think. That doesn’t mean it is actually true, nor does it mean Garner actually believes it.
It’s a good ‘story’, and that’s good enough. Reporting the possible motivations of his source would be as damaging to his relationship with that source as naming them would be. So that too gets absorbed into ‘protecting his source’.
And because we don’t know who it is, we can’t really get a clear idea of what their motivations might be, or judge whether or not they are in a position to know how true the claims are. It’s pretty useless to us all around, information wise. All we know is that at least 1 person said this to Garner.
I’m speculating that it is probably the same source as the #spull ‘letter’ a while back, and probably one of the same people who were talking about Cunliffe being detested awhile before that, and withing the group who were telling anyone who would listen that cunliffe was absolutely going to stage a coup at conference last year.
And quite possibly someone from within the group who withdrew their support from Sheare quite recently, and are now finding themselves not so good at campaigning in something that resembles an election as they are at sticking knives into people via journalists with whom they share confidence.
Now that is all speculation, and probably wrong, but what the hell am I supposed to think?
And it would be useful to know the MPs who “openly” despise Cunliffe: if it is open then Garner can name them, surely?
Exactly.
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Gower has just sent a couple of tweets:
David Cunliffe says Ruth Dyson would be good earthquake recovery minister. Nervous days ahead for Cosgrove. Life under Cunliffe gonna hurt.
And:
Cosgrove must stop Cunliffe or Cosgrove is going to get owned. Simple. No unity on this one.
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nzlemming, in reply to
Gower has just sent a couple of tweets:
Cos Gower is sooo reliable #spull
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Not sure who is is more worried; MPs that end up having backed the wrong horse, or the journos who cultivated relationships with them.
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It always strikes me that Garner, Espiner et al don't really know any more than yer average Joe/Josephine Bloggs but manage to persuade us that they do.
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
but manage to persuade us that they do.
Why is that? Are wes that gullible or do we just gossip? If this round of establishing a new Labour leader has the ramifications of sorting out the wheat from the chaff, how abouts we say so be it. If you dont like it ,support someone else.If you do, give them your vote 2014. make up your own mind, do your own homework. I'm sorry but soo much gossip? WT...?
and just because they report, doesn't make them gospel.
and forget it too, gossip if it makes ya feel good, I hear some people like it :)
as you were...
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