Hard News: Moving right along?
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Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
he should just turn up and do the job he was elected to do and make no further comment on matters till the report comes out or a furher truck load of shit hits the fan<
He has been in his office , is that not doing his job?
Life will be a lot harder for his wife and kids – it is interesting how a “life event” (death of a relative, cancer, work ) reveals a person’s true character.
Life is like that for many many New Zealanders.
A life event may well show true character but Len Brown has had the help of the Media interpreting every instance of his life since his indiscretion and people deal with issues differently so I hardly think his true character has been allowed to show. Seeing as the media hounded him on day one of public appearances, and he attempted to answer all their questions, he has now got people saying he should stfu . As said above, he can't win.
I'm going to do him the courtesy of emailing him if I want to know anything about his civic duties as Mayor. He actually replies! -
Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Yes – it may be hard for him – but he should just turn up and do the job he was elected to do and make no further comment on matters till the report comes out or a furher truck load of shit hits the fan.
Just to put this out there, Dexter, perhaps the staff and parents of Three Kings Primary School were even less keen than the Mayor to have their children turned into set decoration for a lurid press scrum that was obsessed with the Mayor's penis? Do the media really get to abdicate all responsibility for their own conduct, and the entirely predictable consequences?
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Craig Young, in reply to
Sadly no, Pope Bob hasn't refrained from pontificating. He points out that Shane Jones fell on his sword for watching mucky DVDs in hotel rooms and has argued that Len "must" be decapitated politically for his dalliance with Ms Chuang. However, wind the clock back a few months and you'll spot a Family Farce "Value Your Vote' mayoral moralists guide which actually recommended that Auckland voters *back* Len Brown because of his opposition to street sex work!
Here's a link to both:
http://www.familyfirst.org.nz
http://www.valueyourvote.org.nz -
Craig Young, in reply to
It takes two people to commit adultery, though, Lisa. I'm probably willing to cut Bevan some slack because my partner and I have a daughter the same age. Added to which, Brown was surely old enough to know better than to do this. Added to which, he's a career politician who may well experience diminished damage to his career unless the allegations about improper council employment allegations turn out to be true. However, can the same be said in terms of Bevan Chuang? So, yes, I do think the comparison with Hester Prynne is appropriate. She has to bear much of the burden for this.
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Craig Young, in reply to
This is why Laura Kipnis' feminist analysis of the politics of scandal is so damned good. I agree, when it comes to questions of rape, child sexual abuse or domestic violence, sexual scandals become far, far graver questions. Capillgate was probably one of the worst political scandals to break in this country, due to Capill's serial rape of three female children. Identity fraud does have indirect financial attributes. Usually, though, financial irregularities turn out to be the culpable offence beyond which there is no return- Pansy Wong, Richard Worth, Taito Philip Field, Donna Awatere-Huata, Don Brash (Brethrengate). Granted, Worth and Brash were getting their leg over in the same context, but it turned out to be questionable financial transactions and implied impaired transparency and accountability that made their sins capital offences in terms of their political longevity.
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Craig Young, in reply to
That, and making rueful Oscar Wilde citations while suffering Catholic Guilt for homoeroticism.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Sadly no, Pope Bob hasn’t refrained from pontificating. He points out that Shane Jones fell on his sword for watching mucky DVDs in hotel rooms
Well, he doesn't know what he's talking about then. Jones' offence was charging his porn to the taxpayer.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Granted, Worth and Brash were getting their leg over in the same context, but it turned out to be questionable financial transactions and implied impaired transparency and accountability that made their sins capital offences in terms of their political longevity.
No. Worth was sacked by the PM after Key learned of the criminal complaint -- of "a sexual nature" -- a woman had made against him. There were apparently multiple stories of Worth's behaviour around women in the wings. There was a transparency issue in one woman's allegation that Worth had offered to arrange her a public-sector job if she had sex with him.
Brash? He'd just made such a mess of things -- including taking out an ill-advised injunction -- that he had to go.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
It takes two people to commit adultery, though, Lisa. I’m probably willing to cut Bevan some slack because my partner and I have a daughter the same age. Added to which, Brown was surely old enough to know better than to do this.
So was Chuang. She's 32. Age isn't an issue here. She certainly seems to have been used by the people who wanted the story out, and was clearly vulnerable in that respect.
Added to which, he’s a career politician who may well experience diminished damage to his career unless the allegations about improper council employment allegations turn out to be true. However, can the same be said in terms of Bevan Chuang? So, yes, I do think the comparison with Hester Prynne is appropriate. She has to bear much of the burden for this.
Well, yes. But she did sign an affidavit that detailed their sexual relationship in explicit and humiliating terms -- there would not have been a scandal if she hadn't. The story also had the unfortunate effect of bringing to light her criminal conviction as a museum employee.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
No. Worth was sacked by the PM after Key learned of the criminal complaint – of “a sexual nature” – a woman had made against him.
And IIRC, the barely sub-text to that sacking to Worth’s sacking was the real death knell to any any politician’s “longevity”: Never ever lie, dissemble or selectively recall when the Prime Minister asks you a straight question behind closed doors. Especially when your fudge comes back to make The Boss look evasive, ill-informed, unable to keep order in their own house or flat out shifty at a very public press conference.
Key couldn't maintain his confidence in Worth, any more than Clark could in David Benson-Pope after he (unwittingly) admitted on Morning Report he'd mislead her. Toughing out "swirling allegations" is one thing; expending political capital on someone who's not been upfront? Bugger that.
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I don't know about the rest of you, but this is a new experience for me: I'm now tired from all the sex someone else was having.
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Craig Young, in reply to
In Worth's case, I suspect that the question of prospective public sector employment for his erstwhile lover may have been the point at which a merely risible case of marital infidelity became something worse and may have been the straw that broke the camel's back. And in Brash's case, there seems no doubt that losing the election due to the Brethrengate bungle was a major motivating factor for his dismissal. I'm broadly defining 'financial irregularity' here- whether offers of employment based on questionable grounds, or questionable donations from shonky right-wing sects.
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I think Simon Wilson basically gets it right in his November Metro editorial.
A few things now seem clear. One is that Brown is an idiot. Another is that the stench of depravity emanating from this affair comes largely from Slater and his little gang, not from Brown and his erstwhile lover Bevan Chuang. A third, following the golden rule of gossip, is that if I heard there was a scandal in the wings, and if some National Party MPs knew, then a great many people on the centre-right of Auckland politics probably also knew.
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DexterX, in reply to
Just to put this out there, Dexter, perhaps the staff and parents of Three Kings Primary School were even less keen than the Mayor to have their children turned into set decoration for a lurid press scrum that was obsessed with the Mayor's penis?
A point well - however if Brown isn't going to step aside that sort of hubbub is inevitable - Brown could exercise some sensibility and discretion and for a time be selective with appearances. For Brown for a time everything is going to be problematic and he, and sadly to a degree everyone else involved, has to wear it.
Brown’s whinging about the division between Public and Private life is tiresome – he needs to zip it.
Brown is as credible as Banks - they are both victims of their own stupidity.
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Wonder if one of these is what Mayor Len needs to channel his you-know-what?
Seriously though, he screwed up very publicly, but a character flaw isn't necessarily the same as a criminal offence, even though they can overlap.
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Bart Janssen, in reply to
One is that Brown is an idiot.
Simon Wilson is wrong. What he should have said is "Brown did something really stupid".
Doing something stupid does not make one an idiot.
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
Doing something stupid does not make one an idiot.
Indeed, it only makes one human. I realised long ago that no amount of intelligence gives any kind of immunity to stupidity.
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Lilith __, in reply to
Brown is as credible as Banks – they are both victims of their own stupidity.
Banks is facing a criminal charge. Their situations are not comparable.
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Ho hum
The outer outedThe PM's response:
"I don't believe the National Party has been involved at all. There may be people that knew about it who are members of the National Party or at least vague sort of details," he said. "
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DexterX, in reply to
Their situations are not comparable.
They are comparably stupid, so there.
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Lilith __, in reply to
Their situations are not comparable.
They are comparably stupid, so there.
I really don't think so. If everybody who'd ever had an affair was pilloried, there wouldn't be many left to do the accusing.
How many have to answer a fraud charge?
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SteveH, in reply to
They are comparably stupid, so there.
I guess I'd say it was stupid of Brown to have the affair, though all too common. I don't think it was so stupid that he should lose his elected position (given what we know so far).
Banks appears to have deliberated subverted electoral law. I don't think you can describe that as stupid unless you believe there was a high likelihood that he would get caught and prosecuted and he wilfully ignored that risk. I don't think the chance of him getting caught was at all high - it only happened because his donor turned on him, and even then the police didn't feel they could prosecute. So no, I don't think Banks was stupid at all.
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DexterX, in reply to
Ok, I give it to you Brown is more stupid. I do, however, feel KDC was treated pretty terribly and that was stupid. They both have honesty issues the creidt cards and the donations.
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david kinniburgh, in reply to
Slater nails his colours to the mast :-)
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Lilith __, in reply to
They both have honesty issues the creidt cards and the donations.
One has been dishonest in private life, the other is accused of dishonesty in his job and our democratic process.
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