Hard News by Russell Brown

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  • Paul Campbell,

    David Clark is running in Dunedin North (not South - that's Claire Curran's seat)

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Sacha,

    Latest poll results suggest a few other electorates might become more ‘marginal’ too.

    It’s not the electorates, it’s the list positions.

    One thing Labour could have done to prepare itself for 2014 is to promote fresh, new talent up the list. It didn’t.

    The fact that it may now lose two of the best-and-brightest selected to appear in its opening broadcast is an indictment of that terrible decision.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Sacha, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Indeed, you could argue it's quite symptomatic. I really hope they'll find a way to harness some of the energy of those like Jordan Carter nonetheless. And to plant a boot firmly up Mallard's lycra-clad arse on his way out the door.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Rich of Observationz, in reply to Russell Brown,

    I imagine that list positions had been pre-promised to aging hacks in return for not rolling Goff during the last parliament.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • DexterX, in reply to Rich of Observationz,

    aging hacks in return for not rolling Goff during the last parliament.

    Like borer all holding hands, hoping the house doesn't fall down.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1224 posts Report

  • Kracklite,

    One thing Labour could have done to prepare itself for 2014 is to promote fresh, new talent up the list. It didn’t.

    And

    Indeed, you could argue it’s quite symptomatic.

    And

    I imagine that list positions had been pre-promised to aging hacks in return for not rolling Goff during the last parliament.

    And

    Like borer all holding hands, hoping the house doesn’t fall down.

    The Labour Party now looks like the baby-boomer answer to the gerontocrats of Brezhnev’s Politburo hanging on to power, electing a leader on life support rather than having to face the reality of their own irrelevance. Judging my my readings of Cold War history though, there was a genuine chill of fear blowing amongst them, whereas the sense I get is of complacent smugness and entitlement, hence Jones’ thinly veiled threats to throw his toys out of the cot if he’s not promoted and Robertson’s indifferent shrugs and his fatuous "There's only one poll that matters" on Morning Report today.

    Old Russian joke:

    Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev are on a train. The train breaks down.

    Stalin has the engineers shot as saboteurs and class traitors (hello The Standard! ).

    The train does not move.

    Khrushchev has a bright idea and posthumously exonerates the engineers.

    The train does not move.

    Brezhnev, with his brilliant insight into the true nature of the situation draws the blinds, sits upright, faces forward and bobs up and down in his seat going, “Choo-choo. Choo-choo…”

    I’ve got to laugh, really. I’ve really, really got to laugh.

    And to plant a boot firmly up Mallard’s lycra-clad arse on his way out the door.

    Hobnailled, I hope.

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Kracklite,

    I can only hope that the next Labour leader after November 27th starts promoting those remaining on the backbench, oversees a new list and foregrounds its candidates – even if they’re not MPs – immediately to get them and their ideas in the public eye is soon and as often as possible.

    If NZ politics, despite our constitutional structure, is increasingly presidential in style, then Key might be NZ’s Bush the Younger – the void upon which people projected their desires, but also a bubble that burst in a second. How many of the current Republican Party in the US refer to him approvingly, as opposed to, say, Reagan (though in the current polarised climate, even he would be unable to get the nomination)?

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Steve Barnes,

    Jeez, this is beginning to feel like Kiwiblog.
    Labour can sort themselves out when we have got rid of National, don't you get that?

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • Sacha, in reply to Kracklite,

    Bush the Younger

    hot crumpet burning his cheeks with shame

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Kracklite, in reply to Steve Barnes,

    we have got rid of National

    Chicken/Egg.

    Or, for more than one term, you hope? While I view with dread a National-led government for the next three years, a Labour-led government (which is an extremely unlikely prospect even when I am most inebriated) that would come to power would show all of the structural and functional problems that have bedeviled it for the past three years. It is simply in no fit state to govern, or, crucially, in any fit state to continue to govern yet. It should have been. It should have reformed itself promptly, but Goff has shown no ability to make the Labour party a government-in-waiting in all of the years that he has had. He still hasn't. A few nice policies are OK, but obviously the public doesn't have any deep, rooted faith that those policies mean anything. They don't resonate necessarily because they're wrong - I think that they're good - but there's no assurance that they're deeply held, that they can implement them, that they will actually try or be able to implement them when inevitable difficulties arise.

    Or… um…

    Sidney Harris:

    http://www.jenniferjameswright.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/miracle_occurs.jpg

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Kracklite, in reply to Sacha,

    I prefer to think Pitt-the-delightful-night-at-a-charmingly-characterful-and-yet-unpretentious-eaterie-that-is-yet-to-be-discovered-and-hopefully-will-retain-its-somehow-undefinable-blah-blah-blah...

    The Library of Babel • Since Nov 2007 • 982 posts Report

  • Ian Dalziel,

    More Kissing Key photos...
    Cup day photos from The Press, The man is a self promotion machine ..
    - I notice in the comments someone was (rightly) outraged that John Key kept talking during the minute's silence for the Earthquake victims!
    - he's a classy guy all right...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    Labour had a great campaign opening.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Kumara Republic,

    Michelle Boag caused a bit of a ruckus within the Nats caucus when she had the "dead wood" cleaned out during the latter end of its first term in opposition during Helen Clark's tenure (2002-ish). Goff's Labour is at the same point in time, and so far the only dead wood that's gone have been voluntary resignations like Geroge Hawkins (and only after a bit of 'encouragement').

    They seriously need to grow a pair, let the dead wood know when to quit, and let in the new breed like Jordan Carter, Stu Nash, and Jacinda Ardern. At the same time, hang on to those veterans who can actually apprentice the new breed.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report

  • DexterX, in reply to Steve Barnes,

    Labour can sort themselves out when we have got rid of National, don't you get that?

    No.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1224 posts Report

  • Rich Lock, in reply to Steve Barnes,

    Labour can sort themselves out when we have got rid of National, don't you get that?

    Fool me once, shame on you.

    Fool me through several electoral cycles, implementing lite-blue policies when in power, and when out of power consistently failing to sort yourselves out internally, shame on....?

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report

  • merc,

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report

  • Steve Barnes, in reply to Rich Lock,

    Fool me once, shame on you.

    Come on Rich, you can’t be serious? You don’t remember the last time National held the reins?
    Employment contracts act.
    Part Privatisation of ACC.
    Benefit cuts.
    Bailing out BNZ.
    (ironically with the same $650 million as benefit cuts, the poor bailed out the banks)
    “The Mother of all budgets” (that almost destroyed the economy).
    Shall I go on or do you see the pattern yet?

    Labour left this country with a $7 billion surplus, in three short years National has handed all this and more to the haves and have mores.
    Disgusting.
    Vote Labour, vote Green, vote Pirate if you want to make a stupid point but…
    GET RID OF NATIONAL.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • DexterX, in reply to Steve Barnes,

    vote Pirate if you want

    ????

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1224 posts Report

  • Steve Barnes, in reply to DexterX,

    ????

    Our core policies are simple and few; we aim to substantially reform copyright law and the patent system, keep government transparent and accountable, and ensure that citizens’ rights to privacy are respected.

    Ahrrr me hearties
    Not that stupid really.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • DexterX, in reply to Steve Barnes,

    Being a reformed Labour Party voter, I would register and join Pirate right now, however, the gurlz are watching "X Factor and I can't stand to be in the house and at the same time having to suppress the edge to turn the TV off by throwing it from the balcony into the street below - so I will register tomorrow morning when I return.

    I would hate to see Brash out of a job at his age, seeing as he has only just found himself meaninglessly employed after all this time, so perhaps I should party vote Act - I am after all in the Epsom electorate and if I decide to wear drag I am sure I could get the gurlz votes off of them for a bottle of vino and give Act thee ticks.

    All I really need to do is work on a suitable ensemble to pull it off and practice getting into character so thoroughly that if I am caught the balance for my mind would be such that I had assumed their lives thoroughly and hence there could be no mens rea (guilty mind)..

    This would address the wrong of my multiple vote strategy for Len who has failed to deliver.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1224 posts Report

  • Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to DexterX,

    Len who has failed to deliver.

    Impatient? Much?

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report

  • Steve Barnes,

    Even though National may not need any coalition partners this time, the question of ‘who will dance with who’ is still likely to be a major theme until election day.

    WTF?
    So. The Herald has decided that, not only are National going to win but it will be a landslide…
    Bollocks.
    We are seeing a blatant abuse of power, the power of the press…
    FUCK OFF HERALD.
    I, for one, have a brain, I am not a moron and everybody I know says you are wrong.

    The Prime Minister will have a big FUCK OFF “L” on his head, for looooser, come December, and you mark my words.
    Nobody really likes him you know.
    /*goes back to sticking pins in dolls/*

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report

  • DexterX, in reply to Steve Barnes,

    The voters(well a sample of 750 of them) have decided otherwise and Winston rides again.

    http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10765223&ref=rss

    Hold that Pirate thought - if only Winsotn was standing in Epsom - I could give him both votes. x 3.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1224 posts Report

  • Sacha, in reply to Steve Barnes,

    goes back to sticking pins in dolls

    un under-harnessed tactic

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

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