Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
M’kay… and there’s the problem. Sorry, Russell, but my gag reflex starts twitching whenever I hear a political party or candidate talking about “their” vote. You not only have to earn votes but not be stupid enough to take those boots on the ground for granted because they don’t have to be there.
Oh, c'mon Craig. Really?
It's a a perfectly conventional phrase. It means that you make sure the people who say they're sympathetic to you actually vote on the day -- if necessary, by helping them get to the polling place.
If anything, it's the opposite of taking your voters for granted. And it's something Labour have historically done well, and something the Greens have generally done poorly. See: the Mt Albert by-election.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Agree with them or not, the whole “holding a consistent policy position twice in a row and arguing for it” thing seems to be working out for the Greens doesn’t it?
It also worked for ACT – up to a point. And then they started pitching for the Archie Bunker and Alex Jones blocs.
We'll see if the Greens can turn their polling into actual votes. For all that they're pilloried in the fashionable blogs, Labour do know how to get their vote out on the day. The Greens still need to prove they can learn to do that.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Sacha,
You do have to wonder what the criteria are. It’s sad that smart candidates like Jordan Carter will be casualties when he’s managing to faithfully repeat key messages and also critically discuss his party’s relationship with the public
It's hardly just Jordan. The younger Labour MPs are doing the right thing, working hard in their electorates -- as I noted, Ardern's very visible and engaged in Auckland Central -- but here we are talking about one iffy line in a blog post by Clare Curran six weeks ago.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Ben Curran,
Alternatively, it could be argued that competence with communicating with the public via social media is one of the requirements they should be looking for in new candidates.
The irony is that Curran does heaps of that. She's a very enthusiastic Red Alert blogger. Energy does not, however, mean accuracy.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to BenWilson,
Is this two elections away? If the polls hold up, the only Labour MP's about after the upcoming election will be the ones folk don't want now.
Important point, that. The one thing Labour are the most unwilling to change is the one thing people least like about them.
Again, that list.
Fenton at 18 (a rise of 15 places since 2008!), Twyford at 33? WTF?
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
With all due respect, Russell, Curran went further than that. Look, I’ve said more than once there are elements in both National and Labour who really need to accept that their cosy duopoly on power is gone. Hey, if Labour wants to piss on the Greens and the Maori Party and assume they’ve got nowhere else to go, go to – it really seems to be working wonderfully so far.
Her original sin was a silly bleat, one line, in her Red Alert blog (“And on another note, re white-anting; the attempts by the Greens to encroach on Labour territory is also happening in Australia.”). It didn’t make sense, but I’m not sure it warranted the acres of furious, and sometimes vicious, online commentary it reaped. Curran’s a soft target for everyone, it seems.
And, really, Curran is 28th on the list of a party currently polling in the late 20s (that 2011 party list is not great reading).
I reserve the right to get more exercised about stupid shit the actual Prime Minister says.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Kumara Republic,
If they even have a comms strategy in the first place. Social media is a double-edged sword.
I think that's actually the main point here. It could be strongly argued that Labour should back the hell out of this social media nonsense, and manage communications in a more formal fashion. Or at least exercise some quality control.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Sacha,
Neither of their whoopsies ever got near a media strategy.
and that is a failure of political management and media strategy in itself.
I suppose the question is to what extent the occasional brainfart of a fringe MP can reasonably be attributed to the party itself. Fenton has already apologised and withdrawn herself from Facebook. I’m not sure what further punishment she should suffer.
It did strike me that the motivation for Curran’s whoopsie – she’d actually been out door-knocking and meeting families who were struggling while, in her view, the liberal commentariat carped from their keyboards – was rather overlooked in the pile-on. I found the nature and degree of scorn it attracted a bit silly. I frankly don’t care much about it.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Sacha,
Labour reliably shooting itself in the foot every time they gain any momentum on policy would be enough to frustrate most except the government. The party’s ongoing lack of coherent communication is just mystifying. How does such incompetence keep anyone in a job?
But it’s like calculating National’s performance by Tau Henare’s tweets. It doesn’t reflect Labour’s comms strategy or anything of any actual importance beyond the game.
If anything, Curran and Fenton demonstrated the flaws in the idea of political outreach via social media. Neither of their whoopsies ever got near a media strategy. They’re simply what happens when less talented communicators get un-managed access to a keyboard.
I consider Curran’s blurt about the Greens to be of much less importance than her inability to speak engagingly of Labour’s forthcoming broadcasting policy.
Thank goodness the Greens seem to be doing better lately so at least there’s some choice. If you believe that’s permitted.
A large proportion of the MPs I admire are Greens. I’m less sure about the party’s ability to translate that agency at Parliamentary level into effective campaigning at ground level. Labour’s people will, as they ever have, go out and put up hoardings, and door knock, and deliver leaflets, and get the elderly or disabled to the polling place. That’s still important.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to LegBreak,
Think there might be a typo in there…
Indeed. It's funny what you don't see.