Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Sacha,
National can only get away with meaningless fluff or policies like privatising state assets in the absence of a functional opposition or media – perhaps that’s the true ‘politics of absence’ and why our attention returns there.
But, but ... Labour's entire campaign ("Own our future") is themed around opposition asset sales. Cunliffe et al have been pretty convincing on it. I'm just not quite sure why the focus now should be on that time the 28th-ranked person on the list was snippy about the Green Party and some bloggers were scornful of her but virtually no ordinary voters even knew it had happened. It just seems like indulging the absence.
I'm more inclined to go with Danyl's observation that polls show people like Labour policies and the general philosophy they embody -- but they really don't like the current leadership. That seems a much more convincing theory to me than anything to do with what Clare Curran wrote in her blog.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Tim Hannah,
David Clendon is the Green candidate for Mt Albert
Ah, thanks. He's no mug.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Jolly good. I think I could be forgiven for not divining that from anything you’ve written here.
I’m sure this will be dismissed (and has been) as concern trolling, but I’m hard on Labour because as a citizen rather than a partisan, I actually need an opposition that has its shit together.
Ditto. But the conduct of the Actual Prime Minister was of considerably more concern to me on Friday, and you didn't indicate what, if anything, you thought about that. I honestly think it says something that in response to what I wrote, we're back to discussing some dumb thing Clare Curran said in her blog six weeks ago.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Matthew Hooton,
This would have been on all the top-rating TV shows and look at the outcome: distancing of Goff from a has-been (or never was) MP; positioning Goff alongside the Mad Butcher, League, the Warriors and the NRP; neutralisation of the Mad Butcher’s endorsement of Key (is there any doubt the Mad Butcher would have gone along with all this if asked by Goff?); and the delivery of Labour messages on prime time.
Or it might simply have validated the story and kept it in the headlines for another week.
Kathryn's point, I think, is that what Fenton's brief spat with the Mad Butcher on Facebook is in no sense important to the future of the country.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Sacha,
But isn’t the narrative about the inability to connect work on the ground via a coherent campaign?
I thought it was more “arrogant sense of entitlement, taking voters for granted, etc, etc.” The local Labour candidates seem to putting the lie to that.
BTW, I should phrase an earlier remark more as a request: I think Melissa Lee is standing again in Mt Albert, but does anybody know who the Green candidate is? Russel Norman's profile doesn't even mention that he ever stood in the by-election.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Peter Martin,
But Benson-Pope’s majority was 10640 and Curran managed a majority of 6449. Three thousand of ‘her’ votes went to National rather than any other party…
Are you sure that's where they went? In Auckland Central, for all the fuss about Nikki Kaye's campaign, she only got roughly as many votes as Pansy Wong did three years before. Judith Tizard's support simply didn't turn up. That's the issue, really.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Tom Semmens,
This caused me to think.
Labour people in Auckland often don’t seem to realise that the rude health of the party up here – with quality candidates like Jordan Carter, Jacinda Adern, Phil Twyford, David Shearer and Carmel Sepuloni isn’t reflected nationwide.
I think you're on to something -- although I'd broaden the list to include Grant Robertson in Welly Central and the Christchurch Labour MPs, who have been bloody good. I suppose I'm looking at the Labour MPs hereabouts and thinking that they're working hard and decidedly not living out the prevailing blogosphere narrative.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I’m assuming that’s not a criticism of the Prime Minister.
You’ve assumed wrong, cherub. First campaign season in 21 years my sensible walking shoes are staying in the closet.
Jolly good. I think I could be forgiven for not divining that from anything you've written here.
TBH, it looks to me that Labour is facing a rank-and-file motivational problem itself. There are quite a few footsoldiers who've stepped back because they were just fatigued, a few more who ain't going back until Goff ain't the leader.
I'm also feeling some candidate envy. The Greens, National and Labour have good candidates standing in Auckland Central. Over the creek here in Mt Albert, David Shearer has worked hard since 2009 -- and then there's daylight. Have the Greens announced a candidate for Mt Albert this year? I'm presuming it's not Russel Norman.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Grown-ups also accept the unpleasant and painful truth that, more often than not, their troubles are entirely of their own creation. Russell can hand-wave all he likes about one line, but anyone who has been around union/political circles in Oz should know that if you walk into a union or ALP meeting and accuse anyone of “white-anting” you’ve thrown down. Own it.
Craig, clearly, I'm out of step with the prevailing views in the commentariat -- which, right and left, delivered thousands of righteous words in response to Curran's blurt, even after she removed it and apologised -- but you'll just have to accept that I don't regard it as particularly important to the future of the country.
And I think I'm correct in saying the large mass of voters has never even heard of it.
So, no, it's not "hand-waving". It's my honest opinion. Perhaps you could try and respect that.
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Hard News: The Politics of Absence, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Here’s a radical idea, Ben. If politicians want to have grown-up discussions, they should try acting like grown-ups.
I'm assuming that's not a criticism of the Prime Minister.