Posts by Lucy Telfar Barnard
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Hard News: Media Take and Godwin's Election, in reply to Bart Janssen,
If that turns out to be true, then there's something seriously wrong with the system. But maybe the Electoral Commission is confused and thinks it's promoting the National Party?
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I did find it hard to believe anyone could have a sense of what “Shylock” means, but not know Shylock was Jewish, so thanks John Morrison for volunteering it to be possible.
As far as “[doing Labour] a favour then and [trying] to be a bit more on message during an election campaign” goes, sod that. One of my huge problems with the Labour Party in recent years, and with most politicians, is the sense that at some point they’ve had their ability to be real surgically removed. When you ask a question you get some bland communications-advisor-crafted “on message” response. Questions they haven’t prepared an answer for are given some margarine* answer until they can check with head office what the approved reply is – they can’t answer on their own because they’re either scared of knuckle rapping, and/or they don’t know what the answer _should_ be, based on core values.
Difference doesn’t mean division, it means diversity. Diversity is a good thing. The Labour Party is an old and venerable institution and should have room in it for such diversity. Why isn’t it possible to appeal to a wide range of people by including a range of people and opinions, rather than a single opinion that’s meant to be all things to all people?
*oily, bland, filler...
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Hard News: The silence of the public square, in reply to Angela Hart,
Catherine Delahunty depends entirely on Green party votes to return to parliament. You have a party vote.
This, and very much this. Catherine Delahunty has at least a chance of winning Coromandel, since the Greens did manage to win it in 1999, but it’s been National every election since then, so it’s not exactly a safe seat for her. Catherine is no.6 on the Green Party list, which means that if you want her in parliament…
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Hard News: Steven Joyce: Prick or Treat, in reply to linger,
I don't think he did. You want the horse to be before the cart: you want the question of "how much should we tax" to come before "where do we sit in relation to the OECD average tax rate"?
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I suspect this discussion has been had before somewhere, but if so, I haven’t read it. There is a fair question about Godwinning/Godlosing: at what point does a comparison to Hitler/Nazism or even fascism become legitimate? When Harry Windsor dressed up in SS gear, a forum discussing that couldn’t really make sense without mentioning Nazis. So there must be some threshhold.
I am of course not saying that this is it, nor suggesting that the Nazi connotations inferred from the IMP clip are legitimate.
There’s an old video I have promoting United World Colleges (the link I share with David Cunliffe), which ends with a College choir singing the end of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, and an African student thrusting his fist in the air, shouting “Amandla”: the choir responds with similar raised fists and “Awethu”. It was a rallying cry against apartheid back in the day, but I would have to explain that to our applicants, who have for a long while all been born after the end of apartheid, because otherwise the end of the video looks like it’s saying “come to one of our colleges and we will convert you to fascism”. Context and history (and meaning) make all the difference.
So, I can entirely understand how people see the IMP clip and get to fascism. They won’t have been to Home Brew or @Peace or even Hip Hop concerts, and therefore have no idea of the context or history of the chant or the hand in the air, and up till now noone’s done a very good job of telling them.
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Hard News: The silence of the public square, in reply to Pete George,
Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi is safe
Nope, no one is safe from political attack, the dissers find something to diss on.
Pretty much. Pick the right crowd of 8-10 year olds, give them a name and 5 minutes, and they'll have a chant for anyone. Maybe "Bakshi's Batshit" or something. You don't have to use the whole name, after all, it's just a bonus when you can.
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Hard News: The silence of the public square, in reply to Keir Leslie,
“Fuck Helen Clark” would have different connotations, because fuck is a gendered term. But a crowd chanting “Fuck David Cunliffe”? I wouldn’t j
There's an entirely different reason why people will chant "Fuck John Key" but not "Fuck Helen Clark" nor "Fuck David Cunliffe", and it's got nothing to do with gender nor the esteem in which they are held, and everything to do with rhythm and scan. "Fuck John Key" has a great rhythm to it; the other two don't. You might get "David Cunliffe is a [insert one-syllabled insult here]", or "Helen Clark: Bite my ass", or similar, but you need to have one-syllable first and last names for the "Fuck [whoever]" chant to work.
So across the political spectrum, other candidates/MPs crowds could happily chant "Fuck" at would be Phil Goff* (Labour) , James Shaw (Greens), Ken (if you shorten it from Kenneth) Wang (ACT), Rod Paul (Mana), or Chris Young (Internet - Gil Ho doesn't work so well only because reshaping your mouth from the -ck to the -G sounds is awkward). United Future doesn't have anyone with an appropriate name, unless you shorten Peter Dunne to Pete Dunne (or unless Pete George wants to stand again, lol; JK! :-P). The Conservatives don't seem to have released their list yet, so they're safe for now.
*I think I recall Phil Goff having exactly that shouted at him in the days of student loan protests.
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I thought that interview with Whyte was quite funny.
(Paraphrased)
Wilson: "Was this a stunt?"
Whyte: "*splutter, cough*, I, look, no, see, well, look, just, that's, can I, I don't [tries to change subject]..."
Whyte: [interrrupts]"Was it a stunt?"(rinse, repeat).
It was just so entertainingly transparent. He'd clearly decided in advance that he was going to try to deflect and try to make it sound like it hadn't happened without actually lying, but hadn't put enough thought into how best to achieve that. I had the sense with Wilson's questioning that she was laughing on the inside at just how easy it was.
To be fair, Whyte did sound like he was nursing a dose of some winter virus, which never puts us top of our game, but still.
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Hard News: The silence of the public square, in reply to bob daktari,
I wonder if candidates can use signs
Or sign language! Laila Harre could stand there signing “John Key is a lying twock”, and by the time anyone told Holly Ryan, the show’d be over anyway. ’Course, only those who could read sign would understand, but an exclusive joke is always fun.
P.S. I am of course assuming Holly Ryan won’t understand sign language. Happy to be proven wrong.