Posts by Keir Leslie
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Hard News: Friday Music: History, motherfuckers, in reply to Danielle,
Also I kinda don't think it's legitimate to say that someone should "just review the music'. Lorde's selling an image, and that image is entirely legitimately part of the reviewer's ambit. Sweetman's problem is that he's bad, not that he's engaged in an illegitimate attempt to bring things in that exist outside the music.
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Eh I don't think there's an obligation on NZ reviewers to be nicer to locals. In fact I think there's an obligation to be clearer and harsher almost, because of all the incentives to be nice to local work --- including the blatant coziness and backscratching of large chunks of the New Zealand cultural scene.
Not that that justifies Sweetman, because he is bad and wrong.
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I very much doubt that Robertson has advisers as far as disability issues go. Don't think resourcing is that good, to be honest.
One of the things Robertson is very good at is a encyclopedic grasp of policy across government --- at the Christchurch meeting, he was on top of everything from CCDU Blueprint to fishing industry details to DOC restructuring. It's actually kinda eerie. He was Health, and did a fair bit of work on disability issues I think, so I would imagine that's just him.
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Trotter brings the disgusting. Wanker.
Also, again with the hyper-personal attacks on women and gays who have the temerity to challenge a privileged world of workerism.
And really, pretty hilarious to accuse Matthews of membership of the Servos for "legal" reasons when you are making an argument in favour of a man who joined a union when a Minister...
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Yeah, as I say, I’m not super keen on how Curran handled it. I definitely think it was mishandled in some ways.
[I just don't think Michie/Cunliffe have any call to complain --- they got cute and got caught, even if it was a bit of a botch up all round.]
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Alex Coleman,
By the by, it definitely wasn't the ABC lot that were involved in the #spull debacle. No idea if any MP was involved in that to be honest, I think that was just bizarre.
Hah! Giovanni, I agree that clumsy is not the word that springs to mind from that point. From the point of effectively achieving the aim she was after? I'm not sure.
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Heh. Am trying very hard not to be unhelpful. But it's also not helpful to be talking about the terribly awful ABCs who must be purged because of their horrible distortions of reality (I kid, but.) If Cunliffe wins, he needs to work with senior figures in the party like Goff and Mallard and King and with talented newer MPs like Woods and Twyford and Ardern.
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Alex Coleman,
Eh look I know a bunch of people in the party who now support Cunliffe, and some of them pretty heavily. Back last November, they all thought Cunliffe was fucking us over. That’s ok — people make mistakes, and there’s got to be a road back. Cunliffe knuckled down and took that road. If he wins I’m not going to hold last November against him, and I’ll be doorknocking for Labour in 2014.
But last November still happened. And Cunliffe has to negotiate that, and he’s doing, and that’s ok. But you can’t expect members and MPs to put that out of their minds.
[Also of course I’m not going into details! If Cunliffe wins I don’t want to have laid out material someone can use to attack him later on. Not playing that game.]
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Sacha,
No, and that's one reason I think she was clumsy and I wouldn't have handled the issue the way she handled it. But I'm not going to condemn a Labour MP for making pretty valid points about homophobia clumsily, given that there's a lot more egregious sins being committed by Labour MPs -- like not even trying to make those points...
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Stephen Judd,
We really should -- I think it would be a pretty awesome group to get together.
Henry, I'm not going to rake over the details of last year's conference, but it is worth saying, no matter the precise details, Cunliffe left that conference with a cloud over his head, re: loyalty, and also fucked off a lot of MPs. That happened, and to his credit he's gone off and worked hard on the backbenches and I'm not super hung up on that at the moment. But it is part of the history Cunliffe brings to the table.
It's also hard to reconcile the unity talk with the "let's fuck the ABCers" stuff, and that definitely worries me. My enthusiasm for a bloodbath is very low.
(Who doesn't despise Gower, really?)