Posts by Keir Leslie
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Deborah,
Oh yes, we should definitely organise a online-time-wasting members meet-up sometime that weekend. (Ideally reasonably early on, before everyone becomes exhausted, angry and frustrated.)
Also Sacha are you kidding? “How is it a Labour MPs job to call out bigotry?” I dunno, I kinda reckon it’s a pretty core KPI for me. One reason I’ve been unimpressed with some MPs over the past couple of weeks.
[And I don't mean Cunliffe there, to be clear.]
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I hope that by the time the issue will be very academic.
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Deborah,
I think it’s a bit off to dismiss a legitimate concern that people in the party were running lines that looked a lot like a homophobic dog whistle as simply “trying to cause trouble”. Apart from anything else, if Curran thought that anti-Roberston figures were dog whistling, they deserve to get in trouble!
As I say, I think Michie's case is all in the game, and just a combination of trying a bit on, being slightly unfortunate in words, and bad luck. But I do think some pro-Cunliffe figures were running homophobic lines, and that does need to be called out – in the same way that if people were running racist lines against Jones, that’s not ok either.
[Also, guys, Cunliffe gets asked about loyalty heaps because historically he’s had form in that area. Robertson doesn’t, and nor does Jones, and so they don’t get asked.]
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Russell Brown,
Eh, close enough to being a surrogate by that point I think. And "Mike Williams did it too" is not a huge endorsement, in many ways...
I'm not saying what she did was a hugely immoral act to be punished, and I definitely agree if it hadn't been brought up it wouldn't have been an issue. But when it came up, there really wasn't any other option than just to go. It's at the all in the game level for me --- Michie was being cute, the ref saw, that's it.
(Especially, because, you know, fired from your unpaid volunteer position four days before it would finish anyway? Sucks, and it'd be super crappy if it was you. But there's plenty future in the party for you after that.)
And I think Curran may have been clumsy, but again, the world is full of homophobia, and not that full of people being called up on it.
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I have to say, while I think Curran was pretty clumsy, I don't much sympathy for Michie. If she'd been asked "is Jones' race an issue" and replied "Well, not for me, but for some people, and you'd have to be naive etc" everyone would agree that was hugely improper.
The right answer (if you're a candidate surrogate) is "No, I don't think it's an issue", or, even "it's not an issue for me". The "naive" bit is just a dogwhistle, and it's especially egregious given that Michie and Greg Presland (who's close to Cunliffe) are closely involved with the Standard and really should take a bit of responsibility for the huge negativity and in many cases bigotry that Hilary pointed out goes on there.
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Stephen Judd,
It's kinda sad. I'm not against robust debate, but I'd prefer it come with more facts and less weird conspiracy theory.
Also, here's a pretty good round-up of reactions to the speeches in Christchurch, via The Press.
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Labour's tried to move away from having one "earthquake spokesperson" to having spokespeople covering aspects of eq issues -- so, for instance, Megan Woods is Chch transport, covering bits of eq recovery. Also, remember, almost certainly the quake-related portfolios will get reshuffled following the East by-election.
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Hard News: Jonesing, in reply to Rob Stowell,
Of course I'll support Cunliffe if he's elected --- he'll have a mandate to lead the party to 2014 and if he does well, beyond. I certainly don't think Cunliffe's running in order to implement a purge. And I don't think he's pushing it, either.
But that seems to be what's getting Bradbury off, and he's not the only one. Look at the Standard and the Daily Blog and the pretty much continuous campaign of vilification against MPs who don't back Cunliffe. Hilary Stace got screamed at there for suggesting Ruth Dyson was a pretty decent Minister. It's really not where I want my party to go. (Or take the Cosgrove stuff Russel posted above.) Hell, even Scott Yorke was talking about demoting Curran.
Anyway, that's enough about the negativity from some of the more, ahem, unpleasant sectors of the internet. I think this process has been great, and I think all the candidates impressed. I certainly think more of all of them than I did before this.
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(Aside from that:)
Just got back from the Christchurch meeting. Robertson owned the room, detailed grasp of policy, and the announcement re: rent stabilisation was very well received. Cunliffe did well but didn't have a grip on earthquake policy, clearly rattled by Robertson's bold move, and Jones, well, it's a good thing he's got a sense of humour because he's got to be having a laugh.
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I think it's pretty revealing that one of the main things lots of Cunliffe people seem to see in Cunliffe is a chance to fuck over everyone in the party that's not on their side. Some of this is clearly structural --- i.e if Cunliffe's going to reward his mates he has to demote people --- but it's really unattractive.