Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Metiria's Problem, in reply to mark taslov,
I’d have to disagree with that take Russell, I doubt many appreciate the type of politically motivated reductionist homogenisation you’re touting there.
I honestly don't think I'm the one homogenising here.
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It's been an odd experience on social media today, stuck between right-wing dumbasses howling for Metiria's resignation from politics (David Seymour needs to go away and have a think about himself) and (some) Green supporters yelling class treason.
Again, it's really sad that this has happened. I like Metiria personally and respect her a lot. But this is politics, and the Greens made a political call that has gone badly wrong.
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Hard News: Metiria's Problem, in reply to izogi,
To me it seems far more likely that she just chose to talk about her past because it was in line with the Green Party message, possibly not fully considering the consequences. She probably thought she remembered everything well enough, and didn’t expect consequences beyond a grilling from WINZ and paying things back.
The electoral fraud stuff probably came completely unexpected, but if you’re an investigator trying to forensically confirm where a person was living to identify what they were entitled to, reviewing the electoral roll makes complete sense and it’s most likely standard practice. So suddenly the whole thing looks much more messy than was ever considered.
Yep, this is pretty much what I think. There's no conspiracy, just some sincere but ill-advised actions. The great virtue of Metiria's opening up was that she told the truth about herself to open an important issue. That starts to break down when it turns out to not be the whole truth.
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Hard News: Metiria's Problem, in reply to mark taslov,
__If you’re going to confess, even for the purpose of opening an important debate, you’d best not be selective about the messy bits.__
that’s the colonial line we’re sticking to, K? Just stay focused on the Pakeha morality play thanks.
And I'm sure Māori greatly appreciate you telling them what they think.
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Hard News: Metiria's Problem, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
That’s at least partially directed at me, so may I retort? Yes, it wasn’t Labour’s “political gamble” to take but let’s not pretend they didn’t make a political decision – and exactly the kind of “poll-driven fruitcake” Helen Clark once said she wasn’t willing to eat.
Damn right it wasn't Labour's gamble. And last week they had nothing to gain and a fair bit to lose from it, but they tempered their response. The new revelations changed things. Ardern will have hated making that call.
And it wasn't just the polling. Did you read Kiri Allan's tweets about this? It was a genuine, principled objection to telling East Coast kids it was okay to break the law. It should be possible to have a nuanced view without being slated as some sort of traitor. My own initial response was not to judge because I've been in the position where the consequences of fully declaring were prohibitive. But in the end, the Greens opened a narrative of which they lost control – and that's on them.
Also, "poll-driven fruitcakes" was Lange.
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This just in: Stuart Page has posted a picture showing exactly how the Builders are fitting two drumkits on that Golden Dawn stage tonight :-)
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Hard News: Metiria's Problem, in reply to julie may,
People are afraid to speak out against Bennett as her Pitbull tactics are well-known.
Apparently those who know about her past have been told to keep quite.
Where are investigative journalists when you need them?One upshot of Turei's confession was that it provided a pretext for going with a Tony Wall investigation into Bennett's circumstances that had stalled (in part, I gather, because of an injunction of some kind).
So that was published, and it certainly leaves some questions unanswered.
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Hard News: Metiria's Problem, in reply to Bart Janssen,
This was stupid. It was stupid to do it, but everybody does stupid things. But to admit it? She could have said anything else, simply a failure to remember why she did it – hell I couldn’t tell you why I did 90% of the things I did at that age. Nobody would have really questioned it.
Because the address was the home address of the father of her child, further complicating her benefit disclosure. If she'd said nothing, the obvious assumption would have been that she was living with her child's father while claiming the DPB.
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And in other news, Mike Munro, formerly Helen Clark's press secretary, has joined the Ardern team as strategic advisor.
This is a pretty big deal.
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Labour's new campaign slogan just got announced. It's a lot better ...
