Posted by Blogger Name. Category:
ABC
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Andrew Dickens
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Clayton Cosgrove
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Labour Party
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Mojo
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Quote of the Day
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Richie McCaw
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Shane Jones
There has been so much written about Shane Jones' shock departure from politics that we could blog about it all day. But we're on holiday, so have selected two small snippets.
The first one is from Andrew Dickens at Newstalk ZB who, let's just say, is not normally right-leaning in his opinions. Dickens opines thus:
I’m getting tired of asking ‘what is Labour thinking?’. But that’s what we’ve been saying all year long.
It’s time for them to be firing shots. The election is 20 weeks away, the budget just days away, and Labour is firing shots alright - right into their own feet.
Rajen Prasad's stand on Nigella Lawson in the weekend was truly laughable. We can’t keep out a visitor without criminal conviction unless they represent truly objectionable viewpoints such as rappers praising gang rape or holocaust deniers. We can’t deny Nigella a visa unless we decide that she really does use too much butter. So it was a Don Quixote moment, except Nigella will never look like a windmill. The real story is that Rajen was not under control. Matt McCarten seems to have lost his legs, just like Benji Marshall - the game line is safe.
Then there was Andrew Little's outrage yesterday that Wanaka worked over Easter weekend. Labour says they’re all about jobs, but they’re not when they say that when 25,000 people visit town no-one is allowed to profit from it due to an antiquated law. Wanaka jobs are dependent on snow and the Warbirds. They wanted to make money, they wanted jobs so I don’t get what Andrew is on about. When the workers want to work and when the work is there, they work and you let them. That’s called supporting workers Mr Little. I didn’t hear anyone from Wanaka moaning about working when they flouted the law and made hay.
So another week of more gaffes, more overthinking. It’s a weekly wonder. And before all you Labour supporters start thinking I’m some sort of Tory cheerleader, there's Shane Jones.
Has there ever been a clearer example of a rat leaving the sinking ship than Shane? Last year he charged for the Labour leadership. This year he's leaving to be a salary boy, jacked up by Murray McCully no less. He’s given up. He can’t see a Cabinet job on the government benches so he’s off to make hay. Can’t say I blame him!
So Labour has lost its mojo. It doesn’t even know how to spell mojo. There’s something deeply wrong. After two terms out of office, they should not be this far out of the race this close to an election. It’s sad.
That's pretty powerful stuff from Dickens, but he's dead right in our ever-humble opinion. Good government needs to be balanced by good opposition, and the quality of the Labour opposition at present is sadly lacking.
And the second quote comes from right inside Labour's tent with the words of Clayton Cosgrove, on of the head honchos of the ABC faction. Drawing a rugby analogy, Cosgrove provides this gem:
List MP Calyton Cosgrove, a close friend of Jones, said he was "gutted'' his mate was leaving and admitted it would hurt the party five months out from the September 20 election.
The pair have been close for several years. Both came from business backgrounds before joining politics and had worked closely together on many issues, latterly Labour's attack on supermarkets.
"I am gutted he's going. He will leave a massive hole in our movement because he had such an appeal,'' Cosgrove said.
But he said he respected the call Jones had made.
Cosgrove would not comment on whether he was aware of Jones' move beforehand but conceded the resignation would not help Labour.
"It definitely takes away one of our big hitters. Shane was like a ballistic cannon when he fired. When you lose anybody that's a talented bloke ... it would be like losing Richie McCaw from the Crusaders. It makes your job a bit tougher.''
Labour has so few "big hitters" that the loss of Jones is going to be a huge hurdle for the party. It's going to show now how inept so many of Labour's MP's gahave been this year as they focus on the things that DON'T matter to the vast majority of New Zealanders.
Of course MMP makes the impossible seem possible, and Labour still has a chance of cobbling together some kind of coalition of the desperate and dateless, but in reality, would you trust them with New Zealand's finances when they can't even organise themselves? We certainly wouldn't.
