0 Tweets of the Day - 13 May 2014

John Key has questioned whether David Cunliffe's reported media trainer is conflicted; the Herald reports:

Prime Minister John Key has questioned another broadcaster's links to the Labour Party following the party's veto of journalist Shane Taurima.

Labour this morning confirmed that they would not allow Mr Taurima to seek the party nomination for Tamaki Makaurau.
The decision followed confirmation in an independent report that he had misused TVNZ funds for political purposes while he was head of Maori programming.
Mr Key said Labour's actions were expected.
But he was also surprised to learn that journalist-turned-lawyer Linda Clark, who fronts TV3's show The Vote, was providing media training to Labour leader David Cunliffe.

"In the same way that MPs and ministers have to manage their conflicts of interest, it's also true for the media.
"I don't know how she's managing that situation but she'll just have to demonstrate to viewers that she's managing it appropriately."
Mr Key said it was not unusual for media commentators to provide these services - he was trained by former TVNZ head of news Bill Ralston.
But he said it was important that viewers knew of any political connections.
TV3 did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The revelation has prompted some amusing, and some thought-provoking tweets; first up is Bill Ralston, who freely admits having worked with John Key:

Next up is the Herald's Business editor, Liam Dann:

Ralston again, followed by Matthew Hooton (there's no connection between these two tweets; they just happened to run consecutively on our timeline):

Lastly (for now) Tim Murphy from the Hera;d replies to Ralston's original tweet.

Karen Price was indeed the star of Campbell Live's At Home With... segment last night as she fed the chooks, cleaned out the beehive with bees buzzing all around her then whipped the cream for the pikelets. Mr Cunliffe's main contribution to the segment was going to the fish and chippery, and taking John Campbell for a beer whilst the Friday night shark and tatties were frying.

It will be interesting to see the next preferred Prime Minister rankings. We predict that Karen Price will rate higher as Preferred PM than her husband! 

0 Where's David?

David Cunliffe seems to have gone missing in action.

The Labour Party leader was supposed to have done an "At home with..." segment on Campbell Live at the weekend, but didn't. John Campbell himself and his producer Pip Keane tweeted about the no-show last night:

The Campbell Live programme last week with John Key was an excellent watch, and the PM came across very well. Even John Campbell seemed impressed with the sincerity of the bloke, which is no little achievement! You can watch that video here, given that there is no Cunliffe episode yet.

And now we learn that not only will David Cunliffe not be at Labour's weekly caucus meeting this morning, but he'll also be a no-show at Question Time this afternoon:

There are plenty of issues about which Mr Cunliffe could grill John Key this afternoon. But he won't be there. And now journalists from at least three major news organisations (3 News, One News and Newstalk ZB) are drawing attention to Cunliffe's absences, rather than reporting on what he DOES say. Five months out from the election, that's a huge worry for Labour.

Is this Matt McCarten's doing? Has he realised that David Cunliffe is toxic but that Labour is stuck with him, and rolled out a damage limitation strategy? Or has David Cunliffe simply given up?

These are interesting times for the Labour Party. Caucus is stuck with a leader the majority of its members didn't want. The polls are not looking flash. And the leader has vetoed a formal coalition with the Greens - for the time being - without consulting his troops.

There's only one question left to ask; where's David?