0 Can't Labour get ANYTHING right?

We just spotted this as we scanned Twitter at half-time in the Blues vs Crusaders match:

Is Labour really so inept that the party can't get anything right? Does no one check their stuff before publishing?

Epic SMOG Mr Cunliffe; this one will take some beating.

0 Another SMOG from guess who?

A certain aspiring MP in a provincial seat in the central North Island can't take a trick at the moment; a reader has just sent us this:

Here's the Herald story showing the word that Tamati Coffey left out:

New Zealand could soon have its first female Muslim MP.
The Herald on Sunday understands Hamilton chartered accountant Anjum Rahman performed well at a recent Labour Party conference, and is expected to be ranked inside the party's top 30 candidates for the September 20 general election.
In 2011, Raymond Huo was number 21 — the lowest ranked Labour candidate to win a list seat.
Labour Party president Moira Coatsworth and general-secretary Tim Barnett did not respond to calls from the Herald on Sunday. However, Rahman, 47, this week said: "Who told you that?
"I don't have expectations but I'm working to get as high as I can. The list is decided by a whole lot of people in a couple of weeks."

In the meantime, here's a history lesson for Mr Coffey. New Zealand's first female MP was Elizabeth McComb, elected in 1933. New Zealand's first female Cabinet Minister was Mabel Howard, and New Zealand has had two female Prime Ministers, Dame Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark.

We'll apologise to Rex/Edward/Judge now for being the hall monitor again, but clearly Mr Coffey didn't take heed of the advice we gave him yesterday; type, read, read again then tweet. 

If Tamati Coffey is going to continue making gaffes on social media, we will continue to declare them SMOG's (Social Media Own Goals). And at the moment, Tamati is in the running for the Golden Boot award for most goals (into his own net) for the 2014 General Election!

0 Whatever happened to Tamati's tweet?

We blogged on Wednesday about a rather unfortunate tweet from Tamati Coffey. The former TVNZ presenter and Labour candidate for Rotorua had made a rather unflattering reference to "Tory scum". Here's the tweet in question:

It's just as well that we took a screenshot, because it seems to have disappeared from Mr Coffey's Twitter feed; Whaleoil reports:

What page doesn’t exist?

That was the Tamati Coffey tweet where he found it was lovely to talk about Tory scum.

We've got some advice for Tamati, if he'd like to listen to it. If you make a cock-up (which as a first-time candidate, you may well do) own up to it and apologise, then move on.

But pulling the offending tweet without any acknowledgment and pretending it didn't happen is NOT the way to go. People already have a low enough opinion of politicians, and even former television personalities who aspire to be politicians. They don't need any excuse to diss them, so don't give them ammunition.

Social media can be a very useful tool for politicians or aspiring MP's to connect with their followers. But it can also turn to custard very quickly. Builders have an old saying; "Measure twice, cut once". 

We reckon the same logic should be applied by politicians to their social media engagement; type it out and read it, then read it again before hitting the "tweet" button. It might save some embarrassment later in the piece from future SMOG's (Social Media Own Goals). 

0 Tweet of the Day - 10 June 2014

Here's something for all those voters in the Rotorua who thought Tamati Coffey was ever such a nice young man:

Now we're prepared to accept that Coffey's comment may have been in jest. But with election candidates these days increasingly taking to social media to campaign, there's a warning here to Tamati Coffey and to other candidates; don't give your opponents any ammunition.

This is Coffey's first SMOG (Social Media Own Goal) as a parliamentary candidate. Best he makes sure that it's his last. 

0 A Green SMOG

We've blogged in the past about one of the Green Party's values which urges members to "Engage respectfully, without personal attacks". So we wonder what Green MP Jan Logie was thinking when she fired off this tweet from Parliament's Debating Chamber:

That's a definite SMOG from Ms Logie and the Greens who always pretend that they are above such puerile stuff.

0 Tweet of the Day - 22 April 2014

We can only speculate that Trevor Mallard was in shock when he posted this last night:

The published reactions are only the first three on a lengthy list. Few of them were positive towards the MP for Hutt South, and several suggested that he ought to follow Shane Jones' example.

Here's hoping that Mr Mallard is overseeing Labour's social media in the run-up to the election, as there will be SMOG's (Social Media Own Goals) for Africa!

0 A manufactured SMOG

Whoever is doing David Cunliffe's social media has dropped the Labour leader in it again; Check this out:

As if it wasn't bad enough Labour being party to a manufactured manufacturing crisis, we doubt that nurses, doctors, emergency services personnel and others who keep New Zealand safe on long weekends will be particularly pleased with being termed part of the manufacturing sector.

We thoroughly appreciate the efforts of all these people, especially those who find themselves rostered on when everyone else is enjoying a long weekend. As if David Cunliffe politicising them isn't bad enough, he can't even acknowledge the true nature of the essential services they provide.