0 A lecture from Bradbury

Martyn Bradbury is in lecturing mode in his Herald on Sunday column today. With reference to David Cunliffe's astounding apology for being a man, Bradbury opines:

Pundits and talkback radio callers couldn't trip over invisible privilege fast enough this week as a knee-jerk backlash against David Cunliffe's heartfelt apology at a domestic violence symposium was turned into a "not-all-men-are-rapists" argument or a "men-get-sexually-abused-too" debate.
"I don't often say it - I'm sorry for being a man, because family and sexual violence is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men." This genuine statement of remorse for New Zealand's staggeringly high domestic violence rate was decried by some commentators as disingenuous. Those of us comfortable in our masculinity can look beyond the personal offence semantics and respect Cunliffe's political courage. Every man should feel sorry for the tens of thousands of women who never see justice in our courts for rapes and sexual assaults against them. Every man should feel sorry that 35 Kiwis are killed in domestic violence-related crime annually.

Every man should feel sorry that 20,000 women and children sought refuge last year. Because 84 per cent of convicted domestic violence is male on female. That isn't to diminish the men assaulted by women, but it is important to accept we have a problem of violence against women and paying lip service to that culture of violence isn't enough.
Labour's attempt to challenge that lip service via a real desire for gender equality has seen a sexist counter-narrative . "Manban" and "female dominated" have been headlines used to rob women of their platform to have their say. Who women vote for will be essential to who wins in September and Labour's strong stand on women's rights coupled with their baby bonus, extra maternity leave, donation-free schools, iPads for every student, $16 minimum wage and smaller class sizes can rally that female vote and gain Labour the 32 per cent needed to make a Parliamentary majority, if Greens gain 15 per cent and Internet Mana 3.5 per cent.

We frankly don't need lecturing and/or hectoring from Comrade Bradbury. As we have noted many times we abhor domestic violence; it is NEVER OK. And whilst we may feel sorry for those who are victims of domestic violence, we most certainly do NOT feel sorry that we were born male, and we are not sorry that we are a husband and a father.

Domestic violence needs to be stopped, but politicians making grandiose apologies for their gender will have no impact whatsoever. Nor will the hand-wringing and lecturing of the likes of Martyn Bradbury. What does need to happen is for those men who beat or psychologically abuse their partners and children to stop, and to seek help. And what also needs to happen is for those close to those people to stop making excuses for them.

As for the so-called "sexist counter-narrative" Bradbury refers to, we have been consistent in our criticism of Labour's attempts to engineer gender equality in its caucus because it is patronising and demeaning to the very women Bradbury tries to defend. Helen Clark didn't need quotas or list manipulation to become leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister. Nor did Annette King need a quota to become Phil Goff's deputy leader. Nor for that matter did Jenny Shipley, to become New Zealand's first female Prime Minister. All three women got their own their merits, and all power to them.

Like David Cunliffe a week ago, Martyn Bradbury doesn't speak for us, or for the vast numbers of men who totally reject domestic violence. Nor should he pretend to. We're glad Martyn Bradbury is comfortable is his masculinity. So are we, and for that we make no apology whatsoever. 

0 What the 2014 General Election is all about...

Mike Treen is the national director of the Unite union. In 2011, he was one of the organisers of a group of unionists supporting the Mana Party. It's safe to say that he is one the far Left of New Zealand politics.

Mr Treen also blogs at Martyn Bradbury's union-funded Daily Blog. And our attention has been drawn by a reader to this paragraph in a lengthy blog-post written by Mike Treen and published yesterday. In one paragraph, he tells readers what the 2014 General Election is all about:

That's right Dear Readers. This election isn't about the economy, about health, education, crime or poverty. It's not even about the trade unions' hoary chestnut of a living wage. Mike Treen has declared that this year's General Election is about Kim Dotcom getting his revenge on the Government.

So forget all the bullshit and rhetoric about the digital economy, and about better access to the internet for everyone; that's just a front. MegaMana is all about a rich convicted criminal, wanted in the USA trying to escape justice, and trying to get his pound of flesh from the Government who allowed US authorities to try and extradite Dotcom.

We suppose we should be grateful to Mike Treen; at least he has called it as it actually is, rather than feeding us sugar-coated bullshit as Dotcom, Hone Harawira and Laila Harre have done. But as the countdown to the election continues, let's not lose sight of the fact that Dotcom is trying to subvert New Zealand's electoral system for his own ends. 

There's a word for that.

Kim Dotcom wants to take his revenge on this government. This is perfectly understandable. He has every reason to do so. In fact, given his treatment, he has more reasons than most. The most effective way for that to happen is for this government to be defeated in the coming election. The Mana-Internet party alliance is the best way to make that happen. He was smart enough to see that. - See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/06/12/why-the-mana-internet-alliance-is-a-potential-game-breaker/#sthash.hjSfLLzz.dpuf

Kim Dotcom wants to take his revenge on this government. This is perfectly understandable. He has every reason to do so. In fact, given his treatment, he has more reasons than most. The most effective way for that to happen is for this government to be defeated in the coming election. The Mana-Internet party alliance is the best way to make that happen. He was smart enough to see that. - See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/06/12/why-the-mana-internet-alliance-is-a-potential-game-breaker/#sthash.hjSfLLzz.dpuf

Kim Dotcom wants to take his revenge on this government. This is perfectly understandable. He has every reason to do so. In fact, given his treatment, he has more reasons than most. The most effective way for that to happen is for this government to be defeated in the coming election. The Mana-Internet party alliance is the best way to make that happen. He was smart enough to see that. - See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/06/12/why-the-mana-internet-alliance-is-a-potential-game-breaker/#sthash.hjSfLLzz.dpuf

Kim Dotcom wants to take his revenge on this government. This is perfectly understandable. He has every reason to do so. In fact, given his treatment, he has more reasons than most. The most effective way for that to happen is for this government to be defeated in the coming election. The Mana-Internet party alliance is the best way to make that happen. He was smart enough to see that. - See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/06/12/why-the-mana-internet-alliance-is-a-potential-game-breaker/#sthash.hjSfLLzz.dpuf

0 Quelle surprise...

As regular readers will be aware, Martyn Bradbury is paid by several unions to run the Daily Blog. He's also paid by his bestie Kim, and the reason for that is now apparent.

The Daily Blog is, like us, running unscientific election polls. Here's the latest one, sent to us by a reader who took one for the team and ventured over there:

It's interesting that Martyn Bradbury's blog is the only place that has MegaMana featuring prominently in a poll. Perhaps Martyn has been spending his days voting, deleting the cookie, voting, deleting the cookie, voting etc etc.

But it's also interesting that at a blog funded by the union movement, with many of said unions affiliated to the Labour Party, Labour is trailing both MegaMana and the Greens, with a mere 20% of the vote. 

If Labour can only register 20% of the vote on a blog which should be friendly towards it, the party is going to be in big trouble when it goes to the country in September.


Footnote: The latest Keeping Stock political poll will go up on Friday morning, and will remain open until 7pm on Friday 20th June; exactly three months from the moment when the polls close in the 2014 General Election.

0 Quote of the Day - 1 June 2014

The Herald on Sunday has chosen Martyn Bradbury to be its leftie of the week, and he doesn't disappoint, confirming what everyone already suspected; MegaMana is hardcore left-wing:

Some on the left call this a sell-out. Principled opposition is admirable, but who will tell the 285,000 children in poverty we wouldn't replace the Government because we couldn't agree on which version of Marx to follow?
If Labour and the Greens are to defeat Key's National, Act, United Future, Maori Party coalition, they need every ally they can get. A political party aimed at the group least likely to vote doesn't risk splitting votes on the left. With the Internet Party's resources and flax-root networks of Mana, the possibility of this being the parliamentary maths game changer is high.
If Harawira, Harre, Sykes and Minto are the "sell-out", sign me up.

Interestingly Martyn, not everyone is signing up. We spotted this on Twitter last night:

We suspect that Dylan Reeve will not be the only one to delete Kim Dotcom's app, as people start to understand the political motivation of the Internet Party, and its place in the political landscape.

0 Laila Harre to lead the Internet Party

Laila Harre is to be named tomorrow as the leader of the Internet Party; the Herald reports:

Former Alliance Party MP Laila Harré will be announced as the leader of Kim Dotcom's Internet Party tomorrow, the Herald understands.
Internet Party chief executive Vikram Kumar and Mana Party Leader Hone Harawira yesterday refused to comment on who the leader would be but Mr Harawira said it was a "high calibre" person while Mr Kumar said it would be "a known" political figure.
The appointment of a leader was a crucial step in sealing the electoral alliance between the Internet Party and Mana which was confirmed yesterday.
At that time, Mr Harawira said " once it became clear who they were talking to in terms of the leader it made it easier for us to continue the negotiations".
Ms Harré was a former Alliance MP and worked as advisor for Green Party until recently. Now at CTU she is working on the Get Out and Vote campaign.

And Martyn Bradbury has send a typically bombastic message out to critics of the MegaMana hook-up:

Left wing blogger Martyn Bradbury who has worked on strategy for the Internet Party this afternoon wrote: "The secret is out. Laila Harre will be the new leader of the Internet Party. So if this works the way we hope it will, Hone Harawira, Laila Harre, Annette Sykes and John Minto will be in Parliament.
"Where's all that left wing angst and screams of sell out now?"

Interestingly though, the Internet Party claims that Bradbury doesn't speak for them (and probably wishes he wouldn't!):

Mr Kumar said party "isn't commenting on the leader at all up till 2pm tomorrow".
He said Mr Bradbury "has zero influence, advice or role with the Internet Party".

Its lovely to see all the frothing on the Left. The Greens will be feeling betrayed that having poached Ms Harre from Labour, via the Alliance, she's now jumped waka again. Her selection certainly doesn't bring anything particularly new or visionary to the table. And we can't see too many votes being lured away from the centre-right with the appointment of another recycled trade unionist.

We've been in a meeting all day, and only just got home. But we'll close with this picture, that arrived in our inbox as we were typing out this post:

0 MegaMana's first casualty

The Internet-Mana Party has been officially formed, but within 45 minutes it has had its first defection. Sue Bradford has just told Sean Plunket on RadioLive that "Sucking up to German millionaires is not my vision of the future" and has resigned from Mana. 

There's no word yet as to whether John Minto will have a similar attack of principles and bail out. We've said in the past that Sue Bradford's politics are completely opposite to ours, but she has risen in our esteem for not being blinded by Dotcom's bluster and bank balance.

Attention turns now to who will lead the Internet Party. Could it be Kim Dotcom's candlelit friend Martyn Bradbury? Please let that be so!

0 Is Bradbury still on the Dotcom payroll?

There was a protest outside the PM's Parnell home last night. Regular readers will be aware of our thoughts on that; politicians' homes should be off-limits for protest. There are plenty of other ways to legitimately protest against MP's.

But this is interesting (via the Herald):

Veteran activists Jon Minto and Penny Bright were among the crowd and were joined mid-way through the vigil by Martyn Bradbury and Dotcom.
Dotcom said he was attending as a citizen, not an aspiring politician, to protest the "illegal" drone strikes.

We just took this snap of the telly a moment ago, and there are Dotcom and Bradbury, in all their glory:

So we're now wondering; is Martyn Bradbury now back on the Dotcom Party payroll? Perhaps, with all the empathy he has for the downtrodden, he's consoling Dotcom over all his recent difficulties. Or maybe he's still providing strategic advice to the internet magnate, who's dealing with a multitude of financial, legal, political and domestic issues.

There's one upside to this however. While Bradbury is out and about hob-nobbing with the Large German Gentleman, there's less time for him to be a purveyor of hate speech hypocrisy.

0 Hate speech hypocrisy

Not everyone was happy to see Cameron Slater and Whaleoil win the Canon Media Award Best Blog gong last night. You can read a sampling of reaction here, but we urge caution. The Left prides itself on being caring and sensitive, but that trait was lacking last night.

Naturally enough, Whaleoil's arch-enemy, Martyn Bradbury was right to the forefront of the less-than-charitable stuff. Bradbury tweeted thus:

Had Bradbury left it there, it would have been enough. He would have made his point. But making your point is never enough for the bombastic Martyn Bradbury; he had to lay it on thick at The Daily Blog; check this out:

What do you reckon; is accusing someone of being a "hate speech merchant", then posting an image of their face photoshopped on the body of an insect ever so slightly hypocritical? We reckon that it is.

As an aside, Bradbury's condemnation of  "the disgusting Len Brown story" made us laugh out loud. Within a couple of hours of Slater's scoop about the mayor's infidelity, Len Brown publicly admitted the affair. Brown's affair long preceded any political considerations, and the Lame Duck Mayor has only himself to blame for his predicament.

This is a healthy serving of sour grapes from Martyn Bradbury, with lashings of hypocrisy. It's not a pleasant recipe.