Put aside the casual bloke sexism that causes liberal urban female voters to choke on their soy lattes and put aside his constant desire to start fist fights with the Greens, there are two words that sum up why the Jonsey boy with the common touch swagger simply can’t ever be allowed anywhere near the Leadership of the Labour Party – Bill Liu.
How and why Jones decided to give Liu citizenship has never really been fully explained. The Department of Internal Affairs was pretty clear in advising Shane not to give him citizenship and Interpol was flying so many red flags on his application it may as well have been Revolution Day in Tiananmen Square. The claim that Liu’s life was in danger if he was sent back seems eye rolling in the extreme.
Dover Samuels being Liu’s best mate and sponsor doesn’t help un-muddy the waters, and the speed to swear Liu in reeks to high heaven.
It’s not just the large question marks that hang so heavily over Shane for deciding to give Bill Liu citizenship when Liu’s problems were well documented, it’s all the rumours that swirled around as well.
IF Jones won the leadership, my guess is those rumors would surface on Whaleoil about two weeks before the 2014 election. I like Shane, he’s funny, brilliant and an incredible speaker who could make a real impact on the front bench, but he has so many skeletons in the closet he could start his own zombie army.
Election day would look like this 7 days out…
…for all the tub thumping, the Bill Liu escapade could be the bum note that kills the party.
This has all the qualities of a political ticking time bomb which would be mercilessly exploited by the right come election time.
Maybe that is why the right keep championing him…?
Why wait for Whalescum to spill the beans? Now’s a good time. Go for it!
Buuuuuuutttttttt – the mainstream media, the government cheer-leading talk back hosts, like Leighton Smith and Sean Plunket, just LOVE the man, even Willie Jackson and John Tamihere appear to be embracing him, as “one of them”! How can you say as you do, Martyn, he is just so “popular”, dear Shane, all former mistakes and embarrassments have been forgotten and forgiven, he is claimed to be “the only one who can beat Key”, they say.
Ahem, yes, ahem, sorry, I do actually agree with what you say and write. It is not just that remaining mystery of this Mainland Chinese businessman, who had and still has more than two names, and who got residency, it seems even citizenship, despite of so many warning signals that there were.
Shane Jones comes across as one shooting from the hip at times, he comes with lingo I find a bit simplistic, although he is known to have a smart mind, and he intentionally tries to appeal to the average bloke and perhaps “bloke’s missus” out there.
He says he will get “his team” to run the country, and when I hear him, he sounds more like a senior business manager, who will try and run the country like Dotcom runs his businesses.
Involved in corporate style fishing business, not wanting to commit to a living wage (ok, he stands for an increased minimum wage), not wanting to get too “cosy” with the Greens, and happy to drill, dig and log, to have more dairy, for the jobs’ sake, Shane is clearly a man who appeals to the business sector.
While I see a place for business and their interests, I fear Shane is actually on the right fringe of Labour, hence he appeals to some Nat voters. But that is where so many traditional Labour voters would not really want to return to, I have heard.
I can imagine Jones also standing for something like compulsory apprenticeships and work schemes for unemployed, although that has not been said as such, but listening to him, that would fit in with the rest he says.
He has already distanced himself from the other two contenders, and claims he is the one that will win for Labour and be the only one who may become PM. For what price though? I cannot see many women vote for him, I am afraid.
And then Bill Liu aka whatever his name, it is too risque to vote for a man that may still have a large skeleton in the closet, which may suddenly drop out of there again.
Keep Shane for a ministerial job, if he will and can live with that. No more than that though, thanks.
I still assume Jones’ leadership bid is really just about being made fisheries minister in the next Labour government.
I look at Shane Jones and think of two other words as to why he cannot be Labour leader – Roger Douglas. Jones would not be out of place in the 1984 Labour caucus. I can imagine him (and several others – Damien O’Connor and Clayton Cosgrove) happily supporting Rogernomics.
Why did he ever join Labour in the first place, apart from family ties? Heredity might be OK for a monarchy, but has no place in a modern democracy. He shouldn’t be leader, he shouldn’t be a minister, and he shouldn’t even be a member.
Well that just leaves Cunliffe then.
If Shane won the the leadership with a deputy leader of John Tamihere the Mana Movement and Maori party would diminish. All those Maori voters that left labour over the foreshore debate would come flocking back. Shame Labour can’t see that potential and they are focused on Shane’s personal relationships. It could be New Zealand’s first Maori PM that always spoke in metaphors lol.
Really?…..no seriously, really?
No one in the Mana movement is going to leave if Jones & Tamihere take over, they are both revolting. Both sexist and Tamihere’s remarks about the gay community are absolutely appalling for a so called intelligent man.
Intelligent?
Ah yeah Labour needs to run a mile from whoever the right champion
From the comments online, it seems I’m not the only woman by a long shot who can spot the slime factor. Shane Jones has the S factor in spades.
but he’s actually a crap speaker – every time he opens his mouth semi-coherent rubbish comes out. They guy can’t maintain a train of thought to save himself.
It’s not the language he uses that I have a problem with.
It’s his complete lack of content when he says anything. He talks endlessly about how he wants to mobilise the 800,000 who didn’t vote last time, he talks about folks being unhappy with the current situation… but what is bad about the current situation? No specifics. What will he do about it? No specifics.
What will he actually do if he gets the top job? No idea because he isn’t saying anything.
With regard to the Labour leadership race, and recent controversy over gender issues, I note that the candidate list is exclusively male. Thus far, though, I haven’t heard anybody complain that the lack of women candidates means that the list is biased, or that the quality of the candidates is less than it would otherwise have been. No surprises there, then….
If Labour really wants the female vote, it shouldn’t elect Jones: the party needs overt misogyny of the sort he’s espoused like it needs toothache.
Then there are the other issues, adduced above. They point to Jones’ problems with integrity in other areas of his life. The party would be better off without him in any capacity.
Jones has kissed the blarney stone, and should be the ‘Minister of Blather and Blarney’. Is he Labs equivalent of Joyce?
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