The Left Triumphant! A Counterfactual History of the Last Twelve Months.

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DID IT REALLY HAVE TO END LIKE THIS? Reading through the commentary threads of the left-wing blogs it is impossible to not feel the anger; the sense of betrayal; the impression of having had something vital ripped from their grasp; that many left-wing voters are still experiencing. Political parties are supposedly the vessels in which the hopes and dreams of whole classes of people are carried to power. How did the parties of the Left fail so spectacularly? Could it possibly have ended differently?

Of course it could. The debacle of 20 September 2014 was anything but inevitable. Different choices could very easily have produced spectacularly different results.

Let us begin with David Cunliffe’s victory of 15 September 2015. Not only was this a democratic triumph for the ordinary members and union affiliates of the Labour Party, it was also a revitalising tonic for Labour supporters and voters across the country.

For two weeks New Zealanders had been reminded of what Labour was all about – or, at least, what it wassupposed to be about. They responded by sending Labour soaring to 37 percent in the polls. Given that the Helen Clark-led Labour Party had won power in 1999 with just 38 percent of the vote, Cunliffe and his team were poised upon the threshold of an election year from which they had every chance of emerging triumphant.

What happened in the three months following that historic vote set the scene for the disaster the Left has just experienced.

What happened? Well, that’s the whole point isn’t it? Nothing happened. Spring turned into summer and Cunliffe did very little to build upon his September victory. The Labour Party’s annual conference was allowed to come and go without the slightest attempt to demonstrate to a waiting New Zealand in what way the new Labour leader was in any politically obvious respect different from the old one.

So consider, instead, this counterfactual history of the past twelve months.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

 

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CUNLIFFE ANNOUNCES the appointment of Matt McCarten as his Chief-of-Staff not in February 2014, but in September 2013. The new Leader of the Opposition’s Office is thus galvanised into action immediately – not five months later.

In his speech to the CTU conference Cunliffe announces his intention – as both Prime Minister and Minister of Labour – to establish a comprehensive commission of inquiry into workplace conditions and employee aspirations. It will be the biggest and most thorough exercise in public consultation ever attempted in New Zealand, and at the end of the process the country will have a blueprint for workplace relations that the people themselves have drafted. At the 2017 election New Zealanders will have the opportunity to vote this blueprint up or down. If they vote it up, then working-class New Zealanders, and the new institutions they have brought into being, will find themselves – for the first time in a long time – at the centre of the political stage.

With the reverberations of this policy still echoing around the country, Cunliffe then flies into Wigram for his party’s annual conference. Instead of the damp squib this gathering turned out to be (full of backstairs arm-twisting to shut down the debate on lifting the age of retirement and blunt the growing union opposition to the TPPA) the conference offers the clearest possible signal that Labour and the Greens will be fighting the 2014 election as partners – not antagonists.

On the Sunday afternoon, Cunliffe is joined on stage by Russel Norman and Metiria Turei, and, to tumultuous applause, the three politicians jointly announce their common policies on Climate Change and Ending Child Poverty. Like the 1998 Alliance Conference in Albany, the Wigram Conference gives New Zealanders an abiding and highly persuasive image of unity and common purpose.

To conclude his first 100 days as Labour leader, Cunliffe celebrates the festive season by launching his autobiography. The book, published by Craig Potton, and begun when Cunliffe was banished by David Shearer to the back-benches, sets out not only the story of Cunliffe’s life, but also his vision for New Zealand’s future. In an instant, the problem of what to give every Labour Party member and supporter for Christmas is solved. The Press Gallery, too, has  something to read at the beach.

Early in the new year, with Cunliffe’s, the Greens and Mana leader, Hone Harawira’s blessing, Matt McCarten sets up a very secret meeting with Kim Dotcom. “We all share a common goal,” Matt grins, “we all want to get rid of the Key Government. Perhaps you might like to assist the three left-wing Opposition parties with a substantial financial donation?

“To many New Zealanders,” he tells the big German, “you have become a sort of folk hero. So they’ll forgive you donating money to John Key’s opponents. What they will not forgive, however, is any attempt to intervene directly in the country’s politics. By sponsoring a new political party, for example. If you want someone other than Judith Collins to be the Minister of Justice after 2014, then what Labour, the Greens and Mana are proposing is by far the best option.”

Cunliffe’s next call, early in 2014, is to his publisher, Craig Potton. With the 2002 precedent of Nicky Hager’sSeeds of Distrust firmly in his mind, he asks Potton to think very carefully before publishing another of Nicky’s books in the middle of an election campaign. “If such a publishing venture is planned,” he says, “could you and Nicky, at the very least, keep all the Opposition leaders in the loop? A Labour-Green-Mana victory may well hinge on how you manage the release of another one of Nicky’s exposés.”

In the very depths of the winter of 2014, Cunliffe and McCarten, working with Helen Kelly of the CTU, organise a mass union meeting in the Telstra Events Centre in Manukau. Before an audience of 8,000 workers, Cunliffe, Norman, Turei and Harawira jointly announce their “Fairer Taxes For A Fairer New Zealand” package. “The 1 percent,” Cunliffe thunders, “will make a contribution to New Zealand’s future commensurate with their obscene wealth!” “The polluters will be made to pay”, the Greens promise. “We will feed the kids!” Hone bellows – to a crowd already on its feet and cheering.

In the final fortnight of the election campaign the “New Tomorrow Road Trip” makes its way from Kaitaia in the North to Invercargill in the South. A gleaming cavalcade of busses (paid for by Dotcom’s millions) snakes its way through New Zealand’s green and pleasant land carrying the Labour, Green and Mana leaders into every major city in the country.

It ends in the Auckland Town Hall on the Thursday before the election. Packed to the Gods the audience listens intently as Cunliffe speaks about his upbringing as a preacher’s son. “I have always believed that there is something bigger in this world than the individual,” he tells the hushed hall, his words echoing across Aotea Square, where thousands more are gathered. “Something more valuable than money. The men and women who inspire humanity do not look back, at the past; or down, on their opponents; they look forward, to the challenges that lie ahead; and, if we are very lucky, up, towards the mountains we have yet to climb. There are men and women who fit that description with me on this stage tonight, and, God willing, they will be with me in Government on Sunday morning.”

 

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History is about the choices men and women make. Had better choices been made over the past 12 months, then the unemployed, beneficiaries, the working poor, young New Zealanders trying to buy their first home, university students burdened down by debt, all those in need of caritas – the love that so terrifies the Right – might now be celebrating the beginning of a new chapter in the history of New Zealand progressivism.

 

For their sake, as well as our own, we must do better next time.

40 COMMENTS

  1. Do you really believe – and expect us to believe – that Cunliffe and co weren’t “in the loop” about Hagar’s book? The “Vote Positive” slogan made no sense at all UNTIL the book came out! Labour thought they would reel in disenchanted voters, sick of National’s ‘dirty politics’, but voters saw the scheme for what it was, and voted accordingly.

    • Did you believe this (conspiracy) theory before or after you heard it on NewTalk ZB?
      Please don’t believe all you hear on that channel or Radio Live – it causes damage to the critical thinking area of the brain, a precious mental ability.

      • Ah, now I see, it was of course just a pure, innocent coincidence, the left would never scheme and plot and manipulate like that. After all Hagar’s completely fair and balanced book proved that it is only the right that play dirty politics. If you really think “Vote Positive” and “Dirty Politics” had nothing to do with each other I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you

  2. The Labour Party is full of smart people – Chris cannot have been the only person to have realised such a strategy was required. Who got in the way? And can ordinary Labour members manage to send them packing within the next two years?

  3. Nice story you have trotted out, shame it’s fiction.
    Doing better next time may be too late; with a ruling majority everything may be sold, including our sovereignty to TPPA.

  4. Twelve months to reinvigorate a tired Labour Party was an impressive feat. We all saw it happen, the release of detailed policies that meshed well with that of the Greens. We saw a leader who not only had the fire but a real concern for the plight of New Zealanders. A great orator who seemed be gaining more and more in confidence. David Parker was great as deputy leader.
    It was never going to be a fair fight. Not when you have All Blacks tweeting their voting preferences on Election Day. National with their attack ads. The media bias was not just ridiculous it was and still is fucking unbelievable. These people are so out of touch and are all powerful with their ability to control the narrative and control the populace. I have heard the public repeat the same lines fed to them by a conservative right wing media.
    David Cunliffe was in the fight of his life, and fight he did. He fought and won the debates despite the choice of moderator or the media accessment afterwards. He fought right to the end, campaigning hard right up to midnight. And even now he fights on. Give him more time and allow him to fight for what’s important. He is fighting for us, for those in poverty, for those in need. Give him three years to fight the good fight!

    • Right on D-Man! Here’s hoping David Cunliffe hangs in there and triggers a party-wide vote so we can all re-elect him as leader immediately!
      I’m not giving up on NZ’s best hopes of voting for another great Labour prime minister just yet, DC is just getting started!
      The voting figures from last year’s leadership contest, published in the NZ Herald today, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the members and the unions just don’t have any confidence in Grant Robertson to deliver stirring speeches, go head-to-head with Key in debates, relate to ordinary workers and win over the missing 900,000 voters.
      Now what to do about getting the media to butt out?

  5. I am sick of my future being decided by the ignorant, the greedy or the willfully stupid.

    This election was decided by the wealthy baby boomers playing games with our lives for their precious capital gain, and maintaining a cheap labour force. Epic fail!

  6. Join the fight. Give David Cunliffe three more years!

    https://www.facebook.com/cunliffeforleader

    Twelve months is not long enough for a political party after all the changes the Labour party has gone through to project an image of stability to a suspicious public. If party infighting causes David to be demoted, then for me it will be the ABL club. The anyone but Labour club. It will be their core support base that will be fragmented not its caucus. They need work as a party but if they drop David it will be completely unworkable. You can’t give people a sense of hope then as the dark clouds roll in cruelly take it away!

  7. Thanks Chris, that’s a vision I could buy into – and one in which people voted electorate vote the best strategic vote and party vote Labour, Greens or IMP. (I guess you’re saying no IP – that would be a pity.)

  8. Thanks Chris, always good to have some vision at a time like this.

    Ok, so Cunliffe and his team and advisors fucked up, but what do we do now? If the ABCs take control of Labour, what does “us doing better next time” look like? If DC manages to stay leader, what does “us doing better next time” look like?

  9. Meantime, while the Labour party stares at it’s belly button and tries to work out how to get rid of anyone with a slightly Left Wing point of view, my dear 74 yr old aunt is still working as a cleaner and my brother is having teeth pulled every year because he can’t afford the dentist – my next door neighbour is working for $15 an hour for 6 hours a week caring for a stroke victim ( who can’t walk or cook or shower himself but who has been assessed as only needing 6 hours help a week ! ) and is being topped up by the dole ….. but hey – as long as you guys are having fun in perpetual opposition and still being paid, who cares , right ?

  10. You make some good points Chris and there’s no doubt ‘The Left’ did not galvanise anywhere near as well as they could have. They all played, or didn’t play, as the case may be, as smart a game as they could have , that’s for sure.
    However, what I am sick and tired of hearing is that the poor result is all David Cunliffes’ fault.
    The comments I keep hearing from the so called ‘experts’ in the media lack any form of critical thinking and I have to wonder why these people get paid for doing what they do.
    Here’s another counterfactual.
    Six weeks out from the election John Key takes a 12 day holiday at his beach house in Hawaii with the usual ‘selfies’ being posted every hour on facebook.
    The media are rightfully outraged by this, considering there are nearly 300,000 children living in poverty under his stewardship, and proceed to talk and write about his disconnect with the under privileged, across all media outlets. They will sight readings and facts from books like ‘The Spirit Level’ and over the next week and half interview people from ‘Child poverty action group’, Salvation Army, Food Bank etc.
    This will be relentless and damning.
    You know, like when David Cunliffe had a weekend skiing with his sons and wife in between meetings. That sort of intensity of criticism.
    When Key arrives back in the country he is met by a wall of outrage and is hounded at every turn on every media outlet.
    ‘Key Out Of Touch’, is plastered across the front page of The Herald, with a very unflattering photo of him looking very smug.
    That’s just the start of the campaign . The media, so enraged are they, that they are really out to finish him off now!
    Meanwhile David Cunliffe with his massive war chest courtesy of big business and wealthy Chinese, is having signs of himself and the Labour Party, erected at one kilometre intervals right across the land.
    Key meanwhile has had his team organise all his reporter, journalist and DJ mates to take up all the prime positions on tv, radio and print. No way is a balanced message to get out!
    Key has one of his biggest ‘fan boys’ mediate two of the debates so he could help argue along side him when things got a little too uncomfortable.
    However, the rest of the media are foaming at the mouth now due to the lack of balance going on and correctly see democracy ‘the corner stone’ of any decent society, is in jeopardy.
    Then a book hits the news stands highlighting Keys and Nationals dirty dealings with a smear blogger and corrupt practices.
    Because all journalists are there to uphold democracy at every turn they realise this is the last straw and so all turn on Key demanding his immediate resignation. Their demands are loud and relentless, (you know, like they are when expecting David Cunliffe to immediately resign from the leadership of the Labour party because everything is his fault). That kind of viciousness.
    Finally, begrudgingly, Key goes .
    The election is held a few weeks later
    and ‘The Left’ win in a landslide!
    The media hail David Cunliffe as being a new compassionate leader with vision and a moral compass.
    ‘New Zealand’, they say, ‘has been saved!’

    • You are right Grant. The bullshit permeating from the MSM and its “chattering classes” was that Cunliffe lost the election. Now they are continuing to drive their collective heel into Cunliffe.

      National and the $5,000 a head brigade strategised better.

      Slater/Lusk/Boag 1 Q&A and The Nation 0
      Key 1 Collins 0
      Key 1 – Dotom 0
      MSM 1 Labour 0
      Radiolive 1 Labour 0
      Hosking 2 Key 1 Cunliffe 0
      TeamKey 1 Cossaks (Disorganised Shower of Rowers) 0
      TeamKey 1 Eminem 0
      Teamkey 1 PlanetKey 0
      Lomu 1 Electoral Comission 0
      All Blacks 1 Electoral Comission 0
      Key’s Biography 1 Dirty Politics 0
      No Retirement Age Key 1 67 retirement for workers Labour 0
      Housing Key 1 Housing Twyford 0
      Chinese Smear 1 Labour 0
      Labour’s Collins Dirty Politics 1 Collins 0
      Murray McCully 1 Apology from Cunliffe 0
      TeamKey 1 Labour’s Act-infiltrated-cloned-moas 0
      Forgetful Key 1 Forgetful Cunliffe 0
      MincingdowntheworldCup Stage and three way handshake 1 Lonewolf 0
      Epsom 1 Hone 0
      Ohatriu 1 ACLP more than 1
      Maori Party 2 Labour Maori 2

      Do we add up to a 2:1 ratio yet?

      When you add in the 1,000,000 fuckwits who didn’t vote, even Mother Theresa nor Nelson Mandela, Norm Kirk nor Helen Clark would have won a vote for Labour against #teamkey.

      One Party State is complete – all hail Big Bro’ Key! GCSB is watching you!

      https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/09/24/one-party-state/

      https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/09/25/has-the-one-party-state-crackdown-begun-already-left-wing-nz-activist-group-removed-from-facebook/

      ‘…and the animals looked from pig to man and man to pig, and it was difficult to tell the difefrence between the two…’

      God help us all, and particular Labour. Remember the poor when you vote next. $225,000 was raised for Lucy? What about the other victims of corporate and democratic (sic) inequity?

  11. Yes Chris Labour have to beat NatZ at their own dirty games.

    Start a strategy of stacking the targeted electorates Labour wants to oust Natz from, with phoney right wing candidates to split the NatZ votes like Natz did to Labour this time.

    Take the retiring Labour MP,s and set up a new party called “Bob Jones return” and persuade the right wingers to vote for them right?

    Why not.

  12. Hi,

    In my view this beat up on Labour is unecessary to a large extent. Sure they ran a tired campaign with boring adds and didn’t really connect with voters as well as they should. But the loss wasn’t really down to that.

    It was because a number of key (pun maybe intended) completely reframed the election. It began with Hager’s book, which might have damaged National’s credibility but also savaged Labour in the polls. Why? Because it reframed the entire election. This was no longer a left / right election. It was a confidence in John Key election.

    Then came KDC’s moment of stupidity. In one fell swoop he completely undermined the campaign to discredit John Key, by failing to stand behind his email – fake or otherwise. And at that point John Key immediately won the election based purely on the emotion. He was the white knight beset by liars.

    Five days later National voters came out in droves, galvanised by these scurrulous attacks on their white knight. Left leaning voters stayed at home because they didn’t want to vote for any party that seemed to be on the same side as KDC.

    If Labour had wanted to win this election, they should have recognised early the effect these two people would have had on the vote and responded. Distancing themselves completely from KDC and Hager, and pressing messages on theme about policy, and particularly why their policy would be good for kiwis. Instead they did both, got a foot in both arguments, and then got tarnished when KDC sank one of those boats. So did the Greens and Maori, and got punished for it.

    If you want to check this analysis you simply need to do a poll of non-voters. I’d bet my hat if I had one that by far the biggest slice of those who didn’t get out of bed that day were left leaning.

    Cheers, Greg.

    • The more I look at it , the more I see Cunliffe as the one to lead Labour. The public will get used to him , and he will have gotten that much more savvy…

      Roberston to me may have the ‘intellectualism’ …but he seriously lacks ‘ presence’ ..sounds kind of squeaky when he debates.

      And that leaves the ABC’s….No story about Labour post 1984 is complete without these neo liberal parasites. THESE are the group that Cunliffe needs time to dismantle.

      He wouldn’t have to hit all of them ….just the key antagonists. Destroy that power block…and you will see a Cunliffe unfettered and unstoppable in carrying out the whole of his first weeks as leader.You will see not only a revitalized Labour – but a Labour that TRULY will be a center left political party….and whats more….with no invisible malevolent forces monitoring and opposing every move he made….It would be true freedom for Labour.

    • Add into this the final straw. The bullshit raids in Australia. Suddenly the NSA and GCSB surveillance was characterized as patriotic and necessary, which confirmed that the whole derailing of the campaign with a US-style moral panic about government spying on the individual – never much of an obsession with most kiwis – was a blind alley. The impression left was that the spying was good and needed.
      No surprise, a week later, to find no one is likely to be prosecuted. It isn’t illegal to take a phone call. But at the moment of the election it was still a live issue. Any one who might have voted on that issue was suddenly neutralized.

      • Abbott the neo liberal with his mate JohnXKEYSCORE.

        ” OOPS !! Trouble over the ditch !! …What would you have us do , Mr Obama ? ”

        ” You want us to stage a terrorist raid act to reinforce Mr JohnXKEYSCORE ‘s re-election? ”

        ”Yes , yes of course Sir ,….we need the five eyes to appear to bear relevance for the greater good”

        ” Yes Sir , no problems at all , Sir…will get onto it right away , Sir.”

  13. The more I look at it , the more I see Cunliffe as the one to lead Labour. The public will get used to him , and he will have gotten that much more savvy…

    Roberston to me may have the ‘intellectualism’ …but he seriously lacks ‘ presence’ ..sounds kind of squeaky when he debates.

    And that leaves the ABC’s….No story about Labour post 1984 is complete without these neo liberal parasites. THESE are the group that Cunliffe needs time to dismantle.

    He wouldn’t have to hit all of them ….just the key antagonists. Destroy that power block…and you will see a Cunliffe unfettered and unstoppable in carrying out the whole of his speech content when he was first leader.You will see not only a revitalized Labour – but a Labour that TRULY will be a center left political party….and whats more….with no invisible malevolent forces monitoring and opposing every move he made….It would be true freedom for Labour.

  14. Perhaps you might like to assist the three left-wing Opposition parties with a substantial financial donation?

    The best way Dotcom could have done that, and squashed all potential criticism from the Right?

    KDC should have made donations to the Greens, Mana, and Labour, matching the donations to ACT and National in 2011, dollar-for-dollar.

    Let’s see them call that “buying an election”!

  15. While we ants squabble over the crumbs falling off the picnic table Monsanto is mixing the insecticides .

    It’s my view . Opinion if you like . That we have no leader anywhere in any guise . As the good people of this country , we’re in free fall . We’re in free fall and while we fall freely we’re being picked off like flightless birds . Cunliffe has no pizazz . He has no flavour or spice . He’s bland as a bible salesman on a grey Sunday . His party’s dopy emails to me were headed ‘ Friend . ‘ The last time I heard the word ‘friend’ being bandied about was the last time I heard a snake oil salesman selling snake oil in one of those olde time western movies . The very term ‘ friend ‘ makes my skin crawl for all it’s insidious , patronising connotations . Then , while being voted in Dull Champion of the Year in Denmark he apologises for being a man . Now , I know that caused no small amount of debate . Some argued he was an idiot for making such a fake apology , others suggested he was genuine but still an idiot for saying such a dopy thing while so close to the election while others still wailed , moaned and gnashed their teeth because some men took umbrage therefore they must be misogynistic women abusers . All of that stuff , the dullness , the dopy emails , the dopier apologies were all coffin nails for Cunliffe . After all our hard work as champions of a cause to make people sit up and take notice of the catastrophic war being waged on us by sadistic neo liberals for their profit , Cunliffe was knitting vests for old Aunties with the sniffles . Mean time of course , Jonky-stien was full steam ahead . His relationship with slater was as potent and sexy a relationship as a gangster’s to his crack addict arms dealer in the eyes of the insane Kiwi public well used to having the smell of blood in their nostrils . It would be wise of us well intended few to remember that our mindset is in a minority . Those who voted for jonky – stien are for the most part arseholes . Right wingers are awful people . They’re dishonest in their business dealings and will lie to you at the drop of a hat and fuck you on any deal . They’re morally deviant who will cheat on their partners and get blow jobs from street workers while they wait for their kids to get out of school . Right Wingers are vicious bastards for the fun of it and when they’re cornered , they’ll fight dirtier than a shit spattered rat on P . And we send in Aunty Cunliffe with his faux endearments and apologies ? That was like sending in a plump sheep slathered in tomato sauce to negotiate a peace deal between hungry , waring lion prides . The psychology behind jonky-stiens increased popularity despite Nicky Hager’s book ‘ Dirty Politics ‘ is text book stuff considering that Right Wing voters are , as I’ve said before , vicious arseholes who got stiffies the dirtier the dirt got .
    If Labour truly wants to be in the running for the next election with even half a chance they must find a Leader who’s not afraid to bark his or her knuckles and I’m fucked if I can see one , can you ? Maybe Grant Robertson ? But for fucks sake not Shearer . I can’t believe some people are suggesting that fourth rate guitar strangler might be worth another go . And sure , the MSM were undeniably bias to National . That’s because they pander to the awful Right Wingers who bray for babies on spikes . The Left needs to grow some balls quick smart .

  16. Good point made on the vacuum that came to be, post Cunliffe’s election to leader.

    It started off with a hiss and a roar, a bold challenge that we are now on a war footing or some such words and then…………nothing, week after week after week that ran into months. And with it went the feeling that Labour had their act together.

    I thought DC was getting everything set behind the scenes, a grand master plan to be unleashed of organisational brilliance but no, not a dicky bird.

    Enter into this void, the National Party. If DC was going to give them time to front foot the agenda then God bless him. David Cunliffe is tricky apparently with a few weak examples to try to back this claim up. DC looked like a possum in the head lights. He didn’t see that coming or how to deal with or how to fight back or anything whatsoever.

    Then while he was dusting himself off from that hiding along came the Donghua Liu fiasco. DC didn’t see that coming either. Didn’t read the patsy questions, didn’t smell a rat, walked straight into the trap and was nailed permanently. It wasn’t so much he forgot about Liu, rather it was that he was the champion of the cause of dodgy connections with donors only to become connected to the man himself and so became the chump.

    DC looked like a man who wanted the job, a bit like a kid who wants to be an astronaut but had no idea how to do it, no reality.

    It says to me Cunliffe is not a schemer and that he is inherently honest and probably quite trusting. These are fantastic qualities in a human but they have to be tempered with a cynical grip on reality if you want to lead a political party. If he trusted Key at all, if he thought him ethical or moral then it was all over especially after seeing Key in action for 6 years.

    In a more moral, ethical climate DC may have made a great PM for NZ, a country, that has to many become accustomed to lies and manipulation. But this is not paradise, its New Zealand.

  17. Cunliffe quits as Labour Leader

    Bye man(less), don’t let the door smack you in the arse on the way out.

    Oh bugger, he intends wasting more money by tossing his hat in the ring again. Take some advice David and don’t bother.

    • Things are getting a little crazy right now. So DC quits, well kind of.

      “The party’s interests must come before any personal interests. I have thought carefully before responding to the calls to re-offer myself for the leadership of the party” and “Therefore I am announcing today that I will nominate for a primary contest”

      And yet he is going to have a go at becoming leader…again! I’m very confused. How does this advance party interests over yours David??

      Holy shit how unaware would a person have to be to do this? Yep I’d love to lead a bunch of MP’s who want nothing to do with me, and thats just my own party, just imagine the endless possibilities.

      John Key could honestly mock him and say that, you sir, have no support from your own party let alone the nation.

      I assume the resignation is because he has next to no backing in his caucus and it from outside it looks bloody dysfunctional. In hindsight it certainly looked like that was the case pre-election.

      If this system of electing a leader for Labour is maintained, the one where the parliamentary side put up with whoever the non parliamentary side want then we will see another 3 years of the circus that has gone on in the previous year and fuck, that worked a treat didn’t it? And then Key will get terms 4 and 5 etc, short of dying of old age or some cataclysmic event beyond Labours input.

      What a farce!

  18. We are mostly labour/green voters. This time we voted for Mana Internet. We went to the Auckland opening and it was such a positive intelligent and youth focussed event.We were shocked at the Corkery blow up. No body saw it except for the mediaI. I didn’t vote Labour because my relative in chch is living in a damaged house (in a poor suburb). The govt did nothing and Labour showed no leadership.
    This is a shallow viewpoint but David Cunliffe strikes me as a 12 year old boy you want to slap around the ears. (I am a non violent person). I thought a lot more people would vote for the Greens. There seems to be a dynamic where the male partner votes for National and the woman votes for Greens. Why didn’t Labour get in touch with us we have been here for more than 20 years and would have bought a raffle ticket!

  19. Trying to gauge the damage Ede, Slater and Farrar have wrought….

    AT the very same moment in earth History the IPCC present figures showing the highest CO2 & methane levels in 800,000 years; warning humanity has 15 years to mitigate global climate change due to fume emission technologies, requiring at least three quarters of all known oil/gas/coal reserves to remain IN the ground;
    At that very same moment, NZ votes in the key/Joyce government fresh off the blocks with a 15 year program promising to utilize all means exploiting Asian and world markets. Oil. Gas. Dairy. Tourism. Timber. TPP.

    Corruption of open and fair democratic process, as part of the damage the ‘Dirty Politics’ conspiracy achieved, is dwarfed by the damage to the capabilities of/for an enlightened and cohesive response to the IPCC warnings; and for that, the sinister ego of SLATER and all who played with him, stand accused.

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