Parker does a Shearer – oh for a Labour Leader who can challenge msm false narratives rather than reinforce them

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Sigh. It seems David Parker has done a Shearer…

Like a cult and too red – Parker on Labour
Labour leadership contender David Parker says Labour borders on feeling like “a cult” and must look at its branding – including its symbolic red party colour.

Mr Parker made the comments in an interview with the Herald as part of a series on the four leadership contenders.

…in their attempt at being relevant, we seem to have Labour MPs more willing to reinforce the false narratives of the mainstream media rather than challenge them.

Last week David Shearer was on the rampage trying to maim David Cunliffe while dog whistling for white men with Shearer buying into the narrative that Labour are too ‘special interests’. As I pointed out, it is National who are the real political party for ‘special interests’, the special interests of SkyCity, the already wealthy, Federated Farmers and Corporations, Labour’s factions are actually representative of the ‘democratic majority’ not ‘special interests’.

Now we have Parker blowing on the same dog whistle by bizarrely claiming that Labour resembles a ‘cult’. Again, if we are looking for ‘Cults’, look no further than the Cult of no personality that National have built around John Key – it’s a cargo cult minus the cargo.

Buying into the false narratives of the media isn’t leadership, it’s capitulation.

21 COMMENTS

  1. its such a dumb word to utter about your party to the MSM – especially now – that i think its deliberate

    just what word will we now hear from the MSM re: labour? cult maybe?

    nice work in both diverting attention away from national AND neutering the term cult for when it gets used to correctly describe the nats under key

    from now on anytime someone tries to have an intelligent discussion about the cult of personality that is team key – key can just go “what? you mean like labour?”

    well done parker!

  2. Oh yeah, I can see how the Party’s colour will impact on how New Zealanders see it.

    As we all know, the bottom 20% wake up every morning thinking about Labour’s need to re-brand and change it’s colour scheme…

    Truly, JC wept…

    • I agree with your sentiment, but it isn’t the bottom 20% Parker’s trying to attract, it is middle NZ, who no longer vote for Labour. Labour need to regain the hearts and minds of NZ’ers without undertaking the cliched ‘move to the centre’. Unfortunately until the ‘centre’ shifts again, they are speaking to an ever decreasing audience.

  3. I can only hope Parker was being misquoted. Un f ing believable. Ive been blogging a bit about how Labour and other left parties need to challenge the discourses out there. To think that this is being read as voters worried about ‘cult’ and the colour ‘red’ no f ing way. Totally agree here with

    in their attempt at being relevant, we seem to have Labour MPs more willing to reinforce the false narratives of the mainstream media rather than challenge them.

    I’m fairly speechless now. Is there no hope for the Labour party if they think changing their ‘branding’ and being ‘convivial dining companions’ is what voters want?

    NO NO NO NO NO

    Voters actually want real things. Jobs, security, decent wages, equity, freedom of speech, freedom of education, health care, no corruption, clean rivers and air, a decent environment to raise kids in.

    How this is going to be achieved by re branding Labour by changing the color and dumbing down opposition to be more convivial – I don’t know?

    Thank god I did not vote for that drivel last time. If there is any hope for Labour they need to get serious about real policies and start being the opposition as our country is in trouble big time. That would make me vote labour again.

  4. Who cares how they Trojan Horse in sensible policies that assist all Kiwi’s especially on the growing bottom half because of it works everyone’s a winner. At this time I think it’s the only way to slide under the right-wing corporate media radar, be the sheep in Wolf’s clothes, sound all bland, brain dead and even a bit nasty.

    Maybe they’ve taken a leaf from the National Party strategy book!

  5. This does seem like it could cause a massive self-inflicted injury on Labour. Using the term ‘cult’ is a definite poor choice of words. It’s so negatively emotionally-laden that despite the merits of the claim Joe & Josephine Public are just going to hear it and take it for what it is and think poorly of Labour.

    What’s all this rubbish about ‘re-branding’ by changing the colour of Labour from traditional red? They’re not a product, they are a political movement. They should stop trying to appeal to the mythical middle New Zealand and just standing up vociferously for what they have traditionally represented.

    They are failing to realise that what they think is the solution (going Right and appealing to people with those views) is actually the problem. The muddled message they are putting out makes it difficult to understand what they represent and they also lose support from people who previously voted for them because they aren’t standing for the Left anymore.

  6. Here’s an idea. Don’t read the Herald. You people buy into that BS,every time. In fact Labour is perceived as supporting and pandering to special interest groups. While you may be generous in stating that they are representative of the democratic majority, the simple fact of the matter is that gays, transgender and lesbians are not the democratic majority, they are a minority but they are over represented in the Labour Party. As are the trade Unions which you seem to favour. Here is my opinion. Cunliffe would not have been a great leader. A great headmaster maybe. Little might have made a good Union leader but he won’t make a good Labour Party Leader. How good was he as the Labour Party President? He didn’t even get elected on his merit. David Shearer while he probably didn’t do himself any good coming out fighting he was simply stating a fact. White middle class men don’t vote for Labour. That’s because they like to think they are intelligent. Or they aspire to be!! And why should Nanaia be the portrayed as a good deputy – to a white middle class man? Nanaia should be the leader on her merit. She has held seat for several elections and is a very intelligent woman. And she is representative of the democratic majority or should I say the femocratic majority. Vote Nanaia for a change.

  7. This is all just so depressing.
    What the hell is Parker thinking?
    And to top it of we had Annette King on Firstline this morning suggesting the problem of Auckland housing crisis could be solved if they shift to Wellington or somewhere else.
    I mean, for the love of Mike, this is straight out of the National Party handbook for problem solving. It’s called , pass the buck or blame someone else.
    And apparently these latest scary immigration figures are just a peak in a cycle.
    Ah, hello, I don’t think so. They are coming in droves now because their own countries are so over populated and polluted, so we are now getting a city half the size of Hamilton per year, every year from now on.
    Apparently filling skill shortages.
    Yeah right, that’s why we have so many Doctors driving taxis and courier vans .I often wonder what the likes of Norm Kirk would have made of all this.
    I’m sure rebranding Labour with a different colour and logo would be the last thing on his mind.
    It’s been proven time and time again that you can make anything seem cool and hip with the right spin and marketing. Key , the most uncool and uncharacteristically personality is a classic case in point.
    So let’s get a different Newspaper, TV channel and radio station our their, create our own spin and then we will see how trendy Red actually is !

  8. “isn’t leadership, it’s capitulation” – and also having no sense of loyalty to your party.

    And it won’t work because Labour will never get into government again without a coalition with the Greens so even if voters think Labour is sufficiently right wing, they won’t vote for it anyway because they don’t want to support the Greens.

    • ^ Disagree. It is now quite ‘middle class’ and ‘ fashionable ‘ to align with Green policy / values.

      This is NOT the 1960’s anymore and alot of people are quite ok with Green values and policies.

      It is the shambles that is Labour they have the problem with…..they dont want to waste their votes on such a divided , antagonistic dysfunctional party . And fair enough.

      Sometimes the truth is hard. But its still the truth.

  9. Or …. is he correct ? Labour is a bit like a cult . No , it is . Labour’s fucked . It performed appallingly in the last election . It started with a whimper and ended up as an apology . And Red is so last Revolution darling . It does have that rolled up sleeves on working men pissing up before going home to beat the missus quality about it . The red faced , fag smoking warfie / railway worker / shearer / truck driver type .

    Maybe Labour needs a name change also ? How about Leisure ? The Leisure Party . I’d fucking vote for that . Because all I seem to do is work for fuck all . I work for the Bank . The local Council , the insurance scum , the power company , the phone company and the only local rorting , gouging supermarket that’s frankly not that super .

    I think Parker is right . Labour blew some amazing opportunities . They bungled the Greenwald / Assange / Snowden thing , fell over Nicky Hager then snivelled their way to the polls to flop like a shot donkey .

    Labour needs a sound kick up the arse for running up our hopes and wasting our fucking time in my opinion .

  10. It’s probably a bit hard for poor old Mr Parker as it was possibly two of his top policies – the Capital Gains Tax and raising the retirement age – that had alot of those left leaning ‘middle voters’ not voting Labour.

    Think Labour is a Cult eh? This could be why cau(r)cus is out of touch with their own membership.

  11. Hi,

    The only thing I would say is one I’ve learned from working in health for twenty years. Never rebrand! Never, never, never!

    You’ve got a name, good or bad. You’ve got a symbol, good or bad. You take a leaf out of coca-cola’s book, and you iconise that symbol for the life of the company. If your name is in the toilet, you put everything you have into digging it out of the mess and polishing it.

    Rebranding just confuses the people. It loses the people’s confidence in who you are. It costs megabucks in consultants, advertising and sundries like stationary. And it gains you nothing.

    That’s why even twenty years later, people understand the term “Health Department.” But then can’t find us in the phone book under our myriad of modern names.

    Cheers, Greg.

  12. If hes the Brains of the party we really are in Trouble..Red I cant remember the last time the labour party was red .. David cunliff talked about it for a while and it sounded good but come the election he had mellowed a real lot , it was getting hard to tell red from blue .

    and a cult ? good god , nonsense. mainstream as ,which if you were to ask me . I would tell you tell you was part of the problem both parties being just different sides of the same coin with one being in and one being out and taking turn and turn about .
    changing the parties hair style is not going to help all the much for very long ..

  13. Yes, you got it, Martyn. I was worried when I heard Shearer, Robertson and a few others criticise and attack Cunliffe right after the election, and when they and also Parker and even Little simply took over the short sighted, biased reasoning of too many MSM persons, for the election losses that Labour suffered.

    That is a precursor for further political suicide, what comes from Parker and others, displaying so much self-doubt, and accepting the peculiar arguments the media present.

    In short, it sounds as if Labour’s caucus does in their majority want to be nothing more than a National Light kind of party.

    They ignore the fact that over 800 thousand did not bother to vote, and that winning over a sufficient number of these would make all the difference. Instead they overly focus on the “centre” of the voter base, and on those who have bothered to vote and then followed MSM “guidance” (and poor, biased information that was delivered), and voted National in too high numbers.

    But even National did not really gain votes, they simply remained at about where they have been for years. It is the non voters that Labour must look at, and their various reasons for not bothering to vote, that can and would make all the difference.

    It will most likely not be Labour policy as a whole, and also not just simply be the leader, which was to blame. There are a number of reasons, and perhaps that review in process many reveal them.

    And it was also misguided, to allow the MSM to set the tone in the election campaign. Dotcom may have distracted, but it was the media that whipped it all up, that what was not so relevant, also conducting personality assassinations.

    Labour and the leadership candidates can do with better advice, I think, than what they are getting at present.

  14. As soon as I saw Nanina Mahuta was standing my mind was made up where my vote was going, that lady would be the right person at the right time for Labour.

    Forget about the others.

  15. Poor wee mite couldn’t even describe the ‘mythic middle’ that he’s hunting.

    Like Pooh Bear and Piglet hunting heffalumps.

    Dear Wannabes – we are not some amorphous mass. If you don’t know who or what you stand for – shut up until you do, and only then speak for them with whatever remains of your conviction and passion.

    Right now they’re also like baby birds cheeping, “Are you my mother?” as they flap around the potential voters.

    Sad, really.

  16. I dont see how David Parker can be considered a strong candidate anymore after his views of calling Labour too red and a cult in the heavily pro biased NZ Herald.
    Does Parker not understand that mainstream media will from now on, use that narrative against Labour, as if Labour doesn’t have enough troubles to contend with, disregarding the very fact, that is exactly what TeamKey is, a cult.

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