If I ever had any doubts over the influence of National in our media, those doubts drowned yesterday in a lake of tears.
The sheer bias and hatred displayed towards Mr Cunliffe yesterday, on both the internet and TV news, was apparent even to my inexperienced eyes.
“You lied, Mr Cunliffe.” They chorused. “You had a convenient brain-fade, Mr Cunliffe” they refrained.
I would like to know, exactly how many of these so-called reporters can remember every letter they have signed over their lives. I would like to ask them whether they keep a catalogue in their memories of every letter they have signed and sent to their parents, to their spouses, to their business associates.
I know what is going to be said, this letter wasn’t sent to a loved one or relative. It was business, and should have been remembered, that is what a good politician does.
Quite simply, how many letters has Mr Cunliffe sent over his long career in Parliament? It must be thousands. Yet somehow, out of all the letters they could have miraculously found, they somehow managed to find this single letter which they perceive as having evidence of wrong-doing in it.
Lucky stroke?
A smoking gun, or a broken water pistol?
The TV news now has to compete with news on the Internet. A 24/7 feed of information. They are finding it hard to adapt to the idea of not having a six-o’clock feeding time of information. To compete with this, they need to have a story which can bring in the viewers. A “Shock-horror, the Leader Of the Opposition is a liar” type of thing. And that’s exactly what they got yesterday.
This may explain the vicious grilling of Mr Cunliffe in what I presume to be the entrance hall to Parliament. They needed a sensational news story, perhaps to pick up the poll ratings during the middle of the week, a week dominated by soccer. Not news.
As for the online news. I see nothing but bias there. On a certain well-read news site, there is a poll asking the question “Which Cunliffe gaffe is your favorite?”.
Unnecessary, cruel, and a blatant attempt to further damage Mr Cunliffe’s credibility.
The letter was a very routine piece of work. Maybe the media should get to know what work goes on in your average electorate office. There are also letters at the post office, you know, media.
They aren’t all leaked by the Neo-Liberal faction of Labour, in case you didn’t know where letters come from.
To sum up, I am utterly disgusted by the show of bias and hatred yesterday shown towards David Cunliffe. And as for the Stuff poll, 23% of people polled were undecided on who they would vote for. And many of these people will vote Labour.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to find out my mark for a maths assessment. Adieu, until I write again.
My name is Finn Jackson. I turned sixteen this year. I was born into a family of journalists who were very involved in politics. Since birth I have been surrounded by talk of Mayoralty Campaigns and election stratergies. This has influenced my entire life, and has prompted me recently to join the movement for change.
I’ve been disgusted utterly since pig muldoon ( No disrespect to actual pigs . ) was seen squinting gleefully after he knifed jack marshal in the back all those years ago . New Zealand seems to have become an incubator for hate mongering politicians who , by their very nature , spread that hate around like a disease .
I strongly believe the well intended politicians , if there are any left , should closely study the psychology/pathology of recent events .
It’s deeply concerning that I see little change in politicians attitudes and they have neither respect nor fear of us , the people .
And we , the people have no tools to use to regain the steerage of our own country either . We need a Leader for that role . A focusing mechanism . Is that David Cunliffe ? I prayed for that to be so but there is one , single , vital thing missing from Cunliffe’s political repertoire that causes me dis-ease within which doubt sprouts like a weed . He does not even vaguely attempt to bring the export earning sector in from the wild Blue yonder . That , by itself makes me hugely suspicious for many reasons .
Why specifically , you might ask ?
(I get a chill up my spine when I write this . )
The Great New Zealand Institutionalised Lie . Aotearoa . The Land of The Long White Swindle .
Why is our economy suddenly making a bolt for it ? Because the Farmer is being given some slack in the reigns .
Why is that so ? Because the Filthy Swine have made their fortunes on the back of the NZ family farmer and now the bloated Ticks can fall off , replete to breed and gorge themselves on their ill gotten gains . The fact that they , in that process have ravaged our beautiful land with the stain of Hell is the icing on that particular cake for the psychopaths . ( Please don’t get me wrong . I use religious references to make a point only . Poor old God isn’t bothered by me . )
One doesn’t need a degree to gain some purchase on The Swindle . Just a little common sense will do the trick .
Try it ? Look closely at our economy ? The few simple lies to deflect any close investigation aside , our economy was created by a few family farmers and that economy built our public services and amenities . The same services and amenities the neo liberals sold , via their friends , to foreign investors for their profit and our loss .
Look closely at NZ’s economic history ? Look ever closer at where that economy was cunningly deflected , after the product left the manufacturer ( The Farm in this case . ) Look and understand how our traditional trading partners were locked out and manipulated , so that they were forced to go elsewhere . Do you see how the Trade Unions of the day were manipulated to cause friction between themselves and the farmer ? There’s an enormous amount of written history about those days from better minds than mine . And yet not one whisper of the significants of the rural sector for NZ’s economic future passes David Cunliffe’s lips . He talks eloquently about The People and of how he will help The People but if he doesn’t bravely court the NZ Farmer , he can only be taking political , side winding snake talk .
My father was a farmer . He was also quite instinctually brilliant , only lacking in a formal education . He was the only son of an Irish immigrant Farmer who died when dad was nine years old and left my father and my grandmother and their few cows to the rigours of Southland Farming . From their , he rose to 3000 acres , lost his mind to old age and had his farm swindled from him by a branch manager of a well known New Zealand Bank . ( Book pending )
My father saw the dawn of NZ’s decline , understood where we , as a country were heading and well understood the consequences . And now like George Orwell or Aldus Huxley , he can only see how exact he was in his dire predictions , from the grave .
If there was one single defining event in the political aspect of my fathers life , it would have been when he and another farmer decided to take the Federated Farmers movement head on . He and his colleague had come to know The Federated Farmers as a nest full of rich old crony capitalists doing their work for their Wellington Masters . Damp , dingy country halls populated sparingly with a few rough old cockies out to socialise over a cup of tea and a biscuit while there were always the one or two Machiavellian confederates with National Party blood pumping through their swayed and corrupted hearts . ( Have you or your family ever wondered why the National Party have cosseted up so clammy and close to the farmer from the get-go ? Go back to the get-go and learn why if you have questions . )
My father and his friend actively promoted their “The New Zealand Farmers Union ” so that instead of remaining vulnerable to having politicians manipulate the Trade Unions against the Farmer , the Farmer and the Trade Unions were to become a part of that Brotherhood ( And significantly , The Sisterhood too since farming was traditionally a family affair . As is all walks of life actually . )
Their efforts were alarmingly successful . Where there were once mostly empty country halls on Federated Farmer nights , there was standing room outside only . I know , because I used to go to those events with my father and watch in awe of my dad as one does .
Then very odd things started to happen . I came home from school once and found an entire TV news crew in our house . There were people coming and going , other farmers were ringing us at all times of the day and night asking my father questions about this strange beastie , The New Zealand Farmers Union Movement .
You can imagine how that went down in Wellington ? They would have been living in fear in case the NZ Farmer realised just how important , indeed vital to the NZ economy they were . They just might take control of their own destinies and choke off the enormous income stream for those politicians and their crooked little friends to casually and boldly help themselves to without constraint .
I was sitting in the back of dads old Ford V8 in Invercargill . We were parked up outside the NZBC studio there and I listened to a man tell dad through the passenger side window that if he were to air their most recent radio interview , he would be out of a job . ” That came from Wellington ” he said . To this day I remember seeing my dads neck turn red as his breathing became ominously heavy .
If he’d known then about the wily ways of the political confederate I seriously doubt I’d be writing this letter , our country would be a different place entirely , the horrors we face daily would be something that only affected other , less fortunate countries not so well resourced and we’d have a robust economy in rude good health .
Like we did have .
Remember ?
No . Of course you don’t remember . You’re too young and that history is conveniently , either over looked or buried under lies .
If David Cunliffe doesn’t court and cosset up to the NZ Farmer , like no other Labour Government has ever done to my recollection , he will fail dismally on all levels , in every permutation and New Zealand will further decline into a wasteland pocketed by gated communities for the Uber Riche .
You wrote an excellent Post Finn Jackson . I judge you as a good person . Long may you remain so .
To thine own self be true
Polonius:
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!
Shakespeare .
There is enough political spin going on at the moment to make everyone’s head spin so they don’t know right from wrong, left from right. During this political beat up, it is great when the real humanness of the situation shines through. Like the other morning when David Cunliffe was been interviewed on Radio New Zealand. Just like Frank and other bloggers had been commentating, David come out strongly, setting the agenda of the interview back to issues of child poverty and social inequality, which are so important. Then we began to hear some barking in the background. While David was talking in an authoritive tone to the radio presenter, this must of been upsetting one of his little dogs. David laughed and said he was at home doing this radio interview. It was such a human moment, and it is good to remember these are real people with a real concern with what is happening to New Zealanders not just fictional characters in some political melodrama. To quote Tamati Coffey, (comments he said about the maui dolphin protest) “This isn’t just a Labour thing, this is a New Zealand thing. It is about fighting the good fight.”
Finn Jackson.
As a 63 year old NZ Kiwi I am very Glad to see a blog post like this from your generation .
This shows that not everyone is so damn blind in your age group.
A well written and pleasant piece of writing.
Would love to read more of your thoughts coming up to the elections.
kids aren’t blind..theyre way more critical and well informed than us codgers Geoff. Talk to a few more. They just don’t like sharing their views with narrow minded old codgers more often than not. Plus they see our conformity to our systems and money for what it is.They are the victims and we treat them as ignorant for their unwillingness to accept and participate. Theyre told mortgage your future with student loans for a chance to get ahead after 8 years…Most of them know the reality of serfdom….and lack of fiscal opportunity. They just play along,and keep it to themselves.Kids are naturally honest,and we have left them a filthy bloody mess of corruption,greed and deceit….no wonder they don’t trust us. “here sonny if you work hard the state will reward you in the future ,one day,maybe,…then they see our old people ,returned servicemen,poor,sick kids, injustice,corporate carel,govt sellofs,bank cards at 22%,q cards,shark lenders,unfair treatment at uni courses,justice never reaching the poor, impossible to get licences,corruption in business,govt,and local bodies,no representation or advocacy,1500 kids week getting reported abused and probably triple that in fact.
No mate theyre not blind…theyre just not wanting to consort with those who are the enemy. And we are, because we tolerate and dont aggressively fight to fix it. We apathetically judge them instead.
The fact a 16 year old feels the need and is noticed speaking out is not his accolade,its our shamefull indictment .
Keep writing, Finn. At the very real risk of sounding patronising, you are wise beyond your years…
Finn, welcome to the world of politics and congratulations on your post. I hope there are more young people out there who care enough to engage.
In my opinion, the letter on behalf of Mr Liu only has significance because of the framework in which it was discovered. It would be of absolutely no importance were it not for the campaign mounted by Labour against Mr Williamson (successful) and Ms Collins. The context is that the current Immigration minister received Mr Liu’s file to establish facts to respond to Labour’s questions re Liu in Parliament. Finding the letter from Cunliffe on file was a political coup of sorts for National as it they could use it to portray Cunliffe as hypocritical, possibly a liar or incompetent. As Labour had been vociferous about these two ministers and their advocacy and conflict of interests they have assumed the moral high ground in this area. The moral high ground is a dangerous place unless you have the right to be there – and politicians rarely do. It’s only natural they get flak when they “can’t recall”, “have no records” and the public becomes cynical when they hear the “nothing to see here”, “move along” when their own attacks in this area were so sustained.
Another problem here is that alleged donations from Mr Liu to Labour appear to have not been recorded – another very bad look as they have harangued National re their recorded donations from Liu as some sort of cash for access, cronyism meme.
However, this is politics and a week is a long time in it. Next week there will be something else for the media to latch on to.
It’s going to be an interesting election!
Those donations are alleged, there is no proof of them and if they may not exist, than they cannot be recorded.
Thanks for the article Finn
Utter bullshit. What donations? To quote shonkey, “Show me the money!” Have you actually read the letter Cunliffe wrote? I didn’t think so. FYI, all it does is ask for a time frame. A fecking time frame. How in the name of all things good and decent is that a “coup”????
Great post Finn – expressed my reaction exactly. Duncan Garner in today’s Press continues the character assassination. Keep writing.
That press conference you refer to was a pantomime. Most of the so called “journalists” present are clearly not grounded in the real world. If someone came up to me telling me I’d lied because I couldn’t remember something from 11 years ago I’d think they were mad, and I wouldn’t be slow in letting them know what I thought. It’s a testament to the crazy world the politicians operate in that Cuniffe didn’t just send the packing.
History in the making. Your article reads well, Finn, thank you. Please stay sober as long as you can for tempus veritas propre est
You expressed my sentiments exactly Finn. Great piece. Duncan Garner continues the character assassination in Saturday’s Press.
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