Clayton Mitchell Wins My Coveted Political Troll Of The Week Award

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Meet Clayton Mitchell. One of the rising stars of NZ First’s 2014 intakehe’s recently become a bit annoyed – as I have – about the extent to which both National and Labour are (badly) imitating our policies … without giving us any of the credit.

However, innovative man that he is, yesterday in Question Time he hit upon a solution.

He hand-delivered each of John Key and Andrew Little sign-up forms to become members of New Zealand First.

Now personally, I’d feel a little odious sharing a political party with John Key … but then again, perhaps it’s better to think of it not as “I’m locked in here with him” but rather “he’s locked in here with ME!”

I am therefore tentatively supportive of this bid to re-nationalize the Prime Minister.

Perhaps he’ll pick up some morals, principles and values while he’s with us, and then we can release him back into the wild.

Unfortunately, however, the Prime Minister wasn’t playing ball.

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As you can see from the above screenshot, he’s acknowledged that National does, in fact, borrow our policies from time to time … but then proved his ignorance and irascibility by asking us if we’re in favour of wasting $26 million dollars on a flag-change (we’re not); and more worryingly, labeling the flag-change as a “progressive” move.

I’m not surprised in the slightest that the Prime Minister doesn’t know what the word “progressive” means. It certainly shows in his party’s approach to taxation. And, as somebody on my wall pointed out, changing the flag is less a step forward than it is “running on the spot, at best”

In any case, Clayton’s point is clear.

On everything from opposition to the TPPA’s excesses to free doctor’s visits for under-13s … New Zealand First did it first; with Labour and National respectively adopting each stance from well in our slipstream.

While Mitchell does have a point when he claims that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, I’ve nevertheless always believed that inferior workmanship on a copy is something of an insult to the originator.

Still, as long as democratic politics exists as a co-operative enterprise, other parties supporting our policies is something that ought to be welcomed rather than eschewed out of hand.

Just provided they acknowledge whom it is that they’re supporting … while also refraining from watering down our good ideas to meaningless exercises in symbolic concern.

Rather like a flag-change, in fact.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Heh heh heh…

    Nice bit of humour there, Curwen.

    I remember back in the late 1980s, as Rogernomics ran rampant through the country, Douglas was off somewhere overseas extolling the virtues of neo-liberalism.

    Finding this out, and before he returned, I fired off a quick letter to the then Minister of Immigration advising that Douglas was out of the country, and could we seal off our borders so he couldn’t return…

    I never got a reply. 🙁

  2. NZ First has the whole mass of solid policies no other party has cared to develop of their own it seems so thank god NZ First is there to offer them for our benefit, as without these policies we would be much worse off then we are today.

    I wasn’t in the country during the 1990s as I was struck in Florida as a wounded Kiwi so when I got back people all told me that NZ First was all that saved the day during those years of turmoil.

    Here we are seeing a repeat of that area today.

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