One of the original members of the Fish n Chip Brigade that built the neoliberal NZ we know today has passed.
There will be fine words given, kind stories and attempts by Journalists who weren’t even born when he was PM trying to sum up his legacy.
For me he is the Working class battler who became one of the neoliberal architects and despite almost winning the 1993 election after a devastating 1990 loss, his leadership was toppled by an ambitious Helen Clark and he moved further right in terms of globalisation and free trade.
He was a tragic political figure, caught between his working class union background and his refusal to believe the political ideology he had unleashed upon NZ alongside Roger Douglas had permanently damaged those communities he called home.
His championing of free trade was less an intellectual crusade as it was a refusal to acknowledge he was wrong. It’s a bit like how Don Brash can’t admit his one nation philosophy was bitterly racist and manufactured and desperately keeps trying to sell Hobson’s Choice as some type of pseudo history that has value.
Moore’s legacy can be felt in our overtourism and the spiritual belief in the free market we often see from MFAT.
Mike was the last real working class Prime Minister NZ is ever likely to have, and while I salute him getting there, his attraction to big flashy ideas was an inferiority complex that makes his legacy problematic to the people he loved so much
I hope you find the peace you deserve Mike.
RIP.
You say it honestly and well Martyn. Like so many good people, sad that he got caught up with the wrong crowd.
He was the wrong crowd – Fish n Chip Brigade.
Unfortunately i will never forgive nor forget what he was an enthusiastic part of.
… ” His refusal to believe the political ideology he had unleashed upon NZ alongside Roger Douglas had permanently damaged those communities he called home ” … , – and , – ” His championing of free trade was less an intellectual crusade as it was a refusal to acknowledge he was wrong ”…
————————————–
Is all we need to know about Mike Moore.
That was his legacy.
Destruction.
There have been plenty of turncoats down through history and there’s no need to try and soften what they did or excuse it. He knew EXACTLY what he was damn well doing. As did Bolger when he was PM of National. To then try and turn around and say they didn’t and that they were some sort of naive / unintelligent Pollyanna’s where butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths is to say we the public are that gullible we’d vote in any old dipshit. Perhaps we have, – but in the case of those traitors in the 4th Labour govt we voted them out on Nationals promise to reverse Labours insane policy’s. And then National gave us shitter’s like Ruth Richardson and her ‘Mother of all Budgets’ and her odious Employment Contracts Act and carried on the same disgusting rape of this country.
And if anyone wants to see the arrogant anti democratic thugs in power in both Labour and National at that time, – just google demonstrations against the ECA ( called the Bill in the demonstrations ). There were hundreds of thousands of workers involved. And still they ignored us under orders from the likes of the Business Roundtable (now the NZ Initiative ). Who in turn got their orders from the London based Mont Pelerin society.
Look it up for yourselves.
Actually , – I’ll save you all the bother :
Defeat the Bill! The struggle against the Employment Contracts Bill, 1991
https://iso.org.nz/…/defeat-the-bill-the-struggle-against-the-employment-contracts-bill…
And here’s where it all started – take special note of the names enlisted in the Mont Pelerin board members from NZ , – none other than Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson.
Mont Pelerin Society Directory – DeSmogBlog
https://www.desmogblog.com/…/Mont%20Pelerin%20Society%20Directory%202010….
NEW ZEALAND
_____________________
Hon. Sir Roger Douglas
1998, Life Member
Mrs. Hanne Janes
1990
Mr. Roger L. Kerr
New Zealand Business Roundtable
1986
Honorable Ruth Richardson
Director
Ruth Richardson( NZ Ltd )
1996
Dr. Bryce Derek Wilkinson
Capital(Economics Limited)
2000
It sickens me that some will try to justify such as these, as you wrote,…
… ” There will be fine words given, kind stories and attempts by Journalists who weren’t even born when he was PM trying to sum up his legacy ”…
Especially the part about ‘ journalists who weren’t even born ‘ – who never saw the destruction, who don’t understand why we have such a poverty ridden nation today , cant reverse it and didn’t have the best damned years of their working life f@cked over by these thieving traitors.
And you know what galls me and so many others who know the truth?
There’s still plenty more of those traitors walking round free in this society who’ve never been brought to trial . A fair dollop looking like grey haired dottery old fools- but don’t let that deceive you. The damage they did to our society was immeasurable save for the mass poverty we see today,- and the largesse of their swollen bank accounts built on that theft.
No,.. I cant say I rejoice in anyone’s passing,… but you wont find me getting all misty eyed about the past concerning Mike Moore.
Or his contemporary ‘mates’ in parliament.
Well said Martyn and WILD KATIPO.
Sadly, all political parties are still riddled with traitors and acolytes of neoliberalism…which is synonymous with pillaging and polluting the commons for personal gain whilst deceiving the masses.
Go you @ W K.
@ MB
“I hope you find the peace you deserve Mike.
RIP.”
Just a little bit of sick.
I’ve watched the wandering homeless trying to keep afloat. What peace do they get?
In a rich country. Laden with resources. Sunk by arseholes like mike fucking moore.
I doubt the conspiracy of secret groups. Difficult to prove and much more the thing of the Right. Being right Katipo all we need is the beauty of proof. Doesn’t help, conspiracies that can’t be proved. Proof from evidence is our straight line.
More than enough proof right here if you’d bothered to read it,.. I’ve posted this dozens of times already. Pretty hard to refute. Now, have a read and draw your conclusions.
New Right Fight – Who are the New Right?
http://www.newrightfight.co.nz/pageA.html
Mike Moore died the epitome of the unrepentant ideologue. Like Marxists he meant well, no doubt even gulag apparachiks believed that they were doing the right thing. I’m not sure he ever really thought the whole thing through, I’m not sure he was intellectually capable. More a cheerleader blind to the stark reality of his creation. He may have meant well but ultimately he left a trail of destruction. If there is an afterlife he’s in big trouble.
Weak as piss re his rightful condemnation, Martyn. Just been at The Standard and in their 50 some comments on Open Mike only one mentioned him. He was the centre of his own fantasy.
People of my 50 something and up generation who follow politics will laugh themselves silly at One News describing him as known for his ‘intellect’ and ‘big heart’. He was an idiot, and always known for it, and condemned the neediest to this 36 year long starvation.
I and the main man did laugh ourselves silly ‘an intellect’ good god if that is what being an intellect is I never want a bar of it.
That photo, if it was good for the people would be alongside M.J. Savage’s picture. Instead it lives, not so much in infamy, as in nefariousness for the powerful. And the pricks still alive in it live in pure storyland. Well supported storyland.
All those who talk for truth suffer financially. It’s proof. Brian Easton’s long coventry for the people and his best idea of reality. I remember everyone of the talkers who sacrificed themselves for , well, it amounts to , 1935. The rule of the people.
There is no other ideal here in Godzone. Except so much mortgage-based ignorance and self-interest at the expense of … our soul ( or, to be clear, Maori poor).
Ignorance helps the powerful and knowledge helps the people? Why so????
He’s eating fish and chips we David Lange now.
” There will be fine words given, kind stories and attempts by Journalists who weren’t even born when he was PM trying to sum up his legacy ”
Yeah that started at 10 am this morning when the corporate media began their political eulogies.
The last ” working class PM ” they reported and even that lizard Bridges described him as something he will never be a man who cared for struggling kiwi battlers.
It was not true and i find it a total reprehensible when the neo liberals claim one of their own as a ” working class hero of the people , the spin they like too use too remind people that you can be both.
You cant !!!
It is like oil and water they simply don’t mix.
Moore was elected in the Kirk landslide of 1972 ( for the record the last real working class PM ) but he sold out too the intoxicating policies of Douglas and the neo liberal revolution sweeping the globe where the promise of huge wealth at the expense of everything else was the main objective.
He bought into the bullshit being peddled that there was no alternative , a famous quote at the time to describe the harsh medicine we were told could would lead too the nirvana of the South Pacific.
He was he proclaimed not a chardonnay socialist during the bitter fight for the leadership in 1993.
But then neither was Clark any more a socialist.
It was a remarkable transformation from 1972 when he stood as a Labour candidate at a time when the Labour party still believed in policies that actually helped and supported people and their institutions and the welfare state and there was not a shred of doubt about that , no mythical bullshit ” third way ”
He never backed away from the fact that he had supported the ” right'” approach and take over of the NZLP against Anderton who he loathed and ridiculed as the ” looney left ” and even long after 1984 and with the carnage all but complete against his ” good and tough kiwi battler ” and the theft of all their tax payer funded companies sold too the highest and lowest bidders he maintained the charade of being for the struggling kiwi family , most of them being forced into financial slavery by his government and then the vile actions of the Nasty Natz for nine years.
Somehow representing the country as ambassador to America was a perfect fit for him and his love of their capitalist system forgetting rather conveniently how the Americans had treated New Zealand after the ANZUS rift and schmoozing with Key after being appointed Mike was where he was at his most comfortable and a hundred years away from the government he swore too up hold and its policies in 1972.
It was reported tonight that he took the job as PM in 1990 for two months too win the election that the government knew they were not going too win but be wiped out and it was a desperate attempt too save some of their MPs seats.
They MSM can’t even report on historic facts correctly when they are asked too cover these events of anything that happened pre 1999.
So true mosa,
Somehow representing the country as ambassador to America was a perfect fit for him and his love of their capitalist system forgetting rather conveniently how the Americans had treated New Zealand after the ANZUS rift and schmoozing with Key after being appointed Mike was where he was at his most comfortable and a hundred years away from the government he swore too up hold and its policies in 1972.
Fuck mike moore. Burn in Hell.
Tears, domestic horrors, suicides, poverty, homelessness, misery, inter generational and on-going- for-decades societal damage etc on rich lands with a small population. That, is your true legacy well-read mike.
And trust me, I’m being kind.
Ok? Who of the fish and chip hit squad’s self-legitimised criminal elite’s next then?
I like a wee celebration now and again.
Whilst I might not have put it like this – I don’t wish anyone to burn in hell! I agree with the comments that this bastard sold out pretty early on in the piece. Should have had some guts and stood up against the rest of those shits!
Man the MSM brainwashing is disgusting.
Pol Pot and the North Koreans would be proud.
They actually believe that shit doesn’t stink.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/119217621/former-mp-mike-moore-made-an-immense-contribution-to-christchurch
Yes Mooooore bullshit in the Press today.
“He was a tragic political figure, caught between his working class union background and his refusal to believe the political ideology he had unleashed upon NZ alongside Roger Douglas had permanently damaged those communities he called home.”
Agreed. Nonetheless, I’m bit sad at his death. I’m old enough to remember when he was first elected; there was so much optimism, with the new cohort of young people being elected to Parliament. Although he’s younger than I am, we were contemporaries of a sort.
All that hope: but look where we are now!
Saw a headline for a Stuff article calling him Labour’s last working class hero. By that account Bob Jones is a working class hero.
The first (middle class ) William Pember Reeves was a working class hero as was his equally middle class journalist grandson W. P. Reeves, who I read avidly in the 80s. And who was exiled to Rotorua for impoliticalness. 36 years in the cold for all the great modern NZers.
Of course up after the total shit first obituaries. Stuff and Herald will allow in the Left comment, or truth, as it’s more commonly known. Sometime in the future when their children take over they won’t know the social democracy their parents grew up in, so won’t so allow.
Fish and Chips for eternity, how boring a life thereafter.
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