How on earth did the National Party Auckland Central meltdown just get worse??? 

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A picture normally says a 1000 words, this one says about 10 million and they are all pretty offensive

Tova got a gotcha! This Auckland Central madness is now going into meltdown territory…

Senior National Party figure accused of using secret alter ego ‘Merv’ to derail Auckland Central candidate

Newshub can reveal allegations that a senior National Party figure attempted to derail one of the Auckland Central candidates’ nominations with a peculiar midnight phone call to talkback radio pretending to be someone he’s not.

Roger Bridge is a big deal in the National Party. A Queen’s honour recipient, he’s on the party’s board as its Canterbury representative. But Newshub has been told he has a secret alter ego, sometimes going by ‘Merv’.

‘Merv’ called into Marcus Lush’s talkback show last Monday just before midnight.

…Jesus wept! National would actually eat their own infants to get ahead – this self mutilation for power lust should concern every single voter interested in politics!

What the hell is going on?

These people are just unbelievable!

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And just when you didn’t think it could get any worse, the suggestion is that it is worse…

…Nuwanthie ‘Nuwi’ Samarakone sums up all the aspiration that National pretends it supports. Her focus, her drive and her ambition are the exact type of self reliant aspiration National claims are their bedrock values. She represents that brand the way Simon Bridges did, but it seems that the National Party hierarchy prefers its ambition to be white.

We are all confused ‘Merv’.

A high ranking senior official ringing late night talk back to denigrate a candidate is just so ugly. National used to pull this shit back in the days of Radio Pacific, remember when National MP John Carter rang John Banks talkback show pretending to be ‘Hone’ complete with faux Māori accent?

This election is being fought on who you can trust in an emergency and the scale of dirty politics National have been enveloped in alongside their disloyalty and internal leadership challenges suggests that voters will not trust National.

 

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24 COMMENTS

  1. suggests that voters will not trust National.

    Even stalwart longtime Nats voters are sitting this one out, going by comments around the conservative farming community in my area.

  2. National factions are going through a ‘rough’ patch in their marriage – might even end in divorce. I love how suddenly Samarakone is some sort of martyr. A pretty rich martyr to be able to afford a QC….

    The bare facts are this was a politically ambitious individual from a rich family that the ‘left’ faction thought they could drop into a safe national seat. They got belted in North Shore and after the antics of last week stood no chance in Akld central. Fail – move on.

    The silver lining is Goodfellow and Hunt are probably now gone post election. One of their ‘ilk’ would have leaked to Neale Jones – troughers know troughers……..

  3. National’s two basic political tenets, which they adhere to religiously, are:

    1. Promote the politics of fear and then blame someone for it.
    Look at Mellow’s comment in her acceptance speech where she says:
    “Our community, like the rest of the country, is worried about the future. What our economy will look like, whether they will have a job and how they will support their family. They certainly don’t need tax increases adding any more pressure on their household budget. But that is exactly what Labour and the Greens will do, adding a wealth tax on hard-working New Zealanders, going after their income, their house and their KiwiSaver.” https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12355384

    2. Dirty Politics – Roger Bridge who called into the radio talk-back programme using his alter ego name ‘Merv’.

    Add to the mix Judith Collins’ announcement that National wants car insurance details displayed on registration labels. Wow, that’s a game changer Judith.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122395510/national-party-wants-car-insurance-details-to-be-displayed-on-registration-labels

  4. “Merv” the perv…? this is getting into seriously creepy territory. Nuwanthie may be in the aspirational grasper subset of modern personas, but at least she got fit and was justifiably proud of it–but that was not good enough for the sleazes of “old National” in the leafy suburbs.

    Oh well, at least Auckland Central is still up for grabs at this point.

  5. Nation Party policy is a disaster; – and the National Party is toast simply, as they can’t even admit that climate change emissions are the most serious issue to face today and all they respond with to that issue is to build more roads and more roads and yet more roads so they are increasing climate emissions doing that.!!!!!!
    FACT; GOODBYE NORTH POLE WE WILL MISS YOU.

    https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/08/rip-canadas-last-ice-shelf-has-collapsed/
    The News Of Tomorrow, Today
    RIP: Canada’s Last Ice Shelf Has Collapsed
    Share
    Dharna Noor
    Published 2 days ago:August 8, 2020 at 1:34 am

    An iceberg floating near Newfoundland. (Photo: Drew Angerer, Getty Images)
    Canada’s Arctic has been getting slammed by the climate crisis. The region hasn’t been this hot in at least 115,000 years, and its ice is suffering. But it had one intact ice sheet that was hanging on for dear life. Until now.

    Canada’s last fully intact ice shelf has collapsed, the Canadian Ice Service reported this week. The shelf lost more than 40% of its area in just two days at the end of July, the agency said. May it rest in peace.
    The late Milne Ice Shelf was in northern Canadian territory of Nunavut, on the border of Ellesmere Island. The floating slab of ice it shed into the Arctic Ocean measured about 78 , which is larger than the entire island of Manhattan. Researchers knew the Milne Ice Shelf and the ice caps were goners long before they dropped off, but it’s still a shock to see it happen.
    The Arctic has been heating up more than twice as fast as the rest of the world, but this year has been particularly hot. Heat waves have rippled across the region. Though Siberia has been the bullseye and seen widespread fires, Canada has gotten in on the action, too. Reuters reported that this summer in the Canadian Arctic has been 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) above the 30-year average. On July 25, temperatures reached 71.4 degrees Fahrenheit (21.9 degrees Celsius) on the research base of Eureka on Ellesmere Island, which they believe may be the highest temperature on record so far north in history.
    It’s not just the Milne Ice Shelf feeling the burn. Earlier this summer, Ellesmere’s two St. Patrick ice caps completely melted. The Arctic-wide warmth has also caused sea ice to hit its lowest July level in 40 years of record keeping.
    The collapse of the Milne Ice Shelf mirrors what’s been happening on the other side of the Earth in Antarctica, where a handful of high profile ice shelves have collapsed since the 1990s and glaciers are thinning at an alarming rate. So yeah, ice everywhere is having a rough go of it on our rapidly overheating planet.
    This is bad news for us all. While ice shelves are floating, they often hold back land ice. Without shelves to act as doorstops, more land ice can spill into the sea and push up sea levels, which can overwhelm coastal communities. The Milne Ice Shelf holds back a comparatively small amount of glacial ice, but the Antarctic is a different story. New research published just last week shows sea level rise could cause $US14.2 ($20) trillion in infrastructure damage this century if we don’t curb carbon emissions. This is all just more reason that we need to get it together to curb carbon emissions, to slow global warming. We need to save the ice — and ourselves.

  6. You missed the point, the controversy was created with intent and the media fell hook line an sinker for it. It was done to get free media coverage for there new candidate, bad press is better than nothing. Without the hipe the new candidate would have been a non entity. Now their new candidate has the attention of not only Auckland but the whole country and voila name recognition is not an issue anymore. And take note, the new candidate is a “friend of Nikki and just as hard working”….Bingo! Emma the new Nikki and everybody is aware of it and it did not cost National a cent. Genius I would say.

    • Pierre,

      As Chucky said last night, there is now a lot of extra media focus on what is generally a reasonably safe National seat. Having said that, not all media attention during election campaigns is going to help you. I believe voters can be fickle with short memories and also be forgiving but one size does not fit all. National has been repeatedly exposed for their skulduggery in recent months. This debacle will hurt them as the very real perception of dirty politics from National is on the table yet again.

      National may still win the seat but more big picture damage to their brand has been done yet again. They are not in a strong enough position to sustain that sort of damage.

    • There are many ways to look at things, yours falls into that category. Another is that National, right now are hopeless and in Central Auckland the only chance they have is none.

    • Yes ‘total deception’ I would call it; – but this is in the National Party DNA ‘to cover and smoother’ any message to confuse the electorate. ‘That’s brilliant to any born liar who wants to lower the standards of honesty..’

    • Now the south pole is melting faster then ever according to this new study just released yesterday.
      National Party can’t even admit that climate change emissions are the most serious issue to face today and all they respond with to that issue is to build more roads and more roads and yet more roads so they are increasing climate emissions doing that.!!!!!!
      Goodbye South Pole we will miss you too!!!

      https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-crisis-antarctica-ice-shelf-melt-grand-canyon-a9663701.html

      Ice is melting faster than is being replaced in Antarctica
      Antarctica’s floating ice shelves have lost enough water in 25 years to fill the Grand Canyon
      Although there is variation across the continent, overall the ice is melting faster than it is being replaced
      • Louise BoyleNew York @LouiseB_NY
      • 4 hours ago

      The volume of water loss from Antarctica’s floating ice shelves over the past 25 years would fill the Grand Canyon, according to a new study published on Monday.
      The continent’s ice shelves were found to have lost nearly 4,000 gigatons since 1994 due to melting from increased heat in the ocean as a result of the climate crisis.

      Although there was much variation in the rate at which the ocean is melting the ice shelves, overall the ice is melting faster than it is being replaced in Antarctica.

      Ice shelf loss does not directly impact sea-level rise as they are already floating in the water. However ice shelves form gigantic buttresses to slow the slide of ice sheets into the ocean and therefore, as they shrink, their ability to hold back ice sheets begins to falter.

      Antarctica holds enough ice to raise sea levels globally by an estimated 197 feet (60 metres). The West Antarctic ice sheet, considered to be in a precarious position by some scientists, would increase global seal levels by 10 feet (3m) if it were to melt completely.

      Global sea levels have risen by more than six inches in the past 70 years, with half of that occurring since 2000. Even half a foot of sea-level rise has led to a 233 per cent average increase in tidal flooding across the US, according to Sealevelrise.org.

      Antarctica’s ice-shelf melting over the past quarter of a century (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
      Our rapidly-warming planet causes sea levels to rise on two fronts. Warmer temperatures melt ice sheets and glaciers, leading the run-off to flow into oceans. The ocean also absorbs excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions and warm water expands, taking up more space than colder water.

      The new study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, involved researchers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, Earth and Space Research in Corvallis, Oregon and Colorado School of Mines.

      The research is based on 25 years worth of data from four European Space Agency (ESA) satellite missions along with NASA ice velocity data and computer modelling, charting a detailed history of the losses around the edges of the continent.

      It is notoriously difficult to study Antarctic ice shelves due to their size and remote location so satellites offer a practical solution. They send radio waves to the ground up to 20,000 times a second, allowing scientists to measure the travel time of those waves and determine the precise height of land or ice.

      This method allowed for the first-ever analysis of melting across all Antarctic ice shelves, totalling an area of 580,000 square miles (1.5million sq km) – more than three times the size of Spain.

      Lead author and Scripps Oceanography graduate student, Susheel Adusumilli, said: “This is the most convincing evidence so far that long-term changes in the Southern Ocean are the reason for ongoing Antarctic ice loss.

      “It’s incredible that we are able to use satellites that orbit around 500 miles above the earth to see changes in regions of the ocean where even ships can’t go.”

      The study also identified the ocean depths where melting is occurring, which has impacts beyond sea-level rise. Melting ice leads to colder and fresher water rushing into the ocean which affects the global climate and ocean circulation.

  7. If, before September 19, the coronavirus reappears among the community in A/NZ – god forbid – then look very, very closely at any political party operatives who think their party might stand to gain from such filthy, dirty, deadly politics.
    Desperate people do – and are doing – desperate acts.
    Just saying…..

    • I’ve been thinking that for a while now, I wouldn’t put it pass those Nats! it’s the only way they have any chance in this election.

  8. @Pierre – I disagree. There are better ways of promoting something or creating a distraction to get free publicity than denigrating someone as National did with such intensity and at such a high level that their true colours shone even more brightly.

  9. “How on earth did the National Party Auckland Central meltdown just get worse??? ”

    Fortunately, I don’t care.
    Without cheap and easy farmer money Auckland wouldn’t be much more than a dull little seaside town comprised of ramshackle huts and shanties.
    Off-topic and I don’t care…
    “Epidemiologist Michael Baker says quarantine-free travel with the Cook Islands will be an important step for New Zealand to gradually start reconnecting with the rest of the world.”
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/423235/epidemiologist-outlines-three-critical-conditions-for-quarantine-free-travel
    (So that’s what an all-bought-and-paid-for epidemiologist looks like?)
    What…? I mean what…? The Cook Islands…? What?
    Are they the same Cook Islands featured all the way through ‘ The Paradise Conspiracy? ‘
    “The Paradise Conspiracy by Ian Wishart, is a true story set in the 1980s and 1990s. Known as the wine box investigations, it involves: secret files, arms dealing, corruption, money laundering, death threats, kidnap and more. Ian Wishart, is one of New Zealand’s best investigative journalists and this is his story as he and Winston Peters, a New Zealand politician, uncover a scheme to defraud New Zealand, Australian, Japanese and other country tax systems of millions of dollars through the Cook Island tax haven.”
    https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Conspiracy-Wishart-1-Sep-2011-Paperback/dp/B013J92RK4
    The same dirty Cook Islands where crims and crooks laundered our money via citi bankster and others?
    The same cook islands that never got the deep probing the old neoliberal mouthpiece and Machiavellian confederate winston peters spouted on about then nothing happened? Funny that?
    ( Unless, or course, 36 years of post neoliberal hardship at the feet of foreign, and not so foreign owned banksters is something. )

    • Follow the money and you will find the crooks.
      Banks are a hotbed and with almost cast iron protection. The banksters have even infiltrated Kiwibank

      The Cook Islands economy needs to be built on food production, shelter, education, health and environmental restoration, NOT tourism which is capitalised by offshore crooks.
      Tourism degrades the lives of communities and their environments and resources.

  10. The fastest way to clean up the mess of Aotearoa’s dirty politics is by ensuring only citizens are eligible to vote. That isn’t a swipe at Samarakone, people from Sri Lanka are usually happy to become citizens, but it is a swipe at the englanders who inevitably describe themselves as ‘brits’ or ‘ez-pats’ & who refuse to take out citizenship even after 40+ years living here they are still on a resident’s permit. Doubtless having already swapped their purple englander passport for a ‘real’ blue one when they were reintroduced post-brexit vote, these types are the original carpetbaggers always looking for the best deal in policy differences between Aotearoa & england and relentlessly voting natz even tho they know that in many cases their families “back ome” would be shocked at their decision not to vote Labour. If you don’t plan on sticking around, of course you prefer low taxes & little long term investment in a nation – let the mugs worry about that, like.
    If only citizens were permitted to vote, Auckland Central would never have a natz member again & east coast bays would most likely languish as an electorate by having insufficient voters in the constituency.

    If types refuse to commit to Aotearoa, WTF should they get a vote?
    When carpet-baggers vote every election is about ripping what they can as soon as then can then shooting through if things get better elsewhere. Aotearoa & Oz have been flooded with ‘ex-pats’ since austerity hit in england & many will bolt back when it ends. Most nations only give citizens the right to vote precisely because of that issue.
    Aotearoa permitted residents to vote as a way to protect control after kiwi citizenship replaced british subject nonsense, in case Tangata Whenua outnumbered pakeha in some electorates – why a we clinging on to an ancient racist policy?

    Even though this would do me no favour I also reckon the idea of dual citizenship should be abolished as it has been for parliamentarians in Australia, where they went overboard sure going after anyone eligible not just actual dual citizens, but the principle is good – you want to vote, or be a politician, commit to the nation first.

    • Because he’s been using that nym for yonks, so long that everyone around politics know who it is.

      “merv” was planning on the usually compliant, natz favouring media not dobbing him in. He was too old/stupid to comprehend that in 2020, information moves everywhere, quickly on the net. NYM hidey-holes no longer exist.
      This is a good thing – given that “Merv” is likely to know where ‘donation’ bodies are buried & a cursory examination could easily reveal sources of undeclared money. Smart natz pols don’t get knighthoods, tho greedy ones do.

      We’re talking about a mob of derps who have learned how to manipulate propaganda but their actual IT skills are wanting.
      They may know who is up who from facebook etc., but their ability to interrogate a database is negligible when it comes to uncovering not just who is up who, but also which dodgy helicopter rescue gang is paying the rent.

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