Seeing as Judith started it, let’s talk about the Fatties!

69
3647

There are three things that will ALWAYS get you votes in NZ.

1 – Attacking beneficiaries: We LOVE to bash the dirty filthy bennies, it’s our favourite cultural past time right up there with alcoholism and rugby worship. The core myth of neoliberalism is that you earned your success individually (not as the byproduct of a functioning, high education, progressive, democracy) and if your success is yours, then so is your failure. If you are a beneficiary, it always has to be framed as a personal choice to fail, not as the collateral damage of feckless free market capitalism.

2 – Attack Māori: It doesn’t matter what they do or how they do, NZ politics loves to crap all over Māori. Despite the land confiscations, broken promises of the Treaty and systems of law and justice that are evidentially biased against them, Pakeha are so guilty about how they’ve abused Māori that every time it’s pointed out, it provokes a militantly defensive ‘one people one law’ bigotry that desperately tries to silence the issue the way a criminal tries to husp up their crime.

3 – Tough on Crime blah blah blah: We all hate prisoners and criminals. Fed on a news diet of ‘if-it-bleeds-it-leads’ we have been emotionally manipulated into the baying howl of a lynch mob. Instead of trying to understand why we have crime and how best to rehabilitate that, Politicians feed the media generated fear and promise to make prisoners suffer inside prisons, the counter productive madness of that is they come out more damaged than they went in! This insanity is costing us billions in a prison industrial complex.

I say there are 3 things that will ALWAYS get you votes in NZ, but there’s also a fourth, and until now, unspoken thing that will get you votes.

Hating on the fatties.

Election 2020: Gerry Brownlee says weight is his responsibility; Judith Collins says obese people must own ‘personal choices’

It comes as National leader Judith Collins doubled down on her obesity stance, describing it as a weakness and saying that people should not “blame systems for personal choices”.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

She said people who were obese needed to take some personal responsibility.

Judith’s current desperate attack on the overweight is a sad last minute attempt to flirt directly with the worst angels of our nature. For the Right, being fat is a disgusting personal choice, just like poverty. The need to boil it down to one of personal self control is a play at the self responsibility value the Right champions.

It reeks of something David Farrar cooked up in a research group.

Judith demands we ignore the basic code of DNA in our system to hunt out fat and sugar, she demands we ignore the vast marketing budget of cheap fast food, she demands we ignore the high cost of healthy foods, she demands we ignore the self esteem issues of those individuals, she demands we ignore the lack of treatment for obesity and stomach stapling surgery, she demands we ignore a sugar tax, she demands we ignore the entire cultural and economic landscape of obesity just so she can place it at the feet of the individual.

None of those things matter because the naked truth is NZ loves to hate the fatties. In a culture of Instagram filters and Gym boasting photos, the fatties represent the worst of us, slovenly, greedy and evil. Condemnation of us is wrapped up as health concerns with faux justifications.

Some will challenge me, and demand why I don’t take responsibility for me being overweight.

So let me be blunt in reply.

My early childhood in Melbourne was overshadowed by the type of domestic violence that makes Once Were Warriors feel at home.

You.

Don’t.

Understand.

Terror.

Until you have lived with extreme violence as a child.

My earliest ‘happy’ memories were when I stole food and hid in the wardrobe to eat it and avoid the rampaging rage of my alcoholic step father.

I appreciate the emotional triggers food has for me, and its lasting imprint on my dopamine, and while I didn’t need to explain my reasons for being overweight, I wanted to hold it up as a reminder that people have no idea why or how others are and that bleating ‘personal responsibility’ is as hollow an intellectual response to obesity as farting in an elevator while proclaiming a solution to global warming.

My personal reasons for being overweight aside, we live in a free for all market where the profits of Ronald, Burger King and the Colonel outweigh public health.

One of Cameron Slater’s targets on his blog were public health experts who spoke out against the fast food culture so hating on the fatties is a well trodden path for the Right when they sense a sugar tax coming.

We have an enormous weight problem in NZ, instead of blaming the individuals for that problem, why not acknowledge the economic landscape that obesity is occurring in and see it as another example of our failed free market deregulation?

  • We need GST off fresh fruit and veggies NOW!
  • We need more obesity surgery NOW!
  • We need a sugar tax to pay for that extra obesity surgery NOW!
  • We need vast new restriction on fast food marketing and advertising NOW!
  • We need more public gyms NOW!

There IS a debate that needs to be had in NZ about obesity, but blaming the individual and claiming it’s just some personal choice issue while ignoring all the other factors involved here, and to do so for the venal drive to get an extra vote by playing directly to our meanest angels is far more ugly than obesity.

 

Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice going into this pandemic and 2020 election – please donate here.

If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media.

69 COMMENTS

    • ELECTION CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Hi guys, I’m your campaign manager this election, and I’ll be creating the new attack advert for National. Basically I’ll have you all dressed in blue outfits, in a sleek blue boat, with blue paddles, all paddling in perfect unison, on a mirror smooth blue lake, with an authoritative voice over, extolling National’s virtues, with backing music from either Eminem, Hey Jude, or Baby Elephant Walk. Now let’s get you into the boat, for some real on the water experience.

      SIMON: You heard our campaign manager, move it. I’m your captain, so come on team, let’s get into gear, and give it our best shot. Are we all aboard yet? Push off! Now everyone start paddling, like we all know what we’re doing, and that we’re a strong and steady team,,, hey is that a leak? It’s sprung up right near Judas, I mean Judith. I’ll crouch down to investigate it, while you guys just all keep paddling.
      Wack,,, heck who hit me, arghhh? Ka-splashhh, help help, man overboard. No, forget about me, and save yourselves. I’ll have to take one for the team. No Paula, you don’t need to dive in after me. I know how to swim, I think. Ka-splashhh.

      TODD: This has quickly escalated into a full emergency situation. I’m afraid I’ve been forced to assume command, as your new captain, after we lost Simon and first mate Paula. But we can’t dwell on the past. Luckily we’re 1.2 km offshore, and Simon assured me that he learnt how to swim 25 meters, in primary school,,, so you do the math. The situation we find ourselves in is unexpected, but there’s no need to panic. We have a modern state of the art boat, well equipped for the elements. And there’s absolutely no reason, not to remain calm. Hey, is that another leak that’s sprung up next to Judith again? Excuse me while I examine,,, ka-splashhh, ka-splashhh!

      JUDITH: Oh no, it’s happened again! It looks like Todd and new first mate Nikki, have unexpectedly fallen overboard, when we’re all supposed to be acting like a team. These continual leaks next to me are so upsetting, because when I was a minister, all kinds of police and ACC leaks happened near me, even though I categorically never leak – I gush. I’m more gusher than crusher, but we can’t dwell on the past. We just have to make the best of a bad situation, and choose a new captain, to get us moving.
      I don’t particularly want to put my name forward, and I’ve never sought to put my name forward, but due to our dire circumstances, I’ve decided that on this occasion, it would be for the best, if I reluctantly put my name forward to be the new captain, and if anyone disagrees, which is perfectly understandable, then I’ll see to it that they get liquidated,,, capeesh?
      Now then, as your new captain I must dish out the punishments and discipline. My first task is to decide which crew members are excess to requirements, so those of you who never supported me to become captain, will now be drawn and quartered. And any potential challengers will be given a crew list position sufficiently low, to keep my position is safe, after I throw in the odd gaffe such as making light of obesity, just to make sure our poll numbers never get too high.
      I’m confident we can make it back to the shore, so long as we all paddle together. Our boat, which I’ve renamed the Torytanic, is still in great shape. Since all those leaks that kept springing up near me, have miraculously disappeared.
      However, we did find another $4.3 billion hole in the hull, but I had a quick look around for something malleable, and I managed to plug it up with the cabin boy Goldsmith. Then another $88 million hole opened up, which I plugged with more Goldsmith. Then another 3.8 billion hole, which I plugged with remaining Goldsmith. I always knew Goldsmith might be handy for something.
      And to top off our hectic voyage, quartermaster Mitchell became delirious with seasickness, and pulled out the bung and swallowed it. Hey Gerry, why aren’t you sitting in the middle, where I ordered you to sit, to give us more stability? Do you mean to capsize us all!

      GERRY: Stop shouting at me,,, I may be a gruff bosun, but I’m also very sensitive. I know that your most recent gaffe, was really directed at me! I’ll sit where I want, and I’ll stand where I want, and I’ll even start jumping up and down if I want. Ka-splashhh,,, oh no, I think I’ve broken the bottom of the boat.
      We’re taking on water, and sinking fast. Someone call lifeguard Luxon. Did anyone bring any flares?
      Permission to panic, permission to panic, mayday, mayday, I can’t swim.
      I know what, I’ll just handcuff myself to Judith, so that her strong will to survive, keeps us both afloat,,, phew that was close!

      JUDITH: What makes you think I can swim, you idiot?

  1. Courageous comments Martyn.

    Society is swamped with food availability, dominated by items packed with salt, fat, sugar, super refined starches, additives, colourings and saturation advertising. Whole food is for the middle classes and white bread and sugary drinks for the poor!

    Mrs Collins is pushing the neo lib blame and shame trope, but also appears to have lost perspective-she is a curvy build and her deputy larger still. I don’t support fat shaming Jezza which he has copped for a long time, but he sure does deserve a hard time for his bullying and archaic politics.

    • Collins, herself is a ” Heart Attack on a Plate”. She is no position to judge fat people , and say fat people have no will power. Collin’s , is just a fat bully , hypocrite and narcissist

  2. Very sorry to hear about your horrible experience in childhood.
    It take cojones to share deeply personal stuff like that, thank you.
    Collins can take a jump.

    I’ll take you or anyone else keen for a hunt in our beautiful South Island mountains for healthy lean free range meat, with a side helping of exercise, head space and conservation.
    Success not guaranteed but enjoyment should be.
    I need to do more of it myself.

    • I can thoroughly recommend such a venture as KC is offering. Even if you don’t want to join in the hunt, go for the hike/ tramping. I was lucky enough to live in Greymouth for a year of my life, and went tramping in the lower Alps. It is like no other experience I have had, and is deeply therapeutic. You do not know Aotearoa until you have spent time in, and listened to, our Southern mountains.

  3. And we need room for people to grow their own healthy veg and food. Community gardens. We need councils to plant meaningful fruit trees on grass berms instead of the totally useless stuff we have now.

    • Dear RosieLee
      Have you ever tried growing vegetables for a family of six? Enough to feed them every day of the year? Do you know what it costs to keep even a small garden productive?

      • Herman. Yes. I grew up in a family of more than six, where nearly all the vegetables were home grown.

        Carrots and potatoes were pitted stored for winter, and although there was little money, sugar bags of potatoes and coal were given to a neighbour on occasion.

        Summer saw a blitz of jam making and sauce making and fruit bottling.

        The garden would have been largely fertilised by fowl pooh from the large hen house, and an ongoing manure pit. Fruit trees included two types of plums, and a peach. I think there was a bag of super in one of the sheds, plus grit for the chooks, but the garden was largely self-sustaining. They may have bought onions and other odd stuff on trips to a market garden, and we were able to go out picking mushrooms occasionally.

        From an early age I had my own edges to clip, and lawn to mow. One or more of my brothers did hoeing. Saturday mornings were spent doing household chores, each task ticked off on a wall chart by my exceedingly organised mother.

        Without time eaters like television, the twice – weekly radio was the only indoors time waster, freeing me to wallow in a world of books escaping my parents.

        Kids did real stuff in the olden days. I was amazed when Bill English tried to claim $20 a week cleaning expenses for his family home, when he had five sons and a daughter to help him and the missus out. I was vacuuming as a pre-schooler and quite enjoyed it – it felt a very big and important thing to be doing. Not now though. Not at all.

    • A Nelson-based architect is calling for a re-design of our suburbs, to be far more community friendly. He is calling for a model that would “allow for human company and shared facilities such as solar energy and water storage. If following this model, degrees of visual and acoustic privacy and degrees of community interaction would need to be carefully designed and allowed for.” Stuff 12th October, Close to Home

      While he doesn’t specify the inclusion of Community Gardens, they would be essential imo.

      • It takes more than one “architect” to design a community and preferably not an architect who has a limited field of expertise. A central concept of a workable more sustainable low energy demand healthy community complete with local food sources, recreation, education and with minimal environmental impact takes a team approach including a wide range of expertise and knowledge based references.

        Some smaller communities have achieved the bare bones of the concept.

        More sustainable communities are based on cooperative organisation not for profit investment by a few “leaders”.

  4. Don’t explain yourself. You don’t have to. We nicotine addicts have similar histories, living in constant flight or fight mode, with flashbacks and dreams which can come unbidden at any time.

    But the thing is that for years, this country has exported fat laden tins of corned beef to the Pacific Islands, and cans of virtually pure fat – I can’t recall the name of it, but we taught them that fat is good, because greed is good, and there’s pots of money to be made from flogging off unhealthy food.

    In PC govt depts in Wellington, the aroma of a pork and puha boil-up can permeate an open plan work area all day, and only a fool would suggest a healthier alternative and risk being called racist.

    It was only a matter of time before they came for fatties.Tobacco smokers are now on a par with child molesters, in spite of the revenue that the greed-is-good govt collects from them, but neither the fatties or the smokers are traffic hazards, or cause road accidents, or beat people up in the way that socially acceptable imbibers of alcohol do. If we lower our own life expectancies, we’re also relieving society of some of the burden of an aging population. They should be thanking us.

    As usual Judith has over – simplified a complex, and a global issue, and just after spending a week accusing other people of disrespecting Samoans. Whatever can she have been thinking ?

    Frozen vegetables indeed. Why isn’t she growing kale and carrots ? This is worse than John Banks saying beneficiaries should be growing their own vegetables – not always poss.

    If Nats are so concerned about health issues, they should have made sure that every state house was planted out with fruit trees. But did they ? No.

    They pulled houses down, flogged them off, forced the poor to live in substandard conditions leading to the re-emergence of third- world health problems with children and out of hospital, and now waffle on about
    personal responsibility after being wickedly irresponsible themselves at every measurable level.

    Further, I remember when all girls learned nutrition at primary school cooking classes, having fun cooking healthy stuff. All that got tossed out in favour of making useless little pencil holders from cans, paper weights, and assorted objects not considered gender stereotyping by twerps in the Dept of Education.

    Further, I would have quite liked to have had a bigger bottom, but not as big as Judith’s if it is causing an imbalance of her jawbone and mouth. What a bully.

    • “Further, I remember when all girls learned nutrition at primary school cooking classes, having fun cooking healthy stuff. All that got tossed out in favour of making useless little pencil holders from cans, paper weights, and assorted objects not considered gender stereotyping by twerps in the Dept of Education. ”

      yes. And nowadays it’s called food technology and they all learn how to design a muffin. Sad bullshit.

      • RosieLee – Design a muffin? Golly. If they did invalid cookery ( steamed fish) and the cellulose in vegetables being little brooms which sweep out the intestines, it’d be useful.

        But thanks for that – the terminology of post-modernity can be a challenge until it turns out to be a rose by any other name, and just what dear old Grandma done – more or less.

  5. Very brave of you to share that awful story.

    Childhood violence, or the witnessing of violence to others, can have a lifetime influence. I was never beaten, but am still haunted by the image of a primary schoolteacher (in ChCh) studying a girl’s hands, to see which had the most warts, and then giving her six blows of the strap on that hand, in front of the whole class. I started to tell my mother back home that day, but when she, horrified, pressed me, I backtracked and said it didn’t happen — that’s how a child often responds.

    The moral: we must love and nurture and cherish (and indeed enjoy) our children.

    • Tom Gardner,

      Things we witness and experience as children stay with us in one form or another for life. You have just highlighted that Tom. Very brave of Bomber to share his history the way he has. Those who value him will respect and empathize.

      If you got every single gang member in NZ, every person in Prison, every overweight person, every child of divorce, and every drug addict, you’d see a clear pattern emerge that was set up to inevitably unfold before they were knee-high to a grasshopper. The simplistic politicising of people who already have more than enough dark history in their life journey speaks volumes about the vile Collins.

      • Re-education camps, daily spot testing for personal responsibility and task force titanosauria Collins to seek out and detain those exhibiting signs of personal irresponsible behaviour. Making them wear a yellow blob would help identify these wretched souls.

  6. I found Collins alleged stance toward potential coalition negotiations fascinating and not credible in any way.

    We all know she won’t be in that position anyway but if she was in hypothetical terms, she wants kiwis to know she will be a very tough negotiator and won’t be making any concessions to ACT. What a load of complete twaddle. She wants us to believe if Seymour demanded a certain policy as a bottom line, Collins would not yield. Instead, she would throw away her decades-old desperate ambition to be the PM and call for another election. Anyone who actually believes that also believes in the Tooth Fairy.

    Chucky says her and Gerry Brownstain won’t be taking Chocolate biscuits into any coalition negotiations because she means business. Haha. I’ve had this translated into English using my Enigma machine I have on loan from Bletchley Park.

    “Gerry and I won’t be taking any chocolate biscuits into any meetings because we will have already eaten them all. Gerry eats 4 cooked chickens and 4 packets of Mallow Puffs for morning tea alone and I eat enough each day myself to feed two large families so we won’t be giving up any tasty food to David Seymour”.

    Here’s my prediction. Tomorrow night’s final Leaders debate on TVNZ will be talked about for many years to come. Collins brings new meaning to the word “desperation”. She couldn’t care less about New Zealand and its people. It’s 100% about her ambition to be the PM at any cost.

    She absolutely despises Ardern as it’s her that’s preventing her destiny. She repeatedly referred to Ardern as a LIAR yesterday highlighting her increasing desperation. She suffered no consequence for this. If anything, she was rewarded when TVNZ ran it as their lead story in their 6pm News bulletin. Collins will feel she’s put doubt into the minds of at least some voters so will try for more of the same in the TV debate.

    Collins will be reluctantly accepting she has no hope of becoming PM now and will be replaced as the Latrine Rodent Party leader within 48 hours of Saturday’s drubbing. She knows Luxon is on standby just waiting to take the keys from her and will have overwhelming support to do so from the farcical “strong team”.

    She knows her facade and charade of being relatable etc has been a brutally exposed epic fail. As a result, we will almost certainly get to see what absolute desperation and intense hatred look like in a final throw of the dice, leaders debate.

    I expect Collins to reach for whatever she can pull out of her sack of festering turds. No doubt her most valued and trusted advisor Cameron Slater will be passing on “tips and advice”. I anticipate Collins will call Ardern a liar no fewer than ten times in the debate. She will get so angry she’ll look like a wild dog with rabies frothing at the mouth. I confidently predict Collins will reach for tears at least twice. She will yell as no leader has ever yelled at a previous NZ leaders debate. Jessica Mutch-McKay will have her hands full and need “much” more than just her usual wide eye expressions.

    Most of us with brains bigger than sultanas will see Collins’s performance for exactly what it is. The unadulterated desperation of a totally unfit person to be PM laid bare for everyone to see. Some of the usual suspects masquerading as media commentators will farcically describe it as “a passionate person who cares deeply about NZ”…haha. Pull the other one. It plays Jingle Bells.

    My message to Jacinda. Be yourself. The rope will be handed to Collins. Let her do the rest in what will be referred to for years to come as “The epic meltdown”.

    I think we could sell seats for this one.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6eQ78HCGEA

    • That’s a great rant Jacindafan. I enjoy your posts, for me the best on this site, apart from Martyn of course.
      It will be unwatchable. The PM must be dreading this abomination of a TV show. Crusher is no slimjim herself, so the pot calling the kettle…..but I won’t go into it. It’s nasty stuff, most overweight people really struggle to
      contain the problem and to call this out for political gain is below the belt. I can’t wait to see the Crusher crushed on polling nite.

      • GreenBus,

        Thank you for your kind words.

        Anyone who genuinely believes Collins has run a good election campaign is on a different planet. The only way it could have been any worse would have been for our alleged media to relentlessly press Collins on her long-standing connection to Cameron Slater and Dirty Politics in the same way they have incessantly targeted Ardern with their “gotcha” crusades. There are also serious question marks over the very strong Chinese connections Collins has both with family and business. When you consider all the circumstances, it’s remarkable that this important subject has not been broached at all.

        If I didn’t know better I’d strongly suspect Collins has completely run out of steam and is now just reaching for anything she feels she may get traction with. The “liar” abuse and obesity stance is compelling evidence of that. Both monumental blunders. What will it be tomorrow? Should the Auckland Harbour Bridge be renamed “Bigsteel structureacrosswaterinauckland”?

        Had to laugh when I heard Collins critique Ardern for name-calling today. That is more than a bit rich coming from Collins who has derogatory names for all her rivals and enemies.

        Interesting today that she said the statement Mark Mitchell made distancing himself from her stance over obesity was the same as hers but just in different words. Mitchell’s words were light-years from what Collins spouted. He was thoughtful and measured in everything he said. He must have been embarrassed and frustrated to have such an ignorant stance from the temporary leader reflecting on him and his colleagues to have publicly spoken out at this time. I’m not a fan of Mitchell but he is no wimp like others that have stood back and allowed ignorant stances from Collins to reflect on them. Mitchell won’t be bullied by Collins and the fact it was him that spoke out speaks volumes about the rest of the “strong team”.

        https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/10/mark-mitchell-distances-himself-from-judith-collins-obesity-comments-gerry-brownlee-says-his-weight-is-his-responsibility.html

        Part of me is looking forward to tomorrow’s “debate”. It will be ghoulish akin to watching a train slowly crash into a wall but a train being steered by a reprehensible and divisive human being. My concern is for Ardern. She doesn’t deserve to be mocked, abused, and totally disrespected on live TV by a desperate individual bereft of decency.

        Cheers.

        • Mitchell’s angling for a tilt at the leadership once the HMS Collins sinks without a trace. It’s not empathy that drives most National MPs. It’s ambition. He’s making the right noises in advance. Have to appear sensitive and caring and all that. Anyone who thinks he’s ‘a nice man’ needs to go back and read Dirty Politics again.

          • Wensleydale,

            I totally agree with you.

            When the names were put forward for the National Party leadership after English, Bridges and then Muller, the name of Mark Mitchell went straight in the frame each time along with Collins and co. There is absolutely zero doubt that Mitchell has designs on the Nat Party leadership. It’s all about the timing.

            Mitchell speaking out about obesity yesterday was a window into him going head to head against Collins in the days after October 17th election day. It won’t make a scrap of difference. Christopher Luxon has high level National Party support to take over as leader from Collins. Mitchell won’t get a look in but that won’t stop him making a noise now and putting his hand up to take over after election day. As to his character. I dislike him and trust him about as much as I trust Collins. Zero. That aside, he isn’t a wimp and won’t be bullied so the fact he was the only Nat MP to speak out against Collins ridiculous stance on obesity was VERY telling which was the point I was making.

            As an aside. I sincerely believe there is more than just bias involved as to why our alleged media are not confronting Collins about many things including Dirty Politics and Chinese connections. Most of them are in fear of being bullied by Collins and it shows every day.

  7. Good stuff Bomber. I agree with all of this, I am lucky not to be fat frankly, I stole money endlessly as a child to feed my sugar addiction which made up at the time for the lack of mothering mother.

    One wonders whether Collins ever stops to think about all her colleagues in parliament in the National party who were so privileged they could go and buy the surgery to reduce their weight: Jenny Shipley, Paula Bennett, Ann Tolley and others. And who could have forgotten the Act woman Donna Awatere-Huata who lied and said she had dieted to lose her weight.

    Then of course NZ told the pacific nations they had to purchase our fatty off cuts, ‘mutton flaps’ stuff we didn’t want to eat and we took no responsibility for what this did to them.

    Junk food sadly is everywhere and as someone with a sugar addiction I wished it weren’t so readily available for everyone.

    In the area that my son lives in in London the community has said NO fast food joints, wouldn’t it be great if we in our community had the power to stop this and alcohol outlets and pokie machines where we live! Instead the place is full of lovely ethnic food outlets.

  8. According to Judy her deputy Brownlee is not capable of making healthy decisions. So who would want a party in power like that then?!
    Judy could lay off the Lamingtons herself.
    Just saying.
    Anyway I can hear the woke twitternazis crying ‘fat shaming’ and ‘body positivity’ over this one.

    • Control denied,

      I can’t for the life of me understand why Collins has opened up this can of worms. Mark Mitchell and other National MP’s don’t want a bar of it.

      Collins is desperate for votes but who will vote for her in support of this ridiculous stance?

      All she was ever going to do was alienate people, including members of her own “strong team”

      Collins herself is the biggest she’s been in her political career. Her deputy Gerry Brownstain is the size of a campervan and the most obese person in Parliament. Clearly, morbidly obese at that.

      I just don’t understand the motivation.

      Had this happened at any other time, her “strong team” colleagues would be on the phone now teeing up a coup.

  9. Well, I have to say that I was in the Koro Club some years back and saw this lady -in her prime as a high ranker in Shonkey’s government but soon to be disrated and sent to the back benches. I have never seen a plate (and they aren’t particularly big plates) so highly stacked with food and I mean STACKED to brimming. It was gross to see. Yep it was Judeath, herself, holding forth at the table with her fellow MPs awaiting the commuter flight to Auckland.
    I don’t think she is a fit one to talk about obesity but since she is tad chubby herself, maybe she is entitled to make comment.

  10. Judith could not be mistaken for slim and Brownlee puts the Michelin man to shame.

    What the fuck is she doing??? This is bat shit crazy!

    • There’s a scene in the British TV series “Life on Mars”, when, after one of Gene Hunts typically racist, misogynistic rants, Sam Tyler replies “I think you might have missed out the Jews”.
      It’s literally at the point now where Judith is running out of people to insult. Bat shit crazy, as you say XRAY.

      If she is speaking to a core constituency of National Party voters (25-30% if polls correct) who lap this sort of crap up, then I sincerely hope that group is dwindling in number.
      We cannot prosper & evolve as a nation with this sort of thinking.

  11. As I have mentioned on a number of occasion, I work in mental health. Two things, this does nothing to the mental state of those suffering obesity. Secondly the medication required to support those with a mental illness ,in particular psychosis, bears a side effect meaning weight gain isn’t a personal choice. In some instances a combination of genetics and medication results in obesity. It is disgraceful and with an uneducated dismissal of facts that Collins can make general accusations surrounding obesity. Fortunately, media and at least one member of her own party have consigned her and Gerry’s comments to the trash can.

    • Yes, anti-psychotics cause a horrible chemical imbalance in the metabolism, permanent weight gain being one of the results.
      Being incarcerated in a mental health hotel generally comes under the heading of being at the mercy of the system.
      Many people wanting help and treatment are turned away because no beds are available because the system still holds people against their will to be tortured with ect and force fed chemical cocktails they don’t want, thus tying up precious beds and resources intended for those in genuine need.
      Some strange people claim to be psychiatrists.
      Having read some of the stories of former detainees at Lake Alice, I gather most of those torturers are still at large, still dealing to innocents and I would blame the system for letting this happen.

  12. Let us not forget that prescription drugs as a way many people put on weight. In most cases it is rapid. The worst being anti-depressants and opioids.

  13. What a low blow from judeath having to stoop so low shows how unsuited she is to be our PM. Personal choice can depend on many factors as outlined by Martyn. Has she looked in the mirror lately she ain’t exactly slim herself and neither is her husband. Judeath husband is Samoan many PI peoe suffer from obesity related health issues like diabetes. Does she run around telling them they are making the wrong choices bet she doesn’t.

    • Covid is Pa – It is not kind drawing unnecessary attention to the fact that Judith and her husband are both fatties even if they both appear to be fatties. Our eyes may be deceiving us, or their eyes deceiving them.

      The politics of kindness dictate that Ms Collins and Mr Wong- Tung’s obesity issues be tactfully ignored in so far as this is possible, and even if it is not possible. Both are free to make their own choices, and I think Judith has previously indicated to the media that she cannot control her husband, apropos of he apparently saying something not necessarily nice about the PM on social media, but not, I might add, suggesting that the Prime Minister is fat like he and Judith both are, and also, having to live with an out of control man may be dietary challenging, and she may be too busy to buy frozen vegetables anyway. Not everyone knows how to grow kale and carrots or kumara, leeks, lettuces, silverbeet, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes or plastic freezer bags, and beans for salting or sprouting or just sprinkling artistically like parsley or other.

      I am sure that Judith would not make personal comments to other weight-challenged dignitaries the way that the banjo-twanging American ambassador to New Zealand went to a Pacific island and crassly complimented the inhabitants for being well dressed – she won’t be getting the chance, and I doubt that the banjo is her instrument of choice.

      Some of the nicest women I’ve ever known have been fatty like Judith, but were as kind and caring as
      Jacinda who is half her size, and they also exuded much more warmth, which is why I wouldn’t go on about it. It’s not as if Judith has criticised the Salvation Army who are always after money too, or Mother Teresa who was much the same, and Mother Teresa was not fat like X.

      There may be some young person going to bed tonight depressed and upset, because a political leader has
      cast unnecessary and unkind and inaccurate aspersions upon them for no good reason whatsoever, so we need to make it clear that this sort of inane judgmentalism renders her unsuitable to lead anybody anywhere, and that she may be better suited to growing vegetables like kale, carrots, etc.

  14. What a low blow from judeath having to stoop so low shows how unsuited she is to be our PM. Personal choice can depend on many factors as outlined by Martyn. Has she looked in the mirror lately she ain’t exactly slim herself and neither is her husband. Judeath husband is Samoan many PI peoe suffer from obesity related health issues like diabetes. Does she run around telling them they are making the wrong choices bet she doesn’t.

  15. Nothing but a hiding coming, relegated back again, Im giving MY LAST SHOT, dont! send me to the back benches. OF course not, give a respectable period and it shall be done, What about the fatties, just someone mentioned my weight.

  16. And all the while we pay judith collins $ix figure$ plu$ entitlement$ and expen$e$.
    Wikipedia.
    “As at 2016 the Leader of the Opposition’s salary is NZ$288,900. In addition, like all other members of parliament, the leader of the Opposition receives annual allowances for travel and lodging.
    Salary: $288,900 (As at 2016)”
    Here’s some relativity for you.
    That’s $5,555.76 base a week.
    That’s $138.89 an hour for 40 hrs.

    And that’s just judith. There’s a whole National Party full of the cruel, greedy, arrogant bastards.
    collins is well fit to be our next prime minister because AO/NZ is, as Martyn Bradbury rightly points out, there’s an epidemic of hate out there. Arrogant, confident, ugly hate. ” Judith. Make Adern Go away.” says far too much about who we’ve become.

  17. Sorry to learn about your start in life Martyn; That’s not fair . How did your mom cope?
    Though I have no wish to let Judith off anything she was asked the question. And apart from making sugar and fat filled foods more expensive to buy, does anyone know of any way responsibility for obesity can be taken on by anyone apart from the person themselves? If they are happy with their weight that’s fine . but if like a household of beautiful but huge young women I was in on Saturday they are terribly unhappy, what on earth can anyone else do to help? And is it helpful to suggest to such people that their obesity is someone else’s fault? That is a crutch that could help some people to externalise the problem and help them lelax and go back to the fridge when close to the balance of taking their problem on. Again always assuming that it is a problem to them.
    Actually it is a pet theory of mine that we all eat far more than we need. And that our metabolism is just as adaptive to how much effort it puts into digestion as it is to any other natural function. It takes as much as it needs to serve the requirements of the animal we are and dumps the rest. If our lifestyle involves a lot of activity it is a disadvantage to the animal to carry a lot of extra weight so fat doesn’t accumulate. If there is no disadvantage to the animal to being heavy because it doesn’t have to shift that weight around or drag it up hills then it accumulates. And can do so on very little intake compared with what most of us eat.
    D J S

  18. ” There IS a debate that needs to be had in NZ about obesity, but blaming the individual and claiming it’s just some personal choice issue while ignoring all the other factors involved here, and to do so for the venal drive to get an extra vote by playing directly to our meanest angels is far more ugly than obesity ‘
    Well that will play out well with the selfish , smug , arrogant shits that ridicule and despise anyone who is not rich with assets and weighs less than a ryvita cracker eating kardashian.
    When you can’t sink any lower then thrash out and attack an easy target. And these people want to run the country.

  19. These comments are funny.I didn’t see it but apparently someone asked a question that she then answered. She’s honest. Says what she thinks. If you don’t like it you won’t vote for National. No shit. By the way she didn’t call them fatties Martyn did, she said in most cases people should and could take some responsibility for what they eat. That’s fair I thought. And going by the poll on the am show by far the majority agreed with her. Guess they’re all National voters. FFS. Grow up some of you please.

    • New View – Judith Collins is the person who needs to grow up here. Saying anything which could trigger already vulnerable persons is immature and irresponsible. Placing them in a position to be criticised by others, is unforgivable. Her arrogance is as breathtaking as her ignorance.

      We do not need politicians who set people against each other. After Judith’s nonsense, and Marama’s white men delete themselves and cunt call out, it is not hard to see why males were historically opposed to females being involved in politics, for being emotional or hysterical or brainless. They catapult us back into the past, and they do women no favour whatsoever.

      If I voted at all, it would have been Maori, for the environment, but I will go out today and cast both votes for Labour to solidify their majority, and to try and keep the flaky girls out.

      This is our children’s future, and the planet’s future, not personal hissy-fit time at the croquet club.

      • Snow White your PC opinion on this issue seems out of step with those polled. But of course they are cold arrogant nasty people who want to hurt those who are obese. All will be National of course.

        • No, they’re world renowned experts on obesity, nutrition and personal responsibility, so naturally they watch the am show!

        • New View – It does not surprise me that I am out of step with the type of persons who listen to talk back radio – whatever it is.

          Being kind to others is not a big ask.

      • If the children’s future is so important, if they are so vulnerable, then keep them away from buckets of KFC and Fizzy drinks. Don’t put them in the trolley! You know how we did that?…simple, we just said No! Try it…go on say NO! Again…NO! Again…NO! There you go, easy eh?!

        But hey, we can’t say No! anymore…you get hauled in front of some human rights commission, or called out by Jacinda for being ‘unkind’…or worse even, you get lambasted by this forum!

        Hmmm…Lamb!…basted!….

        • Given Nationals neoliberalism, resulting in many having to work two jobs, many are to exhausted to cook healthy as haven’t the time. Blaming Jacinda is just fuckwitery, of such you have plenty!

    • It is fair New view if she does it herself and she doesn’t so she should shut the fuck up and keep her nasty opinions to herself. Her comments show she is unsuited to lead our country.

  20. I think this was a dig at Gerry Brownlee who must be in the morbidly obese category. I’m sure his scales say “no coach parties” whenever he musters the courage to hop on them. Whatever the availability of tasty comestibles healthy or otherwise and whatever the emotional impetus for consuming, it is quite easy to be obese in middle age if you like things like pasta, cheese, bread and a few drinks. As long as you are at a weight you are comfortable with and that allows you to live your life as you wish without adverse effects on your health and well-being, consume away, I say.

  21. Prior to reading this I was thinking to myself that Collins does a far better job of impersonating a pig at a feeding trough than Adern does.

    Privileged neoliberal white woman chastises victims of exploitation and neoliberalism for being victims of exploitation and neoliberalism.

  22. Martyn
    I hope that it helps to know that there are people who think that you do a great deal to make this nation a better place, such a positive response to seriously unkind experiences as a child .

  23. ” And going by the poll on the am show by far the majority agreed with her. Guess they’re all National voters ”
    Yes well the AM show is presented and speaks to the Tory brigade. Collins is nearing the bottom each time she opens her mouth and of course the National media pick it up and run with it. Shame they never gave the underhand tactics of the Taxpayer union more serious coverage.

  24. The Covid Lockdown closely followed by the election run-up has meant that many of us have found our health has run down and our lives are now a bit out of balance. Many have felt far more caught up in this election than in any previous ones. As soon as the results are clear we will all have the chance to let go of a lot of stress, and to re-balance our daily lives.

  25. Trust Judith to play that card. She might have got away with it if people weren’t so preoccupied with Covid.

    That said let’s drop the racial overtones and admit we have a health crisis that cruelly affects all of us, but Pasifica genes particularly, and we as a nation need to do something positive about it. Bombers suggestions are a good start. We won’t get that under Judith or Jerry or any “personal responsibility regime”, it needs a brave honest collective response. Step up please Labour.

  26. Yes National in my opinion often play to the lowest common denominator but I don’t see Labour doing any better.

    My advice to anyone truly on the left is look at a parties polices (if they have any) before you vote and ignore the rhetoric and personality politics.

      • Yes not an easy question given most them look alike. I’d say the Greens are probably closest to a real left wing Socialist party I can think of. That said the days of old where you had a real Labour party and others like the Alliance who were true Socialists seem long gone.

        Not so hard for an old man like me, its the young I feel sorry for who will inherit all this Americanised neo liberal garbage policy and all it entails.

      • You might also want to take a look at No Right Turn (search on it). They have some good commentary on policy and more besides.

Comments are closed.