Punters have noted my support for Chloe while contrasting it with my criticism of their woke middle class posturing and have said, ‘yo what up’.
Firstly – Chloe is a unique talent. I was astounded by her when she ran for the Auckland Mayoralty. She speaks with the energy of the new voting generation in a language that empowers and challenges. She is an incredible communicator and if she had the Leadership, she could dominate political debate. A candidate of her ability is a rarity.
Secondly – Sure, Chloe is woke but she manages to do that in a way that isn’t alienating. As a class lefty, I see identity as an important personal journey that leads you to politics but feel Identity Politics becomes terribly limited in gaining the democratic 51% as its most shrill advocates in the cancel culture landscape manage to make progress as alienating as a cold cup of vomit. Class solidarity can gain 51%, Identity Politics risks pure temple over broad-church and you get endless schisms and little to show for it. I think Chloe understands that.
Thirdly – What could be more radical than the youngest Political Leader in NZ History?
Fourthly – Chloe’s secret super power is her ability to do one thing that no other Politician can do – beat David Seymour in a debate. With ACT and political radicalisation on the rise, she has the ability to front foot a fight with David Seymour that no one else can manage.
Fifthly – She speaks for almost the entire under 30s and connects with them. If she were leader she could trigger a youth earthquake that would give her the mandate to force change from Jacinda.
Imagine Jacinda as Prime Minister with Chloe as Deputy. Imagine the policy platform of truly transformative change a Government with that leadership could actually achieve?
Unless anyone else is launching a new Left wing political Party or Hone wants to bring MANA back, Jacinda + Chloe are our best bet for progress.
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 – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media
Agreed. I feel Chloe is real, unlike our virtual PM.
Although I am double vaxxed I have no time for this exclusion bullshit which is destroying our little human planet and after many articles such as this: https://www.rt.com/news/545824-cannabis-prevent-treat-covid/
I assume Little and co ( Little, Diddle, Fiddle, & partners ) have absolutely no interest in humans these days.
I would vote for a Swarbrick/Ringatu coalition. Your fourth reason especially Martyn.
Thank you, have a nice day and pray for Tongan people.
Little and co showed they have absolutely no interest in humans by their handling of coronavirus. They let it be open slather at the border and with no consideration of impact introduced measures which had no regard for the safety and well-being of people. That it?
e.g?
And you need to remember to take your medication every day, or this kind of half witted stuff will keep coming out of your mouth…
4. She beat David Seymour at a debate? Secretly somehow?
well he publicly beat her in getting his bill trhough were she failed completely with her referendum on cannabis because of the wording, or lack of support from Jacinda Ardern, or the Labour Party or or or, who knows. Really
Euthanasia became legal in New Zealand when the End of Life Choice Act 2019 took full effect on 7 November 2021 – thanks to ACT and David Seymour.
She can beat him at a debate any day, and it would be her secret forever as people don’t remember those that can’t get stuff done.
The scenario you wish for sounds like a script for a horror movie. A bad one at that. A box office flop. Or a comedy perhaps directed by the Farrelly Bros: Woke and Woker.
Krautenstein hoiks out another reactionary gem.
thank you very much. it’s a good one eh?
‘THE NEW KRAUT’ the new all action motion picture extravaganza from the director and producers of ‘IDIOCRACY’
This article reminds me of when a Marxist acquaintance tried to gaslight me into voting for the so-called Greens at the last election.
Martyn you are consistently more concerned about the “backlash” that might be caused by woke policies, rather than the inherently damaging nature of woke ideas themselves – ideas that are increasingly unmoored from objective reality.
You cast Chloe as a kind of Pied Piper to lead the generation of woke zombies produced by the Ministry of Indoctrination. But to lead them where?
And do you really expect kudos for being “radical”? Don’t insult the intelligence of your readership. This government is plenty radical, but legislation to ban so-called “hate speech”, and so-called “conversion therapy” is not my kind of radical.
“Jacinda + Chloe are our best bet for progress.”
I don’t think much of your idea of progress.
The desolation of NZ’s political landscape reduces us all to clutching at straws. But Chloe is one straw I won’t be clutching at – and Hone “Checkpoints” Harawira is another.
Pope P 11. 1000% agree. You are bang on.
Pope Punctilious 11. I share your concerns. The implications of hate speech issues, conveniently dumped onto the NZ Police, are self -evident. The gender issues, with innocent kiddies being encouraged to query their gender ID and sexuality, are possibly both sick and sinister, even if it is the blind leading the blind, as usual.
I completely agree.
But be warned @ Chloe Swarbrick.
The closer you get to the rats nest the more the rats will start to wriggle.
What Chloe Swarbrick needs is a Fox Terrier wing person in Labour. But who?
How about Kiri Allan? I’ve heard good things.
Here’s Labour’s line up.
The Team. It’s all about ‘The Team’. Remember when neoliberalism started biting in? It was all about ‘Teams’ and ‘Mission Statements’. And (shhhhhh) greed and treachery. It was a fiscal Woke happening. Well, The Team of five million got nearly 40 years of hardship in a rich land after being rendered defenceless by neoliberal-capitalist fascist rats. No disrespect to actual rats.
https://www.labour.org.nz/ourteam
Two things.
One.
Why are most of them leaning in a fashionable sort of way? Are they sitting on chairs with one leg too short. Or are there three legs too long? We may never know…
Two.
What’s to smile about. I mean Jesus. The neoliberal asset that’s poor people must go to hospital where they’ll cheaply pull your junk food rotted teeth out. No chance of an expensive set of gnashers for you I’m afraid.
I saw her performance in select committees……not asking questions, not voting, looking grumpy…Yeah Nah
I understand for many Jacinda can walk on water but I do not see any actions over the last four years that are outstanding in the fight against poverty both financial,or morally so it would not matter who her deputy was the outcome would be the same .
To me Chloe is the same type of show pony that Jacinda is and while sharp on reply where is the depth and live skills.
I did not agree with all that Helen Clarke did but she understood life and how to reach out to those that needed a hand up without losing their dignity whereas this current government seems happy with the situation .
Very sad to see the look of despair in those coming to the food bank many for the first time whilarious at the same time the car yards are clocking up record sales of new cars. Something is not right.
Yeah the past ‘efforts’ of Jacinda are worthy such as they are. Worthy as similar to those of Helen Clark who succeeded at worthiness.
Which wasn’t enough to break that gladwrap membrane that keeps real people’s needs wrapped up and separate from the neoliberal world so it can keep on being pure economics and profit and fascinating ponzi schemes, not at all infected by the smelly hoi polloi and their needs.
(I’ve just been in hospital and seen how a system properly thought out, backed by scholarship and verified research and good training, works; and people administering it want to do a good job and solve problems not cause them.
Why is it that folk who are critical of Clark consistently mis-spell her name?
If your criticism is to hold water surely you should exhibit some attention to detail, otherwise, the rest of your claims are deeply undermined by either deliberate ignorance or are simply malicious bullying.
I’ll bet you just throw commas in when you think they might be needed, too?
Phil. Stop nit picking. Many of us misspell Helen Clark’s name inconsistently. We confuse her with both Clarke with an “e” , and the bespectacled twerp Kent who leaps into the air intoning, “ Up up and away”, without any commas – not even one wee Oxford comma – and we don’t regard all bullying as malicious – some is thuggish, some mindless, psychotic, sadistic, masochistic, political, religious, mercenary, racist, drunken, or the outcome of greed, envy, covetousness, brain damage, or the required cred to join a gang or political party, or, or, or, “ getting in with the wrong crowd” and therefore the fault of others.
Just another middle class kid…
I’d wait until Jacinda leaves before going for the Greens leadership. Chloe doesn’t need to be tainted with Arderns stink. And there is no way that Jacinda will suddenly become all the things she promised to be, just because Chloe is there.
These are much the same sort of things which everyone said about Jacinda Ardern, and we all know how that’s turned out.
Absolutely the same was said about Jacinda Ardern.
We don’t need ‘radical’, we need people that can actually work together and get stuff that matters gone.
She is Jacinda Ardern, but properly beige and will only work with those that they will consider woke enough. Yeah, nah nah.
Chloe and the Greens….in the words of the female weight lifters at the Olympics after competing against Hubbard (this was when some breathless bbc journo asked them about the momentous occasion of having the first trans gender compete with them, “no thank you”.
The Greens are so consumed by gender ideology that I fear what would happen if they had anymore power.
Labour and the Greens have made things worse with housing and inequality.
Other than Labours brilliant Covid response, nothing much to vote for.
Seriously now. I don’t think Chloe Swarbrick is an option. Every time I see her interviewed or in a debate, she is like an angry teenager. And in political terms, that exactly what she is. She is simply not manager material.
The New Kraut – Yep. The time Swarbrick came out of the Splash strip club in early morning hours to apparently ask the police on Courtney Place what they were doing, put me off. I gather the cops were working averting a gang confrontation, and they shouldn’t have to stop on the job to explain themselves to youngster politicians – it could be distracting, it could be dangerous, it could be all sorts of things.
So “Trust everyone under 30” is the latest twist on “Don’t trust anyone over 30”? Cos it was supposed to bring about major and deep changes.
Some of us remember how that worked out the first time.
In the end it comes down to the things Sue Bradford and Catherine Delahunty recently talked about: realpolitik, political power, understanding structural and systemic oppression and how to combat it.
the difference between ‘woke’ being a vote loser therefore tactically undesirable and ‘woke’ being a fuckin silly idea to the extent it has morphed to are very different things.
Do I want to elect chloe on a mild smiley ticket public image only to find she’s a woke extremist in power?
when she starts talking about class not gender maybe but not right now.
before anyone jumps in I was on the
take back the night, anti clause 28, anti-SA, etc etc etc marches…I just think ‘woke’ is a convenient neo-lib distraction from the real issues..
of course people can identify as they wish it’s not even a subject that deserves discussion, discussing it just gives space to the anti-mob, it’s just a fact no discussion needed
we have many homeless in wellington, many in poverty, many in min wage mcJobs…but hey we got a rainbow pedestrian crossing that we’re currently repainting at vast cost…see worram getting at?
Be reasonable gagarin, be reasonable. Repainting the Wellington rainbow crossing for $800,000 odd, could buy meals for hungry people, or build a couple of houses, but would you dare to oppose those politically correct females who run the Wellington City Council ? Are you prepared to be called homophobic, or misogynistic, or racist, or all three? Let them be – that crossing will garner more votes from the alphabet community than feeding the hungry or housing the homeless ever will, but most importantly, it shows EMPATHY, got it ? Feelings, Gagarin, feelings.
Wait until all the maps and street names are in Maori, and tourists meander around the fewer and fewer Lambton Quay shops trying to speak Te Reo, and the buses never come again, and more and more streets start spouting cute little geysers on the footpaths, and the CBD lights cut out at dusk, and another idyllic little bay is built over with Soviet style apartment blocks, and then you may find that walking to and fro across the rainbow crossing is your last link to some semblance of normality.
( An airport bus service could be a better option – but bet your bottom dollar the WCC will have someone else to blame for that lack too.)
gagarin
Exactly – right on.
Chloe to me,and yes I am biased,is a smart sarcastic young woman from a privegled background.
The idea of her being Prime Minister is horrifying.
Except, she doesn’t want you to see her as privileged. In the run up to the 2020 election Swarbrick claimed that her $3000 couch was the most expensive item she owned. As an MP earning over $160k per year for the last three years, where did all her money go? Less than four months after the election, she became a homeowner. Maybe the couch is still the second most expensive thing she owns.
DX5. “ Where did all her money go ? “ Nightclubbing down Courtney Place with her girlfriend ?
Each to their own view, but how about Baldrick from the Upper Room, the ex Air NZ manager that did not accept the responsibility and obligation of the “social dividend” and keep regional routes happening, or happening at rates working class people could afford?
I don’t want that crazy bal’head corporate friend as PM.
Jeremy. Agree. My current Lotto dream is taking off for the Scottish Highlands or Denmark, if they’d have me.
There are also 13 uninhabited islands off the east cost of Ireland; wonderful Europe is tragically stuffed.
Still, now that Twyford has magnanimously gifted New Zealand residency to the vice- president of a corrupt Afghanistan government and a baker’s dozen of his relatives, the future may be even more perplexing than the present.
Not a chloe fan. She is not the worst in parliament but that is not an endorsement of her talents.
They used to have much better Green MP’s who actually cared about the environment and came from a history of real environmentalism not from a position of uneducated, industry and woke led talk fests.
Chloe does come across very well, that much give her.
But if your utopia of a Labour/Greens coalition is to be the panacea of all things, then labour may need to take with it a partner that is good at implementation, because let’s face it, they’re shit.
However do you believe that the Greens would be better at getting things actually done??? Really??
Hey that’s a impressive talent you have Martin. I’ve heard of sleep walking, but not typing.
Chloe Swarbrick is smart, articulate and doesn’t dwell in debasement – bring on more intelligent, well mannered and enlightened young adults into politics, I say.
The greens lack the political courage to push the urgent agenda they claim to represent. Chloe is an impressive political operator and to criticise her because most of her generation are pretty politically apathetic, is the same as Mr OK Boomer saying Finland is crap because it is cold. Nokia pumping out dirt cheap smart phones for the masses, angry birds franchising to hell and back. Chloe could be the greens saviour, if I am not.
Hit a midlife existential crisis and suddenly a political career looks enticing, so many do nothings but save their own bums for so long in sleep hobbitland. A English friend who emigrated here 20 years has said the change in NZ society is horrific, the workers being paid less and less, the owners becoming richer and richer. How is this not a feudal society? We need young leaders, I will be teaching my 5 and 2 year old about the Ernesto Guevara tattoo that papa carries on his left shoulder, and that it not their for show. Revolution only requires love to succeed and those with a true love for the motu combined with the courage to defect every pathetic right wing label that a soul less group could invent. Dictatorships were all survived by the music and poetry of the peoples struggle and in Aotearoa Che Fu and King Kapisi are true godfather of Hip Hop and Reggae, in a Dr Dre sense, in A Bob Marley sense. The struggles of the Pacific are ours because this is a but a slightly bigger colder islands in the Pacific so to accept any North Shore or East Auckland politicians narrative that Maori are stealing their land, who was here first? I am 5th generation and my Pakeha ancestors arrived at least 600 years after the kaimatua of Aotearoa. Pakeha are still the invaders, those who understand Taika Waititi when he labelled a character in boy Chardonnay, the left has beautiful history and a troubled present but look Chile to see what happens when the left stop accepting that nothing changes. The pink wave will arrive in Aotearoa one day but in the meantime we have Chloe and Marama, who would destroy any boomer that dared cross their path. These are Dilma Rousseffs, warrior women, fighting in a male dominated world, in spite of decades of feminist progress. If politics needs an XY male, I will put my hand up, but the most embarrasing thing about this country is how strong women are insulted. Lex Luthor will never be a factor because he is a business elitist, and their is only 5% votes in the elite, and they would be in their yachts when any election passed I suspect, if Takapuna Milford isnt underwater before they finish their castles/mausoleums. 7 years I worked in the stone industry and eventually the stress got to me. Thank Brian Tamaki we have some warrior women in this country, because neither the devil nor christ could ever forgive that barefaced gang leader, who is probably actually vaccinated himself, so much practice with evangelical deviousness. I still love you Bomber, I have been away a while but like Thor Ragnarok, it is always a good time for a socialist revolution. These days it only needs a poet, a writer and only the right need violence, because they are scared, and rightly so, of the revenge of the ghosts of Pinochet, the fallen revolutionaries at the hands of the CIA, that continue to fall in central america and europe. No this revolution will be political, with eloquent speeches, not Obama trained diction, but Che Guevara passion and honesty, as he continues to be on record as one of the longest speakers in the UN. And without Obama pauses for breath. Michelle is the true power their. So if anyone wants to have a go at Chloe, you can come find me and we will talk about it ok? I am considered a gentle giant and not particulary giant in these parts, but I went to Cuba 2004 and have never forgotten the lessons of the revolution. Change is the important thing, power is worthless. Keep the peace Bomber, I know you will.
Well it’s clear Chloe won’t go with the stench of National, all that have sided with National have been left with an eternal stain, including 90% of kiwis.
Comments are closed.