Top 5 batshit crazy things we must believe to accept Bill English’s version of events

ByMartyn Bradbury

So, ‘we-didn’t-know-recording-someone-secretly-was-a-crime’, is the line we’re all running with ok? Dismissed.

The list of batshit crazy things we are being asked to believe in order to accept Bill English’s version of events over what he knew, when he knew and how he knew about Todd Barclay breaking the law is becoming more absurd by the day.

Let’s list them.

1: We didn’t know secretly recording a conversation was illegal

COME ON! How is this absurdity even allowed to stand? The fucking Nats had Radio NZ, the NZ Herald and Fairfax searched by the bloody cops chasing copies of the Teapot Tape recordings for fucks sake! They didn’t know doing what they accused Bradley Ambrose of doing was illegal? But they called the cops on him and the entire mainstream media of NZ!!! How the Christ can they now claim they fucking forgot that it was illegal? Are they goldfish? Does Bill English have the memory of a small child with learning difficulties? This is such horse shit it is utterly unacceptable as an answer.

2: The Barclay tapes are less like established facts and more like Yeti, as in that they are not yet proven or discovered.

Bill’s latest attempt to disentangle himself from this clusterfuck is to claim that actually there might not even be any secretly recorded tapes after all ??? Despite telling the Police that Todd Barclay told him that he had secretly recorded staff, Bill’s now trying to claim on the Nation yesterday that actually the tapes are less like established facts and more like Yeti, as in that they are not yet proven or discovered. This as an assertion is almost vomit inducing in terms of its audacity because Bill English was told by Todd Barclay that Todd Barclay secretly recorded staff!!!!

3: I forgot that I talked to the Police.

When Bill English wasn’t aware the media had his text message that he tried to hide, he claimed he couldn’t remember who had told him what or whom he may have talked to in regards to secret tapes that may or may not have existed. When it became apparent that the media had his text message saying that Todd had told him the tapes existed and they had made a huge pay out, suddenly the Prime Minister suddenly remembered! How miraculous for Bill to suddenly remember he was being untruthful and evasive when being untruthful and evasive was no longer an option. Has someone robbed him into the pope yet for lying?

4: When I said I spoke to the Police, actually they spoke to me.

After insinuating to Parliament that he had spoken to Police as a pro-active step to help investigate Barclay, it then turns out that what really happened was that the Police had to go to Bill English as part of their investigation, he didn’t go to them with what he knew. The PM effectively sold being forced into answering questions to the Police as an act of leadership, he misled the Parliament and now faces calls to be disciplined by the Speaker for his ‘imprecise’ language. 

5: My Office didn’t ask for the Police to censor what they released but we did suggest it

The most outrageous of all these lies is that when the Police released their information to media, they redacted Bill’s damning text message. They did this after they contacted the PMs Office to see if the PM wanted that damning piece of evidence censored. The PMs Office replied that while it was totally up to the Police to release what they wanted, in the context of the text message being a private communication it was best they didn’t do that. So effectively, the PMs Office let the police know what the outcome they wanted was, the Police censored the text message and we wouldn’t even know all these lies and cover ups had occurred if the Journalists breaking the story didn’t already have the text message.

This entire event has been a mass of lies, cover ups and distractions to keep NZers from seeing how utterly unethical these people are when push comes to shove. The right might wish to continue attacking Labour over a two month old ‘slave students’ story but the moment Andrew Little was aware of the issues he moved in and immediately took steps to rectify things, here Bill English has lied, covered up and manipulated the truth since this issue first erupted last year.

The message from all of this is very clear, you will be protected by the Police, have your employment issues paid out by the Government and won’t have to adhere to the law like everyone else if you are a mate of the Prime Minister.

Regardless of who you vote for, that alone should shock New Zealanders everywhere.

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42 Comments

  1. Was talking to a Natz supporter the other day. He thinks they are finished with Pike River and Bill English/Todd Barclay incident. “They keep telling lies”.

    Apparently only one party has ever got a fourth term in a row. Could English make it? Seems unlikely.

    But with dirty politics – and their Natz import business going full throttle giving votes to the Natz, and Facebook friends with electioneering benefits like Peter Thiel, who knows. It’s not really an even playing field anymore.

    1. There’s one way to look at this though… ‘ the bigger they are , the harder they fall ‘…

      Now,… we all don’t want to see National gain a 4th term . That is almost insufferable. But if they did,… just imagine,… despite another 3 years of so many New Zealanders suffering,… the growing backlash against them will be tremendous . It will be almost a watershed moment for NZ politics. People will become more and more militant and will vote for change.

      For National , at this stage , it is damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

      Either way history cuts it, … when they do lose, … they will be in opposition for a very , very , very long , long time. And this current crop of National politicians will be purged. It will be the end of most of the ones we currently know.

  2. I have to say Paddy Gower’s interview with English yesterday on The Nation was brilliant. I’m no fan of Gower, can’t stand the guy, but I have to say he excelled at this one. His professionalism of managing the interview made English look like the pathetic lying toerag he is.

    1. I have to say he excelled at this one. His professionalism of managing the interview

      Gower is not professional at all. He remains a disgrace to journalism and doesn’t suddenly assume any mantle of professionalism simply because, once in a hundred or so stories, his attack lines benefit the Left or align with common decency.

      He is a toady through and through and the only interests he serves are his own, or those whose who wield any power that he perceives will further his own career.

  3. In his favour Bill English is obviously a highly incompetent and amateur liar.
    D J S

  4. The PM should be encouraged to make the same statements in the House because although defamatory statements are protected in that context, knowingly lying is not.

    Paradoxically, lying to the media is perfectly legal, so whatever lies the PM chooses to truck out, he is still in the clear. On the other hand the Privileges Committee take a very dim view of lies knowingly told, especially, it must be hoped, by the Prime Minister.

    The various assertions from English not only don’t pass the smell test, they are mutually contradictory.

    Are scandals requiring the then Deputy PM to be hauled before the police so common that they might be expected to slip the PM’s mind? Or was the “interrogation” by the police so weak and compliant that the PM did not even notice.

    It waws always suspected that the Police leadership was in the National Party pocket. The Police Commissioner will have some serious questions to answer, whether or not they change their sycophantic instinct and REALLY investigate the whole issue. (Including threatening phone calls received in more recent days.)

    This is actually a serious scandal. Whatever the powers that be do to try to conflate it with the Interngate Labour non-scandal to confuse and divert the New Zealand public.

    If the media just let it go, their usual preference, it will be a shame, especially from the last “fair” mainstream bastion at Radio New Zealand.

    One might hope that this outlet at least will take the investigation seriously. Recently they have been showing worrying signs of beginning to conduct gotcha interviews with Labour as opposed to catch-and-release interrogation of the National Party grandees.

    We wait to see how the matter plays out.

      1. I’ve been concerned about serious slippage @ RNZ. And I’ve told them so. I was told they had to present the ‘light and shade’ on issues, and to remain up beat. The cuts and personnel changes are becoming obvious. Even Kim Hills’ tone has changed IMO.

  6. Roll on the 23rd. Remember to enrol and vote.
    That is their biggest fear, that we will vote.

  7. Pingback: Q+A review: Has anyone contacted slave pen crusader Matthew Hooton this yet? « The Daily Blog

  8. Reminds me of the time when an interviewer asked Pete Townshend of the Who why they smashed guitars.
    Pete replied facetiously “All lies, not a word of truth!” and when the interviewer pushed the point Pete said “oh that was only last week, wasn’t it?.
    Rule 1. When National gets caught redhanded in its customary sleaze bag tactics its stock reply is:
    “All lies not a word of truth”.
    They really believe that the rest of us are complete clods, don’t they.
    What an arrogant bunch!

  9. Having watching English on The Nation and the prerecorded interview on Q+A, I was gobsmacked.

    There is a reason why politicians are dis-trusted; they openly tell lies or half-truths, and are rewarded at the ballot-box with re-electon.

    It is the highly tribalistic nature of party-politics, which creates a sense of identification by many in the elecorate, that enables dishonesty in politics.

    In simple words, politicians are lying bastards because voters keep re-electing them.

  10. The bit I don’t understand is that Key was the PM at the time and the payoff came from his budget. I know English is currently and rightly taking all the flak, but has anyone managed to find out Key’s knowledge of the affair and what he did or did not recall?

    1. @ ROSIELEE … I’ve been thinking the same thing. But Key being the lying, deceptive, slimy sewer rat he is, will have no recall of this issue.

      As much as I dislike English, I think he’s become Key’s fall guy in this one (after the Barclay boy).

      1. Plenty of reasons for Key to mysteriously resign. Remind me again, why was Key Knighted, for what exactly?

  11. Having watched both interviews with Bill English on The Nation (yesterday, and again today, so I was sure I was not wrong with what I heard yesterday), and also on Q+A on TV1, I have come to the conclusion that our PM suffers from amnesia, perhaps early signs Alzheimers, or a yet to be diagnosed mental illness.

    He appears to have become a risk factor, given his memory lapses, or whatever it may be, he is not fit to be Prime Minister.

    Thus next Tuesday Andrew Little, James Shaw and Winston Peters should in unison move a no confidence motion in Parliament, talk to the Speaker, and have the experts in white coats take Mr Blinglish away for a mental health assessment.

  12. So now we know Barclay offered English to hear a recording of the tape.This after stating he didn’t even know if the tape exists.

    Just waiting on John Armstrong’s written piece, on asking for English’s resignation.

    1. PS It was John Armstrong who mentioned that the nats had changed the wording of Helen Clark’s speech.

      Dirty politics was and still is a blot on New Zealand’s political credibility.

    2. Yes, Bert. I’m sure Mr Armstrong will be consistent in that approach to Bill English’s obvious lying…

      (I think I have better chances of winning $40 million on Lotto…)

  14. National lies, a lot. Key and English lied in 2008 to voters. They both, in speeches to the public, twice lied about what Helen Clark said.
    She said: ‘Tax cuts are a path to inequality and underdevelopment in today’s circumstances’ IN 2000. They are the promises of visionless and intellectually bankrupt people’ (meaning the National and Act parties). Key and English changed her wording to gut the ‘in today’s circumstances’ and add an ‘a’ to visionless and intellectually bankrupt people, changing what Helen Clark had said. English and Key lied in trying to say Clark had blamed New Zealanders; she had not. She was blaming the national party and its moneymen for betraying New Zealanders. All that decade John Key the so-called financial whizz kept saying ‘give tax cuts’. In 2007 the start of the financial global crisis began. In order to continue saving NZers from certain workers’ loss of rights and loss of fair wages, Labour had continued to fight tax cuts, but eventually Michael Cullen gave tax cuts in order to continue Labour’s work, as they could see New Zealanders were beginning to believe National/Act’s lies. The people should have listened to Helen Clark. John Key, financial whizz, knew there was going to be a financial meltdown or he was lying about his financial acumen. One or the other. After his visit to the American federal reserve we can safely assume his interest was not in the well-being of the New Zealand people. Whether Key is in parliament or not, the strings of the national and act parties are still being pulled by greed.

  15. From Stuff.co.nz…

    “Stuart Davie says not long after, he also got a “rark up” from another National Party board member Glenda Hughes about supplying the police with the text messages he’d received from Bill English.

    “They [the text messages] made up part of my statement to the police and Glenda was furious I’d given them to the police.”

    After Dickson complained to the police, Hughes urged her to withdraw the complaint.

    “I was told if I didn’t withdraw the police complaint I could potentially take down the National Party, and there was an inference that if National didn’t have Barclay in Parliament they were one short to pass legislation.”

    Dickson said she was also told that it would be difficult for her and her family if she had to appear in a high-profile court case.

    “The board member explained to me if I withdrew my complaint I would be considered a hostile witness and the police would have not had a case.”

    At this weekend’s party conference in Wellington Hughes refused to say if she had asked Dickson to withdraw the police complaint and referred reporters to Goodfellow.

    When the same question was put to the president, he replied: “I have absolute confidence Glenda would have acted with integrity at all times.”

    Glenda Hughes clearly acted without integrity and is the bully in all of this. SHE SHOULD BE HELD TO ACCOUNT as part of this employment issue.

  16. Now I’m furious, MSM are stating that English is lucky that the America’s Cup has taken heat away from English. Bullshit, this must be kept up until election time. The P.M. “LIED”. Yes politicians lie but the P.M. above all positions should be above and beyond reproach. English, clearly is not, he wasn’t with the Double Dipping and he isn’t with the Todd Barclay scandal.

    The Americas cup can’t save him!

  18. One last point. Why the payout to Barclay when he leaves parliament. Like David Bain, Barclay hasn’t proved beyond doubt that he’s innocent, so using the Bain payment analogy, give Barclay a $50 taxi chit and send him on his way.Come on Judith Collins, where are you now?

  19. It beggars belief what New Zealanders will put up with from their political representatives.

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