Whose column was more pointless? Art Critic Soper or Truancy Officer du Plessis-Allan?
Barry Soper is on journey into the mind of Jacinda Ardern. He asks deep questions of the psychological hellish landscape that is our Prime Minister’s subconscious as he critiques and probes a pice of art she donated to charity.
A man who is barely able to provide weekly insight into politics is apparently perfectly suited to be an Art Connoisseur who can slice into the creative and understand the heart of the human condition…
The original “Doodle” on paper is a continuous swoop of circles beneath which the PM has printed “The political cycle.” Now if it was mapping out the route taken by a cycle, you’d have to question the sobriety of the cyclist but if it was a depiction of politics, it’s a mess.
…A MESS divines our Sigmund Freud of the canvas…
what it actually says about the artist is interesting if you look at the psycho analysis of someone who draws in circles. Circles we’re told, depicted in this way, represent a need to find unity and peace. They can indicate someone who is struggling to draw everything together and make sense of it. After the year Ardern’s had, you can certainly understand that.
…can we just pause and appreciate that Barry Soper is seriously trying to do a psychological evaluation of Jacinda Ardern based on a fucking scribble?
While we are doing that, how about we compare his wife’s latest absurdity, playing truancy officer with the Health Minister…
David Clark was on holiday. In the three days leading up to the strike, he flew his family to Australia. It was a long-planned holiday. He says he cut it short and got back in time for the strike. Someone reported seeing him at Wellington airport after 9pm on the eve of the industrial action.
Did nobody in the Beehive think how that would look? Did no one demand he cancel his trip and stay in town? With the first nurses’ strike in 30 years imminent, shouldn’t the guy in charge of our health system be at his desk looking like he’s doing everything he can to prevent it? Shouldn’t he look like he cares?
…look, the Health Minister can’t get involved directly with the collective bargaining process between the DHB and the Union, that’s actually not allowed.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is attacking David Clark for going on holiday during a negation he can’t be party to anyway!
I get the Troll Farm at the NZ Herald need to churn out hate against the Left every day, but deciphering scribbles and criticising a Minister for not participating in a process he’s not allowed to participate in is pretty desperate even for the Troll Farm.
Those two are a joke, and worthless to watch as it is an insult to my intelligence.
this pair are greedy and venal right winger whores doing their masters bidding. he should have been pensioned off years ago and she will do anything for money
Same with Tovar OBRIEN who went on about David Clark being away. Completely out of her depth.
I note that like most NZ “political” writers these days, these writers are obsessed with “optics”. They write only about how the activities of politicians might *look* to the public. It reminds me a lot of how royal watchers write. Since the royals have no policy to write about, all they can do is write gossip columns that pretend to be serious analysis by speculating about what any given day-to-day activity, clothing choice, or hand gesture might tell us about what the royals are thinking or planning.
How did we get here? How can we get to a place where serious political writing that actually focuses on *policy* (policy, policy, policy!) can get published in the newspapers of records, instead of politician watching?
Valid point.
I challenge Ms Heather du Plessis-Allan to explain how David Clark’s presence in Nw Zealand can be of any benefit to industrial negotiations.
I’m truly curious how she believes Clark can be involved.
Perhaps she can see her way clear to contribute a short piece to TDB to explain how it would work?