Comments on: Trotter on Shearer. (Heh.)

By: Clunking Fist

Clunking Fist — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 03:39:13 +0000

Heh, maybe time for a new keyboard. Or an extra finger.

By: Gregor W

Gregor W — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 03:17:26 +0000

Trotter on Danyl on Trotter on Shearer.

CF – Are you suggesting that the venerable Trotter is preparing to shuffle off this mortal coil, CF?

By: Clunking Fist

Clunking Fist — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 02:58:18 +0000

Totter on Trotter

By: Chris Trotter

Chris Trotter — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 01:09:39 +0000

Your critique would carry more weight, Danyl, if the policy platform of the Labour Party in 2011 had been the work of Phil Goff, Annette King and Trevor Mallard alone. But this is not the case. The genuinely social-democratic policies were the work of the party’s left-dominated Policy Council, while the more conservative policies, such as raising the age of eligibility for NZ Super and the relatively innocuous CGT, were the handiwork of David Parker.

All-in-all, however, you are right about the manifesto’s leftward tilt – which almost certainly explains why the person responsible for Labour’s 2011 election campaign (Trevor Mallard) appeared to do everything he possibly could to ensure that Labour’s Party Vote was the lowest since the advent of MMP.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:15:07 +0000

He’s not being Shearer now, mate, he’s dithering around like Key did, trying to work all things out for everyone. It’s PC crap. Key became a typical National MP, making lewd comments about minorities and borrowing huge amounts of money to give tax cuts to the rich and then turning around and promptly reducing budgets in areas that are vital such as health, education, the environment. Shearer will either try to please everyone and get cut to pieces in the process, or do what he’s meant to be doing as Labour Leader and admitting what he really believes and end up scoring a few goals for the working class amidst a series of increasingly bizarre in-fighting schemes and scandals, much like Helen Clark. Cut the crap now, so I know that he’ll not sacrifice Labour’s idealisms and policies for the sake of momentary popularity (resulting in being ripped to shreds, pulled in too many directions), and I will probably respect him a little bit more.

By: bob

bob — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 03:02:54 +0000

Or, rather than Shearer being incompetent, he could be a stammering, bumbling wreck because of the inherent difficulty in presenting a coherent vision to the public when….. your entire belief system is liberal capitalism, yet neither your party members nor the voters want that.

By: Gregor W

Gregor W — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:57:03 +0000

So basically your hypothesis is Shearer would be amazeballs if he wasn’t Shearer?

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:36:52 +0000

I like Shearer but I have to critique him in some way at this point. I wouldn’t go with Trotter’s theory but rather with what you have alluded to in past threads, Danyl, namely that he’s a dithering nanny goat devoid of direction. He could, I feel, find a way to go about things and be successful as a PM but he has to get rid of the I-Can-Please-Everyone complex.

By: Ben Wilson

Ben Wilson — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 01:47:03 +0000

>I can only hope that the GP caucus have the cojones to publicly call the perpetrators on their shenanigans when the inevitable happens rather than play nice.

The Green Party of today is one hell of a lot more politically experienced than the one the Clark sidelined with ease. Also, Clark was actually popular at the time, rather than squeaking in, and National had a catastrophic result in the previous election. However, the election was a close call in the end, since the collapse of the Labour coalition was beginning right then, before 2005, with the Maori and the Greens fighting them, and NZF bleeding its racists to Brash. Labour from 2005-8 was on the back foot the entire time. If they have half a brain amongst them they won’t actually wish to repeat all of that. But, as Sanctuary says, their problem is so obvious and so old that it’s actually boring. They’re still the same people, who have been around far, far too long.

So who knows? Maybe it will go as Danyl says, a one term train wreck. Or maybe Shearer, looking forward, will try to give high placing to such fresh blood as they have in Labour, and a more effective coalition will actually be able to get stuff done. Labour does have a chance to run a new broom through before the election.

By: Clunking Fist

Clunking Fist — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 01:06:32 +0000

“13.I think the advantage the Greens have is being part of a coherent international movement that’s bigger than any one person.”
Common Purpose indeed.