Wednesday, October 16, 2013
At the highschool
I'm teaching at the local highschool today. While I'm there, I'll go and talk with the tech teacher - we're friends, we joke around, pull each other's leg and argue politics. I once had some fun with a tiny patch of cement he'd poured under a rubbish bin, scribbled a harmless message with a twig, which was smoothed over shortly afterwards, leaving no sign at all. We laughed about it when my joke was revealed. (If he's just finished pouring another square, I'll ... nah, I won't.)
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You old mate Len will be thinking he wished he had of stuck to playing with twigs. Gardening is a great past time and far more productive for those with excess energy. We need to leave the other stuff for those a lot younger and better looking. Even makes Ruby seem like a choir girl.
"Choir girl" - that's the kind of talk that excites the Lens of this world, Philip. He'll be under-fire for some time now, having fallen for the oldest trick in the book (as did she :-) The righties are lovin' it, aye!
Len's not my mate, and I don't care much for his behaviour. I won't be surprised to see him remain as mayor, though.
My thoughts on the matter are god help us if "an extra-marital affair" becomes the threshold for a politician having to resign. I know the National caucus would shrink significantly. The most recent and relevant comparison is to the boorish but legal (and remember, National have set standards based on legality) behaviour of Aaron Gilmore. The difference between Brown and Gilmore is that Brown owned up immediately and didn't make any excuses. Gilmore equivocated, and ultimately that caused his downfall.
Meanwhile, today we can celebrate the downfall of a corrupt and incompetent Minister. Another one. That's today's story.
Brown could well be yesterday's story.
Some obscure politician graffiti-ing a bit of concrete is so last year.
Bankssssssss!
I'm feeling a bit down-heartened. Sure, Len Brown has made a fool of himself (and that's bad only because he's better than the alternatives for Auckland), but look at that in the light of Hekia Parata on the ropes again with more incompetence, Simon Bridges having a major meltdown on primetime TV and John Banks off to court. So we've ended up with Mike Williams saying:.
"We may well be facing an election sooner than the end of next year. Don’t be surprised if John Key is not National’s leader at that election."
And on the subject of a snap election, David Cunliffe today saying:
"Go ahead. Make our day. We’re on a roll, we’re ready to govern."
National are all at sea, and that hand in the air is not because they are waving (smile and wave is long gone). They are drowning - because they are out of their depth.
Gawd, amongst all the excitement I forgot the privileges committee complaint against Nick Smith. Did I ask, previously, whether he would be the first minister to resign his portfolios twice in one parliament?
We all knew Banks was a crook so nothing knew there. We need the good salacious stuff like Lens personal life laid out by a distraught wannabe politician who was expecting some return for her sacrifice. Michelle Boag is giving her opinions as wellbut also looks annoyed that Len never considered her for his dalliance.
What is it about Boag that Len found undesirable, I wonder??
I suspect, and said as much over at homepaddock, that the difference between Brown and Banks, in the eyes of supporters of the present government, is thus:.
Brown offended against an individual, his wife, and the rights of the individual are paramount. So he should be vilified.
Banks offended against society, and society does not exist, so Banks did not offend at all. The prosecution against him must fail, because prosecuting him is immoral..
That logic doesn't work for me.
I'm hoping that despite his flaws, Brown stays on as mayor because the alternatives are all less palatable, and I think the advice he has received has given him a good chance. I also think that we have moved forward, a little, as a society. National's bully-boy may have over-estimated his ability to manipulate public sentiment and under-estimated how transparent his actions and motives are.
I have on good advice that Banks is the love child of Rob Muldoon and Maggie Thatcher. Apparently adopted to Robert Mugabe for a few years then sent back to NZ for schooling by the business round table puppet school. Looks like a string broke somewhere.
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