Posts by Don Christie
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"Bohemian Rhapsody" comes to mind, all of it.
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Posted at 8:16AM on 16 May 07
Good bye and do have a good day .
24 hours in my days, D4J, at least keep your word will you?
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Mal, that would be the same Telegraph that ran a story along the lines of "10 Ways Blair has Ruined Britain".
I struggled with that one. Iraq maybe, but Britain...
They loath Labour with a lively "retired colonel" vigour, providing an amusing if slightly sepia tinged irrelevancy.
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In that case, Don, could we hazard a quess that National is mixed up in here somewhere?
No, I wouldn't make that point or accusation at all.
Politicians are not responsible for their sympathisers and I cannot see the Key / English team stooping to this in a million years. I am generally very impressed with the politicians I have met and heard across the spectrum in NZ. We are remarkably lucky with the calibre of the majority of our representatives and I would be proud to have either front bench represent us even if there was quibbling on individual policies.
That is why I find this sort of thing concerning, it changes the nature of NZ political debate for the worse.
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I wonder if the Privy Council was aware if Idour's reputation here in New Zealand?
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But the way Wishart has framed the story - as a gotcha involving a clutch of evil, conspiring Labour MPs deliberately covering up child sex rings, corruption and the framing of victims - just seems bogus.
I think the story has done what it set out to do, get people talking about something other than the upcoming budget. Hence the choice of Cullen on the cover.
As I said earlier, Wishart's distractions seem to be very conveniently timed.
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Sounds interesting, does anyone happen to know if audio or video is available on-line?
That would be great. I wonder if the BBC has it. What I remember is a stunned House collectively drawing their breath in a sort of long drawn out whistle.
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Craig
there's still those thorny domestic perennials -- health, education, welfare and policing.
Except that those are Brown's strong points. As Chancellor he has been funneling billions into all these areas. The state schools and hospitals in the UK today are a far cry from the crippling dilapidation that had become the norm when I first left for NZ 16 years ago.
Ditto welfare. WFF is a pale imitation of the child poverty reduction programs Brown has been quietly nursing along. Whilst a 2pence tax cut made the headlines at his last budget he shoveled a few more billion towards that program. His success has been a halting of the 80s and 90s surge in child poverty in the UK and lifting 100's of thousands out of poverty. Near full employment helps as well.
Visiting the UK occasionally as I do (just come back in fact) I really notice these changes along with the increase in wealth. Understandably, if you live there everything is incremental and far less noticeable and certainly not reported by most of the media.
Blair and Brown should also be judged on the disaster that is Iraq (UK troops now 6,000 down from peaks of 40,000) but to say he has to contend with local issues is surely playing into his hands.
One thing I will say, is that whilst Brown appeals to many he does not appeal to the Lady Di English heartlands which Blair held in his palm. Those are the areas that essentially chose the UK government, for better or worse.
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I remember when Brown was deputy to John Smith in the shadow chancellor role. Smith was away, I was working from home and watching a parliamentary debate (sad bastard I know, but it meant I also got to see Geoffrey Howe give Margaret T. a totally unexpected mauling).
Brown tore his opposite number to shreds in a manner that was quite stunning. I fear for Cameron now that Brown has his hands unshackled.
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Craig,
We have to ask the question of who funds these sorts of investigations, who funds Investigate magazine, who prints it, who pays for Mr Idour to run around?
Why is this line of questioning "getting down into the gutter"?
Seems to me a very valid question, especially when you consider there are more coincidences to the timing and content of Wishart's various revelations over the last couple of years than in a Spiderman 3 movie.
Can you explain your distress in more detail?