National is upset. Very upset. Because the Government has been engaged in something that is very dastardly and very unfair.
What is this dastardly unfairness you ask?
Apparently a Government social media account, the unite for recovery instagram account, followed Jacinda Ardern.
From what I can see it has not put out any media featuring Jacinda. It is used to pump out Covid19 related information.
But no Gerry Brownlee thought he was onto something. He released this really important press release.
He also complained to the State Services Commission.
Is it evidence of partisan political activity because someone follows an account? Pfffft I follow a number of twitter accounts, including Gerry’s, for entertainment. I even follow Hamish Price and Democracy Mum, just to work out what crazy ideas the right wing are having. Instagram is something I go to occasionally to look at pictures.
And Brownlee should be careful with the implication that following a social media account suggests support because some twitter account holders follow the damnedest of things.
There is a completely innocent explanation. It appears that the account was being used, at least for a while, to bolster National’s Blue Green follower numbers and presumably Brown followed it then. Its current use is a predictable use but entirely unrelated to its former use of making National look more popular than it actually is.
National cheerleader John Armstrong also thinks that something remiss has been happening and wants the provision of information relating to Covid 19 to stop so that we can have a proper election campaign, aka National then may have a chance.
From Television New Zealand:
That’s further reason why the notion that Unite for Recovery is somehow not political is a nonsense. The campaign’s website might serve a purpose of being a one-stop shop which details everything you need to know about the Ardern Administration’s response to the pandemic.
In particular, given the No 1 priority now facing the country is the tackling of the scourge of unemployment and the resulting slashing of incomes in many households, it is essential that people are aware of benefit entitlements, training and apprenticeship opportunities, the mortgage repayment deferral scheme, protection from sudden rent increases, and so forth.
You won’t find any mention on the website of National’s policies dealing with such matters, however.
You thus might conclude the Unite for Recovery information campaign serves as a surreptitious means to define and dictate the debate about how best to rebuild New Zealand’s ravaged economy.
He concludes by saying that for the regulated period before the election the site should be taken down.
To continue to run an information programme of the scale of Unite for Recovery during the regulated period is unacceptable. Doing so would make a mockery of those rules on spending.
Get that? There should be no access to information on government entitlements, and health warnings and urgent announcements during a world wide pandemic because it is unfair to National.
Clearly National is convinced that the whole Government mechanism is behind Jacinda and think that she is doing a good job. And they think it is unfair. Ridding the country at least for now of Covid 19 is unfair to National as it is preventing them from retaining their god given right to rule.
All I can say is diddums.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress