If DPF doesn’t practice Yoga already I think he should take it up. He’d be a natural. He’s so damn flexible! I’ve had occasion to comment on this once before. But for the EFA we see DPF lowering the bar of consistency to unbelievable depths, and limboing right on down.
The Electoral Finance Act (EFA). If you recall it was introduced by the last government, and backed by a majority of parties right up until the final reading. According to DPF (and his troll farm) it was an attack on democracy!, the rise of a fascist dictatorship!!, the end of the world!!!, and so on. Who could forget his Free Speech Coalition and the witty billboards (like the one above) that did so much to raise the tone of political debate in this country. (See the man himself defending them here). Ahhh, good times.
It can’t be nearly as much fun for DPF now that he has to spin for a government and so is at least somewhat constrained by the laws of common sense. Simon Power has released National’s revised version of the EFA. Let’s wait and see as the pundits digest it, but at first glance it appears not so different from the version it replaced. Certainly DPF’s more consistent ideological buddies are spewing. National Socialists Sell Out Again!:
The National-led Government’s draft proposals for legislation to replace the vicious Electoral Finance Act make one wonder why National bothered keeping its much-vaunted promise to repeal that Act, since what is proposed by Justice Minister Simon Power is in many instances indistinguishable from what was, says SOLO Principal Lindsay Perigo.
National to reintroduce EFA-lite:
Remember the protests over Labour’s Electoral Finance Act? Remember the wriggling by Greens and Labour supporters attempting to justify this outrageous assault on free speech? Remember the campaigns against it by the Free Speech Coalition and John Boscawen? Remember all the heroes? … Remember it well, because it was all for naught … Your democracy is still under attack, this time by the people who said they were going to protect it. Which is the biggest betrayal, do you think?
Poor DPF doesn’t get to play, because it’s his job to bend over backwards to sell the party line: “Overall it is a good document”. Yup – that’s it. As DPF’s pissed off buddies chastise him: “Apparently it’s only bad when Labour promotes such things”. From death of democracy to “a good document”. Not with a bang but a whimper. Now that’s flexibility!
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