HDPA on the rot that goes to the top

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, June 25th, 2017 - 30 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, accountability, bill english, national - Tags: , , ,

Strong piece in The Herald this morning:

Heather du Plessis-Allan: ‘This rot goes right to the top’
…
But Barclay’s exit will probably cauterise the crisis. At least that’s what the National Party is hoping. … Except, the most junior National Party member involved should not be the only one held accountable. This rot goes right to the top.

We got an insight into how the National Party runs and, folks, it’s ugly. There are claims of hush money, claims of interference with a police investigation and claims of a cover up. It’s like a plot from House of Cards, minus a murder on the train tracks.

Where’s the accountability from the Prime Minister? Bill English said Barclay had privately confessed to making the recordings, yet he allowed the junior MP to deny the same fact publicly for a year.

Where’s the accountability from board member Glenda Hughes who allegedly advised the staffer to withdraw the police complaint? If proven, that seems like obstruction of justice. That comes with a jail term of up to seven years.

The National Party is a party that knows how to silence a crisis. We saw it in 2014. The party sacrificed then Justice Minister Judith Collins in an attempt to shut down the Dirty Politics questions. Fast forward three years, Judith’s back and the questions remain unanswered.
…
Also, we’ve seen again how divided the National Party really is. John Key managed to make it look supremely united, but really, the backbenchers are angry at the senior ministers for imposing decisions on everyone else like generals issuing orders.
…
The more divided a party is, the more it leaks and undermines itself. The less it’s able to hide cover ups and scandals from the public. The more likely we are to find out when things like this happen, and hold those responsible to account.

This time though, it looks like the most junior guy’s taken the fall. Alone.

Read the whole piece on The Herald.

30 comments on “HDPA on the rot that goes to the top ”

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  1. The decrypter 1
    25 June 2017 at 10:24 am

    aw-shucks, so much fuss over my Toddlegate.

  2. saveNZ 2
    25 June 2017 at 10:26 am

    Maybe someone in the National party is trying to roll Bill English? First thought is Judith Collins..

    • silvertuatara 2.1
      25 June 2017 at 1:17 pm

      That is possibly why Paula Bennett is so keen to keep plugging for Bill English…..Joyce and Collins would be an obvious new interim caretaker team should Bill be pushed and or stabbed in his back by the National Caucus.

      Thus a change in National Party Leadership has the potential to cause Paula a big dip in both her position in Government, Caucus, and income. I think that the MSM should be asking serious questions of Joyce and Collins on whether they have confidence in Bill English having not attempted to have had covered up the Barclay issue.

      When put on the spot Joyce was unable to lie about the discrepancies in Barcley’s public statements denying having recorded secretly his staff, then when caught out acknowledging the accuracy of the content of Bill English’s text Comments to Davie.

      Joyce needs to be asked about how he feels about English’s disparities in his public statements, as to what actually happened and what he was told directly from Todd Barclay.

      • red-blooded 2.1.1
        25 June 2017 at 2:03 pm

        Joyce wasn’t “unable to lie” – he was being politically astute.

  3. garibaldi 3
    25 June 2017 at 10:28 am

    Can we believe in this apparent epiphany of Heather and Barry? NO !!!
    Such sudden about face change from these two is unfathomable.

    • Wensleydale 3.1
      25 June 2017 at 1:49 pm

      Weather-vane journalism, mate. Whichever way the wind happens to be blowing, that’s the direction in which they’ll sway. “Oh! Oh! Public opinion is turning against National… let’s start bagging them immediately. And let’s not mention we’ve been relentlessly bagging Labour for the past nine years. Never happened. Move along. Nothing to see here.”

      It must be a bit like swallowing a dead rat for Soper though.

    • Rae 3.2
      25 June 2017 at 4:10 pm

      To do otherwise would be like trying to tell us that water is dry

  4. Ed 4
    25 June 2017 at 10:42 am

    I think the interview by Dann has a lot more gravitas than the thoughts of Soper and Allen. This mercenary duo will return to pimping for the blue team once the election nears. They know who pays their bills.

  5. Draco T Bastard 5
    25 June 2017 at 10:50 am

    Heather du Plessis-Allan: ‘This rot goes right to the top’

    It’s not that the rot goes right to the top, it’s that it starts at the top.

    Thing is, that’s National. Their MO is to maintain and increase the corruption so that the rich get richer at everyone else’s expense.

  6. Tamati Tautuhi 6
    25 June 2017 at 11:10 am

    Old Maori Proverb “The fish rots from the head”.

  7. Keith 7
    25 June 2017 at 11:28 am

    Okay, she’s on the money. But this is the same dodgy outfit that had been behaving like this almist since they came to power.

    Shonky deals with Warner Bros, Skycity and that bloody convention centre, silencing the Problem Gambling Foundation who dared criticise the morality of the deal, Shane Jones, Saudi Sheep bribery, tax havens, Ministers with horrible conflicts of interest and on the list goes.

    But at least she’s woken up to the real National. Hooray for that!

    • RedBaronCV 7.1
      25 June 2017 at 12:47 pm

      Or maybe she is trying to remove English to make way for her favoured candidate?

  8. repateet 8
    25 June 2017 at 2:02 pm

    Reading the latest stuff about the Barclay affair on Newsroom makes me think the Peter Goodfellow must be the least appropriately named person on the planet.

  9. Tamati Tautuhi 9
    25 June 2017 at 2:40 pm

    Maybe a bag of Oddfellows would be a more appropriate name to cover the present National Party ?

    I wonder if the knives have been sharpened at the Wellington National Party Conference over the weekend ?

    Must be some discontent in the ranks at present ?

  10. Philj 10
    25 June 2017 at 3:22 pm

    About time HDPA did some proper journalism. Why did it take so long?

    • roy cartland 10.1
      25 June 2017 at 3:43 pm

      Don’t be fooled. She’s a scandal-fiend, much like Paddy. She’s jumping on the bandwagon. Now that the story has blown up thanks to others’ hard work. And also getting a bob each way so she can claim, look impartiality!

      • dukeofurl 10.1.1
        25 June 2017 at 3:56 pm

        The police seemed to have some urgency when she bought a gun online- they executed a search warrant toute suite
        No such urgency with TB ?

  11. Rae 11
    25 June 2017 at 4:08 pm

    I feel just the tiniest bit sorry for Blinglish inasmuch the one who was really donkey deep in this one was John Key, it was him who arranged all the cover up of this, which after the Bradley Ambrose episode was utterly hypocritical. Yet another reason why the coward did a runner, chickens were beginning to come home to roost.
    Old Billy, however, was also in this pretty deep as it was his old electorate, his old employees and no doubt Barclay was a bit of a protege for him, I do not, for a minute believe he can’t remember what happened about this incident.

    • saveNZ 11.1
      25 June 2017 at 4:24 pm

      Yep, Billy isn’t as good a liar as Key and has less bottles of wine or whatever the ‘magic’ is that made MSM decide Key deserved zero scrutiny as PM. Lucky for NZ, a bit of MSM action albeit 9 years late.

      • SpaceMonkey 11.1.1
        25 June 2017 at 7:03 pm

        Keys “magic” was having very powerful and influential international backers.

    • Draco T Bastard 11.2
      25 June 2017 at 4:42 pm

      Old Billy, however, was also in this pretty deep as it was his old electorate, his old employees…

      And I wouldn’t be surprised if his old employees contacted him first. Wonder how they feel about him throwing them under the bus like this.

  12. Treetop 12
    25 June 2017 at 6:20 pm

    When it comes to Collins I would like to know if Bush used the no surprise policy. It is discretionary whether the commissioner of police informs the minister of police regarding a police matter. Collins was the minister of police in February 2016.

    It is not the first time that an MP has been through a scandal which led to their resignation when there has not been a charge and that there has been a 16 month delay between when the incident occurred and the matter blew up and that more than one prime minister and more than one minister of police of police were at the helm in between the incident and the fallout.

    Who knew what and when?

    Will there eventually be an inquiry?

    Will Barclay spill the beans?

    Will there be some new evidence that will lead to Bush reopening the Barclay file?

    Will English stop Billshitting?

  13. mosa 13
    26 June 2017 at 8:32 pm

    ” Silence the crisis in 2014 by sacrificing Collins taking the fall ”
    BULLSHIT

    Hagar exposed the whole bloody shitty mess.

    She was complicit in her dealings with Slater ” a good friend ” as she put it.

    It was just as much in her interest that the whole thing disapear as the National party.

    Its great the way the media re write history to suit their own sense of reality.