Believe me, when things go wrong politically they tend to go wrong big time and you tend to stumble from crisis to crisis.
Which is the situation that Judith Collins currently finds herself in.
Clint Smith, one of the most incisive of political twitterers dropped this bombshell last night:
Judith was Minister of Corrections from November 8, 2008 to December 12, 2011. She also served a further term from December 2015 to December 2016.
Correction’s data indicates that from 2008 to 2011 there were 8 prison break outs although 3 may have occurred before she became minister. The figures for the escaped from escort category were 5 and 2, breach of temporary release order 4 and 1, and absconding 8 and 6. It is not clear to me what period the figures relate to and I have excluded the figures for 2011-12 and for 2015-2016 but the general response is there were quite a few.
Basically this was a big porky pie and instead of being tough Judith is appearing to be, at best, forgetful.
How did she respond?
She claimed that she was joking and you can always tell when she is joking when she raises her eyebrow. I kid you not.
From Lana Andelane at Newshub:
When questioned by Newshub’s political editor Tova O’Brien on Tuesday, Collins – who took the reins to the National Party earlier this month following the shock resignation of Todd Muller – backtracked that “the odd one might’ve popped out”.
“But they all got caught,” she said swiftly. “I think you want to actually understand a joke when you hear it.
“The numbers I’m caring about are the 436,000 New Zealanders who are looking at losing their jobs. Those are the numbers that people want us to focus on. Not silly stuff from you.”
When asked if Monday’s claim could be construed as misleading, Collins retorted: “I think you want to get your Monty Python right.
“When my eyebrow goes up, it’s a joke.
“Do you not understand it was a joke? It was a joke.”
It is a weird proposition that we should measure the candour of the potential Prime Minister’s statements by ascertaining whether or not her eyebrows were raised at the time she was talking.
But I guess this is better than talking about how the vast majority of New Zealanders do not trust National to run the country’s economy. Isn’t it?
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