ImperatorFish: Shock As Labour Discovers David Farrar Is Not The PM

Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, February 2nd, 2012 - 12 comments
Categories: dpf, labour, Satire - Tags:

Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here

Labour Party MPs are said to be red-faced, after discovering that prominent blogger David Farrar is not the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Mr Farrar has been the target of numerous attacks by Labour Party MPs over the last couple of years.

A source inside Labour has confirmed that party officials identified Farrar as the leader of the country shortly after the 2008 election, despite being given evidence to the contrary. Rumours that John Key was the actual leader of the National Party as well as the Prime Minister of New Zealand were dismissed at the time as mere speculation.

But this morning, in a shock announcement, Mr Key revealed that he is in fact the Prime Minister, and that David Farrar is merely an enthusiastic National Party member with a popular blog, a couple of newspaper columns, and only moderate political influence.

Commentators have observed that Labour’s obsession with David Farrar has been a distraction that has turned off many left-leaning voters.

Labour MP Trevor Mallard admitted today that the party had made an “embarrassing but understandable error” over the identity of the Prime Minister.

However, he was unrepentant over Labour’s policy of giving free publicity to David Farrar by attacking everything the commentator writes or says.

Mr Mallard also vowed to keep piling the pressure onto Mr Farrar.

“He’s not fit to hold office. He’s certainly not fit to be in Cabinet,” said Mr Mallard.

“When Parliament reopens we’ll be piling the heat on David Farrar, and holding him to account. This Farrar-led government has been a disaster for New Zealand.”

12 comments on “ImperatorFish: Shock As Labour Discovers David Farrar Is Not The PM ”

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  1. Ed 1
    2 February 2012 at 10:51 am

    It is certainly a funny article, and demonstrates the success that Farrar has had in getting under the skin of so many. It however does also call into question the need that The Standard finds to import articles from another blog. The “About” section says:

    What’s your political ‘angle’?
    We come from a variety of backgrounds and our political views don’t always match up but it’d be fair to say that all of us share a commitment to the values and principles that underpin the broad labour movement and we hope that perspective will come through strongly as you read the blog.

    There are links to other sites on The Standard, listing those that are felt to be “Left”, “Right” and “Other” – “Imperator Fish” is listed as an “Other”, presumably because it will at times advocate views that are not consistent with the aims of The Standard. Given the comment there has already been on the content of Red Alert, perhaps “The Standard” needs to review its own policies.

    Does frequent “syndication” of posts from another blog indicate a general decline of interest in posting to The Standard? A paucity of ideas from those sharing a commitment to the values and principles that underpin the broad labour movement?

    Rather than try to supplement posts by straight copying from another blog, include in the Links section a list of ‘Posts of Interest” from other blogs – most readers of The Standard should be able to click on a link . . .

    [we regularly get on new writers. In Scott’s case, he’s already got a well-established blog of his own, so we asked him if we could syndicate instead. Post volume is up. So is readership. Thanks for your concern, troll. Eddie]

    [lprent: The reason it is in “other” is because that is the default when I (or others) fling sites into the blogroll. I do a quick scan of the front page. If I can’t find an obvious left or right bias it goes into “other”. Scott mostly writes satirical posts that often don’t display a strong political bent so I would have put him in other.

    And I think that you missed this in the about, or more likely didn’t bother to think it through since you quoted it yourself…

    We come from a variety of backgrounds and our political views don’t always match up…

    Sounds like the erection of a conspiracy theory based on the vapour in your head is about all you are good for. I can just see you jerking off at your perception of your vast wit(lessness) like all of the other droning trolls. ]

    • daveo 1.1
      2 February 2012 at 3:08 pm

      Trev, is that you?

      • lprent 1.1.1
        3 February 2012 at 12:23 am

        It does look like him doesn’t it.

        Well he is the parody of all idiotic paranoid conspiracy fantasy addicts. Comparing Wishart to him makes you think that Wishart is almost logical by comparison. Wishart at least attempts to connect the dots connect to each other.

        Unless you mean a different Trev rather than the guy that runs that weirdo blogsite dedicated to minority nutters in the US?

    • Anne 1.2
      2 February 2012 at 6:54 pm

      Please, please God, don’t ever let me annoy Iprent.

      • lprent 1.2.1
        3 February 2012 at 12:30 am

        I’m not a politician so I don’t have to be nice to people. In fact I find being nice to be a rather constricting experience. You kind of have to be reasonably nice most of the time to get the best out of people. But there are always the dickheads around who need a bit of educational enhancement..

        I’m always so grateful when someone offers a chance for me to practice and enhance my ‘educational’ skills.

  2. DavidW 2
    2 February 2012 at 12:33 pm

    Jeepers Ed, give yourself an uppercut and enjoy the humour. If you can’t have a bit of a laugh at yourslf you really are one sick puppy.

  3. ghostwhowalksnz 3
    2 February 2012 at 2:51 pm

    Farrar is definitely anti labour so maybe letting his lies fall on stony ground is a good idea. How many times a week does Farrar mention labour Mps. Every day !

    Plus he does get a lot of support from Nationals ministers, ministerial staff, and even the black ops staff which he started out in and probably never quite left behind.

    I can see labour Mps letting it get under their skin when he does mention them by name. But of course in hundreds of posts making him the subject in two or three is about the right ratio.

  4. DH 4
    2 February 2012 at 5:03 pm

    That’s pretty witty & cutting, I think the message is relevant too. The best way for Labour to deal with Farrar & Co is to ignore them completely. The only stature they have is what Labour give them, they’re fringe operators who live off the feedback their taunting provokes. The media will very quickly lose their love affair with Farrar when Labour, Greens etc simply refuse to acknowledge him or react to anything he says.

    • Bazar 4.1
      3 February 2012 at 1:21 am

      “The media will very quickly lose their love affair with Farrar when Labour, Greens etc simply refuse to acknowledge him or react to anything he says.”

      Thats just silly thinking.
      A lot of farrar’s posts have merit, he is heard on the radio, and has his own place in the paper.
      And you think having labour ignore him will make him go away?

      Theres also the fact that regardless of what you think of him, his articals are often interesting.
      The latest one i enjoyed showing how wrong labour, and this site was, in claiming national had broken the laws on donations.

      The point i’m making is, the blog creates content regardless of labour’s interactions with farrah, and even if there was no labour party, it’d still be a popular blog.

      I’ll also add, while i’m here
      It seems someone’s failed to update the article from mike smith, since its been shown that national was well and truly within the law on this matter.

      • DH 4.1.1
        3 February 2012 at 5:30 am

        If you really thought it was silly you wouldn’t have commented. If Labour were to adopt a policy of treating Kiwiblog, Whaleoil etc as being politically irrelevant then that’s what they will become. Give the media a choice of who they give column inches to and it sure won’t be right wing bloggers.

        • Rob 4.1.1.1
          3 February 2012 at 3:41 pm

          Labour does think that Kiwiblog is politically relevant, read any Raymond Huo on Red Alert recently.

    • Gosman 4.2
      3 February 2012 at 7:00 am

      “The only stature they have is what Labour give them, they’re fringe operators who live off the feedback their taunting provokes.”

      I’d suggest the is merely your biased opinion and is unsupprted by any hard facts.

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