Much ado about nothing

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, December 16th, 2022 - 54 comments
Categories: act, david seymour, jacinda ardern, labour, Parliament, uncategorized - Tags:

 This week’s big news is that Jacinda used unparliamentary language to describe David Seymour.

She had just been subject to a series of soundbite questions covering all sorts of topics.  The initial question “[d]oes she stand by all her Government’s statements and policies?” meant that questions could be wide ranging and that her chance to prepare properly were lessened but she answered concisely and clearly.

As she sat down she made what was clearly meant to be a private comment to Grant Robertson describing Seymour in accurate terms.  Funnily enough I thought about the same phrase as I watched Seymour’s performance.

A journalist picked up on what was said, texted Seymour who then raised a point of order and the rest is history.

The comment must have been really quiet.  Like most of Twitter I replayed the video and did not hear anything.  But Ardern did acknowledge that she used this phrase.

Ardern’s comment was entered into Hansard.  She apologised privately and publicly to Seymour.  They then both signed a printout of Hansard containing her description of him.  The printout has been framed and put on sale on Trademe.  Currently the best bid is $50,100.  Proceeds are to go to the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

This episode has attracted some international attention although more in the line of bemusement rather than condemnation.

Locally the normal talking heads have dined out on the topic.  As yet Bryce Edwards has not announced that this incident may be the cause of Labour losing the next election but such a column cannot be far away.

On twitter there has been some outrage expressed by some whose usernames include the words “Cindy” and “Stalin”.  But lots of support has also been expressed.  It appears that Ardern’s description of Seymour is one that many will agree with.

The public reconciliation was very nice.  It is good for people to set aside their differences and do something positive in a year that many of us have struggled with.

So this is something incredibly rare for the Standard to say about Seymour.  His signing the framed Hansard passage with Ardern and offering this for auction for a very good cause was very well done.  I am not sure but this may be the first time Seymour has ever been praised on this blog.

Merry Christmas everyone.  Look after yourselves and your whanau.  It has been a tough couple of years and we all need to get a break and look after each other.

54 comments on “Much ado about nothing ”

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  1. Robert Guyton 1
    16 December 2022 at 8:19 am

    A journalist texted Seymour?

    • Gosman 1.1
      16 December 2022 at 8:34 am

      Is that a problem?

      • Incognito 1.1.1
        16 December 2022 at 9:04 am

        Only when it involves an earpiece or microchip. Other forms of remote control such as cell phones are permitted in The Chamber of The House of Representatives. I have texted MPs many times while they were debating.

      • Robert Guyton 1.1.2
        16 December 2022 at 9:41 am

        Not if you favour snitches.

    • Ed1 1.2
      16 December 2022 at 10:32 am

      I thought the initial reports said that Ardern had texted Seymour to apologise when it was brought to her attention in Hansard, and that was the first MPs had heard of the comment as it was only audible to Hansard. He then went out of his way to repeat the words the next day to ensure that they were recorded again. Seymour is showing PR skills built up from having now been in parliament for quite some time – the selling of a transcript nicely distracted from how little work he must have done to have been so readily corrected on facts by the prime minister across a range of questions

  2. tsmithfield 2
    16 December 2022 at 8:31 am

    I agree it was a total beat up, and of no consequence whatsoever so far as voters are concerned. In fact, many may like to see that she is normal like the rest of us.

    The only comment I would make is I wonder what the reaction would be like if Seymour had been heard referring to the PM as an "arrogant bitch" under his breath.

    • roy cartland 2.1
      16 December 2022 at 10:12 am

      There would have been widespread condemnation through MSM, and definitely on this site. Allegations of egregious sexism and dishonourable behaviour. Seymour would have lost much of the credibility he's been building up over the last few years, and he knows it.

      Interestingly, I would have agreed with all of it (the condemnation), as I agree with her comment about Seymour. Surely what you're getting at is the apparent double standard. In this case I think it's justified.

      • tsmithfield 2.1.1
        16 December 2022 at 10:18 am

        "There would have been widespread condemnation through MSM, and definitely on this site."

        Yes, that is what I would have expected as well.

        But, I wonder if all that clamour that would have resulted would have in itself been subtely sexist. Because what it would have implied is that those making the clamour in some ways view Jacinda is a weak female unable to stand up for herself.

        • Incognito 2.1.1.1
          16 December 2022 at 10:26 am

          You are trying to spin hypotheticals about much ado about nothing aka diverting. In some ways you are implying that you are a weak commenter unable to stick to a topic.

        • Chris 2.1.1.2
          16 December 2022 at 10:45 am

          If support for Labour or Ardern go up in the next poll it may suggest they could benefit by injecting a little mongrel into how they deal with the opposition, just to help provide a little balance to the kindness theme, the latter for too many seems to be wearing a bit thin.

          • Anne 2.1.1.2.1
            16 December 2022 at 11:52 am

            I've been saying it to Labour for years but nobody listened. A little bit of mongrel, when it is appropriate, is no bad thing. It makes them look like one of us.

            • Jimmy 2.1.1.2.1.1
              16 December 2022 at 1:53 pm

              They have Willie Jackson and Kelvin Davis (and probably others) for the mongrel. Jacinda shouldn’t go mongrel.

              • Incognito …
                16 December 2022 at 3:37 pm

                Zip it, sweetie.

                • observer …
                  16 December 2022 at 5:08 pm

                  Zip it, sweetie.

                  Exactly. We don't need these "what if?" hypotheticals. We don't need to invent what Nat/ACT people would say. We just need to remember what they actually said. I've already mentioned several on these threads. Again …

                  "You back the rapists" – John Key, to Labour, in Parliament.

                  Ardern apologised on the same day. Key took one month.

                  Don't believe me, look it up. Compare. So let's stop imagining and start remembering.

                  • Jimmy …
                    19 December 2022 at 8:51 am

                    Has Jacinda apologised to that KFC worker yet?

                    • Incognito …
                      19 December 2022 at 9:33 am

                      Ok, troll, I’ll feed you, a piece of rope.

                      Was that KFC worker an MP at the time? And did the PM say anything to them while in the Debating Chamber?

                      If both answers are “yes” then you may have a point. If not then you’re simply trolling and one step closer to a well-earned long holiday.

                    • observer …
                      19 December 2022 at 9:53 am

                      Imagine having your home raided, your reputation defamed, your phone records seized and spending vast amounts of money, time and energy clearing your name. But don't imagine: Nicky Hager, John Key, look them up.

                      You think Ardern has done anything like that? No. You know she has not.

                      I repeat: compare reality.

                    • observer …
                      19 December 2022 at 9:59 am

                      Another one for Jimmy the Amnesiac:

                      Camera operator Bradley Ambrose was investigated by police – and newsrooms were searched by police officers – after the "teapot tape" in 2011.

                      After PM John Key called it “News of the World tactics," Ambrose sued for defamation and John Key settled out of court in 2015 – and with an apology.

                      https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018649006/a-win-for-media-and-the-public-which-came-at-a-cost

  3. Gosman 3
    16 December 2022 at 8:43 am

    This is a great bit of PR for David Seymour. He come out of this whole thing with his reputation boosted and the photos of him with the Prime Minister likely enhances his standing among many.

  4. Anne 4
    16 December 2022 at 8:56 am

    Yep. 10 out of 10 from me. For someone who usually turns the TV off at the mere sight of Seymour's face this indeed a first. smiley

  5. Peter 5
    16 December 2022 at 9:54 am

    The country is in the crap. There's poverty and lawlessness, and despair, and mental health issues, and homelessness, and dire shortages of staff for medical services, dramatic need for workers in other fields and an on-going pandemic and its affects. There are signs the world is ending.

    Then something serious comes along. A politician in an aside describes another politician.

    A journalist who no doubt strove through school, was the apple of her/his parent's eye, they were so proud with achievements culminating in the glorious job of being a journalist, in Parliament to boot, had their Pulitzer Prize moment. The crowning impactful moment of glory which will not be matched, cannot be matched in a career.

    This journo, with better hearing than the best bat heard the comment and school prefected to David Seymour. My mate in Hawera would say, "It seems to be one of those 'Get a fucking life' situations."

  6. Thinker 6
    16 December 2022 at 10:23 am

    From a glass-half-full perspective, if bear-ups like these are what ACT has to do to get attention, where are their policies?

    Ditto an article on radio nz website this morning "C… Luxon's bold vision pale on detail:" Rest Assured we will have policy " that has a bit of a comedic undertone.

  7. Ad 7
    16 December 2022 at 10:40 am

    It's the closest I've got to liking her. Do more Prime Minister.

  8. Mike the Lefty 8
    16 December 2022 at 10:56 am

    Did she say anything that wasn't correct?

  9. SPC 9
    16 December 2022 at 10:56 am

    When John Key and Helen Clark came together it was to ensure restraint of the hand on the cradle to grave welfare state.

    When David Bell Tea Seymour and Jacinda Ardern came together it was to reduce the number of hands in/on medical experiences.

  10. Ad 10
    16 December 2022 at 12:26 pm

    Anyone remember the amazing promises that the Sky City National Convention Centre deal was going to do for us all?

    And now it's going to cost yet another $150 million to complete it.

    And a decade later not a single benefit to New Zealand beyond the basic construction.

  11. Kat 11
    16 December 2022 at 1:23 pm

    Act supporters are hardly dissatisfied Labour supporters…..yellow up…blue down….we have seen it before….

    Very clever our PM

    • observer 11.1
      16 December 2022 at 5:16 pm

      Yes, a lot of "commentators" are missing that point.

      It does Ardern no harm to see Luxon losing out to Seymour.

      John Key could casually dismiss ACT as a minor Epsom party.

      But in 2023 Luxon is going to spend the campaign having to rule out ACT policies, Seymour as Finance Minister, Deputy PM, etc. It'll be a Waffle-thon.

  12. Mac1 12
    16 December 2022 at 3:42 pm

    I played the part of Leonato in Much Ado about Nothing and learned that Elizabethans had another meaning for 'nothing'. They enjoyed the joke!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3jh4j6/revision/2

    • Robert Guyton 12.1
      16 December 2022 at 5:58 pm

      Thanks, Mac1 – that's very funny -nothing/noting – how many, if any, followed your hint, I wonder?

      I did and am grateful 🙂

  13. Tiger Mountain 13
    16 December 2022 at 6:31 pm

    The mistake the PM made was apologising, in my view, but I guess what she ended up doing for a fundraiser won points with many. And she did it promptly as noted above.

    Mr Seymour is quite Trump like really–he doesn’t majorly care what you think of him.