Nat Civil War: Nothing to see here

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, April 12th, 2012 - 21 comments
Categories: bill english, Judith Collins, Steven Joyce - Tags: , , , , ,

Every time Simon Lusk’s name gets mentioned, Whaleoil (which is only Cameron Slater and has nothing to do with Lusk </sarcasm>) responds with a vitriolic and revealing tirade. In the latest, Whaleoil insists there are no National factions, before insulting and demeaning each of the factions except Collins’, and accidentally confirming the leadership tussle is on.

First, Slater/Lusk claim “the Brat Pack ceased to exist a long time ago”. Right, so we were all just hallucinating when we saw English and Ryall stand by Smith as he spoke to the media after his resignation. And we were imagining the expression on English’s face when he was asked about comments he made years ago that Collins was “pushed beyond her capacity”, with an “unfortunately high estimate of her own competence.”, and that she “spent too much time cultivating the media herself, and believing the resulting publicity”. English is Deputy PM and Finance Minister, Ryall is Health Minister. That’s a lot of institutional power and, between them, Ryall and English have saved the arses of their colleagues more times than Lusk and Slater have stuffed up smear campaigns.

Then, Slater/Lusk admit the Brat Pack still has power but call them a “creature of Michelle Boag”. Whom they claim was given some message from Bill Birch to “wither and die” last week – which doesn’t seem to have worked and, of course, just confirms that there is factional infighting going on in the Party.

Next, Slater/Lusk insist that Key isn’t aligned with the Boag faction. You might think he’s beyond the need for factional support now – he’s PM and his next move will be out of politics. But, if (and it’s only an if, but at that level of the game ifs matter) Collins tries to roll Key before the election and Key thinks he can win if he stays on, he’ll want support and you can bet he’s keeping his links with the Boag faction alive for that contingency. Which is why the Collins faction, notably Slater/Lusk, have been attacking Key recently on the back of his increasingly poor polling.

Finally, Slater/Lusk attack Collins’ two rivals for the leadership – Hekia Parata and Steven Joyce. Apparently, “neither is liked by their peers” and “hard working electorate MPs won’t countenance a duopoly of List MPs leading the party. If they can’t win seats then they shouldn’t be leaders.”. Hmm. Doesn’t that rather confirm that the question of who is to lead the party is currently a live question?

Nowhere does Slater/Lusk say ‘this is all academic, because Key is leader as long as he wants to be’.

And, there’s one strange omission from their list. Not a single mention of Collins or her faction. In a post devoted to trying to argue there are no factions and no leadership contest, Slater/Lusk doesn’t try to disprove the leadership aspirations of the leader of their own faction, or the existence of that faction – the facts they would, surely, be best placed to argue against.

Funny that.

21 comments on “Nat Civil War: Nothing to see here ”

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  1. ghostwhowalksnz 1
    12 April 2012 at 1:06 pm

    Hes till trying to polish the Slater brand reputation.
    ” My father bought Key into the National Party”- but it was Boag who organised and got him elected to an electorate seat
    No mention of the missing branch/coven funds under Slater- enough said, what is it with the Slaters and their money problems

    • Hami Shearlie 1.1
      12 April 2012 at 7:15 pm

      I keep picturing WO in a flower-print pinny and headscarf with a polishing cloth in his hand! Everyone knows no matter how much you polish a turd, it’ s still a turd!! LOL

  2. deuto 2
    12 April 2012 at 1:20 pm

    Re WO’s claim that the Brat Pack ceased to exist some time ago, he/they obviously missed the Herald article on the “Powerful Brat Pack” getting together for a wake after Nick Smith’s resignation –

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=10793713

  3. RobertM 3
    12 April 2012 at 1:59 pm

    English and Smith exhibited pretty consistent disloyalty to the agreed direction of the National Party to move in a right centre somewhat socially liberal direction between 2000-06. Even as leader in 2002, English basically displayed his lack of enthusiam for the platform and a sense sabotaged , because it was obvious he did not believe in the platform at the time.
    I did express non party support in the media for Brash before and after the 2005 campaign but during the actual months of the 2005 supported the Greens after talking to Jeanette Fitzimons at Holiday Inn down the road from my Avon Loop flat. I was not prepared to support Brash at the time because – the National platform was too rabid, right wing and unthought out on issues like welfare, law and order and mental health. Part of the reason that the Nat policy releases and materials were a shambles and their preperation less than amatuer was systematic sabotage by English and Smith.
    Another major reason for not backing Brash at the time of the 2005 election is that Act- National had no genuine commitment to the western alliance and would have been far less prepared to spend serious money on it than Clark and also less likely to support compromises like having troops and the SAS in Afghanistan. Clark had reequipped the Army on a huge scale, she had agreed to maintain the Orions and allow the US Navy to install the Link satellite communication and data processing systems intergrating them with the US surface surveillance and patrolling of the globe and the same was done with the Anzac frigates. Clark was aware of the significance of this and also fully aware about what SAS policy of hearts and minds meant. She had spent her life studying special force and CIA ops. Clark is obviously no were as much a militarists and believer in the US way as I am- but she was more useful than the US. The Brash-Long -Basset idea that nuclear powered ship access was an essential trade off and all NZ needed to do was nonsense. Nuclear powered ship access was never an issue-by the late 1970s it was definite US policy to restrict nuclear powered ship construction to large strike aircraft carriers and nuclear powered submarines and similarly on grounds of cost and safety that the place of nuclear power in the civilian economy would be much more limited. It is really the British rather than the US that has remained deluded that nuclear is the future for the last 40 years.
    Where Clark would never compromise with the US and military is that she would never allow modern or useful anti submarine equipment to be put into the Orion. Like me she would have seen from the start that the Anzac frigates were useless for any serious as, convoy or resoruce war and therefore like the left in Australia saw them as a useful way of wasting defence money, employing large numbers of low grade ratings and basically disarming Australia and NZ while misleading the Australian public that they had an actual defence force and capability.

  4. jack 4
    12 April 2012 at 2:38 pm

    So, is there a National Party fraction? If there is, good and I use to be a national supporter.

    • Carol 4.1
      12 April 2012 at 2:44 pm

      The National Party aren’t bothered about fractions. They just make up numbers….. percentages, fractions or otherwise.

  5. ghostwhowalksnz 5
    12 April 2012 at 3:06 pm

    The Brat pack ?

    How about the Collins Coven !- for warlocks too

  6. Deer Hunter 6
    12 April 2012 at 3:21 pm

    Blubberboy and luskie are discredited minors, why are you so obsesed with them, talking about their side is like talking about parekuras side, looks big sideon but SBW.

  7. bad12 7
    12 April 2012 at 4:36 pm

    Michelle Boag on National radio at 4.00 spinning Her version of the National Party infighting,

    There is none according to Boag, Whale-blubber in the world according to Michelle has for the past 12 years had a very large hard-on over the fact that She,(Boag), beat poor wee Cameron’s daddy for the position of National Party Prez,

    Since that time Boag says Whale-blubber has made as much mischief for Her as possible,and on and on it went,

    Should wee Cameron who we doubt has many friends at all perhaps be on at least speaking terms with a Lawyer we might all expect to hear another of the right wing tossers screaming about law suits as Boag was sailing pretty close to the line with the rubbish She was spitting,

    • Anne 7.1
      12 April 2012 at 8:01 pm

      Sorry bad 12. Read Michelle Boag differently to you. I have no time for her politics etc., but her points were well made. I thought her explanation as to why she had been mentoring Bronwyn Pullar these past 10 years was more than adequate. As for Slater, she clearly has nothing but contempt for him and for very good reason. She didn’t say anything I would class as defamatory. Sure, she played down the so-called factions inside the Nat. Party but that was to be expected. Bear in mind she was asked to comment by the host, Jim Mora and to my mind her response was rational and genuine.

      • bad12 7.1.1
        12 April 2012 at 11:24 pm

        Yes all perfectly pat, what a wonderful little fairy tale she has to tell the mokopuna in the future , We specially found touching the emphasis and stress She put on the bit about having not received a cent for Her efforts,

        Saint Boagy of the National Party, hell churches will obviously be erected in Her honour,We find Her as credible as Slippery, you know the bloke ”National will not be raising GST”,

        You obviously were not listening to the blessed saintly one properly,didnt you hear Her in the exchanges with Brian Edwards, ”in politics you dont always tell the truth”,

        And if your smart Michelle honey, you never tell it,the truth that is,if nothing but BS comes outta your mouth those watching wont ever see a change in the vocab to indicate either truth or lies…

    • ghostwhowalksnz 7.2
      12 April 2012 at 8:28 pm

      Hardly makes sense bad12. She has more achievement in her little finger than the whole Slater clan.

      Especially the former databank computer operator, and current bankrupt known as Oily Orca.

      Boag may be up to her neck in political machinations but she still has made her mark and has a very high professional reputation like Alistair Bell who Slater rails against

      • Deer Hunter 7.2.1
        12 April 2012 at 10:39 pm

        ghostwhowalks you are obsesed with alistair bell, you talk about him everywhere, him and his helicopters, what is it with you and helicopters

        • ghostwhowalksnz 7.2.1.1
          13 April 2012 at 9:32 am

          Thanks for reminding me, I forgot about it.
          My real obsession was John Key living in two houses 30km apart at the same time while Boag was getting him a safe national seat. There is the little matter of the signed statuary declaration which made the safe seat happen.

          But how was Putorino ? I like it over at Glenfalls on the Mohaka

      • bad12 7.2.2
        12 April 2012 at 11:15 pm

        Whats the thing We picks from our nasal passages grand achievements got to do with the ‘fact’ that what She said on national radio was that 12 years ago She beat little Blubber-guts’s Daddy in the race to be the National Party Prez and since then wee Cam’s screeching like a demented Chimp on a daily basis has been mere penis envy,

        Boagy ever the egotistical piece of National Party flootsam says its all about Her and nothing but Her,wee cam has just spent a decade on what many perceive as barely same ravings as He scrapes around in the National party scrap bins,and its all about Boagy,according to Boagy that is,

        So what exactly doesn’t make sense???…

  8. Deb 8
    13 April 2012 at 7:56 am

    Is there a Nat Radio URL for Ms Boag’s piece. In an ideal world I’d prefer to listen before commentary but have to say that I tend to think that anyone who employs or condones the use of blackmail and witholds private information inadvertenly given their party does not begin to share my values system. The way I see it the actions of Boag and Pullar run counter to the values of any self-respecting Nat on every level.

    • Carol 8.1
      13 April 2012 at 8:15 am

      As an ACC claimant I was interested to hear about Boag’s role as Pullar’s support person, and have some sympathy with Pullar’s situation… it was a fairly factual description of Boag’s role. The bit where she put the boot into Slater was amusing…. of course she put her side in a very good light and denied in National in-fighting/factions.

      I was most annoyed with the position all on the panel (including some of what Brian Edwards said) about the Sky City conference centre issue…… everyone was claiming it would be beneficial to Auckland’s economy. At least Edwards was critical of the impact of pokies, and of the government policy of laws for sale, while Boag took the opposing view on these issues.
      Part 1 of The Panel here:

      http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/20120412

  9. Rich 9
    13 April 2012 at 10:53 am

    I think the situation of Hekia Parata illustrates the problem with the pseudo-hierarchy of electorate and list seats (well that, and the endemic tokenism of the National and Labour).

    She is expected as one of National’s few Maori to contest the ‘ethnic’ seat of Mana, rather than a safe seat like Helensville. She won’t win it, so she’ll always be a list MP. Nothing wrong with that, except in the eyes of those in the party who see List MPs as inferior (like Slater/Lush and I suspect many others with a yearning for FPP). She isn’t (I guess) working any less hard at electorate level than a white guy in a safe seat – it’s just that the high water mark for National is some way short of winning Mana.