Paul Goldsmith and the bag of flour

Written By: - Date published: 1:34 pm, June 9th, 2014 - 34 comments
Categories: act, election 2014, greens, labour, national - Tags: , ,

Paul Goldsmith bag of flour

Yesterday something unusual happened. In the most closely watched electorate battle in the country TV3 hosted a debate amongst the candidates and the candidate from the currently largest polling party did not show up.

Unbelievable you may think but it is true. Even though he has been selected as the candidate National’s Paul Goldsmith did not show.  His excuse was that he was out trying to gain party votes but you would think that taking a couple of hours out from door knocking for an opportunity to appear on national TV to persuade people to party vote National would have been leaped at by Goldsmith.  In two hours you could probably talk to 20 people face to face or talk directly to 20,000 people through their television sets so you would think that the latter would be the preferred option.  But no, he decided not to front up.

It is not as if there is a secret agenda at play here.  Everyone knows that there is a nod nod wink wink process happening where National is telling Epsom voters to hold their nose and vote for ACT’s David Seymour.  If only they would be honest and say what it is they are doing.

On yesterday’s performance electors will have to hold their noses really hard.  Seymour was appalling.  He kept overtalking the others with that born to rule tory arrogance that lefties have grown to know and hate.  And he kept repeating ad nauseum a collection of CT designed talking lines designed to kill intelligent discussion of the issues and divert from the fact that what we are seeing is a colossal electoral rort.

Labour’s Michael Wood performed well.  He is an outstanding candidate.  In Puketapapa he has managed to change decades of Citizen and Ratepayer dominance so that there is now for the first time in a long time a progressive majority on the body representing local interests.  He has been the Labour candidate in National strongholds for the past couple of elections.  In the Botany by election he performed very well and cut the National majority by over half.  I hope we see him in Parliament soon.

The Green candidate Julie Anne Genter is also an outstanding candidate.  The campaign promises to be a very interesting one.

The test for these two is how to persuade the people of Epsom that the stench coming from ACT is too strong and they should vote for a bag of flour rather than the candidate from a party with a high incidence of criminal activity amongst its MPs, a preference for incest to be decriminalised and a wish to increase poverty so that the privileged few can have even more outlandish levels of wealth.

During the debate Michael produced a bag of wholemeal flour and promised to bring this particular bag to all public meetings and to put it in the place where Paul Goldsmith should be.  I suspect we are going to see this bag of flour a lot.

lprent – Updated:

Twitter link:
https://twitter.com/EpsomFlour

34 comments on “Paul Goldsmith and the bag of flour ”

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  1. Tracey 1
    9 June 2014 at 1:44 pm

    hooton today described goldsmith at the most right in the national party caucus…

    And hoots suggested that cos he is so far right, labour voters cant bring themselves to vote for him. I am assuming hoots was taking the piss?!?

    He also said act will win epsom and the conservatives will win a seat but neither wiliams nor ryan pushed him as to which seat.

  2. Populuxe1 2
    9 June 2014 at 2:00 pm

    I don’t see Labour or the Greens picking up significant votes in Epsom. If anything their supporters in Epsom would be better off voting Goldsmith.

    • Tracey 2.1
      9 June 2014 at 2:11 pm

      i dont think ANYONE thinks labour or greens could win epsom. No one that i have ever heard or read anyway.

      This labour voter cast an electorate vote for goldsmith last time.

    • bad12 2.2
      9 June 2014 at 3:05 pm

      Given the number of electorate votes that both the Labour and Green candidates gathered during the 2011 contest i think your ability to ”see” Populuxe pretty much equates to the vision of a blind man,

      Had a quarter of those who gave their electorate vote to either Labour or Green candidate instead voted National as the electorate candidate last time round ACT was history,

      The fact is, the canvassing teams of both Labour and the Greens will enter the electorate finding out along the election trail who is likely to support them,

      It then seems a simple enough task to convince such identified supporters to Electorate Vote for the National party candidate,

      Should a quarter of those supporters do so, ACT is gone…

      • bad12 2.2.1
        9 June 2014 at 3:07 pm

        A Cabbage might have been a more relevant stage prop…

      • Tracey 2.2.2
        9 June 2014 at 3:14 pm

        proportion of enrolled electors) in 2011 was 76.3%.

        2011 Election Results – Electorate

        Candidate Valid Votes Share (%)

        BANKS, John (ACT) 15,835 44.10

        GOLDSMITH, Paul (NAT) 13,574 37.80

        PARKER, David (LAB) 3,751 10.45

        HAY, David (GP) 2,160 6.01

        KAN, Simon (CNSP) 342 0.95

        BRIGHT, Penny (IND) 124 0.35

        O’DEA, Pat (MANA) 66 0.18

        GOODE, Matthew (IND) 59 0.16

        Total Valid Votes 35,911 100.00

        Total Votes Cast 36,354 101.23

        Winning Candidate: BANKS, John – majority 2261

        For interpretation of abbreviations, see Glossary.

        2011 Election Results – Party Vote

        Party Valid Votes Share (%)

        National Party 23,725 64.52

        Labour Party 5,716 15.55

        Green Party 4,424 12.03

        New Zealand First Party 959 2.61

        ACT New Zealand 939 2.55

        Conservative Party 412 1.12

        Māori Party 217 0.59

        Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party 118 0.32

        United Future 116 0.32

        Mana 91 0.25

        Libertarianz 31 0.08

        Alliance 12 0.03

        Democrats for Social Credit 9 0.02

        Total Valid Votes 36,769 100.00

        Total Votes Cast 36,929 100.44

        • hoom 2.2.2.1
          9 June 2014 at 6:14 pm

          <- Only thing that can stop me from sticking my Electorate tick next to Bag of Flour (or whatever the actual name next to the Nat logo is) would be an absence of said logo.

      • Populuxe1 2.2.3
        9 June 2014 at 11:29 pm

        Do you even know how MMP works?

    • Not a PS Staffer 2.3
      9 June 2014 at 6:39 pm

      +100000000%

      Just Hold Your note and DO IT!

  3. blue leopard 3
    9 June 2014 at 2:04 pm

    Glad the bag of flour trick got a mention in an article on The Standard – I thought it was great that Michael Wood did that. 😀

    I liked that idea – the one on twitter is a white bag of flour – which I find altogether more appropriate.

    From Freedom and Veutoviper’s conversation:

    Another version by Freedom:
    http://i.imgur.com/xQ10ces.png

    Twitter link:
    https://twitter.com/EpsomFlour

  4. Enough is Enough 4
    9 June 2014 at 2:15 pm

    The only way to defeat this sham is to fight fire with fire.

    Labour and the Greens must instruct their supporters to vote for Goldsmith.

    The selfish Ares holes who allow this sham to exist will vote for the Act candidate again, just as they have for the past 3 elections. It is their best chance of getting another term.

    We can play that game as well.

    “If you want National out of government, vote Goldsmith”

  5. Linz 5
    9 June 2014 at 2:50 pm

    I think a bottle of palm oil would be a better choice than wholemeal flour. You can make good healthy food with wholemeal flour. Palm oil is oleaginous crap.

  6. mikesh 6
    9 June 2014 at 2:53 pm

    Why did Wood produce the cheapest wholemeal flour available. We don’t want wealthy Epsomites turning up their noses. Perhaps the sure to rise stuff would have been more appropriate.

  7. tc 7
    9 June 2014 at 2:57 pm

    Goldsmith was chosen because he is disliked by many with a sense of decency after his stand on a few issues as an akl councillor.

    If they put up a likeable sock puppet wrapped in blue ribbons Epsom may forget their role and vote for national so Goldsmith it is as Gilmore, Wong, Worth are all a bit too fresh in the memory.

    Perhaps this time he will not bother to erect any billboards. This will save him the trouble of covertly removing them like last time.

  8. Lanthanide 8
    9 June 2014 at 3:16 pm

    Bag of flour? Should have gone with a china tea cup.

  9. Michael who failed Civics 9
    9 June 2014 at 3:53 pm

    I wonder if Goldsmith will write a hagiography of Banks? The man’s passport to fame seems to be writing sycophantic economiums of “business leaders” that, I suspect, no one reads at all (not even the subject’s).

  10. dave 10
    9 June 2014 at 6:29 pm

    ditch key vote goldsmith

  11. fisiani 11
    9 June 2014 at 9:33 pm

    John Key will look down a camera lens and explain MMP. In 2011 47.3% was a record score and we scraped over the line due to the voters in Epsom and Ohariu understanding what needs to be done to return us for THREE MORE YEARS. He will ask the intelligent voters in both constituencies to yet again give him THREE MORE YEARS.
    Bags of flour are childish jolly stunts that make the Left feel they are winning. A bag of flour is all that will be remembered of the Labour candidate whose name will soon be forgotten.

    • blue leopard 11.1
      9 June 2014 at 9:55 pm

      …and when intelligent voters on the left hear such utterings by Key, they will work out what needs to be done to ensure National’s strategy falls flat its face.

      There is nothing wrong with humour and a lot going for it.

  12. Jenny 12
    10 June 2014 at 10:04 am

    During the debate Michael produced a bag of wholemeal flour and promised to bring this particular bag to all public meetings and to put it in the place where Paul Goldsmith should be.

    mickysavage

    For my self personally, I think a sack of coal, or a pile of highly toxic Fly Ash would better represent the National Party candidate.

    Apart from that, I think that the Labour Party Candidate’s stunt appears as a little half baked compared to the Mana Candidate who performed this stunt first in 2011, just bigger and better; HERE

    I think that the Mana candidate’s prop more accurately captures what we are in for if the extreme Right Wing’s electoral jack up in Epsom succeeds again.

    • Jenny 12.1
      10 June 2014 at 10:13 am

      ‘

      Try again.

      I think that the Labour Party Candidate’s stunt appears as a little half baked compared to the Mana Candidate who performed this stunt first in 2011, just bigger and better; HERE

      I think that the Mana candidate’s prop more accurately captures what we are in for if the extreme Right Wing’s electoral jack up in Epsom succeeds again.

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