Phil, get your shit together

41 comments on “Phil, get your shit together ”

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1. Lew 1

   23 July 2009 at 11:09 am

   Damned right.

   L
2. burt 2

   23 July 2009 at 11:15 am

   Eddie

   I 100% agree with you.
3. Danyl Mclauchlan 3

   23 July 2009 at 11:18 am

   I know the media have never applied the same scrutiny to John Key

   It’s pretty hard to to make the case that the media are in the tank for Key when they just ran hard on a pro-Labour story without doing any basic fact-checking, don’tchya think?
   • burt 3.1

     23 July 2009 at 11:22 am

     Danyl

     The twits are just running interference to distract us from the complete fool Goff made of himself.

     Oh dear – rich prick needs to turn off the heating in his swimming pool in recession – Oh well of course the govt should bail him out – poor me another Chardonay will you Phill – nice BBQ mate.
     • snoozer 3.1.1

       23 July 2009 at 11:30 am

       “poor me another Chardonay”

       “poor”?

       you munter

       Key was caught lying on camera over his Transrail shares, a serious conflict of interest and all was forgiven within days. The same will be true of Goff.
       • burt 3.1.1.1

         23 July 2009 at 11:34 am

         The english night classes were cancelled – help! send money now!
       • burt 3.1.1.2

         23 July 2009 at 11:36 am

         Please explain how something Key did is relevant to this. Is it a game of “your team is as bad as my team” to you?

         Personally I think each should be judged on their own merit. But continue to play the “they did it too” game if you like.
       • ghostwhowalks 3.1.1.3

         23 July 2009 at 12:18 pm

         Dont forget the other lies Key has made like trying to discredit Goff by claiming he was ‘on a plane’ when Goff made a phone call about Worth.

         Funny that didnt make a big series of ‘what was he thinking’ round of stories.

         When Key and English contradict each other, no stories on ‘disunity in National’ from Armstrong and Co ( he seems to have writers block when there is critical material around)
         • gingercrush 3.1.1.3.1

           23 July 2009 at 12:22 pm

           When Key and English contradict each other, no stories on ‘disunity in National’ from Armstrong and Co ( he seems to have writers block when there is critical material around)

           Have you been reading/watching the media lately? Political commentators/reporters/columnists have all talked about the relationship between English and Key and the contradicitions.
         • burt 3.1.1.3.2

           23 July 2009 at 12:23 pm

           Bwaaaaa ha ha ha – It’s not fair…. When my idiot leader acts like a fool people laugh at him but I never see people laughing like that at Key – Bwaaaaa ha ha ha.

           Grow up ghostie… If Goff wants to be taken seriously he should check his facts before he opens his mouth – this has got nothing to do with Key.
   • Eddie 3.2

     23 July 2009 at 11:27 am

     The argument wasn’t that the media are “in the tank for Key”, whatever that means, it’s that they don’t hold his claims to the same level of scrutiny as they do Goff. Key makes shit up and casually lies all the time and there’s no consequence. That may be a post for another day. In any case, that wasn’t the core point of the post. You’re welcome to address that if you’d like.
     • Inventory2 3.2.1

       23 July 2009 at 12:20 pm

       Eddie said “Key makes shit up and casually lies all the time and there’s no consequence.”

       You’ve got proof of that, no doubt Eddie?
     • Swampy 3.2.2

       23 July 2009 at 11:30 pm

       Or, it could be not like you claim, you could be off beam.
       Or, maybe you’re just getting an idea of what it’s like to lose the election, the media have got sick of you as well as the electorate.
4. bobo 4

   23 July 2009 at 11:21 am

   Been a shocker last few days for Goff and Labour, the gaping hole Helen Clark has left is starting to rear its head as I cant remember when she was ever caught out by the media on policy detail. I think Goff has got carried away with the Mt Albert win thinking he is a maverick leader able to make up policy on the fly..

   In the house Labour are looking shabby trying to attack the Gov on deferring the folic acid , the general public don’t want so why are they still pushing for it? Bad move..

   Also asking the Gov about what they will privatize after the next election is stupid , concentrate on the now please..
5. gingercrush 5

   23 July 2009 at 11:23 am

   Good post Eddie. The real danger for Goff isn’t the public. I don’t think they would have noticed that much. The danger is if Goff get’s offside with the media. For opposition leaders that puts them in a deadly position.
6. Bill 6

   23 July 2009 at 11:27 am

   Part of me doesn’t mind Goff making a hash of things.

   If he gets it right and stays at the tiller, then the Labour Party will not be able to tack left. Maybe they never will again anyway. But with Goff leading, they definitely won’t.

   Meanwhile, the few thousand a week who are hitting and missing the dole queue know from direct experience the reality of the message that Goff is making a hash of getting across. And know that the media is not telling it as it really is.

   And when they pay more attention to their reality than they do to inaccurate media portrayals of that reality and flat stick denials of that reality…..
7. Dancr 7

   23 July 2009 at 11:28 am

   colin espiner wrote something similar in his blog “Once again, an issue that should have run in Labour’s favour ended up backfiring badly…The current lot are making the Government look good. And it isn’t that good.” Should be compulsory reading (and learning) for the Labour team.
   http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/blogs/on-the-house/2663113/Labour-needs-some-focus
8. gingercrush 8

   23 July 2009 at 11:46 am

   I think Eddie has a point on Key actually. When you have formed a government and been in government for less than a year you tend to get a much easier ride than if you were a new leader of the opposition who were formerly in government. Eddie’s statement here: I know the media have never applied the same scrutiny to John Key, and nor are they likely to for a while. is partially true. John Key is getting an easier ride from the media than Goff is likely to get. The same happened when Clark was Prime Minister. She got an easier ride than either Shipley or English. To an extent the media were much more harsher on Brash than Clark. Key was fortunate to become leader of the opposition when the Clark government was looking increasingly tired.

   Goff just has to put up with it. For now he has to work twice as hard as Key. Sure it isn’t entirely fair. But politics isn’t always fair.
   • ghostwhowalks 8.1

     23 July 2009 at 12:25 pm

     There usually is a formula for correcting something you have previously been quoted on ( ‘misquoted ?’).
     But for Key has has been in some instances quite forceful denial he ever said it. As in the smacking debate last year when Audrey Young and others caught him in a denial that was a big lie.
     Its obvious the parliamentary gallery need the access to Key and his people so they dont go putting their heads in the Lions mouth
     • Swampy 8.1.1

       23 July 2009 at 11:38 pm

       It’s become patently clear on this blog that a few people have made their loathing and despising Key pretty plain of late. That kind of thing where you say someone is less than human or kind of low life Tory or traitor or all the things that get said in some hard left circles is quite the most sadpacking unpleasant stuff.

       Now, I hear a lot about Key’s “nice guy” image, well he has public appeal the way that someone like John Minto doesn’t.
9. the sprout 9

   23 July 2009 at 12:00 pm

   agreed Eddie. a lot of room for improvement from PG and his staff before the country will feel comfortable seeing him as a credible, viable alternative.
10. Santi 10

    23 July 2009 at 12:16 pm

    Filler Goff should be appointed “leader of the Opposition” for life. He’s a wrecking train and a delight to watch.
11. lukas 11

    23 July 2009 at 12:19 pm

    I think your advice can be given to many of the front bench of Labour at the moment. They were hammered in question time yesterday and still have not gotten used to the fact that they are in opposition.
12. Maggie 12

    23 July 2009 at 12:28 pm

    Goff needs to learn to think before he speaks, making policy up on the hoof is a habit fraught with danger. As an experienced politician he should know better.

    The salivation over Burgess simply demonstrates the pathetic superficiality of our news media. King Clown Duncan Garner paints a picture of the distraught partners of millionaires all rushing into their nearest WINZ office to claim the dole….even John Armstrong can’t see past the end of his nose.

    The Burgess episode is just a diversion which hides the real situation but airheads like Garner love diversions, saves having to do any real journalism.

    The facts are stark and simple: A beneficiary, or his/her partner, can earn $80 (gross) per week before the benefit is affected. I don’t know when this figure was last increased, it seems to have been $80 for years.

    For every $ earned over $80 a beneficiary loses 70c in the $ of benefit.

    A simple answer would be to increase the $80 and reduce the 70c figure. Currently if anyone in your household is earning a little more than the minimum wage you lose any entitlement to benefit assistance. The cruelty of that situation becomes stark when you compare our system with that of Australia.

    That is the real story and it is a disgrace. But clowns like Garner and Armstrong aren’t interested, too much like hard work.
    • Swampy 12.1

      23 July 2009 at 11:40 pm

      There have been small increases in the amounts, but I doubt it has kept up with inflation. That 70c is before tax, put tax on and you have got nearly all the extra income down the gurgler so to speak.
13. uroskin 13

    23 July 2009 at 12:28 pm

    The real issue doesn’t go away though: why can’t I get dole after working for a long time and paying tax, while any drongo straight out of school can?
    Why can’t we have a proper social security system, where a portion of your current tax is lodged into a unemployment scheme, a health scheme and a pension scheme? Pinning everything on income tax leads to far too much political interference and wide gaps in the social safety net.
    Now there’s something Labour could do if it wants to follow MJ Savage’s path.
14. burt 14

    23 July 2009 at 12:29 pm

    Somebody should tell Goff he won Lotto one morning – He would stand up in the house and resign then we would all get to laugh at him when he comes crawling back after checking his ticket.

    He is a goober and should resign immediately.
15. Danyl Mclauchlan 15

    23 July 2009 at 12:32 pm

    But clowns like Garner and Armstrong aren’t interested, too much like hard work.

    It’s Garner and Armstong’s job to report what politicans say, not to make the news themselves; if Goff decides to argue that millionaires should recieve benefits than THAT is newsworthy by any criteria.

    The argument wasn’t that the media are “in the tank for Key’, whatever that means, it’s that they don’t hold his claims to the same level of scrutiny as they do Goff.

    The Herald didn’t subject Goff’s story to ANY scrutiny – how could they possibly have lower standards for Key?
16. burt 16

    23 July 2009 at 12:40 pm

    uroskin

    You make a very very valid point. Under old-time Labour party policy of universal benefits there was no discrimination on eligibility. Tory parties introduced means testing and Labour were too insipid to stand up for their core beliefs and get back to universal benefits. I don’t think there are many here who will agree that universal benefits are a natural counterbalance to progressive taxation because to agree with that would be to disagree with current Labour party policy.
17. gobsmacked 17

    23 July 2009 at 1:02 pm

    What Goff’s people really need to do is dig up John Key’s interview when he said he was worried about Goff replacing Clark. From memory, Sunday Star-Times, 2007 (could be wrong about the date, but not the fact).

    But it’s not online, so now that everyone thinks Google = knowledge … ah well.

    Goff, like Bill English, is a very capable politician, undoubtedly better than Shipley, Brash, Moore or Palmer, but unlucky with the lottery of timing. For all the chook chatter, in the end, the ultimate test of a leader is the “Palin Question” – i.e. could you imagine them doing the top job? In Goff’s case the answer is obviously ‘yes’.
18. randal 18

    23 July 2009 at 1:57 pm

    yes Phil, time to get to work.
    I have heard lianne dalziell kneejerking replies to national party initiatives twice in the last two weeks after doing nothing for nine years but collect her pay.
    time to forge some policies of your own and pre empt the sqwawkers on radio ritalin. the whole country is sick of them but it is up to the once proud New Zealand Labour Party to develop alternatives.
    one of these would be micropulse radio stations to forestall the endless deluge of rubbish constantly being poured down on people from the commercial yakkers and the vested interests of infantilism and opinions that are being touted as facts by the ill informed drunkards and capons that parade their ignorance every night on the airwaves.
19. burt 19

    23 July 2009 at 5:56 pm

    https://www.ipredict.co.nz/Main.php?do=stock_detail&stock=LEAD.GOFF.09
20. mike 20

    23 July 2009 at 8:17 pm

    “The unions are dealing with these cases on a daily basis. Talk to them. Get some stories”

    The unions are creating plenty of these stories at our company – bloody mindness and face saving has cost several jobs so far so they I’m sure they will have some ph. numbers on hand.

    Please don’t get rid of goffy though – he’s the gift that keeps on giving
21. deemac 21

    23 July 2009 at 11:21 pm

    On the contrary, this just shows that you have bought the media version which allows Key to get away with murder (again). There is no bar on owning properties when claiming unemployment benefit. A fifth of Kiwis own a second property for a variety of reasons and that doesn’t mean they are all rich. If you bought a second property (they were pretty cheap a few years back) on a mortgage in the hope that one day it’d be your pension, chances are the rental income now barely covers the repayments and certainly doesn’t earn a fortune after repairs, gaps between tenancies etc.
    If Key thinks owning a second property SHOULD prevent someone claiming benefits, will he change the law? I don’t think so – therefore it’s hypocritical for him to raise it in this case. But funnily enough the media repeat his lines as if they were holy writ – it’s beyond tedious.
    • Swampy 21.1

      23 July 2009 at 11:45 pm

      He is ineligible because of his partner’s income, but if he is in debt he obviously has the means to sell TWO properties, that he DOES NOT live in, to pay the bills. It’s a fact that very few people in his situation would ever get the dole, and Winz doesn’t pay extras for mortgages although you can get some accommodations supplement to help with it.
22. Swampy 22

    23 July 2009 at 11:27 pm

    Just clean out the whole Labour front bench, all the people who lost the last election, maybe they have to lose the next election to make it happen.

    Who has National got who was in the Parliament as long that is a Cabinet minister now, Bill Birch, Bolger, Richardson et al are all long gone. There’s nothing quite like becoming an electoral liability and losing an election. Clark and Cullen have gone but that’s only the start.
23. Swampy 23

    23 July 2009 at 11:28 pm

    Hard? Goff is not that kind of person, it’s becoming clearer by the day isn’t it? He’s too far to the right in the party to have that kind of toughness.
24. graham 24

    25 July 2009 at 12:03 pm

    swampy is right in national lockwood smith is the oldest mp thats why he is speaker.english and others were junior ministers in the 90s (yes he was health but he was a high flyer)labour needs to cull its front bench.Get rid of king, mallard,goff and others like him .But turkeys never vote for a early christmas so labour is doomed to a major election defeat in 2011.Unless something is done now national is looking at a least 9 years.so as a tory you guys at the standed keep cheering for goff,keep calling key a liar and crook keep going on about the RIGHT WING CONSPIACY you are helping national so much one would think this is a right wing front
25. Bobby the blogger from blossertown 25

    26 July 2009 at 7:01 pm

    Goff 2011! :Sure the dude picked the wrong dude to dush up his complaint. Ok, so he made a mistake. I still think he can do it.
    • Anita 25.1

      26 July 2009 at 7:10 pm

      Why do you think he can do it?

      Or, perhaps better phrased, what skills and attributes do you think Goff has that will give a Labour led government the win in 2011?

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1. Ralston on left blogosphere and Goff | Kiwiblog: posted on 26 July 2009 at 9:46 am

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