Roy enounters changeable Mr Hyde

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 pm, August 24th, 2010 - 24 comments
Categories: act, Politics - Tags:

According to TVNZ, Rodney Hide was questioning today whether his dumped deputy Heather Roy would be able to cope staying on as an MP – signaling she’ll find it extremely difficult. That’s a contrast with last week when the line was that she’d be welcomed back into the caucus, despite any tension.

It also seems like Mr Hide is doing some planning ahead, talking to Roy’s potential replacement – Dunedin businesswoman Hilary Calvert. She has traveled to Wellington and will meet with party bosses. she told TVNZ:

Calvert: “I have spoken with the Act Party to the extent of them having an understanding that if there was an opportunity there I would step up,”

Can I suggest Ms Calvert reads the post over on Pundit, where a former ACT staffer offers some additional insight into the state of the ACT caucus. David Young says:

When I worked for the ACT parliamentary caucus as a press secretary from 2001-2003, the party had nine MPs. At any one time, a majority of them genuinely and quite fervently believed that they should be leader. …But it didn’t stop behind-the-scenes battles. At one point, a newspaper ran speculation about ACT’s pending list ranking. It was obvious from the number of unattributed quotes that most of the MPs or their supporters had made off-the-record comments backstabbing the others…
But even by ACT standards, Hide was not a team player. He seemed to waste little of his considerable charm on his caucus colleagues. He was an excellent attack politician who knew how to create and maintain pressure quite mercilessly on his targets – yet he could be thin-skinned himself. I found that he could be both forceful and demanding, but also generous and thoughtful….While he underwent an astounding physical makeover, I’m not sure he ever really transformed into becoming a team player. The question now is what price he’ll end up paying for not creating a more cohesive working environment.

Guess the answer to that question is yes!

24 comments on “Roy enounters changeable Mr Hyde ”

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  1. Draco T Bastard 1
    24 August 2010 at 8:32 pm

    But even by ACT standards, Hide was not a team player.

    Act, by definition aren’t team players. They’re the psychopathic type individuals who deny that they’re part of a community. It seems that they’ve now got round to denying the existence of their party as well.

  2. Clint Heine 2
    24 August 2010 at 9:09 pm

    Really Draco?

    Would you want a Heather type MP working on your behalf after what has been said and done? Labour didn’t. National didn’t. What makes ACT so special that they should buck the trend?

    • Tigger 2.1
      24 August 2010 at 9:31 pm

      Let’s talk specifics, shall we? Which MPs from National and Labour do you mean?

      And do you think Hide has handled this well? Adequately? Appallingly?

    • mickysavage 2.2
      24 August 2010 at 9:34 pm

      Would you want a Heather type MP working on your behalf after what has been said and done?

      If it was instead of Hide or Garrett or Boscawen or Douglas? Then unreservedly yes!

      • RobertM 2.2.1
        25 August 2010 at 9:27 pm

        But on whose behalf, I think she got 200 votes in the electorate seat of Ohariu or Wellington Central in 2005, not the 86,000 she claims voted for her on the Act list. The behalf she represents seems to be a odd retired lieutenant colonel and various unionised health workers and specialists. Plus various of her and her husbands old mates. Interestingly this must be the first attempted coup by an army private outside West Africa. I think Idi Amin was a sergant. Of course there was that ambitious corporal who started to speak in Munich beer hauls in l920 with the active support of a few forcibly retired lieutentant colonels.

    • Armchair Critic 2.3
      24 August 2010 at 10:02 pm

      Would you want a Heather type MP working on your behalf…
      She does work on my behalf, previously as a minister, now as an MP. The government governs for everyone, not just the people that voted for them. Well, in theory, but let’s not go there. Or are you confirming ACT MPs do not work on my behalf because I’m one of the 95%+ people that did not vote ACT?
      Shit sticks, some to Mrs Roy, and a lot to Mr Hide. Pretend all you want that he doesn’t reek of it.
      And you forgot to mention that Phil Goff will be rolled in the next few days. LOL – you need to use the satire tag on your blog more often.

    • Draco T Bastard 2.4
      24 August 2010 at 10:51 pm

      I’d prefer Roy to the rest of the Act caucus but I’d not vote for her either.

  3. Clint Heine 3
    24 August 2010 at 9:35 pm

    Chris Carter and Richard Worth – to start.

    Although much has been said about Labours treatment of Judith Tizard and the steps to keep her out. But in all honesty, every party have people that should be kept well away from Parliament.

    In hindsight every party could have handled their problem MPs better. But as we already know, much of the allegations about Rodney were in fact invented by Simon.

    • Pascal's bookie 3.1
      24 August 2010 at 9:52 pm

      Do you wanna fill the rest of the country in on why Worth is no longer an MP? Key wouldn’t tell us.

      The only thing we’ve found out for certain this week is that ACT is deeply dysfunctional. All the good little soldiers are falling in behind Hide but that’s the problem, innit? Roy and Douglas are right about the future of ACT, but Hide’s ego is in the way.

      Death knell. Good job. ACT go bye bye now as anything other than a tactical stalking horse for the National party to bounce things off. If they get too pushy or politically unhelpful for National; National pulls the trigger. Who loaded the Gun? Rodney.

    • Pascal's bookie 3.2
      24 August 2010 at 10:01 pm

      And have a good hard dispassionate read of Tashkoff’s statement. While doing so, ask yourself how your own statements fit with his description of how ACT operates. To outsiders, his thesis looks a lot more like what is happening than the ever changing lines coming from the Hide camp.

      The funny thing about the big successful crusade Rodney ran against Winston, is how very similar the men are. Slightly paranoid control freaks, very personable and charismatic, awesome with their teeth into a jihad in opposition, but fundamentally; hollow. Winston however, knows this about himself to the extent that he can function in government. He knows where the acting stops. Rodney may too, but he leads an ideological party where that shit shouldn’t fly. And yet, here you are.

      • Clint Heine 3.2.1
        25 August 2010 at 12:45 am

        I guess it is true that you can’t choose the types of people who would join the same party as you do. That’s annoying, especially in the case of Peter Tashkoff. He wasn’t even an elected board member – he was co-opted in for his apparent “IT” use and when he didn’t get anywhere from it he threw his toys from the pram.

        I think you can do better than to believe a fulla like him, who seems only concerned on promoting his own agenda – proven by his statement that he is going to stand against Rodney. But hey that’s his choice. A sad way for Peter to end his political ambitions 🙂

        Armchair critic, I meant that would you want an MP like Heather, who cannot control her own advisors, to represent you. And I stand firm by the fact that this ACT problem will be nothing compared to the upcoming Labour leadership coup.

        But hey, I just wanted to say what I felt about it. I didn’t expect you to believe me – afterall what on earth would I know? 🙂

        • loota 3.2.1.1
          25 August 2010 at 12:52 am

          And I stand firm by the fact that this ACT problem will be nothing compared to the upcoming Labour leadership coup.

          – The Carter incident has lowered the chances for such a coup. No one wants to reopen a barely stitched together wound.

          – Gillard has shown that a new leader installed by coup is not necessarily going to turn polls around.

  4. gobsmacked 4
    24 August 2010 at 9:43 pm

    Roy needs to get alongside Douglas, and tell Hide that if she goes, he goes, and then Peter Tashkoff becomes an MP (he’s next on the list). That’s the guy who who says (today, on Kiwiblog) that he is determined to get rid of Hide.

    And One News reporters need to start doing their homework, on ACT. It’s not just about one “rogue” MP, or one “rogue” adviser. That’s Hide’s spin. You’d have to be really dumb to fall for it … like a TV reporter.

    • gobsmacked 4.1
      24 August 2010 at 10:49 pm

      OK, I’ll withdraw that last part. They’re onto it now.

      The challenge to Hide in Epsom was the lead story on the late news.

    • Pascal's bookie 5.1
      24 August 2010 at 10:28 pm

      I think a party like the Nationals might be looking for someone slightly more stable to fulfill their coalition partnering needs.

      It’s not you, it’s me, etc. I’d really like us to stay friends. Tweet me.

      So what’s the spin gonna be?

      Yeah so, obviously, our Number 7, like our founding guru, and our deputy leader, and her staff; is an absolute nut. A treacherous ne’er do well, a bounder and a poltroon. God knows how they managed to get themselves so high up in the organisation, but wheew. They suck. Good to know. Vote ACT! Now eleventy percent more small, but with added pure! ‘cept the purists left, which just leaves the add-ons like the guy with the jail fetish, and the guy with the money that funded the anti-EFA business. But anyway. Go team!.

      P.S. This is bad news for Goff.

  6. Ron 6
    25 August 2010 at 6:38 am

    I don\’t know why we\’re wasting time on these nutters. Let them eat themselves.

  7. Sanctuary 7
    25 August 2010 at 11:16 am

    Clint Heine forced into lowering himself into the cess pit of the Standard in a frantic last ditch defense of the doomed ACT Party. Oh, the humiliation. Oh, what a wonderful world we live in.

    • mcflock 7.1
      25 August 2010 at 2:26 pm

      “Doomed”?

      But Clint’s explained on his blog about how an apparent 3-mile island was actually the political master stroke that will give ACT 50% party vote in the next election.

      captcha: “dollar”.

      • lprent 7.1.1
        25 August 2010 at 3:30 pm

        Yeah and I really believed that bullshit… (not).

        What was really hilarious was the post with several updates during the day with changing positions on Heather Roy. It was real pretzel material.

  8. tc 8
    25 August 2010 at 11:23 am

    Interesting times indeed as yet again the MSM shows it’s got F’all ability where it could help them tell a decent story and actually inform people and maybe even hold Hide accoutable for his statements…..crazy talk eh.

    Hide, Garrett and Boscawen are classless knuckle dragging luddites, at least Roy/Douglas have some class and an inteligence you can respect regardless of agreeing with them or not.

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