Scots git on Q+A

Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, March 27th, 2017 - 12 comments
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I went to Q+A yesterday in search of political comment and was astonished to see John McTernan aka “Malcolm Tucker without the charm” given ten minutes to burble. McTernan promotes himself as a former political adviser to Blair and Gillard, but his last real job was chief of staff to Jim Murphy who led the Scottish Labour Party to oblivion in 2015.

McTernan dropped Andrew Little’s name several times. I hope that means nothing more than McTernan is just here touting for business. His track record is very mixed. The Glasgow Herald in an article titled “Scottish Labour: Inside the campaign from hell” shows:

McTernan was also unpopular among some colleagues at Holyrood and acquired a reputation for making bold statements that were rarely borne out by reality.

Julia Gillard recruited McTernan in 2011 to improve her image. That proved to be another disaster, as she was eventually deposed by Kevin Rudd before the 2014 election. A common criticism of McTernan besides his foul-mouthed abuse was that the spin-doctor became the story. That’s never good.

McTernan is firmly in the Clinton/Blair “Progress” camp and is the British Labour equivalent of Clinton’s hitman David Brock. He thinks anyone who supports Jeremy Corbyn or Bernie Sanders is “delusional” and has mounted a sustained and vitriolic attack against Corbyn from his position as a columnist for the Daily Torygraph.

As a political commentator he is more self-promoter than effective adviser. He also doesn’t understand political organisation in my view. I heard him at a session in Brighton in 2014 after Corbyn’s first speech to the Labour Party conference say that Corbyn had said nothing at all about winning an election. In fact a centrepiece of Corbyn’s speech was to call for an enrolment campaign, the first thing you would do to prepare for an election five years away particularly when the Tory Party are planning a gerrymander plus rule changes to make enrolment harder.

Q+A must be hard up. Little would be wise not to touch him.

 

12 comments on “Scots git on Q+A ”

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  1. Bill 1
    27 March 2017 at 2:43 pm

    Good gawd. I want that 10min 42secs of my life back!

    It never fails to astonish me that organisations actually pay people like that for the apparent service of nothing more than opening their mouths to let their bellies rumble.

    That Corin Dann sat there with a serious face on, exuding an air of intelligence, says a lot about how far down we’ve come in terms of political conversation.

    That Andrew Little’s met and (presumably) conversed with him in some half way serious fashion is just plain scary. (How can a person who associates with labour decry left wing politics and politicians? And if they do, why are they given so much as the time of day by power brokers, gate keepers or holders of power within labour circles?)

    Git, btw, is far too kind a label Mike.

    • Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster 1.1
      27 March 2017 at 3:41 pm

      My reaction too, Bill. In fact, he managed to piss me off in a very short time, bad mouthing Corbyn. His advice is not the way forward for the NZ Labour party!!

  2. red-blooded 2
    27 March 2017 at 4:18 pm

    I have to admit I was bemused by the choice to give this guy such deference. He certainly didn’t do Gilliard any favours.

  3. Wensleydale 3
    27 March 2017 at 5:09 pm

    Oh, come on, people. Actually being good at your job is in no way a prerequisite to gainful employment, especially in politics. Which is why we still have Nick Smith.

    • Jordan 3.1
      27 March 2017 at 7:45 pm

      And the Greens

      • adam 3.1.1
        27 March 2017 at 11:32 pm

        More over act

      • Morrissey 3.1.2
        28 March 2017 at 11:17 am

        Idiot.

        [lprent: If you don’t want a moderator wondering “why?” and thinking about policies on pointless abuse – it pays to explain why. ]

        • Morrissey 3.1.2.1
          28 March 2017 at 3:50 pm

          Sorry! I should have explained the blatantly obvious: this ignorant right wing fellow “Jordan” is trolling, and should not be indulged in any way. Even the hurling of my hasty and barely considered epithet at the likes of “Jordan” is a waste of effort.

          I see that most of my fellow Standardisti have been much wiser than me, and have simply ignored the fool.

  4. rhinocrates 4
    27 March 2017 at 5:25 pm

    Advisors of that sort remind me of an old surgeon’s joke: “The operation was a success, but the patient died.”

  5. Draco T Bastard 5
    27 March 2017 at 5:51 pm

    Guy sounds like a RWNJ plant sent in to destroy Labour around the world.

  6. Philj 6
    27 March 2017 at 8:01 pm

    Just how does TVNZ find these people? How does RNZ find these sorts to opinionate on The Panel every week day. Save me.. switching off.

    • Morrissey 6.1
      28 March 2017 at 11:27 am

      One reason for the pitiless parade of mediocrity: the Chairman of Radio New Zealand is one Richard Griffin.

      Three more reasons: Jesse Mulligan, Jim Mora, John Campbell.