Posts Tagged ‘peter shirtcliffe’

Polity: Three ramshackle PR fiascos and you’re out

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, March 4th, 2014 - 33 comments

Rob Salmond at Polity points to the right wing publicists who pose as independents, set up publicity shells for nutters, and who seem to make outright lying their hallmark. Perhaps it is time that journalists start describing them as they are rather than quoting them as they prefer. They should be “blogger and National’s pollster” or “part-time lawyer and ACT supporter.”

Vote for Change stumbles at the startline

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, July 5th, 2011 - 10 comments

Peter Shirtcliffe’s Vote for Change is reeling. On Sunday, they had to boot out Alex Fogerty after the Young Nat’s neo-Nazi affiliations were made public. Yesterday, they lost their token Leftie, Bob Harvey, when he realised that being used by a collection of capitalist elitists and white supremacists wasn’t the legacy he wanted.

Vote for Change’s heart of darkness

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, July 4th, 2011 - 52 comments

Peter Shirtcliffe’s Anti-MMP Vote For Change group has just 16 members and one of them has turned out to be a neo-Nazi. Is it a case of being so short of mates they’ll accept anyone who turns up, or does this give us a truer picture of who really wants to get rid of MMP? The latter, I think.

(Another) Tory astroturf fail

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 pm, June 28th, 2011 - 42 comments

The latest anti-MMP outfit is already unraveling with Pundit’s Rob Salmond uncovering the fact it’s basically the Peter Shirtcliffe club.

It’s a surprisingly clumsy effort. Especially given David Farrar provided strategic advice.

I guess he’s not learned any lessons from his previous PR fiascos…

Shirtcliffe’s anti-MMP campaign launches

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, June 28th, 2011 - 112 comments

Peter Shirtcliffe’s latest attempt to destroy MMP has finally launched. The man who spent a million dollars in 1993 is a shadow of his former self. Now, he and his cronies are so despised he can’t front the organisation himself, he’s got some kid doing it. And FPP/SM is so despised they won’t actually campaign for it overtly.

Key and Shirtcliffe conspire against MMP

Written By: - Date published: 1:57 pm, September 26th, 2010 - 62 comments

Leaked notes from a meeting between Peter Shirtcliffe and Wayne Eagleson have revealed backroom dealings to kill off MMP.

We shouldn’t be surprised that the party of big business and the big-business-backed anti-MMP lobby would be colluding.

After all, it’s in all of their interests to take power from the voters and put it back in the hands of the elite.

Shirtcliffe can’t tell his electoral systems apart

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, May 14th, 2010 - 13 comments

No Right Turn on the ignorance of the main campaigner wanting a change to our electoral system. You’d think that if you’re campaigning for something that you’d at least know what you are campaigning for. But apparently not.

Poll good news for MMP

Written By: - Date published: 4:39 pm, February 25th, 2010 - 4 comments

No Right Turn covers the latest UMR poll on MMP, which shows a good but by no means unassailable lead for MMP over less representative systems.

With the forces of reaction once again emerging to undermine our democracy we all need to get in behind the Campaign for MMP.

‘Atlases’ don’t deserve a tax cut

Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, February 24th, 2010 - 67 comments

This man is Paul Reynolds, CEO of Telecom. He has overseen the largest corporate disaster in recent New Zealand history. The Nats are planning to give him over $6,600 a week in tax cuts. Apparently this screw up on a $7 million salary is the kind of guy New Zealand needs.

MMP campaign heats up

Written By: - Date published: 12:39 pm, February 17th, 2010 - 30 comments

The business elite wants to drag us back to the days of unfair elections and weak democracy, when business interests held even more sway than now. We don’t want to return to those days. We want to keep the best electoral system in the world – MMP.

Poll shows Kiwis prefer MMP

Written By: - Date published: 12:54 pm, November 12th, 2009 - 25 comments

NZPA reports on a new poll from UMR which shows Kiwis don’t want to dump MMP for a less proportional electoral system. The survey used the proposed wording of the referendum and found 48 percent in favour of keeping MMP and only 40 percent in favour of changing the system. Interestingly, when people were told […]

MMP strengthening our democracy

Written By: - Date published: 2:39 pm, October 27th, 2009 - 25 comments

As the assorted rich, white old men behind Peter Shirtcliffe start their campaign to dump MMP, it’s worth remembering that the diversity we see in Parliament today hasn’t always been the case. The graph above, which comes via No Right Turn, was released today in the Social Report 2009. It shows a major increase in […]

Why Supplementary Member sucks

Written By: - Date published: 7:08 pm, September 9th, 2009 - 64 comments

National and the business elite led by former Telecom chairman Peter Shirtcliffe (who led the pro-FPP campaign back in the 1990s) want to replace MMP with a voting system called Supplementary Member. SM is kind of a halfway house between FPP and MMP. Rather than the total number of seats a party has in Parliament […]

Getting the facts straight

Written By: - Date published: 11:57 am, May 19th, 2008 - 27 comments

When asked on Morning Report (MP3 link) today why National was bringing up the issue of MMP now, Key remarked: “[the public] were promised a referendum on MMP”. He’s wrong. Nigel Robert, Professor of Political Science at Victoria University points out: “A referendum wasn’t promised previously. The role of Parliament after MMP was introduced was […]

Winner takes all (of us to the cleaners?)

Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, May 18th, 2008 - 120 comments

The Sunday Star Times reports National is keen to have a referendum on MMP. As you would expect Peter Shirtcliffe has been involved in lobbying the Nats for this policy. It’s just as AYB predicted. I’m sure the advertising agencies will be rubbing their hands together in glee. I would imagine we’ll hear a lot […]

An emerging threat to MMP?

Written By: - Date published: 5:36 pm, January 24th, 2008 - 100 comments

After Brash and the extreme right were exposed in The Hollow Men the Nats changed their leader hoping for a fresh start. What’s becoming apparent is that National’s shady backers haven’t changed. The policy and the cash are coming from the same people they always have – people like Peter Shirtcliffe who’s evidently now helping […]