Three dirty hits – three epic fails
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- Date published:
7:01 am, September 7th, 2017 - 21 comments
Categories: election 2017, national, useless -
Tags: #ChangeTheGovt, dirty politics, epic fail, third termitis
National’s campaign is a train wreck. Its defining feature so far has been three attempted dirty hits, each one of them an epic fail.
Hit 1: The bungled superannuation attack on Winston Peters. It was supposed to knock out NZF so the Nats could assimilate their vote. But it failed. They came at the kingmaker and missed. NZF is still there and Winston is pissed.
Winston Peters warned he was being ‘taken down’ by National
Peters maintains National to blame for leak
Winston Peters accuses National of ‘filth and dirt’
When missiles fall under the control of rogue politicians, surprise wars break out – cartoon by @rodemmerson on suspicions Bennett leaked: pic.twitter.com/7alCMPaoPJ
— Bryce Edwards (@bryce_edwards) August 29, 2017
Hit 2: The unnecessary attack on human rights. Paula Bennett spoke National’s truth that must not be spoken, that they regard some people as having fewer human rights than others (English stood by as she said it and did nothing). The reaction was so immediate and so strong that the Nats were forced into humilating damage control.
Lawyers condemn Paula Bennett’s ‘fewer human rights’ comments
Paula Bennett apologises for ‘fewer human rights’ comment
Paula Bennett apologises for blunder which forced PM to offer a correction on live Breakfast TV
Paula Bennett's Animal Farm – in today's @nzherald #vote17 #nzpol pic.twitter.com/rdFqS3Ie39
— Rod Emmerson (@rodemmerson) September 5, 2017
Hit 3: Steven Joyce’s deliberate lie about Labour’s fiscal plan (now repeated by Bill English, Paula Bennett, and others). He’s been torn apart by economists all over the media all week. National’s economic credibility is in tatters.
National’s fiscal claims ‘pure fiction’ – economists
Joyce looks a proper fool, but it won’t stop National throwing everything it can at Ardern
‘It’s a hole he dug himself’ – Jacinda Ardern takes big swipe at Steven Joyce over fictional $11b budget blowout claim
The real location of the fiscal hole is discovered – cartoon on Steven Joyce's fiscal allegations by Chicane in today's Southland Times: pic.twitter.com/ceSgn8ZBAS
— Bryce Edwards (@bryce_edwards) September 5, 2017
This is what an amoral party in a desperate third-term death spiral looks like.
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Desperate people do desperate things.
Do not underestimate what they will try and do.
yep and they do it dirt cheap too
Trouble is, they’re missing the devious master of dirty politics and its management. Murray McCully
The Bene bashing drug policy announced yesterday was as good an indication you’re going to get that National has felt the need to move on from the fiscal hole story. Either there’s nothing more to be gained from it or, more probably, it was starting to damage them.
More hot button policy. Proven a failure in the UK in 2012…
http://metro.co.uk/2012/02/29/government-scraps-benefit-sanctions-from-work-experience-schemes-335905/
These half-baked schemes are invariably a failure tracey.
What’s more interesting I think though is what it tells us about National’s campaign strategy. They seem to have moved to a very defensive posture, trying to shore up their base and obviously they feel the need to go after every last vote they can get back off NZFirst.
Doing that though risks vacating the centre ground to Labour. I liked the way Ardern went on the offensive in the Waikato yesterday saying that Labour had a good chance of winning seats there. It may not happen but it’s good to see a Labour leader making a pitch for seats the party hasn’t won in a long time.
Also, straight from Crosby Textor 101
It is unbelievably stupid to try to fix a problem by knee jerk reactionary populist responses which actually result in more problems, but that is National’s modus operandi time and again with social issues.
The only sensible way to alleviate the problem is to address the cause. The probable main cause is poverty.
And poverty is result of capitalism.
When all else fails, fall back to that hoary old stand-by, bashing a bene. It’s nice to see that National are sticklers for tradition.
+111
Now, if the general populace would just wake up to the fact that it’s the beneficiaries that are the problem and thus stop falling for that tactic.
It has only taken Tim Murphy 3 days to work out what Joyce was doing. But he missed that Joyce has done it before (hat tip Vernon Small). He takes an unnecessary swipe at Gower and all in all is obviously a guy who has decided he is destined for greater things.
😲
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/06/46421/three-terms-and-a-hail-mary
Guyon Espiner on Morning Report a couple of minutes ago asked Joyce if he could name ONE person who agreed with his $11.7 billion hole in Labour’s accounts and he could not name anyone.
Grant Robertson asked if English agreed with Joyce and he would not say this.
Joyce is a liar and not fit for office.
when is the next poll out, will be interesting to see the results
Poll out tonight (on tv1 I think)
Colmar brunton. Tonight. TVNZ
In the OP Hit 2, Robins says; “English stood by as she said it and did nothing”. What he actually did was worse than nothing:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96442150/national-party-announces-82-million-crackdown-on-methamphetamine-use-supply
Exactly, and most of our problems have not been dealt with effectively. For example, 50,000 drug addicted kiwis want help but we do NOT have the services/structure to provide it.
+100 Rob.
Await proxy-party campaign ads next week.
Chris Trotter is bang-on with his assessment of where National plans to strike over the next couple of weeks:
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2017/09/trust-taxes-how-national-intends-to.html
The Federated farmers, through yesterday’s press release, are doing their bit to frighten all and sundry about Labour’s “hidden agenda for tax”.
Are you ready, Labour, to counter this headless-chookery? Have you something prepared of your own to cause National to have to defend its munitions dump?
Hi Rob ,,, dead right ….. here’s some short generalities of the top of my head. Not quite soundbites but themes.
Not being able to give an exact dollar amount or detailed specifics of policy should be framed in term of National party failures …… …. and their lack of research leading to poor outcomes
.
Questions like…. “ why will you not say about capital gains, tax rates, etc .
Answer: , “I’m not going to make something up on the spot” ..or ….
“lack of proper research leads to poor solutions ,. thats what the national party do”, and they end saying stupid things like Paula Bennett and her imaginary “flying squads”, when she was asked about the homeless crisis National have created.
We intend looking at Justice and fairness over tax, ….. And work with the world for this aim …… instead of being part of the problem …. we will become part of the solution… while also getting more revenue…… When corporations start to pay their fair share.
Instead of being part of the world wide problem of corporate tax avoidance through tax havens and tricky financial vehicles …… we intend becoming part of the solution…. this also means more revenue for NZ
We intend properly investigating the Panama papers and cleaning up New Zealands role in the South Pacific tax avoidance network.
We do not know the full scale of problems national has left us …. as often they run 80% non compliance in activitys they should be monitoring ie . the Ancient Kauri log plundering and export that went on.
Law and Order …. National are good at stunts that do nothing i.e.the car crushing rubbish law.
Revenue …….We are not going to waste money like Bill English and his failed south-land lignite mine
Youth unemployment ,,,,,,,,,,,We intend Apprenticeships and job training instead of Nationals failed boot camps and warehouse jobs for our young
Apprenticeships for the young could become part of solving the housing crisis National have created ….
Housing …..We’ll be looking for proper solutions and not wasting millions making motel owners rich
We’ll be doing proper research for proper solutions …..and not wasting millions like Bill English helped throw away on Sky City, flag referendums or his Lignite mine etc.