Time for Labour to end the Jones ego show

Written By: - Date published: 2:42 pm, October 14th, 2012 - 37 comments
Categories: Shane Jones - Tags:

Shane Jones doesn’t have any portfolios – he’s been relieved of them, for a second time. So, what the hell is he doing acting as a spokesperson? First, he takes it upon himself to attack Gareth Hughes for the crime of sharing a Greenpeace parody of a Sealord’s ad on Facebook. Then, he attacks Hughes’ Bill to protect satire as fair use of trademarks, as in the US.

Jones isn’t the fishing spokesperson. He isn’t the employment spokesperson. He isn’t the communications spokesperson. So what the hell is he doing offering opinions like he is?

And why is he being allowed to embark on a private vendetta against a member of Labour’s closest ally?

Jones’ career is at rock bottom and it’s never going up again. He’s been nothing but a liability for four years. He can’t even win an electorate. So, what’s the point in keeping him?

37 comments on “Time for Labour to end the Jones ego show ”

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  1. Kotahi Tāne Huna 1
    14 October 2012 at 3:00 pm

    Hear hear.

  2. Mike Smith 2
    14 October 2012 at 3:13 pm

    Shane is torn between two loyalties. He needs to look in the mirror and see which matters most.

  3. Jim Nald 3
    14 October 2012 at 3:35 pm

    While Shane has been relieved of portfolios … for the second time, this should happily bring some relief to Natz … for too many times to count, the political points and in-house guffaws they can score against Labour and share among themselves respectively.

    Eddie: the only thing I would quarrel with (and this is a minor point for us, but perhaps a major one for Shane) is the bit about him not being the fishing spokesperson. Actually, he could be seen as personally fishing for political support, including donations, for his own future campaign.

    Like John Tamihere, Shane is another one of those politicians who have been consigned to the past. And they should remain there for the public good and their Party’s future.

  4. bbfloyd 4
    14 October 2012 at 3:58 pm

    I suspect Jones would agree that it is time to go…. He is too clever not to know that he is putting himself at odds with the greater party….

    He’s either deluded himself into believing he can successfully bluff the leadership into a clumsy move, showing himself to be an effective operator…. and raise his stocks for future leadership ambitions,… or he just wants out, and has noted Tamihere’s successful exploitation of his “outcast” status….

    A simplistic assessment, I realise, but the speculative pathways open to this line of thought are byzantine to say the least….

    So…1; He’s delusional, and developing Napoleonic tendencies……

    2; He’s looking at exploiting getting the sack from the Labour party…..
    Raises a few unpleasant possibilities either way…

    • Jim Nald 4.1
      14 October 2012 at 4:08 pm

      Sealord should give Shane a job to rescue him from political oblivion.

      That would be a political win-win-win:

      * Natz can claim they have improved the jobs stats by one,

      * Labour can demonstrate they are refreshing and rejuvenating their line-up, and

      * Greens can look forward to working with a Labour Party that is returning to its progressive roots.

      • bbfloyd 4.1.1
        15 October 2012 at 10:48 am

        Sealord should give Shane a job”… They already have, by the sound of his mutterings….

        The job stats should even out once the shit hits the fan(as it should) for the sparkly one, and he escapes back to hawaii….

        The last two I can get with….especially the labour party returning to it’s progressive roots….

  5. Jenny 5
    14 October 2012 at 4:19 pm

    Shane Jones is living in the past. He should accept the reality of his position and and move on. My advice to him: Try to do something positive with your life Shane. You have many obvious talents, use them to be a political bridge builder and advisor, the role of attack dog is no longer yours.

  6. gobsmacked 6
    14 October 2012 at 5:13 pm

    So, what’s the point in keeping him?

    A question that the new leader should have asked on day one. That was December 2011.

    You would think that a new leader, untroubled by any previous baggage, would simply go down the caucus list and ask one basic question: “Who will do a good job in my government, after the next election?”

    Of course, what he really did was ask “Who doesn’t like David Cunliffe, and therefore is a vote for me in caucus, regardless of the greater needs of the party and country?

    “Shane Jones” was only the answer to the second question, not the first. So we’re stuck with him, shitting in the nest, until he decides to leave on his own terms. Or until Labour has a leader.

  7. QoT 7
    14 October 2012 at 5:22 pm

    I remember so many times when the question of the Labour leadership has come up and people have mentioned Jones as a contender, if not an actual favourite. I have never, ever understood why, (especially after the porn) and cannot fathom why he isn’t being sat down and told to shut the fuck up.

    Or if he is being sat down and told to shut the fuck up, why he’s being allowed to continue doing this with impunity (because really, just having Clare Curran on Twitter saying “no this isn’t Labour policy” is hardly a condemnation of his idiocy).

    • felix 7.1
      14 October 2012 at 5:57 pm

      I never saw it in him either, Q.

      He talks like he’s trying to impress idiots and he always looks like a bag of shit. I can’t think of a single useful thing he’s done or said in politics, ever.

  8. tc 8
    14 October 2012 at 5:55 pm

    Jones has always been a liability, Shearer needs to pull the guns out from the inside and deal with him, one way or another.

    To do nothing is a risky play given SJ is a loose and arrogant cannon. Personally I’d chuck him down the list, get a credible candidate for tamaki and that should see him sling his hook back to his fishing industry mates, of which they are fewer than he would have others believe.

  9. aspasia 9
    14 October 2012 at 6:02 pm

    It has always been an unfathomable mystery QOT, compounded by Jones’ abundantly evident and delusional sense of entitlement. When the Party appeals to increase contributions arrive in my inbox, Shane Jones is one of the reasons why I take no action. (However any real prospect of John Tamihere on the Party list will prompt me to action—but not in a good way!)

    • karol 9.1
      14 October 2012 at 6:05 pm

      Jones seems to me to be lost in the wilderness.  But if it was an either/or choice, I’d prefer Jones stayed with Labour, than they welcome Tamihere back into the fold. 

      • Jim Nald 9.1.1
        14 October 2012 at 6:16 pm

        Thanks for that, karol.

        That might be quite true. It may not have been easy for him in recent years and an ongoing issue probably adds to things for him. With the party on the opposition benches, that does not help for morale.

        Perhaps, the leadership (hello? hello?) might, if and when the time arises, wish to trial Shane with responsibilities that directly involve him in building bridges with other potential coalition partners, eg the Green Party. That would be an opportunity for him to rehabilitate his image and rise to the role.

        (In a small voice – I am hoping ………)

  10. Aotearoean 10
    14 October 2012 at 6:58 pm

    Time for Jones to go. I hope he returns to his fishing.

    Mike Smith is right. Unfortunately Shane’s loyalty is to Sealord not to the Labour Party.

  11. Te Reo Putake 11
    14 October 2012 at 7:22 pm

    Jones should take the Simon Power option; walk away to a nice little earner gladhanding investors and business partners for Sealord. Politics is over for him. His future is golf with other rich wankers.

  12. illuminatedtiger 12
    14 October 2012 at 9:13 pm

    Let him go. He’s a prick.

  13. King Kong 13
    15 October 2012 at 9:03 am

    Looks like the night of the long knives for Maori in the Labour party at the moment.

    Mahuta likely booted for reproducing, Tamihere not even allowed to join and Jones chased out by pitch fork weilding, Cunliffe goons.

    • felix 13.1
      15 October 2012 at 9:14 am

      Yeah, Mahuta is having a baby maori.

      Tamihere is a horrible bigot who should be joining National maori.

      And Jones is not wanted because he’s an embarrassing idiot maori.

      I guess when all you’ve got is a racist hammer, everything looks like a maori nail.

      • King Kong 13.1.1
        15 October 2012 at 9:24 am

        So Felix, it is just the Maoris in, or associated with the Labour party that are incompetent and have personality flaws, not “all” Maori.

  14. tracey 14
    15 October 2012 at 9:10 am

    Perhaps jones and tamihere should consider joining mana. Although i suspect john t needs to be the top of the tree where ever he goes

    • felix 14.1
      15 October 2012 at 9:16 am

      John should join NZ First.

    • Murray Olsen 14.2
      15 October 2012 at 2:12 pm

      I doubt if Mana would have either of them. In the north where Mana is strongest, Shane is spelt Shame. Jones might be more at home with Pita Sharples, while Tamihere seems more fitted to NZ First.

  15. tracey 15
    15 October 2012 at 9:11 am

    Kk, at least we can scrutinise labour, its all tightly controlled behind closed doors at national which is when the leaks start… Like hollowmen.

  16. LBC 16
    15 October 2012 at 11:39 am

    When the viscerating of Jones subsides some might just realise he was speaking up for Maori industry, Maori workers and for Maori generally…or is Labour a “broad church” with a very narrow view?

    What’s with all this sycophantic sucking-up to the Greens? I’ve yet to see them put forward a policy to create a single job — other than dope growing. Why too are they allowed go unchallenged for their constant attacks and lip service to Maori?

    Clare Currin isn’t the spokesperson for Transport but she’s got plenty to say about job losses at the Railyard in Dunedin. She’s being too bloody precious, no wonder the Press Gallery journos reduce her to tears so often.

    • felix 16.1
      15 October 2012 at 12:07 pm

      So maori industry is beyond criticism now?

      • LBC 16.1.1
        15 October 2012 at 12:39 pm

        no more so than being allowed to defend it….or is bashing anything to do with Maori now the accepted norm?

    • Kotahi Tāne Huna 16.2
      15 October 2012 at 12:50 pm

      “I’ve yet to see them put forward a policy to create a single job…”

      *cough*bullshit*cough* – what you meant was you haven’t looked – and now you just look ignorant and silly, since Green jobs policy was two clicks and a google search away – not quite as easy to access as confidential information protected by the government National Party’s free market invisible privacy fairy, but close.

      • LBC 16.2.1
        15 October 2012 at 1:08 pm

        Don’t choke too hard on your bullshit…thanks for the link, their “jobs policy” is as useful as Paula Bennett’s white paper on child abuse.

  17. Stan 17
    16 October 2012 at 12:45 pm

    Is this story about Shearer or Jones ?

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