Why is National standing Todd Barclay?

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, March 28th, 2017 - 58 comments
Categories: national - Tags: ,

Todd Barclay has made a real mess of Clutha-Southland. Even certified right-wingers can’t stand the latest development – Rodney Hide: Not a good look for Barclay

The only requirement of backbench MPs is to be tidy. Barclay failed in that one crucial task.

But that’s not all. A year ago Barclay promised his full co-operation with police: “If they do contact me on any matter, then I will co-operate fully,” he said.

Later in the year he explained: “I have not spoken to the police about any alleged complaint.”

It sounded like he was more than happy to talk to the police but they closed the file without the need even to talk to him. That wasn’t so. It emerged this week police were eager to interview Barclay but he refused. He didn’t even front up to refuse – he had his lawyer do it for him.

It’s quite okay for private citizens to refuse a police interview. In my opinion it’s not okay for MPs. And it’s especially not so when the MP is telling voters he is more than happy to be interviewed.

The suspicion that cannot be avoided in my mind is that his answering questions would be bad for him.

Noting to hide nothing to fear? Yet the Nats are perfectly happy for this fine specimen to represent them.

58 comments on “Why is National standing Todd Barclay? ”

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  1. Antoine 1
    28 March 2017 at 12:16 pm

    Why o why

  2. One Anonymous Bloke 2
    28 March 2017 at 12:26 pm

    How can the National Party get rid of Barclay? He is the perfect embodiment of everything they represent, and clearly has been mentored by senior party figures.

    • tc 2.1
      28 March 2017 at 2:13 pm

      +1 and will bolt in as national voters have proven time and again that whoever is wearing that blue ribbon gets the tick.

      Regardless of how toxic they are mr sabin.

    • mary_a 2.2
      28 March 2017 at 2:50 pm

      @ OAB (2) …Todd Barclay … in the mold of one John Philip Key, with an attitude to match. Nats probably see him as PM material in the future.

    • Psycho Milt 3.1
      28 March 2017 at 12:57 pm

      An opportunity to compete? Hardly. A National candidate for Clutha-Southland could be caught balls-deep in a sheep and still get the job. There is no “opportunity” to be had here.

      • Antoine 3.1.1
        28 March 2017 at 12:59 pm

        That would be a positive asset in campaigning, I would think

      • Matthew Whitehead 3.1.2
        28 March 2017 at 4:00 pm

        That’s precisely the wrong way to view this, though.

        Labour should still want to eat National’s lunch even if they can’t grab the electorate. They should grab as many Party Votes as they can by painting Todd Barclay as a crook, which to be fair, he probably is. (not because he refuses to co-operate, that’s his right, but because it’s such a Born To Rule thing to do to spy on your employees that I absolutely believe he probably did it)

        • red-blooded 3.1.2.1
          28 March 2017 at 4:36 pm

          Who do you expect Labour or the Greens to be able to magic up to compete for this seat? The fact is that there aren’t many members for either party in Clutha-Southland, and candidates know they’re going to get a pretty hard time. Locals certainly wouldn’t vote for someone parachuted in from outside the electorate. I say we should give the people who are prepared to front up for either party a bit of respect.

          • Matthew Whitehead 3.1.2.1.1
            28 March 2017 at 8:04 pm

            How exactly does that relate to the fact that I’m saying this is an opportunity to grab more Party Votes?

            I’m saying don’t give up on their areas just because it’ll be difficult to win the electorate. I’m not saying the electorate candidates aren’t going a good enough job or deserve any criticism.

        • Mordecai 3.1.2.2
          29 March 2017 at 11:43 am

          The problem is that Labour have some candidate problems of their own.
          http://www.jwire.com.au/nz-candidate-posts-antisemitic-image/

          • Matthew Whitehead 3.1.2.2.1
            29 March 2017 at 11:36 pm

            1) Nice whataboutism, but this doesn’t let Todd Barclay off the hook, Labour and New Zealand First should still jump into that electorate and take every Party Vote they can get from Todd Barclay spying on his employees, just as I would expect National to do if a safe Labour electorate MP did something horrendous.

            2) If Jwire are correct about the implications of the image shown, and the screenshot is genuine, I agree that’s a problem, but you’ve got to understand that any anti-semitism in that image is way, way, way below the surface, and like coding about “european values,” some people will simply take such a meme at face value without necessarily supporting the full implications. Also, as a tangent, it’s nice to see a link about anti-semitism that isn’t to a complete zionist clubhouse, so kudos on your choice of source being somewhat reasonable.

            I can’t find the particular post publicly available at the moment, so I have no way of confirming the veracity of their claim, and I can’t find anything else suggesting cryptofascism in his public profile, so even if they caught the one data point that suggested possible anti-semitism, you generally want to find a pattern not just a single incident before you go making accusations.

            Even if he did post that image, it’s entirely possible Corie simply has a problem with big banks and the military-industrial complex, and that’s all that lead to sharing the image. I think in this case it’s reasonable to let Corie Haddock explain themselves before we bring in the mobs and pitchforks, as it’s entirely possible he’ll be shocked at the link to anti-semitism and will apologise immediately. If he doesn’t then yes, I agree he should probably never be selected as a candidate again, of course you’ll need to convince actual Labour members of that fact rather than Greens. 😉

            • Mordecai 3.1.2.2.1.1
              30 March 2017 at 7:48 am

              Hi Matthew. Thanks, that is a thoughtful response. In my opinion the language of the post is blatantly anti-Semitic. If the tables were turned, and this was a National MP posting about Palestinian terrorists (as opposed the Jewish Bankers), there would be (unjustified) outrage at the alleged ‘racism’.

              • Matthew Whitehead …
                30 March 2017 at 1:41 pm

                I think if a National MP shared a meme about Palestinians with no comment that was this subtle they’d also deserve an out too if they apologized after being asked about it. The issue is that people who hate Palestinians are much more blatant about it than other anti-Semites, (technically Bedouin Palestinians also spoke a Semitic language back in the day too and are thus “Semites”, just to make things more confusing- we need a better term for jew-hating IMO, but I’m happy to use the one Jewish people want in the meantime) it’s considered much more acceptable at the moment to be against Muslims, sadly, as neither should be OK, and everyone deserves the kind of outrage on their side that Jews frequently (but not always) get when they discuss anti-semitism in reasonable terms, so I expect if a National MP were caught hating on Palestinians it wouldn’t be this subtle and they wouldn’t really have the excuse that they might not have understood what they were sharing.

                And yes, discrimination against Arabs can be racism, even if it’s flavoured with anti-muslim rhetoric, because Islam is a religion that’s mostly practiced by people of colour (specifically Arabs and Africans) when compared to Christianity or Judaism. A lot of the eliminationist rhetoric in Israel is of the racist kind and not the anti-Muslim kind, in fact, so unless a specific example of discrimination doesn’t lean on any kind of structural racism (which is a bloody hard call to make sometimes) it’s pretty reasonable to call any given example of anti-muslim discrimination “racist.”

                As for the language of the post- well, there’s no language in it outside of the meme itself, which is quite carefully coded. Not everyone knows the Rothschilds were a famous Jewish family, (hell, I had to look it up to be sure, and I only suspected because I correctly split the name into Roth/Schild, (rather than Roths/child, which people are totally excused for doing because there is a seperate non-germanic surname of “Rothchilds” which always has the terminating s, and to someone not familiar with German language both names would look practically identical) which is an older German spelling for “Red Sign”, and as we all know, there are a lot of people descended from German Jews all around the world) some people are against big banks for anti-capitalist or anti-corporatist reasons, and “isn’t it funny” is a very mild phrasing for something that’s actually engaging in anti-semitism, where you usually expect “look at this Jewish conspiracy!” Once you have all the pieces though, it’s clearly the work of an anti-jewish conspiracy theorist, for sure, as if it were an innocent meme they would be able to pick plenty of other banks that didn’t operate in those countries to also name and shame, and there’d be no reason to single out a Jewish bank. And they do have a fair point that a lot of the animosity to some of the listed countries is out of proportion to anything they’ve actually done wrong, (not all of them though, lol) were said rhetoric sincere and not weasel-words to hide anti-semitism.

                So yeah, once it’s explained, I think the only acceptable reaction is to apologise for unknowingly sharing that sort of rot, and that anyone who hesitates to do so doesn’t deserve to be given a political platform, regardless of what party they’re in.

                • Mordecai …
                  30 March 2017 at 5:39 pm

                  Being a Muslim is not a ‘race’, any more than is being a Christian.

                  • Muttonbird …
                    30 March 2017 at 5:45 pm

                    Being a Jew is a ‘race’ however, according to themselves.

                    They refer to themselves as being the chosen people, etc.

                    • Mordecai …
                      30 March 2017 at 5:56 pm

                      The US Supreme Court agrees with them. Based on what I’ve read on the issue, I’ll sit on the fence!

                    • Muttonbird …
                      30 March 2017 at 6:10 pm

                      Best you do sit on the fence with them. Interesting it didn’t stop you defining Muslims and Christians though!

                  • Matthew Whitehead …
                    31 March 2017 at 3:20 pm

                    I agree being a Muslim isn’t a race, it’s a religion, which I was pretty clear about if you actually read the paragraph in question.

                    What I was saying is that racial discrimination against Arabs (or even Africans) is often conflated with discrimination against Islam in general, so the two mix together, or people specifically aim discrimination at Arabs thinking that they are by necessity Muslim. Hence why Sikhs so often get caught up in it: because cartoons of Arabic people are often depicted with turbans and people are ignorant, so people are generally correct to say that anti-Muslim discrimination is racist because, well, most of it incorporates racism too.

                    • Mordecai …
                      31 March 2017 at 10:31 pm

                      I agree to some degree, until your last paragraph. Most ‘anti-Muslim sentiment I see is actually anti-Islam, and well justified, IMHO.

    • dukeofurl 3.2
      28 March 2017 at 1:08 pm

      Opportunity for NZ First ?
      neglected rural seat, discredited national MP…where have I heard that scenario before?

      • mac1 3.2.1
        28 March 2017 at 2:04 pm

        How many neglected rural seats are there, occupied by foies faineants National MPs?

      • Cowboy 3.2.2
        28 March 2017 at 3:54 pm

        I hear NZ First are running a candidate in Clutha Southland. If rumours are true about the identity they could have someone highly suited to the rural electorate who could give Barclay a fright.

      • Tamati Tautuhi 3.2.3
        28 March 2017 at 5:08 pm

        Evidently some of the National Party members in Southland have flicked over to NZF. Ria Bond has had good turnout at meetings on Rural Issues.

      • Daveosaurus 3.2.4
        30 March 2017 at 6:31 pm

        Unlikely. The largest population centre in Clutha-Southland is Queenstown, and I don’t see a town that lives and breathes tourism rushing to vote for the xenophobic racist Peters.

    • peterlepaysan 3.3
      28 March 2017 at 9:07 pm

      Southlanders think that voting means voting national Voting anything else is not being a southlander.

  4. Ad 4
    28 March 2017 at 1:15 pm

    I would infinitely prefer Liz Craig for Labour to represent Southland.
    It’s just there’s this pesky issue of Barclay’s 13,000 majority to overcome.

    Insofar as there’s any good to come out of it, maybe it’s better to just keep him there and let him stink.

  5. McFlock 5
    28 March 2017 at 1:36 pm

    [to the tune of “Daisy, Daisy”]

    Barclay, Barclay
    give us your answer, do:
    The police had asked you
    to partake in an interview.
    Much more than employment matters
    if the boss records staff chatters.
    Without their consent
    but the po-lice lament
    that they can’t.
    chat.
    with you.

  6. Bruce 6
    28 March 2017 at 2:13 pm

    Isn’the this why the new spy legislation was introduced can’t the police just get a warrant raid his home and office forensicly analyse his digital devices and find or not the supposed recordings, or not and proceed accordingly

  7. Michael who failed Civics 7
    28 March 2017 at 2:17 pm

    I suspect Barclay may be another Stephen Lusk client, possibly with the bills paid by Big Tobacco. Certainly, Barclay’s father (Southland cow cocky) is known to throw his weight about the electorate and did so during the candidate selection process late last year. While a lot of people around Gore dislike Barclay, his job is safe because they cannot bring themselves to break engrained tribal habits and vote for someone else. Those who do break the habit will vote for Winston, although he’s not actively campaigning yet. Anyway, the political focus is on the Queenstown area, which is where the flash money is. Barclay has a residence in Arrowtown and has been (moderately) active, grandstanding for photo opportunities around roadworks etc. That’s probably all he needs to do, although I think he’ll be expected to shoot down any proposals to tax tourists (indeed, oppose all taxes and proposals to limit tax dodging. But that’s expected of all Nact MPs anyway).

    • McFlock 7.1
      28 March 2017 at 3:01 pm

      Rumour has it daddy was also at the campaign rallies asking pasty [feck, patsy, cheers w :)] questions and derailing debates, from the audience.

    • Mindblowing facts from Dipton 7.2
      30 March 2017 at 7:20 pm

      Todd Barclay’s father has never been a farmer or a cow cocky. Rather he was a shop assistant, rising to the lofty heights of owning a dairy in Dipton, (not a dairy farm).

  8. Cinny 8
    28 March 2017 at 2:27 pm

    Just before Christmas I was told a bit about this situation from a relative of someone involved. The person involved was going overseas to escape the media.

    I’ve a feeling there is so much more to this than what we’ve heard via media. Especially if someone left the country to avoid media and drama. I wonder if any NZ media will do a bit more digging. I’ve heard that Barclay is an arrogant bully among other things.

  9. Whispering Kate 9
    28 March 2017 at 2:45 pm

    These “neglected rural seats” in the backblocks (boondocks for some) of New Zealand just need a massive blood transfusion of new immigrants and ethnicities to their regions like our cosmopolitan cities, then they will get lots of new ideas and differences of opinion which might jolt these incumbents out of their torpor at the ballet box. Its no wonder these seats are prized way beyond their worth – – it’s too easy for their MP’s – its like sleep walking to the ballet box – how simple is that.

    These smaller communities remind me of some TV series which are set in these way out places where people are almost imbred to a point of “same old same old” regardless of what is going on nation wide.

    • weka 9.1
      28 March 2017 at 3:00 pm

      Crikey. Have you ever been to Southland?

      Besides, they’ve voted in an Aucklander for mayor, multiple times, can’t be that parochial.

    • McFlock 9.2
      28 March 2017 at 3:05 pm

      It’s changed massively in the last 20 years – not just touristaville, but invers too.

      I’m not sure about Gore though 🙂

      • rod 9.2.1
        28 March 2017 at 3:45 pm

        What about Dipton?

        • McFlock 9.2.1.1
          28 March 2017 at 4:38 pm

          No idea. Looks like their average charisma rating went up a few years ago, though 🙂

        • AB 9.2.1.2
          28 March 2017 at 7:30 pm

          Is Dipton a real place or just an imaginary place? If it’s imaginary and if you are 5 years old, then you could live there and live in (say) Wellington at the same time.

    • JC 9.3
      28 March 2017 at 6:57 pm

      “These smaller communities remind me of some TV series which are set in these way out places where people are almost imbred to a point of “same old same old” regardless of what is going on nation wide.”

      You mean like “Squeal piggy! Squeal!

      Come on down. You might like it!…

      At Least it might get you away from the T.V!

  10. repateet 10
    28 March 2017 at 4:19 pm

    Why is he standing? Because he’ll get in. You don’t waste some little clone after you’ve done the hard work creating him.

  11. Tamati Tautuhi 11
    28 March 2017 at 4:57 pm

    Evidently Ria Bond NZF is making good headway in the Invercargill Area

  12. NZJester 12
    28 March 2017 at 10:52 pm

    On the 21 March Daily Review I said

    I wonder how MP Todd Barclay will do at the next election for the seat in Clutha-Southland after refusing to co-operate with police investigating bugging claims in his office?
    He said at one point he would co-operate with police, but has since then apparently informed the police through his lawyer he will not be making a statement. How is that co-operating with police?
    As it is a safe National seat I doubt that he might loose it, but I bet the landslide victory he had last time will drop down to a slimmer margin.
    I do wonder though if the seat might end up in a by-election at some point in the future?

    Maybe the Right are setting up the seat for a coalition partner?

    • Graeme 12.1
      29 March 2017 at 7:28 pm

      More likely there will be some major boundary adjustments in the lower South Island that will send him west.

      There’s huge population growth in Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago, with declines in Southland and the rest of Otago. A lot of Barclay’s heartland is likely to go into Invercargill, which has been Labour, and he would get challenged out by a stronger candidate in a Lakes / Central Nat selection. Simon Flood had a lot of support around Queenstown and is close to the National stalwarts here but Queenstown’s not really part of Clutha Southland. We got gerrymandered into it to make up the numbers for Bill to keep his seat, we used to be part of Otago and had David Parker as MP once.

  13. Jane 13
    31 March 2017 at 4:45 pm

    A lot of the Nats are not happy for him to stand. Why dosn’t someone look into the privacy issues of constituents who called the office. It is not only staff. This is not an empolyment issue, but an offence.