Upton on Peters
October 8th, 2008 at 10:00 am by David FarrarI am trying not to blog on Peters much. With the help of my psychiatrist and some happy pills, I even refrained myself from firing off an angry post last night on his incredibly rude treatment of TVNZ’s Jessica Mutch. But the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Ruling Council has ordered me to try and give Winston less airtime, so I complied.
But Simon Upton’s analysis yesterday of Winston is too insightful to pass up. Some extracts:
I was present 30 years ago when Winston Peters won the National Party’s nomination for the Hunua seat. There was never any doubt about the outcome. His youthfulness, flawlessly fluent delivery, charm and above all self-assurance swept all before him.
And Simon goes on with more examples of the charisma.
Few politicians can hope to hold either the finance or foreign affairs portfolios. Winston has held both. I have, obviously, no firsthand experience of his execution of the latter role (carried out in bizarre isolation from the Cabinet). But I witnessed his reign as treasurer. It was an uneasy, faltering performance carried by the professionalism of his officials and the self- effacing industry of Bill Birch. There was something genuinely sad about watching him arrive at Cabinet meetings with his papers unread, still tightly secured by their green Cabinet Office ribbon.
Winston’s two departments have both loved Winston. Treasury found him a good Minister because he only read the one page summary papers, never the full papers. Birch handled all the details. A Minister who never second guesses officials, makes officials purr.
MFAT love Winston even more. He has been totally tamed and captured to their viewpoint in a manner not even Sir Humphrey could aspire to. Take this story from ZB:
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters is belittling suggestions a budget boost for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade should be cut.
Both National Leader John Key and Finance Minister Michael Cullen have signaled the extra $600 million set aside for MFAT in this year’s budget could be cut, in light of the poor state of the Government’s finances.
Winston Peters, who lobbied for the spending as Foreign Minister, says it is the wrong move to cut an area that could help grow the country’s exports and wealth, at the first sign of trouble. He says it would be disastrous for the country.
You can;’t get better than that. a Minister who will argue that the way to get out of the economic crisis is to hire more staff for MFAT. And I suspect he actually believes it, so successful has MFAT been at taming their Minister. This can only happen when the Minister doesn’t take independent advice or delve into details.
Winston wasn’t cut out to be a policy wonk, or a detail man. He was cut out to be a leader. That he failed to become prime minister is possibly the singular political tragedy of our time. Perhaps too many people told him that he would be. He believed his trajectory to be unstoppable – and he took the sort of risks (leaving his party, calling by-elections) that only the most self-assured politician would consider.
Winston probably would have ended up National Party Leader in the mid 90s, if he had played a smarter game, and not tried to white-ant Bolger from within Cabinet.
But at the end of the day, he could not win the respect of those of his political colleagues who ultimately mattered – the ones who did the hard work, who read their papers and knew how to temper ambition with responsibility.
As time went on, Winston covered his inadequacies with belligerent counter-punching. He also began to believe his own rhetoric that he was unlike other politicians.
Recent events have revealed a politician every bit as human and flawed as the rest.
Ironically, the flaws he has denied would easily have been forgiven him if he had delivered substance to match his charisma. His failure to do so means his political legacy will be correspondingly meagre. We are all the poorer for that.
This has been WInston’s problem – he never ever admits fault, and thinks he has none. Most MPs know what their weak areas are and will work hard to improve them. But Winston has always though charisma alone will get him through.
Related posts:
- Peters rules out Tauranga
- Peters on Radio
- The corruption of the Clark/Peters Government
- Hooton on Peters
October 8th, 2008 at 10:14 am
I was chatting to a guy who worked under Winston when he was Minister of Maori Affairs (we were on an off-shore island considering conservation projects). His basic tack was Winston was the kind of guy who knew how to get to positions or power and authority, but once there, would throw away his opportunities to do good. He seemed compelled to hit the self-destruct button once he had the power. Upton’s piece reminded me of these comments.
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 10:14 am
‘Smooth Operator’
Sade.
Just where is our $158k then you thieving twat!
What a fraud.
Are you Gay?
Most affiliates of boxing are!
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 10:28 am
It was somewhat rude, but I thought he had a pretty good point. It matters to me whether I trust a politician, how is the level of trust that others have remotely relevant to anything this election?
[DPF: How does it matter how others intend to vote? In this case the PM had declared the central issue of the campaign was about trust - that makes it very reasonable for a media organisation to try and measure that]
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I wish everyone would just ignore the man, and thus deny him the attention he so craves and so needs if he is to come close to the 5 % threshold to return to Parliament. We wouldn’t give such attention to a snake oil salesman.
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 10:41 am
He is like the Peter Mandelson persona in the UK.
Some fawning supporters.
Everyone else despising him with a passion normally reserved for spiders, ants, and worms.
A complete freak.
So sue me you weird fucker! You are a charlatan, fraud, imposter, and a poodle.
Go on Luigi, I now have a lot more information. Thief of the lowest order.
Are those cuban heels hard to wear? You are vile little man. Go and play with your Tommy!
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Good point David in Chch, if the media and the VRWC really want to get rid of Winston then all they need to do is starve the man of air time.
Vote:No TV coverage, NO radio coverage and NO press coverage.
October 8th, 2008 at 10:51 am
and not tried to white-ant Bolger from within Cabinet.
You have been hanging out with too many Okkers David, its polluting your language
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 11:00 am
My knowledge of the man was forged during the period 1987-1990 when I was the Waikato Divisional Treasurer for the National Party. Those were the halcyon days when in that Division alone we probably had around 20,000 members.
Every electorate bar one played its part – the exception was Tauranga.
Winston was a major and continuing concern for us. His Electorate Executive comprised of ‘Yes Men’ totally beholden to him … good people who asked difficult questions were frozen out. Even then he was a team player NOT. At conferences he would be down to speak at say 10.30 am and you could set your watch that he would make a dramatic entry 5 minutes late and playing to the crowd.
WP undoubtably has charisma. He also is a lazy sod and about a shallow as a bird bath. The NZ Parliament will be a better place without him.
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 11:00 am
‘BYE BYE, WINSTON’
(I live in Tauranga )
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Although I despise Winston, I think MFAT should get to keep the 600 million, as it at least will do some good in building up our overseas capacity. We’re a trading nation so common sense dictates we need to be proactive in maintaining and building trade & other overseas contacts.
I mean surely we could axe the money to the racing industry, or reduce the cost of saving snails or whatever doc/forest & bird/the greens say needs money spent on it next to move it. Lots of little useless or questionable programs axed is better, than getting rid of one that may do some good, purely cause Winston came up with the idea.
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 11:25 am
He might get by with other politicians who have to put up with him but once the general public become wise to him he is a goner. Now Helen is not stupid. She must see through him. Has she been quietly directing him from behind the scenes?
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Winston probably would have ended up National Party Leader in the mid 90s, if he had played a smarter game, and not tried to white-ant Bolger from within Cabinet.
WTF? This would never have happened. National is the party of integrity, enterprise and honesty and Winston has none of these qualities. His being admitted into Cabinet was a totally inexplicable mistake that can only be put down to temporary insanity on Bolger’s part.
National only chooses men and women of the highest caliber as its leaders.
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
rolla_fxgt>I think MFAT should get to keep the 600 million, as it at least will do some good in building up our overseas capacity.
What ever would NZ business do without public servants to help them sell things? It is well known that bureaucrats are much better at selling things than sales people are. It is also well known that public servants know much more about the various NZ export industries than do the management of those industries.
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
1. Threshold – will I be wasting my vote?
2. It gives an idea of what I’m voting for – is a vote for party X a vote for party X alone, or does it look likely that party X have to combine with party Y to get enought support … what if I don’t want Party Y in government?
How does the level of trust matter? It doesn’t. I suppose it could if they were somehow linking it to support, but they weren’t.
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I have heard, through the grapevine, a precis on the alleged information that Winston Peters has on Helen Clark that has managed to keep him in, yet outside, cabinet. I have no doubt many others have heard this alleged information as well.
The path this information has taken from it’s source to me, and the circumstances surrounding the events up to this point indicate a certain amount of veracity. I regretfully cannot post as to it’s truthfulness without some sort of corresponding evidence, and I certainly cannot post with a clear conscience, so I will not.
However, if this information is, in fact true, it will indicate that the Prime Minister has, for the entire period of her tenure, llied to the NZ public, and has engaged officials and processes of the NZ government to cover up and perpetuate that lie.
And if Winston Peters is using his knowledge of that information as political leverage, rather than exposing all for the good of this country, then he can go and get stuffed too.
I don’t want either of these machiavellian misfits, Clark or Peters, in parliament, let alone in Government! And they have the nerve to wax rhapsodical about Jophn Key and his so called ‘secret agenda’.
A good investigative reporter, with a thoroughly backchecked story released 14 days before the election would blow Labour and NZF right out of the water with this one! And I do hope others know what I am talking about, otherwise I am just going to look like a paraniod with delusions to rival Philip Ure, and I assure you I am nothing of the sort.
Vote:October 8th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Right of way.
I appreciate that this story is not something that you can post here without evidence to back it up but can you at least tell us if it is something that has been suggested before?
Vote: