Jordan on 2011 campaign
February 11th, 2009 at 4:00 pm by David FarrarJordan Carter gets very excited over National raising the minimum wage:
Yesterday’s announcement of the government’s decision to increase the minimum wage by 50c marks the formal beginning of National’s 2011 election campaign.
Make no mistake about it. The neo-liberal shibboleths of the 1990s have been left behind. The New National Party has decided that its raison d’etre in the 21st Century is one thing and one thing only: to be in power. To achieve that objective, it has one tactic and one tactic only: to destroy the relevance of the Labour Party in New Zealand electoral politics.
Oh my God, National does something centrist and suddenly it is an evil campaign to hold power at all costs, regardless of principle.
I mean National putting up the minimum wage by the rate of inflation is like, umm, well a Labour Government announcing massive tax cuts!!
So does Jordan think Labour decided its raison d’etre in the 21st Century is one thing and one thing only: to be in power, when they announced tax cuts.
That means everything is fair game. Policy crosses to Labour’s left; moderate-seeming approaches to some sensitive issues (the category the minimum wage increase falls into); dirty tricks when it comes to campaign and finance law (see this fortnight’s repeal of the EFA);
That’s the repeal his own party is voting for. And you have to appreciate the hypocrisy of someone from Labour talking about dirty tricks in relation to electoral law. Even Phil Goff admits they fucked up, but no Jordan still insists it is all the evil Nats.
close relationships with other minor parties to build a solid Parliamentary position post-election.
Oh no. That evil National Party. They are building relationships with minor parties. This just can not be allowed to happen. Quick pass a law against it.
It is the mirror image of Labour’s 2002-2005 approach, with one important difference. Labour’s purpose in government was to build a fairer, freer and more equal society. We did that through more progressive taxes and tax credits; socially liberal legislation that expanded people’s rights; investing for long term economic security; genuine treaty settlements… the list goes on.National’s purpose is to be not-Labour in government.
Sigh, and once agin we get back to the “Labour good”, “National bad” meme. Yes National hates fairness and freedom. They are just about power.
Yes John Key is doing some centrist things. But National is also implementing its manifesto promises, and I am pretty sure that when Jordan was a candidate, he did not endorse those policies.So how can he argue National now stands for nothing.
They’ll do whatever they think can deliver that. It will be dressed up, eventually, in some swish narrative that appeals to some Kiwi values. But it won’t be values based. The only value it seeks to serve is power itself. That will be National’s eventual undoing: the task for Labour is to uncover that moral bankruptcy, expose it, and persuade the public of its reality.
The task then for the progressive Left is to stop tilting at shadows. Some of you wish that National would relapse into Ruth Richardson style politics. Get over it. The Nats are not mad and they are not stupid.
What it will not do is make progress, and that is what we need to show and to promise to deliver. In so doing, we have to call this what it is: a National government with power at the heart of its ambition for New Zealand.
Related posts:
- Jordan on Labour’s future
- Jordan on Labour
- 2008 Campaign Reviews
- Jordan taking the moral high ground
February 11th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
John Key sure has these lefties in a spin.
“must hate Key, must hate Key” ha ha Idiots!
I wonder when they will realise that “most people” are over their hate filled political bigotry.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
So now we know what Jordan thinks. What about Iraq, Iran and Israel?
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Who’s Jordan?
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Aha! So you admit then!
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
“it has one tactic and one tactic only: to destroy the relevance of the Labour Party in New Zealand electoral politics”
Didnt Helen already do this?
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
“They’ll do whatever they think can deliver that. It will be dressed up, eventually, in some swish narrative that appeals to some Kiwi values. But it won’t be values based. The only value it seeks to serve is power itself. That will be National’s eventual undoing: the task for Labour is to uncover that moral bankruptcy, expose it, and persuade the public of its reality”
if you swap National for Labour in that drivel, you pretty much get what happened during the recent election
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
David, you must get over your National can do no wrong syndrome
As an old Labour type I will say that Key has made an impressive start.
Will the poor bugger find that he is fighting against a trade war when other countries decide on a us first approach to trade ?
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Jordan?
The walking clothes rack or the desert?
Never heard of a third.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Those at the extremes of the political spectrum – both left and right- are becoming more and more irrelevant by the day. They are really getting desperate and cranking up the rhetoric, and this is but one example.
It’s what cranks do when reality opposes their world view.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Jordan? Hmmm….wasn’t he the guy who stood in Hunua, never even etentered the electorate and spent all his time campaigning for Tizard because she was too lazy to do it for herself and still lost anyway?
Might be the same guy? Can’t be sure?
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Going one further – Jordan sounds exactly like Redbaiter with a couple of words transposed – hmm… has anyone seen both of them in the same room?
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
That little diatribe is hilarious. Really, the boy has (accidental) talent.
Surely the heat has got to the poor wee thing, there can be no other reason for writing thus.
Is that a socialist bloggers equivalent of throwing a tanty? Does he actually read the crap he writes? Does he believe the crap he writes?
These and other totally unimportant questions will be unanswered in next weeks enthralling blog entry from the mental midget that is Jordan Carter.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
clothes? we must be thinking of different Jordans. Rack is right though.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
“Those at the extremes of the political spectrum – both left and right”
So who are those extreme leftists Ruth??
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
A little OT I know, but to be honest I’m getting pretty fucking sick of this “centrism”.
You can call it “centrism” if you will, but NZ’s political “centre” is very, very far to the left.
So let’s call it what it is: it’s soft socialism.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’m getting pissed off with John key’s soft socialism.
I admire John’s get-things-done attitude. I respect the success he has made of his private career. I admire his apparent resolve to bring civility and unity back to the democratic process. these are all good things.
But when you campaign as a National Leader, regardless of what you actually say, you make a solemn, implicit promise not to behave like a total raving fuckwit.
Unfortunately, JK is rapidly going down that route with his soft socialist policies, the minimum wage increase being one of many.
I am sincerely hoping that this is all one long-term political game to marginalize the far-left parties (such as the Greens and Labour). It is a game that the communists have been playing for a long time, and I would love to see a new generation of kiwis brought up in a world which is slowly but surely turning back towards the right (via the centre).
In my mind’s eye, I see a political strategy spread over decades: a gradual shift in ideological perception to bring NZ back into sanity.
Right now, the only thing we have that’s close to a “centrist” party is ACT. Hopefully, at some time in the future, we will have a proper society where this kind of soft socialism is held in the contempt it rightly deserves.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
“Jordan sounds exactly like Redbaiter”
Such a sick obsession…
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Go see a doctor then.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
No better still – exercise your right to ignore me.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
“So let’s call it what it is: it’s soft socialism.”
Its actually soft tyranny, where cultural leftists viciously attack anyone who advocates moving in any direction other than leftward.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
“No better still – exercise your right to ignore me.”
Haha, good one llewser. You’re the one suffering from the obsession..
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
With you? Your head really is as big as AG said.
But enough of you – happy new year (life’s too short to indulge in petty, pointless bitching, don’t you think?)
No of course you don’t.
Bye.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
DPF: “Sigh, and once agin we get back to the “Labour good”, “National bad” meme. Yes National hates fairness and freedom. They are just about power.”
Swap “National” and “Labour” in that sentence, and then, with that in mind, try reading a few of these comments threads!!!
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Labour people need to learn how to nod sagely over the next three year — talking leads to silly sounds. But if they must speak, then I recommend collegen injections, for all those pursed little lips.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
DPF:
Jordan is silly. He has been for a while, ever since the grand socialist experiment swallowed him.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Llew, mate, did you have to go there?
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Christopher
I am absolutely with you on Key being a soft socialist. Total raving fuckwit is about right.
But I think there is hope, in the form of the Maori Party.
I am pretty sure that Sharples and Co will not tolerate a National Party that tries to perfect socialism and continues to run low-quality state-owned monopolies like the prisons, the public health system and schools, all of which have failed Maori so badly for so long.
The irony of the welfare state being dismantled at the behest of the Tāngata Whenua is almost too delicious to contemplate.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
I am 3/4 way through AUDACITY of HOPE by Barrack Obama. If there is one thing that sticks out it is his observation of how partisan party politics has changed in the last few decades. eg instead of leadership and good governance and doing what is right for the times it has become ‘the party of tax cuts’ vs ‘the party of no tax cuts’ and so on across all the issues. What I really hope to see is leadership and governance. It is soooooooooo needed right now. Whether that be National raising the minimum wage or Labour giving tax cuts – I welcome a sea change and like to think we choose leadership and governance over party politics.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
soft socialism yes, but prisons failing maori? health system failing maori?
Not quite. More like moari (or anyone else) living on fat, refined carb, nicotine, alcohol and comitting crime. How is that a system failure? It’s a case of plain cause and effect. Personal choice in action.
Geeeeeeeze come back, Roger! All is forgiven! NZ needs ACTs policies and fast.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
“To achieve that objective, it has one tactic and one tactic only: to destroy the relevance of the Labour Party in New Zealand electoral politics.”
National doesn’t have to “destroy the relevance of the Labour Party”. Labour is perfectly capable of doing that all by itself!!
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Jordon “I think all trade is immoral” Carter really is an imbecile.
He is one of the few people I have never met whom I viscerally dislike… (Matt McCarten, George Galloway MP, President Obama, Lily Allen, Steven Spielberg and Tom Jones being the others)… because what he says is absurd and he genuinely believes it.
The nonsense written above takes the cake, and what he fails to realise is that had his people not been so corrupt perhaps they would still be in Government.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
The hope of John Key’s moving leftward being part of a strategy to marginalise the left has already been tried in the 8 years of mistaken defense (and rationalisation) of George Bush’s moderacy. The right has really blown the opportunity to make a difference there; presumably history is only going to repeat in NZ.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Jordan is irrelevant. Even his own Party rates him at No 70.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
It seems Jordan has been totally and utterly convinced by Labour’s pre-election spin that National had a secret agenda.
And now the Nats are in power implementing a moderate agenda, Jordan has to come to terms with the fact his beloved party lied. But instead he comes up with his own propaganda.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
I thought Jordan was a river over which in days or yore dem Nigras yearned to cross.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
I looked over Jordan once. I didn’t see much. Certainly no musically inclined angels.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Christopher, as a grizzled old Labour type I hope that the Nats dump Key,
Vote:replace him with Collins, make Douglas the minister of finance with ruthless ruth in as his assistant.
Privatising the mdical system to the yank model would be good, and you will find all the punters (voters) real keen on selling off all the state assets.
Oh, and state super is too high, have that chopped back.
Doing that will get ACT 40 % of the vote at the next election.
Better dump the vote for any bugger over 60, ungrateful mob those wrinklies.
February 11th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I’ve long given up on reading Jordan’s blog to see a Labour perspective on politics – he reminds me of the sheep in Animal Farm bleating whatever Napolean told them to say.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Correct. We’ve drifted so far to the left in the last 20 years that policies adopted by ‘sensible social democratic’ parties outside NZ are branded as ‘extreme far right’ concepts which are vigorously rejected here. We have become a nation of fat weaklings, fed an intellectual diet of socialist rubbish by the MSM. Hell, I’m starting to sound like Red!
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I’ve never heard of this guy and after initially skimming the post I thought it was a piss take. Sadly not..
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Whilst i agree entirely with the post here and laughed my head off whilst nodding and snorting coffee out my nose, i think you were wrong to link to his blog and give him the attention for it. We should ignore the bad behaviour and reward the good .. you know … like that Nanny lady on the Telly
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
“I wonder when they will realise that “most people” are over their hate filled political bigotry.”
Excellent insight.
I really understood the sophistication of the NZ electorate and how liarbours coruption bought it out. The EFB was practically a Godsend awakening the masses and showing them in a new light to both sides of the house. I really didn’t believe protest worked, esp when public referendums are continually ignored year in and year out. I now realise that when good honest people speak out in unity the law makers can’t stop them.
The Communists thought they were so close to stiffling dissent and the public voice. In fact they made it stronger and valid. Some one overseas called NZ the last white hope on another site. I was surprised by that comment, but I know we may very well be the great democratic hope. National can prove that in their tenure. They will automatically get two terms, no doubt about that. It is a hope of mine that John Keys will do so well he will have to retire and hand over leadership of his govt. Most of the old squad in Liarbour will be gone and a new and youthful opposition will become a threat. But that’s the political scenario I would look forward too.
With MMP who knows where politics will be in ten years time. But let’s hope memories are long in voters minds and in opposition’s. National won’t rule forever, but they should be remembered forever in the Kiwi pysche as the party that stopped communism in it’s tracks and hopefully they’ll never forget those roots.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
I consider myself fairly literate (or at least not illiterate) and am confused by Jordans use of teh word “shibboleths”.
Can anyone explain what he means?
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Shibboleth (IPA: /ˈʃɪbəlɛθ/[1] or IPA: /ˈʃɪbələθ/[2]) is any distinguishing practice which is indicative of one’s social or regional origin. It usually refers to features of language, and particularly to a word whose pronunciation identifies its speaker as being a member or not a member of a particular group.
Vote:February 11th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
“shibboleths” and “raison-d’etre” in one paragraph. Did someone give him a thesaurus for Christmas. Or does he just talk like that normally? Personally I think he’s just a jumped up (dpf deleted)
Vote:February 12th, 2009 at 12:09 am
How is it that Jordan’s beloved Labour government allowed NZ house prices to become the second most unaffordable in the world? A real achievement that! If Labour had had the guts to fix the defective tax law that encouraged all that unproductive spending by every man and his dog who could get a loan to become a landlord by buying shitty old houses, so driving up the price so they became expensive shitty old houses, I might have thought the last government had a redeeming feature – but no, no redeeming features!
Vote:February 12th, 2009 at 8:37 am
georgebolwing (124) Vote: 8 4 Says: “I am absolutely with you on Key being a soft socialist. Total raving fuckwit is about right”.
Well, if that comment represents the intelligent face of ACT then Rodney has much to worry about.
Grumpyoldhori … yes, I can understand you wanting the Nats to dump Key because unless they do so your beloved Labour Party is forever doomed to wandering in the political wilderness growing more irrevelant each day.
And for all of you ….. winning in NZ is about capturing the middle ground. Yes, there are niche opportunities for Parties on the Left and Right (if you want to use those terms) but they will ALWAYS be bit players.
The naivety of some posters on here never ceases to amaze. Bit like King Canute really.
Vote:February 12th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Thanks wikiriwhis business, so Jordans usage is completely wrong?
Vote:February 12th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Ah yes, another Jordon display of supreme arrogance. The irony is that his blind belief in his, and the Left’s, righteousness puts even the worst ‘born to rule’ Tory to shame. But, in his own mind, he is right so it is ok. That arrogance only assisted Labour’s defeat in the last election.
Vote:February 12th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
“Thanks wikiriwhis business, so Jordans usage is completely wrong?”
He’s trying to make something ultra academic out of a simple cultural tool.
A shibboleth is simply a test of language skill so a friend or foe can be determined.
In fact Michael Cullen showed his betrayal of the Kiwi shibboleth by diminishing the no 8 wire Kiwi philosophy. THerefore the real foes of this country have been exposed by their own shibboleth.
Vote:February 12th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
I am absolutely blown away that someone like Jordan could have had the opportunity to be an MP and ostensibly represent a constituency. He is one of the most dangerous types of liars there are, one who believes his own bullshit. I wondering if after a drunken night out, a certain ex-PM might have secretly produced a love child. The traits are too similair to be mere coincidence.
Vote: