Transtasman
February 26th, 2009 at 3:45 pm by David FarrarToday’s Trans-Tasman looks at what is happening:
Key is sharp, incisive and confident, English supplies the intellectual grunt and the political know-how. Both in their different ways inspire others to work with them as a team. The opinion polls offer dismal reading for Opposition parties, with Labour crashing to 28% and the Greens to 6%. Only about half of those sampled were aware Phil Goff is now Labour leader, and only 13% Annette King is deputy leader. With Helen Clark actively planning an early departure from Parliament, and speculation Michael Cullen will leave in the next two months likely to be confirmed, Labour is threatened with an identity crisis.
To be fait to Goff, I suspect more than half of NZers know who he is. They just don’t know he is now the Labour Leader.
Part of Goff’s problem is he became Leader so quickly – at the time Key was putting his Government together. So his ascension got sant media coverage. If Clark has held off until around now, then Goff would probably have got extensive coverage of his rise to the leadership – exclusive TV interviews, magazine profiles, newspaper stories etc.
But Goff’s problem goes beyond the initial lack of profile. His problem is his own supporters are not talking about him.
The front page of The Standard does not mention him once. In fact there is only one post in the Phil Goff category. Niw this is not any criticism of The Standard, just a reflection of the reality that Goff is not connecting with anyone at the moment.
Personally though, if I was Goff, I wouldn’t even try to build up profile at this stage. The next few months are still Government honeymoon. He should concentrate on getting around the country talking to key groups, starting to think about the direction he wants to take Labour in, and then start selling that in the second half of the year.
Related posts:
- Transtasman Predictions
- Transtasman on Goff
- Labour’s reshuffle
- Did he tell them he wants to increase their levies even more?
February 26th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
“Now this is not any criticism of The Standard, just a reflection of the reality that Goff is not connecting with anyone at the moment.”
You are too kind DF. The fact is the standard is only interested in trying to smear key and rubbish national (and failing spectacularly) .
Also that Goff is far too centrist for the extremists that run it is also a factor.
Vote:February 26th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
perhaps Phil could go to small meetings in small towns, it worked for whats his name in spite of him having to get the Board of Fairfax act as sub editor
Vote:February 26th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
`His problem is his own supporters are not talking about him’.
Because he is now known as `Philin’ it may be that he doesn’t have any supporters.
Vote:February 26th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Which is fucking appalling. FFS, the fucking reef-fish never cease to underwhelm me. In the emergent stage of the worst economic situation in anyone’s living memory, a time when, for the sake of their own best interests, every thinking person should be paying extremely close attention to all political and economic events “only about half of those sampled were aware Phil Goff is now Labour leader, and only 13% Annette King is deputy leader.”
Now this level of political ignorance is not news to me and usually I don’t give a shit, but these are the people who determine the govt in every single election. “Good news everyone…” as Prof Farnsworth says to the Delivery Team at Planet Express…
Vote:February 26th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
People know Goff alright, he’s been around Parliament as long as most have been alive.
But who the hell would recognise the slightly smarmy bugger who looks like a carnival barker who pops up on the screen with his dumb comments. He looks like one of those blokes who tries to get little girls to sit in his lap.
JC
Vote:February 26th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
JVH … problem is that Phil doesn’t DO small towns … they don’t like him (along with 72% of good New Zealanders)
Vote:February 26th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Ross Miller,,
Good insight.
Act hammered the small towns and rural areas. Not so much Rodney, but his chief lieutenants, yes.
And they got great support with rallies and protests and looked like a former Labour party we used to know and love.
(some of us anyway)
Goff would rely on his minor MP’s to cover his rural constituents. But going by Cullens visit to the far north last year, you’ll never see Sue bradford attempt such visits. does she even got to Marae. you would have thought she would have been alongside Tame Iti last year, shoulder to shoulder. Nope
No wonder National got the Maori Party
Vote:February 26th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Every time Goff opens his mouth , he shows what an absolute looser the Labour Party is,. along with his green allies
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 1:31 am
Phil has the charisma of a snail (sorry snails!!). no way he will lead labour into the next election.
I saw in the NBR print edition, that there could be some more ACC black holes.
Bill English was mentioned in there too, and mentioned that there may be a possibility of breaches of the public finance act (where the books must be opened).
I’d love to see Cullen thrown into jail although it might be an underling instead.
I wonder why this is not in the online edition.
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 10:32 am
David, we’re not as obsessed in the personality cults and celebrity status as you are. Our focus tends towards policy and actions with an occasional bite at the people doing them. We also tend to focus on the fragilities of the thoughts of the right, which gives us a continuous supply of stupidity to look at. Generally we tend to agree with the left, but unlike you we don’t spend time doing paeans to boost the egos of those we do support. If you look at any front page over the last few years at the standard, you won’t find much mention of Helen, Jeanette, or most of the leaders of the left.
I’m aware that you are having a difficult transition to having to support a government rather than simply being critical (and your commentators are having an even harder time). But you probably should look at getting payment for being the blogosphere propaganda portal for the NACT’s.
Please don’t try to ascribe motivations to us for things that we just don’t do. Brown-nosing isn’t our style….
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 10:38 am
“David, we’re not as obsessed in the personality cults and celebrity status as you are”
Ha ha ha ha..did you type that with a straight face?
“Generally we tend to agree with the left”
And censor anybody who dares speak out against the views of the left.
“Please don’t try to ascribe motivations to us for things that we just don’t do. Brown-nosing isn’t our style”]
Goodness me, do you really believe the shit that you write?
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 10:51 am
BB It is only some people that get the moderation and banning responses that we use. Then it is only because they have nothing of interest to say and have to rely on unthinking automatic responses. You’re a prime example of that type of troll. We ‘censor’ people for being idiots not for their views. Of course attacking the authors or the site or other commentators will also get you booted if you can’t articulate an argument. I seem to remember that was your forte.
For instance, despite redbaiters interesting’ attitudes he has managed to survive there quite well without getting more than some barbed responses.That is because he has an ability that you have conspicuously failed to display – an ability to think and express himself in a way that enhances the debate rather than detracts from it.
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Utter bullshit Lynn, you banned anybody who tried to tell the truth about your corrupt ex leader.
Those of us who did try and “articulate an argument” where shut down immediately.
Why is it that the left always try and rewrite history?
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 11:02 am
“… we’re not as obsessed in the personality cults”
Incredible (and infamous words) from the same man who idolised Clark, Cullen and the Labour leadership and used/abused The Standard during his vile campaign against John Key.
Obviously, lprent does not know the meaning of the words hypocrisy and duplicity. Go back to your pen, comrade.
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 11:22 am
bb: You have repeated lines over and over again. When other commentators questioned you on those lines, your usual response was to abuse the questioners – without bothering to defend your mindless assertions. You’d then thread-jump away from the questions and repeat the same lines in another thread.
That is not articulating an argument. That is the action of a thoughtless fool without an ability to argue. A caricature of a blustering troll. I see that it appears to be your habit around here as well. It is a classic flame starter tactic.
Eventually one of the moderators at the standard would get tired of the same old behavior and ban you. Since you’d then ignore the ban, I’d pop in a auto-moderation.
This behavior pattern has happened a number of times. So we banned you permanently for terminal levels of stupidity.
Manolo: I don’t recognize the identity. Probably you should give me what you used on the standard, and I’ll discuss your behavior?
There is a reason that I refer to the comments section here as “the sewer”. It is where people banned from the standard for bad behavior live (apart from the ‘sod and the other few lefties we’ve banned of course).
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Lynn
I made two posts before I was banned, even a proven liar such as you cannot stretch that out to constitute “blustering trolling”
I do read your blog from time to time, I guess I want to see how my tax payer dollars are being spent, however anybody who does read it cannot help but notice how you ban or edit comments from most who disagree with you.
An example of small minded left wing bigotry is the way you attack DPF for his views, you claim that you do not tolerate abuse at the EMPU & Labour party funded Standard yet your very own left wing trolls dish it out with regularity, they are NEVER banned or have their comments edited yet the same DPF who you constantly pillory lets you post here free from censorship or editing.
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
bb: You mean the last time – after you’d been given massive amounts of warnings previously about what behaviour was unacceptable?
I have 7 pages of comments from you since the site started. They are uniformly of a very low standard… Almost every one in the most recent page of comments has an addition from a moderator about behavior and that we thought you were trolling. You aren’t worth the effort of the moderators.
In short you are lying about how you came to be permanently banned from the standard.
You chose to ignore the warnings, and here you are whining that you didn’t like the foreseeable consequences. For instance (and on topic for this post) you responded to a previous moderation..
BB said
lprent
Could you?, it seems you have one that generates left wing comments
Labour = Good
National = Bad
I might be asking a bit much but I would hope at some stage to read ONE post where you admit dear corrupt leader has got it wrong.
[lprent to bruv:
* I don't write the political posts.
* I've seldom seen a post here that actually praised Helen.
* If you look at the posts, I think you'll find that she is barely mentioned. The government she leads is frequently mentioned, often unfavourably. Probably because our posters are far more left than centrist.
* I don't think that you actually read the posts. Otherwise how could you come out with this twaddle. Tell me - did you read IrishBill critizing Labour in this post?
As I said earlier - I could write a program to write your comments. It doesn't have to read either.]
On the subject of tax-payer dollars – you are lying (as usual). The only people who have paid anything for the standard are myself, and for 3 weeks an ISP who made a donation to the NZLP who in turn through an activist made a donation of space to me. How you get from that to taxpayers paying for it is impossible. Perhaps you’d like to put up some proof rather than your usual blustering?
Perhaps you’d care to look at robinsod who regularly gets banned and also whines about it.
F#$%*n Banned!
Project “banned”
There are others from the left who get banned as well. travellev did for thread-jacking too many times, @work, etc etc. But they are a lot less than the numbers banned from the right. The people on the left generally appreciate having the standard around, so don’t try to move the comments area into the sewer.
Some people on the right (mostly wingnuts) would prefer that The Standard didn’t exist and try to act in a way so it doesn’t – along with lying about its origins, funding and the identity of its authors. For instance Whaleoil appears to prefer to make up crap and lie about the standard at every available opportunity.
It was funny watching the wingnuts carefully *not* saying anything about us continuing after Key occupied the 9th floor. I got the impression that the morons had started to believe their own lies.
Essentially BB, I think you would do well to stay here – you are too full of bilous crap to survive anywhere where people actually use their brains.
.
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Lynn
You really must stop telling lies, it was a total of TWO posts, you DO NOT have seven pages of comments written by ME.
I note that the rest of your post is full of the same “bilous” (sic) crap you accuse me and other right wingers of, perhaps you are still bitter and twisted because you lost an election, perhaps you are bitter and twisted because you WERE caught telling lies about the funding for/of the Standard or perhaps you are bitter and twisted simply because you are a snivelling little socialist who has not created one cent of wealth in your life yet for some reason you feel that you have the right to steal from those of us who have.
Whatever it is Lynn you would do well to STFU, you simply cannot defend the Standard as a venue for the free and frank exchange of views, you people do not allow those who do not agree with you to voice differing opinions.
The difference between those of us on the right and the snivelling socialist low life from the left is that we let you have your say, we do not agree with you but on the whole we let you have your say, indeed that is the problem with socialism, you know it is a ideology that cannot stand scrutiny so you silence dissenters.
BTW, if you believe that Whale is lying then why not do something about it?
Oh, one more thing…do you think it would OK to lay off union members before those who do not belong to the union?
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
One more thing Lynn; what you and I have been doing here is having a discussion, I know it is a new concept for you to grasp but it is one of the reasons why DPF has the most popular blog in NZ by a country mile.
You should really try something like it over at the Standard as long as Labour and the EPMU allow it.
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
bb: Not really what I’d refer to as a discussion. You started and continue to make your usual unsubstantiated assertions, then shift to attacking someone who challenges them. It is your forte. That is not what I’d consider is a discussion – I don’t learn anything from it. It is the action of a mindless troll.
People are welcome to say what they like at The Standard – They just have to conform to a minimum standard laid down by the site operators (and owner). If you don’t then you are tossed out as if you were a drunken lout using a wall as a latrine in a pub. It is a strange concept, I think it is called private property or property rights or such phrases. It is clearly evident that you don’t understand or respect the concept. But then you are a lout.
I don’t bother about Whale. I just say that Cameron Slater is a liar about The Standard and its authors in the vast majority of his assertions about my site. I think he did manage to read my whois correctly, however I suspect that someone else helped him. If he wants to do something about it saying that, then he is welcome to do so. But I don’t think he would be stupid enough to do it – many of his assertions are easy to prove are false, and the remainder are easy to demonstrate that he has no way that he could know. In short he is lying and doing it knowingly. Since he does it for our site, then you’d have to presume that most of his other blustering is also the same.
Only 2 posts on our site? Yeah right… Try this google search. The ones with a date to the right are your comments. If you want, I could consolidate and post them somewhere as “The musing of a bilous troll” – they are all in the public domain.
The union thing – I have no idea. I have never been in a union or worked for one. Why don’t you ask someone who is?
Vote:February 27th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Is Iprent suffering from ADD or wot?
Vote: