I’d forgotten how bad Clark could be
August 8th, 2009 at 10:00 am by David FarrarLuckily we have an interview with Tracy Watkins to remind us:
Eight months on from Labour’s election loss, former prime minister Helen Clark has no regrets and she rejects suggestions that Labour alienated voters by pushing through measures such as the child discipline bill.
Clark is still unable to accept she ever did anything wrong. Her valedictory speech to Parliament sounded like a triumph speech, where her getting thrown out of office was just some sort of mistake by the voters.
Now in New York as head of the United Nations Development Programme, Miss Clark has also revealed unease at the National Government’s direction on climate change and says its scrapping of her flagship sustainability agenda was motivated by sheer vindictiveness.
As I said, I’d forgotten how nasty Clark could be. My God – she thinks it is all about her. And yes this nasty vindictive Government that fully supported her campaign for the UN job, and appointed Michael Cullen to an SOE.
Related posts:
- Fitzsimons advice to Clark
- Clark distances herself from Williams
- Tracy argues Clark made right call
- SST Interview with Clark
August 8th, 2009 at 10:06 am
That’s an odd link you got there.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:07 am
“I’d forgotten how bad Clark could be”
I haven’t forgotten, and I haven’t forgiven.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:11 am
“motivated by sheer vindictiveness”
…..and yet she can say that with such ease
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:15 am
I will never forget.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:19 am
I haven’t. I am reminded by the nasty left wing blogs on a daily basis. Helen Clarks real legacy was the fact she made her party into a far nastier, bitter and even more out of touch. At least before she was party leader the leadership had a touch of humanity about it.
She should keep her mouth shut and continue to shuffle papers in NY with H2.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Miss Clark’s line: “New Zealand is just not quite big enough for me at the moment” says it all really.
Glad to see she has made up with Ms Tizard, and they are finding plenty of time to set up and play house in the Big Apple. Clark might de-stress a little, and become a little less nasty and vindictive
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Key (or anyone in National) would do well to just say nothing to this childish outburst. They need to keep themselves above this nonsense.
I think Clark is engaging in virtua fourth-termtitis.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Strange how such a ‘bad’ and ‘nasty’ person can be so well thought of by United Nations members to get the 3rd most powerful job. Must be because National is so ‘good’ and ‘nice’ to support her application.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:24 am
“My God – she thinks it is all about her”
(mr 7% isnt doing an awful lot to make her think otherwise now is he? )
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:24 am
In all of this I actually have some advice to John Key. Please respond to Ms Clark with the following: “I think Helen should stick to rorting the world now. she is done with NZ”
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Oh coolas, grow up.
They thought Ghali was a good guy, yet him and his family stole millions
They though the generals they sent in as peace keepers into Somalia were good guys, but they turned the young somali girls into personal toys…
And they were so relevant in their existence that when Hussein gassed thousands, they said stop now or we will have to say stop again.
Being thought of highly by those in the UN is not really a recommendation.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Hells has put a lot of weight on, and doesn’t she have huge hands now.
Don’t think she looks anything like those posters of her at election time.
And how twee that Ms Tizard shows up. Not sure whether Peter has managed to see her new living arrangements first hand.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:45 am
The follow up story, ‘My kind of Town’ is perhaps more revealing.
Saviour of the World, Mr Gordon Brown was a prime supporter in getting her the job.
So, she is upset that the huge amount of aid she was siphoning into UNDP coffers without open disclosure was all
necessary. Then along came a new Government, and a World Credit Crunch, and gadzooks her recruitment fund dries up.
Well, did she really expect NZ to keep passing money across in amounts greater than Oz? What a freak.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Sounds like a regal court-in-exile. Largely tax-payer funded.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Helen Clark has another agenda now that she’s joined the UN, and is just upset that the country that she treated as a lab for her socialist experiments isn’t towing the line. It’s all about getting countries to pay tax credits now to transfer wealth to third world nations and give more power to the United Nations.
She’s more dangerous now than ever..
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:55 am
I AM SOOO HAPPY… Clark is gone………
I wonder, why exactly does she think she was given the boot? She seems to be in denial over all the obvious reasons.
She was a conniving, power hungry, and interfering prime minister, who had no respect for taxpayer money.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Time to put the offensive content pages back up.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Key only supported her job to get rid of the lying, cheating woman (??).
Vote:Understand she has made a number of unfriends in her own department in NY. And that in a corrupt organisation.
She lacks the skills to be an adminstrator.
A professional politician she may be but she is not up to it without sycophants, other than Simpson, who continually blocks contact with her own senior long serving staff.
August 8th, 2009 at 11:24 am
“this nasty vindictive Government that fully supported her campaign for the UN job, and appointed Michael Cullen to an SOE.”
Well, what can one draw from this other than that they’re all as bad as each other, with the differences being so minor as to be almost undetectable.
There is one quite noticeable difference though. At least Klark had the damn sense and the will to use her time in power to advance the political agenda she believes in.
Frankly, a bit of nastiness in National is sorely needed. Constantly kissing the arses of swinging voters is a road to nowhere.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 11:26 am
I dunno what is more annoying, Klark being the vicious, small minded narcissist that we all know she is or Neville Key breaking every fucking promise he made to National voters while handing out piles of my money to Labour bludgers and swinging voters.
Remember Key is the soft cock who gave Kullen a top job, the same soft cock who supported Klark’s application for the UN job, Neville Key should be tried as a traitor then kicked out of the National party.
Only mindless cheerleaders who are more concerned about their “team” winning than they are about the state of our nation can be happy with Key’s performance.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 11:36 am
It’s become the fashion for polticians to say inappropriate things.
I wonder what Sue Bradford will think about Clark hogging all the credit for s59 on such an international stage. Quite a magestic revision of history she’s undertaken.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 11:36 am
“Frankly, a bit of nastiness in National is sorely needed.”
You’re entirely correct RB: it is not only needed, but a “must have”. Unfortunately, it’s only wishful thinking on your part (and mine).
The indecisive leadership of the spineless National Party will continue tinkering around the fringes, without ever attempting to take radical measures to get our country out of the social and economic morass we’re in. They are apppeasers and yes-men.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Clark increased the bureaucracy by 45 billion a year. How much that costs the taxpayers, I don’t know but I do know we could be bringing home more for our families if it wasn’t for her!!. She is an abomination. I think her arrogance will catch up with her.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
And this from Whales site.
Corruption for Dummies blogged:
“I still stand by my analysis. She is a sociopathic narcissist. That being the case, she will continue to evade every concept of reality.
Her condition(s) and continued ‘behaviours’ prove her mind is not wired correctly. But, she will continue splurt with the symptoms of this dementia (progressive deterioration of brain functions) until her rotten mind stops altogether.
However, until that time arrives the only way to prevent her doing further damage is to lock her up.
Key and co need to investigate her corruption.”
I always thought CFD was a bit over the top on his personality analysis.
Now I think he is absolutely on the marker here. She’d be the perfect Bitch, only she isn’t perfect!
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
“Frankly, a bit of nastiness in National is sorely needed.”
That’s another reason I gave my party vote to ACT.
To keep John Key and National Honest and not allow the smiling assassin to go Labour-Lite on us.
“So what did you do with your vote daddy”?
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
rank hypocrisy from one so vindictive she immediately raised the top tax bracket to 39c on the dollar, for absolutely no reason.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I thought it was convention that national politics is not commented on by those that rise to the dizzy heights of international troughing. I have to agree, it shows her black mindset comes from deep, deep within. The UN are welcome to her, albeit that she’s showing them that she’s just a chick from a tin pot island incapable of understanding the bigger picture.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
“My idea of heaven is a night at the opera. If you want to see a great play, you should see Ruined, which is an absolutely incredible and gripping play about sexual and gender-based violence in the Congo.”
She admits to salivating over it three times already,she doesn’t say how often Simpson &Tizard saw it, but it looks like Carter, Benson-Pope and most of the Liabour Caucus will be making a beeline to see it.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Fletch 10:53 am,
“Helen Clark has another agenda now that she’s joined the UN, and is just upset that the country that she treated as a lab for her socialist experiments isn’t towing the line. It’s all about getting countries to pay tax credits now to transfer wealth to third world nations and give more power to the United Nations.
She’s more dangerous now than ever..”
This is really scary sh%t Fletch.
That link revealing Clark’s ‘true’ role at the UN in the likely facilitating of Global Governance does tend to make one think about the real agenda of the UN, etc.
I must get a copy of Ian Wishart’s new book AIR CON. It really sounds like he’s done his homework.
Vote:Welcome to the ‘Brave New World’.
August 8th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
The only words to describe Clark’s tenure.
Self serving, corrupt and vile.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
It’s incredible that she feels NZ has let her down in terms of climate change. Labour did absolutely nothing for climate change. They had no policies and were constantly introducing and then cancelling expensive campaigns that led to nowhere. I will never forget that on exactly the same day she said people need to make sacrifices for climate change she changed the Parliamentry fleet of vehicles to large gas guzzling BMW’s – spending 71% more than the last fleet budget. For her, climate change was just an opportunity to use rhetoric to get her further up the international ladder. She’s a hypocritical disgrace with a real mean streak.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
I vote we take a leaf out of China’s book….
“Ex-airport chief executed for corruption
Li Peiying, former chief of the Capital Airports Holding Company (CAH) who was convicted of taking bribes and embezzlement, was executed Friday in Jinan, capital of east China’s Shandong Province, according to the Supreme People’s Court.
The execution came one month after the Shandong Provincial Higher People’s Court upheld the death sentence against Li’s appeal. The supreme court had reviewed the sentence.
Li, 60, former chairman and general manager of CAH, was sentenced at Jinan Intermediate People’s Court on February 6 after being convicted of accepting bribes of 26.61 million yuan (US$3.9 million) from 1995 to 2003 and misappropriating 82.5 million yuan for personal use from 2000 to 2003.
Li appealed to the Shandong Provincial Higher People’s Court after the conviction. The provincial court rejected Li’s appeal and upheld the death penalty.
According to law, the death sentence has to be reviewed by the Supreme People’s Court before it is enforced.”
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Any reversal of her half baked policies is labelled as vindictiveness. Everything is so personal with her. She defends her public policies like a mother (Mrs Weatherstone comes to mind).
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I take it that the photo accompanying the piece is (another) photoshop job, because it’s very apparent that she ain’t waving in that interview, she’s giving us the finger.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
The thing I noticed about the picture is that Helen is standing in front of the Chrysler Building.
Very fitting. Chrysler/Clark Govt both had awkward, backward styling, oversaw increased carbon emissions and spent more than they earned with calamitous results.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
And I’d forgotten just what nasty haters and wreckers the right are.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Helen is a spent force has-been and the UN an impotent self serving racket.
A match made in heaven.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Billyborker (4.06pm): sorry, wrong again – it was Maoridom that was labelled the “haters and wreckers”…courtesy of Miss Clark herself. Like “last cab off the rank” – nasty, vindictive labels she’s blurted out, and will never live down.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
You need to take those ideological blinkers off billy. The muck-raking, nasty and hate-filled 08 Labour campaign was the most shamful display in the history of NZ politics. That you (or anyone) can defend the left by trying suggest that Nats are as bad is really quite pathetic.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I disagree getstaffed – the “muck-raking, nasty and hate-filled 08 Labour campaign” you refer to wasn’t a patch on Labour’s 2005 campaign – and its aftermath.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
nasty haters and wreckers
I had forgotten just how much I missed you, bonkers.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Sifting through Fletch’s link; hell’s teeth, that’s some explosive stuff. The idea of replacing Britain and France with the EU and shifting wealth to the Third World is exactly the kind of stuff those West-hating cretins would love to indulge in. I don’t doubt that Hulun would be an asset in that goal either.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
of course we have to shift wealth to the third world..
how can there be any claims to a civilised world./culture.
when so many die..every hour..
..from either hunger..or easily preventable/curable diseases/illnesses..
(all that could be ended/solved..
with just 10% of the monies spent annuallly on armies/armaments..)
why would that be a ‘bad thing’..?..hurf..?
diverting some money from the killing machines..to heal and save lives..?
(is that ‘filthy socialism’..?..is it..?..
..where do i sign up..?..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
I would be very concerned if I thought John Key was making up policy simply to get back at Helen Clark. I would want policy made for the benefit of New Zealand. In fact I suspect Key is starting to say “Helen who?”.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Considering we’ve been doing it for so long that we’ve probably got through 1000% of the monies spent annuallly on armies/armaments, it doesn’t seem to be working.
What would work, however, would be the investment in the economies of these countries to provide jobs and infrastructure and development and the promotion and installment of democracy against tyrants and piggish socialists. No wealth has to be shifted and the common man wins.
But then that would be impewiawist.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Did anyone seriously think that Clark would in any small way appreciate Key supporting her bid for the UN job?
The way the UN works Clark was a shoe in anyway. She meets the criteria for the UN, self serving socialist/communist, who is willing to do anything to have personal power including bribery (witnessed by the amounts of ‘our’ money she donated to the UN in election years) and corruption (witnessed by her willingness to put up with corruption from her Ministers while in government Fields, Jones, Peters etc).
Her comments where a given. It was bound to happen.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
You guys are really sad.
Helen is not a hater and wrecker. She gave her all to the country.
Key supported her to the UN and Cullen to various boards because he wanted to get them out of Parliament. They were far more talented than him and he did not need to be shown up.
Helen’s comments that National’s change to Labour’s climate change policies were motivated by malice was perfectly appropriate.
In its first 100 days this national government stopped the ban on thermal power stations, halted the biofuels scheme, allowed energy inefficient light bulbs and put a freeze on the emissions trading scheme. There was no compelling policy reason, just the desire to stuff up what Helen had tried to achieve.
Her comment is justified. Does anyone care to debate the issue?
This is a good diversion from the Bill English accommodation super supplement.
[DPF: Oh my God - you can not surely believe what you wrote? The biefuels scheme was oppossed by the Parliamentary Commissioner fo rthe Environment. The ETS as passed by almost every major business in NZ, The lightbulb ban by 90% of NZers. And your feeble feeble mind can not think of any reason for a new Govt to change these things except malice against Helen. Shit mate you have it so bad you really need to take a break.]
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
stopped the ban on thermal power stations, halted the biofuels scheme, allowed energy inefficient light bulbs and put a freeze on the emissions trading scheme.
Good. Flexibility on power policy, no food diverted for magical fuel sources, got rid of a mercury-filled health hazard and stopped the economy being chained up. Do-gooder environmentalism will destroy us all and send us to the Dark Age; its destruction is something I can give the Nats credit for.
She gave her all to the country.
Yeah. All her fury and bile. Mount Albert can’t save you anymore.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
MS you are a bomb. “There was no compelling policy reason”
Just the saving of the economy before we all tumbled through the pea trap on our way down the gurglar.
Naaaaah, no compelling policy reason. You’ve just summarised half the reasons the Bilious Bitch was thrown out on her scrawny corrupt arse.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
I think it was very kind of Watkins not to mention that Clark rounded off the interview with a rousing rendition of “Don’t Cry for me, Neeeew Zeeeeeeeeeealand… the truth is, I never loved you…”
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Very good Rex!
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Helen Clark still makes me piss blood to this day!
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
MS, are you 12?
“Her comment is justified. Does anyone care to debate the issue?”
One cannot debate with sycophancy.
G
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Thanks MickeySavage. Some balance makes a difference in this stream of poison.
I think the word ‘vindictive’ is what set the pack off.
But then Clarke could have used any of the appropriate words to describe National’s atiitude to Climate Change, Education funding, and Beneficiaries and the Helen Haters would have performed the same.
She should broaden her vocabulary to include: vengeful, unforgiving, resentful, acrimonious, spiteful, mean, malicious, mean-spirited, cruel, and unkind.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Dog whistle post of the week
Vote:yawn
August 8th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Coolas – you are far from being as coolas a cucumber on your comments…..
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Yeah yeah but you have to admit that some of the posts display a hatred of Clark that’s out there. So I use a few words to summon the pack and you guys reply. Made my point.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
mickey/coolas – as the sulphurous odour finally clears after a decade of Clark’s corrupt 5th Labour gov, it’s the contrast of the fresh clean air of a John Key-led National government that the citizens of New Zealand are enjoying most at the moment. Look at the polls! Gone are Clark’s vicious “cancerous and corrosive” outbursts – her unplanned throw-away statements that gave us a glimpse into her bitter soul.
Unfortunately history will remember Clark, NZ’s second woman PM, as one of our worst – and definitely the nastiest and most vindictive.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
She should broaden her vocabulary to include: vengeful, unforgiving, resentful, acrimonious, spiteful, mean, malicious, mean-spirited, cruel, and unkind.
You’d have a point if Huluny-poos wasn’t incompetent and arrogant. Oh, and every other descriptor you used.
Vote:August 8th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
un coolas – I would more deem it passion for our country that has been totally fucked up by a decade of Helen and her shabby labour party….
Vote:August 9th, 2009 at 6:19 am
Yes of course Helen, multi-billion dollar decisions about whether or not to destroy the economy permanently are made solely on the basis of vindictively offending a has-been former PM. What the hell is going on in this woman’s mind ? Talk about an alternative reality…
Vote:August 9th, 2009 at 6:27 am
She is going loopy, and it is good that she couldn’t resist the invitation to have the piece written about her.
Most folks would decline. Not our Helen.
Wonder when she will donate some of her Houses to the Needy. That would be just fantastic PR!
However I remember Labour getting in knot about $30k of funds to re-pay the pledge card rort.
She could easily have stumped up the money for the Party she loved so much.
Vote:August 9th, 2009 at 7:08 am
So, am I reading this right?
The enacted policies of the National Government, which have lead to high approval ratings which would translate to an absolute majority in parliament, have nothing to do with the democratic will of the people, or anything to do with the fact that the government is grappling with the worst recession in 70 years, and rising unemployment,(yet still riding high in the polls).
Yet in the mind of Helen Clark, this is all an indication of the vindictiveness of this government against the last administration. Can she only see things in the context of how they affect her? Is that why Field was protected for so long? Is this why she bent over backwards to appease Winston?
Is this why, to this day, she has no regrets over her time as PM? She really can do no wrong in her own eyes can she!
The narcissist description seems absolutely spot on!
Vote:August 9th, 2009 at 7:29 am
slightlyr – you are indeed reading it right…….
This PC Helen Clark has changed the thinking of anyone whom cant stand on their own 2 feet and actually think anything through…. Her arrogance will destroy her, am actually stunned that it hasnt as yet destroyed her.
After learning more than I knew about a narcissist on TV1 on Wednesday evening, it pretty much sums up Helen Clark…
Vote:August 9th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Clark’s “flagship sustainability agenda?”
What, the one that delivered the largest increase in C02 emissions in our history?
As John Key said pre-election: it was full of rhetoric but had no substance.
Vote:August 9th, 2009 at 8:42 am
What perchance would we be posting now had by some election rort, Labour scabbed into power again?
But warped and twisted enough to give them a working majority with the Greens.
What policies would they have foisted on us?
1. Shower pressure regulation.
Vote:2. ? etc.
August 9th, 2009 at 9:00 am
Good to see New Zealand’s second woman Prime Minister still sucking heavily on the sour grapes.
Suits her.
Vote:August 9th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Reckon Hels was in the light plane/helicopter crash in NY?
Vote:August 9th, 2009 at 9:43 am
I wish. But no. As they say, God only takes the best. She’ll be around for a long long time.
Vote:August 9th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
I’d forgotten what a free ride she gets in the media and how anything she says is reported respectfully and straightforwardly and how much the Dom Post is reflective of the Wellington left wing socialist view.
And now that she is gone she isn’t really gone because the secular left will continue to publish these hagiographies to our great leader.
Only occasionally pausing to write respectful write ups of the latest far left politician to come out of the Green party.
Can we get some other media outlets please? NZ Fox news anyone?
Vote: