Advice for Labour from Jeremy Greenbrook-Held
Jeremy G-H is that rare beast – a Labourite with independent thought. He was one of the very few to condemn Taito Phillip Field, while his leadership was defending him.
He blogs some advice for Labour today:
Labour: English’s homes saga not over
Um, yes, it is. Well, at least in the eyes of voters beyond the beltway.
I earlier posted that Bill English should go. I personally still believe he should be removed, but any legal grounds for him to be removed have now been extinguished by the auditor general’s report. In the eyes of your Joe Bloggs voter, English has paid back the money and the auditor general has vindicated him – this matter is closed. Labour need to face the facts that it has lost this one and move on.
Labour do seem obsessed with beltway issues. Red Alert is full of them. When is the last time you heard Phil Goff talking about jobs, the economy, improving the health system, better educational outcomes?
Jeremy even blogs some better issues for Labour to focus on, that their beltway obesssions:
- Why are motorcyclists being singled out for a massive ACC levy increase?
- Why is John Key’s own school being closed down?
- Why are responsible drivers being criminalised for using cellphones while driving?
- Why are ordinary New Zealand taxpayers going to have to subsidise big business polluters under the Government’s Emissions Trading Scheme?
Labour are a bit like a dog off the leash. They just chase every car that drives past, catching none of them. Instead they need to focus on just two or three issues and push pretty uch nothing but those issues for weeks and months.
The public only hear a message after months of repetition. It’s not glamarous, but it is effective.
October 29th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
OMG a thinking liarbourite…now these are the ones to watch out for…do they keep them locked up in a back room somewhere…Ive never heard of ‘em…
October 29th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
If Labour are so obtuse as to not know the fundamentals of strategy then I don’t see why you need to teach it to them ’101′ style in your post.
October 29th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
You will find DPF that most Labour members have independent thoughts and that debates within the party are deep and varied.
Jeremy is a good example of the quality of members that the Labour Party has.
October 29th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Oh would you shut up DPF! Stop giving those imbeciles tips on how to become relevant again!
October 29th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Labour represents the worst of the ‘cover your arse’ mentality that seems to pervade both government and business.
It does seem to be more of a NZ thing, in that protecting your position is more important than doing your job.
I didn’t notice this so much working overseas. Maybe it was just the places I worked?
October 29th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Um, they have seemed a bit more like a dog sitting in the middle of the motorway barking. Mad.
October 29th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
And reflecting on DPF’s title “The Poor Entertainer”.
He is not very wealthy?
He doesn’t entertain very well?
Still doesn’t narrow the list down very much, does it.
October 29th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Oops. Wrong thread.
October 29th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
DPF – whose side are you on?
The post is pushing the Fomenting thing a bit isn’t it!?
Come in Cactus Kate and sort your fellow blogger out
October 29th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
David is dead to us.
The Sue Bradford is great post was the last straw for me.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
When the Labour party pay back the $800,000 they retrospectively made legal, then I will consider they MAY have some sort of sufficient morality to comment on this.
Mind you, if they also make a public statement that Philip Field was wrong and should have been stopped.
And that the figures on ACC were hidden prior to the election……..
October 29th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Okay Cactus – then when do you change your side line to read “Knave of the Blog”????
October 29th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Labour focus on beltway issues because they have no idea about connecting with the people =- the reason they got turfed out of power.
October 29th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
“$hy are responsible drivers being criminalised for using cellphones while driving?”
For the same reason, Mr Greenbrook-Helm, good, loving and responsible parents are being turned into potential criminals by Sue Bradford, John Key, and your bloody Labour Party, which whipped all its MPs to make sure the obnoxious repeal of section 59 of the Crimes Act was foisted on to us.
October 29th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Leave Labour alone.
They’re going perfectly.
October 30th, 2009 at 12:58 am
The only opposition leader in living memory who actually WON power was Muldoon. Simply an extraordinary achievement. The following change of governments have all been a result of self destruction, including burnout, or, in this time of short attention spans, just been around too long.
I don’t see a Muldoon in parliament presently, so the opposition should settle on defining issues and stick to those. The government needs to concentrate on not scaring the horses and it’s just losing its way a little with that one. But the next election is a long way out.
As one who sees little difference in the two major parties, particularly under Labour’s current leadership, it’s all of little importance. I just think the faux political war in blogosphere is like religion – a huge and tragic waste of human endeavour.
October 30th, 2009 at 7:09 am
So why are you bothering to tragically waste such a huge a mount of time commenting here?