Is Phil phucked?
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:08 pm by David FarrarChris Trotter comments on his blog about the career prospects for Phil Twyford:
His enemies in the EPMU, combined with his possession of a penis (and, increasingly rarely for a Labour MP – a pair of balls) have reduced his chances of securing a solid political base to something approaching zero.
Those same handicaps also put his position on the 2011 Labour List in doubt.
Clearly, being an intelligent and compassionate human-being, with an impeccable background in the voluntary/humanitarian sector, counts for far less in Labour circles than having a few union mates and a vagina.
Now it is tempting to this Chris is being a but harsh, but look at this extraordinary comment on Phil Twyford’s own Facebook page. Twyford said:
My colleague Carmel Sepuloni is the new Labour candidate for Waitakere. My congratulations to her. She will be fantastic going up against Paula Bennett. Commiserations to my fellow nominees Hamish and Ann. I’m very disappointed. I was excited about the chance to take on Bennett. But it was not to be. Good though for Labour to have a robust contested selection.
Very gracious. Then Labour activist Greg Presland left a comment saying:
Commiserations Phil. We have to fine a place for you, There should be another westie seat next time. Altenatively, Northcote and Coleman is the next most marginal Auckland seat. I am sure you could do it.
A reasonable suggestion, especially as Twyford stood on the North Shore last election. But then Twyford’s colleague, Darien Fenton, comments:
Well, Greg, we should have a conversation about Northcote. Other people, including me, have been working hard there.
Good God. Now remember this is on Phil Twyford’s own Facebook page, and he is being warned off Northcote by one of his colleagues who has the two essentials Trotter refers to.
UPDATE: The Herald also asks the same question over Twyford’s future.
Related posts:
- Lining up for Te Atatu
- Labour’s Northern List
- How Chris Carter could really do over Labour
- The Te Atatu selection
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:37 pm
It’s almost like Trotter has started to think for himself rather than just being a spin puppet for the failed ideology he has regurgitated without questioning for decades.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Darien Fenton has worked hard in Northcote? Really? That’s where I live, and I have never seen her. Additionally no-one voted for her in Northcote as far as I am aware. The Labour candidate in the last election was Hamish McCracken. Mr McCracken received 4000 more votes in Northcote than Fenton managed to garner in Helensville.
Additionally, Phil Twyford got over 3000 more votes from the North Shore electorate than Darien Fenton managed as well. So it’s a reasonable suggestion that as far as the public is concerned, Mr Twyford is a better prospect than Ms Fenton.
Does Ms Fenton really think a conversation between a few dilletante Labour elitists is all that is required to select a candidate? She has a very narrow grasp of the central tenents of the democratic process if that is the case!
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Please, please, please – make Darien Fenton the Northcote candidate – please!!!!!
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 12:57 pm
as for the best candidate to stand against bennet..(surely the object of the exercise..?..)
i wd pick sepuloni over the others any day..
(disclaimer:..i am a big sepuloni fan-boy..she rocks..!..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 12:59 pm
What a state the Labour Party is in, to suggest Mr Twyford make a bid for Northcote. Dr Coleman’s majority in 2011 will top 12,000. If this is the “next most marginal seat” for Labour, then they are in serious trouble. To think that Ms Fenton and Mr Twyford might squabble over it is extraordinary.
Mr Presland’s comments have an uncanny resemblance to those of Mickey Savage.
Labour don’t seem to understand yet that that the three seats they are targetting in Auckland, Waitakere, Auckland Central and Maungakiekie are unwinnable for them. They have the wrong candidates with little useful experience going up against hard working, incumbent, popular MPs in a very, very popular government.
The question for Labour in 2011 won’t be which seats they might win back, but which Auckland seats they might lose.
Mr Twyford might try his luck at a South Auckland seat, although I understand that Mr Hawkins has been saying that he will not retire if Mr Twyford replaces him.
It’s sad for Mr Twyford, but perhaps his political career might improve with this lesson in humility. Looking at his performance and hysteria over the last year, he could certainly use this lesson.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 1:16 pm
I’d say the problem is more that Greg Presland suggested on Facebook where Phil might look next. If (and it’s a big if) Darien has spent some time in Northcote and has aspirations for that seat, then it is entirely reasonable that she suggest that decisions like that aren’t taken on Facebook.
Not that I have much time for Darien, but she was remarkably restrained in her response.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Like a dead pheasant that has hung in the back porch for a couple of weeks. The comments from no less a socialist commentator than the redoubtable Mr Trotter.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Labour really are incredibly fucking stupid, Twyford is a far better candidate for Northocte than some useless ex junkie who has contributed nothing at all to the house in her time as an MP.
Fenton has had a dream ride politically, can you imagine the shit that the left would heap upon any Nat or ACT candidate who revealed they were once a junkie?
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 1:41 pm
I had no idea who Fenton was, so I Googled her parliamentary profile:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/MPP/MPs/MPs/9/3/e/49MP126971-Fenton-Darien.htm
She lists a degree course she dropped out of and the primary school she went to under her educational details. I would never list an incomplete course on a CV as that indicates failure, what ever the reason for the failure. I also regard anything less than tertiary education as being not worth listing on a professional CV, and anyone applying for a job with me who listed the primary school they went to would be automatically placed on the reject pile since they’d have marked themselves out as being “odd”.
It isn’t as if she is applying for an entry level job in a shop where her “school cert” grades might help persuade an employer that she’ll be a hard worker. It’s like one CV I received for an IT job, years ago, that listed “has a tidy bedroom” as a reason we should hire the applicant. We didn’t, altho I was tempted to invite them in for an interview just so I could mock him and see if I could make him burst in to tears.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Have lived in Northcote for 20 years….never heard of Darien Fenton. Just watched a video of her on Youtube and suspect she may also [deleted by DPF and 20 demerits].
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Hmmm I see Fenton has a broad range of private sector work experience – she should be good value for helping construct economic policies for the Labour party to drive NZ’s future growth. Surely with her background she should be perhaps associate finance minister when (if) Labour ever get back in office?
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 2:34 pm
“blurk”
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 2:53 pm
I am hearing that a certain Paula Gillon might be a bit pissed off that Darien Fenton has her grubby eyes set on Northcote. That’s not to say McCracken might also want another shot.
That selection will be fun to watch!!
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Heh as other have said My the Socialists keep on selecting the dead beat unelectables Especially the WIMMIN nazi feminists its just Soooooooooooooooooooooo late 20th Century so old hat.
But great stuff. Having Gen X and Gen Y kids and listening to their mates they are a different kettle of political fish.
the Leftie thing is another world away from them. They are getting on with their lives paying back the student loan working hard in their jobs saving for a house and to have kids.
Thats why after 18 month the Nat are at 57% and holding.
Now DPF would agree that in bye gone days a winning party escpecially under FPP would never ever hold or increase its election night result 18 months on.
The usual was a steady decline to a holding pattern.
IMHO the earliest the Socialists can look at occupying the Treasury benches is 2017 and thats with the wind behind them
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Tim Ellis Northcote is the only Auckland seat outside Waitakere, Auckland Central and Maungakiekie that is at least marginal. Its marginal in that Labou could well win the seat the day they return to government benches which at this stage looks like 2017.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 4:08 pm
Those are very astute observations, Mr Crush.
I think it’s fair to say however that National has more chance of winning Waimakariri, New Lynn and Palmerston North than Labour has to win a single extra seat in 2011.
And as you point out, Northcote at best may be marginal three elections away, but it makes the current jostling for the candidacy quite silly.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Bringing the Tim Shadbolt ‘I don’t care where’ up to date for Phil
I am dead meat
If I don’t get an electorate seat
or
If I don’t get I seat I will get a low ranking
Vote:Might as well see Benson-Pope and get a good spanking
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I posed, in a quite non-confrontational way, the question of why possession of a penis should automatically disqualify one from selection over at “The Standard”. I was reacting to the contrast between Trotter saying Sepuloni was wrong, but one of the “right” things about her was her possession of a vagina, while other lefties were commending the choice, also partly on the basis of the whole vagina-possession attribute.
No one provided an answer (as at 4.30pm today, though they may do now I’ve raised it here).
The only criteria for candidate selection should be competence and integrity. Esepcially when, if parties want to gerrymander the gender balance, they can use the list to do it. So why all this agreement that only a woman is suited to stand against another woman?
There’s plenty of ammunition to use against Bennett; and if she needs her stump speeches presented in pictures like her Ministerial briefings, she won’t be that hot on the campaign trail either. Anyone who could project a mix of genuine concern (as opposed to Bennett’s thinly veiled contempt) and competence could give her a run for her money, so I fail to understand Labour’s penis prohibition.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 5:11 pm
anyone who don’t know who Darrien is would be stunned if they saw her on backbenchers last week .. how did she become an MP??
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Mastermind question; name one politiician you would trust?
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Easy, d4j – the extremist ones, including the ones I dislike intensely. I oppose everything David Garrett stands for, for instance, but I’d trust him because he says what he thinks. Similarly, say, Keith Locke.
I’d rather deal with either of them as a lobbyist because if I left with a commitment I could be fairly certain they’d do what they said, whereas if they didn’t agree with me they’d probably have a fit rather than smile and nod.
That’s why, as a political consultant, I’ve worked for militant unions and hard-line right wingers… I could go to bed at night feeling that what I’d just said in the public domain on their behalf was the truth of what they intended. Couldn’t care less if I personally agreed with it – as long as the truth is out there, the public can decide.
[Sorry to go off-topic, but I thought d4j's question worth answering]
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Gooner, is Paula Gillon still taking her clothes off for votes? Living in the electorate at the time I commented that I would be more likely to vote for her if she promised to never take her clothes off.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Greg Presland – Labour activist – who would a thunk it!! A prolific anti-National writer to the NZ Herald.
I wonder what percentage of the letters to the editor are Labour flunkies??
We should keep a list on a blog somewhere. Could be a task for the Whale.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Now I have a suggestion for Phyll, although I’m sure DPF will disagree with me. But I live here and go into peoples homes daily so have a good idea of what people are talking about as opposed to polling.
I’d suggest to Phyll that he could do worse than boot the stupid women out of the Tauranga electorate and stand against Gorgeous Simon.
Tauranga is not as safe a National seat as everyone seems to assume and its has and is changing its character. Two and three elections ago labour bought in ring ins from other area’s at late notice and made a sizable dent in the vote. A good candidate here will rock the boat.
There is a lot of unease with the govt. here at the moment and plenty who are very unsure whats going to hit them next. They see no end to rising govt. costs both local and regional and National and its very much debated. Many are caught up with leaky homes they bought and the rest are bothered about the costs to the council and to the ratepayers.
Many are less than happy about the way Maori have gained the upper hand to everything via the NZ National Maori Party members including Simon.
Plenty of subject matter for a good wanna be MP. Hard work and a minimum 30% of the vote without even trying.
Mind you no one should bother with Tony Ryalls electorate. He is seen as the next Prime Minister and if he keeps doing as well as he is he will have earned it. Of course Key will have to send his mate packing first, Blenglish I mean.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Viking2 you are delusional. A near 12, 000 party vote majority in favour of National is clearly evident that any Labour candidate that tries there will do so hopelessly. As for you living in the electorate and thinking you know what the voters there think is just laughable. You don’t know crap.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Fenton wouldn’t work in an iron lung.
Vote:March 22nd, 2010 at 9:14 pm
>>> Viking2 you are delusional. A near 12, 000 party vote majority in favour of National is clearly evident that any Labour candidate that tries there will do so hopelessly. As for you living in the electorate and thinking you know what the voters there think is just laughable.<<<
Ginger..they said that about Labours majority in New Plymouth not so long ago… Viking2 might be having the last laugh.
Vote:but I doubt it.. Simons on Breakfast.