Missing protesters
July 23rd, 2012 at 1:43 pm by David FarrarI commented on Twitter yesterday how Sue Bradford complained there were more Police at the National Party conference than protesters. I remarked that I thought this was more a reflection on the protesters than the Police, as not the fault of the Police there were so few protesters.
John Armstrong writes in the NZ Herald:
National’s annual conference was not short of protests. But the protests were embarrassingly short of protesters.
Contrary to the impression given by some accounts, the 400 or so party faithful did not spend their weekend cowering inside Auckland’s SkyCity Convention Centre behind a not-so-thin blue line of police.
The police showed up in significant number; the protesters did not. Yesterday morning’s all-comers rally against everything National stands for drew a total of 79 people – it may well have been counter-productive.
Must have been the weather!
Tags: National, protests
July 23rd, 2012 at 1:46 pm
So over a weekend the best Bradford and Minto can rally is 79 smelly,unwashed dropkicks?
Vote:Wow- Maybe even the ‘Rent a Mob’ professional protesters are getting a little tired of ‘smashing the state’ every weekend..
July 23rd, 2012 at 1:47 pm
And poor old Penny thinks they made an impact.
publicwatchdog (1,036) Says:
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 12:37 pm
July 23rd, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Longknives
If a shower or two can decimate their numbers imagine what handing out free soap could do.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 1:49 pm
The anti-sales brigade are flogging a dead horse. The election killed it, but they haven’t grasped this yet. A large part of the opposition anyway stems from fear of the unknown – a fear Labour et al fuel with wild claims. When the unknown resolves into actuality that fear will fade – leaving the doomsayers looking foolish.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 1:53 pm
I can’t be the only dirty leftist in New Zealand who doesn’t have a problem with much that the Key Govt has done?
Maybe that’s the reason… Sue?
Sue?
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 1:55 pm
I have no problem with them protesting, but what REALLY P!SSES ME OFF is that these morons almost invariably end up targeting the police. The average man and woman in blue, some of whom may very well sympathise with the protestors and wish they could join with them, but is just doing their job. The average policeman probably doesn’t want to stand around in the rain any more than the next man, but it’s their job and they have to do it. Yet, in an article in Stuff that Penny thoughfully linked to, we read:
“Some protests attempted to stare down police, standing and yelling centimetres from their faces.”
Why? It’s not the police making the call to sell shares, it’s not the police that these morons should be haranguing.
And if the police retaliate in ANY way, then we hear cries of “Police brutality!”
No I’m not a policeman, nor do I have any relatives in the police, but man I feel sorry for them having to put up with these prats.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Was Miss Dim in attendance?
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 2:02 pm
Graham,
isn’t it somewhat of a negative commentary on the protesters’ reputation that the police need to be there at all, outside of the DPS?
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 2:04 pm
“Yesterday morning’s all-comers rally against everything National stands for drew a total of 79 people – it may well have been counter-productive.”
Yup – and the 79 present (out of a population of 1.3 Million) are just a roll call of the usual unionists, the usual placard waving dissidents, the unwashed, the unkempt and certainly the unwanted.
But the breathless media still gives them oxygen…. pfftt.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 2:05 pm
but what REALLY P!SSES ME OFF is that these morons almost invariably end up targeting the police.
I wasn’t sure whether to give the benefit of the doubt on this or be cynical…
…and that was accompanied by a protester getting some police ‘overreaction’.
Genuine plea for care? Not out of character for r0b. Or a wink wink rallying cry? Turned out to be a whimper but that’s not the point if the intent was there.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Oh Pete, god, dont link to the sub standard, that really lowers the tone old chap. Theres a good lad.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 2:51 pm
I wouldn’t bother going to a protest if I could be collecting asset sales petition signatures instead. Maybe there are a lot of Aucklanders who feel the same way.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 2:57 pm
alex, Im with you. The more signatures we can get on the petition to get more assets partially privatised the better. Good man, keep up the good work.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 3:00 pm
But note the media gave almost more space to a few losers than to the conference itself and what we wanted to hear from our leaders.
Vote:Why have our media lost its grip on the mianstream?
July 23rd, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Jane Clifton @rumpole3
You can see through Twitter how TV ‘news’ can sometimes develop, they start with a story and then go looking for the fools and footage to fit their script.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 3:15 pm
BB: re ‘Why have our media lost its grip on the mianstream?’
Perhaps it’s more that the ‘general public’ have just had enough of ‘anti’ and actually agree with what Mr. Key is doing? Just a thought.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 3:19 pm
It is good to see that only 79 remain that would vote themselves poor.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Based on Labour’s argument that the majority oppose partial asset selldown because non-voters were totally alienated by National’s policies, you could argue the weekend turnout was a massive protest against National.
Vote:Only 400 National supporters at the conference, against the 79 protesters plus 4.5 million who were too disenfranchised by the party to turn up…
July 23rd, 2012 at 3:33 pm
It is good to see that only 79 remain that would vote themselves poor.
Those 79 are already poor, they want the rest of the nation to suffer so they can get more of a handout.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Nah, they want the rest of the nation to be poor too, since then we’d all be equal. Equally poor is, of course, the key objective of the far left.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 3:45 pm
I just find it funny that the left bitched and moaned about kiwis not being at the front of the queue for shares and now that National has a policy on this, they bitch and moan about kiwis being at the front of the queue. You can see the increasing desperation in posts (on Stuff) as they start to realise that no one actually gives a fuck what they say. The protests on the weekend showed this and made them look like complete fuckwits.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 3:47 pm
Penny Bright – 79 protesters yeserday is 45 people less than the number who voted for you in the last Election.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 3:48 pm
The reason so many police were there was the last time a conference they managed to force through the police lines. That they went to the building next door is irrelevant…
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 3:53 pm
Sofia
Vote:Penny is a quality rather than quantity kind of girl. In this case, the aggregate IQ of the 79 protesters equates to the aggregate IQ of those who voted for Penny.
July 23rd, 2012 at 4:26 pm
Once things were simple, you just decided someone was guilty, or associated with what you hated and cut their heads off. Now you have to get past a barrage of economists, statisticians, lawyers, PR consultants, compromised media people etc.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 4:31 pm
I was interested to note that neither main TV station, nor any commentators I’ve heard, chose to point out that the heavy police presence might have been justified on the basis of previous events, i.e. the same group of morons broke into the same venue through locked doors at a previous National Party event. Interested, but not surprised.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 4:42 pm
“Lack of protestors = support for the government” is a post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy.
Over the years there’s been any number of things that governments of various persuasions have done that I’ve found utterly contemptible.
I’ve also seen perfectly decent, respectable people from all walks of life mount well-behaved, reasonable protests only to be treated with contempt by “leaders”, so why would I join one? (for recent references see under “Clark, Helen”).
I know the people being yelled at won’t listen to anyone outside their own cosy circle of sycophants, till eventually their hubris becomes so great that they start to embarrass even their most fervent supporters and they’re moved aside in the hope a “new” leader – cut from precisely the same cloth – can win another election.
Given that most reasonable, employed, decent people now realise their role in democracy has been reduced, by careful planning by the ruling elites, to choosing between two homogenous alternatives once every three years (or venting their spleen by forcing the sods to put up with Winston, the only effective punishment left), they now have protest fatigue.
I’m thinking, for instance, of the types of people that stood quietly in rural and regional towns protesting against the closure or cutting back of hospital services back in the 90s. These were farmers and small businessmen and their wives, not hooligans. Many were middle aged then; they’re old now, and know the whole thing is a charade.
That means the majority of the people who still turn up to these things tend to be semi-literate thugs looking for a fight. Some of those people even wear uniforms. Why would anyone in their right mind want to get caught in the middle?
It may well be that there is indeed widespread support for the government’s policies. I’m merely pointing out that protest turn-outs are not a reliable indicator of that data.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 4:42 pm
So this was on the news last night. Why is the opinion of 79 people news I wonder? Might as well have gone and interviewed people at a central Auckland pub.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 5:23 pm
A central Auck pub on a Sunday arvo would likley be full of hard working wealthy National voters so no way the media will ask them anything…
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 6:24 pm
But if you are going to protest ANYTHING, it would be the party conference, surely?
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 7:06 pm
@Kimble
Nah, due to past incidents as mentioned above, there’s a high probability of a large police presence. Protesting these days is more like street theatre and has been for years (was it Shipley who saw to it that protesters against some foreign potentate were several streets away?). Huge waste of time, and even the most fervent whipper-upper of crowds basically does so nowadays with implicit entreaty “look, I know it won’t do any good, but if you don’t show up it’ll look like s**t on the TV and Kiwibloggers will take it as a ringing endorsement of the government”.
To make an impact nowadays you have to pretend to be a journalist and then biff a bit of footwear about.
Vote:July 23rd, 2012 at 7:35 pm
Good grief… It’s raining…. Someone lend these fuckwits a phone box to meet in. A total waste of space.
Vote:July 24th, 2012 at 8:57 am
Rex, you need to throw your shoes at the “right” people as well to make it a story. Hundreds of Egyptians throwing shoes at Hilary Clinton (and apparently chanting “Monica”) isn’t worth a mention in the great majority of the MSM, one person throwing a shoe at George Bush is a world-wide sensation.
But you’re right that politicians of all stripes are scum and that they differ only in some details. Those details though can make a huge difference to one’s life. All power then to those who would protest to reduce government interference in our lives, but sadly all those who typically protest for causes like against asset sales are de facto campaigning for more interference, more intrusive interference as well; qualtitatively and quantitatively increasing the hegemony of “the state”.
And kudos for that image of Winston being elected as a punishment to the other politicians; he’s a mirror that they see versions of themselves in. Utterly self serving as he is, he has his uses.
Vote: