Locke on Key
March 8th, 2013 at 10:00 am by David FarrarAndrea Vance at Stuff reports:
Prime Minister John Key’s refusal to attend the funeral of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez is a “mind-boggling political blunder,” a former MP says.
Former Green MP Keith Locke says Key is wasting an opportunity to rub shoulders with leaders in the increasingly influential region.
I’m really not sure how news worthy it is that a former Green MP disagrees with the PM. If it was a current MP, maybe.
I thought Keith Locke was against leaders who abuse human rights. I guess he thinks it is okay, when they are of the same ideological persuasion.
Tags: Hugo Chavez, John Key, Keith Locke
March 8th, 2013 at 10:04 am
To paraphrase mine host: “I’m really not sure how news worthy it is that a former Green MP shows himself to be a hypocrite on the question of human rights.”
The man has no credibility and his apologies for his past totalitarianism should cut no ice. If someone was a staunch supporter of the totalitarian regimes in the 30s and then renounced his support after the fact we might well forgive them. Would we treat them as credible on the question of human rights? Hardly.
March 8th, 2013 at 10:09 am
Typical media irrelevancy.
Like TV wittering how attractive the wife of the Mexican president may or may not be. Really?
Hardly anything anywhere on the usefulness of these contacts etc etc. These reporters rarely rise above the level of gossip columnists.
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 10:10 am
The unswerving, unquestioning, downright unbalanced Chavez tributes that are coming out are just unreal.
I self-identify and a leftie and even I have been flat-out on Facebook and elsewhere, gently suggesting to my mates that they should maybe curb their Chavez enthusiasm; because the best thing you can really say about the guy is that he jailed and killed fewer dissidents than some other strongman-style would-be autocrats have done…
March 8th, 2013 at 10:19 am
Makes you wonder how far in to her contacts file Andrea Vance had to go to find someone who was critical of John Key’s decision not to attend!
And of course the headline is written in such a way as to minimise the fact that it is Komrade Keith who managed to squeak his disapproval, courtesy of the left leaning editors at Stuff.co.nz, once again contributing to the downfall of the mainstream media in the face of the internet. The fact that the ‘great unwashed’ can now communicate and share information without the influence of the media has not yet been grasped by those who consider themselves in the know.
How dare the plebs try to make up their own minds about issues!
March 8th, 2013 at 10:31 am
Your attacking the man rather than the message here DPF.
Bryce Edwards points out some good reasons why Key should attend Chavez’s funeral here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10869811
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 10:36 am
Of course all the lefties are looking for any chance to have a go at Key, but it’s not their decision and they’re just doing what opposition does. Won’t get much traction except with other lefties.
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 10:42 am
the Left thinks Key should attend the funeral for political gain ignoring the more likely outcome that it’ll be seen as someone just attending a funeral for political gain.
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 10:44 am
Funeral attendance should not be so politicised. Key has decided that he won’t go–end of story.
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 10:46 am
Claire Trevett making incisive political comment:
‘At times Mr Key came across as the travelling salesman for the car yard of New Zealand’.
Is this really the best she is capable of or just yet another inane comment redusing everything to its most banal and unintelligent level.
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 10:48 am
“…Funeral attendance should not be so politicised…”
I must have been imagining that I saw Key hamming it up at the Pike River memorial service. I say “memorial service” rather than “funerals” because after milking it for all it was worth, he decided he wasn’t going to retrieve the bodies after all.
March 8th, 2013 at 10:59 am
Like others, I’m just laughing at a media who would have us believe that Locke’s views on anything, are somehow newsworthy.
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 11:00 am
Foreign Minister Murray McCully, currently in Egypt, will make the call on who represents New Zealand at the funeral.
We should send Winston Peters, as long as it’s only one way.
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 11:05 am
Chavez was no friend of the West. The only reason for someone from NZ to go to the funeral is to make sure he is dead and buried.
March 8th, 2013 at 11:17 am
The likes of Locke and most of the left are so pathetic.
Vote:They always go on about America supporting dictators.
Yes, these days are handful of countries in the Middle East that they have a strategic alliances with but criticize the internal and foreign policies of, but who would not support that in certain circumstances. The alliance with Soviet Union against Nazi Germany is the obvious example.
But hypocritically, they go much further and not only give their unwavering support to but idolize dictators like Chavez.
March 8th, 2013 at 11:28 am
Chavez simply didn’t belong to the one world govt and New World Order Key does belong to.
Chavez spoke out against George H Bush’s World Order time and again
Vote:
March 8th, 2013 at 11:36 am
So Green Russel Norman doesn’t think NZ should have anything to do with Chinese leaders, because they are anti-democratic thugs who violate human rights. Even though they are one of our biggest trading partners and tens of thousands of NZ jobs depend on good relations with China.
But Green Keith Locke thinks John Key should go to the funeral of an anti-democratic thug who violated human rights. Even though we do negligible trade with Venezuela, almost no jobs depend on Venezuelan trade, and most of the other leaders who show up will be thugs and weirdos like Mugabe, Amadinejad, and the nutty woman who wants to own the Falklands.
I wonder if Assad will put in an appearance?
Greens… Who can understand them?
March 8th, 2013 at 11:50 am
I think Keith Locke’s opinion on this i……zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 12:06 pm
‘… when they are of the same ideological persuasion.’ Except that despots generally behave the same whether they are extreme left or extreme right. Push an extreme left winger a bit further to the left and he becomes an extreme right winger and vice versa.
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 12:52 pm
Different story, same trip:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8397275/Slow-steps-begin-relationship-with-Colombia
Nastiness and stupidity in one package. How efficient!
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 12:52 pm
Yawn2
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 1:12 pm
This may well be why John Key is staying away:
Allegations of antisemitism
On 24 December 2005, Chávez stated that “[t]he world is for all of us, then, but it so happens that a minority, the descendants of the same ones that crucified Christ, the descendants of the same ones that kicked Bolívar out of here and also crucified him in their own way over there in Santa Marta, in Colombia. A minority has taken possession all of the wealth of the world.”[355] Accusations of antisemitism have been leveled against Chávez because of these comments.[356] Steve Rendall and Jim Naureckas of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting questioned that interpretation, which they said was largely claimed by right-wing opinion journals.[357]
According to a report documenting hundreds of antisemitic actions of the police and other government offices, the creation of a newly formed antisemitic rhetoric in government sponsored newspapers and the rise of antisemitic attacks against Jewish people and Jewish organisations, in a country that was totally lacking all these phenomena before Chávez, pointed to his personal involvement in active antisemitism. Examples of this sentiment include two government raids in the Jewish school of Caracas where they searched for evidence of weapons or subversive activity: one raid in the morning of 29 November 2004, as elementary school children began their studies, and a second raid during a wedding in one of the school’s halls in the evening of 2 December 2007.[358]
Chávez accused the opposition of working for Jewish interests, saying “don’t let yourselves be poisoned by those wandering Jews.” (According to the Jewish community, the phrase ‘wandering Jews’, which is commonly used in the Catholic world, was directed metaphorically at the leaders of the opposition parties, which Chavez claims have nothing to offer the country’s citizens.)[359][360][unreliable source?]
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 2:25 pm
MSM is fanning the flames of Keith Locke returning to politics, it’s bullshit. So many are gullible in the blogosphere, just walk away David and remove this lunacy!
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 2:43 pm
“Another gringo puts on the hat”
Isn’t Gringo, in that context, a racial slur?
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Peter
Re: Isn’t Gringo, in that context, a racial slur?
Although its origins and use are disputed, it would appear not, but does have ‘foreigner’ conotation when used by the Spanish and Portugese locals. The word does however tend to be more-commonly used in respect of ‘American’ foreigners.
But, if the Left say it, it’s OK, OK?
BTW: It’s hard not to detect a certain degree of ENVY from the comments made by Locke, Norman, Mallard, Robertson et al. Odd that!!! (the ‘Baubles of power’ etc. etc)
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 4:10 pm
Remember, Keith Locke was at one stage a great supporter of that man of freedom and democracy Pol Pot, in that hell hole of Kampuchea(Cambodia)
Vote:Locke got a roasting in Parliament for that.
Chavez was always a thug, wrecking the Venezuela. Just like the Greens would if they were to run NZ. Read anything about Eastern Europe post-WW2 to see how the communists handled the members of the non-communist parties.
Locke comes from a very strange family, among whom include Mare Ledbetter(KL’s sister) protector of idiotic nations, Elsie Locke(Left wing author) and father John Locke who stood for the Communist Party in elections in Christchurch Central.
A New Zealander who we shouldn’t be proud of !!!!!
March 8th, 2013 at 4:18 pm
toms said
Good God; you must live a sad existence Tom; filled with all that hatred.
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 4:38 pm
I’d love to see someone ask Shearer if he would have gone?
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 5:46 pm
I am glad that Chavez is dead , the bloated idiot, and any way isn’t Keith Locke dead also, and if not why not
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 6:51 pm
The Locke family: utter, utter, failures in every single way
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 7:45 pm
Locke, human rights – pavlov dog food free on Kiwiblog.
Is the idea of going to a gathering of South American leaders a good or bad one? That is the only current event issue in play.
Vote:March 8th, 2013 at 9:01 pm
Another member of the minority faggots telling us which way is up !!..
Vote:March 9th, 2013 at 7:55 am
Quite right Neil.
Keith Locke thought Pol Pot was a hero – and said so in parliament.
So how have the media got it so wrong digging up this old political carcass.
Maybe the media need a bit of the Pol Pot treatment to straighten their brains out – so that they can recognise on which side their bread is buttered.
Vote:March 9th, 2013 at 10:46 am
The funeral was a good networking opportunity. As he was already in the region and as his meeting with the President of Chile was postponed so the latter could go to the funeral, it is a missed opportunity. finally he was already in the region.
I dont have much time for Locke either, but I think it looks like a snub, which is pretty dumb.
Vote:March 9th, 2013 at 11:01 am
Why are people still getting quotes from Keith Locke. He is an absolute idiot, and some/most of the things he says are so far off this planet it is laughable.
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