Interestingly Don Brash told Nat Rad this morning that "Helen Clark stole the election," he demanded she pay it back, and he called for an early election -- perhaps the strongest statement yet from an opposition leader who has really begun to front-foot this issue. That phrase on the Free Rad cover I helped put together just a few weeks ago now seems to have real legs.
Meanwhile, following Labour Party Secretary Mike Williams's admission last week that the Pledge Card was a "central part" of the Labour Party election campaign, the G-Man has begun transcribing tapes he made of Helen Clark addressing election meetings around Wellington, and in which she makes the same point. Says the transcriber:
If we are to believe that Labour were intending the pledge cards to be merely educational tools for dim-witted taxpayers who may be unaware of government policies, and that it was merely an absolute coincidence that a hotly fought election was a matter of weeks away, then why did Helen Clark have this to say to a public meeting [...] and then go on to outline over about half an hour how the pledge card was the centre-piece of their re-election campaign?Visit G-Man to hear
Does he think we're all stupid? Yes, of course he does. In fact, he and his fellow hacks, and the PM-elect, are all relying on it. "Lies about the pledge card need to stop," says the hack, and I agree with him: the Labour Party should stop lying, and pay it back.
As it gets increasingly messy, I wonder how it will all play out in court come Darnton V Clark.
LINKS: Eh? - G-Man
Darnton V Clark site.
Labour looks at way to repay taxpayer cash - NZ Herald
Lies about the pledge card - (Just Left) Jordan Carter
4 comments:
Peter,
I don't like this "pay it back" slogan. Paying it back does not impose a sanction for breaking the law and acting immorally. The amount of money is nominal. It is the fact that the government (who sets the laws of this country) believes that it can break the law with impunity.
If Labour pays the money back, or devises some scheme to pay it back, then the "pay it back" brigade will presumably be happy. Well I will not be.
Bernard's court case is the best way to highlight the true nature of this government.
Julian
Ditto, Julian.
Tony Soprano's repayment of the amount stolen from a restaurateur at the point of a gun, doesn't excuse/dismiss the crime committed in the first place.
Two issues here as I see it: 1. repaying the money and 2. facing the legal consequences of doing so in the first place.
Sorry.
The last should read 'spending it in the first place'.
Wheres Clark (and PC fan ;-0 ) Ian Wishart on all this? I would have thought he would have been all over it like a starving dog on a bone.
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