Wednesday 19 November 2014

Spin

Sorry to be away so long. Been busy.

But the news of Labour’s new leader so excited me I felt I had to return!

No, not really. I’m about as inspired by him as everyone else has been. Which apparently isn’t very much.

Even Russell Brown is underwhelmed, blogging before catching a plane that

Labour's leadership result and the means by which it was achieved both seem disastrous for the party and for the prospects of the centre-left.
    Little didn't win the support of the party or the caucus, he loses his electorate more badly every time he contests it, and he's vowing to dump all the intellectual capital built up by David Parker. I can't see any good thing about this.

The comment is made more underwhelming still by observing that anyone who has formed the view David Parker has amassed “intellectual capital” is already fairly easily excited.

Mind you, even Red  John Minto is underwhelmed, reckoning Little election foreshadows

a Labour Party which seeks power not because it has a policy programme to make a big difference for working New Zealanders but because senior Labour MPs hope they will soon get another turn to run the free market economy and receive the baubles of power which go with it.

Not all bad then. And maybe some truth there emerging there from a somewhat jaundiced direction.

Mind you, the spin that Little was only voted in by union delegates is not quite true, not if you look at the third ballot anyway.

The man almost got a majority in his caucus.

2 comments:

Mr Lineberry said...

So if I understand this correctly Mr Little had the support of only 4 MPs? - how on earth can a leader crack the whip and stamp his authority when nobody in the room voted for him?

Looks like he is yet another temporary Labour leader, an historical footnote of no consequence.

Jim Rose said...

A triumph for preferential voting: labour has a leader about whom most everyone in their movement is lukewarm about.

The Labour Party's criterion on for selecting a leader these days is someone who is not widely hated.

They then put this guy up against someone who most New Zealanders would like to invite round their house for a barbecue and a beer.