Posts by Barnard
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to Kumara Republic,
The sooner this kind of Peoples’ Front of Judeaism can be put to rest, the better. Unlike the ideological split between Lange & Douglas in the late 1980s, it seems like two cyclists fighting over a can of petrol this time round. I would have thought that the bitterest factions broke away during the early MMP era.
That most of the ideological battles are in theory ancient history has stopped party's of the left from infighting. These days it's either usually just purely personal or over image.
Having said that, there are lots of people claiming Cuncliffe as a man of left, who'll will wipe away any traces of neo liberal orthodoxy.
Have I missed the evidence for these claims? -
Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to Sacha,
One Standard post about ‘old guard’ claims is interesting in light of our discussion above – usual caution about wading into the comments applies, and the place is rife with factional angles as you’d imagine.
No one does nasty pointless factionalism quite like the left.
I'm a Green voter, but know we need a unified, mature and committed Labour party if we're going to see a change of government.
I think the reason why I've found DC and his supporters so frustrating as tied to nudge nudge plotting & factionalism seems to be an idea that the right personality at the head is going to be a magic wand to save the party.
It's not, even if some of concerns about Shearer are possibly warranted. National seem almost entirely reliant on the cult of Key. Labour can't win at that game, but they can if they have a team that can put across a group of policies that present ideas of a different direct for the country.
Lets hope they can now build on the week and start doing that (Although I worry that DC & his supporter won't let it go). -
Well, it's not quite Kiwiblog of the left, but lets just say the toys are on the floor and a few claims to never be voting for Labour ever again :)
Lots of claims that Cuncliffe and Cunliffe alone posed a major threat to pro business neo liberal status quo, and thus had to be silenced. -
It's all going off on The Standard and a few usual suspects, but hopefully once they've let of steam they'll calm down, and Labour can start talking about ideas rather than personalities.
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to HenryB,
, in my view, was trying to bully Cunliffe and others to commit to saying how they would vote in February.
Is it that, or simply driven by a frustration at the whispers, the briefings and speculation that's been going on, and the potential of it overshadowing everything between now & February?
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to BenWilson,
I guess the question you’re raising, Barnard, is to what extent should the Labour party allow the media to dictate their actions? Because you’re suggesting that unless Cunliffe behaves exactly how they want, then he’s mounting a powerful challenge and Shearer’s got to do something now
No, I said earlier I think it's possible to have caucus or a party that has healthy internal debate but to at least all find common cause in taking on a government or trying to win an election.I agree with Sacha that's it's the bitching and briefing that's the problem
Wishing the hacks to report all that differently is pointless. There's a ship and a lighthouse in that equation, and it's not hard to guess who's who.
Take the British Labour party, hacks are still trying to get traction over Blairite & anti Blairite factions. But it's not really gone anywhere as you get the sense the caucus itself have realised how self defeating it is. Whether that remains the case if the Tories close the gaps in the polls we'll see, but they've doing a pretty decent job of all pointing in the same general direction and being focused.
So I'm not saying that Labour should be letting the media dictate their actions, merely that they're smart enough to realise what they're dealing and be mature enough to focus on what's important.
They could start by not pretending Cunliffe doesn't have an agenda, and either openly back him or back Shearer's attempts to get him to pull his head in. -
Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to BenWilson,
In two weeks, few will remember.
But if the drip drip continues, that becomes the narrative the public hears. Anything else is pushed to the background, as the you know what stories the press will run.
Having lived through the Blair/Brown briefings/counter briefings bollocks, whilst it was incredibly irritating and you thought surely people are bored of this, but it was obvious that so long as it was there the press were going to be keep pushing it. Hacks love scandal. It's debatable how much of a negative effect it had electorally, but there's no doubt it was incredible distracting.
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to Sacha,
Which is where their party’s sustained weakness lies. Changing figureheads won’t fix that lack of strategic and marketing nous.
There is that but I was thinking of something much simpler, that internally to members this might appear like a democratic revolution and regaining the party for the grass roots, but if you're one of the vast majority of the public who'll only see this via the msm you wouldn't come away with that view at all.
Also, that Herald editorial. Sure, today isn't going to kill this off for good, but I've not seen a credible suggestion for how Shearer should be handling it. (And by credible, I mean something that doesn't start with 'There was no challenge')
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Hard News: Calling the race before it's over, in reply to DexterX,
A better view.
Except there's nothing about how all this is going to appear to the general public.
I suspect they might find it appears quite different.
Not to mention that whilst not wishing for some kind of Blairite banality, 'taking their party back' won't mean much if all it achieves is keeping a hardcore happy and scraping for some of the Greens votes. -
Am I missing something?
Do all the 'It's all the media's fault', 'Cunliffe's done nothing wrong' expect us to swallow the 'there was no leadership challenge nonsense, realise they've cocked it up, or are playing some longer game?