Posts by Mr Mark
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Hard News: News from home ..., in reply to NSA,
You are aware that Labour's opinion poll lead was shown to be as high as 23% in early May 1994 before John Smith's death ?
Spot on. Amazing how often people trot out the myth that the British Labour Party was unelectable until Blair won the leadership. During much of Smith's leadership, Labour oscillated between early 40s and early 50s, while the Tories very rarely made it above 30%. I haven't worked out the average Labour poll lead over the Smith period but looks to me like something in the region of 14-17 points.
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Hard News: News from home ..., in reply to Grant McDougall,
An utter balls-up by Labour. Grant Robertson hosed in in both the caucus and party membership votes
Well, no.
Robertson beat Little by the relatively narrow margins of 55/45 among Party Members and 56/44 among the caucus (18 MPs to 14 MPs). Not sure I'd call that "hosed in" exactly !!!
I must admit that (as someone who mildly favoured Little), I grimaced when I first saw the breakdowns. But only because I could guess the all-too-predictable MSM attack lines: Unions foist leader on Party etc etc
But overall, I'm reasonably happy (without being wildly enthusiastic) that Little won. I can only hope that all the Robertson acolytes - including those who have hitched their career-wagon to his leadership juggernaut - get all the Darien Fenton-like spite and venom out of their systems over the next couple of days. Anything else is sheer self-indulgence at the Left's expense.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Cilla!, in reply to Ken Double,
Yep. Despite the wonderfully authentic working-class scouser vocals, Cilla was an out-and-out Thatcherite. While Merseyside suffered badly throughout the 80s and 90s, Cilla was one of the Conservative Party's key Celeb-endorsers Election after Election. As, indeed, was that other working-class girl, Shirley Bassey, from Cardiff's notoriously rough and ready dockside suburb, Tiger Bay.
No surprises, then, that Black - like other Brit Light Entertainment Celebs with Tory leanings - happily played South Africa at the height of Apartheid.
She also, rather tragically, attended David Cameron's recent attempt to re-ignite Tony Blair's (equally unfortunate) late 90s Cool Britannia campaign.
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Thanks for linking to those three excellent ABC Media Watch episodes Russell. Much appreciated.
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_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ NEW ZEALAND POLICE _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
101 Glorious Years Since Massey's Cossacks - The Dream-Run Continues -
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ NEW ZEALAND POLICE _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Acting Impartially on Behalf of the New Zealand National Party -
Speaker: An Open Letter To David Cunliffe, in reply to bmk,
"People make Clark comparisons but Clark's loss wasn't on the scale of Cunliffe's."
1996 Labour 28.2% Down 6.5 points
2014 Labour 25.0% (my Final Result estimation) Down 2.5 pointsDepends how you look at it really.
The broader point being, as Gio so rightly put it: "The theory that Cunliffe is solely responsible for Labour's defeat or even its main cause seems outlandish to me."
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I did have a few things to add, but Mr Tiso is expressing many of my sentiments (and rather more eloquently than I ever could).
I'll just say that any negative feedback on Cunliffe during the 2014 campaign (as highlighted by Russell, James, Stephen and Keir) is not necessarily unique/unprecedented. Consider this:
One News (April 2011)
"There are worrying results for Phil Goff's leadership in the latest ONE News Colmar Brunton poll. The poll....found almost half of Labour's supporters say they are unsure who would make the best leader for the party." Just 30% felt Goff was the best person to lead Labour.Marae DigiPoll (Sep 2011)
(1000 Maori voters in both Maori and General seats)
Should Shane Jones take over from Phil Goff as leader ?
Yes 47%, No 31%Bryce Edwards' Liberation Blog (Sep 2011)
"Labour's troubles continue to be embodied by the leadership of Phil Goff. (North and South's Mike White) tries to explain how the public has come to have 'an image of 58-year-old Goff as weak, bland and with no hope of winning an election'".Fairfax-Media Research (Aug 2011)
If the Labour Party chose to change their leader before November's election, would you be more or less likely to vote Labour ?
TOTAL More 20%
TOTAL Less 11%NZ Herald (Oct 2011)
(Labour) still suffers from the problem that has vexed it throughout the term - leader Phil Goff's unpopularity....Because of the distraction the leadership issue has caused, Labour has sought to remove it by downplaying the role Goff takes in the campaign."Danyl at Dim Post (July 2011)
"Voters really, really, really don't like Phil Goff."Precisely how unusual is it for some erstwhile Labour supporters to be grumpy about the Party leader in any given Election ?
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Craig Ranapia in reply to me: "....the usual house style is to extend people the presumption they're speaking in good faith and engage with what they've actually said"
Craig Ranapia in reply to Sue (a few comments above): "You're being spectacularly disingenuous there, Sue...."
Milk Monitor, Heal Thy Self.
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Speaker: An Open Letter To David Cunliffe, in reply to Marc C,
"So I fear there may be a hint of partiality" on Dann's part.
Yeah, I get the impression James is pretty ambitious and has therefore hitched his wagon to the Robertson juggernaut. Probably hoping for a reasonably high List spot or Safe-ish Electorate somewhere down the line.
Hence all the overblown rhetoric, bordering on 19C Melodrama. Begone ye foul Demon !!! And never set foot again through the Party's doors as long as ye shall live !!!
Unintentionally hilarious stuff.
And, in that context, it's amusing that Keir should take Jenny Kirk to task for "absolutely outrageous and inflammatory" rhetoric, while at the same time suggesting that Dann's rather unpleasant attack on Cunliffe is simply "the kind of honesty and directness that Labour needs"