Hard News: #JohnDotBanks and all
281 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 5 … 12 Newer→ Last
-
Hebe, in reply to
And so it could be possible with a different Labour Govt?
Any government providing they are prepared to make meaningful compromise -- and that is what New Zealand does not have.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
The estimable Mr Fisher, of whom I am sure John Banks speaks very highly, is now a Herald, not a HoS, staffer.
I stand corrected. Also: I'd hate to have Fish on my case the way that Banks does now :-)
-
One thing I find a bit puzzling about all of this, is why? Why did Banks bother to claim the Sky City donations as anonymous?
Sky City, like many businesses, regularly makes equal donations to all the serious mayoral candidates. So everyone knew already that they were going to give the same amount to Len Brown AND John Banks.
It wouldn't surprise me to find out that Kim Dotcom had made donations to multiple candidates and not just John Banks.
So given that we know Banks is receiving donations why bother with trying to hide them. It all seems like a lot of effort to hide something that is of little real importance.
The only time it ever becomes important is if you intend to abuse your position to provide benefit to your contributors and despite personally believing that Banks is scum of the first order I actually doubt he would do that.
-
Sacha, in reply to
tedious
if not acted on to change, yes
-
Kumara Republic, in reply to
As I previously mentioned, everyone has their price, but at least Len Brown played his cards with an open hand.
(There is precedent for this – the US Democrats and Republicans effectively swapped political sides during the late 19th / early 20th century).
And immediately before, the Republicans split into the Roosevelt progressives and Taft conservatives.
-
One thing I find a bit puzzling about all of this, is why? Why did Banks bother to claim the Sky City donations as anonymous?
John Banks on casinos, 1997:
“They’re wide boys, they’re flash boys, they’re big boys and they can take it. Because the little people of this country have been sucked, hung, drawn, quartered, bled by these people in these casinos,”
John Banks is a man who takes his reputation and integrity seriously. So seriously that he would willingly conspire to conceal anything that calls it into question…
The Kim Dotcom thing is more straight forward IMHO, and it is straight snobbery from John Banks. It is essential for the anxious nouveau riche to have unimpeachable credentials when moving amongst their better bred establishment peers. Many and varied have been those who have had clearly held their noses when discussing the vulgar, jolly and annoyingly very, very wealthy Mr. Dotcom – who to makes matters worse seems to not care not a jot about who is who. Such a continental indifference to class, where will it all end, with the French?
So when his “friend” Kim Dotcom came looking for a brother to help him out when he got into a sticky bit of bother with the Godzillasaurus of all establishments, it was all about deniability delivered with as much froideur as a self made shopkeeper from Whangarei can plausibly manage.
-
Euan Mason, in reply to
Rich of Observationz, in reply to Hebe, About 2 hours ago
Email
Maybe if National became a left-wing party.
(There is precedent for this – the US Democrats and Republicans effectively swapped political sides during the late 19th / early 20th century).
Some would argue that it happened in NZ during the 80s, on economic policy.
-
Bart Janssen, in reply to
John Banks is a man who takes his reputation and integrity seriously.
So you're saying he risked committing a crime to protect his appearance of integrity ...
I suspect you are right, yet another reason to not have him in parliament.
-
Snap survey amongst my staff – they still think Key is better than the alternatives. A vote for Goff was going backwards. Banks might be dodgy but he’s not Key, so there’s minimal transference of ickiness. Key remains clean.
We know better.
-
Kumara Republic, in reply to
Snap survey amongst my staff – they still think Key is better than the alternatives. A vote for Goff was going backwards. Banks might be dodgy but he’s not Key, so there’s minimal transference of ickiness. Key remains clean.
We know better.
Could it be the "Essex Man/Waitakere Man" effect? Or a mild case of treading water?
-
3410,
-
Bart Janssen, in reply to
So he's betting that there is no phone record, interesting gamble.
-
nzlemming, in reply to
That is not possible with a Key National govt but it could be possible with a different National. govt.
You make the false assumption that Key is leading, when he is only fronting this National government. Joyce, Brownlee and McCully would still be there, and Collins and a few others, even if Key was forced to swallow political hemlock. He has no idea, ideals or ideology to lead with - he just wants to be PM.
-
Helpful details from Kim Dotcom to assist the police inquiries, to be sure { ;)
-
nzlemming, in reply to
Snap survey amongst my staff – they still think Key is better than the alternatives. A vote for Goff was going backwards. Banks might be dodgy but he’s not Key, so there’s minimal transference of ickiness. Key remains clean.
Had a chat with an old colleague the other week, good bloke, otherwise intelligent, yet he tried to convince me that he'd voted for National because "their plan was better than Labour's". What it finally boiled down to, for him, was that Key had been "in business" and made a shitload of money so he must know what he's doing. It's enough to make you cry.
-
3410,
So he's betting that there is no phone record, interesting gamble.
No, he claims he did call to thank him... but for something else!
(unless you mean "no phone recording", in which case, he certainly is).
-
Hebe, in reply to
You make the false assumption that Key is leading, when he is only fronting this National government. Joyce, Brownlee and McCully would still be there, and Collins and a few others, even if Key was forced to swallow political hemlock. He has no idea, ideals or ideology to lead with - he just wants to be PM.
I don't think of John Key as purely a frontman. There is more substance, even though his ideology is not what I agree with -- and that he thinks differently to me about many things doesn't make him bad per se.
-
nzlemming, in reply to
So he's betting that there is no phone record, interesting gamble.
My guess is that he looked at his phone records for the period around April, found nothing and so thought he was sweet. Now Dotcom says June. heheh, we'll just see...
-
Tom Semmens, in reply to
So he’s betting that there is no phone record, interesting gamble.
Phone records are normally only stored by phone companies for around three-six months in an easily retrievable format. I am not sure of the current regulatory environment for keeping them for longer, but even if they are it would be in off-line storage formats of uncertain reliability.
Assuming it was a mobile call, if John Bank's keeps his itemised phone records going back to 2010 then I'd be burning them all around now.
-
nzlemming, in reply to
I don't think of John Key as purely a frontman. There is more substance, even though his ideology is not what I agree with -- and that he thinks differently to me about many things doesn't make him bad per se.
Then you think far better of him than I do, after viewing his flipflops, his vacillations, his reluctance to actually take a stand on anything until he's seen the polling results.
-
Michael Homer, in reply to
ACT getting Epsom gives National an effective bonus seat, even if they got no further seats. Why? Because ACT’s seat does not count against the National total seats. If National won the seat, they would get one less list MP (so their numbers would be unaffected)
Not really true. ACT only got the party vote total it did because it had a good chance of getting in through Epsom. If they hadn't thrown them the seat and only 2,000 people switched their vote to National instead of ACT they would have had their 18th list seat anyway.
It's true that it's hard to pick that in advance, but given how Sainte-Laguë works they would be pretty likely to get it. More votes means more seats in general, and only in odd edge cases do you get more seats than you "should" by splitting votes across parties (and not more than one in any case). It's only if you assume that the party vote tallies are the same that National loses a seat.
-
Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
So he’s betting that there is no phone record, interesting gamble.
These guys, (Key, Banks et al) are not used to having anyone question their word, their behaviour, their friendships. They believe their standing in the community exempts them from that. Their arrogance is often what let's their guard down and we see evidence of that on Key's face when the media question him. I suspect Kim is starting to see who his real friends are as is often the case when banged up. I suspect he will be most helpful to the Police, just as Owen Glenn was. If not, it brings him into disrepute and he would be a fool to allow that now that his honesty is being questioned with Banks' denials.
-
Sofie Bribiesca, in reply to
Assuming it was a mobile call, if John Bank’s keeps his itemised phone records going back to 2010 then I’d be burning them all around now.
And how convenient that Banks now recalls a phone call but it's for the fireworks. (just in case eh?)
-
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
No, he claims he did call to thank him… but for something else!
Be interesting to see when the phone call was then, June would seem to be a little late for thanking someone for contributing to a New Years event...
-
3410, in reply to
Indeed it would, especially considering that they were both at the same party to watch the fireworks display!
Post your response…
This topic is closed.