tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post7377358301301707956..comments2024-03-28T21:25:08.138+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: French LessonsChris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-41801192089716493052014-08-02T17:36:26.499+12:002014-08-02T17:36:26.499+12:00Maybe the toiler/battler is Matt McCarten.
Or, ma...Maybe the toiler/battler is Matt McCarten.<br /><br />Or, maybe the right wing itsel, as if they get back in, many people will have only grudgingly voted for it. The time will come, probably no later than 2017, when even an infighting Labour Party will find itself running the country. i want Cunliffe, but Robertson in 2017's not bad, either.<br /><br />As I drive around Auckland this year, it is the right wing billboards that are trashed or defaced. No, I wouldn't do that myself, but surely it's ok to chuckle at some of the work of others:<br /><br />"Vote National: Working for NZ [And China]"<br />"Vote National: Working for [Big Business]"<br />"[Ab]use your party vote: Vote Conservative"... et alAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-65179164584507503452014-07-30T11:22:50.740+12:002014-07-30T11:22:50.740+12:00Yes greywarbler I can have dark images flit in fro...Yes greywarbler I can have dark images flit in front of my face. I think our host does sometimes too. Some of his best writing .....<br /><br />I see myself as a green & expect I unconsciously want to be a Green but cannot as I am a blue rather than a red green. Perhaps that makes me anti-Green and as my late mother said, I have an 'acid tongue' (she could talk!). So sorry I shall try to be nicer under my new exposed self. I recommend it greywarbler.(my favourite song bird btw, the sound of a sunny day)<br /><br />I want to see the Greens move to the centre and have the balance of power rather than Winnie or the M Party or the Dotty-Commie Party etc. They are potentially a force for good I'm sure but why are they left of Labour? The environment needs them central. There is an element in them that is pseudo-religious I think and people like that worry me. They are the sort who would die for their cause, which rarely has merit, as it means they are the sort who eventually would kill for their cause. WE don't need those people in power here, as if anyone does. There are enough of them in the ME.<br />Kind Regards Charles Etherington, formerly the nasty CarbonGuiltyCharles Etheringtonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-84350175226230401382014-07-29T13:37:05.358+12:002014-07-29T13:37:05.358+12:00Well, Chris, in the context of my comments I would...Well, Chris, in the context of my comments I would describe my remarks as more irony than sarcasm. Katnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-31506264498291413442014-07-28T23:05:31.716+12:002014-07-28T23:05:31.716+12:00Has no one ever told you, Kat, that sarcasm is the...Has no one ever told you, Kat, that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit?Chris Trotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-43536997762672559562014-07-28T20:47:15.321+12:002014-07-28T20:47:15.321+12:00Chris, your doing a wonderful job of keeping the b...Chris, your doing a wonderful job of keeping the barking dogs at bay, keep it up, you are a true Leftie hero an we appreciate your efforts.<br /><br />Two ticks Labour, or the Nat-dogs ticks will itch you to death!Katnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-26570456723722384592014-07-28T11:26:10.512+12:002014-07-28T11:26:10.512+12:00Not many people realise, Bonaparte actually saved ...Not many people realise, Bonaparte actually saved the French Revolution from being crushed and monarchy restored. Without Napoleon, we may very well not have seen widespead democracy around the world. A million French citizens crowded the dock when his body was returned home.Davidnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-3900697219522112782014-07-28T10:48:53.227+12:002014-07-28T10:48:53.227+12:00Carbon guilty
What an unpleasant mind you have sho...Carbon guilty<br />What an unpleasant mind you have shown in your connection of the Greens to death camps.<br />It seems you have adapted Godwin's law in a vicious and slanderous <br />reincarnation.greywarblernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-38682989502518368522014-07-28T09:27:33.395+12:002014-07-28T09:27:33.395+12:00It's the problem with MMP. The two main partie...It's the problem with MMP. The two main parties move to the centre and the extreme parties hang around the edges like an un-invited guest at a wedding!<br /><br />The net result is we get tweedledee/tweedledum politics.<br /><br />If you are waiting for Labour to move to the left again Chris, don't hold your breath mate. Ain't gonna happen! Right now they are fighting the Cult of Johnny-be-Good.Davo Stevensnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-87026487109296722202014-07-28T00:23:25.024+12:002014-07-28T00:23:25.024+12:00Good piece, yet again, Chris.
Napoleon, that is ...Good piece, yet again, Chris. <br /><br />Napoleon, that is ME, but Labour have NOT discovered me yet, nor have I volunteered to oil the guillotines yet. Things may change soon, that is after 20 September. A change is needed, and a radical one that is, and a resolute and firm, focused mind is needed to lead the rabble. <br /><br />Actually the last word is an insult, is it not, but they need some "cleansing" and "sorting", and they first need to face the blood on the floor, that is on 20 September.<br /><br />After that all is possible, and hope and help may be in sight, finally. <br /><br />Revolutions of sorts come difficult in this "humble" country, but they can happen, nonetheless.<br /><br />I am waiting, I am ready, greetings and keep up the spirits, despite all, dear folks.<br /><br />Your future leader.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-87972290109766166562014-07-27T21:13:03.981+12:002014-07-27T21:13:03.981+12:00Yes indeed, two well deserved fish, or three for a...Yes indeed, two well deserved fish, or three for a good column to start with gov.<br />But instead of the Greens being presumably Russian communism on the rise I see them as more Germanic, alarmingly similar to those earth worshiping rosy cheeked lederhosen clad volks who eventually built the catastrophe of the death camps. <br />So I really do hope Labour gets reborn whole & sound then swallows those pretenders on its left.CarbonGuiltynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-50558609827659605062014-07-27T20:57:14.132+12:002014-07-27T20:57:14.132+12:00This article brings to mind the saying "histo...This article brings to mind the saying "history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce"<br />pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08727942156598555852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-55044527869944262292014-07-27T19:42:57.129+12:002014-07-27T19:42:57.129+12:00I often wonder whether that Napoleonic should be C...I often wonder whether that Napoleonic should be Chris Trotter.<br /><br />You have respect on all sides of the political spectrum. I firmly believe you could lead the Labour Party out of the wilderness.Ben Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06273773374616566109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-82660015237087936022014-07-27T17:06:06.623+12:002014-07-27T17:06:06.623+12:00I doff my three-cornered hat to Mr Bloggs' spi...I doff my three-cornered hat to Mr Bloggs' spiked helmet.<br /><br />That is a bloody brilliant analogy!<br /><br />Take a chocolate fish.Chris Trotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-67466714395609793152014-07-27T13:50:29.599+12:002014-07-27T13:50:29.599+12:00So a little Napoleonic dalliance we play.
It coul...So a little Napoleonic dalliance we play.<br /><br />It could be argued David Cunliffe exhibits similar complex personality traits attributed to the great Horatio Nelson. I suspect there is no 'Emma' but the sudden appearance of a 'bullet' is plausible. <br /><br />That bullet won't be from the sinking tin ship of National though. Somewhere in the corridors a voice will be heard lamenting, "We have lost more than we have gained." <br /><br /><br /><br /> Katnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-28005269229433804502014-07-27T12:24:31.499+12:002014-07-27T12:24:31.499+12:00re Nic Leggett, don't panic. Cunliffe will com...re Nic Leggett, don't panic. Cunliffe will come through in September. If he doesn't, it wont be Cunliffe leaving, the R&F will ensure it is some of the old rogernomes and DC will come through in 2017. Stay calm. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-46719770443671385592014-07-27T12:18:51.788+12:002014-07-27T12:18:51.788+12:00So we are going to end up with another Rogergnome?...So we are going to end up with another Rogergnome? Oh joy!Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-23422929765509532812014-07-27T11:42:36.318+12:002014-07-27T11:42:36.318+12:00Perhaps your French history metaphor is a bit too ...Perhaps your French history metaphor is a bit too early - instead of being Louis XV, Helen Clarke was actually the Napolean to Roger Douglas' Robespierre. The revolution and bloodletting happened in the eighties, from which Helen ascended to political dominance over the continental landscape of NZ politics. For 9 years, she had absolute control over the left, with the right banished to their bastions trying desperately to maintain what position they could. With Helen having met her Waterloo at the hands of the National party's General Key, and departed overseas, the Labour party is now in the throes of the equivilent of France's 19th century political turmoil, while beside them, another rising power, relatively new to the political scene (The Greens) challenges for control over the continental left... J Bloggsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-16878198825111196012014-07-27T11:11:22.161+12:002014-07-27T11:11:22.161+12:00Well spotted, Markus!
It would be great to be abl...Well spotted, Markus!<br /><br />It would be great to be able to offer the reward system of the student newspapers of the 70s and 80s, which was the gifting of a chocolate fish to the most enterprising and/or particularly perspicacious readers.<br /><br />Please consider yourself the recipient of a virtual chocolate fish. Nic Leggett was, indeed, the person I had in mind. And, after the crashing and burning of the Left and all their hopes on 20/9/14 - which now seems likely - it will almost certainly be a person of Nic's ideological heritage who clears away the wreckage and begins again.<br /><br />And, yes, Victor - a Waterloo will follow. It always does. Because, as Enoch Powell sadly observed: "All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs." Chris Trotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-42643757258957242992014-07-27T09:08:09.424+12:002014-07-27T09:08:09.424+12:00Your description of this young Napoleonic figure p...Your description of this young Napoleonic figure puts me in mind of my local (Porirua) Mayor, 35 year-old Nick Leggett. Long-time member of the Labour Party but stood for both Council and Mayor as an independent, garnering electoral support from across the (unusually deep) social divide - suburbs both as Blue as a New Tatoo (eg Whitby) and as red as a Railway Shed (eg Cannons Creek).<br /><br />Only problem is: he's very much part and parcel of the ABC former-Rogernome wing of the Party. Like his friend and political advisor/media commentator, Phil Quin, Leggett was inspired to join the Party (as a teenager) by Mike Moore. Both Leggett and Quin were, I think it's fair to say, highly supportive of Rogernomics (although both are probably a little conflicted about that period in retrospect). In other words, while he certainly has the vaunting ambition (and possibly the strategic skills), I'm not sure Leggett would be able to pull off the feat of convincingly cloaking himself in the Blood Red mantle of the Revolution. <br /><br />And certainly he would never be my pick for Porirua MP, let alone Labour PM. (Incidently, Leggett's been endorsed as a future Labour leader by his close political chum and confidante, the now-ACT-leaning Wellington Regional Council Chairwoman, Fran Wilde, and by the noted "pro"- Israeli/neo-conservative apologist/propagandist and would-be 'Internationally-Respected Man of Letters', David Cohen - the latter in the Listener a year or two back). He'd certainly be the sort favoured by the ABC ancien regime aristocracy dandys with their powdered faces, elaborate wigs and discrete little black love-hearts painted on left cheek.markusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-70113831429084314292014-07-26T23:42:59.801+12:002014-07-26T23:42:59.801+12:00I have heard a lot of commentary comparing Cunliff...I have heard a lot of commentary comparing Cunliffe to Clark, in that Helen Clark too was polling poorly for a very long time. I have heard this repeated many times and only recently by Mike Williams. There is a difference, a vast difference. At the risk of being confusing, people didn't 'get' Helen Clark, not for a long time, but Helen Clark got that. People do 'get' Cunliffe, it's Cunliffe who appears not to 'get' Cunliffe. And if he's confused...what hope for the rest of us! Rain333https://www.blogger.com/profile/11745912185354498509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-21461172964413865002014-07-26T23:29:38.539+12:002014-07-26T23:29:38.539+12:00And what then?
Waterloo?And what then?<br /><br />Waterloo?Victornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-86529468216946338592014-07-26T22:21:48.145+12:002014-07-26T22:21:48.145+12:00A 'night of the long knives' would, I imag...A 'night of the long knives' would, I imagine, be inappropriate this close to the election.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-48785268433355796892014-07-26T22:21:42.947+12:002014-07-26T22:21:42.947+12:00“If there is a Napoleon out there in the Labour Pa...“If there is a Napoleon out there in the Labour Party my best guess is that you will find him or her toiling away in the corridors of local government.”<br /><br />That means they are presently unknown, and therefore not on the party list this election.<br /><br />That makes them three years away from visibility and election to Parliament, then a minimum of three years to ‘earn their stripes’ before selection as leader, then a further three years to the following election…<br /><br />That’s nine years away from now.<br /><br />Based upon present trends, what will the Labour party be polling in nine years time?<br />Brendan McNeillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02741263914308842497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-50903401994926453382014-07-26T18:03:08.038+12:002014-07-26T18:03:08.038+12:00Alternatively, Helen Clark's style of leadersh...Alternatively, Helen Clark's style of leadership was a direct reaction to the shenanigans that were going on during the first stage of her time as leader (1993 to 1996). Clark going into the 1996 election would have killed for the level of support Cunliffe enjoys now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com