Labour has thrown everything they have at Don Brash and it isn't working. But look at the calibre of their attackers. Pete Hodgson who is shaping up to be the most unpopular Minister Of Health, Parekura Horomia who is completely overshadowed by the Maori Party, Trevor Mallard, whose behaviour in Parliament is extraordinary (remember when he repeatedly refused to stop calling Ross Robertson Madame Speaker?) and Helen Clark, the best thing Labour has going for them, who should have stayed aloof, showed a really nasty side.
I don't think the public is anywhere near as bothered about the Exclusive Brethren as Labour was relying on. Rightly or wrongly many New Zealanders think they are fundamentalist but identify more with the values of work and success than those they now associate with Labour; socialist liberalism gone too far. It is difficult to see how Labour can reclaim its former support. Even if they repay the pledgecard money it will be too late.
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Brian, you might like peaceful neighbours but you might also be willfully blind to the destructiveness of fundamentalism. Check out this transcript from the ABC's Four Corners documentary on the EBs last night http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2006/s1748441.htm
Coge, it is an offence to not declare that you are transporting sums of money over $10,000 in cash.
It is entirely different to the other forms of transfer you mention, largely becuase it is significantly less auditable. How can the US authorities know that Australian EBs have *gifted* The Man of God tens of thousands of dollars, that would otherwise attract tax, if it is never declared (contrast this with an electronic wire transfer that would leave a record and be reviewed as part of any audit of a corporate entity)?
What is being alleged is a form of money laundering.
This is hardly a media beat up - imagine if the Warehouse did it?
Lindsay, I wouldn't put the champagne on ice just yet. If you analyse the rock solid "whatever happens" True Blue... errr, Red, Labour support, you already have 35-40% of the total vote. National can only count on 20-25% died in the wool support. Depending on how the thinking voter and the boutique/single issue voters go, the election result is far from certain. Especially when Labour has made a lot of the undecideds beneficiaries, and will make a big issue of this being recalled by National - mark my words. Also, as pointed out elsewhere (Russell Brown?), Colmar Brunton had National winning the election by 6 or 8 points, so their bias and margin of error suggests an 11 point lead is probably more in the range of 4-6.
Two years to go. All this reminds me of All Blacks peaking during non World Cup years...
You are probably right Belt. I am being premature. If there wasn't a particular issue driving the polls I tend to think Labour will buy it with WFF and student loan zero interest....unless of course National retain both which I wouldn't put past them. (Just to clarify being a Brash supporter doesn't make me a National supporter.)
backin15 ignores the bigger issue (deliberately perhaps?). Yet again we see the government demonising another group in society - smokers, the overweight, we all know the list only too well.
It reminds me of the European regimes of the 1920s and 30s that ran the same line - Jewish people, homosexuals, Gypsies, Communists, Jeohovahs Witnessess, smokers (yes, go back and look into that one) and so. And didn't those regimes invent another neat trick - controlling private property through regulation? (So much more efficient and less controversial than mass nationalisation.) The similarities are concerning.
I am reminded of that chiling quote by Pastor Niemoller "First they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out - because I was
not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out -because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me!"
I don't care whether they are fundamentalists or not. They are human beings and citizens Political parties that single groups out for attack because they dislike them tread a very slippery and dangerous slope that ends in the abyss.
Anonymous, I don't ignore the larger issue at all. What argument have you adduced to back up this claim?
The EBs are entitled to their beliefs however absurd I find them, however their behaviour during the last election is well outside acceptability and must be addressed. That they now appear to be actively engaging in politics means that they can no longer claim the exclusions they previously enjoyed from ordinary application of the rule of law.
Dear Lindsay
I think if the truth is told about Helen and many others in parliament The EB's that "back in 15" excoriates will be small stuff.
Has anyone else noticed the state funded/directed aggression against the EB's?
Who is next?
I will probably vote National next time again even though they aren't my first choice.
The path we have been going down for the last 6yrs is one that leads to the death of a nation.
We are a nation of liars and hypocrites if our representation in parliament is anything to go by.
Michael Mckee - Seatoun
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