Digging dirt
TRUE BLUE believers in Key’s purity will not read a Left-wing conspiracy about the Right’s dirty tricks. It is hardly based on 2+2 =4. It is 2xn, n being around a thousand sequential referenced emails and Facebook entries in Hager’s book. How National party candidate selection can be determined by attack blogs can be ignored by their voters, requires an almost religious dogma, a brainless adherence to the purity of the leader. Key has a cult-like ability to suppress normal intellectual curiosity with his denials. Not reading Hager’s book and creating a firewall of resistance to evidence is as flawed as Slater’s computer system. Death by a thousand cuts, each of them from Slater’s own words, is entirely appropriate.
Steve Russell, Auckland I FIND it very disappointing that almost every article I have read about the Nicky Hager book concludes with the suggestion that ‘‘politics is dirty and this is just how it’s always been’’. This strongly implies that we should just shrug our shoulders and accept things as they are. Imagine if we adopted the same attitude towards other ills in our society. It is true, for instance, that sexism and racism, which have always existed, have not been stamped out completely; but, because of the society’s strong stance against them, both are practiced at a much more diminishing rate. We must take the same strong stance against dirty politics by demanding that those who are caught red-handed are punished severely. Judith Collins has to go and the media must demand that our prime minister shows a much higher standard of moral leadership than one which says ‘‘it’s OK because others would do it too’’.
Donna Mojab, Christchurch THE LATEST revelations about skulduggery in political office are worrying. Such behaviours appear to be the common trade of some politicians in some other countries. Here, however, it is of a particular concern since it is alleged that a minister of justice on warning for previous misdemeanours has seemingly been involved in machinations with an unelected mouthpiece to discredit political opponents. Should I be surprised to learn that it might be the same minister who sought earlier to discredit the opinions of an eminent overseas judge involved in an exercise to determine fair compensation for claims following the Bain trial? Would that it were otherwise.
John D Mahony, Mt Pleasant KEY SAYS he was in Hawaii on holiday when the OIA info was released to right-wing blogger, Cameron Slater, so he “didn’t know anything about it”. Don’t they have telephones, skype, email, etc in Hawaii?! (He’s in Hawaii for goodness sakes, not the bottom of the Marianna’s Trench! Though…) Aside from which, it still doesn’t explain why the OIA info was released so rapidly. Something as significant as a request for SIS info could easily have been kept until he return to New Zealand. In fact, many OIAs take weeks, if not months, to be anbswered. There seem to be a lot of things happening on Key’s Prime Ministerial floor which he says he is unaware of. Really? It doesn’t sound like a PM who is “on top” of things, does it?
Frank Macskasy, Wallaceville