Peters fair game?
I recently came across a magazine article vitriolically attacking Winston Peters. “King-hit on the kingmaker”, is no pat on the back. It announced that New Zealand First would be fighting for its life in the upcoming elections. It was addressed to the 93 per cent of Kiwis who did not vote for NZF, inferring that the seriously deluded 7 per cent who did exposed Labour to the full gamut of Winston’s Madly Machiavellian Manipulations. Four Ministers, an Undersecretary, baubles galore!
So what’s new about all that? Nothing. Except that “King-hit” is the editorial of the current edition of the magazine which, along with TV and radio schedules, details Middle New Zealand’s preoccupations on health, ageing, investments, arts, culture, politics and puzzles. Get the demographic? It’s an important one if nothing else.
So politics and Peters are definitely fair game. Well . . . I guess, but from up here in the peanut gallery I always had the impression that the Listener was reasonably aloof from partisanship when it came to Parliament. In fact the regular political section has always been balanced coverage of the affairs conducted in Poneke. Politics included. And I’ve been reading it since Selwyn Toogood was running It’s in the Bag. Since David Lange was mates with Dick Prebble.
So how come we are now getting an editorial like something straight out of blogsville? Including a plug for Simon Bridges who in his wisdom has painted National into a non-Winston zone corner with his rejection of the NZF brand. But as a born and bred Northlander my Te Tai Tokerau blood boils when I read this, straight from the editor’s desk: “It also won policy concessions, whether or not there was any need or justification for them. They include taking a large bucket of money and tipping it on to uneconomic train lines run by KiwiRail, and planning to shift cargo from the Ports of Auckland to the Port of Somewhere With No Business Case For Having It. These are among the costs put upon taxpayers when Peters decided Labour, not National, would lead the next government.”
I would suggest the Port of Somewhere With No Business Case could only be here. Wha¯ ngarei. And that also means Northland. Sure it could be Tauranga or maybe the Firth of Thames. The Firth of Thames? Yeah right.
The king-hit editorial hits biased, it hits ill-informed, it hits wrong thinking. It runs as second rate Nancy the Nemesis Pelosi in pursuit of Donald the Tanline Tyrant.
Well, we will see what’s what when the 2020 Election Express comes smokin up the Infrastructure Track.
G M Tinker
Whanga¯rei