HAIKU TIME!

Clare Curran is making a stand for the working class!

I don't read Labour's Red Alert much and a reader has just reminded me why.

The Labour Party is going nowhere fast and despite leader David Shearer's call for 'new ideas' there is nothing to suggest that Labour is going to break with neoliberalism. Indeed, if Trevor Mallard has his way, a new Labour Government would be launching its own attack on what remains of the welfare state. The brave Mallard wants to take the big stick to the 'undeserving' poor. What a guy.

But its good to see Clare Curran getting to the crux of the matter. The Dunedin MP isn't mucking about.

Last year she got all hot and bothered about Otago rugby jerseys - even getting herself of thrown out of Parliament. At the time she said : ' 'I was taking a wee stand (as we say in the South) on something I thought was important. Though I know taking direct action has its responsibilities. And consequences.'

Yes Clare knows what's important and this year she's writing....haiku's.

Curran's attempt at a haiku appeared on Red Alert a couple of days ago.

Though our aim divine/
The delivery human/
A labour of love

She says its a response to a critical piece that journalist John Hartevelt wrote on 17 January.

He made some justified criticisms of Red Alert which included:

'Trevor Mallard and Clare Curran do most of the writing. Mallard posts short, sometimes cryptic missives and has been responsible for some ill-judged if not downright juvenile efforts in the past. Curran's posts appear mostly on issues of special interest to her. Both Curran and Mallard have developed a strange habit for writing some of their posts as if they were poetry.'

Hence Curran's haiku.

Given the current dire condition of the Labour Party you would of thought Curran would be able to find some better things to do with her time. Here's a hint. Why not use Red Alert to start mapping out a true Labour alternative to National rather than just continuing to spout the same old neoliberal drivel? Just a thought.

Some Red Alert readers fired back some none too subtle haiku's back at Curran including this one from our old mate Chris Trotter:

The summer rains fall,
Hopes for better weather fade,
Shearer says nothing.

Curran hasn't responded to this.