GREEN CO LEADER Russel Norman knows why Labour lost the election. Simple really. It was all Internet-Mana's fault.Norman told the Waatea News that Internet Mana were 'a guided missile aimed at the left.'
"I mean we had enough trouble with John Key standing up every day telling all his nonsense about us and on the other had we had to deal with these crazies. Having them on the radio and tv all the time talking their nonsense, it was like ‘Oh god,’ it did make it incredibly difficult to change the Government at that point because a lot of people who might have voted for Labour went ‘Oh god, if a vote for Labour means a vote for Dotcom and Harre, I’m not going to do that.'"
With the Green Party flatlining at the election and not picking up the fifteen plus seats it was confidently predicting, Norman has to find someone else to blame. Otherwise some people may start questioning the political direction that he has taken the Green Party.
Under Norman the Green Party has embraced the neoliberal orthodoxy with Norman declaring himself to be more a supporter of the market than the National Party. While climate scientists are warning of the danger that the planet is under from a predatory economic system, Norman talks fondly of the environment movement working with big business. That he has got away with this junk while passing himself off as 'left' is indicative of something seriously rotten with New Zealand's so-called 'progressive politics'.
Which brings us neatly to The Daily Blog editor Martyn Bradbury.
The Green Party's shift to the right, of course, did not occur overnight. Although if you were to believe Bradbury it is as if Russel Norman and the Green's have suddenly, out of thin air, morphed into a party that is 'open for business with National' (Bradbury's words).
But just a few short few weeks ago Bradbury and his mates were promoting the Green Party as an important partner in a grand 'progressive coalition'. Back then though Bradbury had nothing to say about Norman's open declaration of support for market economics. Maybe he thought no one would notice. But we also need to remember that this is the genius who said the lack of support for the Internet - Mana Party merger from some socialists was due to the fact that we're not happy people.
But now Bradbury has leaped to his keyboard - because Norman has taken a swipe at Internet-Mana.
Bradbury apparently can have it both ways. He can support the right wing politics of Labour and the Green's before the election but, after the election, he can suddenly become a flagbearer for the left again, waving his sword of justice and self-righteousness at people like Russel Norman. I think Norman and Bradbury deserve each other. But I think the left deserves a whole lot better than these two political imposters.
Politics will eat itself and give us... more of the same, but with 20% more commentary.
ReplyDeleteHaving supported the Labour Party for the past three years only to see it fall flat on its face at the election, Bradbury has zero credibility - not that he had much to begin with.
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