Goodbye Helen

Greens to contest Clark's old seat
Party says it will contest 'important' Mt Albert byelection despite Labour qualms The Green Party has decided to stand a candidate in the Mt Albert byelection - despite informal approaches by Labour people concerned that it would split the centre-left vote.

With the Greens so desperate to be relevant they are cutting deals with the National Party (something they decried the Maori Party for), it looks like Labour are the only opposition party in Parliament and that’s how they will have to fight for the Mt Albert electorate. How the Greens think they can cut a deal with a Political Party holding a skeptics select committee into the science of global warming, or who voted junk food back into schools or who gutted the environmental protections from the RMA – how the Greens think they can work with the Nats suggests someone has gotten into the hash cookies.

All of that to one side, goodbye Helen, I’m glad she is off to much greater things, these lone crags of NZ don’t deserve someone of her talents, I have been disgusted by the many NZers whom Radar bumped into who have laughed that “we had gotten rid of the communist lesbian’, what a petty people, she deserves much better and 3rd in line at the UN sets her up as the possible first female leader of the UN, she has worked hard for her country and she deserves this recognition, even if the petty people of her own Islands can’t see that.

While there were times I utterly disagreed with Helen (the disgusting confiscation through legislation of the foreshore and seabed, the despicable imprisonment of Ahmed Zaoui and her refusal to reverse the mother of all benefit cuts) , I do believe she was one of our greatest Prime Ministers, where she and Labour came apart was through their refusal to combat NZs redneck culture, preferring to try and manage it instead. In the wake of ‘Maaaaaaaaaaaaari get too much’ Labour freaked out and started eliminating progressive legislation like closing the gaps. Labour allowed a talkback creation like the ‘Nanny state’ to become a reality that National built into a social movement for all those disgruntled feckless men down at the Sports bar who have backlashed against MMP because their voices were no longer the only ones listened to when making decisions. Rather than challenge their prejudice, Labour tried to manage it and that was their downfall, rather than fronting up to Gerry Brownlee when he claimed Maori were trying to steal the beaches, Helen tried to out redneck the rednecks by passing the legislation and stealing Maori land herself.

She always said NZ was conservative with a little c, and I think she also knew we were racist with a little r, but in the end prejudice has to be challenged rather than managed and without a fresh vision, her 9 years of power ended. History will be much kinder to Helen than bitter nasty NZers are to her right now, she became Prime Minister at a time when Government after Government had lied about their manifestos and she actually brought back trust to politics.

Good luck at the UN Helen, NZ was lucky to have had you as a leader.