Some Questions For Labour

Phil Goff has now said he told Darren Hughes he would strip Hughes of his portfolios regardless of the outcome of the police investigation. But he didn’t do anything for two weeks, apparently because he didn’t want to prejudice the police investigation.

Could Mr Goff please explain to us what difference sacking or standing down Hughes earlier would have made to that investigation? And could he please dispel for me the suspicion that what really lies behind this delay is both Goff and Hughes hoping the investigation would be dropped and that the whole thing would disappear?

On the subject of Labour Party mugs, could someone please tell Clayton Cosgrove that railing against bureaucrats, government officials and red tape is what the blue parties do, not the red ones? The blue parties use these tactics to soften people up for deregulation and cutting the public sector. Admittedly Cosgrove is one of the bluer reds, but perhaps he might consider keeping his mouth shut for the time being*.

* Actually, forever would be fine with me.

Labour Discovers It Has A Spine

Courtesy of Red Alert, here is Clayton Cosgrove lashing out at Garth McVicar and the Sensible Sentencing Trust.



Music. Sweet music. Better late than never.

Labour Remembers Not To Endorse The SST

Check out this post by Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove on Red Alert:

Labour believes that the Parliament genuinely is a people’s parliament. Even if people have differing views.So when Labour was asked (by the National Party on behalf of the Speaker) whether we objected to the Sensible Sentencing Trust holding a conference in the parliament, we said no we don’t object. After all the parliament is actually owned by the people.

It is our understanding that all the major parties were asked.

That’s it. The Labour Party was never approached to co-host. I was never approached or asked if my name could appear on the invitation. This happened without my knowledge or my permission.

Perhaps The Standard should have checked.

Cosgrove is responding to a post on The Standard critical of Labour's associations with the Sensible Sentencing Trust (I also wrote a critical post, but am led to believe that the audience for this blog may be slightly smaller than The Standard's). A media report indicated the conference was being hosted by Labour. It has taken until now for anyone in Labour to deny this.

It's a pity it has taken until now for this to be cleared up. A cynic might conclude that Labour either wasn't fussed by the association with Garth McVicar and his nutjob group, or that it was too afraid to break rank with the law and order mob.

I'm sure there's a reason why this wasn't mentioned during the conference. Wouldn't want to give old Garth one of those juicy soundbites about out-of-touch politicians, huh?

Now this has been cleared up, I await Clayton Cosgrove's denunciation of the Sensible Sentencing Trust's use of Labour's name to promote its organisation.

But a question: how long should I wait?