Hands up if you have done something stupid in your teenage years, something that in later years you’ve lived to regret. If that question was put to a live audience who replied honestly, there would be very few hands that wouldn’t go up. We’ve all done things we’ve regretted. Some though, obviously don’t have regrets and bring that type of behaviour into their adult life. More on that later.
I read Cam’s article on this subject and it is hard to disagree with the points he makes. In my view, no one in this beat-up is totally free of blame. The least amount of blame goes to Sam Uffindell himself, the prime target of the grubby paid-for left-wing media. As Cam points out he had several public opportunities to fess up and failed to do so. Is it a sackable offence? As Cam rightly says, not even remotely. He is now a happily married family man making a success of his life.
The two organisations that really irk me in this fiasco are the National Party and the media. The National Party have a house to get in order. The Board need to sort out their candidate selection processes. Uffindell at least ’fessed up to them. At that point, if the party thought he was their man, a process should have been put in place to manage this nonsense when it became public as it inevitably would. Uffindell should have been given guidance regarding the best way to handle the situation. They must have known it would get out. They should have advised him to fess up at the first opportunity.
Instead, they did nothing and when the story broke they pushed the poor man, a novice in the game, in front of the media.
It has been obvious for some time that, along with the Board, those in the back offices of the National Party, the strategists and PR people, are not up to the task. Take the recent shambles over Luxon’s holiday. Any organisation on top of its game wouldn’t have allowed that to happen. These are basic mistakes.
Every move National has made since the story broke has added fuel to the media fire. National have gone to the Public Service Garage and jumped aboard their Wokemobile and headed straight for Woke Street. This is National’s big failing.
There are some National MPs, including Luxon, who are from a generation of people who have a propensity to show a woke side to their persona. These people are doing good work in their portfolios but are letting their members, the public and indeed themselves down in this regard.
I know the importance, in MMP politics especially, of chasing the middle ground but, with the way this country is headed courtesy of the muddle-headed incumbents, people are looking for a party with a bit of steel and MPs with a bit of spine.
Instead of sticking up for Uffindell, National has sent him back to Tauranga with his tail between his legs. More grist to the mill for the abhorrent media types who have the cheek to call themselves journalists.
Now we learn he lived in the dirtiest house in Dunedin. What on earth has that got to do with being the MP for Tauranga for God’s sake? This is the childish media at its pathetic best. WAKE UP NATIONAL! The mainstream media are being paid NOT to like you.
Come on National, where’s your courage to do what is right by your newly elected MP? If this turns out to be a sackable offence, fair enough. Right now it isn’t. All you’re doing is playing into the media’s hands. You are allowing yourselves to be caught up in this media firestorm.
Your actions to date have made you look weak and not for the first time. Barely anyone on The BFD trusts you to repeal what you say you will after the next election.
The BFD had 33 million page views last year, almost matching the MSM. This they achieved without the use of taxpayer money and government media bribes.
My advice is to start taking notice of the opinions expressed here.
The MSM have a lot to answer for. Their hit job on Uffindel is a prime example of why they’re held in such low regard in this country. They gleefully take money (our money that they don’t deserve) offered by their pay mistress with all the strings attached and behave accordingly.
If Uffindell is toast, as the brilliant Thomas Coughlan seems to think, can anyone in the MSM explain to me why Trevor Mallard hasn’t been skewered on the barbecue? Here is a man whose behaviour as an ADULT is beyond the pale. A punch-up in Parliament, thrown out himself God knows how many times, ruined a man’s life with false rape allegations and assaulted and tortured hundreds of people by turning on sprinklers and playing non-stop loud music. His reward is a junket to Ireland to drink them dry of Guinness and whisky.
What about the sex scandal involving Labour personnel at the Labour youth camp? Where was the proper MSM follow-up to that? It just died, didn’t it?
Here’s another question for the MSM. Why was it that this story broke just when your pay mistress was the recipient of the worst poll of her dastardly reign? Just a coincidence was it? It wouldn’t by any chance be an intentional distraction from her ever-decreasing poll numbers?
The Uffindell debacle will put good competent people off putting their name forward for candidate selection. People who can make a worthwhile contribution to this country are not going to waste years of their lives in the circus that is Parliament.
No one with even a modicum of intelligence would risk having to go through the nonsense Uffindell is going through.