Polity: Three ramshackle PR fiascos and you’re out

Rob Salmond at Polity points to the right wing publicists who pose as independents, set up publicity shells for nutters, and who seem to make outright lying their hallmark. Perhaps it is time that journalists start describing them as they are rather than quoting them as they prefer. They should be “blogger and National’s pollster” or “part-time lawyer and ACT supporter.”

Vote for Change stumbles at the startline

Peter Shirtcliffe’s Vote for Change is reeling. On Sunday, they had to boot out Alex Fogerty after the Young Nat’s neo-Nazi affiliations were made public. Yesterday, they lost their token Leftie, Bob Harvey, when he realised that being used by a collection of capitalist elitists and white supremacists wasn’t the legacy he wanted.

Vote for Change’s heart of darkness

Peter Shirtcliffe’s Anti-MMP Vote For Change group has just 16 members and one of them has turned out to be a neo-Nazi. Is it a case of being so short of mates they’ll accept anyone who turns up, or does this give us a truer picture of who really wants to get rid of MMP? The latter, I think.

(Another) Tory astroturf fail

The latest anti-MMP outfit is already unraveling with Pundit’s Rob Salmond uncovering the fact it’s basically the Peter Shirtcliffe club.

It’s a surprisingly clumsy effort. Especially given David Farrar provided strategic advice.

I guess he’s not learned any lessons from his previous PR fiascos…

Shirtcliffe’s anti-MMP campaign launches

Peter Shirtcliffe’s latest attempt to destroy MMP has finally launched. The man who spent a million dollars in 1993 is a shadow of his former self. Now, he and his cronies are so despised he can’t front the organisation himself, he’s got some kid doing it. And FPP/SM is so despised they won’t actually campaign for it overtly.

Key and Shirtcliffe conspire against MMP

Leaked notes from a meeting between Peter Shirtcliffe and Wayne Eagleson have revealed backroom dealings to kill off MMP.

We shouldn’t be surprised that the party of big business and the big-business-backed anti-MMP lobby would be colluding.

After all, it’s in all of their interests to take power from the voters and put it back in the hands of the elite.

Poll good news for MMP

No Right Turn covers the latest UMR poll on MMP, which shows a good but by no means unassailable lead for MMP over less representative systems.

With the forces of reaction once again emerging to undermine our democracy we all need to get in behind the Campaign for MMP.

‘Atlases’ don’t deserve a tax cut

This man is Paul Reynolds, CEO of Telecom. He has overseen the largest corporate disaster in recent New Zealand history. The Nats are planning to give him over $6,600 a week in tax cuts. Apparently this screw up on a $7 million salary is the kind of guy New Zealand needs.

MMP campaign heats up

The business elite wants to drag us back to the days of unfair elections and weak democracy, when business interests held even more sway than now. We don’t want to return to those days. We want to keep the best electoral system in the world – MMP.

Poll shows Kiwis prefer MMP

NZPA reports on a new poll from UMR which shows Kiwis don’t want to dump MMP for a less proportional electoral system. The […]

MMP strengthening our democracy

As the assorted rich, white old men behind Peter Shirtcliffe start their campaign to dump MMP, it’s worth remembering that the diversity we […]

Why Supplementary Member sucks

National and the business elite led by former Telecom chairman Peter Shirtcliffe (who led the pro-FPP campaign back in the 1990s) want to […]