“I agree with Ms Fitzsimons. The fight for the Coromandel seat is going to be a two-way race, but it involves the Labour candidate and myself, not her,” said Coromandel MP Murray McLean today

Mr McLean was responding to the results of a poll the Green Party commissioned. Green Party candidate Jeanette Fitzsimons believes she is the favourite, slightly ahead of the sitting National MP.

“Our own polling results however are substantially different. Our commissioned research showed that in the constituent vote I was ahead of Labour candidate Margaret Hawkeswood, with Jeanette Fitzsimons a distant third.”

The MP said his polling confirms what he already knew. Fringe parties, like the Greens, are not in the picture.

“Parties and candidates are continually carrying out polls in election year, but everyone normally keeps the results to themselves. The Greens however are trying to gain as much mileage as possible.

“They are trying to convince Labour to withdraw its candidate and get behind Fitzsimons. This is annoying the Labour candidate as she rightly believes she is the second strongest contender.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>