September 4

Why Moore is the type of Labour leader the Right-Wing really adores

In the 1990 election you could find right-wing editorials in newspapers praising the then Prime Minister, Mike Moore.

Why would a Right Wing newspaper use its precious editorial space praising a Labour Prime Minister? The answer is that Mr. Moore is exactly the sort of Labour leader that Right Wingers really love.

He is the sort of Labour Prime Minister that is Prime Minister for a few short weeks and the sort of Labour leader that leads his party to consecutive electoral defeats.

It is the exact opposite to Helen Clark - the ghastliest kind of Labour leader you can imagine if you are on the Far Right of the political spectrum.

Helen Clark has won three general elections consecutively - something never achieved - ever - by any Labour leader in New Zealand history.

In eight years as Prime Minister, Helen Clark has overseen the introduction and extension of paid parental leave, an extra paid week's annual leave for workers, the end of strategic asset sales, the establishment of a Kiwi-owned Bank, the biggest ever investment programme in public transport and roading, the saving of our national airline and investment in the rail network, a KiwiSaver scheme to encourage more personal savings, raising of both the minimum wage and New Zealand Superannuation entitlements, millions of dollars of investment every week into making New Zealand Superannuation safe for future generations, the establishment of a modern apprenticeship scheme, an end to crippling interest on student loans, lower and lower medical and health costs for the young and older New Zealanders and much more public investment in education, including in pre-school education....

The list is so extensive - the breadth of the progressive gains made since 1999 so enormous - that it just cannot be more of a contrast to the sum total of zero delivered by the Rt Hon Mike Moore in his failed six years as Labour leader - and his six inglorious weeks as Prime Minister.

http://www.progressive.org.nz/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2823

The last time Mr. Moore's head popped up was over ... Iraq

The last time I remember Mr. Moore popping his head up - also via the New Zealand Herald - was in February 2003.

You will remember that that was when Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush told us they had to invade Iraq in order to remove its "weapons of mass destruction".

Mr. Moore, who had been out of the country unsuccessfully lowering barriers to our exports as WTO chief where he utterly failed to get the U.S., European Union and Japan to agree to remove their massive trade barriers against competitive agricultural exporters like New Zealand, popped up his head to say we should be joining our key allies in declaring war on Iraq - going so far as to imply that any critics of Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush were morally deficient in some way.

Mr. Moore got a lot of coverage in our media for his clueless views on Iraq in 2003 - but there hasn't been much follow-up in more recent years I can't help but notice.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3196960

Needless to say, Labour-Progressive government didn't take Moore's advice

Needless to say, it was a bit annoying for the Labour- Progressive government to have "the former Labour Prime Minister," as the NZ Herald hilariously describes Mr. Moore, out there with the National and ACT parties attacking our government's commitment to international law over international barbarism in 2003.

Of course we paid no attention to his views then, and thank goodness for that.

This week we have seen the British Labour Government withdraw from the Iraqi city of Basra that it has occupied since 2003. It was the main news item in all the major U.K. papers on Monday.

Typical of what is being written about over the, The Independent's story was headlined: "British leave last remaining Basra base: What was achieved?"

The answers: (1) 655,000 Iraqi civilian deaths since conflict began; (2) 168 British servicemen and women killed; (3) five billion Sterling cost to UK taxpayers ; (4) Number of Iraqi nuclear weapons found: zero; (5) assistance to the campaign against Sunni fundamentalist extremists such as al-Qaeda: no assistance to the campaign against Sunni fundamentalist extremists such as al-Qaeda, but the very opposite.

Al-Qaeda-type groups, which were not tolerated by the Stalinist regime of Saddam Hussein, are now thriving in the chaos that is Iraq in 2007.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2921877.ece

And from our Aussie correspondent: Election develops Internet spin

This is the first Australian Federal election where there has been widespread use of the Internet by political parties and it continues to grow in importance for campaign strategists as a means of getting their messages out.

Teenagers now going into You Tube for a song can now expect John Howard giving them a lecture on an issue the campaign team wants to get up that day. Howard records his You Tube piece around 5am and it is picked up by the news media in time for breakfast audiences. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5jtiJPlv4Y&mode=related&search=

Labor are also busy developing Internet sites. One is called www.Howardfacts.com outlining Labor's own policy on the key election issues of workplace relations, climate change and the war in Iraq. Another of Labor’s sites gives a 'presidential' profile to leader Kevin Rudd at www.kevin07.com .

With the imminent arrival of President Bush in Australia for the APEC meeting, George W. has already sent out strong signals of support for John Howard. But looking reality in the face, President Bush meets with Kevin Rudd, deputy Julia Gillard and foreign affairs spokesperson, Robert McClelland, on Thursday to discuss the ongoing Australian troop presence in that devastated nation.

Labor’s policy is to have combat troops out of Iraq by the middle of next year. Labor has also promised that, in government, it would deploy a contingent of Australian Federal Police to Afghanistan to help combat the opium trade that is thriving there.

ENDS

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