Woodham on Peters

Other blogs are talking about Bill Ralston's Winston Peters piece today, so I'll simply link to it and move on - to Kerre Woodham's!

Now I've never been a huge fan of Woodham, but in the last few months her pieces seem to have moved from quite strongly left in outlook back towards the centre, with occasional excursions over the fence on the right hand side. And today she joins the party comenting on Winston Peters. After a dig at the PM who she says in believing Winston Peters by default disbelieves Labour's benefactor Owen Glenn, she turns her sights on the Foreign Minister ('e's not dead; 'e's just restin'!) saying:

I suppose too the casting aside of Glenn makes sense because his cheques were banked. New Zealand First's support on Labour legislation throughout the year has been, and indeed still is, on hire purchase.

And now the Serious Fraud Office is investigating. I used to think the world of Winston, but it's been a long time since I found him principled or amusing. His posturing that New Zealand First is the only party not to sully its hands with trust funds and big money donations can be seen for what it is - bullshit.

And yet it was all so unnecessary. If Peters had been honest and upfront from day one, who would have cared?

People in the racing industry can surely support Peters just as those from the unions support Labour and the Business Roundtable supports National. Where's the harm in declaring you're acting in the interests of specific groups within New Zealand? It's only Peters' hubris that has exposed him to charges of hypocrisy at best; lying at worst. And still his dyed in the wool supporters continue to believe in him.

On Wednesday night, I had one mad old tart ring me up and tell me I had to be careful. She wouldn't like to see anything happen to me but I had to be very, very careful. She was recording every word and I should watch my step. "You're not going to kill me are you?" I asked flippantly. There was a long pause. "I hope not," she said. "That's all I can say."

The other two who rang in support of him made me yearn for the introduction of a meritocracy.

Still, you can't fault their loyalty. Or maybe it's as Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in that blueprint for rulers, The Prince: "Princes who have achieved great things have been those who have given their word lightly, who have known how to trick men with their cunning, and who, in the end, have overcome those abiding by honest principles. Men are so simple, and so much creatures of circumstance, that the deceiver will always find someone ready to be deceived."

In this, Winston seems to have cornered the market.

Well said Kerre!