Who did you meet and by the way I saw this in the paper

Most married couples live a reasonable normal life. They go to work, come home and sometimes have tea together before putting kids to bed. They talk about their day, sometimes griping about injustices at work, and perhaps watch TV to relax. Some do part time study in the evenings.

A certain couple is different. They talk on the phone. They rarely meet or see each other. The most exciting thing they talk about appears to be who they met and what they saw in the paper.

Shallow. I'm referring to Miss Helen Clark and Mr Helen Clark.

Her ideal night is going out to the opera. She suggests a play called Ruined, which is typical really. Just what she did to New Zealand. Apparently it is an absolutely incredible and gripping (gripping?) play about sexual and gender-based violence in the Congo. She didn't take her husband, of course. She took her young grip - Darren Hughes.

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Corrupt Christian convicted criminal

In May 2008, the Dim-Post carried this

Prime Minister Helen Clark today announced an independent investigation into the independent investigation of former Labour Party MP Taito Phillip Field.

The new inquiry will investigate the Ingram inquiry and examine the inquiry’s examination of its investigation.

The terms of reference for the inquiry do not include inquiring into the narrow terms of reference for the previous inquiry.

The inquiry into the Ingram inquiry will be headed by Ingram inquiry head Noel Ingram.

The Ingram report in 2006 cleared Taito Philip Field of allegations of conflict of interest relating to his employment of Thai workers on the property in Samoa and he was also cleared of taking advantage of an indebted family whose house he bought, before selling it later for a large profit. Field had denied wrongdoing. He lied. He is now a convicted criminal as he has been found guilty of bribery and corruption.

He is the second Christian leader of a political party – assuming he is still leader of the Pacific Party - to have a public court case go against him. Helen Clark stood by him all the way. She probably knew he was corrupt.


Eddie from The Standard tries to put a helpful spin on things and it didn't really work. She wrote

Good on Clark for sacking him as a minister when the allegations first came out. Different standards back then I guess.

The problem is that Field wasn't sacked when the allegations came out. The allegations appeared on 12 September 2005. Helen Clark didn’t do anything about it until three days after the election – on 20 September. Even that wasn't a sacking. Eddieiot!

UpdatePerhaps Taito Phillip Field and Graham Capill could start a Christian political prisoners prayer group. Capill made news headlines today. Impeccable timing.

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Nobbling National has nothing to do with policy

Matt McCarten considers that Labour's only possible chance of winning the general election is to hope it can nobble National's John Key by exposing him as a lightweight.

But to do that properly, Key has to be a lightweight to start with. If he is no lightweight, McCarten thinks Labour has lost the election even if it has better policies than National.

That's also Labour's strategy, but despite claiming National has no policies, the country doesn't want Labour's policies, at this stage they`d rather have the policies that National is yet to announce. Unfortunately National is becoming more like Labour. Helen Clark doesn't answer questions she doesn't want to, she walks away despite having an answer to one particular question for six months. When John Key gets asked questions he doesn't want to answer, he refuses to answer the question.

At least he doesn't walk away. That would just be too much like the outgoing Prime Minister.

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Clark borrows school leaving age policies from Downing St.

Helen Clark today announced a new age of 18, instead of 16, for students to either stay at school or be in approved vocational training. She is borrowing policies, not from Washington, but from Downing Street.

Raising the school leaving age to 18 in favour of giving young people "worthless" qualifications will destroy their job opportunities, said a think tank paper published as the education and skills bill gets its second reading in the Commons today.

I havent read the speech yet, but Clark is expected to comment on the school leaving age in line with this Guardian article. Here`s Ed Balls.

We must not give up on the young people who reach 16 and simply feel there is nothing out there for them. It's a shocking waste of talent and potential and it is virtually always young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds that slip through the net.

This legislation..will give those young people better skills and a better future, reducing their chances of getting on the wrong side of the law by giving them something worth working towards

The weird thing about Clarks policy is that we have a school leaving age of 16. Many students leave school before 16. What will change by raising the school age to 18 if students arent in training - apart from an increase in truancy? I`ll be doing a post on that soon.

Oh, and look who Radio Left Wing interviews to get a reaction: Youthlaws John Hancock, who criticises Key's speech and says people are being used as a political football and has no voice on the political process. They were the comments he made when he campaigned to remove Section 59.

update speech is here Even Labour supporters think it is bad.

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Helen the hypocrite

Helen Clark has stated, with regards to the terrorist attacks that there is a desire for people to know about the police terror raids. She said that everyone wanted to know what was worrying the police, but any evidence has to come with proper authority, rather than newspapers just publishing the evidence. Asked if a case could be argued to release information in the public interest she said:

I dont know what the lawful route would be, and in my position I have to advise people to act lawfully

As she does not know the law, she cant offer any advice. So she says " act lawfully", whatever that is. Anyway, does that mean that to not offer lawful advice when she knows the law is to abuse her position? Like she did by agreeing the with the unlawful authorisation of her pledge card spending, and not telling her speeding driver to slow down wehn going to a rugby game perhaps.

Furthermore, if the law is unclear, how are we to act? Helen Clark, through her ignorance, has made a good case for calls for the Dominion Post to be prosecuted over publishing of the evidence. Given that the terrorism law was uncelar and none of the evidence can be used in court - and the law is uncear - the Dominion Post should be able to sucessfully test that law.

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