Prime Minister Key is on his way to Gallipoli, New Zealand’s troops are on their way to just another jolly war in the region and a Facebook play on words picture/comment takes on an altogether different meaning.
The story broke yesterday when a young waitress told the story having her pony tail pulled by the Prime minister again and again over a period of months, which experts in the field classified as bullying and sexual harassment. The Prime Minister himself called it just “horse play” – the standard defense of every bully. It was fascinating to watch minute by minute the story spreading from the “left leaning” (as if that had anything to do with the story) The Daily Blog where the victim told her story to the mainstream media making headline news around the world like the Washington Post‘s “New Zealand’s ponytail-pulling prime minister becomes national embarrassment“.
The real creepy feeling overcame me when the media dug up other hair-pulling antics by Mr Key among others footage from Campbell Live involving a prepubescent blond girl. Does New Zealand have a Prime Minister who cannot help himself fulfilling his urges of some sort of borderline hair fetishism ? (“Ponytail pulling: ‘A thing’ John Key does“)
We are all now in a ring side seat watching dirty politics at work unfold in front of our eyes and ears
It started immediately with Shaun Plunket. I hear that he urged his listeners yesterday not to read the original Daily Blog story trying to dismiss it as usual as left wing conspiracy. However he went off half cocked as the Prime Minister confirmed the incidents and his apology.
Today the NZ Herald followed with an article by Rachel Glucina,
Rachel Glucina and Government pollster and right wing political blogger, David Farrar
which the paper published even if warned by the editor of The Daily Blog that it’s information was obtained by deception and false pretenses.
The intention of her article is clear to portray the victim as someone who is politically motivated. Her employers are quoted as saying that the complainant has “strong political points of view”. Strong political points of view is of course dog whistle for “reds under the bed” or left wing conspiracy.
Glucina is already unfavourably mentioned in last years Nicky Hager’s book “Dirty Politics“. She is just following the song sheet of Crosby Textor the government’s Australian masters of the dark art of political manipulation and spin.
I feel deeply sorry for the poor victim as we all will be watching her being attacked, maligned, discredited, ridiculed by the National government / media attack machine. I wonder how long she will last in her job even if she obviously tried hard to keep herself and her employer out of the story, which the NZ Herald deliberately ignored. Any Press Council findings against the paper and Glucina will be cold comfort to her.
The wider picture is that of this Government’s arrogance, bullying and treating New Zealanders with contempt. “Ponytail gate” might even serve a purpose of distracting us from the policies, which really matter like all the things, which we are not allowed to discuss or even know about as for example TPPA negotiation and GCSB spying.
However what I feel really ashamed off is that the National Party is still polling at 49% support and Chris Trotter might in the end be right commenting :
Every honest New Zealander knows that if it had been David Cunliffe who’d repeatedly pulled a waitress’s pony-tail, and been found out, then the story could only have ended one way – with his resignation.
What does it say about John Key and his relationship with both the news media and the wider New Zealand electorate that, public admission and apology delivered, he will almost certainly walk away from this scot free?
As long as we support the Creep we cannot look forward to the next by-election in Helensville.