Half-Time Lozenges
Seymour's privilege and Bishop's unpleasant reveal.
Morena all,
Well, influenza sucks. I’ve rarely had the actual full-on flu, as opposed to the “Man” variant, and it’s been much worse than the times I had Covid. Which is not to in any way underplay the seriousness of the latter, but this is undoubtedly one to avoid too.
For many years, I received the flu jabs offered at the places where I worked, but to be honest, since I’ve been self-employed, it just hasn’t occurred. Since I stopped working in offices, I’ve hardly been sick.
Like this government’s term, I feel like I’m heading into the second half; my nose is running a bit less, my coughing fits are less frequent, I’m very weak, but at least the first half is done.
Thank you so much for all your kind messages. Much love to those who are currently battling Covid or the flu. It sucks, speaking of…
Today is Seymour’s big day.
It is hard to think there has ever been a less warranted appointment than David Seymour’s promotion to Deputy Prime Minister. The man is divisive, despised by many, and increasingly an annoyance to the National Party as he continues to act as if he were the Prime Minister. He is utterly undeserving of this position.
Getting something you haven’t earned, that’s a tad ironic. Consider this:
Seymour claims that his anti-Maori policies are about everyone being equal, and yet, with just 8% of the vote, he has a far greater influence on Aotearoa than such minor support should allow him.
A man who decries Maori places on boards as unacceptable privilege at the same time was gifted his seat in parliament for many years with the dodgy Epsom deal. Who is privileged? Māori for getting a seat at the table, or a man who was presented with direct entry to parliament, a gift that no other New Zealander receives?
If any group in Aotearoa is being given more power than others, it is ACT. If Seymour genuinely cares about fairness and equal treatment, then he should refuse the deputy role as being incompatible with his principles.
Yeah right.
Needless to say, his supporters fail to see the irony in his efforts to close down supposed Māori privilege even as he seeks to benefit the wealthiest and most privileged New Zealanders further.
Or that he likes to put it about a bit insulting and attacking others, and yet rolls around on the ground like an Italian football player, if the most minor attack is fired in return.
David Seymour condemns charity fight challenge from Eru Kapa-Kingi
The latest example of this is his response to a charity fight challenge from Eru Kapa-Kingi, the man who led last year’s hīkoi so well and is also the son of Te Pāti Māori MP, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi.
Seymour recently called Eru’s mum an idiot in parliament, but rather than apologise when questioned about it, he took the cowardly approach of not owning up and instead pretended to have said it to anyone in the area - such is the honour of the man.
Eru wasn’t best pleased about this and proposed a charity boxing event.
Funny isn’t it how Seymour is happy to smack-talk Winston Peters, an 80-year-old man, but he describes Eru’s challenge as being "immature". I can see the name Deputy Dropnuts sticking.
An unpopular budget
Mind you, National have more pressing concerns than Seymour’s antics. The first polls on the budget are in, and the New Zealand public has not received it well.
Budget 2025 tests poorly with voters, according to Talbot Mills Research poll
Asked whether they thought the Budget delivered on May 22 would be good for New Zealand overall, bad, or would not make much of a difference, 33% said it would be bad and just 22% thought it would be good.
“We’ve been measuring New Zealanders’ reception of government budgets for nearly 30 years. This is the worst we’ve ever recorded,” said David Talbot, director of Talbot Mills Research.
Poor old Christopher Luxon must be tearing his hair out, and it is hard not to see such a negative rating following through to the next party polls.
The last thing he needs is Seymour’s desire for headlines, and so it was almost as if the PM had said, “Who will take the spotlight from this tiresome deputy to be?” and Chris Bishop responded with a resounding “Hold my beer”.
Aotearoa Music Awards
And so it was that Bishop, band t-shirt and bottle in hand, yelled, “what a load of crap”, during a performance by much loved Māori artist Stan Walker.
'What a load of crap': Chris Bishop caught 'ranting' during Stan Walker's Aotearoa Music Awards performance
Unfortunately for Mr Bishop, as he was undertaking his obnoxious, drunken outburst, he was sitting near national treasure, Don McGlashan.
McGlashan said, “I could hear an enormous amount of ranting, kind of against the whole thing. I didn't get the full gist of it, but it was basically - 'the hīkoi is ages ago, sit down everybody' - so this geezer was ranting away and telling everybody to sit down.”
“After a while I turned to him and said 'ah shut up you dickhead' and I looked at him and I thought, oh I know that face. Then he said 'What did you say to me?’”
McGlashan said that he again told Bishop to “shut up you dickhead and he said 'I could say the same to you', and I said, well I wasn't talking and you were. And then I realised I was talking to the leader of the house".
Bishop might be the leader of the house, but he failed to read the room. I posted the following about the story:
Doh! When you pretend to be one of the cool kids, but you reveal yourself as an obnoxious, racist jerk. The acorn didn't fall far from the asshole tree with Bishop.
Meanwhile, as always, Don McGlashan is an absolute legend.
Bishop made a sort of apology by saying, “I should‘ve kept the thought to myself”, but as Alba commented, “Please, you shouldn’t have the thought to start with!”
My nearly neighbour Penny said, “Rule #1 for politicians: don't get drunk, Rule #2 don't be an arsehole.” Which is excellent advice, but at least the second part might be a tad unrealistic for the Bish.
I could speculate about what sort of action a strong Prime Minister might take against such obnoxious, drunken behaviour by a senior Minister, but what would be the point? We all know the best we’ll get from our spineless PM is something like, “They’re not the words that I would have chosen.”
So there we have it, Deputy Dropnuts, Bishop the drunken jerk, and an utterly ineffective PM overseeing them. At least we’re halfway.
I’m aware that this budget has done little for retired folks and that spending money on something like a newsletter is a challenge. Please don’t subscribe if it will cause you any hardship. However, if it helps, I’ve decided to increase my Gold Card discount to 30%, which makes a subscription $70 per year, or $7 per month.
To end today, this is the song Māori Ki Te Ao, that Stan Walker was singing at the Aotearoa Music Awards, except without Chris Bishop opening his stupid fat mouth.
Take care, all of you lovely people, better days ahead.
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The photo of Goldsmith and Bishop looking cool is not “dumb and dumber” but “cockier and cockiest”. Apologies for using another c-word.