Henchmen and Cockwombles
Keep deniability and just plead ignorance.
You've got a new job, working for the man
As a full-time lackey, you're his new henchman
In your suit and your shoes you push paper around
You cross names off a list as you put them in the ground
Only you know the price for which you've been bought
But it's coming to an end mate, you know you're getting caught
So in order to avoid all the law's inference
You've gotta keep deniability and just plead ignorance
Today’s newsletter is a bit of a wrap of the week looking at some of the stuff that’s going on and the people than enable it to happen, either through mindless ignorance or sycophantic cheerleading. Let’s begin with one of the latter.
This week has been dominated by terrible stories out of the health sector, with services looking decidedly shaky and high level consternation from experts, alarmed by the government’s funding cuts and intentions. Yet through it all came one voice that offered a silver lining…
So there you go folks, remove your brain, careful, maybe place it into a jar or some sort of secure container for safe keeping, and listen to the soothing words of your Uncle Mike from ZB.
Our very own Piers Morgan begins by saying, “we end the week with a bit of good health news,” then ends it with, “So in health the race equity adjustor is going. A reason, if not to celebrate, at least to be relieved about.”
In between there is the standard issue ZB diatribe against all initiatives Māori, from efforts to improve health outcomes to “Māori seats, Māori wards, Māori funding and services and entitlements”. When Mike says things are returning to “being fair” what he really means is we’re retaining the status quo and maintaining the same inequities that have long existed.
The way he sells it, while ignoring all of the bad news that indicates these are very troubling times in our health sector, is essentially to say, “yeah things are tough, but at least Māori aren’t getting more than you.”
I suspect we’ll see that type of reporting a lot in the next few years. Be it ignoring the fact that problems in the health sector are being exacerbated by National’s funding cuts, or skyrocketing rates bills for some as initiatives like Three Waters are ditched. I guess the message there will be “yeah so those bills are pretty high now, but at least Māori don’t get a seat at the table to take part in the decisions.”
The right accuse the left of wanting everyone to share the cake equally, and in doing so claim that makes the cake smaller for everyone. Here we have the right telling us “it’s ok if the government makes the cake smaller, just as long as nobody says Māori have to have as big a slice as everyone else.”
I didn't realise I was working for the Tories
When you're standing in your suit with the judge and the jury
Didn't realise I was part of the system
If there were crimes I most definitely missed them
You can lie through your teeth about what you did and didn't see
You can lie to yourself but you can't lie to me
Some of these cuts are hard to believe, especially given the fact that so many Kiwis were willing to support them.
Lets be clear - every Kiwi who voted for tax cuts, if they were even vaguely well informed, knew in their hearts that this was the tradeoff. Yes, National point blank refused to say which social services they were going to cut, perhaps because it was all of them, but it was obvious to anyone that gave a stuff that those tax cuts were coming from somewhere.
The cuts were never going to just be pointless middle managers, sitting around doing nothing - although I can see why the National caucus might have some awareness of such a situation. It was always going to be services to our most vulnerable, like this.
Dr Nicole Coupe, of the Family Start National Collective, said of the cuts, which she found out about on Wednesday, “This equates to 107 FTE, 1600 children under the age of two that won't be seen by our workers nationwide.”
These services are targeted at our most vulnerable families, and these are most definitely “front line” workers losing their jobs. Those who had been providing “teen and parent services, intensive wrap around services, caregiver support, family violence and counselling services.”
Tracey Swanberg, CE of the North Shore Women's Centre, said “We will be stopping all services so that will involve social work, counselling, assessment services, free legal service and our crisis support line.”
The Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, who looks more and more like a sock puppet chosen because of her relevant back story, rather than any ability, mouthed hollow platitudes. “Ultimately, it must put the security and safety of children in its care ahead of the safety and security of the businesses run by its providers,” she said of Oranga Tamariki, as she carved $30m off of their funding.
Yet another example of a coalition minister insisting that quality services must be delivered by their ministry, at the same time as they’re yanking the funding out from under them.
If you ignore the selfishness of those who voted for a few more dollars in their pocket, rather than the sort of programmes mentioned above, you’re still left with a really stupid decision.
I’m sure that many of the people who voted for this coalition are horrified when they see tragic abuse cases, or kids going off the rails, from the very homes where these services were supposed to help. People that don’t want to fund the emergency services waiting at the bottom but who’re quite happy to tear down the fence at the top of the cliff, which is supposed to prevent people from falling.
So how worried is the man in charge by all of this? Not even slightly as you can see from his contribution this week on TikTok. Yoiks.
Sorry Christopher, but some of us are not built for slow motion videos with clinging wet clothes. They tend to accentuate ugly truths, best left undiscussed. Much like your policies, which I guess explains your uncharacteristic shyness prior to the election. Refusing to say what you planned to do, beyond tax cuts and making sure that Māori stay right where they are.
Talk about the ‘C’ word. Cockwomble that is, and apparently the collective term is a coalition. Having said that there were plenty of lay people demonstrating such behaviour yesterday, similarly those involved also seemed to have little regard for the truth and demonstrated completely the wrong priorities…
It was like having Covid flashbacks. The same people who spread disinformation about that virus were sharing revolting lies leaving the rest of the population shaking our heads.
I’m no expert on the subject so rather than try and bluff my way through an explanation here is a post from a source I trust, Russell Brown.
The point my post was making was not so much about the boxer, but more about the fact that so many were up in arms about it and yet relatively few people seemed outraged at the fact that Israel, who is involved in the ongoing massacre of civilians, is afforded the privilege of taking part.
In my view Israel should be banned from all competition, from the Olympics to Eurovision and everything in between until they put down their weapons and stop the killing. I think there should also be bans on trade and travel. If it was good enough for Apartheid South Africa then it’s certainly good enough for Netanyahu’s Israel.
There's gonna be an inquiry, gonna be a tribunal
And those who lie are going straight up against the wall
I didn't realise I was working for the Nazis
I thought they were alright, not sinister at all
I didn't realise I was working for the Stasi
I mean I might have tipped them off a bit, but hardly
It really doesn't matter what you did or didn't do
Because I know you are the worm and I know the worm is you
The Mike Hosking’s of this world enable things like the cuts to the health sector by diverting attention from the reality of the situation with anti Māori sentiment.
Events like the Olympics give credibility to regimes like Israel, suggesting that a sporting competition is far too noble to be sullied by mere concerns of mass murder.
Henchmen and Cockwombles, there you go eh. My apologies that today’s read was a bit dark - it should’ve been much, much darker. For this is the 666th edition of Nick’s Kōrero.
Boo!
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For your listening pleasure today we have the band Cockwomble with their track Henchmen, which is of course where the lyrics above come from. It’s a bit punky with some very tasty bass lines.
The rage and despair are so real and get worse everyday. Media seem to be slowly turning, like bringing the Titanic around, but everywhere feels so unsafe and the sheer enormity of the destruction is overwhelming. 'Getting back on track' is cruel irony given its these pricks who have derailed the whole country on a scale of the Tangiwai disaster 😭
Tino pai Nick. At least when these Ministers plead ignorance they are not always lying, DNA tests would confirm that they were born ignorant.