Count down
Three two
I wonder
If I'll ever see you again
I'm 'bout to take off
I'm leaving you
But maybe
I'll see you around somewhere some place
I just need some space
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It's cold outside. There's no kind of atmosphere, I'm all alone, more or less…
Are you singing yet? Anything about fresh mango juice? Are you ready for fun in the sun? Or are you wondering what the hell I’m talking about?
For the uninitiated that’s the opening song to the British comedy Red Dwarf. A 90s sci-fi sitcom much loved by Gen X, especially the male ones. If you can find one of the female variety, she’s a keeper.
Hmm, are we supposed to still say “keeper”?
I’m not wanting to sound all woe is me because woke, as in this very funny newsletter from
a couple of weeks ago. It’s just that the theme of this piece, which will hopefully become apparent, is supposed to be a bit more pro women and that sounds a bit sus. In any case if you haven’t watched it you definitely should.There were only 46 episodes, I can wait… In case you don’t have time, here’s a brief overview of the cast…
We have Lister - a lazy lovable scouser, the Cat - a humanoid evolved from the ship’s cat, Kryten - an android, and Rimmer - a hologram, who’s the spitting image of David Seymour. Even more than George Clooney doppelgängs Mark Mitchell!
However unlike Seymour the character Rimmer is not wildly popular, on account of being a complete smeg head.
Whereas the real life, non hologram, definitely a real boy, Seymour is, as you can see in the following clip where he’s welcomed by Wellington students, widely popular and hardly regarded as a smeg head at all.
Hmm, come to think of it I reckon I might have gotten that last sentence around the wrong way. Let’s try again… From the clip above, and his other interactions with the public, it’s fair to say that Seymour, like Rimmer, is in fact widely regarded as a smeg head and hardly popular.
The beginning of the video is about David Seymour’s interactions with minors on Social Media. I’ve shied away from writing about those because I guess I’m a bit wary that it’s one from which partisan attacks can generate very worrying headlines.
Like that one. In my view people like Seymour, and before him Chris Bishop, have acted stupidly, and unacceptably, but we should pause before rushing to tar and feather them. Wait for it.
I’m not planning to talk about what happened, you can read all about that here, but suffice to say I don’t think either man was grooming young people, as some have suggested with varying degrees of humour. But I definitely think it was wildly inappropriate and they should both have known a hell of a lot better.
This isn’t boys will be boys, these are grown men interacting on social media with children. Using Snapchat, which is designed not to leave a record. If you wanted to reach a bit - the modern day equivalent of “don’t tell anyone”.
That last bit was ugly, I know, I felt it when I wrote it. But so is what these senior MPs have done. It’s a seriously bad look, and while I’ve been on a bit of a “the media is really not that biased” bent, following the closure of Newshub, I’m sure that if this was a Labour MP the press would hound them relentlessly until they were forced to resign.
These men should know better, not just as adults but with the powerful positions they have, with what I suppose must seem like celebrity billing to those interacting with them, there’s an even greater onus on them to act appropriately.
For goodness sake David Seymour is the associate Education Minister, and soon to be deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, this is not ok. Unsurprisingly mainstream media have been rather quiet about the whole thing, although oddly they chose to talk about the following story:
While there is surprisingly little outrage over the messaging habits of the assoc. Education Minister, there is real anger, if you can believe it - myself I’m dubious, about affirmative action to encourage women into an industry overwhelmingly dominated by men.
Dubious? Well yeah.
The whole basis of the article is from one unnamed person, who knows someone who works at the company, and was outraged by the policy, which doesn’t appear to affect her in any way. I’ll give NZME the benefit of the doubt, just, but my question would be why is this an article?
Why is some person having a whinge about something that really has nothing to do with them, “Premium Content” News? That’s where I’m dubious. Why are NZME wanting to stoke anti woke feelings on something that belongs on talkback, at best? Couldn’t they just run yet another article about road cones - those witches hats of the woke?
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