Delusions of grandeur
Peter Dunne has been described as the most pompous man in Parliament. With his party polling at one percent, his claims to be a potential kingmaker after the election have stretched credibility. However, it seems that his delusions know no bounds.
The United Future website now has a Powerpoint presentation showcasing Mr Dunne as the best qualified party leader Prime Minister. Titled, “We’ve been wondering who would make a great PM”, it marks Helen Clark, Don Brash, Winston Peters, and Peter Dunne against the following criteria for being a “great Prime Minister”:
- Has experience raising a family.
- Avoids late-night drunken brawls.
- Decades of political experience.
- Keen on rugby.
- Married to the same person for decades.
- Works constructively with others.
- Does not have a wife who is from Singapore.
The end of the Powerpoint presentation reads: “Naah, there’s no-one like that in New Zealand politics. Is there?” Then Peter Dunne’s face appears, to thunderous applause.
Well, I guess we should cut the guy some slack, because he’s trying to be funny. But, let’s be clear what he’s suggesting:
- Helen Clark is an unsuitable Prime Minister because she doesn’t have kids and doesn’t like rugby.
- Don Brash is an unsuitable Prime Minister because he hasn’t been married to the same person for decades, he doesn’t like rugby, he has a wife from Singapore, and he doesn’t have decades of political experience.
- Winston Peters is an unsuitable Prime Minister because he gets into late-night drunken brawls, he hasn’t been married to the same woman for decades, and he can’t work constructively with others.
Some of these criticisms are actually quite offensive. Slamming Helen because she hasn’t got any kids? Slamming Don and Winston because they had marriage problems? Slamming Don because his wife is from Singapore? I knew United was getting desperate to draw attention to itself, but really…
UPDATE: Oh, and in another United Future gaffe today, Bernie Ogilvy has released a press release about there being too many trained teachers in which he is quoted as saying:
Only 46 percent of 2003 graduates have found teaching job.
Perhaps Mr Ogilvy could employ one of those teachers who can’t find a job to give him a course in remedial English?
UPDATE 2: According to the Herald, United has now pulled the presentation from its website. This was probably the plan from the start: do something outrageous and ridiculous on your website, so people ask you to take it down, so you can then have a story in the paper saying that you’ve taken it down. Indeed, United’s not getting in the paper for any other reason these days, so why not concoct a story?
July 20th, 2005 at 7:42 pm
I think they forgot the criteria about not being a racist, biggoted dickhead.
Oh well, no ones perfect.
July 20th, 2005 at 10:20 pm
fwwog, delusion have different meaning to illusion, delusion imply a psychoses, a clinical thing fwog,mn, yous use the word unwells fwwog, delusion is when you think we pay Russia $560 million for recycle carbon please dont preach the peoples english fwwog,
July 20th, 2005 at 11:34 pm
Oh come on frog, a grammatical error is hardly a United Future press release gaffe now is it, now if you want a United Future press release gaffe, how about,
9th Dec 2003 Dunne makes a mistake (on a Tuesday) when he says has been waiting for three days for Nandor to “in any way acknowledge” the 25-year Christchurch School of Medicine study. He missed the fact that Nandor did comment on the study, on Sunday the 7th! Perhaps Dunhill should have actually checked before writing that.
Nandor: 07/12/03 Prohibition the cause, not solution
http://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR6991.html
Dunhill: 9/12/03 25-year study versus Nandor’s shared ignorance
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0312/S00183.htm
BTW, This is taken from my “What has he Dunne now?” page on the NORML website, which cataloges the abusive hypocritical statements of Peter Dunne MP - there don’t seem to be as many nowadays he seems to have delegated the abusive PRs to other MPs in the last year. Still I’d be interested in updating it if you know of any others
http://www.norml.org.nz/page62.html
July 21st, 2005 at 7:02 am
Oh dear
Go to Frog Blog and read about the United Future powerpoint presentation.
I’m not sure if it is offensive, more so lame as to be painful.
July 21st, 2005 at 10:23 am
Given the slagging of the Green Party we continually see from Dunne I doubt that he has a right to the claim of being able to work constructively with others. Could he work constructively in a Greens in a Labour-Greens-UF government if one were to form?
July 21st, 2005 at 12:14 pm
Come on, this is an elaborate and very clever hoax. Isn’t it?
July 21st, 2005 at 12:22 pm
Go to the United front page: http://www.unitedfuture.org.nz
It’s halfway down.
So, if it’s a hoax, it’s a hoax by someone who has access to the United Future site.
July 21st, 2005 at 1:59 pm
Wow. Not only is this offensive… “Does not have a wife who is from Singapore”, but who would have, even in passing, though this was a good thing to post? Also, what a crappy PPT. Ugly template, tick boxes are not aligned, this looks like it was put together at morning tea.
July 21st, 2005 at 7:28 pm
Well, that disappeared quickly. Quick Peter, put it down the memory hole.
July 21st, 2005 at 9:41 pm
But never fear there are many copies floating around, such as the one making a beeline for my personal website.
July 22nd, 2005 at 1:47 pm
Where is this copy- I would love to see it
July 22nd, 2005 at 7:19 pm
Anyone download it?
July 27th, 2005 at 11:23 pm
did you know, that this here page comes up as the No.1. result in Google for the phrase
most pompus man in parliament
that’s Google.com mind you, not just “pages from New Zealand”
http://www.google.com/search?q=most+pompous+man+in+Parliament
another search engine optimisation score from the frogmaster!
meanwhile, does anyone have any links to copies of the UF ppt to share? Ideally it would be good to have copies of the page on their site that announced and promoted it too.
another thing about UFs ppt gaffe was when Larry Baldock said on saturday “I’d be very surprised. I don’t know anything about that at all.” as if it hadn’t happened and was some media conspiracy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?ObjectID=10337488
I can’t work out if was spectacularly dumb campaigning or whether it was an attempt at getting in the papers with some dog whistle politics to try and attract some “anti-PC” types.