You can’t hide from the Greens
Unlike New Zealand’s other small parties, the Greens are part of a global movement, something well demonstrated at Helen Clark’s visit to the European Parliament.
At a foreign affairs committee meeting yesterday, German Green Party MEP Michael Cramer said he could not understand why Mr Peters had been appointed to the post.
“You have a coalition, whatever it is – an almost-coalition with other parties – and you now have a foreign minister from NZ First. I can’t understand that, though I’ve tried,” Mr Cramer said.
“The position he stands for is diametrically against the position you’ve adopted for six years. Many people in Europe don’t understand that.”
On Morning Report this morning Winston said that he wasn’t surprised to be hassled by a Green, suggesting that Michael Cramer and his ilk would want Keith to be New Zealand’s Foreign Minister.
That’s news to us. Unlike Winston, the Greens didn’t get ahead of ourselves in the Government-forming negotiations and ask for one of the prestige portfolios like Foreign Minister.
The questions from Michael Cramer and co were clearly prompted by the apparent contradiction of a social democrat government having a populist conservative Foreign Minister. If Keith was Foreign Minister in a Labour-led Government, I doubt if the European equivalent of NZ First would have challenged Helen Clark because a Green minister in such a Government wouldn’t be strange, least of all to Europeans.
BTW, Michael Cramer himself initiated this challenge to Helen, we have had no contact with him and didn’t prompt it.
November 30th, 2005 at 3:42 pm
It’s definitely interesting that Cramer even knows anything about NZ, but then he is a greenie, and my experience is that foreign greenies love us.
But he is wrong to say Winston is ‘diametrically’ opposed to Labour. I would say he opposed only along some dimensions, and really he shares a lot more policy than a foreigner is likely to know about. Winston’s economics are all about state control and ownership, and Cramer might find he’s a lot more comfortable with that than he realizes.
But then he’s probably reeling in shock himself from the german elections which have delivered something even more wierd than ours did. What would he be saying if we delivered Clark as PM, Brash as Finance Minister, Goff as Foreign Minister and Groser as Minister of Trade? I wouldn’t know where to look if I tried to explain that to a foreigner.
November 30th, 2005 at 3:45 pm
Oh, and I think the Greens played the long game in our election well. You’re going to wield a lot of influence, and Peters will take all the sh…um yes, that’s right there’s *rules* on this forum!
November 30th, 2005 at 4:43 pm
Ben: On Nine to Noon this morning Cramer said he didn’t like the German arrangement either.
As some media commentators have noted, the fact that no Greens are in Govt anywhere in Europe for the first time in ages is not because they’ve been getting fewer votes (they haven’t), but cos their larger, usually social democratic, partners are not in Govt.
And as to forum *rules*, nothing is ever auto deleted, just stopped at the border. Appropriate (as in not-for-the-purposes-of-abuse collequial speech) use of swear words is generally being let through. The *rules* are just there to maintain a comfortable venue.
November 30th, 2005 at 4:55 pm
No dig meant, frog. Rules are good. I just like to see my posts immediately, before the are utterly lost in context behind 20 other posts.
I wouldn’t be the least bit worried that no Greens are in govt. The influence has already been huge and lasting - everyone falls over themselves to pretend they really are already green, and Green is thus not needed. You can wait in the wings until they start going unenvironmentalist again, and will just slot straight back in.
Poor Cramer. But it’s all the more time in his little garden plot, or whatever he has…:-) They really cracked me up, I have to say. Cool idea though - a little country house for everyone, and I do mean little.
November 30th, 2005 at 5:00 pm
But then again, if this was an airplane I’d be outraged that you have secret policies that discriminate against my foul mouth. I’d have you assume you thought I was a paedophile.
November 30th, 2005 at 6:06 pm
If Locke was Foreign Minister, I could imagine many challenging that…
November 30th, 2005 at 10:15 pm
I always knew you guys were part of a vast international conspiracy.
December 1st, 2005 at 12:16 am
Well “vast” is probably overstating the case.
December 1st, 2005 at 6:10 am
ben said….
“..No dig meant, frog. Rules are good. I just like to see my posts immediately, before the are utterly lost in context behind 20 other posts…”
could i second that emotion..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
December 1st, 2005 at 10:52 am
Cheers. My post above at 4:55 took until today to be shown, making the following one nonsensical. I think maybe the word ’slot’ blocked me? Could be a munge of something a bit ruder?
Is anyone else amused by german garden plots?
December 1st, 2005 at 11:10 am
Ben , phil et al: Be aware that there has always been a moderation list, so some stopping has been happening all along.
The vast majority of words that stop things, now and previously, are spam related words from a standard anti-spam list.
These days I am checking the moderation list every time I log in, not just waiting till I get back to the lilypad that receives the notifications.
December 1st, 2005 at 11:32 am
Heh, again frog, I’m not having a dig. I write antispam software, I know how hard it is. It’s always amusing to speculate what word you’ve been caught out on, and I couldn’t see anything obvious in my posts - so I have to assume a more powerful spam rule than just verbatim words is at work, possibly one with wildcards on vowels?
December 1st, 2005 at 12:51 pm
off-topic i know…but go here..http://davidfarrah.blogspot.com/…for a very funny piss-take on davidfarrars’ blog…make sure you read the comments..tee hee..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
December 1st, 2005 at 1:31 pm
wow that is brilliant. I particularly like the lying in the bath listening to Mark’s maiden speech one. Wish I could think of a funny comment to add. Is that the real DPF threatening to sue? If it is, his is clearly an ego out of control.
December 1st, 2005 at 1:38 pm
No, I don’t think it’s DPF threatening to sue. He links to it himself. He is an ego, for sure, but who isn’t?