Ken Graham gives the Greens a thumb up
The big media story from the Green’s party list announcement yesterday turned out to be Kennedy Graham. The Herald opened with:
Ken Graham wears a subdued grey suit, loves opera, is a Fulbright scholar and prominent international lawyer, and speaks in a cultured accent courtesy of a career as a diplomat in Europe.
Dr Kennedy Graham is also the younger brother of former National Party Cabinet minister Sir Douglas Graham.
So, despite listing “reggae” among his musical tastes, he stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb as the Green Party rolled out its lineup for the election yesterday.
I would suggest he is more of an ‘opposable thumb’ than ‘a sore thumb’ on the Green Party’s list. But having any thumbs at all on our list should give us a significant evolutionary advantage over other thumbless parties, particularly when dealing with tasks that require fine motor skills. (And it seems fighting climate change might be just one such task that other parties currently have neither the thumbs nor the heart to deal with.)
Former National Party Cabinet Minister Sir Douglas Graham told the Dominion Post that his brother was “the academic in the family and the bright one”, which is a nice compliment from a former MP with a lot of mana.
Meanwhile another high ranking list candidate, Kevin Hague, assured the Press that he wasn’t just an experienced South Island DHB Chief Executive, health campaigner and human rights advocate:
“It adds to the diversity of the Greens list I guess, being a gay man and also going to work in a business suit.”
Which has to be the first time a Green Party candidate has ever promised to bring more suits into parliament!
May 13th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Ken Graham gives the Greens a thumb up
Tuesday May 13th, 2008. 2:06 pm by frog
> Ken Graham wears a subdued grey suit, loves opera, is a Fulbright scholar and prominent international lawyer, and speaks in a cultured accent courtesy of a career as a diplomat in Europe.
If Ken Graham got his accent on the European diplomatic circuit, he must have brought a spare one back for his brother, as his brother Doug has exactly the same accent.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I am rather dismayed that Lisa Er is so far down the party list. Lisa started her business out of her kitchen and grew it to a multi million dollar business, and did so while keeping her green credentials nad not selling out. If the Greens want to be credible with business, and demonstrate that there are other ways of doing business than plundering the planet then people lilke Lisa would be a major asset.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Kiore- there are just so many excellent candidates that sadly some people will have to miss out. Obviously not enough members knew or agreed with how well Lisa did. It sounds like she’d definitely be a great candidate to me, though.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
I voted Lisa a higher place than she got, for that reason.
Stefan Browning (no 12) also started his own business and grew it quite big without compromising his environmental credentials. His business was in organic fruit and vegetables.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Yep. I would say Lisa will have a good chance at the top 15 next time around.
She has all the credentials as a businesswoman, and a Green one at that, but I think she herself would accept that she still has a lot to learn about the intricacies of politics.
Other parties have had some high flyer new entrants with serious business credentials who struggled in parliament - Bob Clarkson spring to mind. Extremely successful businessman, but never mentored by the Nats into being an effective MP, so was a hopeless one and has now resigned after one term.
I think the general Green perception is that Lisa has been brilliant as a businesswoman, but as someone new to politics, maybe needs a bit more time and experience of politics to be a high profile MP (as all Green MPs have to be, unless by some miracle the Greens get 20% of the vote, in which case some can be on a political learning curve).
May 14th, 2008 at 1:49 am
Why is it that successful business people make hopeless politicians? Too used to making the right decision right now? Too used to business plans to make any sense of government policy making? Too used to putting the customer first?
May 14th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
how is it that you already know how he will be without knowing hardly anything about him?
any more facts you want to spout?