A new twist
Well, we've got past the general election, even if being force-fed months of overblown rhtoric didn't actually produce a government. Our leaders are now just too tired to be bothered with all that right now, so just sit quietly till they tell you who's in charge. Take it easy Helen, Don, Winston, Peter et al - we can look after ourselves better than you lot ever could anyway.
LawsWatch suggests enlivening your weekend by wearing party leader masks and playing Scrabble, Ludo, or some other exciting board game to determine who gets to be boss. Or, for an added touch of realism, try Truth or Dare. Or, for that real "late night negotiations in Wellington" feel, drink a lot of wine and then play Naked Twister.
It also means we can turn our attention back to the by-election, a mere 140 days away as we write this. Indeed, over recent days some of you have already returned to discussing the odds:
Supposing an anti-Laws candidate is elected, that still gives him & his team (Rangi Wills
included) the majority on council. It would move from 8-5 to 7-6 and even if one of them were absent then he still has the casting vote. I wouldn't be putting too much store in the by-election delivering a different vote or having any effect upon the way this current council operates.
12:29 PM, September 21, 2005
You're assuming that diVision will always vote with Michael, and that is a heroic assumption.
12:59 PM, September 21, 2005
Probably depends as much on the by-election result. If that implies dissatisfaction with Vision, some Crs. may think twice about their allegiances.
1:27 PM, September 21, 2005
...it indicates that if either Jodie or JM can get support from the National Party voters they'll be a tough candidate to beat.
11:49 PM, September 21, 2005
...I am even more concerned that the by-election will not alter one iota the balance of power around the council table. As LawsWatch notes, Rangi Wills is a Ratepayers/Vision man and all that would happen is that the current 8-5 majority becomes 7-6; but even then with non-vison councillors not being united then who knows? Some good advice Jodie and Carla would be to sit this by-election out and wait until 2007.
1:45 PM, September 22, 2005
I see a need for a single strong candidate to be put forward NOW. Must declare my choice would be Carla Donson = intelligent, reliable, a true fighter, clear-headed and totally committed to Whanganui. Any in agreement,please?
10:55 AM, September 23, 2005
Carla is good but so is Jodie Dalgleish but why not put them both up. Vision won't put up a candidate because they don't need to because with Rangi Wills it will still be 7-6 and thats presupposing the non-Vision councillors vote as a bloc, which they don't. ...do you think Vision will put up a candidate? Bob Walker or Alan Taylor?
11:05 AM, September 23, 2005
With 192 votes recorded to date in the LawsWatch "Who'd make the best candidate" poll - a fairly reasonable sample size - Jodie Dalgleish on 29% is ahead of John Martin with 26%. The other most-talked-about candidate, Carla Donson, is on 17%.
As we've seen with our comparison of voting patterns between LawsWatch visitors and the rest of Wanganui, there's a definite left-leaning skew amongst the former but whether that's as relevant in local elections is something you may care to debate (i.e. are the opinions of rural, right-leaning voters, who seem not to visit the blog in great numbers, going to be markedly different from their city counterparts in a local election?).
Details of votes cast to date are:
- Jodie Dalgleish 29%
- John Martin 26%
- Carla Donson 17%
- Bob Walker 6%
- Graeme Adams 4%
- Ken Mair 4%
- Alan Taylor 4%
- Ross Mitchell-Anyon 3%
- Rob Vinsen 3%
- Margaret Campion 2%
- Richard Moore 1%
- Stephen Palmer 1%
- Jill Pettis 1%
- Chas Poynter 1%
- Judith Timpany 0%
Comments on this post are now closed.
69 comments:
Bob Walker is a clown, so it'd have to be Alan Taylor if Vision hope to gain any credibity.
Surely there is someone else in the Vision Team? What about the Health Broad guys?
The word is that vision aren't putting up anybody because they don't need to. Got that from a friend of one of the councillors so should be reliable enough, and that would make sense rom their viewpoint.
a good point!
so there needs to be one strong candidate put up for the city
An impassioned plea ...
No, there needs to be a choice of candidates especially given that Vision are unlikelty (or don't need to) replace Taylor with Wills on side. Restricting choice is just another form of fascism and we're not a one-party state yet.
Looks like poor wee Marty has had his bottom smacked for putting his hand up at the wrong time in the H vote.
As someone who voted for Rangi Wills because he was Ratepayers I thought he might help provide some balance to the Vision lot but he seems to have rolled over and become another Laws lapdog.
What gives here? Is he still accountable to the Ratepayers Association or has he turned feral on them? Does anybody know when the next Ratepayers' meeting is? Unlike diAs someone who voted for Rangi Wills because he was Ratepayers I thought he might help provide some balance to the Vision lot but he seems to have rolled over and become another Laws lapdog.
What gives here? Is he still accountable to the Ratepayers Association or has he turned feral on them? Does anybody know when the next Ratepayers' meeting is? Unlike diAs someone who voted for Rangi Wills because he was Ratepayers I thought he might help provide some balance to the Vision lot but he seems to have rolled over and become another Laws lapdog.
What gives here? Is he still accountable to the Ratepayers Association or has he turned feral on them? Does anybody know when the next Ratepayers' meeting is?
Unlike division I presume that's not a secret society.
Meanwhile whoever from the Chron is monitoring LawsWatch, perhaps it's time Dave Laurence sat Wills down and asked him what's going on.
I think the DHB pair - PJ and Baker Hogan are lying low and are thoroughly disgusted by what has been going on in DivaLand. Can't imagine either of them putting themselves on the line for Vision again.
Of course, Leonie has plenty of time on her hands ... and she does like to stand by her man.
You sure Baker couldn't be tempted?
Ratepayers is a very strong Laws enclave with Graeme Adams and Russell fleming (Destiny NZ) the current chairman. Don't forget that they were in the paper for supporting the nil rate increase AND the anti-Sarjeant stuff. Adams could easily stand for the by-election as the de facto Vision/Ratepayers candidate. Hard to beat with Vision's $ and ratepayers membership.
What does Joan think? She was a Vision candidate last time.
personally, I don't think they'll put up anybody now Rangi is in their camp. Why risk the money or the loss if their majority stays?
www.mayormichael.co.nz
Mayor's latest column.
have just read laws` latest column-even there he makes a virtually unilateral comment!(-re the airport)
i.e.the money allotted by govt. for the revamp of the airport-which he has just said badly needs it-should be spent on the riverbank!
not an endearing column,michael-written as a populist journalist rather than a leader of council, i venture to say!
Quote from our Cr Marty Lindsay......
"However, I've read, listened and talked about it a great deal since that meeting. I'm now of the opinion that this issue needs a better airing than it has had. I don't believe it to be divisive along racial lines either – it's about the people of our community taking the time to understand the issue, have their say and do what's right."
Translated for the bloggers.
'I was called up to the mayoral office and had an wonderful eye opening chat with the 'great one' and I then, and only then, understood the issues of the 'H' debate. How wrong could I have been to try and have a thought of my own! Foolish me, so I will now promise all the Vision groupies ( ie Bob ) never never to waver again from the true path of 'One thought, many hands!".
I thought I noticed electrode marks on Marty's skull - he must've spent time hooked up to the Diva Dianetics machine.
So how to explain Don McGregor's strange outburst? Wasn't he the guy who argued that referendumbs were no place for a complex topic like councillor numbers (oh but of course there was a dollop of self interest there, wasn't there).
He'd have to take the LawsWatch hypocrisy medal for the week.
The mayor must be creaming himself. He picks up McGregor and Lindsay plus gets McKinnon back from holiday. The biggest problem with this council is that they are so easily manipulated.
I'm interested in the personal abuse side of things, Joan. What sort of abuse were you subjected to? Did he swear at you?
Why don'y you stand Joan as the anti-Vision candidate? You'd get all your votes from last time plus ours.
Well done Joan ....
I'm not an ML supporter, Joan - mine was the post on the standing for cpuncil. "Ours" meant anti-Laws votes. Still like to know what sort of abuse you received at hands of vision team.
Is it just me, or has some of the 'ooomph" gone out of this site? do we not care anymore? Has this council ground us down?
When would Micky have time to go to a down town office? He only spends four half days at the council. Mind you he creates that much havoc in four half days they wouldn't want him there any longer than that would be my guess.
Maybe he could spend those four half days downtown.
If you realy want to talk to him then try his talkback, but then if he didn't like what you were saying you would just cut you off.
Just curious but when would the councilers have the time to sit in the down town office?, most of them work or have a business to run
this was a vision promise
Yeah right! That was a promise, and so was the nil rates increase and my (business) landlord has just told me I'm up for a 10% "nil" rate increase.
I don't think you'll see many councillors lining up to explain themselves to their constituents. The diVisionaries don't even understand what's going on and Laws isn't going to let them put their big feet in it by contradicting him on policy he hasn't even announced yet.
They're all fed up, anyway, with having to stand in for the absentee mayor at so many "mayoral" functions.
And it's apparent that the last thing Laws wants is citizens walking in and telling him what they think of him. Like most bullies he's really a coward who finds it easier to pick on people in writing or to grandstand at larger meetings where he's got the microphone.
The Mayor might not have a permanent downtown office but he does have Mayoral meetings at the War Memorial Hall once a month or so. Surely this is the same thing. Guyton Street is easily accessible if anyone wants to see him, anyway.
yeah he fronted up to all these wankers on this blog, routed them when they tried to stack his Town Hall meetings (in fact they got heckled by the rest of the audience) & then dicked them again at the Code hearings.
As for Joan Street: you're a handwringer who couldn't handle the heat and, according to one of the vision candidates i talked to, spent all the campaign overseas in Malaysia. I heard they rejected her, not the other way round.
...routed them...
What lies. Lawsmob weren't at the first meeting. At the second, when Rick Rudd tried to ask about the SGTB, Laws called him "one of the SOS rabble" and abuse started flying from scum in the audience. If Mickey controls the mike, it's not a meeting, still less a discussion.
And you're right, anon, he is a coward.
Did Mickey ever discuss the tactics of stuffing public meetings with Vision lackeys, Joan?
yeah he fronted up to all these wankers on this blog, etc.(posted at 4.26)
What a sad person you are Anon.
You assume very incorectly that everyone that writes here has been to one of those meetings at the Memorial Hall and/or were involved in the code of conduct hearings. I guess only a sad wanker would make those assumptions.
I can assure that I have never been involved/attended any of those events.
"What a sad person you are Anon."
This "anonymous" idiot who is constantly "dicking" himself (to use just one of his favourite potty-mouth phrases) is the mayor of Whanganui.
My bet is that if he did have to sit in a storefront downtown office he'd be such a gutless coward he'd have the council security guy on the door, in case someone walked in and started abusing him.
He can dish out, anonymously and from the safety of distance, but he ccan't take it.
Oh little mayor of Wanganui
Still we see thee lie
And while the silent Watchers sleep
Propaganda slips on by.
Potty-mouth Michael shits them all
Potty-mouth Michael. you’re gonna fall
And all of Bob’s donkeys
And all Vision’s hens
Ain’t gonna put you together again
It was re-assuring to hear on Radio Vomit today that our mayor prefers blond Swedish hitch-hiking chicks to German ones like the poor woman murdered near here.
As he likes to remind us, he's sure putting Whanganui on the map, for having NZ's leading dirt-bag as mayor.
It's interesting to see Michael getting his picture taken with his new buddy Chester.
Seem to recall Chester bleating a couple of weeks ago about how he hasn't got much time for the mayor, especially as Michael didn't want to have anything to do with him when he tried to make a date to introduce himself.
Oh how things change when the Diva sees a chance to get his picture in the paper and a bit of political mileage, eh Chester?
Anonymous said...
The Mayor might not have a permanent downtown office but he does have Mayoral meetings at the War Memorial Hall once a month or so. Surely this is the same thing. Guyton Street is easily accessible if anyone wants to see him, anyway.
4:10 PM, September 26, 2005
Interesting that the last couple of War Memorial Hall meetings have been cancelled including this weeks although it was advertised. (Stuff up somewhere.) So you can't talk to Micky there.
Guyton St has always been accessable so what a waste of ratepayers money it was to have a meeting at the hall.
A meeting in the Council chamber would have been at no cost. "Whoops" but Micky didn't like the chamber but now has had it refurbished - and at what cost to the ratepayer?
With Micky only being at the Council four half days a week chances of having a chat with him there would be nigh on impossible.
If you want to talk to him just ring him, as someone else put it, on Radio Vomit.
Joan said...
if i had to guess who you are i`d have to say bob walker-as i always thought you were a sad,angry,rather confused person
am i right?
Oh come on Joan, Bob's going be in a great frame of mind soon, his mate will be needing his help in selling off tons of WDC land before Dec.
The Laws e column this week is a chuckle. He talks about "bad service " in local stores. This from a guy who when visiting a local store about a year ago ( which he appears to do rarely )responded to the store owners" Can I help you" with " when I want some help I will ask for it" This store owner, well known for his forthright manner,told Laws to " f-off and dont bother to comeback"
I am not surprised that Laws suffers " bad service"- I expect he gets it wherever his objectionable manner invites it.
The latest post is what this blog is infamous for - no facts, no dates, no names - just make it up & hope it sticks. Well it hasnt so far and this mayor & council keep doing everything they want to. I'm not the mayor, Bob Walker, Alan Taylor or any of the other Vision guys but I love how they twist you dweebs into knots. They may not regard you as sport but us spectators do.
Yes I'd bet the incident was fiction too. Just like the 'broken' window in the mayor's office that turned out to be a removed air conditioner unit! This is why LawsWatch has no influence in this city and that is a shame because it had a promising start.
Its also worth noting that LW has alienated all the media in town from the Chronicle & RCP to both radio stations.
How to lose friends and piss people off - must be a book there.
Simple test: name the store & the owner.
To Joan Street who has been bleating on. You made a claim here that Laws bullied you but provided no evidence after I asked so that's why I think you're a flake, esp because Laws was anti-Sarjeant extension before the election & yet you still stood on his ticket and took his (or Vision's) money.
No wonder they ostracised you before election day.
You people listen to the mayor on Radio Live? That's devotion to the cause for you.
Yes I also found Joan's actions strange over standing for Vision when their agenda was clear and their intention os stopping the Sarjeant extension so obvious. But I'll give her the benefit of the doubt if she repaid Vision their money for her campaign. Then she would have clean hands, so to speak.
The store in question, according to the rumour I heard, is DA Morrisons. But perhaps this was a different store?
You don't have to have Joan Street give you chapter and verse on Mickey's abusive nature. Just listen to him.
Why should Joan pay back a cent? It was Mickey who failed to follow agreed Vision policy "to support and encourage" the arts. If the rest of them weren't so a. gutless and b. beholden to him for their campaign contributions, they have removed him as "leader".
You gotta love the way the campaign money works. All the Visionaries (except Joan I think) paid their dues. They then received roughly equivalent sums as "campaign contributions" as their share of Visions spend-up. But if they received roughly what they spent, who paid for everything else? And why weren't they told about the "contribution" they'd be "receiving"? Perhaps that was while Joan was in Malaysia.
There is nothing illegal about rich politicians subsidising their own party, but it makes me wonder about the financial independence of the Visionaries. They must realise that without the big advertising spend-up they would have had a much harder time getting elected. Hard not to feel a debt of gratitude.
As someone keeps pointing out, they all follow Mickey on the "important" stuff. Is this because they genuinely understand and support him, or because the paymaster clicks his fingers?
Bearing in mind that the "finger-clicking", if there is any, happens at a secret meeting of a political party that you can't join, that doesn't advertise itself or its policies.
"Yes I'd bet the incident was fiction too."
Look on the bright side, LawsMob, you're devotion to running round trying to clean up after the Diva will look good on your CV, when you apply for the job with the broom and shovel in the chimps' enclosure at Wgtn zoo.
There's a certain futility to that, too, but like they say, it's dirty work but someone's gotta do it.
"Rise and fall of a prick"
good to see art hitting the mark again :)
Don't you mean "rise and rise ..."
Joan
you're missing the point, girl. you attached yourself to laws because you hoped he would get you elected because you'd tried before & failed. That you were the only member of the vision team not to get elected suggests something went wrong. Why?
I'm not Joan but I would suggest too much honesty, not enough guile. That election was won by diVision spin and bullshit.
I didn't vote for Michael Laws and I didn't vote for Vision because i knew what they were going to do the Sarjeant and I knew that because they told me. I went to a public meeting at Gonville and their leader was explicit about saying Wanganui had more pressing issues and priorities.
That is why I find Joan Street so hard to take. She used them to get her elected and now pretends to be our friend. There is a word for that which I'm too polite to use.
good point.
"Our"? "Friend"?
Are "we" Rob Vinsen or John Martin? Jodie Dalgleish or Ross M-A?
What are you saying, anon? Do you think Joan will sneakily email our comments to Michael?
She's explained herself elsewhere in this blog. Have you read those comments?
Oh really. I was at the Vision launch at the Opera House when Laws said he'd use his high national media profile to promote Wanganui, especially the arts. Not a word about the Sarjeant and when I looked at the Vision policy is said there would be a review.
Like I said, spin and lies.
Are you illiterate?
Read his Chronicle columns of the time and his media releases and he was opposed to the extension and lobbied actively against it. I get tired of people on this site dismissing everything as "spin & lies". It makes us look ridiculous with people out there who we are seeking to convince and its seen us marginalised by the media. When was the last time this blog featured in the chronicle or RCP and compare that with the dream ride they give the mayor.
The episode with the "broken window" really damaged this blog's credibility.
Laws on the Sarjeant - one of his earliest efforts ...
http://mayormichael.co.nz/columns/29mar04-sarjeant.html
I think the last anon was right - his intentions were clear from the very first. Didn't Joan Street read this???
The number of times ML has been proved right hasnt helped the blog either....
Ultimately Vision started promising a review of the Sarjeant, but by then end were openly saying too much was being asked for and promised to can it.
They did however say they would promote arts in other ways so who here is going to stand up and say "How can we help do this?" rather than always looking for ways to shoot any positives down.
I doubt anyone could deny Vision were going to review the Art Gallery extension.
It was the way Laws went about it that hurt the community.
And before anyone junps to the wrong conclusion about me ,No I am not connected with the arts, I am just someone that ocasionaly visits the gallery.
"Ultimately Vision started promising a review of the Sarjeant, but by then end were openly saying too much was being asked for and promised to can it. "
Who, exactly, from Vision made this promise?
Laws is still lying about it.
If, assuming the claim that Vision promised to "can" the extension is correct, and anyone who saw what happened in December has no doubt he/they did, then why did he write to the Dominion Post last week denying he had canned it and saying that was done by ratepayers in the referendum?
Like so much of this sad saga it's a story of spin, lies and abuse.
Forget any arts debate, the fact is, he cost Whanganui $2.5m of outside money for infrastructure development with its inevitable trickle-down through the economy - and made the city a laughing stock nationally.
A couple of points.
I find it interesting that a poll run on such a anti-Laws (or Diva as he is so often referred to) has such a poor polling for the recently deposed Mayor to be voted back into council. Does this suggest that even anti-Laws/Diva voters still wouldn't want to go back to the way things were?
And also, i saw a mention of an "Anti-Laws" candidate. Frankly all i'd want to see is a pro-Wanganui candidate, who cares if they are anti-Laws/Diva or pro-Laws/Diva
Surely if the readers of this blog have Wanganui's interest at heart rather than just Wanganui Arts (because of course we are not all artists here in Wanganui) then they would agree with a pro-Wanganui candidate, rather than an anti-Laws/Diva candidate, as the latter would do nothing but cause more headache in preventing ANYTHING from getting done.
I see the single issue nutters still can't let the Sarjeant subject go.
What about the other art galleries in town, aren't they just as important? If not more!
Who is it that really displays WANGANUI art, without bias or personal preference.
I think if anything a concerted effort to gain a higher profile for the many diverse and colourful art galleries displaying the true depth of Wanganui art is important, rather than the monolithic gallery that only shows the art the curator can get enjoyment from (or persuaded is actually art)
A (very lucid) anonymous said:
...such a poor polling for the recently deposed Mayor... Does this suggest that even anti-Laws/Diva voters still wouldn't want to go back to the way things were?
We'd suggest you're absolutely correct.
And also, i saw a mention of an "Anti-Laws" candidate. Frankly all i'd want to see is a pro-Wanganui candidate, who cares if they are anti-Laws/Diva or pro-Laws/Diva
Pro-Wanganui has to come first, we agree. Without putting words in people's mouths (a favourite Diva tactic) we'd imagine that when the majority of people say "anti-Laws candidate" they mean "a candidate who's awake to Laws, and capable of standing up to him when he's wrong and working constructively with him and their fellow councillors when they're right". It's just too-long winded to keep repeating. If all the councillors fitted that description, LawsWatch wouldn't be here.
One anonymous commented: Its also worth noting that LW has alienated all the media in town from the Chronicle & RCP to both radio stations.
Really? We've scooped the Chron on a couple of occasions (and them us on a couple more). We're rivals - when was the last time the Chron quoted the RCP? Having said that, we've supported the staff in their quest for a meagre 5% more pay and relations at that level are (sadly for Mickey) better than you'd think.
The RCP... well... what can we say. They refused to publish an innocuos advertisement pointing to a web address, yet do exactly that for the Mayor. And they came in for criticism here only after they made that decision, so the spin that they wouldn't publish because we insulted them somehow is just that - spin.
And since we've never mentioned the word "radio" in this blog, let alone said anything to upset them, we can only assume that the Mayor's well-known pre-election ties to local radio continue unabated. So another fearless source of news for Wanganui then - not.
Then another anonymous opined: The episode with the "broken window" really damaged this blog's credibility.
And the "episode with not turning up to report Council" and that other "episode with naming the wrong committee chair" has done what to the Chron's credibility, exactly? And that's just in the past few weeks. And we're still waiting for a copy of the work order or any other evidence to back the assertion we were wrong.
Then another anonymii weighed in with: The number of times ML has been proved right hasn't helped the blog either....
On those sorts of issues, the Mayor being proved right didn't prove us wrong. For instance, we maintained all along that the Port was a mess, that PoW were secretive and (thus by implication) probably responsible for said mess, or at least a large part of it. What happened in the end was that LawsWatch and the Mayor both happened to be right. And we even gave him credit for that. Hardly credibility-damaging.
"I see the single issue nutters still can't let the Sarjeant subject go."
I see you like insulting people. The Sarjeant Gallery is still being attacked by your fuckwit mayor.
"...What about the other art galleries in town, aren't they just as important? If not more!..."
No, they aren't
"...Who is it that really displays WANGANUI art, without bias or personal preference..."
The Sarjeant Gallery. I think you're a fuckwit too.
"...I think if anything a concerted effort to gain a higher profile for the many diverse and colourful art galleries displaying the true depth of Wanganui art is important, rather than the monolithic gallery that only shows the art the curator can get enjoyment from (or persuaded is actually art)"
An ignorant fuckwit, with an agenda.
Small point, the Sarjeant is not charged with "displaying Wanganui art". It is charged with collecting "high art" from any source.
Wanganui artists have a fairly high profile in the collection nonetheless. One reason for this is that the presence of the Gallery attracts artists to live here.
And if the curatorial staff there are so out of touch, how come the mayor's favourite keeps winning the phone book comp?
New Zealand has no national art gallery, so our national collection is housed in provincial Galleries. The Sarjeant is one such, and has developed a high profile for itself internationally on the strength of this.
M LAWS SAID: "See the single issue nutters still..."
Yeah, Micheal. Your campaign to make your point about the Sarjeant by promoting a couple of your annointed artists while slagging off the rest is showing you up for the manipulative, conniving, despotic fool that you. As someone famously said, You can fool some of the people some of the time, but ...
Can't help wondering how Nygl*** feels about this. He parades himself as something of an informed collector about town but also trots around after you with the shovel, tyring to turn away from your philistine foolishness and make the best of whatever it is keeps him in trailing your wake.
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