Slogans rule OK?
As a rule, Watchers take the pronouncements of Wanganui’s propaganda chief Michael Laws with a large pinch of salt. But when he walks out of yet another secret meeting about his grand plan for the heart of Wanganui and tells the Chron that hearing the projected cost would "scare people" we’re inclined to believe him.
The upgrade is likely to cost many millions. Mr Laws said hearing the full amount would scare people and Wanganui District Council’s finance team was looking at ways the work could be done in stages and paid for over 50 to 60 years. We think it can be afforded without a significant rise in rates.And when he reveals that his "communications strategy" to soothe the scared populace into meek submission will be "slogan driven", we just know the referendumb rollercoaster has already left the platform, with Mickey Mayor at the controls.
The upgrade could include big changes, such as the demolition of the museum, the library moving to a central place, drastic alterations to Majestic Square and reconnecting the park with the Whanganui.
Laws is also making sure the EXCLAMATION MARK!!!! features prominently in his Heart hard-sell! Taking his cue from the TV advertorials in which peddlers of everything from eternal youth potions to home gym equipment try to part worried Watchers from their hard-earned cash in the wee small hours, he tells us:
...the slogan for the public information campaign on the Heart project – leading to the proposed referendum in mid-2007. It is – 'It's your money, your city, your future ... your choice.'Be prepared, Watchers, to be assailed by this exquisite piece of spin at every turn because it will help take your fellow citizens’ minds off what lies below as the Vision roller coaster plunges Wanganui into their bottomless debt lake.
Crs Higgie and McKinnon are already squealing with delight and hanging on to MayorMichael for dear life.
HIGGIE: Please be part of this, as it's very important for our generation, as well as for our grandchildren and generations to follow. Mark October 26 on your calendar and be there if you can! Best wishes for the school holidays and the joys of spring! (Exclamation marks are called 'screamers' in the journalism trade for good reason - Ed)Watchers have been observing new and very pleasing developments as Mr Maslin’s formerly withered organ stiffens its resolve to ask questions and knock the stuffing out of mayoral spin. The palpable disgust at Mickey’s bout of ratings-inspired verbal diarrhoea about Tonga has rippled through Wanganui and well beyond. Even Mickey’s formerly loyal lieutenant Rangi Wills was moved to expose a little mayoral lie in an item in the Chron last week and is making no secret of his wavering affections for his commander in chief.
DOTTY: There are various options for the library, one option for the Gallery, two for the museum and one for the War Memorial Hall. The concepts are very exciting and it would be a wonderful achievement to commence a revival project for our cultural centre.
So Watchers were left shaking their heads in sadness and wonder at today’s front page riverfront propaganda exercise by the lovely Mary Bryan who allowed Mickey to get away with claiming a referendumb mandate for a $1.5 million project that started out as just $260,000 in ratepayer spend.
But not to worry, Watchers, because the Chron is also suffering from an acute bout of Silly Slogan Syndrome with the revelation that Fat Newspapers are Bad!!!! Lean Newspapers are GOOD!!! But wait, there's more!!!!
"SINCE WHEN WAS FAT A GOOD THING? We’re lean, trim, healthy and full of ESSENTIAL daily NEWSTRITIONAL value.Desperately attempting to match Media Mickey at his own game, the Chron’s very own sloganeers then urge Wanganui-ites to GET THEIR DAILY WORKOUT with the Chron because they LOVE THIS PLACE, LOVE THIS PAPER.
As the Daily Workout lands with a wee thud at letterboxes throughout the River City we’d suggest it will be judged on whether people like Mary Bryan (and soon-to-be senior reporter John Maslin) ask the hard questions and let readers in on the secret that mayoral propaganda has only a fleeting relationship with the truth. Beside that test, the fact that its paltry pages don’t even have the thermal rating required of fish and chip wrapping is neither here nor there.
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52 comments:
Dotty says: "There are various options for the library, one option for the Gallery, two for the museum and one for the War Memorial Hall. The concepts are very exciting and it would be a wonderful achievement to commence a revival project for our cultural centre."
One option? How can you only have "one option"? Learn English woman.
ML might have his work cut out on this project, the people who he needs on board i.e. the 'money up the hill' can not stand him or is dancing wife's antics.
Scary? What's really scary is accidentally channel surfing onto the barking-mad Mickey trying to flog his dodgy radio show in prime time with a good impersonation of Adolph at Nuremburg.
A dumb move by his radio station, really. You'd think they would have figured out by now that at least the wireless has the advantage of people not actually seeing what a crazed loon they have put behind the mike.
"See you little peasants, I do write my own columns, my Michael would never make that mistake" Dot .....future mayor-ass in waiting.
Is there any better illustration of Mickey's malice than the fact that there is only one developed solution for the Sarjeant? This option will be measured against three things: 1. the "Community Outcomes" consultation process which identified the issues. 2. The brief that the Warren Mahony plan used. 3. Keith Hindson's report (which dismissed the corridor option as "unviable").
Oh, and the fact that Mickey is worthless and incompetent.
To respond to anonymous 9:49 and his echos, anonymi 2:51;4:40 &4:43 in the last post, who sound as though they are all partaking of the same hallucinogen here are some facts.
1. Sorted out the council's finances …… The city's debt was projected to reach $48 million by 2010 when Vision took over. Their Rates & Finance policy release (24/8/04) pointed out that the interest charges alone would cost Wanganui ratepayers $8 million over the next three years That projected debt is now $71 million. Is that what you meant by "sorted out Council's finances", 9:49?
2. Stopped the Sarjeant extension after discovering the promoters lied …… The promoters of the Sarjeant gallery DID NOT LIE about external funding, and by saying that they did you are giving your identity away Micky, nobody else still clings to that fantasy, especially since Robin Congreve was voted New Zealand's top philanthropist this year.
3. Given everyone who lives here the chance to sort out what our money gets spent on ……… The way the referendum process was manipulated has nothing whatsoever to do with democracy, and people are beginning to wake up to the fact. The splash centre “the people” bought into was supposed to cost 1.25 million a year for two years. The tendering process closed last Thursday, so when do we get the bad news, Micky?
4. Set up new events that give us national coverage……. The sad fact is that the rest of the country was far more interested in the “peanut nutters” and “bloated brown slug” affairs than a concert, race or ‘B’ movie premiere.
5. Established the riverfront development. The riverfront development (original cost 130K/yr for 2 years….there goes that referendum again) will be a great place to stand and watch Anzac Parade fall into the river because the current ship of fools has seen fit to bunt $7.6 million right out of the LTCCP and adopt a policy of doing “any repairs reactively as this will attract Land Transport New Zealand subsidy”.
6. Kept our rates at the lowest …. But at what cost? $26.7million in infrastructure expenditure has been left out of the LTCCP and another $6.4million delayed for six years and the way has been cleared to do some big time borrowing.
7. Given me and everone else who lives here equal opportunity to say what my money gets spent on Repeats lie number 3.
8. Put Wanganui on the map. It will take us years to live down the image he has given us.
Anonymous 2:51 obviously hasn’t had any business at Guyton Street lately. It has been reduced to dysfunction. The poor rats still stuck on the ship are simply not up to the increased workload and loss of all that ability and background knowledge. As for his milking of the the child health and maternity issue, he hasn’t done anything except grab a headline or two yet. Laws’ involvement with the recruitment of medical specialists is quite likely to stuff it up…,repelling people is where his genius lies, not attracting them.
4:40 see 3 above.
4:43 Please note the Splash Centre project hasn’t happened yet and if it does happen in its present form there are going to be a whole lot of very disgruntled people around when its full building and running costs become apparent. Also, check the executive summary of the LTCCP as it appears in the Strategy Committee 14/9/06 meeting agenda and note the ghost column on top of 2008’s 3% rates. That’s for the water softening plant. If you live in Aramoho or Wanganui East you already have soft water. There will be an additional $70/yr charged for soft water every year until inflation bumps it up.
Well, after Dotty's frothing literary fellation of Michael on the website, she'll be delighted to see more of the mayor. After all, he's oging to be running naked through Ohakune:
"THE Overlander will keep on rolling thanks to a last minute change of heart from Toll NZ.
Horizons Chairman Garrick Murfitt received a phone call from Toll NZ’s general manager of corporate affairs Sue Foley at 3.30 this afternoon with the unexpected news.
“I am absolutely delighted that Toll NZ has decided to keep this service going,” said Mr Murfitt who is one of four regional council heads who started the bid to save the train.
“The company has seen the economic benefits that the service provides to the towns and communities it passes through, especially Ruapehu and the rest of Horizons’ region. It’s wonderful news.”
From next week the Overlander will run for three days a week on Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the existing timetable. During the summer season the service will run seven days a week reverting to three days a week after Easter.
Toll NZ says that the company will be looking at ways to develop the service and this is expected to include refurbishment of existing carriages."
Altogether now....Get 'em off, get 'em off, get 'em off.....Mickey loses another one, eh? Bet that's ripped the crutch out his nightie.
Anonymous said...
To respond to anonymous 9:49 and his echos, anonymi 2:51;4:40 &4:43 in the last post, who sound as though they are all partaking of the same hallucinogen here are some facts.
**********
Let's hope this silences anonymickey and his crowing crones once and for all. This anonymous has got you sorted and he/she is not the only one.
Sve your bullshit for the next vision meeting, Mickey and leave this blog for the thinkers and doers in our community.
Hey Mickey,
Looks like the Overlander's back on. Time for you to get your kit off, and watchers, time for us to blind ourselves
Maybe the Chron doesn't want to bite the hand that feeds it ... it seems to be doing extra well out of the ratepayers of Wanganui right now, with the advertising profits from all those situations becoming vacant due to disgust with the appalling conditions and atmosphere at the council.
If that scary black cat in the picture is meant to represent ML may I suggest that he be whipped off to the vet and neutered asap. We don't need him spraying all over our town, do we?
Anyone seen all the vacancies currently advertised on the WDC site at the moment?
Add to that the ones that are leaving/left in the next month.
Keep up the good work Flaws.
Our Mickey has made a collossal idiot of himself in the Ruapehu. Since his throwaway remark calling them genetically deficient, they have come to the reasoned and rational evidence-based conclusion that he's mentally deficient. The only difference is that they don't need to boost their radio ratings by telling the world.
No one, including their mayor, takes him seriously and that goes for other mayors with an ounce of integrity (which of course rules out the equally mental Bob Buchanan to the south).
Maybe the Horizon Cr Ms. Lush can give the Diva some helpful hints on how to run down the main street of Ohakune.
How can you only have "one option"? Learn English woman.
******
Dear old Dotty doesn't have to learn English because she's got herself an MBA.
Doesn't that stand for Michael's Bullshit Artist?
Forget about the black cat, the background in this the picture looks scarily like the sort of post-apocalyptic landscape Wanganui will be reduced to after Michael and the diVisionites have finished their work flogging off every green space and driving the real people into the hills.
Given (as noted by an earlier poster) the bulleted snippet in leiu of todays bulleted media release... perhaps Flaws is not the only Vision visitor to the blog! Perhaps McPotty stops by too.
So if you are reading Dotty, please stop turning my stomach with weather commentary and Go, Grow Go!!! crap. And while I'm at, please stop trying to dress 40 years your junior - there's nothing wrong with being an OAP :)
So our council needs a legal officer and runs an advert full of spin like “Wanganui has a long history with a strong sense of community.”
But no mention of the real reason for this new position, ie a foul mouthed, vindictive mayor and spineless CEO who stir up more litigation than a season of Boston Legal.
Wonder whether applicants will be told about the unfortunate incident with the Spin Fairy and other mayoral legal messes.
"But no mention of the real reason for this new position"
-----------
Just to clarify this... historically WDC has always gained legal advice on a retainer basis with 1 or more legal firms, the work is simply being brought in house. Cheaper over an annual period. This was a CEO decision not a Vision one.
Not a bad move... providing Mickey doesn't get his claws into him/her!
"Dear old Dotty doesn't have to learn English because she's got herself an MBA.
Doesn't that stand for Michael's Bullshit Artist? "
No. I have it on the authority of a former high-up of Massey's School of Business that it actually stands for Means Bugger All.
Reading my Chron today I'm relieved that we've got letter writers like Stephen Palmer. Once again Palmer exposes worthless Mickey as a two bit incompetent, and a pathological liar to boot.
Of course, it's a pity The Chron. are prepared to print Michael's lies. They should really do a better job of vetting his letters.
If his lips move, he's lying.
PLEASE please do not run naked down the street. NO ONE wants to see a 50 something man make a fool of himself.
Hi Mickey, Christchurch looks like it up for grabs.
Don't be too hard on the Chron! It was good to see them giving Stephen Palmer the last word this morning because Mickey thinks that's his by divine right.
I agree the Chron are trying their best. It can’t be easy having so many emails from the Diva on a daily basis.
Christchurch is a good idea, however I think ML could only fool a small town like Wanganui.
I have just had this emailed to me. It was from the Southland Times, Mayor's Column, 1 July 2006.
Quotable Quotes from Tim Shadbolt - "I'd like to publicly state my opposition to the ideas of Michael Laws, the Mayor of Wanganui. When Mr Laws ran for Mayor he stated it was his intention to do a 'Tim Shadbolt' on Wanganui.
Mayor Laws' destructive comments and flawed views may generate a lot of publicity, but I believe you can generate just as much publicity with goodwill, inspiration and humour.
I'm sorry Michael, but as far as I'm concerned you're not doing a 'Tim Shadbolt' at all." (end quote)
Tim's comments are spot-on.
I see the mad mayor moaning yet again in the letters about 'how right I am', can't he just give it a rest!
Front page 'news' - the Tongan student may return to Wanganui. Who cares. That's hardly front page news. Talk about flogging a dead horse. We don't care if she comes back or not. Give it a rest, Chronicle. The Mayor was right and we don't give a shit if she returns to Wanganui or not. Give us some real news on the front page instead of this crap.
Good job Mickey you have a couple of new bloods in your team, but even these 'tame' ones might not get you the Maori vote, at least you only have to change the first name on all the 'spin documents' for one anyway!
Saw the news from the WDHB in the Dom yesterday, looks like they are sorting themselves out without the mayor help.
Wanganui's mayor appears to have once again made himself look very silly, with a little help from an astute headline writer at the Dominion Post.
"We do not salute despots" was a nicely ironic title for yet another public revelation of Michael Laws's despotic worldview.
Does Laws really think this sort of thing gains him any respect with the kind of people who matter in Wellington?
And right underneath the mayor's letter is another headed "Mayoral arrogance" by someone from Levin who knows what an unfortunate episode Laws' mayoralty is for Wanganui ...
"... he's smart but cheap and an offence to an integrated, historical and now progressive community liked by many outside Wanganui."
Jean said...
we don't give a shit if she (Tongan Student)returns to Wanganui or not
5:11 PM, September 30, 2006
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What sad, narrow, bigoted thinking, regarding the Tongan student. While you and mickey "may not give a shit"
there are a lot of us that do.
Actually, Jean (5:11pm 30/9/06) there are quite a lot of people who care about whether or not the Tongan student returns to school here.
In 2005 UCOL’s estimated annual contribution to our local economy was twenty-three million dollars. It made an employment contribution of 312 full time equivalent positions. It has lost students because of the amalgamation with Palmerston North and many courses are undersubscribed. The old town redevelopment will bring a huge amount of money into our city, but that won’t go ahead if student numbers continue to drop. This is all public knowledge.
If you can’t connect the dots on this one you are not very smart. The mayor can’t seem to connect the dots either. Maybe he’s not as smart as he says he is.
There is trouble in paradise. Two of our elected visionites having a coffee in town and the word MAD and BOB were quite common!!!
Anonymous said...
There is trouble in paradise. Two of our elected visionites having a coffee in town and the word MAD and BOB were quite common!!!
6:14 PM, October 01, 2006
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So where in the world is Mad Bob??? Poor Mickey seems to be on his tod in the mad letter writers department of late.
(Someone should make a computer game about this) ...
Perhaps Mad Bob never really existed, just like Antoinette Beck. Now it looks like Mickey may be winding up Mad Richard to send out to do his (and Vision's) dirty work.
It's interesting to see that when Michael Laws was pulling his strings, Winston Peters did a great job of being an unreconstituted racist. Now that Helen Clark is his puppet mistress, Winnie's become a crusader against the evil racist Death-Wish Don Brash.
Meanwhile, Mickey puts his racist boot into Tonga and Tongans, among others, and suddenly discovers an affection for China and the Chinese (though of course it does segue into more slobbering about his enhanced boobs fetish).
Now this is scary in the Sunday paper predicting a natural disaster is due and that there's going to be "another volcano like Ruapehu right smack on Wanganui."
Dont they know Wanganui's disaster has already hit and it's smack in the middle of Guyton St, whenever the mayor blows his top.
Is that Morris guy going to tell the world why he's left the Vision party ?.. I'm hearing it from all sorts of people around town but no hard facts..
Is that Morris guy going to tell the world why he's left the Vision party?.
____________
Could it possibly be:
a) Because he's found out to his cost that no one trusts him; or
b) That it's just a stunt to increase his usefulness to Mickey as a double agent?
Either way it's hard to imagine anyone taking him seriously, especially if Mrs Morris is still knee deep in the Vision muck.
“Oh, look!” cried Dotty. “Isn’t MayorMichael brave, taking on all those awful crooks and criminals and everything?”
“Oh yes!” squealed Nicki. “It’s all very, very scary. But don’t worry, Dotty. So long as MayorMichael is making a lot of noise, his radio ratings will surely rise.”
Look at what one Peter Ashby had to say on the NZ General group in response to Mickey's grandstanding over the Overlander:
"What do you expect from a man who declared on leaving university that he had nothing to declare except his body and his double bed? How anyone can consider the man electable is beyond me. And yes, I was there."
Peter
Have you read the news lately Anon 9.52pm? Seems double beds and bods is common among politicians. Nothing changed there.
So Mickey is still raving on about Wanganui needing more cops. Perhaps he could ask Pep to get Sam back on active duty at Bell St, and while she’s at it she might like to pop into Guyton St occasionally and earn her councillor salary.
It could be that Nigel Morris HASN'T left Vision! Another unsubstantiated piece of BS from anonymous bloggers with too little important things in their lives. Get a pet:it's the only thing that will love you loser lot.
Mickey chose Dickie? That's smashing, absolutely smashing. It should be a bruising campaign.
So ML left university like most students - with a degree and debt.
So what?
Anonymous said...
So ML left university like most students - with a degree and debt.
So what?
9:24 AM, October 03, 2006
++++++++++++
Oh diddums, Mickey.
Anon @ 8.20 said
It could be that Nigle Morris HASN'T left vision....
PROVE IT
Anonymous said...
So ML left university like most students - with a degree and debt.
So what?
**************
Of course he had something most students don’t leave university with … a reputation for being the widely loathed campus prat!
who gives a shit about morris he is just a hanger on anyway ,good job if he has gone .he is more two faced than anyone ,whats in it for me and up you all. would fit him well
Nygllhuw does alot for charity and is a decent guy. He doesnt deserve the uninformed abusive stuff on here that must come from people who dont really know him well, or are so obsessed by Mickey that they try and slam anything associated with him.
Step back a pace if you're able and you may improve your health.
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