Dieuwe de Boer

🚩Today, Christopher Finlayson delivered a vicious attack on New Zealand First, likening the party to Nazis. Phil Goff went further, branding it “neo-fascist.” These two former ministers launched the assault after Winston Peters criticised the progressives term for division - ‘diversity’. Finlayson began by endorsing ACT candidate and his protégé James Christmas for the Tamaki seat — which is an impossibility — before stating that while he has no particular objection to ACT, he holds “a visceral hatred” for NZ First. Disgustingly he claimed the party “evokes memories of Himmler and Heydrich,” two of Hitler’s most notorious lieutenants. Goff reinforced the point by calling NZ First’s politics “neo-fascism.” Finlayson said he was “freaked out” and “really, really scared” at the prospect of Winston Peters gaining greater influence and bringing people into government whom he regards as “truly awful” and unfit for office. Goff, the former leader of the NZ Party (useless), former Mayor (useless) of the biggest city in NZ, and disgraced High Commissioner to the UK, went on to call NZ First “a dangerous populist party, full of prejudice, anti vaxxers, conspiracy theorists and of racists” - this was Goff’s Hilary Clinton ‘deplorables’ moment. This kind of language is not harmless. It risks inflaming unstable individuals. Only last year, a left-wing extremist involved in a protest organised with Green Party involvement used a metal bar to smash a window at Winston Peters’ home while his partner was inside alone. In recent years, conservative politicians have been murdered — Sir David Amess and Ann Widdecombe among them — by individuals emboldened by extreme rhetoric of the kind Finlayson is now using. Just two weeks ago in Australia, Teal MP Helen Haines was deliberately run over and has lost both her legs by a driver in what authorities treated as a gruesome, targeted attack. Finlayson and Goff are irresponsible. Their inflammatory language contributes to a climate in which political violence becomes more thinkable. They need to be held to account for it. These two washed up pig slop politicians are a total disgrace and National and Labour should call them in. @danwootton Youtube Link here: m.youtube.com/watch?v=E2o9GX…

Simon Bridges endorses NZ First - again. From Richard Harman this morning : What amounted to an endorsement of New Zealand First by the leader of a business organisation in front of an Auckland business audience is a demonstration of how topsy-turvy this election campaign has become. Simon Bridges said Jones was incredibly economically focused. “There are things I really like about the New Zealand First Party. I think firstly, there's a very clear, very explicit focus on growth,” he told an Auckland Chamber of Commerce event with Jones last week. “And I think the reality is, not all in Parliament have been that focused. Chapman Tripp Election survey found that 80.4% of the business executives and owners surveyed said electricity prices were a concern to their business. NZ First is the only party on the right who are wanting to break up the gentailers. That determination of National and Act to sit on the sidelines while businesses go broke and close down like the North Island paper and sawmills is what is driving Bridges to look at New Zealand First. Bridges certainly believes New Zealand First will listen saying : “Shane certainly personally is always ready to talk, whether you like what he's saying or not, he’s always ready to listen to business and I just want to repeat not all in Parliament have been just like that,” Bridges said. “This year Shane, the Rt Hon Winston Peters and New Zealand First have announced a bevy of policies around business and growth.” Last week on his Leighton Smith interview, Shane opined that NZ will be seeing Simon Bridges back in politics sooner or later. The question is though, where ?