Closing down dissent

Matthew Hooton writes in the SST, about the efforts of the Clark administration to close down dissent, starting with the PM’s assertion that “allegations of corruption are intolerable in a western democracy”.

One also has:

* Threats to National MPs
* The smearing of the Auditor-General
* Retaliation against the Exclusive Brethren
* Attempts to close off donations to National
* Proposed ban on third party campaigning against the Government
* Clark’s own attacks on Hooton (almost demanding he be removed from National Radio)

Also somewhat amusingly, at the bottom of the column, is an apology to Roger Kerr from the SST for Chris Trotter describing Bryan Sinclair as a friend and protege of the roundtable chief. Heh, normally people seek apologies for being linked to the roundtable – this is the first time I’ve seen an apology because the roundtable objected to the link 🙂