Nasty Politics

When I talk on blogging, I joke how most people are calm and reasonable in real life, but put them behind a blog and they turn into a foaming abusive person but that the opposite effect has been seen with Trevor Mallard in that he comes across on the blogs as far more calm and reasonable than he sometimes does in the House.

Generally I have been full of praise for Red Alert, and Trevor’s contributions specifically. But sometimes he goes too far. Yesterday Trevor blogged:

In 1999 and 2000, and again in the few days he was deputy leader of the National Party, Nick Smith has shown an inability to cope when the pressure comes on.

Widely circulating Beehive rumours now indicate that John Key has overloaded him giving him Climate Change and ACC at the same time.

Now this is just nasty stuff. Sure criticise a Minister on issues, and point out areas where he or she may be under stress. But Trevor is either fabricating or spreading rumours designed to remind people that Nick had some stress issues during his brief tenure as Deputy Leader.

I know of a Labour MP who once had a similar issue. I would never ever keep harping on about that on the blogs. I think it is great it is all behind them, and don’t see it as a weapon to be used against him or her.

Anyway I commented on Red Alert:

I must remember to link to this post in 2011, when reminding people why not to vote Labour.

This is just a different version of you yelling out “Take your pills” in the House. I think you forget how deeply unpopular such antics are.

My second sentence was censored on the grounds it takes it beyond Trevor’s limits. In fact it got censored because I was explicit at point out what Trevor was trying to say implicitly.

I probably shouldn’t say anything, as letting people show their nasty side is unpopular. This is part of why Labour was thrown out – their attacks on Key and others did look nasty.

I hope this is the last time we see that sort of post on Red Alert.

As I said a post criticising specifics of Nick’s handling of either ACC or climate change would be quite legitimate. But as I said, this is just a cyber-version of yelling out “Take your pills” in the House – something that only declined in frequency after the media started to report on why Labour were doing it.