Trevor watch

Barnsley at Gotcha is worried about the theme of a cartoon blogged by Trevor at Red Alert, but I’m more interested in the increasing shrillness of the posts.

First he basically called John Key a racist because John criticised Hone Harawira, now he calls Anne Tolley a liar because she claimed to fully understand the national standards system, and Trevor proclaimed that no living person can possibly fully understand the system, so she must be a liar. Sounds bizarre, but this is true. I’ll take you through it slowly.

Trevor asked in Parliament:

Hon Trevor Mallard: Going back to the primary answer, is she in the group of 11.9 percent who claim that they fully understand her system or in the 88 percent who acknowledge that they do not?

This was in relation to a Herald poll that found 88% o people did not fully understand national standards. Now Trevor was obviously trying to get Tolley to say she did not understand her own national standards system. Anne tried to avoid a direct answer to the equivalent of a “Have you stopped beating your wife” type question but Lockwood showed why he is such a fair Speaker and insisted Anne give a direct answer,which was:

Hon ANNE TOLLEY: I understand perfectly well what the national standards are …

Trevor then blogs:

… everyone that has half a brain knows that  no one can fully understand a system that vital components of, including what will be an expensive and time consuming moderation system,  have not been designed yet.

So, once again, Tolley is a liar …

So think carefully about Trevor’s logic here. He is saying that no one at all in the entire world can claim to understand the national standards system, and that anyone claiming to is a liar.

It is the sort of verbal semantics you expect from a ten year old, not a former Minister of Education. In Trevor’s world Anne has to either say I don’t understand the National Standards system, or she is a liar. This is why I call it a “Have you stopped beating your wife” question – there is no good answer.

By itself I would not blink – we all know Mallard hates Tolley and his idea of Opposition is to abuse and denigrate her. But when you look at the nonsense over calling Key a racist because Key criticised Hone Harawira, well I think there is a pattern of increasing shrillness or worse.