All over
You know your political career is all but over when the headline on Stuff is “Minister of Pornography”.
I doubt Shane Jones’ line that he is a “red blooded adult” will go down now. The issue isn’t that Shane has watched porn – most men and many women have. The issue is that he charged it to the taxpayer.
There can be grey areas over what you can charge – such as meals etc. But no one could have a reasonable expectation that hotel porn is a legitimate work related expense.
There seem to have been a dozen or more of these movies charged to the taxpayer. In the UK the former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith lost her safe seat after revelations that her husband had charged one porn movie to the taxpayer.
Under MMP, one can’t vote Jones out of office. Only Labour can do so – he is their third highest ranked List MP. Ironically the winner out of all this may be Phil Goff – Jones certainly will not be challenging for the leadership any time soon. Also if Jones resigns, that brings back Judith Tizard!
Twitter has been hilarious today, with scores of people tweeting suggested titles for Shane’s movies. The Twitter channel is here, and well worth following. Some of the suggested titles are:
- Hung Parliament
- Black Rod
- Foreign Affairs
- Chief whip
- The Honourable Member
- Erect Committee
- Private Secretary
- Ministerial Probe
- De-Briefing the Minister
- Yes! Yes! Minister
- Anti Smacking, Pro Spanking
- Loves Labour Tossed
- Withdraw And Apologise
- Mixed Member Proportional
- The bi-election
- The Thick Of It
- Parliamount
- The State of Head
- Crouching Taniwha, Horny Dragon
- Debbie does Dannevirke
- Emissions Trading Scheme
- Rainbow Lay-bour
And many many more. They keep coming in every few seconds. So many wits.