Danyl cuts through

Danyl blogs at Dim Post:

So the first thing I do is put the whole Bevan Chuang, Cameron Slater, Luigi Wewege, John Palino, John Slater sleazefest to one side for a minute. Then get a bit of perspective by asking myself: Danyl? How would you feel if a right-wing politician secretly took $39,000 from a casino company to cheat on his wife while he was lobbying to have the law changed to benefit that casino company and then lied about it to the public?

Well, my reaction to that would be that the hypothetical right-wing politician was a disgusting, corrupt untrustworthy crook and that he’d disgraced his office and should resign. Which means – since I think politicians should be held to the same standard irrespective of their political allegiances – that I think Len Brown is disgusting, corrupt etc and should resign. That was pretty easy!

It wasn’t of course $39,000 from a casino company. That is the amount from all hotels. But the point remains.

No Right Turn was the same:

I don’t care who Len Brown fucks, and I don’t really want to know. But I do care that he maintains basic standards of integrity in public office, and that means declaring all significant gifts. Particularly when those gifts come from organisations in a position to receive favours from him or the Council. Brown has failed in that basic task. He must resign.

The Council has a huge influence on hotels – rates, tourism levies, services, zoning etc. Nothing wrong with taking donations or freebies so long as you disclose them – but Brown didn’t.