A week in politics is a long time

On Monday Oliver Sean Plunket was grinning ear to ear cos on Saturday 10 February 2024 he reckoned the Taxpayers Union Atlas Poll had showed Act was surging ahead thanks to Seymour's Treaty Principles Bill.

Act were on 13.7% so what more proof could you ask for?

Plunket invited Atlas Network linked David Farrar onto the show to talk this up and then Bryce Edwards ( the Democracy project funded by opaque philanthropy ) who said this could be New Zealand's Brexit Moment - as he talked about the "polls" and what they were showing.

Bryce Edwards ran around various media outlets ( eg Rhema ) pumping this Brexit Moment sound bite up like he was banging cymbals together in a brass Atlas Band - all based on only one poll - as you do when you are the political analyst in residence at Victoria University.

Ha ha ha.

Sounds like advocacy not an aggregated spectrum of data.

Well as you know - Plunket was in free market heaven for a while - floating in a daydream of no Treaty in the way and deregulation winning the day - while a listener named Nicola Joy texted Plunket - and suggested that he should call it TREXIT.

Plunket hoped TREXIT would catch on as he salivated about people wanting a debate and how that Mihingarangi was everything wrong with the world...something like that.

Yes things were looking up for Plunket - and he laughed heartily with Farrar, Dr Eric Crampton and other Atlas folk - about this conspiracy theory on the left started by Mihingarangi about the Atlas Network.

Dr Eric Crampton ( Canadian Born NZ Initiative WingNut ) reckoned Mihingarangi had gotten it wrong - in her Trick or Treaty doco - and claimed Atlas were on the Yes side of the Voice...but here at G News - we know Eric the WingNut ( play it again John ad ) was factually incorrect in his methods...and point to what the Australian Institute of Public Affairs ( Atlas ) was saying to Casey Costello...for example.

Yes there was massive minimisation from the Taxpayers Union and the NZ Initiative as they both talked about a "loose network of think tanks" and Plunket cackled about a left wing conspiracy theory.

Plunket also reflected that the Government was on top in his one eyed opinion - the media were defeated he claimed - after the Wednesday Presser cos Luxon had stuck to his guns by changing his rhetoric and Plunket went on the attack - accusing Mihingarangi of taking money and how her business partner was married to the Chair of RNZ.

Plunket named the amount of money it took to make that doco - and tried to discredit Mihingarangi for daring to ask Seymour questions which a journalist must never do.

Yesterday Plunket tried the TREXIT thing with Winston over the Atlas Network Poll and Winston wisely blew that off saying there's something wrong with polling in NZ when you can have such a discrepancy between polls.

Today Plunket was obviously sleepless in Atlas - as he lashed out again and again at Mihingarangi and interviewed a deflated David Seymour.

Seymour sagged like a collapsed lung and mumbled about the Treaty Principles Bill in a more down beat tone - saying yeah well 10,000 people had registered with his website - which was about 0.1 of 1% of the vote.

Insensitive to the fact Seymour probably just had read the latest Talbot Poll - Plunket soldiered on like a Squid Face on a Pirate Ship and he grabbed Chris Trotter off a marooned blog for another useful lefty rant, breathlessly mocking the Left about this Atlas Conspiracy like nobody on the right can.

As you know Chris Trotter can bore the wallpaper off the wall - so it runs out onto the street screaming - but today even the carpet rolled itself up and threw itself out the window.

Trotter sucked the oxygen from the room and even Plunket nearly passed out.

Trotter tried to explain to the left that they had missed the boat by allowing the right to form networks of think tanks as a reaction to Nixon losing in the US and Unions winning in the UK - while the left had infiltrated the public sector - meaning academics and media.

Trotter talked to the sea as the tide went out about how we don't like elites telling us they know best - but never mentioned the counter factual that - by the same measure - we apparently like the rich right wing libertarian scholars in think tanks shaping our policy, messing with Te Tiriti, selling our water, mining conservation land, making rivers un-swimmable, killing native fish, selling our land to foreigners, and driving up rates.

Nevermind - Trotter was trying to say the Left were so butt hurt after the election they had desperately grabbed hold of the Atlas Network thing to explain things to themselves ...and finally Plunket's gummy mouth opened wide in ecstasy like a giant groper about to swallow a minnow.

Plunket focused Trotter on Mihingarangi...and Trotter firmly belittled her in school master tones ...as Ms Forbes - and how she better get her story straight ...

Just then the news reached the platform that Act were back on 7% ha ha ha

Plunket nearly swallowed those dentures as his face crumpled like a baked bean can and his flat top self combusted.

The once triumphant Plunket dissolved into a fine ash that blew out of the studio like dust in the wind and nobody can find Bryce Edwards and his TREXIT Moment - it's all been a terrible week for the Platform and Nicola Joy is in a filthy mood.

Oh yes life is grand and we are blessed.

I'm feeling great and three cheers to Mihingarangi.

Hip hip Hooray !!!

What a difference a poll makes.

A week in politics is a long time.

G