Saturday Morning Coffee

"Christopher Luxon is a man of the world", declared Audrey Young in her precisely timed puff piece promoting Christopher Luxon to readers of the NZ Herald this morning.

Audrey reports 1. Luxon likes Ronald Reagan the best, 2. Luxon is comfortable on the global stage and likes openness in other nations, 3. Luxon is in lockstep with Winston over Aukus 2 and that's about it really.

I saved you reading the rest of my article - but if you want to persist I detail some of this a bit more and mention polls at the end.

1. Ronald is Luxon's favourite :

I dragged my eyes over the text just to haul in what Audrey was fluffing about - and it turns out the big news is Luxon now says he has a habit of reading all about one world leader per year - ever since he was 20 years old - and his favourite of all of them - was a retired actor who started the Atlas Network neoliberal destruction of the middle classes in the USA - one Ronald Reagan.

"The bombing of Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, which happened just before his 15th birthday, made a big impact and he said he supported New Zealand’s anti-nuclear position of the day. But it was Reagan’s role at that time and his management of the Cold War that impressed the young man. It led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 when Luxon was aged 19 and the collapse of the Soviet Union not long after that." - wrote Audrey.

Strangely enough Netflix published season one of a chronicle on the cold war about a month ago ( Turning Point : The bomb and the Cold War ) and I watched it all - and since then politicians and commentators ( eg. Hooton ) are popping up - making out they know a thing or two like a real historian.

Here's what you can learn from Netflix : Reagan came across like an opportunist twat - demanding that Mikhail Gorbachev tear down this wall on June 12 1987 - but as you know - Gorbachev didn't. The wall never came down until November 9 1989.

Reagan's 1987 speech was no big deal in fact 50,000 Germans had protested against his presence - and it only became a thing AFTER the wall came down. In 1989, a series of revolutions in nearby Eastern Bloc countries - in Poland and Hungary in particular - caused a chain reaction in East Germany that led to the easing of the BS.

Back to Audrey glowing with promotional fervour and sycophantic grunt, fluffing the Luxon mythology after such a dreadful performance by Luxon over the past two weeks.

Audrey reported that Luxon watched the Wall come down aged 19 and marvelled at the economic openness that came after that.

2. Luxon is comfortable on the open global stage.

Audrey remarked about Luxon's excitement about economic openness and in that - I recognised the hidden plug for Atlas Network ideology that Direct Foreign Investment is the cure for all our ills. Sell the country and be like Ireland, Estonia or Switzerland or where-ever - just don't be like us.

“Then I joined a big global company [Unilever] and was in Moscow and central-eastern Europe and places as they opened up to the world." said Luxon to Audrey.

“I was in Asia as it really took off, as the middle classes started to grow, as those economies liberalised and went forward. That’s been my journey through it.” - said Mr Atlas Network fan.

Audrey seemed wide eyed, enamoured by her idol and shuddering with unspoken admiration :

"Listening to Luxon’s global exploits with Unilever and to a lesser extent Air NZ, he may not have the experience of Winston Peters, now in his third stint as Foreign Minister, but he is hardly a novice either. He emphasises the team effort, and there is no doubt that he and Peters, plus Defence Minister Judith Collins and Trade Minister Todd McClay, have injected pace into their roles." - Audrey.

Yes pace - rushing around - but no outcomes.

Give me a bucket.

3. Luxon is in lockstep with Winston over Aukus 2

The rest of the syrupy shallow yawn fest was Audrey glowing about Luxon's thoughts on Aukus 2 being the same as Labour's - but the main point was ...this was a puff piece that promoted her preferred PM at a chosen point in time.

He likes Ronald Reagan, he is into open economies and Direct Foreign Investment, he is behind Winston 100% on Aukus 2 - and Audrey thinks his previous experience is a big deal.

It occurred to me that now "the darkest before the dawn" according to Willis - was precisely the time for this promotional propaganda and Audrey's access to Luxon possibly relied on him thinking she was on his side.

Audrey's recent record of awarding weekly brick bats and Luxon's immunity to all of them - and her tendency to make excuses for his errors, all pointed to how - she had to keep that access to him.

Right now the average of the last three polls from Curia, Talbot and Verian showed there was only a 2.1% gap between the right voting block and the left voting block.

Things had closed up since the election and so they should.

Curiously when it comes to the Atlas Network Taxpayers Union Curia Polls they have a bouncy history when it comes to the Greens and the Act Party. The Greens bounce between 14.6% and 9% on a monthly basis according to Curia while Act range between 6.2% and 13.7%.

Both these wide bounce ranges highlight one of two things.

Either Curia Polls are more sensitive to wild fluctuations in Green and Act voting intentions - or something is not right with their sampling and massaging via weightings.

The popular wisdom that 4.4% fled the Greens and ran to Labour in the past month based on the JAG scandal is some crock of convenient wishful thinking shite.

The counter evidence is likely to be seen in the next Talbot poll and do not forget that Verian had the Greens on 14% only three weeks ago.

As you know the last Talbot poll was concealed by Thomas and Claire ( Nat 34 Lab 33 ) and never made the NZ Herald like it usually did in April. It took Newshub to publish what the NZ Herald did not...and it was only after this - that Bryce Edwards wrote an article in the NZ Herald covering the result.

The suspicious coincidence that both the Atlas Network aligned parties, National and Act, rose in the Atlas Network Curia Poll in early May while Luxon and Mitchell were messing things up - crime was amok, people everywhere were so unhappy, and Seymour had not yet delivered his school lunch woke nonsense - is cushioned by the way Labour rose 4.3% but allegedly at the expense of the Greens.

Something the TVNZ Verian and Talbot Polls strongly contradict.

Any way you look at it, the right and left are close now - and puff pieces supporting the right are popping up right on schedule in the NZ Herald.

The article title should have been "Audrey licks Luxon as windows fog up."

Maybe Audrey will do a puff piece for Chris Hipkins or Chlöe next week - but I am not holding my breath.

"Christopher Luxon is a man of the world" declared Audrey Young.

It's all about timing isn't it.

Saturday Morning Coffee

Morena

G