YES, MINISTER HIDE GETS COLLARED BY PLODS

While we were aware that Rodneys famous Yellow jacket was a fashion crime it appears that the police are investigating if its also a election crime as well.

Shit haven't the police got a few P labs, a rapist or two and some murderers to sort?

what a complete and utter waste of money.

IS IT TRUE? IS RODNEY A HUMAN BILLBOARD?

Yip it is. The Electoral Commission has ruled Rodders jacket is an advertisement. How absurd. But it is an absurd piece of legislation. We hope the publicity gets Rodney a few more votes.

HOOTON HAS THE GOOD OIL - WINSTON IS NOT IN THE CLEAR

We were astounded when we heard the breaking news on RNZ this morning . It put BB off her Vogels. And we were deeply suspicious. We got more suspicious when we read the statement and now Hooton's analysis is clear - Winston has not been exonerated. Ann Martin has been exonerated. Some journos and commentators will be feeling a little bit sick about now. Winston has hoodwinked them again and they used the State Broadcaster to do it - No wonder Plunket is looking for cleaner pastures.

DICK BY NAME AND NOW BY NATURE?

both Hooton and Farrar are a little septic with the medias portrayal of the Electoral Commissions ruling on Winston - I reckon he is not cleared. Not by a long shot - it is a very carefully worded statement. Both of them have very detailed analysis of the issues
Read Farrar here
And Hooton Here
And for the general punters out there - Richard ( Dick) Griffin is not impartial - he is a bloody good mate of Winstons - Up there with Trader Jack and Tommy Gear.
So his view of the world is jaded. It is also appalling that the main stream media is doing a " he said she said" approach to this story without taking a very cold and dispassionate look at what the commission is saying.

WINSTON NOT OUT OF THE WOODS YET

We woke to hear Winston on Radio NZ saying he was vindicated after the Electoral Commission said there was no offence committed by NZF in relation to 2007 donation returns

But it appears that NZF has not filed all donations for previous years and the police are still investigating.

In a summary of a withheld decision, the commission said donations made to the party in 2005, 2006 and 2007 were not included in New Zealand First's returns of donations.

The commission says it is withholding the full decision for now to avoid potential prejudice to the continuing police investigation.

The commission also found the ACT Party should have disclosed it was provided with rent-free office space by Sir Robert Jones for a number of years before 2005.

So we wait for the full report and the results of the police investigation

THE SCANDALS KEEP COMING TONIGHT

The prawns are onto $8 million light bulb scandals and Hooton has Pledgegate and if I was Darren Hughes I would be very bloody worried = shame really he is supposed to be a good bugger - but he has dropped his leader in shit.

Keeping stock nails the Electoral Commission

Keeping Stock Blog has an interesting and scary comparison on how two political parties have been treated very differently by the Electoral commission.


Some more questions need to be asked on this one. Is there some external pressure being brought to bear on the commission for political reasons to keep this fiasco going a bit longer?