Former Herald owner and National Party activist Michael Horton, one of New Zealand’s richest men, has registered himself as a third party so that he can campaign against the Government next year.
So far, so good: The electoral finance regime ensures that all New Zealanders can participate in political debate, as long as they do not attempt to do so secretly and do not attempt to use their wealth to distort the democratic will of the people. But what gets my goat is this from Mr Horton:
“I’ve been threatening the family I’m going to have an armband made. Instead of the Star of David, which the poor Jews had to wear, I’m going to have a little armband which says, ‘Registered third party’.”
How dare this man, who has had every privilege in life, owned New Zealand’s most powerful newspaper, and will have no restraint on his ability to participate in political debate except that he must do so within a reasonable limit and not do so anonymously attempt to cast himself as a martyr alongside the millions of jews who the Nazis sought to exterminate.
If that was not enough, he goes on to compare the Electoral Finance Act to the Soviet Regime. This man, whose income is many times that of the ordinary New Zealander, who has the opportunity to voice his opinion on political matters to a sum many times more than normal New Zealanders can dream of being able to afford, has the gall to compare himself to those who suffered under 75 years of Soviet oppression.
Mr Horton, exploiting the suffering of millions for political point-scoring to perserve your privileged place within the New Zealand polity is reprehensible.
You’re a disgrace.
Tags: elections, national, electoral finance bill, electoral funding
January 11, 2008 at 6:05 pm
So, the big donors to the National Party are starting to come out of the woodwork.
Not content with many years of pushing the Herald to print National Party propaganda in its editorials, feature articles and cartoons, he’s now going to spend as much money as he can on influencing the election.
The Electoral Finance Act was to limit the excessive influence of people like you, Matthew Horton. I hope it works well.
January 11, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Nah, I’ve always said the best thing with Horton is to give the man plenty of rope.
He’s got the same inflated ideas about his own importance that Lindsey Perigo has, and the more attention he’s given, the the more extreme his language will become. I’ve listened to the long-suffering Laila Harre debating with him on Nat Radio many times and I can tell you these disgraceful comparisons he is drawing are standard stuff for him.
Eventually he will get so embarrassing the Nats will shut him down for damage control reasons.
January 11, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Fools, I think you have confused Matthew Hooten with Michael Horton. They are not related.
Plonkers.
January 11, 2008 at 9:20 pm
So anybody who dares speak out against “dear leader” is a disgrace are they?
You people really are unbelievable, no doubt you will also be in favour of “dear leader” using the death of Sir Ed as a chance to score political points.
January 11, 2008 at 9:41 pm
OK so Michael is the father and Matthew is the son. I intended to refer to the father, and cut and pasted from the above, since my spelling is sometimes not the best. However, like father like son I suppose.
From Granny Herald:
* MICHAEL HORTON …
* Was managing director of Wilson & Horton, the family-controlled firm that owned the NZ Herald until a takeover in 1996. It also owned several provincial newspapers.
* Head of the Horton family, which the NBR Rich List estimates to be worth $190 million.
* Chairman of his son’s commercial printing and publishing company, Horton Media.
* Married to Rosemary Horton, philanthropist and vice chair of the Starship Foundation.
* Son Matthew Horton is sole shareholder of Horton Media, which also does business in Australia, and part-owner of the Truth newspaper.
January 11, 2008 at 10:19 pm
I think BB and Whale are trying to point out that Hooten and Horton are two different names/people. But I don’t think Wat is confused. I think he knows the difference between media magnate Horton and Tory boy Hooten.
January 11, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I like take two of the second paragraph much more than take one Wat, good clarification
January 12, 2008 at 12:22 am
Does it not appear that BB, whale et al are becoming less and less coherent? Spread a little thin perhaps?
I’d expect more of Horton. He should know that his offensive analogies serve only to remove any differentiation between him and the likes of Cameron Slater; National’s favourite pornographer and cyber-bully. What’s that saying about lying down with dogs?
January 12, 2008 at 5:38 am
Frack. My mistake. The link to the original Herald article was going to an “HTTP page” and I got the context wrong.
January 12, 2008 at 6:24 am
Hey, logix, don’t be too embarrassed. Think about the shame Big Bruv brought to himself over at Kiwiblog. Even the most conservative mongrels over there were outraged with his overt attempt at politicising Sir Ed’s death. If Bruv had a dram of self worth it would have been battered yesterday after being called out by nearly all of the Kiwiblog regulars. No THAT is embarrassing.
January 12, 2008 at 9:16 am
icky
The only person politicising the death of Sir Ed is the leader of your party, she (in her normal style) is shameless in her use of this mans death as a way of halting her slide in the ratings.
I would hope that the state funeral is a dignified one but I do feel that she will hijack the whole thing.
January 12, 2008 at 9:39 am
Bruv, you’re doing it again. You’re digging that hole deeper and deeper. Frankly, it’s getting very embarrassing. Your little buddies over at Farrar’s place have already ticked you off. You’ve shown yourself to be a mean spirited, stupidly partisan doofus. And you continue to do it. Astounding.
And, by way of clarification, I don’t have a political party. I am not a member of a political party. And, come election time, I am not sure who I will be voting for - electorate candidate or list. Certainly not Key’s clueless mob, that’s for sure…but the field is otherwise wide open for me. So, your cheap partisan nastiness is even more steeped in the ridiculous. You just don’t get the subtle thing do you?
January 12, 2008 at 11:29 am
What an invidious position you’re in BB. The best thing you could do is keep quiet and simply accept your comments were inappropriate. Sadly for you, your ego inversely related to your judgment.
January 12, 2008 at 11:36 am
Mardy
The only person who has commented inappropriately is “dear leader”.
January 12, 2008 at 11:43 am
There you go again, ego-over-judgment; have you not noticed that you’re by yourself in your insistance that the PM shouldn’t publicly announce the death of our of our icons? Say what you will BB, I suspect you know you’ve transgressed but simply don’t know how to back down.
January 12, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Yes, Mardy, poor old bigotbro and his hate-mates are in a real quandary yet again: having devoted countless hours of their mean little lives to a effort to demonise Labour supporters as brainless lickspittling bludgers, how now to reconcile the fact that NZ’s most revered figure also supported Labour?
You can almost hear the cogs turning and smell the rubber as they slew about in confusion - bigotblub shunned by his own sub-group and reduced to impotent flailings here, while his mates adopt an embarrassed silence and Farrar piles up the posts in an effort to put the matter behind them.
An early commenter on the bog (tim barclay) noted that “…Sir Ed clearly favoured the Labour Party..” and that now “That means there will be another vacancy in the Oder of New Zealand for another Labour Party hack.”
Is he calling Sir Ed a “Labour Party Hack”? Maybe the tory-funded Free Speech Coalition would like to put that on a billboard!
Yet another example of the simplistic, shallow, muckchucking tactics of the Right coming back to bite their noisome born-to-rule arses.
January 12, 2008 at 5:03 pm
akuleate - nice!
January 12, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Indeed; a superbly well crafted comment. I’d not expect anything meaningful in response however.
January 12, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I dunno, for a bunch of evil Stalinists we are a piss weak bunch of pussies. Personally I think the EFB will need to be backed up with some real action, and as with banning plastic bags I see the Chinese are once again leading the way:
” On Monday Wei happened on a confrontation in the central Chinese province of Hubei between city inspectors and villagers protesting over the dumping of waste near their homes.
A scuffle developed when residents tried to prevent trucks from unloading the rubbish, Xinhua said.
When Wei took out his cell phone to record the protest, more than 50 municipal inspectors turned on him, attacking him for five minutes, Xinhua said. Wei was dead on arrival at a Tianmen hospital, the report said. ”
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/11/china.blogger/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Thats more like it!!
January 12, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Just as I suspected, dear leader has not been off the plane for more than an hour and she is already trying to make political capital out of Sir Eds death.
The Woman has no shame.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4352291a10.html
January 12, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Hey Bruv - you seem to be all hung up on this “shame” thing - it shows all the hallmarks of classic projection. Whatsa matter wee man? You ashamed of something? You should be.
January 13, 2008 at 8:54 am
You’re humiliating yourself Bruv. Honestly. Helen Clark, like it or lump it, is the prime minister of this country. Sir Edmund Hillary was a great New Zealander beloved by this country. It is not only acceptable that the prime minister play a significant role in representing the country’s grief but necessary and appropriate. The fact that Clark and the Hillary’s had a close cordial personal relationship mean that Clark is doing more than representing the nation’s grief she is also going through her own personal mourning. Bruv, you are wrong on this. Out of step with conservatives, lefties and the rest of the known universe. That you persist in trying to justify your unreasonable take on this issue reflects very poorly on your personal character. That you cannot see beyond your irrational loathing for someone (Clark) whom I suspect you’ve never actually had a conversation with - shows some pretty flawed character. The fact you seem oblivious to the fact that New Zealanders might actually have genuine mourning for Hillary’s passing and would want their country’s government to recognise this man’s passing shows you are woefully out of touch with contemporary New Zealand. I thought you were an ignorant troll here to wind up the lefties - but I am starting to realise you’re a genuinely mean-spirited person with some major hang-ups. Why don’t you just bite your tongue on this?
January 13, 2008 at 9:53 am
BB,
I’ve held my tongue on your behaviour till now. I imagined the light would dawn, realise your mistake, and “withdraw and apologise”. (It’s not hard, for an example of how it’s done, see my own big fuck up in the thread above.)
In my twenties I had some association with both Peter Hillary and Guy Cotter (Ed Cotter’s son who has gone on to a remarkable career of his own.) I know both families, although I won’t claim a close relationship. Moreoever Helen Clark has, for a woman of her age and responsibilities, an excellent record of her own mountaineering and skiing achievements. A lot more than mine, and probably even more so than yours BB.
Helen Clark has every right, as PM, as an accomplished alpinist, and as a family friend to be shouldering a lead public role in this matter.
The only remaining question is whether you, BB, are man enough to apologise.
January 13, 2008 at 11:20 am
I have to say I think Helen Clark has been excellent in her handling of this. She has been low key, and very Prime Ministerial, by which I mean shown admirable leadership and a calm presence, without taking over the show. For me, she has struck just the right note.
I literally cannot remember the last time she has said or done something I support and admire, but this is one of those times. There are many ways to make a mistake in her position in this situation, but she’s got it just right.
January 13, 2008 at 11:26 am
Somehow this thread is talking about Sir Ed, but my original reason for wanting to post here is the total over the top outrage:
Mr Horton, exploiting the suffering of millions for political point-scoring to perserve your privileged place within the New Zealand polity is reprehensible.
Honestly, where the hell does this come from? Mr Horton is going to wear an arm band. The NZ cricketers did yesterday. Are they exploiting the Holocaust Jews? And, sorry, since when was making a reference to persecuted Jews equivalent to exploitation? Is it suddenly exploitation of Jews just because he talks to them, whereas it would not be had he not made the reference? How does that follow?
Its a bloody arm band. Get over it.
January 13, 2008 at 11:26 am
… talks ABOUT them…
January 13, 2008 at 11:54 am
Well, matt, Horton is wearing an arm band deliberately to draw parallels between what he sees as an unjust law and the plight of millions of European jews. It’s the deliberate attempt at making a comparison that’s choking people up - not the piece of fabric.
January 13, 2008 at 11:55 am
Well Matt I’ll put it this way. By sheer chance I am probably one of the few New Zealanders to have stood on the “Highway of Bones”, that runs into the bleak lands north of Magadan. I won’t dwell on it; you have to have been there.
All attempted comparisons between the brutal failings of the Soviet Stalinists, and the wealth, freedoms and privileges enjoyed by New Zealanders are not only facile and wrong, but insulting in the extreme.
But I no more expect Horton to realise this, than I do for BB to understand his own mistake. Men like them seem to be the servants of a much harder master than I.
January 14, 2008 at 9:31 am
icky
It is appropriate that Klark comments on the passing of a famous Kiwi, on that we do agree however it is most defiantly NOT appropriate that she use his death as way to raise her flagging poll ratings, tears worked for Clinton I can imagine that Klark is already planning the same.
I may well be out of step with the PC left (and right) and I really don’t care, I did not know the man and he had no impact at all on my life, as I have said before I do feel for his family but his passing has had little impact on me.
You are also right when you say that you doubt I have ever met Klark, indeed I have never met the woman and I have no desire to ever do so, I do not wish to associate with liars, cheats and those who steal from me and take an age to pay the money back.
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Redlogix
When I have said something that I need to apologise for I will, until then I do not see any need, Klark’s behaviour (and the behaviour of her advisor’s on the ninth floor) in the last days has been sickening, I fear that it will only get worse over the next dew days.
January 14, 2008 at 9:44 am
Quite right Whaleoil - its Michael, not Matthew
January 14, 2008 at 10:03 am
That link is actually gone BB, so a few people will have no idea what you’re talking about, like me.