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Tuesday, September 3, 2024

Bob Edlin: The pen indeed is mighty (the PC, too, presumably).....


The pen indeed is mighty (the PC, too, presumably) – but it’s overkill for Martyn Bradbury to proclaim ACT’s destruction

The Stuff website describes Andrea Vance as one of their senior journalists, with more than 20 years’ experience in reporting.

Born in Northern Ireland, we are told, she was an investigative reporter for the News of the World, was night news editor for The Scotsman, and worked in New Zealand’s parliamentary Press Gallery for nearly a decade.

She was a Jefferson Fellow at the East West Center in Hawaii, and has been recognised with major accolades at the annual media awards. She has reported from Europe, Myanmar, China, Japan, Fiji, South Africa, South Sudan and sub-Antarctica.

Voyager Media Awards 2020: Best team investigation (Product of Australia) Canon Media Awards 2014: Reporter of the Year, Political Reporter of the Year, Wolfson Fellow


Martyn Bradbury, at The Daily Blog, is among her admirers.

In a post today, he writes:

Sometimes Andrea Vance is so devastating in her criticism, it makes her one of the best political commentators in New Zealand…

Bradbury proceeds to treat his readers to an article written by Vance in recent days:


OPINION: The big lie is often very difficult to dispel.

Repeat it often enough and it becomes a truth. So it was for the relentless efforts of former US president Donald Trump to convince millions of Americans that Joe Biden seized power in a stolen election.

The case for Brexit was built on lies. That the country sent £350 million (NZ$735m) a week to the European Union, starving the National Health Service, was the most infamous.

These deceits created a deep-seated suspicion that is corroding the foundation of democracy.

Enter David Seymour. The ACT leader wants to have a “mature” conversation about his proposed Treaty Principles Bill…


The article concludes:

He wants to undo the Treaty. To reshape it by altering the essence of the principles. To strip away enshrined rights, while pretending they never existed.

But he doesn’t want to say that, because to most voters, that’s unpalatable.

And that’s the big lie. This is not an honest conversation.


You can read the rest of the article – the paragraphs between those extracts – on the Stuff website or on The Daily Blog.

Having digested the article and Bradbury’s remarks about it, you might also muse on the old adage about the pen (and the PC?) being mightier than the sword.

Mightier than Guy Fawkes’ cache of gunpowder, in this case.

He has headed his article:

MEDIAWATCH: Andrea Vance destroys ACT

Wow. Explosive prose, obviously.

But wait.

At 1.46pm today Point of Order received an email from Florence Faumuinā .

Florence is press secretary for Brooke van Velden, Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety.

Brooke van Velden is an ACT MP.

We have yet to check, but this suggests the Minister survived the devastation wreaked by Vance’s powerful prose.

This means the destruction of ACT has not been total.

Anyone willing to put money on the proposition that all other ACT MPs survived the blast and that none of the party’s offices have been damaged?

Mind you, the Guy Fawkes attempt to blow up Britain’s Parliament was something of a fizzer, too.

Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog - where this article was sourced.

8 comments:

Doug Longmire said...

I remember that very unpleasant female, Vance, on T.V. Her waspish manner was gratingly unpleasant.

Anonymous said...

In light of the comment re Guy Fawkes, via the medium of Youtube, i have had the privilege of watching a TV series on the Palace of Westminster, better known as the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Now to allay the " what the .."??, in one episode they showed what the " Yeoman Guard or Beefeaters", do in the basement corridors, beneath Parliament, prior to the sitting of The New Govt, and that is in single file, following a Warden of the Palace, " tromp around the corridors" (their footwear is very heavy leather shoes, with metal studs on the soles - made a heavy "tromp" as they walked), this being an age old tradition of - "ensuring that any would be Guy Fawkes is pre warned - beware, we will upset your plans". So, having said all that, can I suggest to David Seymour, that he seek from the Speaker, the ability to establish "this English tradition" beneath our Parliament.
I am not sure who he would use as Yeoman Guard, certainly not any recently displaced Civil Servant[s].

Anonymous said...

That criticism of ACT is simply in-sane. They are the most sane in the entire government - fortunately with NZF and some in the National Party. This is way beyond the old left and right - SOOOO limiting. This is about people who cudgel their brains to try to think what to do for the best - compared with te Pati Maori(Good God!) the Greens - God Save us - and the sad remnants of Woke Labour - Blimey!

Francis James said...

Bomber Bradbury believes Jacinda saved 20,000 lives. He often repeats this claim. I wonder, does he believe in the tooth fairy too?

Anonymous said...

Bradbury also has been proven wrong about Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen as well.
Has he not read the admission from Zuckerberg that he and others in the US mainstream media were bullied by Democrats to withhold evidence that the Hunter Biden laptop exposed his family of acting corruptly during both the Obama and Biden administrations.
Had the press released that information prior to the election the result would have undoubtedly been a Trump victory.
Go figure .

Basil Walker said...

Now the media have contrived to ensure Robert Kennedy Jnr , independent now removing his name from important ballots and endorsing Trump is unknown to the general public . The Kennedy decision will split the Democrat / Republican farce and will ensure the probable November victory for Trump into a certainty .

Ken S said...

Seriously, does anyone apart from Bradbury actually read anything written by Andrea Vance?

Anonymous said...

Bradbury is not worth writing about... it just gives him oxygen.

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