Phil Goff’s position as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom is now “untenable” Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters’ office says, off the back of “deeply disappointing” comments the former Auckland mayor made regarding Donald Trump.
Asking a question of Finnish Foreign Affairs Minister Elina Valtonen at a Chatham House event in London this week, Goff said he had been re-reading a speech from former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1938 after the Munich Agreement.
“He turned to Chamberlain, he said, ‘You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war’,” Goff said,
“President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?”
If Goff was not the NZ Ambassador, it would be an excellent question. I agree with his premise that Trump in appeasing Putin is actually making further wars in Europe more likely – Moldova is next I would say.
However Goff is the NZ Ambassador, and question can be seen as suggesting the NZ Government is comparing Trump to Chamberlain. Considering how massively thin-skinned Trump is to criticism, there is a non-trivial chance that Trump would hold a grudge against New Zealand for Goff’s comments – hence why Peters sacked him.
One interesting aspect is that I thought anything said at Chatham House was non-attributable. This is in fact the basis of the widely cited Chatham House Rule. So did this apply to that event? Maybe Goff thought that would allow him to ask the question. How did it become known he asked that question?
UPDATE: Looks like this event was not held under the Chatham House Rule, as it was live-streamed.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
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