Perspective with Andrew Dickens: What on earth was the Migrant Association thinking?

You've got to ask yourself: what on earth was the Migrant Association thinking? This comes after its stunt of guillotining an effigy of Winston Peters because it believes he's racist.

It obviously disregarded the fact that many supporters of Peters believe unmitigated immigration allows undesirable migrants to flood the country, the type who think nothing of guillotining a politician or anybody else they disagree with.

All it does is reinforce the stereotype of the violent migrant coming to replace the existing population. This is what Peters is railing against.

And it's happening at the same time as the case of Ann Widdecombe that rocked the UK, a politician who was bludgeoned to death with a hammer for the crime of being a politician.


Now, this was the same example used by people who found Paul Henry's statement about shooting Chris Hipkins distasteful, albeit a joke prompted by some radio jocks.

So, if the Migrant Association thought this stunt would strengthen support for its position, then it has clearly failed. I think it should apologise.

But that doesn't seem likely because, so far, it has defended the stunt as satire, which it wasn't. As Paul Henry discovered, there is nothing funny about suggesting the assassination of a politician.

Andrew Dickens is a broadcaster with Newstalk ZB. - where this article was sourced.