The Daily Blog's Martyn Bradbury, last seen supporting David Cunliffe and the Labour Party, is now interested in working for mega-capitalist Kim Dotcom and his Internet Party. Meanwhile commentator Chris Trotter finally admits that there is little political difference between the major parliamentary parties and declares that the Internet Party is ' a major political event.' Perhaps Trotter is interested in going on the Dotcom payroll as well...
It has emerged that while The Daily Blog's Martyn Bradbury was singing the praises of David Cunliffe and the Labour Party, he was writing strategy papers for Kim Dotcom's new business and political venture, the Internet Party.
The paper also included the suggestion that Bradbury's remarkable services as a media and political 'consultant' would cost the internet capitalist some $8000 a month - plus another $5000 so Bradbury could upgrade his computer and communications technology. $5000? Clearly it will only be 'top shelf' goods for Mr Bradbury. I just hope that he wasn't pulling in similar money during his tenure as a 'consultant' to the Mana Party. That was successful wasn't it?
Bradbury says that he is not on Kim Dotcom's payroll but, as he hopes be paid some $2000 a week, he is clearly excited about the idea. He is excited enough to conveniently forget that Dotcom's own politics are of an illiberal and conservative persuasion and which saw him donating $50,000 to John Bank's election campaign.
While Dotcom has been loudly critical - and rightly so - of the increasing government surveillance of cyberspace, his general politics have more than a whiff of libertarianism about them. Someone needs to ask him about his views on the welfare state. Now.
Dotcom's conservative politics appear to be of no consequence to the 'progressive' Bradbury who massacred the English language to deliver this message to The Daily Blog:
If I am offered a role I will be shouting it from the rooftops as I think the ideas of an Internet Party focused on civil rights in the online 21st Century and the economic prosperity that could generate for NZ is the future and anything that moves us away from a dairy dependent, drill and mine economy is a good thing.
So the new plan to save capitalism from itself could be 'focused on civil rights in the online 21st century'. This, apparently, is 'the future'. This, folks, is gobbledygook.
Martyn Bradbury, and others like him, are going to look rather foolish if Dotcom suddenly starts quoting from Atlas Shrugged.
And, once again, Bradbury's control over The Daily Blog must now be open to question. I imagine the website's union backers may well be thinking about that just now. If they are not, then they should be.
Meanwhile Chris Trotter, another commentator entranced by the Dotcom spectacle rather than the dubious substance, has finally come round to my way of thinking! He now admits that Parliament is little more than a neoliberal talkfest! He even admits - yes - that there is little difference between the politics of all the major parliamentary parties:
These professional politicians, who seem to speak a language and act in accordance with a belief system which is quite foreign to ordinary people, remain coldly unmoved by the demands of democratic majorities. They may be members of different political parties, but the policies which they espouse are almost all variations on the same neoliberal and profoundly undemocratic themes.
So where does that leave Trotter now? Unfortunately he's not moving back to the left. Instead he's claiming that the launch of the Internet Party on January 20 will be 'a major political event'. What Kim Dotcom actually stands for is apparently irrelevant.
It is interesting to note that while neither Bradbury or Trotter have expressed any interest in socialist politics - and, in some cases, have expressed an outright hostility - they are more than keen about the shiny capitalist politics of a man who lives in a big mansion surrounded by security guards.
Power to the people? I don't think so.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated.