Her greatest sin in my eyes was not the wine and cheesing, nor the lack of talent, nor the seat warming and purse holding. As others have noted, Judith Tizard was hardly the worst perpetrator. Russell Marshall springs readily to mind, and he made it into cabinet back in the day:
I remember the absolute contempt I later felt in my own caucus when our Minister of Education, Russell Marshall from Wanganui, recommended 15% or so as a School Cert pass. In his view, everyone should pass.
National, Labour, Greens, Act all have muppets in above their heads.
Judith Tizard's incompetence as a symbol of Helengrad's cronyism above and beyond her obviously limited pool of talent was embedded after taking responsibility for Section 92A of the Copyright Bill. Judith Tizard went viral, and I'm not talking about the Hepatitis. You can fool with a blogger but don't mess with the IT department.
Judith Tizard's final curtain call was a loud raspberry from New York. Helen Clark has not finished with Labour by a long chalk. Perhaps that's why Little Big Man, Andrew Little, got his way dodging Helen's old wood such as Tizard, Burton (he failed to win the Taupo mayoralty), and reaching for Louisa Wall. Little is doing the finger to Helen for the Labour party's very survival.
Louisa Wall's short stint in parliament proved too liberated to toe the strict Helengrad line. Wall was duly punished and slid down the greasy pole of the party list. Wall showed great promise back then, and Little is keen to get that talent back.
Because if Labour don't get their shit together, ignore Clark's text bullying and rejuvenate more organically, it will be left to the voters to do the pruning for them. Already Labour is beginning to rationalise its defeats and 2020's looking optimistic for a Labour 6.0 release date.
