Written by John Minto It’s a useful rule of thumb that when right wing commentators attack you then you must be doing something principled and effective. And we were. I was one of about 30 to 40 who attended a candlelight vigil outside Prime Minister John Key’s residence in Parnell on Sunday evening to remember Daryl Jones – the New Zealander who was murdered in a US drone strike in Yemen earlier this year – and all the innocent people killed in similar strikes in the past few years. The PM told a media briefing at parliament on Monday that it “just wasn’t cricket” for us to gather outside his house when he was having family time. That caused a rush of blood to the heads of our right-wing commentators. Radio Live’s Sean Plunket rang for an interview and could hardly contain his bile. How dare we upset the PM and his family? How dare we invade their privacy? And on and on… He even suggested we had turned the PMs family into “collateral damage” of our own. Just how any minor inconvenience – if there was one – to the Prime Minister’s family might be more important than bodies blown apart in Yemen he didn’t say. Apparently Paul Henry told his TV3 audience I needed to get a life while Mike Hosking on TV1 joined in in similar vein. With three right-wingers riled up the vigil had a good strike rate. I didn’t organise it but I congratulate those who did and those who attended. Jones became “collateral damage” when the group he was with was blown to pieces because one of the group was allegedly linked with al-Qaida. No evidence, no trial, no chance for a defence – just assassination. And all the Prime Minister could do at a press conference was to shrug his shoulders and tell us he deserved what he got. Sorry My Key, not only is that not cricket but it’s murder and you have blood on your hands.
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 04:35:31 +0000
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