Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Razing Saddles

Never in my wildest, most unsettlingly cynical dreams might I have imagined that Bill English's Budget would have trampled over a bunch of disabled people and their families.

John Key blithely mounted on Smiling Assassin? Sure. The stone cold Steven Joyce, riding triumphant with Roads of National Significance through Whenua Tapu all the way to Levin? Sure. Judith Collins slapping away with glee on No Consensus? Easily within her modus operandi.

But Bill English and his trusty old high horse, Prisons Are a Moral Failure? Impossible. After all, wasn't this the concerned Christian who attended the Hustle for Autism gig?

Yet here we are, with Andrew Geddis taking Hobbit-like length and attention to detail to describe exactly how National are raping and pillaging Parliamentary procedure and the constitutional Tao de Kiwi. There is Keith Ng cataloguing similar levels of disgust through a Tarantino monologue of misgivings. Even conservative reactionary nana the NZ Herald has woken up with a lucid complaint.

I'm pretty blown away myself. I have little to add except my contempt.

It's just another form of sad omen that this government is done with consulting the people. Don't bother sending in select committee submissions. They won't get read. Don't hope to tweak MMP through the correct channels as you were promised. Watching X Factor is a more productive use of your time (and NZ on Air funding). And don't bother with Judicial Reviews or crawling to the courts on your hands and knees for mercy. In the unlikely event that you can afford a good lawyer, National will just re-write the code like some goddamn script kiddie anyway.

Trust National. They know what they're doing. Here's another confident smiling assassin, featuring Phil Collins: