exclusivity
I received the Green Delusion* leaflet through my letterbox, and immediately looked for the authorisation, being of something of a political bent. It says "Authorised by Stephen Win, Favona Road, Mangere."
Now the seven businessmen who came forward and admitted to putting out the leaflets said they did it off their own bat, that only they were involved, and that they weren't acting on behalf of the Exclusive Brethren.
But Stephen Win, the authoriser, wasn't actually on the list of businessmen. A "Phil Win" is, but already we have someone not in the Secret Seven who's involved.
So when the security EB pamphlet arrived at our place, I checked the authoriser again. Of course it doesn't say anywhere on it that it's from the EBs, but given they said they were putting one out on security and that's what this one is all about, plus it repeats the blue tick motif of the Green Delusion, you don't have to be Don Brash to work it out.
Again the authoriser is not one of the Secret Seven, but one M Powell of Mt Roskill. I wonder if by chance he is related to the Brethren Wing of Tze Ming's childhood?
Now I've had copies of the All Black one (authoriser M Powell again), the one with the Sky Tower on the front (authoriser an S.A Smith of New Plymouth), and the Healthcare brochure (authorised by J Hawkins, on behalf of NZATH - NZ Advocates for Timely Healthcare. I understand EB owned up to this one as well). Then there's the Senior Citizen leaflet, authorised by J Charles Thomas of Richmond.
S.A Smith could well be Andy Smith, who is an outted Secret Seven member, but the others are all new names - remind me again, didn't they claim they acted alone? Despite the fact that acting as an individual in the public sphere is totally against the ethos of the Exclusive Brethren...
* I reckon The Green Delusion would be an ace name for a firecracker - any takers?
5 comments:
I have a little theory about this whole palaver. One thing that's bugged me about the whole thing is that the EB have little to no stake in most of the issues set out in their pamphlets - because they keep their interactions with outsiders to a minimum (except where required for business purposes or by law). Why would they care what we heathens do with ourselves?
One thing that does impact the EB, however, is tax. As has been pointed out, many EB members - and certainly the "secret seven" - are successful businessmen. Under National, they stand to have a substantial reduction in their tax burden.
I'm not clear how long it would take them to realise a benefit from spending $500K on changing the Government though - perhaps this is part of an extremely long term plan?
another thing they would very much like is different industrial relations law - they have strongly submitted against the ERA and have lobbied MPs directly about it too.
So there's probably a number of examples in this vein - but it seems obvious to me that they want a shift to the right for personal financial benefit, not for the social, moral or environmental reasons they tout.
In fact it's put me right off voting for National...
but that's ok, cos you were going to vote for Winston anyway! or is his sole blog sycophant going to deny him in his hour of need? ;-)
I'll of course be giving Winston my party vote - who could possibly consider otherwise? - but as I'm in the highly volatile Wellington Central electorate there are a myriad of choices on offer for my candidate vote.
On a side note I saw Marian Hobbs outside Vic Uni this morning (I live very close by) with a coterie of supporters waving big signs at cars. Very hands-on of her, I thought.
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