Loyalty

Shane Jones, one of the senior figures in the Labour Party, resigned from Parliament suddenly, Murray McCully, the National Government's Machiavellian fixer as well as minister of foreign affairs offered him newly created ambassadorial post as ambassador to the Pacific Islands with special responsibility for fisheries. This was seen by commentators as a cunning and underhand move to destabilize the Labour Party by removing one of its high profile members with supposedly special appeal to Maori and blue collar voters. McCully may feel pleased with himself, but I believe that he did the Labour Party a favour. There is no room in a political party for public display of disloyalty. Whatever is agreed on in caucus meetings or at party conferences is the accepted policy of the party. Dissenting voices can argue their case at these meetings, but once the policies are agreed on the entire party membership, and senior politicians in particular, should present a united front in support of these policies. Shane Jones, one of the three contenders for party leadership last year, could not accept his defeat, and has continuously criticized the Party's alignment with the Green Party. In the end, he accepted the National Government's blatant bribe, walked out on Labour, creating as much havoc and damage as he could. In the short term his departure is front page news, but when the dust settles it will become clear that the Labour Party is much better off without Shane Jones. The labour Party would have found it difficult to get rid of an embarrassing senior member of the caucus. Murray McCully did them a favour by removing him without the messy business of the Party having to fire him..