Andrea Vance

Let me explain why it really is a bad idea to have Twitter if you are an MP.  The media love Twitter and have embraced it fully in reporting of politics and here is why. They are the prime beneficiaries of MP’s tweeting.

Despite consistently advising MP’s not to get on Twitter they are ignoring such sage counsel and are continuing to do so.  So once again I will  share my experience in social media over the years and analyse  how and why MP’s should not use Twitter unless it enhances their reputation among media and with it a very small section of the voting public who follow Twitter.  Twitter use is making MP’s look even more clueless about the problems and needs of their actual target voters than most already are and in Asenati Lole-Taylor’s case, that was what I previously thought an impossible achievement.

I do not spend much time on Twitter and only have links to new posts on the blog.  I will jump on to sledge people who need and deserve it, like David Fisher and formerly Trevor Mallard but it is a distraction to my day I can do without. If for any reason I do go on, it is as a free social media lesson in how people with anything to lose in life such as their job as an MP and perks that go with it, need to be very careful about using it. Regular users of Twitter are just hopelessly addicted to it, bored with their job or life in some way and need to stop.

Then there are political journalists who show their bias and inner circles by endlessly communicating with MP’s they are meant to be reporting neutrally on.  The smarter political journalists though use twitter to bait MP’s into making fools of themselves by obtaining stories written from tips and gossip off it and present that to their editor now as news reporting.  None of these stories are ones enhancing the public perception of an MP. The vast majority of the public do not follow Twitter at all and only see something on it in the paper or online when an MP has made a dick of themselves.  Read more »

We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but Andrea Vance has taken it to a whole new level with today’s front page lead in the Dominion Post.

Shock horror headline “Key met spy candidate for breakfast“.

Yup this could be a marginal beltway story, if she hadn’t already written the same story three times before.  A quick google search reveals her obsession with this breakfast.

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The DomPost must have been really short of news that it could beat the Prime Minister up with today.   Read more »

Earlier today the on the Stuff website a story was posted by Andrea Vance about a leaked GCSB report. David Farrar linked to it and pasted some text from the article.

The Government’s beleaguered intelligence agency may have unlawfully spied on 85 people, a top secret review reveals.

The report, ordered after the Kim Dotcom fiasco, contains a raft of criticisms of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB). …

The revelations are contained in the report, prepared by Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Kitteridge, and seen by Fairfax Media. …

The explosive revelations confirm that the illegal spying was far broader than the Dotcom case – and involves up to 85 people and cases dating back nearly a decade.

The illegal spying was conducted between April 2003 and September last year and done on behalf of the Security Intelligence Service, the domestic spy agency.

When you click on the link and look at the story now though all of that text has been removed, and quite a bit more as far as I can tell.  Read more »

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Twitter is a wonderful thing, but not for the reasons you may think.

It is wonderful because it has laid bare the political alignments and machinations of media ‘personalities’ who unwittingly transmit in the clear their political bias. The re-tweet and tweet away revealing who they chat with, who they listen to and who they think is worthy. It is very enlightening especially when you use a tool like MentionMaps. This is the MentionMap of Andrea Vance.

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I see the media and Labour are making a big deal over John Key’s ‘forgetfulness’ because he didn’t recall a phone call.

Andrea Vance, who is again doing her best, as her News of the World training lets her, to create a massive scandal over a forgotten phone call writes an opinion piece in the Dom Post. Most of her work is opinion to be fair, but there you go. On the plus side if anyone knows anything about phone calls it would be an ex-News of the World staffer.

Mr Key is expecting the public to swallow another brain-fade in the epic Kim Dotcom chronicle. He couldn’t recall a briefing on Dotcom in February last year.

Now – even under scrutiny from the Opposition and journalists – we must accept that he “forgot” he called a childhood friend to suggest he apply to lead New Zealand’s foreign spy agency.  Read more »

So according to Shearer – those asking questions about his leadership like Duncan Garner, John Armstrong, Andrea Vance, Vernon Small, Tapu Misa are “basically people who are sitting in front of their computers giving their opinions“.

Good luck with the head in the sand approach Dave. It is bad enough that Bryce Edwards managed to scratch up 33 links to blogs and media talking about Shearer’s doomed leadership but now with comments like that he has ensured another day or two of bad headlines in the lead up to the conference.

We must be just days away from a 10 minute video from TV3 of all the umms and ahhs and re-cuts of questions from Shearer.

You don’t slag off media like that and get away with it.

David Shearer’s days are numbered. Two Fairfax journalists have started sounding the death knell.

Vernon Small considers that the coup attempt is imminent:

Just short of his first anniversary as leader, David Shearer delivers his first speech to a Labour Party conference next week.

But as storm clouds gather over his leadership, it is shaping as possibly his last.

Members, activists and unionists contacted for this article said over and over that the speech at the Ellerslie racecourse conference centre next Sunday was crucial to Shearer’s grip on the leadership.

His first priority is to convince the party rank and file that “he has what it takes” – and those grassroots members will be looking for a hard-hitting address taking the fight to the Government while outlining a clear and personal view of where he intends to take Labour

Unless he can carry that off, the groundswell in the party is set to break into the open with a push for a leadership challenge, most likely when the caucus meets in February – or even sooner, according to one business lobbyist in close contact with the party.

While no heir apparent has emerged – the same issue that kept his predecessor Phil Goff safe through Labour’s dark days from 2008 to 2011 – the party would look again at David Cunliffe, deputy Grant Robertson and potentially others if Shearer continued to disappoint.

There is a problem in Labour. The member activists want David Cunliffe as leader…while caucus hates David Cunliffe.

Andrea Vance contends time is running out too;

Here’s not what’s going to happen at Labour’s annual conference later this week. David Cunliffe is not going to rugby tackle David Shearer to the ground while Grant Robertson sits on his head, with Andrew Little shouting “bags be leader”.

Irritatingly, leadership spills don’t happen that way. If only.

Labour is especially good at the nasty, tortured coups – so if the party is going to roll Shearer, expect it to be beastly. But don’t anticipate blood on the floor of the Ellerslie Racecourse come next Sunday night.

It might not be Sunday night but it can’t be far off. My Labour sources tell me that a delegation visited Shearer last week…while Grant Robertson was conveniently offshore.

Unless Shearer can miraculously cure his stuttering then he is dog meat, stutters and repetition are deadly on the campaign trail where there are more impromptu standups than set pieces. Media tire very quickly of being asked to constantly retake interviews. It can’t be long before Duncan Garner puts together a little farewell present of Shearer at stand ups requesting retakes after he screwed up his statements…5 minutes of stuttering and flummoxed looks would fell him faster than Mallard’s knife.

ᔥ Stuff.co.nz

Andrea Vance poses an interesting question:

Wicked Whisper: Which MP, not best-known for his charm, is suspected of having two women on the go?