In soccer, a team member who propels the ball into his/her own goal-net is said to have scored an own goal, and it’s a point for the opposing team. That’s what Chris Luxon did with his humiliating rebuke of MP Maureen Pugh.
by Karl du Fresne
The irony of the Maureen Pugh furore is that it has caused far more damage to Christopher Luxon than to Pugh.
Luxon has come out of it looking like a control freak, intolerant of any deviation from the party line.
This should surprise no one. He comes from a corporate background, and the corporate world values conformity above almost everything else. Original thinkers are seen as problematical and even threatening. Conventional men who play golf and wear suits are naturally most comfortable in the company of other conventional men who play golf and wear suits.
John Key came from a corporate background too, but of a different type: one that placed a high value on individual risk-taking. One difference between Key and Luxon is that Key, for all his faults, seemed to have more trust in his own judgment.
I still say that he inst the right person to lead the next government, so I shall not be voting for him or the present bunch or turkeys.