The Labour sense of humour

I had an interesting exchange today when I tried to sign up to the newsletter of my commie opponent in Selwyn, David Coates. On his website you can sign up for the Selwyn Standard, a newsletter for “members, supporters and friends of Labour in Selwyn” As I am quite happy to be his friend, I figured I may as well get his newsletter, but it wasn’t as easy as it sounds!

Upon emailing his agent to sign up, I received this response:

I am afraid that the Selwyn Standard newsletter is only for supporters and members of Labour in Selwyn. If you require information about David or the campaign, please feel free to contact him directly or check the website for updates.

Oh, so I can’t be a friend? How disappointing! My reply:

I wasn’t expecting that response. There must be a hidden agenda I’m not supposed to find out about!

But maybe Labour staff lack a sense of humour:

I think it is quite reasonable that as an opposing candidate you are not privy to where and when we plan to carry out campaign activities, what help our campaign might require from supporters or other matters of a sensitive nature, just as you would not expect to be allowed to attend our committee meetings or read our internal documents.

To which I could only say:

I was speaking in jest about secret agendas, your MPs are continually joking about them in the house and I presumed the humour would not be lost on someone interested in current politics.

I expect it will be an interesting campaign, but possibly not as amusing as I was hoping. It would be extremely easy for anyone to give false details and obtain their newsletter, so if they are offering a sign-up link for it on his website they can hardly consider it secure. Stooping to the level of Trevor Mallard and obtaining other parties internal documents like this is a bit low however, especially for a candidate for a Christian party. I have decided to set a better example, this election is about “trust” after all. But if anyone else receiving the newsletter finds anything in it I may be interested in, feel free to pass it on!