Don Brash is a coward

Don Brash, the leader of NZ’s main conservative party, the National Party, is a coward. He may be a liar, too, which we hope to know in the fullness of time, but we know he’s definitely a coward.

How do we know? He and his National Party cohorts have gone to court to block publication of “The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception” by Nicky Hager. The book is said to detail the extent to which National Party policy has been dictated by others, and how the National Party has courted support and advice from the US evangelical far right.

Not that we’d know for sure. The day the book was to be released, National won an injunction to stop it. The timing was purely coincidental, if you believe Don Brash on TVNZ’s Close Up programme tonight. Of course it was.

More worrying still is the allegation that a reporter, who has a noticeable pro-National bias at the best of times, leaked information on the book’s publication to National so that they’d have time to seek an injunction. If true, that’s downright sleazy.

Brash claims he’d like the book released, but no sane person could believe that when Brash and National worked to suppress the book. Prime Minister Helen Clark called one of Hager’s books attacking Labour a work of fiction—but that was after it was published. Labour never tried to suppress a book as National has done.

Brash and his National Party cohorts are running scared. That’s the only logical explanation as to why they’re so afraid to allow the book to be published. Since we’re not allowed to read the book and judge it for ourselves, we must assume there’s a lot of damaging dirt on National, stuff so bad that it could mean National won’t even have enough seats to be the main party of opposition after the next election.

National, if you’re serious that the book is rubbish, let it be released. We’re grown ups, thank you very much, and we can decide for ourselves. Or don’t you have any faith in democracy?

For more on this, check out these stories (Note: These links expire quickly, so they may be dead in a day or two):

Hager outlines contents of Brash emails book

National refuses to lift email injunction

Update 23/11/06: Don Brash resigned as Leader of the National Party today. His succesor will be chosen at a special caucus meeting on Monday.