Helen Kelly spanks Daniel Silva live on air (Feb. 24, 2012)

Morrissey14

24 February 2012 at 12:04 pm

Helen Kelly spanks Daniel Silva live on air
National Radio, Friday Feb. 24, 2012, 8:10 a.m.

Veterans of the Usenet group nz.general may recall the name of DANIEL SILVA. His contributions were brief, and usually uninteresting, but he always proved to be a reliable third or fourth person into the fray whenever someone like Redbaiter or Sue Bilstein orWee Willie Wonka wrote something attacking Māori or green activists or unions, and supporting things like the Bainimarama coup in Fiji or the use of cluster munitions against civilian populations—hardly a surprise, as Silva is from Portugal, and was a supporter of the fascist Salazar regime, which was overthrown in 1974.

Silva’s inability to argue his case coherently possibly stems from the fact that English is not his native tongue, but probably it has more to do with his deep-seated arrogance and complacency. He is the
Secretary of the Importers’ Institute, and he is clearly not accustomed to being challenged and contradicted, as he was by CTU president Helen Kelly when he unwisely tried to argue with her on
National Radio this morning. Here are a few highlights (although poor old Daniel Silva might not call them highlights)….

SIMON MERCEP: What are you going to do with the workers? Sack them?

DANIEL SILVA: Yes.

HELEN KELLY: Ha! What a cheerful character he is! This is just ruthless behavior by the Ports of Auckland. They want to reduce workers to the lowest pay, casualized, and precarious. The workers have offered to make significant concessions and changes.

SILVA: The Port of Auckland is the most inefficient in the country.

KELLY: That’s not true.

SILVA: Yes it is true.

KELLY: The government’s own Productivity Commissioner found that the Ports of Auckland is the most efficient in the country. This person is on his own saying the Ports of Auckland are inefficient. ….
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Just as in his nz.general days, Silva proved capable of nothing other than angry, practically incoherent bluster. He must have been fuming in dumb, black rage as Helen Kelly got in the last word so eloquently.

• lprent14.1

  24 February 2012 at 12:11 pm

  Oh god, that blowhard! I remember him.. I guess it is true. In some people thinking merely makes the mind ruts deeper.
• ianmac14.2

  24 February 2012 at 3:07 pm

  Noted how Silva’s voice became shrill as unaccustomed as he is to dissent….
  • Morrissey14.2.1

    24 February 2012 at 5:00 pm

    Actually, he lapsed into a gloomy silence for most of the interview. Helen Kelly knew her facts and he did not, and he realized the audience would know that too.

    It’s noteworthy that Helen Kelly was present when the hopelessly flustered Alisdire Thompson degenerated into a ludicrous rant against women last year. She’s much too smart for these old fellows that are not used to rigorously debating a point.

    The pity of it is that there are far too few instances of people standing up to bullies like Thompson and Silva. A few moments stand out, however: in 2010, Sue Bradford confronted John Barnett and Paul Holmes on the piss-poor Q&A, and on Jim Mora’s National Radio programme, I’ve heard Gordon Campbell challenge aggressive and ill-informed comments by Graham Bell and Richard Griffin. Both Bell and Griffin backed down from their extreme statements immediately, with Griffin going to the most pathetic lengths to ingratiate himself.
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