Hipkins must be demoted before ceasefire in Labour Party can become established

There must be peace in the Labour Party! 2014 is too important an election for the main opposition Party in the country to be torn in two, and for that peace to occur a de-escalation in hostilities must be taken up by the cooler heads in the Caucus.

I don't want to relitigate the issues as it just gets me so angry that a manufactured leadership coup by the media was manipulated by the ABCs to assault Cunliffe in the first place, so let's focus on the future.

My understanding is that Cunliffe has taken on board the criticisms thrown at him that he should have shot Gower down asap and Trotter gives some insight into the personality dynamics that drove Cunliffe in the Dominion Post on Friday. Cunliffe will take his punishment and work hard to regain the trust of Caucus, but if the civil war is to end there has to be two things that occur.

The first is that post the February vote, there has to be a clear pathway back to the front bench where his talents can be used, and the second has to be the demotion of Hipkins as whip.

That nasty little piece of work defamed Cunliffe and the New Lynn LEC (and many other LECs) should and will complain at the manner in which Hipkins defamed Cunliffe.

The other poisonous part of this is the leaking to Claire Trevett of a version of events by the ABCs that happened in the meeting that is actually false. Cunliffe was gagged from responding to anything yet here we have leaks from the ABCs spinning another false narrative.

If a clear path of redemption post the February vote for Cunliffe back to the Front Bench is not made and Hipkins is not demoted, then the Labour Party can expect the feeding frenzy against them on the Blogs to last all the way up until 2014.

It's time Shearer showed some actual leadership over this farce.

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