Alasdair Thompson

When you write a blog like ours, this is a half volley on leg stump. This is the fast ball over the plate. This is the candy in the feeble grasp of a baby. This the excuse I need to use a string of shitty clichés.

For those of you who aren't up with New Zealand's current events, Alasdair Thompson is the head of the Employers and Manufacturers Association. He represents our bosses and did a pretty lousy job of it on June 23, 2011 when he basically said women should get paid less than men because they take more sick days due to "women's monthly sick problems." Dude, it's called menstruation. Say it with me: men-strua-tion. Not that hard, huh? Thompson claims the evidence supports his statement. He can't produce it though. There's kind of a theme here: Andy Haden couldn't produce any evidence to support his theory that the Crusaders had a quota for "darkies." Hmmm, funny that. It's almost like these guys pull this rubbish out of their asses. Political incorrectness gone mad. Thompson has also made some piss-poor effort at an apology but it was piss (or even Tui) weak, poorly delivered and more or less the definition of "too little, too late."

Now at this point you'd expect me to rip this munter to shreds. That would be fun but, quite frankly, that's too easy and is being done for me by far wittier and more eloquent people in the media. The Council of Trade Unions has called for him to be sacked and they have the support of prominent politicians and countless Facebookers. Green MP, Catherine Delahunty tried to introduce a member's bill that would allow women an easier method to investigate pay discrepancies with their male counterparts. It was blocked by the government, despite the fact that National's MPs have widely condemned Thompson's statements.

Nope, I will only take the guy's statements down tangentially. Primarily, I wish to make some other points.

Firstly, check out this image (hat-tip to your Twitterfeed, Moth):

How out of touch with social convention is this dickhead that he goes on Facebook to vote in favour of keeping his job after saying something that daft? Pretty out of touch, I would say. He should go back to the stone age when dinosaurs couldn't talk - or use social media.

Secondly, whilst it's obviously reasonable to jump on the guy, some pinko libbers have been so "holier-than-though" with their criticism that it's excruciating. Dissing the easily dissable is just that: easy. Whilst sexism still manifests in society in ways that should embarrass some of us, opposing the views of an outspoken dipshit doesn't make a person into the heroic freedom fighter they might think they are. Opposing this twat is like opposing cancer. This guy thinks a hysterectomy is a career move for goodness sake! He should be banished to an earlier period of time, well spotted, but don't try and act like you're a genius or a hero for saying what everyone with even the smallest shred of common sense is thinking. Don't do the right thing so you can get high off your own altruism.

What I'm trying to say is that this guy should get bitch-slapped - by a fucking big gorilla - but don't use the same hand to pat yourself on the back for expressing the, ahem, bleeding obvious.