Goff defends 'stupid red tie' at memorial
Labour leader Phil Goff has batted off claims he politicised the Christchurch memorial service by wearing a "stupid red tie".
Labour leader Phil Goff has batted off claims he politicised the Christchurch memorial service by wearing a "stupid red tie".
The sartorial scrap arose after National MP Melissa Lee questioned Mr Goff's choice to wear a red tie and a black suit at Friday's service.
Red and black are the Canterbury colours, but red is also the colour of the labour movement.
Ms Lee on Friday took to the micro-blogging site Twitter to ask: "Do you need to get political on a day like this with that stupid red tie?"
When journalist Alex Tarrant jokingly responded that Christchurch had dared to wear Labour's colours, Ms Lee tweeted that she was also wearing black and red for Canterbury.
"No issues with that. Just Phil. Did he have to today of all days?"
Mr Goff defended his sartorial choice today when asked about Twitter's fifth anniversary on TV One's Breakfast programme.
"We had a great weekend on Twitter with Melissa Lee accusing me of being outrageous politically because I was wearing a red tie at the commemoration in Christchurch," he said.
"I had to point out that the red tie and the black suit was actually Canterbury's colours -- and what's more (Cabinet Minister) Steven Joyce was wearing the same. What can we read into that?"
NZPA
Tue, 22 Mar 2011
Tue, 22 Mar 2011
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Goff defends 'stupid red tie' at memorial
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