Written By: - Date published: 5:58 am, October 18th, 2008 - 47 comments
Categories: election 2008, john key, maori party, slippery -
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Many people laud John Key’s experience in the business world, and say that the smiling assassin’s ability to play hard-ball when required means he will be an excellent prime minister.
So why, during talks with the Maori Party, did Key drop a National ‘bottom line’ that would be a strong card to play? As evidenced by his admission yesterday, Key repeatedly conceded that dissolution of Maori seats was not a National Party bottom line in talks with Pita Sharples. Sharples made this public, and suddenly Key, the Hard-Nosed Operator from the business world was trumped.
In making the admission public, Sharples forced Key – with everything to lose – to decide between antagonising Sharples (and, by extension, the Maori Party) or admitting he’d given away one of National’s strongest bargaining chips before National made it to the table. Key, in increasingly typical fashion, chose the former until it became an untenable position, and conceded the latter.
This raises two questions regarding Key’s experience from the business world:
I – Why did he make a policy concession in such a weak position? There’s no evidence National extracted a similar concession. It is possible, but in the eyes of the public Key has been well and truly sharked; it looks like their position post-election, whatever that may be, has been greatly weakened.
II – Why did he choose a course of action that would lead to the worst of both worlds – antagonising the Maori Party by accusing Sharples of lying, before conceding he’s been deceiving the public all along? So much for making important decisions on the spot and getting the call right.
Not what you’d expect from the supposed paragon of business acumen.
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Scoopit!
I will buy a passport rundal, thank you mate.
dont hurry back
i will just use one of my many aliases as the minister has my alibi. ooops.
hohohoho…youse is a bundal of larfs. chortle chortle
Hey Dad what do you think of National’s welfare policy?
Did a pussycat just pass wind?
Yeah. Its name is Peter.
Can we also lose this idiot dad4justice. he’s tony norris’s rent boy me thinks. Update on the immigration story the guy donated to labour and national, he met with John Key in person, and Pansy Wong wrote to immigration in support. , so you rightwhinging nut bars can move on and go back to fairyland again..
Aargh,
d4j is back,and it seems he hasn’t learned a thing. Still the same old troll. Seen him on a couple of threads. Same old, same old.
Randal,
So true
Is this why Key threw in the towel at ML?.
I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.
Cha,
Sure looks like Andy Lahde.. yes? Any idea where he’s settling..?
Jo Zinny,
Lahde is looking after his reputation by bailing now with a view to returning with none of the ‘crash of 08′ shit sticking. And with returns like this his clients will want him back.