sounds like a picnic race, perhaps the egg and spoon for which balance is essential. Nats don’t seem to have it.

Now he’s PM and he’s out of his depth. He’s supposed to be leading and he’s still waiting for people to tell him what to do that’s why he’s “relaxed” about everything. On top of that he’s trying to “speculate” (ie, the cycleway) on the course that the country’s going and he’s trying to maintain his popularity by being everything to everybody.

He’s the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time and the whole country will pay for it. Of course, National and ACT are just wrong anyway – they haven’t got a friggen clue as to how the economy works.

Er that’s not what James said, at least in the bit you quoted. There’s a difference between paraphrasing and making sh*t up.

Is Key trying out private sector leadership skills on the public sector?

I guess my point was that Key is ineresting to watch (policies aside). He seems to have manouevred himself with relative aplomb to date on the political scene. That is why I would doubt that the ‘looseness’ issue is something he has not considered in absolute detail.

Mind you – many many people blindly raved about Clark’s skills and she had some hefty flaws which only became highlighted as time went on. Perhaps too with Key.

Media organisations: cutting costs.

Journalists: fewer, overworked and underpaid.

Opposition PR machine: feeble.

As I pointed out on the “light/tunnel” thread, Key is feeding the journalists … literally. They’re not going to bite back.

Righties often criticise lefty politicians for not having ‘real world’ experience. By which they mean private sector experience. They acknowledge that Government is a vastly different kettle of fish than the private sector and feel that the private sector is woefully misunderstood by lefty politicians who have only studied society by way of their big city book learning and what have you.

And yet. They seem to think that private sector leadership is perfectly transferrable to government work.

If you housetrain a puppy a year after bringing it home, you’re in for a world of frustration.

It’s far too late to ‘subtly and quietly’ change management style. This Cabinet will continue to chew up the sofa and pee on the carpet for months to come.

The real question is when that bubble bursts.

That seems quite naive. Do you not think Key will be well aware of his management style and its risks and rewards? And any changing requirements necessary to control the whole shooting match?

This fulla Key didn’t get where he is, and with such support, without being well aware of all aspects of every aspect.

Watch for a change of style, subtly and quietly, in the new year.