Posts Tagged ‘john key’
Kids need fun, politicians need to think
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 am, December 12th, 2008 - 29 comments
It seems like only yesterday that we listened to arguments about how exams unfairly punished some students. The National Party initiated the NCEA in office, but now thinks that introducing a national standard testing system for five and six year olds is the way to go. At least we think they do. At the time […]
Taking responsibility, a trait of government
Written By: - Date published: 9:52 pm, December 7th, 2008 - 13 comments
I was looking back at posts from last year to get some idea of traffic patterns over the December period. I found this interesting post from Tane titled Personal responsibility. It made me think of the poor performance of the National-led government over the last couple of weeks as a government. Tane’s post was about […]
Geek’s view
Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, June 28th, 2008 - 24 comments
On the odd occasion I have time to read outside of the confines of The Standard and its ever increasing brawl of entertaining comments. I noticed we don’t have a external reading list, and it is within the range of my writing skills, so here are my oddities for the slow weekends…. From quote of […]
Getting blood from a stone
Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, May 27th, 2008 - 5 comments
A reader has just written in as a followup to IrishBill’s post earlier today on National’s plans to line the pockets of oil tycoons with a four land highway stretching the length of the North Island. Our reader notes that it’s not just us who think getting policy out of the Nats is like getting […]
Even Granny’s patience can wear thin
Written By: - Date published: 9:47 am, May 26th, 2008 - 42 comments
With a loving smack that would have brought a smile to Bob McCoskrie’s face, the Herald‘s editorial today rebukes John Key in the strongest terms it can. Now that the Budget is behind us, the National Party has less excuse for indecision on most of the important economic issues facing the country at the coming […]
Asking the second question
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, May 24th, 2008 - 62 comments
Key’s best trick is to answer questions with impressive or technical sounding assertions that stop the line of questioning but don’t actually tell us anything. When he does that, interviewers need to push him to explain himself. Here’s a few paraphrased examples from the last couple of week: Q. ‘What don’t you like about the […]
“As slippery as a snake in wet grass”
Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, May 23rd, 2008 - 61 comments
John Campbell interviews John Key on the budget, refusing to let him get away with merely repeating his focus-grouped lines. At about the 3 minute mark Campbell challenges Key’s evasiveness directly: “I think you are as slippery as a snake in wet grass”. It’s not just the media that are starting to get frustrated with […]
California lifts gay marriage ban
Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, May 17th, 2008 - 41 comments
California’s top court has ruled that a state law banning marriage between same-sex couples is unconstitutional, accrording to a BBC report. The state’s Supreme Court said the “right to form a family relationship” applied to all Californians regardless of sexuality. I wonder if this ruling will re-ignite debate on the status of relationships here in […]
Interview the Leaders VII: National
Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 123 comments
The Maori Party has asked for an extension on the replies for Tariana Turia and we’re happy to oblige. In the meantime, here are the questions to United Future’s Peter Dunne that we chose from your suggestions. The general question remains: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the two […]
Would Key scrap GST on food?
Written By: - Date published: 3:12 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 5 comments
With hints that regional fuel tax could be put on the “go slow” list, along with parts of the emissions trading scheme, it seems like we shouldn’t take any policy on taxes for granted. For example, there’s a belief that National and Labour have consensus on not removing GST on food. A couple of comments […]
Aloha means hello and goodbye
Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, April 29th, 2008 - 59 comments
Strangely, given the fact the National Party is doing so well in the polls and looks to be the favorite heading into the election, things seem to be coming apart for them. We’ve heard a few stories about tense caucus meetings and divisions but mostly only as rumour and, in an election year, that sort […]
National on personal attacks
Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, April 29th, 2008 - 13 comments
Greenwoman just flicked us this:
Repeating the mistakes of others
Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, April 29th, 2008 - 13 comments
Remember National’s policy of charging a $50 levy on everyone convicted of or, maybe, charged with (Key keeps on mixing up the terms) an offence? Remember all the obvious problems with it enforcement, administration cost, natural justice issues, the pitiful size of the sum that would be collected? Well, it turns out we missed one. […]
A broadband world
Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, April 23rd, 2008 - 6 comments
So John Key has announced that a National-led government would spend “up to” $1.5 billion on fibre optic cable to the home. Well that’s a good thing right? Even I can appreciate the importance of Kiwi homes and businesses getting access to high speed broadband (even if it is solely for the use of my children’s […]
I’ve got a solution, what’s the problem?
Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, April 23rd, 2008 - 38 comments
The junior doctors’ strike is a difficult issue. On the one hand, these are highly valuable workers whom we can’t afford to lose overseas and they do work long hours in difficult conditions. On the other hand, the pay rise they want would cost $50 million and is well above what other medical professionals have […]
Note to John: get a new lawyer
Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, April 21st, 2008 - 18 comments
John Key: ‘ my lawyer actually does those things clearly [he] had the wrong information.’ That’s how Slippery John explained why legal documents showed him living at different addresses at the same time. For election purposes he had claimed to be living at his $1.1 million home in Waimauku in his electorate, but on documents […]
Ralston sez: leave poor Johnny alone
Written By: - Date published: 5:45 pm, April 20th, 2008 - 61 comments
In the Herald today, Bill Ralston sticks up for poor John Key who has been the subject of personal political attacks recently. Like Key, Ralston wonders what is “the cost of the Government using countless bureaucrats to endlessly scour records in an attempt to discover inconsistencies in any utterance [Key has] made”. Ralston needs to […]
Hutchison chases the Green Fairy
Written By: - Date published: 2:59 pm, April 18th, 2008 - 18 comments
Earlier this week, John Key had a whinge about ‘personal’ political attacks on him. Particularly, he thought it was a waste of taxpayers’ money that some Labour MPs wrote and performed a version of The Gambler mocking him. The song was written in a pub on a Saturday night (Key thinks they should been reading […]
Business to Key: ‘You’re ruining everything’
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, April 18th, 2008 - 54 comments
Business is starting to get worried. This was meant to, finally, be the year that they got the Left out of government and started making New Zealand work for the business elite again. But there’s a problem: the man they chose for the job. Sure, Key’s got a cheeky grin but on real ‘prime minister […]
Flip-flopping at warp speed
Written By: - Date published: 3:13 pm, April 17th, 2008 - 31 comments
On Monday, I wrote ‘Stay tuned for National’s next assets policy, due out sometime next week.’ It seems I miscalculated. Here’s what Key had to say on asset sales today on newstalkzb: ‘I’m going to go into an election with a group of policies and those policies we will implement or not implement as the […]
Cost of benefit system plummeting
Written By: - Date published: 1:40 pm, April 17th, 2008 - 26 comments
Continuing our benefits theme, here’s a look at how much the benefit system costs you. The figures are the combined expenditure by the Government on the Unemployment, Sickness, Invalids’, and Domestic Purposes benefits per day per working age New Zealander, in 2007 dollars. Sources: MSD (1,2,3), StatsNZ (4,5) The portion of the working age population […]
Police confirm Brash email leak an inside job
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, April 16th, 2008 - 19 comments
Police have closed their investigation into the theft of e-mails from former National Party leader Dr Don Brash and have announced that they have been unsuccessful in identifying those responsible for the thefts. Despite Brash’s ongoing insistence to the contrary, the police have said that they’ve been able to rule out the possibility than an […]
Nothing personal, John
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, April 16th, 2008 - 74 comments
John Key’s latest line is to whine that Labour and others (including this blog) are launching personal attacks on him, and would we please stop. Our attacks are not personal, they are political. National wants to be in control of the Government, control an operation with a budget of near $60 billion and quarter of […]
Nats’ school funding policy under attack
Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, April 15th, 2008 - 33 comments
Stuff reports that “Principals and teachers have savaged a National Party plan to increase funding for private schools, calling it a thinly disguised tax break for the rich.” New Zealand Secondary Principals’ Council chairman Arthur Graves called Key’s proposal to increase funding to private schools at the expense of the public system “a deliberate attempt […]
Key’s record on Te WÄnanga o Aotearoa
Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, April 15th, 2008 - 7 comments
The Herald is really doing its best to help out National. Today it proclaims ‘Key’s wananga visit undoes Brash legacy‘. That nice Mr Key has undone all the harm caused by that nasty old Dr Brash, we’re meant to believe. But check the record. It wasn’t Brash who led the attack on Te WÄnanga o […]
National’s interest rates record
Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 15th, 2008 - 22 comments
National’s latest line is that interest rates have doubled under Labour, with the implication that National would magically lower inflation (while simultaneously pouring more money into the economy through lower surpluses) so rates would fall. But, as with so much National says, a quick look at the record reveals the lie. Average Mortgage Rate- Nat: 9.7%, […]
“I can’t even remember”
Written By: - Date published: 5:54 pm, April 13th, 2008 - 18 comments
A reader sent us this very good video of John Key’s repeated memory lapses over where he stood on the Springbok tour: The tour was the defining event of a generation, and it’s simply not plausible that a politically aware university student would not have had a position one way or the other. While I […]
To sell or not to sell
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 pm, April 12th, 2008 - 11 comments
At the Labour Party congress today, Helen Clark predicted that asset sales would be a key election issue and says the Government was right to veto the Auckland Airport share bid. “The National Party and ACT have made it plain where they stand – ‘sell it off’, they cry. This is a defining issue. In […]
Key’s plan for NZ to require lots of tug-boats
Written By: - Date published: 1:50 pm, April 9th, 2008 - 42 comments
From Key’s speech to the NZ Institute of Foreign Affairs on emulating the ‘Celtic Tiger’: “Thirty years ago, Ireland was a total basket case. Today, it has all of the trappings of a considerable economic success story, including the capacity to attract and retain smart, educated, enterprising people. three key policy initiatives which were critical […]
Finlay MacDonald: The Audacity of Hype
Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, April 8th, 2008 - 14 comments
A reader wrote to us to say that they’d recently seen Finlay MacDonald speak at Otago University as part of the Distinguished Communicator Lecture Series for the Centre of Science Communication. The talk is now online: The Audacity of Hype: John Key and the new National Socialism. In case you hadn’t picked up on this […]
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