‘Ask Me No Questions’ Key

14 comments on “‘Ask Me No Questions’ Key ”

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1. the sprout 1

   11 October 2010 at 1:43 pm

   agreed Bunji.
   John Key is rapidly becoming another Jenny Shipley.
   Incapable of defending himself from difficult questions, she/he instead runs and hides, avoiding all but the most sympathetic lapdogs. Of which, there are fewer and fewer by the day.
2. Bright Red 2

   11 October 2010 at 1:54 pm

   the difference between him and shilpley is all the soft-fuzzy coverage he gets – high fiving school girls, opening a cycleway, even the coverage of his trip to afghanistan, all of it is told though a lens of ‘that Nice Man, Mr Key’. No expection of him as a Prime Minister to deliver, just applause when he plays the clown.

   The media kind of jumped the spider with that last week though, one hopes.
   • Tigger 2.1

     11 October 2010 at 2:28 pm

     ‘Jumped the spider’ = win. From now on that will be the defining moment when Key finally slid in absurdity – yes, he was dancing around the edge of it for a while and dipped his toes in a couple of times but now he’s well and truly absurd.
3. Principessa 3

   11 October 2010 at 3:09 pm

   Did you all hear Sir Peter Leitch on “this is your life” last night say to John Key: “You’re not the smartest Prime Minister we’ve ever had.” It was classic.
   • Zorr 3.1

     11 October 2010 at 5:41 pm

     Now I have to watch that… 😛
4. tc 4

   11 October 2010 at 3:18 pm

   In other country’s with a more mature/reliable/trusted MSM the refusal of a PM to support his/her national broadcaster (by showing up for interviews) would be seen as:
   a) Something to Hide, or is that someone called Hide
   b) Inability/unwillingness to respond
   c) Dereliction of duty to front the public
   d) Deferral due to another media conference/event where they will front all media
   e) None of the above as they simply don’t care about duty/transparency

   Speaks volumes for the Hollowman he doesn’t have the guts to face some questions, any decent polly/manager would show up and tick the box, regardless of content/answers given as that’s what leaders have to do, they front up in all weather ….not this clown.
5. BLiP 5

   11 October 2010 at 4:40 pm

   If I could ask John Key anything, it would be this: please, next time you come face to face with racism in your own country, try not to just sit there and giggle.
6. Margaret 6

   11 October 2010 at 5:13 pm

   I remember writing the day after the last election that John Key was going to be the “Tillerman,” the Tillerman who would till the soil to plant the seeds for the next gereration of discontent in New Zealand.

   Trouble is with John Key and his ilk is they have no respect for the worker of this country yet they expect the worker to not only respect them, but to work hard to make New Zealand the country they want to live in and bring up their families in.
7. gobsmacked 7

   11 October 2010 at 8:26 pm

   Key doesn’t want questions because he simply isn’t up to the job. He showed that at today’s press conference.

   This is an extraordinary story, which would be headline news in any other Western democracy … the Prime Minister doesn’t know or care about the Nobel Peace Prize:

   http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1010/S00059/pms-presser-no-praise-for-jailed-nobel-winner.htm

   It won’t get much coverage, in our insular media. But I think it’s one of the worst things he’s said since he became PM. It sums up the emptiness of John Key.

   Of course, if it was the world’s most famous ex-jailed dissident, Nelson Mandela, he’d give anything for a photo op. Because Mandela’s a celebrity.

   It’s not a question of left/right. Principled conservatives can speak out. Britain’s Tory government has done so. But John Key isn’t a principled … anything.
   • Colonial Viper 7.1

     11 October 2010 at 9:07 pm

     So why does he still have a >50% approval rating?

     It beggars all belief.
     • gobsmacked 7.1.1

       11 October 2010 at 9:18 pm

       He understands the NZ media. The opposition don’t. Key was on “This is Your Life”. That reaches more voters than a dozen press conferences.

       It’s changing, people are starting to see there’s nothing there, but slowly.

       Avoiding anybody who could ask him any real questions is not going to get him through an election campaign.
   • sk 7.2

     11 October 2010 at 10:34 pm

     GS, thanks for posting the link. This is a huge story. Key’s comments are outrageous. It is is completely unacceptable for a NZ PM to say he has not been briefed on Liu Xiaobo.

     Now, I got ‘binned’ by Marty G for being outraged by his image of a white person kowtowing to a Chinese, but that is because I believe the word kowtow is a colonial relic that should be dropped.

     But what Key says in this press conference is just unacceptable. We should not, ever, be a vasal state. Which is what Key’s comments imply. Human rights are universal , which surely has to be a core NZ value (with rare exceptions, such as Muldoon .. . and now Key)

     I thought Norman was throwing a pathetic tantrum. Liu is the real deal.

     Come on’ The Standard. This is a battle that should be joined.

     Captcha: TRASHS – which is what Key is doing to NZ’s reputation

     [lprent: Still whining like a juvie about something that happened in June? Marty did you a favour. You were just lucky that he dealt with it before I saw it. I’d have been far more draconian, but since it’d been dealt with then I was precluded from doing anything. Slagging off authors rather than what they write about is not something that I tolerate. Read the policy about banning and at the first self-martyrdom offense.

     You said then…

     wow. Threaten me like that and I will never comment again. Look at my comment history Marty G, and decide whether you want me commenting here. Your call.

     Since you’ve raised it again – the answer to your statement is pretty obvious. The value of an author to the site is far more important to it than you are to me. While there are some commentators that I’d put up with considerable amounts of crap from because of their previous contributions, you are not one of them.

     Your comments tend towards the facile, ill-considered and immature in my opinion. While I usually personally disagree with many of Marty’s posts (much the same as I do with most of the authors), they are at least interesting and worthy of discussion. Your comments need to go a long way before they are anything like the same standard.

     Perhaps you’d better contemplate that before you start running off at the mouth again. As you’re probably aware, I’m not really interested in getting into discussions about moderation. It is less work for me to simply pass judgement. ]

Links to post

1. The Standard: posted on 11 October 2010 at 12:36 am
2. Media Matters « The Standard: posted on 3 November 2010 at 3:31 pm

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