Written By:
Mike Smith - Date published:
9:35 am, August 20th, 2014 - 30 comments
Categories: brand key -
Tags:
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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I was surprised that Key and National didn’t kick Judith Colins to touch by condemning her, but saying they will leave it to the Papakura electorate to decide her fate and rely on her 9k majority to keep her in parliament, when they could then point to voters not thinking that she had done anything wrong (probably ignoring a great eroding of her support) and not do anything to her. If she did lose her electorate, she would be back on the list (“Actually at the end of the day it was too late to change the list, and it would be dishonest to the good people of New Zealand to go around changing our list late on in the election cycle.”) She could then be sent to the back-benches for 6 months or so, aka Nick Smith, then brought back to a ministerial post, which would be generally ignored because no election.
Seemed the sensible strategy to me…. protected Brand Key, didn’t really piss Collins off (as she didn’t actually lose anything) and means they can front foot things again and start talking about their so called policies that target the “issues that matter”
The Key meme “At the end of the day……” keeps running through my head..wish i knew how to link to it….but the opening verses of “At the end of the day” from Les Miserables are poignant and apt. Another example of the current Prime Minister pointing out the Truth accidentally….”they cant hear the little ones crying” . Indeed.
Hate to do it to you Don’t Worry, but the 20 X “At the end of the day…”
Starts about 10minutes in:
http://www.tv3.co.nz/CAMPBELL-LIVE-Monday-August-18-2014/tabid/3692/articleID/102195/MCat/2908/Default.aspx
“At the end of the day” is exactly the right phrase for Key as his day is at an end.
Anyone who uses the phrase “At the end of the day…” is admitting they take the view that the ends can always justify the means.
“Yes it was unfortunate/illegal/deceitful, but at the end of the day…”
Such an attitude is indicative (to me anyway) of someone utterly lacking any sense of integrity.
So what kind of voter sectors do we think all this noise will shift, and get out to vote?
I believe this entire book will play mostly to the beltway and commentariat, and voters remain hungry for policy content and solid information about prospective Prime Ministers.
Put the book down and get ready to get out the vote.
I see your point Ad and note your cautions. I also see that this is not a matter of either or. Cunliffe was very impressive on TV3’s Firstline this morning. Solidly authoritative, engaged. Confirming that he takes seriously the business of representative government. Yes. Positive
The trick is to ride with but above this business en route to a place beyond the Beltway which destination is occupied by people who NOW by dint of the book’s revelations entertain a fresh and altered perception of Key and National – the vaunted “higher standards” and promised superior governance for all is a con-job touted by the essentially self-interested.
That destination occupied by the freshly informed is then fertile ground in which the Cunliffe persona of this morning is redoubled. Let the National Party be embarrassed. We have nothing to be embarrassed about.
It wont shift the right…
My 80 year old dad just did tv1s vote thing and he comes out with ACT first, national second and nzfirst third. His response to the book? (which he hasnt read).
“I thought politics was always dirty, so why is this getting so much traction.”
I wonder how this will impact the debates. Key takes swipe at “tricky” cunliffe and he is laid bare to retorts.
Chuckled to hear cunliffe say he will hold ministers to a higher standard… Straight from the 2008 Key playbook
Rowing is an elite school sport in this country.
Showing a bunch of sleek toffs pulling away from the rest disadvantaged by a having a rowboat really does sum up National’s vision for New Zealand.
Eight people rowing, looking backwards with no idea where they are going but ideally placed to kiss the, ah, backside of the next in line. National in action
Key has missed the wave.
He is the epitome of the me-me-me neoliberal mindfuck that has been going on the last thirty years… you know, it’s all about “winning” and doesn’t matter how. Gotta make the millions, gotta get the Omaha bach and the overseas holidays every winter, can’t stay in NZ with the trash..
.. I’m a winner .. I’m a winner .. I’m a winner .. look at me everybody! Look how much moolah I’ve made…
I mean, Key is the epitome of all of this shit to such a perfect extent that he learnt golf not because he enjoyed it but because it is what powerful business folk do, and that he earned his money in investment banks extorting and deceiving and conning clients., and that he simply traded money. He didn’t even do anything useful for anyone – in fact quite the opposite – the financial system that he worked in, bolstered and helped grow is the system that fucked the public who is still unjustly paying for it.
Key is the epitome of the me-me-me, greed is good, neoliberal generations.
But Key has missed the wave. Its crest passed imo about three years ago. He missed it while still trying to ride it full tit.
And now Key is realising this and the Dirty Politics is bringing his entire type of life to the public eye – all too late, for Key. He has failed at the pinnacle – as he was always going to do.
Oh that is just beautiful.
Ad
“Put the book down and get ready to get out the vote”
Right! – but wonder if the electorate should know who is going to continue to undermine our Local Governments, MSM, our land, our rail, our environment, and………… I could go on so a good vote is a “informed vote right?
The book talks about truth about BrandKey.
We should remember all this and did Watergate get left behind as a non event?
This is why the issue must go hand in hand with election policy of BrandKey.
The price of Democracy & Freedom s constant vigilance remember history taught us this.
DomPost poll
Is it time for Judith Collins to go?
Yes
143 votes, 88.8%
No
13 votes, 8.1%
Undecided
5 votes, 3.1%
Total 161 votes
Latest Politics Headlines
Dirty politics and the polls
Collins gone to ground now? Media should chase up on whether agreement is being negotiated for an imminent announcement.
Umm, need some help recognising some of the faces/masks…
? mask, Collins, ? mask, Joyce, Slater mask, ?
Ostensibly Collins & Joyce have Key masks but there are differences & doesn’t really look much like Key to me.
I guess the guy with Slater mask is Ede?
i’m sure they are key masks and key is holding the slater mask .. that’s how Tom draws him !
Doesn’t look like Key to me & the whole point is that the Key persona & main National public image is a Hollow mask.
Brand Key
hookers refrain – it only takes 8 different (verses/versions) stories to stroke a blogger.
Who massaged the truth (story to stroke?)
Who messaged the truth (e whale)
Then 8 it (e whale).
Does an e whale burp only raw sewage.
Bankers are wankers
Money traders follow the money.
Hollowed out like a canoe.
Did anybody else notice the comment about Howick MP Ross by the Oily Orca:
“He will do as hes told”
Slater and Lusk engineered Ross into the electorate and now they control him lock stock and smoking gun ?
And carrick grahams part in the former tobacco lobby boys now being nat candidates?
But Ross and Slater are just made for each other..
An eight in unison is their campaign meme huh – crab catchers…
Casting for Moby Dick, the tale of a quest for a 4 term government
Captain Ahab – played by John Key
his wife Jezebel – played by Judith Collins
and the whale she is fond of – played by Cameron Slater
the head of Whaleoil Canneries Ltd – played by Steven Joyce
The MSM stooges will no doubt help their “good ol boy mates” in National. Help sweep all this ugliness under the rug. There will be a few interviews, a bit of satire so they don’t appear too biased and then it will be back to singing Nationals praises until our ears and eyes hurt….
Key will get a bit of a bounce back over the weekend with the focus on the Nats campaign launch.
But the story will roll on, and Key’s smiley man facade HAS taken a bit of a dent.
It’s also important that opposition parties shift the focus back on to their policies and values and not stay totally in critique mode.
No it wont. Consider who “owns” the media in New Zealand. They will do as little as they can and then it will all “fade away”. Consider how many incidents there have been regarding National over the last few months, hardly reported and if so in a very superficial way. No wonder their ratings have not shifted all that much…
The UK public trusts Wikipedia more than their own MSM, time we Kiwi’s started being just as discerning….
Yes, our MSM mostly leans right. But I thing you are over-emphasising the negatives.
But this is a story that won’t totally go away.
Remember also – power blocks do not rise and fall in a day.
I’m a newcomer. I’m not much of a political beast, though I’ve never liked Key from the moment I set eyes on him. I think it was the dodgy used-car salesman’s smile that did it. (Hey, I know they’re not all dodgy). I mean the ones who are on you like a hyena pouncing on a listless lizard the moment you have one foot in the lot. If I wouldn’t buy a clapped-out, rusting import from him I’d never vote for him.
Anyway, until Hager’s book appeared and I started nosing around the net I had no idea there were any left-wing sites like this. Crikey, I’m like a pig in muck here. This is bloody marvellous.
The Nats have gone with a rowing eight in their advert? Don’t they know NZ’s achieved nothing in an eight since 1972? Hardly a symbol for success. You’d think Team Key would have opted for John Key in a single scull, lol, a touch of the Mahe Drysdales. I thought their whole campaign was supposed to be based on John boy pulling away on his own.
Anyway, let’s hope the damned thing sinks. It’s got enough holes in it. They may need to toss Collins overboard to try and stay afloat. But four weeks in a leaky boat is a damned long time in politics.
“But four weeks in a leaky boat is a damned long time in politics.”
Maybe it will feel like Oh 6 months in a Leaky Boat