john key

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The numbers man

Written By: - Date published: 8:47 am, January 27th, 2012 - 29 comments

Key didn’t exactly live up to his brand as the master politician and numbers man yesterday:
Key in the tea tapes: “we will get to 50. 49-50, anything around there will be good enough. When you are where we are the risk is a landslide” – Oops. 47.3%, one seat majority for rightwing policies
On Winston: “That’s a shut door. He’s currently at 2.5-3. He’ll poll 3 this time. A lot of his constituents have died.” – Oops. 6.6% and back.
“We are still on track to post a surplus in 2014/15 … in the range of $300 to $500 million”. – Oops. That’s down three-quarters from his Budget promise.

Teapot tattle

Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, January 26th, 2012 - 122 comments

The Teapot Tapes have leaked on to the internet.

You can torrent it and listen past all of the noise.

Banks a fine ACT MP…

Written By: - Date published: 11:31 am, January 24th, 2012 - 39 comments

There are a couple of nice pieces in the Herald today on upstanding ACT MP John Banks – on his advising arrested Kim Dotcom on residency and the Overseas Investment Commission, and on his “National” billboards…

Key: tired & bereft of ideas

Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, December 22nd, 2011 - 56 comments

Shearer’s never going to be a Churchill but his address in reply was well-delivered, passionate, issues focused. What a contrast to Key. All he could serve up were the same old lame jokes. Where was the plan for the next 1,000 days? Where was the plan for 200,000 kids in poverty? Where was leadership from the PM? Key’s forgotten all that. He’s pure beltway politics now.

Key the politician

Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, December 21st, 2011 - 25 comments

Key’s anti-politician image is slipping – particularly as Labour’s new ‘anti-politician’ leader shows it up. Reasonable? Willing to accept good ideas from the other side of the house? That man is not Key…

Petty politics as usual on poverty

Written By: - Date published: 2:33 pm, December 15th, 2011 - 37 comments

Key is playing petty politics as usual on poverty. He should have accepted Shearer’s call for a cross party process and his offer of help on the new “ministerial poverty committee”.

Tolley Drops

Written By: - Date published: 1:47 pm, December 12th, 2011 - 69 comments

The new cabinet is out, and the Biggest Loser is Anne Tolley.

NRT on Democracy 101

Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, November 29th, 2011 - 20 comments

No Right Turn takes Key to task on his perception of a “large majority”.

Turning on Key

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, November 25th, 2011 - 33 comments

It’s been a costly election for Key. After the teapot tape fiasco and the subsequent police raids on media, his political capital with the media (except for die-hard fans) is spent.

National policy manifesto

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, November 25th, 2011 - 5 comments

Final debate – win to Goff on points

Written By: - Date published: 4:20 pm, November 23rd, 2011 - 175 comments

Debate over. Not a walkover for Goff like the TV3 debate, but a win to Goff on points. Communicated effectively, came across as honest and open (compared to Key’s shifty body language), and had Key on the ropes several times.

Tea tape judgment

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, November 23rd, 2011 - 140 comments

Any minute now, we should find out whether we are allowed to know the secret plans that John Key and John Banks were foolish enough to discuss in a public cafe in front of the country’s media, or whether that information will be denied us before we vote on Saturday.

Update: Judge has declined to make a decision.

So it can be published without breaking the law. Publication is only illegal if publisher knows the interception was illegal. No-one can now know that.

Debate bingo

Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, November 23rd, 2011 - 12 comments

Download debate-bingo and see if you can be the first to mark off John Key’s hollow catchphrases in the final Leader’s debate tonight.

The winner will be all of us if we choose a better government on Saturday.

Will Key sign pledge not to sell Kiwibank?

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, November 23rd, 2011 - 97 comments

Phil Goff has signed a pledge that Labour will not sell Kiwibank if it becomes government. Other party leaders have been invited as well. I expect the Greens, New Zealand First, Mana, and the Conservatives will (who knows about the Maori Party). But will Key sign? National is secretly itching to sell Kiwibank, Bill English got caught out admitting as much.

Like shit warmed-up

Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, November 23rd, 2011 - 81 comments

John Key is really showing the strain of campaigning, he’s not bearing up under the stress of it at all well. Clearly the National Show Pony was not built for endurance.

Tape hearing

Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, November 22nd, 2011 - 53 comments

According to reporter Derek Cheng (#dchengnzh) inside the courtroom “Judge reserved decision til 215 tomoro #votenz #ambrose“.

Key’s campaign super weapon

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, November 22nd, 2011 - 11 comments

Key to lay police complaint against debate worm

Written By: - Date published: 7:20 am, November 22nd, 2011 - 104 comments

The 2nd TV debate was a 2nd win for Goff. He was human and humane, visionary and realistic. Key made excuses for his poor record, tried to hide in detail, and cast a sullen eye to the future. The worm told the story. So did the Right’s reaction. But, next debate, ditch the ‘expert’ panelists. […]

TV3 debate: clear win to Goff

Written By: - Date published: 6:10 pm, November 21st, 2011 - 275 comments

A clear win to Goff – Bravo!

More lameness from the man with no ideas; wave goodbye to Aroha

Written By: - Date published: 2:19 pm, November 20th, 2011 - 74 comments

John Key has announced today that if Winston is re-elected, New Zealand will be forced to go back to the polls within weeks.

Meanwhile elsewhere on the limping catastrophe that is the John Key Campaign, Aroha Ireland has decided to leave New Zealand and join the record numbers of kiwis leaving permanently for a Brighter Future in Australia.

Integrity or hocus pocus

Written By: - Date published: 9:32 am, November 20th, 2011 - 59 comments

I have no sympathy for politicians complaining about their ‘private’ political conversations being made public. What politicians say on politics is inherently of public interest. Don’t say different things in private then in public, and you won’t get caught out. It’s a matter of integrity. We can now reveal what John Key really thinks about climate change.

Ambrose to sue Key for defamation

Written By: - Date published: 9:18 pm, November 19th, 2011 - 107 comments

Bradley Ambrose, the cameraman widely maligned by John Key and his pudgey lapdogs David Farrar and Cameron Slater for daring to hold the PM to some basic standards of accountability, is demanding an apology from John Key or he’ll take the PM to court for defamation.

UPDATE: The final week of the campaign will kick off with a police raid on the Herald Monday morning.

ACT have been very stable

Written By: - Date published: 3:58 pm, November 19th, 2011 - 18 comments

We missed this at the time – thanks to toad in comments (and link to g.blog) for the heads up!  Especially relevant now that John Key has personally tied himself to ACT with his endorsement.

John Key: Berlusconi of the south pacific

Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, November 19th, 2011 - 20 comments

 

Small target

Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, November 18th, 2011 - 26 comments

Outraging families of suicide victims. Insulting the Police as layabouts. Declaring war on the media. Negative teapot stories  every day, now spreading to over coverage. The Nats are spinning this was planned; that they decided to go nuclear on the media as a vote winner. What a joke. They were successfully running a small target campaign until a week ago.

International Federation of Journalists condemns Key’s suppression of media freedom

Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, November 18th, 2011 - 116 comments

The International Federation of Journalists has condemned police demands for media organisations to hand over information about the tea tapes.

Much as some of us have enjoyed watching Key squirm, this has gone too far. Time to call off the cops and release the tape.

Unbridled power

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, November 18th, 2011 - 77 comments

Kazakhstan police have ordered four media organisations to hand over evidence of an alleged illegal recording of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The police said they would carry out searches to get the material. Opposition politicians have accused Mr Nazarbayev of trying to gag the media in the run-up to an election next weekend.

Spare time

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, November 18th, 2011 - 21 comments

John Key says that it’s OK for the Police to waste time trying to intimidate the media on his behalf because they have “spare time” with the drop in crime. There were 220,000 unsolved crimes last year including 8 homicides. The cops solved 15,000 fewer crimes than the previous year. Don’t tell me they’re sitting around waiting to do the PM’s bidding.

Key loses plot under election pressure

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, November 18th, 2011 - 64 comments

John Key has a history of choking under pressure but this time, calling on the police to raid the premises of our national broadcasters TVNZ and RNZ, and our major privately owned newspapers – he’s cracked under the pressure of the campaign and the spectre of losing it all. There’ll be no knighthood if Key becomes the first National PM to lose after just one term.

Search warrants against the media

Written By: - Date published: 7:17 pm, November 17th, 2011 - 57 comments

Interesting looking at the current law on getting and using search warrants on media organisations. There are some quite clear guidelines from a 1965 case.If the guidelines are adhered to it is hard to see how warrants could be obtained. Reading and publishing the search warrants and the supporting materials looks to be the only way that the public will be able to decide if John Key is walking down the path of close cooperation between the police and the current prime minister used by other ‘democratic’ countries.

Peters leaking everywhere

Written By: - Date published: 3:47 pm, November 17th, 2011 - 52 comments

Winston is leaking details of the teapot tapes.  Plenty of other rumours doing the rounds, including a TV1 poll tonight that shows no damage to the Nats on voting intentions yet.

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