Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, November 7th, 2011 - 46 comments
hattip William Joyce
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, November 6th, 2011 - 34 comments
John Key has been asked if he will be giving an explicit order to National voters in Epsom to vote for John Banks. He said ‘not today’. He said that a few weeks ago too. No photo-op of Key shaking Banks’ hand either. Why the hold-up? What could possibly be behind National wariness of linking Brand Key to Banks?
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, November 5th, 2011 - 49 comments
hattip: tumeke
Written By: - Date published: 8:43 pm, November 4th, 2011 - 44 comments
John Key was really revving the crap out of his denimic environment generator today trying to discredit Labour’s costings for its policies. Either Key really is shit at math or he’s no clearer on Labour’s policies than he is on National’s.
hattip: a very prescient Jackal
Written By: - Date published: 9:32 am, November 3rd, 2011 - 12 comments
In the TVNZ debate on Monday, John Key claimed that he had cut ‘back office’ jobs and increased health services.That wasn’t true. The fact is, funding cuts have reduced the capacity of many health services. ‘Front-line’ staff are doing ‘back office’ work as well and everything else is getting squeezed to put more money into ‘sexy’ elective surgery numbers.
Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, November 3rd, 2011 - 222 comments
Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, November 3rd, 2011 - 17 comments
Why all the fuss in the media about Phil Goff calling Key a liar in the TV1 debate? It’s old news. Key has a long history of lying (some of the video footage makes painful viewing).
Written By: - Date published: 9:07 pm, November 2nd, 2011 - 179 comments
Goff had Key in all sorts of trouble on the Christchurch recovery, on Key’s economic record, on asset sales, on the GST lie. Goff was passionate on equality and got across both Labour’s vision and how that will be made real. It was notable that Key’s only strong point was when he got off his own record and his own promises and on to making up numbers about Labour’s policies. Goff didn’t have a strong rebuttal. He’ll need one before the next TV debate.
Written By: - Date published: 2:47 pm, November 2nd, 2011 - 55 comments
The Press Leaders’ Debate. Phil Goff and John Key. 7pm tonight. Not televised, but streamed live. The format can only be better than TV1! Check it out.
I don’t know about you but the streaming is failing on me. What I did catch was Key trying to back out of his promise that redzoners wouldn’t be left out of pocket. Goff responded: “If you’re not going to do something, for heaven’s sake don’t promise it” and got loud applause. Twitter consensus is Goff is winning big from the get go.
Written By: - Date published: 6:43 am, November 2nd, 2011 - 17 comments
Key’s biggest mistake: with all the disasters that have occurred in the last 3 years that have affected so many thousands of people he couldn’t have done anything better to improve their lives other than communicated a bit better about BMWs?
Written By: - Date published: 4:37 pm, November 1st, 2011 - 42 comments
Key’s Drunken Sailor “joke” tells us a lot about his priorities…
Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, November 1st, 2011 - 29 comments
Watching Goff and Key last night was a bit like watching Graham Henry arguing with Paul Henry…
Written By: - Date published: 12:05 pm, November 1st, 2011 - 70 comments
Here are my top moments from the first Leaders’ Debate. When you write them down, it’s pretty clear that Goff won all the major exchanges.
What were the top moments for you, what else did you want to see?
Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, November 1st, 2011 - 94 comments
According to John Key in the Leader’s Debate, it’s OK to break your promises because the world is “dinnamic”. I’ll have to try that next time I’m out late on the piss:
‘Sorry, I’m late love, yeah sorry I didn’t cook dinner like I promised. I went out with the boys and things got dinnamic … Whadaya mean I have to sleep on the couch?’
Written By: - Date published: 3:35 pm, October 31st, 2011 - 145 comments
The first debate between Phil Goff and John Key is on TV1 at 7pm. Don’t miss it!
Update: See the website www.keyholes.co.nz for looking at the claims that Key makes in the debate.
Goff getting all the hits in. Got his policies across well. Key defensive and angry. www.keyholes.co.nz running hot.
Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, October 31st, 2011 - 21 comments
Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, October 31st, 2011 - 32 comments
So, that was National’s ‘big announcement’tm? Allocating money they’ve already banked into a fund which is just an accounting fiction for capital spending that was already budgeted for. A billion of it over five years to ‘transform’ schools? $80,000 a year per school … of already budgeted spending. Talk about tired and bereft of ideas.
Written By: - Date published: 11:47 am, October 30th, 2011 - 37 comments
National has already booked the revenue from asset sales – despite people opposing them 4 to 1. The Budget docs say capital spending will be funded from the ‘balance sheet’: ie. buying new assets like schools and hospitals with revenue from selling the power companies. Key will re-announce this today. But, in the long-run we’ll be able to afford more schools and hospitals if we don’t sell our profit-generating assets.
Update: as expected, Key has re-accounced what is already in the Budget and given it a fancy new name.
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, October 30th, 2011 - 15 comments
Dear Mr Key: “We are the generation born between 2002, when you became an MP, and 2011, when you won your second of four terms as Prime Minister. We wonder why you insisted on spending our inheritance to ensure you were voted back in.”… Bernard Hickey presents a chilling vision of the future. The way to avoid it is make sure that Key only gets one term.
Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, October 30th, 2011 - 43 comments
The first of the leaders’ debates is on tomorrow (it would have been on Thursday on Labour’s savings policy, but Key refused to show). Key’s strategy is clear: ‘I’m a safe economic manager, these guys will fuck it up’. Goff can’t let a single attack slide. Every time Key disses Labour’s or ups his own record, Goff just needs to cite one of these facts.
Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, October 30th, 2011 - 18 comments
Key’s “small target” strategy was always going to come under pressure during the election campaign. But by rights it should now be blown completely out of the water. Labour’s willingness to take on the hard issues leaves Key facing plenty of questions. Time we got some answers.
Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, October 28th, 2011 - 44 comments
On RNZ today: Mr Goff said Prime Minister John Key did not have the “guts” to debate him. “It’s time to make a decision that will build a stronger future for New Zealand. We’ve got the balls to do that. John Key doesn’t.”
Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, October 27th, 2011 - 37 comments
It’s not surprising that National are trying to run a presidential, personality based election campaign – after all, their policies aren’t going to win many votes from those middle and lower income kiwis who understand them. And up till now, presidentialism has worked very well for National. But it’s also starting to become apparent to […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, October 27th, 2011 - 22 comments
John Key’s try-hard failed handshake at the RWC has gone viral. What looked like a minor footnote to the affair came out last night, when it was reported that YouTube had taken down the clip at the request of the IRB. But today the IRB denied it.
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 pm, October 26th, 2011 - 24 comments
Paddy Gower at TV3 reveals Lord Ashcroft, billionaire Tory donor and International Democratic Union treasurer, has come to talk to Key again. Just discussed politics generally, said Key. Politics yes, generally no. Ashcroft’s interests are now devoted to polling and blog communication, and he is very interested in our election. Having seen Cameron miss out on a majority, he’ll want to help Key to one here.
Written By: - Date published: 11:05 pm, October 24th, 2011 - 22 comments
The first leaders debate took place on Native Affairs tonight. Key and Goff were interviewed by Julian Wilcox. Key was lacklustre – if New Zealanders were finding it tough to make ends meet it was all down to global circumstance, nothing to do with him. Goff by contrast was impressive – blew that argument apart with the observation that it was the choices Key’s government made inside New Zealand that mattered. One could see why Key does not like being face to face with an incisive interviewer. [Eddie: Video now up]
Written By: - Date published: 7:06 pm, October 24th, 2011 - 16 comments
David Cameron has cancelled his planned trip to Japan and New Zealand. He is facing a backbench revolt over European Union membership at the same time as he is trying to intervene in the crucial financial summit trying to sort out problems in the Euro zone on Wednesday. Oh well, one less photo op for John Key – perhaps its just as well as Britain’s future isn’t getting brighter.
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, October 22nd, 2011 - 35 comments
New Zealand’s economy, Christchurch, Pike River, Rena – all terrible disasters to befall our country and our Government. It’s a massive challenge to respond well to such crises, and nobody really expects a magic wand, but we do have a right to expect some kind of competent, coordinated and decisive leadership response from our Government. Yet […]
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