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There’s such a thing as ‘too relaxed’

Written By: - Date published: 3:45 pm, May 26th, 2010 - 90 comments

Tracy Watkins recently observed of Key’s reluctance to front the media post-budget that:

“Mr Key has refused all but three requests to be interviewed by National Radio’s Morning Report so far this year. That must be unheard of among modern-day prime ministers…”

She puts his avoidance of the tough questions down to a desire to protect his brand.

Tory pundits’ tough words on Nats

Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, May 22nd, 2010 - 16 comments

John Armstrong looks at the typical John Key-style punt that lies behind the budget.

Meanwhile Tracey Watkins has calmed down after the excitement of seeing the size of her tax cut and is questioning why Key is so afraid of anything but tightly managed media appearances.

The New Zealand Herald: “Coalition is shakier by the day”

Written By: - Date published: 12:23 pm, May 16th, 2010 - 24 comments

The headline for the Herald’s editorial today says a lot about where the media are at with National at the moment. The Government and its actions have been savaged by a range of msm outlets this week in New Zealand – and internationally, which in turn became another source of yet more negative domestic coverage. This week […]

Apologise

Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, May 10th, 2010 - 46 comments

Congratulations John on your latest speech. We especially like the line “Let me be clear: there is no room for separatism in New Zealand.” Very masterly, clear and unequivocal. I know you meant what you said and weren’t just dog-whistling to the racist red-necks in the audience who’re feeling spooked by us signing up to […]

Brash emails hit headlines again…for the wrong reason

Written By: - Date published: 7:41 pm, March 8th, 2010 - 62 comments

The leaked emails which helped bring about the downfall of former Nat leader Don Brash hit the headlines again today, for all the wrong reasons. The story of who “stole” the emails was nothing more than a successful Tory decoy. Journalists have already forgotten the insidious tricks used by the top echelons of the National Party.

Guyon tires of Key’s empty grin

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, February 17th, 2010 - 32 comments

Guyon Espiner isn’t exactly what you would call a critic of John Key’s government, so when he has a blog post titled “John Key’s sloppiness as costly as it is charming” you know things are bad.

Espiner spears PM puffery

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, February 16th, 2010 - 10 comments

Colin Espiner: “Is that uranium I can smell on John Key’s breath? Or too much garlic in the lamb rack the prime minister cooked for his wife on Valantines Day? Go on, laugh. But both seem to be legitimate topics of journalistic interest today”

Nats lying over firing Aroha’s mum?

Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, February 8th, 2010 - 30 comments

Jackie Blue's magical Tardis Electorate Office that both is, and isn't

In yesterday’s Herald Jackie Blue told us she’d sacked the mother of young Aroha because she had to merge offices with Sam Lotu-Iiga. But some investigative work at The Hand Mirror suggests otherwise…

Spin cycle finally into 1st gear

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, November 11th, 2009 - 7 comments

I’m all for cycle-ways but excuse me if I don’t get all silly over John Key knocking a post in the ground in Waikato and declaring his first cycle-way under way. The reality is the Waikato River Trail was being built anyway. In fact, it is already over half built. So this $3 million isn’t actually creating […]

A tale of two Johns

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, November 6th, 2009 - 12 comments

We were offered two very different views of John Key PM yesterday. The first by a pair of love-struck journalists. We’ll start with them. Let’s have a big hand for Garth George folks! Garth George: We should all salute our wonderful PM It comes as no surprise that John Key and National remain top of […]

An apt description of John Key PM

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, October 28th, 2009 - 28 comments

I haven’t seen a better description of John Key after a year in office than Pete Hodgson’s latest post. When he does one day stop being a prime minister he will talk, not of what he strived for, but of what he saw and how he felt. Just like a kid coming out of Disneyland. […]

Trivial

Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, September 26th, 2009 - 81 comments

The more I think about it, the more Key’s Letterman approach is demeaning both to his office and New Zealand. Sure he did the stand up comedy competently but is that what we want our PM reduced to? A gag to be treated at best as a cute nobody, at worst dismissively, by some variety […]

Key’s Top Ten

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, September 25th, 2009 - 57 comments

Obviously, the most important thing ever is how John Key did on Letterman. It’s quite cute actually, Key’s clearly a bit nervous standing out on the big stage. It really does remind you that we’re a little country. But Letterman’s very nice, although he does forget why Key’s there for a moment. He knows we’re […]

John Key, centrist

Written By: - Date published: 3:49 pm, July 24th, 2009 - 23 comments

IrishBill commented last night that “John Key the centrist” is a narrative we’re not hearing much from the commentariat any more. I thought this was strange given that was the brand they were all so dutifully selling us in the leadup to the election campaign. John Armstrong couldn’t get enough of it. I wondered what […]

Govt creaks into inaction

Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, January 13th, 2009 - 29 comments

Only four weeks into a well-deserved holiday following two frantic weeks stripping Kiwis of their work rights, the National/ACT Government has been spurred back into action by an emerging crisis. No, not the international financial meltdown. Nup, not peak oil, nor climate change, nor the recession. The crisis that has seen the Government suddenly announce […]

Speak no evil

Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, October 9th, 2008 - 27 comments

Word around the traps is that this week Key and English have added veteran financial reporter Rod Oram to their list of journos they won’t speak to and Key has canceled his weekly chat with Wammo on Kiwi FM until after the election. This adds to Key striking Duncan Garner off his interview list after […]

Questions over Key’s handling of Tranzrail

Written By: - Date published: 10:53 pm, September 24th, 2008 - 22 comments

Where-ever you sit on the spectrum of opinion on Key’s handling on the Tranzrail affair, it appears that the commentators are questioning his ability to handle the pressure (and by extension his ability to handle the PM-ship). From Paul Henry’s vigorous questioning this morning to discussions by commentators later in the day, the common theme […]

Clown princes

Written By: - Date published: 3:28 pm, August 5th, 2008 - 27 comments

The ‘Key-English secret recording followed by denial followed by excuse followed by apology’ debacle is, well, an utter debacle. If these clowns ever win an election – which has to be questionable after this sort of political mismanagement – similar antics will make opposition rather more pleasant than it otherwise is for Labour. There are […]

Personality cult

Written By: - Date published: 3:18 pm, July 22nd, 2008 - 41 comments

Some of our friends on the National Party end of the blogosphere have developed a rather odd habit over the years of referring to Helen Clark as ‘Dear Leader’. Well fellas, I hate to break it to you, but if it’s a personality cult you’re after then look no further than the National Party’s new website. […]

Follow through

Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, July 18th, 2008 - 34 comments

Over at Kiwiblog David Farrar has found an amusing error made by the Herald online in its politics section which has listed several stories from 1999 as current. Good for a laugh I thought and so I had a look. Two stories in particular got me thinking. One of them was headed “Clark’s mission: clean […]

Murketing

Written By: - Date published: 4:36 pm, July 14th, 2008 - 18 comments

Gordon Campbell has an interesting take on the political PR we’re seeing from National in his latest Scoop column. In it he quotes Salon talking about the marketing of Red Bull to different niches: ‘ Walker noted that instead of attempting to assert the brand’s identity to a mass market, the manufacturer pursued a strategy […]

Spin doctors

Written By: - Date published: 3:59 pm, July 9th, 2008 - 2 comments

The clean man

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 pm, July 8th, 2008 - 76 comments

Has anyone else noticed John Key’s absence from the media in the last few days? I finally clicked to it while listening to RNZ this morning when we heard yet another “a spokesperson for John Key’s office says” comment. This is a pretty standard technique from the Crosby Textor hand book. I like to call […]

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