zzero use

Key bullies HoS on ‘cup of tea’ recording

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:08 am, November 13th, 2011 - 176 comments

So, John Key and John Banks have a meeting in a cafe, full of members of the public. They get the photo-op, then usher the media out. A HoS cameraman accidentally leaves his audio recorder. Key and Banks talk. In public. Anyone in the cafe could hear. The recorder gets the conversation. Key bullies the HoS into not printing it. The HoS caves. Disgraceful.

A cold cup of tea

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:23 pm, November 12th, 2011 - 15 comments

Well, that was a let down. The much-hyped ‘cup of tea’ climaxed in Key saying that he would be voting for Goldsmith but he “wouldn’t be unhappy” if other Epsom voters back Banks. A double negative? Hardly a ringing endorsement. I think it’s too little, too late, for a man and a party that are too unpopular. All Key has done is tie his brand to extremists.

Banks – in his own words

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:32 am, November 12th, 2011 - 137 comments

Brand Key is now tied to John Banks. Interesting decision, could backfire – most of us don’t want Banks, Brash, or ACT back. Here’s a sample of why…

Those nice men in suits

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 8:18 am, November 12th, 2011 - 16 comments

Banks & Peters

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 4:34 pm, November 11th, 2011 - 46 comments

So the meeting has taken place, and Epsom has been asked to hold its nose and vote for failed Nat retread John Banks, and with him on his coat tails failed Nat retread Don Brash. Nice one. In other news, Winston Peters is riding a boost in the polls all the way to the televised minor parties leaders’ debate. The Nats will be spitting.

Democracy in action

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 1:22 pm, November 11th, 2011 - 20 comments

A sharp contrast

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 12:11 pm, November 11th, 2011 - 21 comments

When people say ‘there’s no difference between the two big parties’ or ‘where are the policies’, it’s shorthand for ‘I haven’t been paying attention’. We had a great example of the contrast yesterday. National would subsidise expansion of dairy by selling our assets; Labour would get modern equipment to poor schoolkids by cutting sports subsidies to rich schools.

A cup of tea and a lie down

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 8:00 am, November 11th, 2011 - 34 comments

hattip: the jackal

Good news bad news polls

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:25 am, November 11th, 2011 - 44 comments

Labour is down in two recent polls (albeit margin of error), but over all the news is good!

Was it a full moon?

Written By: lprent - Date published: 1:02 pm, November 10th, 2011 - 61 comments

Oh hell. My worst fears have been realized. John Key is a wereperson. He is morphing into an incantation of the countries biggest ever political disaster. And talking of other story lines from True Blood. John Banks has been wandering around with the decapitated head of Don Brash.

The greatest threat to Banks: Brash (& that story)

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:50 am, November 10th, 2011 - 39 comments

John Banks says the brand he is campaigning for in Epsom is ‘Brand Key’, not ACT. Epsomites don’t want three-time loser Don Brash but it’s unavoidably true that a vote for Banks is a vote for Brash. This is leading to a further unattractive debacle as Banks tries to distance himself from his leader, who he’s trying to get into parliament.

The Recovery is here, it’s coming, it’s…

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 12:30 pm, November 9th, 2011 - 48 comments

National want it both ways. They’ve brought us economic recovery through their brilliance (we’ve just not felt it yet), but also the lack of a recovery is not their fault and is in fact why all the stats are so bad. Here’s a reminder of what they’ve said…

Vote to keep us rich & you poor

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:10 am, November 9th, 2011 - 19 comments

The first of the CTU’s online election ads.

Penguin: Key lies to help us

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 8:40 am, November 8th, 2011 - 30 comments

Yes, that’s an actual quote [sans ‘serfs’] from David Farrar lying about his master John Key’s lies about not raising GST.

hattip: frank macskasy

Robyn Malcolm on Key

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 3:03 pm, November 7th, 2011 - 113 comments

Interesting to see a high profile, popular celebrity come out and speak her mind on John Key. Nothing like calling a shovel a shovel…

Show me the policy

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:05 pm, November 7th, 2011 - 51 comments

We’re three weeks out from the election, and there’s something funny going on. National has hardly any policy out. Parties typically go into an election with a pretty comprehensive lineup of policy covering a very wide range of issues. Do the Nats really not have any plans, or are they just keeping them quiet to win a second term?

Greens go red, Labour goes green

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:08 am, November 7th, 2011 - 67 comments

We live in a time of inter-related crises of the environment and the capitalist economic system. So, I guess it’s not surprising to see Labour becoming more environmentally aware at the same time as the Greens propose economic policies that would normally be out of Labour’s playbook. Don’t worry about them becoming too alike, welcome the solid platform for a new government.

John Key puts truth on 90 day term deposit

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 7:50 am, November 7th, 2011 - 46 comments

hattip William Joyce

Why no photo-op for Banks?

Written By: Eddie - 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?

John Key too drunk to drive

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 1:15 pm, November 5th, 2011 - 49 comments

hattip: tumeke

Acshully John, you will be a monkey’s uncle

Written By: the sprout - 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

Absurd arguments

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 1:45 pm, November 4th, 2011 - 69 comments

National likes to take Labour proposals and extend them to the point of absurdity. Labour needs to fight fire with fire. Here’s a few examples…

TVNZ and Herald polls

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:35 am, November 4th, 2011 - 53 comments

Two polls out yesterday show no significant changes, with National well in front. Don’t panic! The campaign has only just started. Events always take a while to show up in the polls. The Left needs to see movement soon – time’s running out fast – but it isn’t a surprise not to see it yet.

Polls good for Left

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 1:30 pm, November 3rd, 2011 - 80 comments

There’s a TVNZ poll out tonight and a Herald poll tomorrow morning but, ahead of them, here’s some other new polls results that point to trouble for the Nats. 27% of young people want to leave New Zealand. 82% of people oppose farm sales to foreign buyers. 24% of people will change their vote over the Rena.

Key lied on health cuts

Written By: James Henderson - 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.

Drunken Seaman John Key: borrowed $40 billion in 3 years to spend on his mates

Written By: the sprout - Date published: 8:45 am, November 3rd, 2011 - 222 comments

Another win for Goff

Written By: Eddie - 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.

Leaders’ debate tonight

Written By: notices and features - 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.

Labour up in Fairfax poll

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:59 am, November 2nd, 2011 - 62 comments

Today’s Fairfax poll shows a rise in support for Labour of 3.2%. What is particularly interesting about this poll is that the sampling period began the same day that Labour announced its “bombshell” retirement policy.

Another empty promise

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:13 am, November 2nd, 2011 - 61 comments

National says it’ll get 57,000 more people off benefits and into work over 4 years. That would require 50% more job creation than Treasury projects. Unless you do something about the lack of jobs, you won’t get benefit numbers down. Promising the latter without doing the former is a fraud on New Zealand. Just another broken Nat promise waiting to happen.