Key gives up on us, keeps International Democratic Union.

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, February 10th, 2017 - 33 comments
Categories: australian politics, brand key, campaigning, crosby textor, Dirty Politics, Europe, Globalisation, International, john key, national, social democracy, uk politics, us politics - Tags:

The Herald’s front-page plug to get Roughan’s book off the remaindered list informs us that Key is going on the speaking circuit and will go back into finance (not that he ever left). One political role he will carry on since he walked out of National Party leadership is chairing the International Democratic Union. He was doing it in Germany earlier in the year.

The IDU has announced that he still intends to continue this role. His predecessor in the job, John Howard, who was this week seen skulking around our Parliament doing his best to keep out of the limelight, carried on as IDU Chairman for seven years after he was dumped as Prime Minister by Kevin Rudd in 2007.  I’ve absolutely no doubt they will have been discussing it this week – Key took over from him in 2014.

The IDU represents 50 right-wing parties around the world and is a far more effective ideas-sharing organisation that its leftish equivalent the Socialist International which is basically a resolution factory. They are having a campaign managers’ meeting in Washington this month.

Also they will be looking for someone capable of managing the uncertainties of the Trump connection with the Republican party, let alone the international relations aspects of the job. Key has tightened up the organisation considerably since he took over. It’s not a surprise; I’m sure they wanted him to stay. If only the left was as well organised internationally.

It also means he will continue to be involved in out politics. He’s not gone away – staying in the job will do no harm for Key’s Rolodex and the speaking circuit. He can keep promoting New Zealand as the Switzerland of the South. – expect more Peter Thiels.

 

33 comments on “Key gives up on us, keeps International Democratic Union. ”

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  1. esoteric pineapples 1
    10 February 2017 at 9:16 am

    I’d like to see John Key charged for being Prime Minister for eight years but doing nothing about climate change and actually working against New Zealand reducing its greenhouse emissions. The same sort of charges should be prosecuted by an international court for other country’s leaders as well. If it is good enough for the German and Japanese governments to be charged with crimes against humanity, it should be good enough for the present raft of leaders whose inaction is going to be far more catastrophic for humanity and all living things on this planet.

  2. Carolyn_nth 2
    10 February 2017 at 9:18 am

    Right wing, strongly financed organisations like the IDU, are the reason why bottom-up, grassroots, organisations by, for and of the people are not enough on their own.

    The rebuilding of bottom-up, grassroots, networks are essential to rebuilding the left. But without some strong re-organisation of democratic state-based political systems, the enormous power of the wealthy, well-connected, financial and corporate elites will find a way to dismantle grassroots organisations as they have done in the past.

  3. fender 3
    10 February 2017 at 10:15 am

    What a dork, he’d better take an interpreter along for the painful journey, akshully

  4. saveNZ 4
    10 February 2017 at 10:33 am

    At the end of the day akhully I have left the country better off as viewed by the IDU…

    (more debt, more poverty, massive social and environmental problems looming, dysfunctional government, intellectually devoid but highly consuming population)…

  5. DoublePlusGood 5
    10 February 2017 at 1:07 pm

    An organisation neither democratic, nor a union.

  6. michelle 6
    10 February 2017 at 1:12 pm

    this bastard better not get a knight hood when really he should banished from our country

  7. mlpc 7
    10 February 2017 at 3:45 pm

    “Key gives up on us” is a silly comment really.

    It’s normal for party leaders to depart the scene when they step down.

    Clark, Goff, Shearer and Cunliffe did/will do the same thing.

    No doubt Little will also do the same when he gets a spanking in September (as a lot of people here seem to think he will).

    • Robert Guyton 7.1
      10 February 2017 at 4:29 pm

      Key’s “stepping down” wasn’t normal. There was an odd pong around it. Mlpc, James et al continue with their, “National will win, Labour will lose” disheartening programme; you know, the one where it matters not one whit what the topic of the discussion, the game is to repeat, repeat, repeat the same dull, witless drone; “National will win, Labour will lose”. In my view, such eroders should be excluded from all discussions here; their intentions are clear and their value to The Standard’s kaupapa and supporters, wholly negative. They’ll whine, “echo chamber” but that’s not a valid comment, in line with most others they make. Seems draconian? Good. Clear them out, I reckon, and give positiveness its head.

      • mlpc 7.1.1
        10 February 2017 at 4:53 pm

        In truth, I thought that Little was impressive earlier in the year, and looked someone who could lead Labour to victory in September. His performance at the State of the Nation meeting was solid. And describing English as being “no leader” had the potential to undermine the PM.

        But then he turned round and hoofed the ball into his team’s own net three times in a week!

        He needs to play a more reliable game.

      • gsays 7.1.2
        10 February 2017 at 5:57 pm

        right with you robert, rid this house of tories and poo stirrers.

        i have watched bemused from the sidelines as tory after tory, undermine, obfuscate, lie… and carry on scot free, while lefty commenters i kind of share a view with, get themselves kicked off the site.

        • Richard McGrath 7.1.2.1
          12 February 2017 at 2:39 pm

          The reason so many lefties get bans is that they don’t follow rules set by the moderators. Go figure

          • gsays 7.1.2.1.1
            13 February 2017 at 12:56 pm

            from what i have seen, it isn’t so much breaking rules, it’s more getting on the goat of folk.

            • gsays 7.1.2.1.1.1
              13 February 2017 at 1:12 pm

              my comment above is meant to reflect the venom the left has for it’s own, not a statement about moderation on this site.

  8. rod 8
    10 February 2017 at 4:14 pm

    Little getting a spanking from Boring Bill is a sillier comment, really.

    • mlpc 8.1
      10 February 2017 at 4:35 pm

      There’s nothing sillier than a leader of the opposition barking at every passing car, hoping it might win him one or two friends.

      The latest fiasco from Little is supporting those Indian students who are in the country on the basis of fraudulent applications.

      Leaving aside the fact that it’s a foolish position for any would-be PM to adopt, how is that going to deliver a net gain in votes for Labour?

  9. The decrypter 9
    10 February 2017 at 4:35 pm

    I am assuming when he resigned he would have discovered his financial worth, ( what remained in his secret trust.) Maybe not much,-so he has to find work as he is not 65 yet.

    • Richard McGrath 9.1
      12 February 2017 at 2:41 pm

      I believe it’s called a blind trust. Pretty much every trust is secret (I.e. private).

  10. Tamati Tautuhi 10
    10 February 2017 at 4:46 pm

    Interesting he left without informing his Cabinet until 30 minutes before his resignation, something isn’t right here?

    • mlpc 10.1
      10 February 2017 at 4:57 pm

      You might be correct, but Key was never a conventional political being, so it might be that he was just doing his normal unconventional thing.

      • Tiger Mountain 10.1.1
        10 February 2017 at 6:05 pm

        “spinning spinning spinning in this magic land”; few would be the well polling world leaders that chucked it all in at short notice to ‘spend more time with the missus and kids’

        no, Keys true motivation for abandoning a reasonable chance of a 4th term will inevitably pop up like a floater–soon enough–either an accumulation of smaller matters or one large enough that there would be no plausible deniability

        our ex dear leader never left the world of finance capital as his sterling effort in setting up NZ as a Tax Haven shows, along with the Nats enabling penetration of private capital into all sorts of public infrastructure–he served his class well

      • Robert Guyton 10.1.2
        10 February 2017 at 8:12 pm

        “so it might be…”

        Bullsh*t

  11. Neil 11
    10 February 2017 at 8:05 pm

    English is Keys puppet, so even though Key has quit as PM he is still running the country

  12. rod 12
    11 February 2017 at 5:25 pm

    I think mlpc is a Key puppet as well as a Boring Bill puppet.

  13. Tamati Tautuhi 13
    12 February 2017 at 9:57 pm

    They all puppets to the leaders of the New World Order and the Bankers that are pulling the strings?

  14. Tamati Tautuhi 14
    14 February 2017 at 3:22 am

    Bankers are controlling World Governments and JK is very well connected in the upper branches of the Family Tree in New York, he is part of the brotherhood and his work is complete here in NZ.

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