Opposites day

Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, May 20th, 2013 - 38 comments
Categories: Economy, spin, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

I had heard that National’s internal polling was showing they were becoming vulnerable on social equity issues. For some reason New Zealanders are coming to think of them as a government that looks after its rich mates at the expense of everyone else (who would have thought it?)

My assumption was that they would use the budget to institute a few small third-way polices and then spin them out for PR value. I’d picked food in schools and some kind of housing subsidy.

What I wasn’t expecting was that they’d implement policy that kicks people out of their state-houses while privatising stock, jacks up the price of petrol, and continues to choke the economy, then simply claim that this was a budget that helps “vulnerable Kiwis”.

I kid you not. Bill English, sat there on Q+A yesterday and claimed that his budget, the one that continues to reward the rich and kick the poor, is part of some master plan to return to egalitarian New Zealand. From what I can make out he’s basing that on some kind of trickle down argument – you know, the kind of argument that has been used to back divisive and economically damaging policies for the last thirty years.

The thing is, I don’t think this opposites day approach to political communication will ultimately do National any good. Because, despite this government’s arrogant belief otherwise, Kiwis are smart enough to know when they’re being straight-up lied to and will vote accordingly.

38 comments on “Opposites day ”

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  1. One Anonymous Knucklehead 1
    20 May 2013 at 10:35 am

    “Doctor, the medicine is killing the patient!”

    “Nurse, increase the dose!”

  2. ropata 2
    20 May 2013 at 10:47 am

    We’ve had 5 years of it.. the “underclass” girl from GI used by Teflon John has now emigrated to Australia

    Kiwis must still believe in the stories told by bill-key, or else they wouldn’t have voted for them in 2011

    Oh wait most kiwis DIDN’T vote for for this pack of corporate weasels

    • tricledrown 2.1
      20 May 2013 at 10:56 am

      ropata 1 million kiwi’s didn’t vote at all thats where the opposition could get people on the ground to identify who these non voters are and get them out to vote!

    • kiwicommie 2.2
      20 May 2013 at 4:28 pm

      New Zealand doesn’t have a welfare system any more, that’s why New Zealanders still leave to Australia despite the fact that they sleep on the streets, because New Zealanders sleep on the streets already.

  3. red rattler 3
    20 May 2013 at 10:50 am

    It’s called the emperor has no clothes, but his subjects are all on opiates.

  4. mickysavage 4
    20 May 2013 at 10:59 am

    It has been going on for 5 years. Initially they got away with it because of the innate good will of ordinary kiwis but as time goes by it becomes more and more obvious that they are lying through their teeth.

    The PR is impressive but even PR has its limitations.

    This orwellian speak is becoming more and more obvious and kiwis are seeing through it.

    What I can’t believe is that they did not go with the breakfasts in schools program. It is eminently defensible, would generate a lot of good will and give them some cover to keep selling assets.

    The reported split in cabinet on the issue makes you wonder about the humanity of the current ministers.

    • Tim 4.1
      20 May 2013 at 12:15 pm

      ‘The PR is impressive but even PR has its limitations’.
      ….. as in today’s “From the Right ….., and From the Right” with Rinny Ryan.
      Many seem to have become numb to Hooten’s use of superlatives – today he got away with talking about NZ’s “booming economy”.
      I have to give it to him – he has this knack of slipping little gems into any discussion in such a way that they go uncontested.
      I suppose that comes from years of peddling the spinning wheel – it becomes second nature.

  5. ghostrider888 5
    20 May 2013 at 11:12 am

    In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.
    -Confucius.

  6. Arfamo 6
    20 May 2013 at 11:15 am

    Kiwis are smart enough to know when they’re being straight-up lied to and will vote accordingly.

    I wish I could agree with that. I really don’t think the average Kiwi does realise just how often, and on how many things, they are being lied to, nor how much worse things will get for most people because of the massive offshore borrowing, and corporate-friendly, undemocratic, ongoing machinations of the National government. I had no idea just how much abuse of democracy they could get away with.

    Kiwis don’t appreciate the scale of the lies and bullshit they are fed by a neutered and compliant fluff-flooded mainstream media that simply repeats the content of Government statements and press releases with no substantive, critical analysis. A five second sound byte every so often from opposition parties is often worthless. The Greens and Labour do not yet seem to have a handle on how to get the public to recognise the scale of the lies, nor how to counter the endless tide of misinformation and disinformation that is the hallmark of the Natzys and their apologists.

    • ropata 6.2
      20 May 2013 at 12:53 pm

      +1 googolplex… the hollow men are executing their playbook with increasing arrogance

      one can only hope they overplay their hand and piss off NZ enough to kick them out democratically

      the alternative is not very nice

    • Rodel 6.3
      20 May 2013 at 1:31 pm

      Arfamo I agree…:Kiwis don’t appreciate the scale of lies and bullshit……..”
      Put a frog (read kiwi) in water and raise the temperature one degree per day and in 100 days you have a boiled’ dead frog and the kiwi never noticed.
      Helen Kelly seems to be the only one who notices and comments.

    • Macro 6.4
      20 May 2013 at 1:31 pm

      +100
      The majority of the population get their “information” from the lies fed to them by squark back radio, endless muzak, or “news” on tv. They have no political opinion other than that fed to them by the spin doctors. Democracy is on its last legs if not already dead, oligarchy is what we have now.

      • freedom 6.4.1
        20 May 2013 at 2:56 pm

        to illustrate your point, shudder at the last [proud?] line of this comment published in the Herald

        http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10884519
        “After only 4 days of the Gilmore saga I had posted comments on this very site saying as much. In those 4 days, 16 articles had been published. By day ten it was over 40. And this is only on the Herald Online. I don’t read other blogs, websites or local news sources, but I assume the same was happening there.”

  7. fender 7
    20 May 2013 at 11:22 am

    Hooton shootin blanks just said on RNZ that Bills budget was ‘superb’, what a f ***wit. Just another wingnut with a stripped thread.

    • Anne 7.1
      20 May 2013 at 12:04 pm

      Yes, and his general rhetoric is slowly increasing to (no doubt) reach a crescendo in election year.

      The Greens… extreme Left, Labour and the Greens… far Left, terrible for the country, Greens and Labour… lies, far Left… more lies and more to the Left…. trying to turn the country back to 1950s socialism – and as time progresses that will probably change to turning clock back to communism.

      I used to get annoyed with Mike Williams for never responding to this stuff but I think he’s adopted the attitude it’s not worth responding to. He’s probably right.

      • phillip ure 7.1.1
        20 May 2013 at 12:14 pm

        “..I used to get annoyed with Mike Williams for never responding to this stuff but I think he’s adopted the attitude it’s not worth responding to…”

        no..that lack of any reasoned response to hootons serial bullshit..is because williams lacks both the intelligence and wit to keep up/debate..plus he is a neo-lib at heart…

        ..that is why he says too/so often..’i agree with matthew..’..

        ..and having him as a/the spokesperson for ‘the left’..is just a sick joke..

        ..phillip ure..

      • Tim 7.1.2
        20 May 2013 at 12:21 pm

        That sort of bullshit needs to be contested at EVERY opportunity – especially by those given a platform/soap box to do so. I have to agree with Phillip.
        Mike Willims has become far too comfortable, as have many in the LP

      • Chrissy 7.1.3
        20 May 2013 at 12:55 pm

        Anne
        I think MW does try to respond but is always shouted down by hootton and allowed to do so by ryan. Personally I would just leave the room if I was Williams.Have no idea why he keeps turning up.Ryan just turns on the mic and says “go for it matthew, the programme’s all yours”He was particularly orgasmic about english today.Won’t be tuning in to that programme any more!!

        • Macro 7.1.3.1
          20 May 2013 at 1:36 pm

          Yes I think it would be entirely proper for the “spokesperson” for The Left to just walk out – or end the conversation. It would send a strong message to Ryan that she needs far more balance in her programme – as it is at the moment she is acting as a shrill for the government.

      • felix 7.1.4
        20 May 2013 at 3:02 pm

        “I think he’s adopted the attitude it’s not worth responding to. He’s probably right.”

        If he’s going to ignore it, he should at least say it’s rubbish before he ignores it. Otherwise it looks a little bit like he agrees with it, which he pretty much does.

        • Anne 7.1.4.1
          20 May 2013 at 3:12 pm

          Actually Chrissy is right. You can hear Williams in the background saying things like “that’s rubbish” but Hooton just roars on never stopping for breath. The only way to get above him is for Ryan and Williams to roar together them maybe – just maybe – they could shout him down.

  8. Enough is Enough 8
    20 May 2013 at 11:37 am

    Budget 2014 will be the one which the PR consultants are working on already.

    They have set the narrative up already that they are introducing policies for the poor. Come election year they will have all sorts cryptic nothing initiaitves which will scream good things but deliver nothing.

    If this was a company they would all be in jail for breaching the Securities Act. It is time we threw these bastards in jail for treason.

  9. The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 9
    20 May 2013 at 11:57 am

    …they’d implement policy that kicks people out of their state-houses…

    …in the event that they are no longer in genuine need and so that it can be used by someone in greater need.

    • fender 9.1
      20 May 2013 at 12:24 pm

      Yes kick out the poor to give the even poorer a place to stay, very considerate.

      How about adding another room to make sure they no longer qualify, oh they thought of that.

      • prism 9.1.1
        20 May 2013 at 12:40 pm

        fender There was a report from Britain that said the first suicide that could be laid at the door of the new efficient cutter and grater machine of Cameron’s government which is the extra bedroom tax, was introduced.

        • fender 9.1.1.1
          20 May 2013 at 1:28 pm

          George Monbiot says only 11% of this under-occupation is in public and social housing, and two-thirds of the people hit by the bedroom tax are disabled.

          How proud Cameron must be of his efforts to give undertakers extra work.

  10. pollywog 10
    20 May 2013 at 12:31 pm

    Middle classes need to realise they’re getting conned and stop living in denial. Many need to aspire to be middle class and stop pretending they are and that this govt has got their back.

    Ain’t no shame in being underclass!

    • Murray Olsen 10.1
      20 May 2013 at 5:37 pm

      We’ve joined Americans in thinking we’re all middle class. If our economic asset is our labour power, we are working class. We should recognise that. The actual middle class is quite small. I agree with you, there’s no shame in being proletarian, the class which doesn’t live off the work of others.

  11. muzza 11
    20 May 2013 at 1:09 pm

    Conditionalities Policies

    Since 1961

  12. SpaceMonkey 12
    20 May 2013 at 3:46 pm

    I started playing Q+A and came in halfway through Bill English’s interview, but my 18 year old daughter (who doesn’t follow politics at all) had been watching it from the start. As I sat down to watch, my daughter said to me “I don’t know who this guy is, but I think he’s talking rubbish… he sounds like he’s making it all up!”.

  13. rod 13
    20 May 2013 at 4:50 pm

    No, he doesn’t make it up, Hooton makes it up for him.

  14. peterlepaysan 14
    20 May 2013 at 8:39 pm

    I really do not understand why natrad persist with this nonsensical hooton extravaganza.
    all the other “lefts” have departed.
    ryan never intervenes and hooton gets away with rubbish.
    farrar must be green with envy.
    williams is in an awkward place, he cannot speak for the so called left.
    hooton is in a very comfortable place.

    nine to noon is a 5 day a week magazine program and it must be hells delight trying to stitch a political segment into it. ryan and her producer have my sympathy but they really need to rethink this segment.

    actually putting together a 5 day a week radio magazine program must be hells delight.
    i stopped listening to this segment years ago.

  15. Rodel 15
    20 May 2013 at 10:35 pm

    Most people I know switch off during the political Monday morning stuff due to Mathew Hooton’s grandstanding monologues…Kathryn Ryan does try to pull him up at times but he has his own pre-arranged speeches…Yawn !…….heard it all before so many times.

    At least he’s an admitted Tory..The one that gets my wick is Farrar masquerading as some sort of political commentator.