Polity: Armstrong on National on Labour

• notices and features
• 10 years ago
• Categories: dpf, john key, labour, national, same old national
• Tags: david farrar, interest rates, john armstrong, ocr, polity

Rob Salmond at Polity generously allows us to repost his posts. Like this one on the latest set of bullshit from John Key on interest rates. 

I rate John Armstrong. He has a rare ability to cut through the BS, when he wants to, and really alert readers to the underlying plans of our political parties. Here is a good example from Saturday’s Herald column:

If voters swallow John Key’s line that a vote for Labour is a vote for higher interest rates, they will swallow anything the Prime Minister puts in front of them.

And if they do not, Key’s less-than-subtle scare campaign on interest rates suggests he will ram it down their throats.

Mortgage interest rates are perhaps the most sensitive of all hip-pocket issues. And they are going up during National’s watch…

Maybe [Key’s line] was a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters. For example, he absolved National of responsibility by arguing the small increases in the official cash rate simply illustrated the renewed strength of the economy under National.

Not only was Key claiming victory when interest rates went down, but also when they went up.

This was not Key’s finest hour.

This isn’t a new ploy from National or its supporters. “Mortgage rate rises under National: Good. Mortgage rate rises under Labour: Dreadful!”

I’ve seen DPF, for example, argue both that a recession is the perfect time to cut taxes because it stimulates the economy, and a recovery is also the perfect time to cut taxes to provide a dividend. It reminds me of that old chestnut, most recently applied to Don Brash: “The answer is tax cuts. What is the question again?”