The god of small things

Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, May 24th, 2009 - 7 comments
Categories: john key - Tags:

Herald: Key negotiates talks in Hillary papers dispute

Stuff: PM wants the facts on Veitch

What’s next? Key joins hunt for couple who fled with $10 million?

Key’s wasting his time getting involved in minor stories he saw in the news.

Meanwhile, our country’s losing 2000 jobs a week. His government is doing nothing about it.

7 comments on “The god of small things ”

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  1. Anita 1
    24 May 2009 at 12:12 pm

    Key is being a competent manager: he is delegating effectively, his staff are managing his image effectively. His staff are picking small things which will capture the media’s attention and his staff are taking small actions followed by medium-large media releases, calls and interviews. Key

    He might not be solving the big problems but he’s got an effective team making him look good.

    • Lew 1.1
      24 May 2009 at 1:15 pm

      I guess Zetetic is arguing that the role of PM ought to be more executive than managerial – strategic, big-picture stuff rather than individual issue and personnel micromanagement. That was always the sort of thing which Helen Clark left to Michael Cullen – as someone said (Colin James, I think?) minister of everything when it really matters.

      L

      • Anita 1.1.1
        24 May 2009 at 1:40 pm

        Yes 🙂

        I’m not saying Key is being an effective PM, just a competent manager who is able to assemble a team capable of painting his as an effective PM (at least in the short term).

        It’s like CEs who hire staff to provide them with the aura of “leadership”: short term win, medium-long term lose.

        • george.com 1.1.1.1
          24 May 2009 at 10:03 pm

          Give Key a break eh, he came third in an oyster eating competition over the weekend. Bugger the economy, jobs or democracy, this guy can scoff a pretty good free feed. Gees, next you will be accusing him of hand picking Melissa Lee as National candidate in Mt Albert or spending a month on summer holiday whilst the global economy melted down.

  2. gobsmacked 2
    24 May 2009 at 1:18 pm

    It is spin not substance, and it is irritating. But in fairness, he has picked this up from Helen Clark, and the media are dumb enough to play along.

    Trouble is, if the Prime Minister wants to be Commentator-in-Chief, with an instant opinion on everything, and fingers in every pie, he will need to have command of the details, and then follow through on his statements. Once he has taken on this role, he can’t then start saying “Not for me to comment, suggest you ask the relevant authority or Minister” (which would often be the best answer).

    Quite apart from anything else, he’s undermining his best asset: freshness. So if I were his PR guy, I’d tell him to back off. Luckily I’m not, so he won’t, which is all good news for the opposition 🙂 …

  3. Tigger 3
    25 May 2009 at 11:30 am

    I want to thank Zetetic for this post – I’d been thinking the same thing after I saw the whole Hilary negotiation offer from the PM.

    Key has a history of trying to be all things to all people. Of course, you can’t do that – you’ll only disappoint everyone. So long may this ‘nit-picky, everything is my problem, can’t keep my hands off everyone’s business’ strategy continue!

  4. Tigger 4
    25 May 2009 at 3:55 pm

    Oh and now he’s poking his nose in on the Veitch affair…
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2436597/PM-wants-the-facts-on-Veitch

    (a) this is Coleman’s job as the Minsiter and (b) this feels oddly hypocritical given that Key just lauded the talents of ‘Ms Smacking Kids is Okay’ Christine Rankin.

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