Written By:
Steve Pierson - Date published:
7:23 am, June 14th, 2008 - 4 comments
Categories: standard week -
Tags: standard week
Another week of shadow boxing, as National tried to keep its policy secret and hints leaked out. But it gave us the chance to debate some of the big issues. And the threads that developed showed that, contrary to what Key says, people can understand and are interested in complex ideas. Here’s our favourite posts of the week:
Spin-busting: ‘Hardworking kiwis’
‘Hardworking kiwis’ has an inherently divisive implicit message: ‘not everyone is a hardworking kiwi’ [more]
If you’re against abortion then kindly don’t have one
A rational and civilised debate could take place, dwelling on points such as respecting a woman’s right to control her own body [more]
Brand Key
…brand Key is about surface association with other narratives. That’s why he talked about cheese toasties after the budget, wore the tiki tee-shirt and made his DVD – because his marketing team understand the current cultural logic [more]
What’s behind Key’s cheesy grin?
Slippery John is making a bundle from Kiwis buying cheese [more]
Behind the secrecy
If National were willing to go behind closed doors and sell New Zealanders out to industry lobbyists on ACC last election, what reason do we have to believe they won’t sell us out again this time on consumer protections? [more]
Why is reported violent crime up?
There is less actual crime and more of the crime that does happen is being reported… [more]
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The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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A few less posts on John Key – ?? are you guts feelling ok or did you figure out that that this strategy is simply not working. Oh dear – what are ou going to do now?
Yes that “hard-working kiwi” one certainly wound me up thats for sure. Well the accusation that I was a beneficiary-hater to be precise.
Although congratulations to SP for being able to take the piss and laugh at himself in the last paragraph if we all took a leaf out of that book NZ would be a better place.
captcha export boys (mmmmm most of our rugby players methinks)
It looks like the ‘sod has setup his own blog. Looks like he is using his week off to good effect.
http://robinsod.wordpress.com