The Standard Week: 17-24 October

Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, October 24th, 2008 - 13 comments
Categories: standard week - Tags:

National’s MPs might be considering spending the next two weeks in bed, dreaming of victory. Because it seems every day they go out, one of them accidentally speaks their mind, which is costing votes. They’ve managed to alienate an impressive range of demographics in the last month: 830,000 Kiwisavers, a half a million low income earners, half a million Working for Families parents, 250,000 beneficiaries, 350,000 union members (and hundreds of thousands more workers concerned about their work rights), 250,000 people on the Maori Roll, 300,000 Pacific Islanders, 400,000 Asians. The polls are wildly divergent but half of them now show a Labour-led government with the Greens, Progressives, and the Maori Party, with the effects of National’s Kiwisaver and toll road policies, along with Lockwood Smith’s racism yet to flow through. Add to that Labour’s belief that it has at least a couple of percent support that is not shown in the polls and National’s headaches grow. It has been a light week for policy, the most significant announcement was Clark’s decision to ditch some big spending Labour policies that are unaffordable in the current global crisis. Here are our favourite posts of the week:

Don’t dream, it’s over
Only Tariana Turia, deluded Nats, and the more excitable journos ever thought there could be a deal with National. Even they have now woken up…[more]

National’s redneck element
You do have an element of redneck that’s in there and that surfaces when you read between the lines…[more]

Spending ends
Helen Clark has declared there will be no more spending promises from Labour. This was unexpected and will mean that the focus will now be on National and whether they will follow suit….[more]

It’s your choice
The steady hand investing in the long-term for all or a short-term bonanza for the rich. It’s your choice…[more]

Guest post: the clever dealer
Key repeatedly conceded that dissolution of Maori seats was not a National Party bottom line in talks with Pita Sharples. Sharples made this public, and suddenly Key, the Hard-Nosed Operator from the business world was trumped…[more]

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13 comments on “The Standard Week: 17-24 October ”

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  1. sean 1
    24 October 2008 at 2:31 pm

    Add those numbers up and you get some impressive figures of how many people are sucking the fresh cream from the state’s teat.

    An unrelated point that you guys probably would discredit – if Labour manage to put a coalition together this time, its pretty evident that its going to turn to custard, especially with the next 3 years having a pretty terrible economic outlook.

    That will most likely hand National a landslide majority victory in the next election where they will be able to cram whatever they want through. I’d think that’s a far worse proposition for you lefties than National winning this current election.

  2. John Stevens 2
    24 October 2008 at 2:44 pm

    Sean – I agree on that myself. The serphent will destroy the NZ economy with their over taxation and distribution to non productive causes.

    The latest RM poll suggests the MP will decide again.

    Nat – 43
    Act – 3.5 = 46.5

    LAB – 32
    Gr – 11.5 = 43.5

    NZF – 4.5

  3. r0b 3
    24 October 2008 at 2:50 pm

    Add those numbers up and you get some impressive figures of how many people are sucking the fresh cream from the state’s teat.

    A comment that is every bit as charming as it is rational.

    if Labour manage to put a coalition together this time, its pretty evident that its going to turn to custard, especially with the next 3 years having a pretty terrible economic outlook.

    Oddly enough, that’s exactly what Righties said last time. Hello three years later…

  4. the sprout 4
    24 October 2008 at 2:50 pm

    “if Labour manage to put a coalition together this time, its pretty evident that its going to turn to custard”

    yeah right sean, wouldn’t be nearly as stable as a National-Maori party coalition.

  5. randal 5
    24 October 2008 at 2:51 pm

    the new zealnd sux crew at work again.
    New Zealand is perfectly placed to take advantage of any uptick in world conditions.
    world food stocks are down to 35 days and demand is liable to pick up after the northern winter.
    Funny how the tories keep selling the country short and blaming the government but it wont work.
    the people in this country that actually do the work know that the Labour Party has their interests at heart and is the only party to vote for.

  6. John Stevens 6
    24 October 2008 at 3:14 pm

    Randal – the people who do not work and are a drain on society also know that the Labour Party has their interests at heart and is the only party to vote for. Plus the Greens of course. The oxygen thieves and useless vote Labour/Greens, that is why the country is a mess. The productives will keep them going.

    NZ sux is not wot I reckon, but it could be a whole lot better with a direction that promotes growth, not slowing growth as the left are doing at an alarming rate at present.

  7. randal 7
    24 October 2008 at 3:59 pm

    what a load of tripe. the economy has been running at close to full capacity right up to the “global economic crisis” and it looks set to get going as afain soon as the northern winter is over.
    stop selling the country short. thats almost crooked practice.
    every country will always have a residual of unemployed to stop making the new zealand case an exception unless you have sort of “FINAL SOLUTION” you should be boosting new zealand not putting it down.

  8. gobsmacked 8
    24 October 2008 at 4:24 pm

    We can add one more group to the list of voters SP mentions in the post – women. Another day, another Nat-gaffe: today we present …

    Bob Clarkson … the sequel!

    National’s Dunedin North candidate and number 49 on the list, Michael Woodhouse said in the Otago University students’ magazine *Critic*, “I love spring around here, it’s bloody fantastic, the skirts were never this short in my day.”

    Katherine Rich was not available for comment.

  9. Johnty Rhodes 9
    24 October 2008 at 4:42 pm

    Randal, it’s going to be a long nothern winter, things will not get sorted in 6 months, it will be a bout a year. Don’t you understand there is a credit crisis at all? This is not going to change in the next 6 months greatly.

  10. gobsmacked 10
    24 October 2008 at 5:21 pm

    Update on National’s Woodhouse (aka Son of Clarkson):

    After making his remarks about short skirts, he added: “”Better not print that’.

    He has now apologised for his comments.

  11. randal 11
    24 October 2008 at 5:41 pm

    of course there is credit crisis but somehow people always find the money for food and food is in hot demand and willget hotter as stocks are drawn down over the northern winter. the lower dollar will make sure that exporters get their moneys worth too!

  12. Tim Ellis 12
    24 October 2008 at 5:51 pm

    Oddly enough, that’s exactly what Righties said last time. Hello three years later

    After the 2005 election, r0b, I didn’t think it would last. This might sound partisan, but I underestimated how desperate Helen Clark was to hold onto power. I never contemplated, and I don’t think the Left contemplated, how much she would be prepared to put up with from Winston, particularly in the last year, to maintain her chances until this time.

    I think Clark learned a lot from the National-Winston meltdown from 1997-1999. If you lose your major coalition partner, you have NO chance of winning the next election.

    Clark was certainly more motivated to hold onto power for three years than Brash was to gain power after the election. I personally think that Brash’s heart just wasn’t into the idea of managing a relationship with Winston. In retrospect, it was foolish for National to hope that Labour wouldn’t cobble it together. That thinking was based on idealism, borne from New Zealand’s earlier experiences with MMP. Pragmatism suggests that if somebody really, really wants to be Prime Minister, they will put a lot aside to achieve it.

    I think this election Key is as hungry as Clark is. This is what makes this election so interesting.

    It would be wishful thinking for Key to think, if Clark was in striking distance of forming an agreement with the Left, however unlikely the coalition arrangements might appear, that she wouldn’t manage it, and that it wouldn’t last. I doubt he thinks otherwise.

    I think this election really is do or die for Key and Clark.

  13. Ianmac 13
    24 October 2008 at 9:15 pm

    So far Helen has not sacked Winston. He has done nothing illegal. John Key had in effect sacked Winston before he was tried. Judgement? Who quoted elsewhere “Lets hang him but in the morning we’ll have a trial.” Actually guilty or not I would back a leader who was fair enough to wait for due process before taking action.
    John Key- Peters guilty before trial
    John Key- demand precipitate action re global crisis
    John Key- demand precipitate action re bank guarantee before details are known
    John Key -demand precipitate action re Maori Seat abandon
    John Key- demand precipitate action forbidding partnership with NZF
    John Key- demand precipitate action approving Herceptin over the heads of the medical professionals.
    Not a good record for a would-be PM?

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