Why English lies

Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, March 18th, 2010 - 9 comments
Categories: bill english, Economy, labour - Tags:

As you’ll be aware, I’ve been pretty flabbergasted by the way day after day Bill English is getting up in the House and telling out and out lies about Labour’s record on the economy only for Labour to sit there and take it.

Well, I’ve been thinking about this a little more and I think I get it now.

Look at English’s behaviour. How pathetic is it that the only thing a sitting Finance Minister can do is lie about the record of a past government? How weak is his own record that he can’t point to any achievements?

More than that, English couldn’t talk about any achievements even if he had any. He is desperately trying to make the government’s fiscal situation sound worse than it is so. If he acknowledges that the government’s books are in a far less dire state than once feared, he will lose his excuse for slashing the public sector and selling the value out of SOEs by having them sell bonds to private investors.

What’s a poor boy to do? He can’t talk up his own performance – there’s nothing to skite about and it’s against his political strategy even if there were some successes to point to. So, he has to disparage Labour’s performance, even if that means telling lies.

So I’m starting to get Labour’s reaction too. Personally, I still think they should be calling him out on each and every lie. David Cunliffe should be coming to the House armed with a page of economic indicators for Labour’s last term, ready to correct English and table the facts. But Labour seems quite happen to let English quietly discredit himself by lying about the past while doing nothing in the present.

Anyway, for reference, here are some key economic metrics for the last term of Labour and National’s first year:

(2009$) Sept 2005 year to Sept 2008 year Sept 2008 year to Sept 2009 year
GDP $9.4bln increase to $190bln $4.6bln decrease to $185bln
GDP growth per capita 2.5% increase to $43,700 1.8% decrease to $43,000
Employment up 93,000 to 2.184mln down 41,000 to 2.143mln
Net government debt $17.8bln reduction to $2.8bln net assets $8.4 bln increase to $5.6bln net debt



9 comments on “Why English lies ”

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  1. Pat 1
    18 March 2010 at 10:10 am

    Thanks for those stats Marty. It almost looks like some massive global financial meltdown took place in Sept 2008.

    • Bright Red 1.1
      18 March 2010 at 10:53 am

      yeah, it did.

      It also looks like English is lying about Labour’s record because he can’t talk about his own.

  2. tc 2
    18 March 2010 at 10:45 am

    Yes Pat it did but there’s no need for the Finance Minister to lie about the performance of a gov’t that did enjoy boom times though is it ? Where’s the nat masterplan then ?

    It’s this type of de-facto fibbing that makes him soooo trustworthy…….yeah right, housing allowance anybody for the poor boy so far from his dipton home.

  3. BLiP 3
    18 March 2010 at 11:19 am

    Why does Blinglish lie?

    Because no bastard (except young MartyG here) holds him accountable. He is calling out to the voters and reinforcing the twisted-reality that Labour mismanaged the economy, a fact which he himself acknowledged as wrong. Its a reassurance to those who might have started wondering about the wisdom, or lack thereof, in their decision of November 2008 to vote with their wallets for the “meaningful . . . north of $50” in tax cuts.

    Eighteen months later and what have we got . . . has National Ltdâ„¢ provided anything more “meaningful” than:

    . . . two blocks of cheese before the election and you’re meant to be grateful. The next time you get a tax cut theoretically under that budget is not for two years. That’s a long time between toasted sandwiches. It’s a long time between macaroni cheese.

    John Key 2008

  4. ak 4
    18 March 2010 at 12:00 pm

    It’s a long time between macaroni cheese. John Key 2008

    Gold. Quintessential J Dubya Key.

    • Lanthanide 4.1
      18 March 2010 at 2:19 pm

      If we’re using food metaphors for tax cuts, then National’s current lot would stack ups as being caviar, lobster, civet coffee, champagne, kobe beef and truffles. Only for those that could already afford such things, though.

      • Lanthanide 4.1.1
        18 March 2010 at 2:28 pm

        Chesdale cheese singles for everyone else.

      • Bill 4.1.2
        18 March 2010 at 2:35 pm

        “..caviar, lobster, civet coffee, champagne, kobe beef and truffles…”

        Nope. They simply aren’t that discerning. I’d suggest this lot are more caviar, lobster, civet coffee, champagne, kobe beef and truffles flavoured pot noodle shit.

  5. pollywog 5
    18 March 2010 at 4:22 pm

    Between ‘bilge’ English, ‘steaming hot’ tolley and ‘benny bashing’ bennett, the gubbmint’s fast looking like a Key stone cops flick.

    Must be time for another round of look good TV ads, so timely for Bilge when caught red handed with his greedy paws stuck in the cookie jar last time…so lets fooking ‘ave it then !

    Winnie ‘the pooh’ peters would have loved to be in opposition aginst these clowns.

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