When you boil it down, John Key’s much-vaunted political nous is about keeping his personal brand clean. He farms out anything controversial to ministers and leaving them to it. The problem with that approach is muppets are left to run things with no oversight resulting in political cock-ups. Case in point: the Supercity.
John Key has claimed that he doesn’t turn down many interview requests – but he turned down another one from Morning Report this morning. In fact you can count on one hand the number of times he has appeared on Morning Report in each of the last 2 years.
Here’s John Key this morning on Breakfast, talking about Paul Henry’s resignation. Naturally he’s eager to downplay the influence of Kiwi-Indian business and […]
According to NBR Key is locked down in a bunker of spin that separates him from his party and his caucus.
And it seems like that’s holding the hard right policy back for now.
But things will change in a second term.
An interesting parallel between Kevin Rudd and the Key government’s leadership style surfaced in our papers this weekend. On Saturday, Tracy Watkins had […]
The story goes that David Lange he was informed of the Rainbow Warrior bombing while lining up for the Tuckshop at Waiwera Hot Pools. As a young fella I guess I had a view of a PM as kind of distant, so I thought it was fantastic that Lange actually just stood in line like everyone else. Has ‘Brand Key’ paradoxically forced Key into a distance where he can’t act like previous PMs?
Tracy Watkins recently observed of Key’s reluctance to front the media post-budget that:
“Mr Key has refused all but three requests to be interviewed by National Radio’s Morning Report so far this year. That must be unheard of among modern-day prime ministers…”
She puts his avoidance of the tough questions down to a desire to protect his brand.
John Armstrong looks at the typical John Key-style punt that lies behind the budget.
Meanwhile Tracey Watkins has calmed down after the excitement of seeing the size of her tax cut and is questioning why Key is so afraid of anything but tightly managed media appearances.
The headline for the Herald’s editorial today says a lot about where the media are at with National at the moment. The Government and its […]
Congratulations John on your latest speech. We especially like the line “Let me be clear: there is no room for separatism in New […]
The leaked emails which helped bring about the downfall of former Nat leader Don Brash hit the headlines again today, for all the wrong reasons. The story of who “stole” the emails was nothing more than a successful Tory decoy. Journalists have already forgotten the insidious tricks used by the top echelons of the National Party.
Guyon Espiner isn’t exactly what you would call a critic of John Key’s government, so when he has a blog post titled “John Key’s sloppiness as costly as it is charming” you know things are bad.
Colin Espiner: “Is that uranium I can smell on John Key’s breath? Or too much garlic in the lamb rack the prime minister cooked for his wife on Valantines Day? Go on, laugh. But both seem to be legitimate topics of journalistic interest today”
In yesterday’s Herald Jackie Blue told us she’d sacked the mother of young Aroha because she had to merge offices with Sam Lotu-Iiga. But some investigative work at The Hand Mirror suggests otherwise…
I’m all for cycle-ways but excuse me if I don’t get all silly over John Key knocking a post in the ground in […]
We were offered two very different views of John Key PM yesterday. The first by a pair of love-struck journalists. We’ll start with […]
I haven’t seen a better description of John Key after a year in office than Pete Hodgson’s latest post. When he does one […]
The more I think about it, the more Key’s Letterman approach is demeaning both to his office and New Zealand. Sure he did […]
Obviously, the most important thing ever is how John Key did on Letterman. It’s quite cute actually, Key’s clearly a bit nervous standing […]
IrishBill commented last night that “John Key the centrist” is a narrative we’re not hearing much from the commentariat any more. I thought […]
Only four weeks into a well-deserved holiday following two frantic weeks stripping Kiwis of their work rights, the National/ACT Government has been spurred […]
Word around the traps is that this week Key and English have added veteran financial reporter Rod Oram to their list of journos […]
Where-ever you sit on the spectrum of opinion on Key’s handling on the Tranzrail affair, it appears that the commentators are questioning his […]
The ‘Key-English secret recording followed by denial followed by excuse followed by apology’ debacle is, well, an utter debacle. If these clowns ever […]
Some of our friends on the National Party end of the blogosphere have developed a rather odd habit over the years of referring to […]
Over at Kiwiblog David Farrar has found an amusing error made by the Herald online in its politics section which has listed several […]
Gordon Campbell has an interesting take on the political PR we’re seeing from National in his latest Scoop column. In it he quotes […]
Has anyone else noticed John Key’s absence from the media in the last few days? I finally clicked to it while listening to […]
