Leadership D.O.A.
As we approach the half-time oranges for his government, I thought I’d give Mr Luxon some feedback and a few suggestions on how he might turn things around – if becoming a real leader interests him.
zzero use
Minister for Photo-ops
Caption competition
To be fair they probably don’t have much experience with spades
Has Key abandoned Parmar in the Mt Roskill by election?
As National’s Mt Roskill by election campaign starts to implode John Key’s absence is becoming very noticeable.
Mission Creep
The military mission to Iraq is to be extended by another 18 months, much to nobody’s surprise. John Key has put the creep into the mission.
Caption competition
Twerking For Daddy
As if the second round of booing in a week wasn’t bad enough, John Key got royally trolled by a young BGO attendee on Instagram. Then the Herald bizarrely decided her selfie of the PM with his hand tantalisingly close to her hair was a genuine BGO good news story. But wait! There’s more!!!
Key booed by rugby crowd
Key went to the rugby on Saturday, but his grandstanding didn’t go as planned.
The great big list of John Key’s big fat lies (UPDATED)
How many more lies will John Key tell today in his so-called State of the Nation address? Virtual chocolate fish to whomever guesses the closest number.
Twelve long months
Twelve months on from the last election and that brighter future we were promised has not happened.
The politicisation of the All Blacks
All Black fan boy John Key opened up Parliament to allow the New Zealand Rugby Union announce this year’s world cup All Black squad on the weekend.
Local Bodies: National’s Campaign Strategy Stinks
We all know from reading Nicky Hager’s The Hollow Men (or watching the documentary) that the National Party actually advocates for a small section of society. Their policies rarely support most New Zealanders and after each period of a National led Government we have costly messes like leaky buildings and dead miners as the aftermath. This isn’t to say that Labour shouldn’t take responsibility for not repealing dodgy legislation, but National has always stood for less regulation, fewer protections for workers and the environment and an upward flow of money to the already rich.
The desperation of the National’s sockpuppets
National Party pollster David Farrar must be seeing some numbers he really doesn’t like because he is claiming that David Cunliffe photoshopped himself into a rally that he was really at! Yeah right – a doyen of the local net governing body failed to use google before making a complete dick of himself on the net. I expect we will see a lot more of National’s paid for bloggers acting like fools heading into this election because National only being good at putting us heavily into debt (again!) rather limits the good news they can write.
LocalBodies: John Key Aspires to Mediocrity
Local Bodies provides this interesting comparison on John Key compared to some of the more ethical leaders of our past. Suffice it to say that the ever forgetful John Key doesn’t measure up to past standards. He is really only distinguished the his sustained level of pathetic mediocrity.
Caption contest
Celebrity golf! Which one will get voted off the island first!? Meanwhile the world burns, the poor struggle, and the wealth gap continues to be a blight on our country.
John Key’s patchwork ‘job machine’: user pays
John Key’s great idea for job creation – his cycleway project – has produced some benefits, but is a patchwork production. Some sections will be user pays to fund maintenance. Meanwhile the job creation benefits have been limited.
NRT: Who’s scaremongering now?
On their usual friday bad news dump (such a large amount of it these days), the National government dropped this clanger. Greenpeace was right and John Key is a moron when it comes to geology and evidently about risk assessment. We held it over to get past the National’s Monday morning bad news clutter.
John Key: The invisible man
Fresh from his comedy career on Letterman, his rolling over puppy imitation for Warner Brothers, and other such high profile appearances. John Key has now taken to reprising the role of “The Man with No Name”. Milly the kitten is better known..
Smile and Wave
Confronted with a protest about the government’s lack of action on child poverty, John Key’s response is: “So yeah, they just protest because […]
Hypocrisy-watch
After today’s platitudes, it’s worth remembering where Key stood on apartheid when it mattered.
Is high-fiving schoolgirls a parliamentary purpose?
It’s all drama today as Patrick Gower discovers that Labour’s leadership candidates are using their parliamentary flight allowance for the debates. As if selecting the leader of a parliamentary party isn’t a parliamentary purpose. If you’re going to play crusader, Mr Gower, how about looking at how much of John Key’s $650,000 travel budget goes on trips to high-five schoolgirls or play in toy boats?
“The problem gambler”: Key & SkyCity
Brand Key – CEO of NZ Inc, speculator, gambler, spinmeister – epitomises the “neoliberal revolution”. Gambling & other consumerist addictions are blamed on the individual. A court case against SkyCity shows the contradictory links between gambling, smoking, corporate influence & “insatiable consumerism.”
Hand of control?
John Key’s artwork is labeled, “Hand of government”. Does John Key think he is the sole element of government? What delusion is this? I look at some definitions of “government”. What title would you give this (alleged) work of art?
Caption contest
What can one (anyone) say about this image? Well, I guess we will find out.
‘That politician got amnesia again’
Today’s anonymous Dominion Post editorial points to the beginning of John Key’s fall from grace. It centres on Key’s personal qualities, continues to support the MSM’s support of personality politics, glosses over the serious issues masked by Key’s (alleged) amnesia, and uses a false equivalence with Helen Clark.
When they’re laughing at you…
You know it’s getting near time to go.
In Saturday’s DomPost, Chelsie Preston Crayford shows what she thinks of John Key and asset sales.
Caption contest
‘Nuff said
2012: “celebrity” PM – collective action
Individualism & “celebrity” PM, John Key were still strong in 2012. But, there was opposition from some (often local) groups working collaboratively: Occupy, Glen Innes protesters, MUNZ, Asset Sales referendum, AAAP advocacy activism, manufacturing inquiry, NZLP democratisation, TS nest of vipers. And 2013?
Meanwhile, on Planet Key
Sure, National is still in the mid-40s and Key will back himself to crucify Shearer in the debates, but his own brand is suffering badly. He’s failed on jobs and increasingly being seen as out of touch. So, is making the news for eating a grasshopper really a smart move?
Only there for the photo-ops
John Key won’t be on the West Coast today when the Pike River report will be released. He’ll have a tightly managed press conference at the Beehive, instead. Key promised that he would stand by the Pike River families. He promised that all efforts would be put in to get the bodies out, no matter the cost. It was all hollow talk from a hollow man.
A trip down faulty memory lane
One of the fishy elements of the GCSB-Dotcom-Key saga is Key’s suddenly very faulty memory. It’s unbelievable what he’s forgotten about such a major issue. Here’s a partial list of things Key can’t recall, isn’t sure about, or doesn’t know – just from his answers in the House and just the last 3 days of questions. Update: got to tip my hat to Te Reo Putake’s name for the PM: ‘DunnoKeyo’
No accountability in National Government
I watched Paula Bennett and her MSD CEO make excuses and say sorry yesterday as they revealed that they had let the personal data of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders sit in the open at WINZ kiosks – and it’s all still open to anyone working at MSD. I didn’t hear either of them offer their resignations. What do they think we pay them for?
Does Key give a damn any more?
My old man, a casual observer of politics, said the other day: “John boy doesn’t look like he wants to be there anymore”. I reckon he’s right. Except when he’s doing photo-ops, Key looks ever more grumpy and aloof. No wonder he’s spending so much time overseas. No wonder he’s making such bad decisions like betraying his promise to the Pike River families.
Key’s growing Dotcom problem
People don’t just vote for politicians because they like their policies. Just as important are trust and perceived competence. Key’s policies were never popular. He won on the other two – particularly trust. That’s why the Dotcom saga is so ruining for him. As more details of what Key knew or should have known come out day by day, perceptions of Key’s competence and trust in him plummet.
Mr Wrong
No wonder Key’s losing his credibility. He just keeps on getting it wrong.
- 24 Sept: I wasn’t briefed on GCSB’s spying on Dotcom. Yes, he was.
- 28 Sept: there’s no need for a Police investigation into the GCSB. Yes, there is, say Police.
- 4 Oct: It’s highly unlikely I’ll discuss Dotcom in Hollywood. He discussed Dotcom in Hollywood.
- 5 Oct: I won’t offer incentives to Hollywood. He offered them more incentives.
- 8 Oct: Intervening in the currency is “whacky”. Governments are intervening in all the free-floating currencies, except a handful of third world countries – and us.
- 8 Oct: There’s no crisis in manufacturing. 40,000 lost manufacturing jobs say otherwise.