Like shit warmed-up

John Key is really showing the strain of campaigning, he’s not bearing up under the stress of it at all well. Clearly the National Show Pony was not built for endurance.

Nat asset sales lies

Last night TV1 revealed National’s lies on the explosive topic of asset sales.  The Nats have no official advice to back up their asset sales claims, and information is being withheld from the public.  Not good enough – vote them out.

Solidarity with Egypt

The Arab Spring hangs in balance, as protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and in other cities in Egypt battle the riot police of the ruling Egyptian military junta.

Taking out the trash

Michael Laws has been calling for listeners to shoot journalists.  He’s a disturbed individual who should never be on the air again. Wouldn’t be nice to take the trash out of political commentary?

Nats’ education policy

The Nats’ education policy came out yesterday and, predictably, it’s ideologically driven nonsense that will damage children.  Worst aspects, league tables (almost universally condemned by experts and experience) and a proposal for the Nats to specify a “personality test” to select teachers.

Nats’ cuts cause benefit overpayments to rise

Checking out data matches that show beneficiaries may have moved overseas and stopping their benefit if they have. That’s back-office work, eh? Exactly the kind of ‘unsexy’ jobs National has been cutting. Well, MSD stopped data matching because its resource were stretched too thin – and overpayments doubled to $19m. Heck of a job, National.

Laws and police priorities

While the police are executing a search warrant at the Herald on Sunday at John Key’s request, perhaps they might be able to spare the time to follow up Section 174 of the Crimes Act re Michael Laws on Radio Live advocating shooting their journalists. It carries a ten-year prison sentence. Doesn’t need a fishing expedition either.

The other state house issue

Key’s poodle blogs are barking about Labour’s state house attack ad. Key told us again tonight on TV3 he too was “brought up in a state house.” What it taught him though is that “it was a great marketing ploy.” What a fraud.

The Goldsmith Gambit

This will be one of the dirtiest political and anti-democratic tactics ever designed in NZ history. It has the potential of delivering a second John Key term, gifting Epsom to ACT and of discrediting MMP in one foul swoop: a true Tory Trifecta.

3rd World New Zealand

25K Kiwi kids get infections like rheumatic fever and scabies each year. Disease sthey haven’t seen in Sweden since the 70s.We treat our kids like an expense, not an investment. Then we wonder why we have unhealthy, uneducated, unskilled adults and our country gets left behind. We’re becoming a 3rd world country. It’s 3rd world thinking that’s getting us there.

Fearing Winston

National is getting increasingly hysterical as its internal polling shows its majority slipping away and New Zealand First above 5%. National is lashing out, saying Winston could trigger a snap election because he wouldn’t sacrifice his principles like the Maori Party and ACT. Invent your own anti-NZF scare line for National:

Five days to Save our Assets

Phil Goff said yesterday we had “Six days to save our assets” – now we have 5. Here’s what University of Auckland’s economics professor thinks about asset sales, and some more reasons why we desperately need to avoid a National-led government on November 27.

Open mike 21/11/2011

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More lameness from the man with no ideas; wave goodbye to Aroha

John Key has announced today that if Winston is re-elected, New Zealand will be forced to go back to the polls within weeks.

Meanwhile elsewhere on the limping catastrophe that is the John Key Campaign, Aroha Ireland has decided to leave New Zealand and join the record numbers of kiwis leaving permanently for a Brighter Future in Australia.

Integrity or hocus pocus

I have no sympathy for politicians complaining about their ‘private’ political conversations being made public. What politicians say on politics is inherently of public interest. Don’t say different things in private then in public, and you won’t get caught out. It’s a matter of integrity. We can now reveal what John Key really thinks about climate change.

New Goldsmith signs go up

Apparently, Paul Goldsmith is not even handing out his business card in Epsom any more. And Imperator Fish reports on the extreme lengths he is going to in an effort to lose. But his popularity cannot be quelled. #hipstersforgoldsmith is big on Twitter. And new, completely legal, campaign posters are sprouting up. Can’t wait for Goldsmith’s victory party.

ACT have been very stable

We missed this at the time – thanks to toad in comments (and link to g.blog) for the heads up!  Especially relevant now that John Key has personally tied himself to ACT with his endorsement.

In memoriam

It’s a year since the explosion at Pike River killed 29 men. Just people like you and me doing their job. It seems some semblance of justice may be delivered to those who let this disaster happen. But the lasting legacy must be a change of culture and regulations to put people’s lives before companies’ profits. So no more suffer the fate of the Pike River 29.

How bad are National’s internals?

Some say the tea tapes haven’t hurt Brand Key. In fact, National is down 2% last week and those polls were largely taken before the tea tapes hit overdrive. It also takes time for impressions and media narratives to bed in. The 26th will be the first poll to really tell us how much the tea tapes have hurt. But the internals could give us a clue.

Nats and climate change deniers

The teapot tape fiasco has forced the Nats to pretend that they are interested in policy.  It’s screamingly hypocritical of them, since they couldn’t even be bothered returning answers to Radio NZ’s policy survey. But let’s not waste this new opportunity.  Let’s start with asking them why they’re endorsing a party of loony climate change deniers.

Open mike 19/11/2011

Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]