Open mike 02/11/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
Key’s Drunken Sailor
Key’s Drunken Sailor “joke” tells us a lot about his priorities…
Do you want a say in public broadcasting?
Public service broadcasting is dying in NZ, and that’s not good enough. Labour’s newly released broadcasting policy promises to preserve it, with the future of the system to be shaped by public debate.
Heh
Battle of the Henrys
Watching Goff and Key last night was a bit like watching Graham Henry arguing with Paul Henry…
Debate highlights
Here are my top moments from the first Leaders’ Debate. When you write them down, it’s pretty clear that Goff won all the major exchanges.
What were the top moments for you, what else did you want to see?
Business isn’t buying it
You’d think if the Nats could convince anyone that they knew what they were doing it would be the business community. But no, less than 35% of business owners think that the government has a plan…
Nats’ ad claims credit for Lab’s infrastructure
Oh dear. This is not what National needed on the back of Goff besting Key in the first debate. National’s new TV ad is on the world-class infrastructure they claim to have built. But it was all planned, funded, and mostly built by Labour. Have National accidentally revealed their real achievement: taking credit for others work?
National’s welfare policy
National’s got 60,000 more on benefits after 3 years. Nats’ plan: get 46,000 off in 4 years (only 11,000 into work, the rest?)
So, National’s welfare plan = 14,000 more on benefits 7 years after coming to power. Ambitious for New Zealand?
Where’s National plan to reduce corporate welfare? Like the $400m free irrigation they want to give farmers and keeping them out of the ETS.
It’s not lying, it’s ‘dinnamic’
According to John Key in the Leader’s Debate, it’s OK to break your promises because the world is “dinnamic”. I’ll have to try that next time I’m out late on the piss:
‘Sorry, I’m late love, yeah sorry I didn’t cook dinner like I promised. I went out with the boys and things got dinnamic … Whadaya mean I have to sleep on the couch?’
Open mike 01/11/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
A win to Goff on points
Goff was the big underdog going into the debate after Key bested Clark in 2008. Goff far exceeded expectations. Got his policies out, got the best hits in, and sounded like a PM. Key was under-prepared and complacent. After an aggressive start intended to knock Goff out, Key was on the backfoot throughout.
Goff vs. Key first debate
The first debate between Phil Goff and John Key is on TV1 at 7pm. Don’t miss it!
Update: See the website www.keyholes.co.nz for looking at the claims that Key makes in the debate.
Goff getting all the hits in. Got his policies across well. Key defensive and angry. www.keyholes.co.nz running hot.
Why the Nats Youth Rate is just plain bollocks
Labour candidate for Northcote Paula Gillon has submitted us a post on National’s proposed starting Youth Rate that appears to be ready for peer-review – with academic references and everything.
Is Key going where Gove’s gone?
National’s “Future Fund” asset-sale money will be spent on modernising schools we are told. Is the future they have in mind like Conservative Education Minister Michael Gove’s so-called “free schools” now being set up in Britain? It would be no surprise if our public assets were sold down by National to pay for private interests to get a stake in the school system here. We shouldn’t be under any illusions that the agenda is just short-term.
Caption Contest
Owning the discourse
It’s been an extraordinary few weeks. It started with the double downgrade/DJ Key fiasco and Rena. Then Labour started dictating the play: its policies setting the beat of the campaign; its framing dominating. National took its only asset, Brand Key, and trashed it with its phony, weird opening address. And, then, National’s launch was over-shadowed by the rail loop announcement.
Would you trust him with a kitten?
Key: tired & bereft of ideas
So, that was National’s ‘big announcement’tm? Allocating money they’ve already banked into a fund which is just an accounting fiction for capital spending that was already budgeted for. A billion of it over five years to ‘transform’ schools? $80,000 a year per school … of already budgeted spending. Talk about tired and bereft of ideas.
Nats’ biggest ever drop in 3 News poll
The latest 3 News / Reid poll has National down 5.1%, their largest drop (in this poll) since becoming the government. Labour is up 3.6%. A long way to go yet, but it’s an encouraging start to the election campaign for the Left.
Open mike 31/10/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
The Qantas lockout
There’s a lot going on with the Qantas lockout that isn’t being reported in our media.
This guest post from a reader who’s an aviation industry expert gives the dispute some context.
Labour overshadows Key with Auckland transport policy
Labour has just over-shadowed Key’s big smile and wave show today – where he is expected to reannounce spending – with another big policy. Labour will cancel National’s Holiday Highway. With the money saved, they will make the existing road safe, and go 50-50 with the Auckland council to fund the CBD rail-loop and get Auckland moving sustainably.
Key cooking the books on asset sales
National has already booked the revenue from asset sales – despite people opposing them 4 to 1. The Budget docs say capital spending will be funded from the ‘balance sheet’: ie. buying new assets like schools and hospitals with revenue from selling the power companies. Key will re-announce this today. But, in the long-run we’ll be able to afford more schools and hospitals if we don’t sell our profit-generating assets.
Update: as expected, Key has re-accounced what is already in the Budget and given it a fancy new name.
Hickey on how Key’s failing the kids
Dear Mr Key: “We are the generation born between 2002, when you became an MP, and 2011, when you won your second of four terms as Prime Minister. We wonder why you insisted on spending our inheritance to ensure you were voted back in.”… Bernard Hickey presents a chilling vision of the future. The way to avoid it is make sure that Key only gets one term.
Enough to finish us off
Five million kilos of radioactive yellow cake uranium are being shipped through New Zealand ports every year. ERMA was unaware this practice has […]
Unlucky Banks
Jeez some people just can’t catch a break. Not only is John Banks coming second in an election race to a guy specifically chosen to lose to him but now the word is some scoundrel’s stolen his Harley Davidson.
Winning the debates
The first of the leaders’ debates is on tomorrow (it would have been on Thursday on Labour’s savings policy, but Key refused to show). Key’s strategy is clear: ‘I’m a safe economic manager, these guys will fuck it up’. Goff can’t let a single attack slide. Every time Key disses Labour’s or ups his own record, Goff just needs to cite one of these facts.
Key’s small target
Key’s “small target” strategy was always going to come under pressure during the election campaign. But by rights it should now be blown completely out of the water. Labour’s willingness to take on the hard issues leaves Key facing plenty of questions. Time we got some answers.
Open mike 30/10/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]
More opening addresses
Opening addresses from the remaining parties screen on TV1 starting at 7:30pm. Should be good fun for political junkies, make sure you tune in…
Phil Goff’s balls
Guts. Backbone. Chutzpah. Grit. Will. Vision. Courage.
The one thing all of these words have in common is that Phil Goff could quite easily have used them instead of “balls”
This is how you win
Sprout’s post says it all. Labour’s opening address blew National’s out of the park. But I can’t help myself, I have to put in my analysis of why National’s was so awful and Labour’s so good. Almost out of nowhere, Labour has seized the discourse. It is dictating the run of play with its policies, its framing, and, now, with its marketing. This is how you win.
Heart and balls
Labour’s opening address shows that the Party has rediscovered its heart. It’s policies show that its rediscovered its balls as well! Win or lose, right now Labour is a party to be proud of.
Opening addresses for your convenience
In case you missed them last night, here are the National, Labour and Green election opening addresses, collected for your convenience.
Open mike 29/10/2011
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to […]