Why NZers loved John Key, what his regrets tell us and why the Lefts inability to beat him makes us a weaker movement

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The shock resignation of John Key is still barely being comprehended. It’s a political earthquake, the size of the 7.8 one that just hit NZ, the enormity of just how much it changes the entire political landscape can not be underestimated.

Before those ramifications can be understood however, we must once again explore why NZers loved him and why the Left have been left weakened by not being able to beat him.

The mainstream corporate media are in a state of mourning, even elite lefties are bowing to Key. His leaving has set in motion grandiose legacy statements and attempts to tip ones hate at a departing leader.

Screw that.

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This vacant aspiration merchant, this bullying arsehole who saw only mirth in physically touching a young woman in her place of work, this war hawk, this dirty politics operator, this money man who borrowed billions for tax cuts while the poor struggled, this mass surveillance lying neoliberal sellout did one thing and one thing only in his entire 8 year role – what was best for John Key.

His venal selfishness is the most out standing part of his legacy. His ability to flood NZ with corrupt migration that created a property bubble  benefitted Key’s popularity but robbed many forever of owning home. Key always did what was best for Key, not what was best for his Party, not what was best for Parliament and not what was best for NZ – Key looked after Key and it’s the enormousness of his selfishness in just walking off that has stunned so many who believed in him.

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Even now, look at how Key has left at a time best for him. We must be the only country in the world who can have a PM announce their shock resignation and our media believe him with no further investigation. There is a deeply damaging rumour as to events that occurred in the middle of this year that has had a huge impact on Key’s decision to stand down, but no one is willing to even investigate that (we are doing our best).

The 300 000 kids living in poverty who had their chance for a free lunch and breakfast at school scuppered by John Key won’t thank him. The 41 ooo homeless won’t thank him, those punished by the neoliberal welfare state won’t thank him, the 10 000 prisoners beaten in private prisons won’t thank him, the generations locked out of homeownership won’t thank him.

So why was Key so popular? His migration scam pushed property prices beyond the reach of ordinary NZers, so those who owned property loved John Key and will probably write his name into the ballot sheet next year even though he’s not running. Traditionally the middle classes of NZ were where much of the social progress was amplified into political spheres, but by co-opting them all with an illusion of wealth via over inflated house prices, the middle classes ignored the plight of those who were being left behind and raced to support National.

That explains the educated middle class self interest, but what about the rest of the country, why did they love him? Because his laid back anti-intellectualism connected with our negative egalitarianism and made them feel at ease. None of this political correct stuff, none of this thinking ideas that make anyone uncomfortable,  Key’s shrugging off of ideology relaxed Kiwis. He didn’t look down on their petty bigotry and small mindedness, he gave it a beer and a selfie.

His populism was Donald Trump without the spittle and wig.

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By not being able to beat Key at the ballot box, progressives are a weaker movement. Key’s abuse of political power should have been punished at the polls in 2014, it wasn’t. What does that say about us as a nation? The PMs Office plots with the Secret Intelligence Service to falsely smear Phil Goff months before the 2011 election and the public shrug. Private prisons that have soared to 10 000 prisoners doesn’t matter. 41 000 homeless isn’t too much of a bother and any hungry kids are the fault of the no-good bludger parents. What Key managed to get away with by simply keeping property investors rich means the Left failed to challenge his neoliberal state, his vast deep state  powers or his crony capitalism.

Key was able to pass damaging policy that hurt the most vulnerable (whose political disengagement means that they don’t bother to vote) and the Left couldn’t put together a good enough argument to stop him.

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What says most about Key are his regrets. He says his biggest regrets were not getting his flag or signing us up to the TPPA. Those are his biggest regrets? What about the 300 000 kids in poverty? What about generations locked out of home ownership? What about 41 000 homeless? What about the huge debt he’s left the country in? What about 560 suicides per year? What about our social infrastructure that is falling to pieces? None of that was a regret for John, his regrets were his expensive vanity project and his chance to sign us forever under American corporate power.

Key’s laid back casual manner connected with little Nu Zilinds collective sense of anti-intellectualism in a quasi religious and spiritual way, that infatuation was never going to break without him leaving first.

In the end, it wasn’t him, it was us. It was our need to have a leader who didn’t really care about everyone, just those fortunate enough to have property.

To use a Keyism, at the end of the day it was all about John Key.

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58 COMMENTS

  1. I’m glad you got that out of your system, Martyn!
    Time for a clear out and clean up and a compassionate humanitarian system that levels the playing field?

    • Hmm. Has jonkey sacrificed this country? I tread cautiously and I simply pose the question. The “Elite” have done it before to start wars http://www.wakingtimes.com/2016/12/05/pearl-harbor-false-flag-75th-anniversary-time-admit-deception/
      We are spied on every which way thanks to jonkey and NASA has a foothold in Christchurch:
      https://sitsshow.blogspot.co.nz/2016/12/NASAs-Secret-Relationships-with-US-Defense-and-Intelligence-Agencies.html
      I have always disliked sci fi space movies but the more I research the deeper I get into what’s going on in the US Secret Space Program and what’s happening in Antarctica and overhead : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg3_snrb7z8
      The Illuminati are on the run since Clinton lost and we are now being given the opportunity to become sovereign BEings.
      Iceland took back its sovereignty in the North and now we have the chance to take back sovereignty in the South.
      Win win for us!

      • “but the more I research”, really Helena?, reading other peoples ramblings and conspiracy theories via the web or on you tube does not constitute ‘research’ on your part!….care to link to any of YOUR research, something that you have personally investigated/people interviewed etc etc and a paper/thesis produced out of your? You hark on about the Illuminati and/or a New Work Order, hell even the Jews/Rothschilds are behind everything according to you. I think even TDB tin foil hat wearing political conspiracy theorists giggle at your posts….but welcome to democracy and your right to say it!

      • Antarctic Space program.
        You are on to something. Assume they only bring the hardwear out in the winter when it’s dark and the spy satellites can’t see what’s going on.
        Brilliant and wonderful research on your part to bring this secret out into the open.

  2. You’re on fire Martyn. Keep it up!

    Particularly instructive, as you drew attention to, is Key’s biggest regret being the flag referendum. It’s a sign that what is important to him is his own personal loss, rather than the loss of vulnerable families kicked out of their communities, the increase in crime, the drop in achievement by New Zealand kids, and the loss of 29 men in the Pike River mine.

    None of these are a regret for him – only the failings which damaged him personally. It says a lot about the man.

  3. Spot on , Martyn.

    And the hilarious joke of all these die hard Key sycophants that rush to the bastards defense even now as he is virtually gone ,… is that they of all people and their precious National party have just been the latest victim of the Smiling Assassin.

    And like so many even now… are either too dumb , too blinded or too bigoted to see that … just like a certain comedian used to say…

    ”So goodnight , – this is John Key and you’ve just been had by Pulp Politics ”!!!

    • Well said Wild Katipo.
      John Key says dont believe conspiricy theories about him , which makes me believe so called theories even more,since when did Key ever tell the truth.
      So glad hes gone, hope he gets his come uppence for all the harm hes done NZ.

    • Let’s not fall into the corporate media narrative Bomber. Key and his government were never liked or voted for by more than a third of *registered* voters. Both of the last two elections were not won by National so much as lost by a divided, squabbling opposition. National only held onto their one seat majority in 2014 because Labour stabbed Hone Harawira in the back, and themselves in the foot, by running against him in Te Tai Tokerau.

      Key held on as PM for 8 years not because he was widely popular, but because he never had to face serious public criticism. Because he was surrounded by a team of shrewd PR operators. Because he was constantly presented in a positive light by corporate-owned mass media empires whose interests he so clearly served (eg stricter copyright enforcement in the TPP and TISA), and who took every opportunity to either smear opposition parties or ignore them.

      Whoever becomes the new leader of National, the above will not change. The real election contest will not be between Labour/Greens (+Mana/Maori, +NZ First?) and National, but between the principled left and the corporatist spindoctors. Are we ready to understand their strategy and tactics and avoid falling into all their traps this time? I really hope so.

      • +100

        Agree Strypey. I would like to see a genuine effort from the left parties, particularly Labour who acts as if we still have FPP, to form a strong left opposition.

      • +1 STRYPEY – exactly, Key was not as popular as the MSM likes to portray! Many people just stopped voting in disgust at the behaviour and offerings of the politicians.

      • +100…”National only held onto their one seat majority in 2014 because Labour stabbed Hone Harawira in the back, and themselves in the foot, by running against him in Te Tai Tokerau.”

        ….and Mana/Internet was a true Left Party!….with fantastic candidates

          • Winston has never claimed to be a Left Party…unlike Labour, who competed with and shot down a REAL grassroots Left Party… Mana/Internet…an indigenous based Left Party , which the Labour Party should have cherished and wanted to work with !( Not undermine and compete with)

            Winston’s reasons for not supporting Hone Harawira and the Mana/Internet Party were different . Rightly or wrongly he does not support race based parties or special treatment for Maori New Zealanders. I think he is/was wrong… but being a part Maori himself he is certainly not hypocritical…and he has proved his principles in his own career

            • Excuses, excuses. You were originally critical of Peters for telling voters to not support Mana, how quickly you change when it suits.

              • ‘WORDS’ as usual you misrepresent me and so try to defend the inexcusable Labour Party on doing Hone in

                I have never been overly critical of Winston over that….I disagreed with him ( and I was a Mana/Int voter)…but he was true to form…he does not like political parties based on preferential treatment of race..this is a matter of principle for him …and he is himself a Maori and has made it without preferential treatment( you can agree or disagree with this principle ie preferential treatment for the disadvantaged race… but it is not a matter of hypocrisy)

                Labour (a supposedly Left Party) on the other hand deliberately went out to defeat Hone Harawira and Mana/Internet because they were competition for the Left vote….instead they should have considered Hone and Mana/Internet a coalition partner and not actively campaigned and stood against Hone Harawira in TTT

                as well there were dirty tricks in this campaign against Harawira

                http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/201779410/dirty-politics-players-back-in-the-frame

                • I didn’t misrepresent what you said. originally you were critical of Peters, now you blame just Labour, and that’s just not fair or true. And are you calling Hone, Willy and others liars? And why do you always quote a known liar, Lusk was key’s black ops man, which lie and stir, that’s his job.

  4. Useful graphics for getting the message out there handy stats for the staffroom arguments. As always thanks Bomber.

  5. I’m always flabbergasted at the media’s inability to blame itself.

    When Key was first elected, the political editor of the DomPost, Tracy Watkins, ran a three page puff piece on him. When Key resigned the DomPost had several articles written by Watkins plus her unsigned editorial on the OpEd page, all glowing hagiographic tales of wonder. Watkins even referred to the ponytail incident in almost the same terms as Trump did his “pussy grab”. During the last election the televised debates on Maori television didn’t switch off the cameras after the debate was over, so one could watch as Key went over and gave Ms. Watkins a nice hug and kiss on the cheek.

    Having a cosy relationship with the PM is obviously good for Tracy Watkins’ career. She gets to fly with Key’s entourage on the cheap, so it’s not surprising they’re buddies. But the entire mainstream media in New Zealand has also been giving him a free ride for years.

    The morning of his announced resignation was one of those few mornings where someone actually called him to task: Kim Hill was labeled a “Rottweiler” for not permitting him to continue to avoid answering important questions. It seemed an almost rude interview, but she was simply not going to let him slip and slide as he always does. I thought after hearing that interview that Key would have hung up the phone and thought to himself, “F*K her, I’ve got $60 million in the bank, there’s been another bloody earthquake with perhaps another big one on the way, I don’t need this shit, I’m outa here.” You can’t imagine my surprise when I heard he was resigning. But as you say, Key does what is good for Key. He doesn’t need this shit.

    But to answer your surprise as to his popularity, there are three things that have skewed our reality. The first is our polling. It is clearly not balanced. Second is our political discourse. There’s almost nobody representing the Left anymore, nobody that at least doesn’t sound like a radical Marxist-Leninist. Finally, the media in New Zealand needs to up its game in actually fulfilling Gore Vidal’s requirement of telling the populace of our country what it’s government is up to. Defanged by budget cuts and owned by corporations and run by wealthy right wing board members hardly helps. We need a strong, independent, courageously investigative body of journalists to tell us what’s actually going on. Strident bloggers on the left (or the right) simply aren’t going to cut it. Sadly, I can’t frankly imagine a sizeable core of balanced, professional journalists appearing in New Zealand. I’ve lived here a long time and if anything the tides are heading the wrong direction.

    But it is nice to celebrate the resignation of a man who clearly didn’t care about the people of this country, our first true Celebrity Prime Minister. Hope it was fun for him.

    • “The morning of his announced resignation was one of those few mornings where someone actually called him to task: Kim Hill was labeled a “Rottweiler” for not permitting him to continue to avoid answering important questions. “

      I read that letter in the DomPost. The author is a crypto-fascist who would welcome the rise of a one party police state. Give him his meds and put him back in his padded cell.

  6. “Key’s laid back casual manner connected with little Nu Zilinds collective sense of anti-intellectualism in a quasi religious and spiritual way”….YES

  7. I said on this blogsite a long long time back that its a waiting game with Key. Just suspected it would be a slow grinding down process. Didn’t quite expect this , though…

    One of the reasons I said that was answered a few days ago when I read an article that ( might have been an article about Trump and how he won, I think ) made it clear about ‘ Left ‘ politics for me at least…

    In the article it was quite clear that there was the ‘ class’ based traditional left – with it emphasis on wages, conditions , welfare …and all that that entails,…

    And then there was the ‘ identity ‘ politics wing of the Left , with its emphasis on protections and equality for minority groups within a society… environmental issues etc…

    Well to me,… the fundamentals were always the most important, my thinking was that if there is equality in the ‘class ‘ based Left… protections for the minority groups would follow ,platforms for other issues as well.

    Or at least ,… should. Get equal opportunity’s there and it gets extrapolated into the political area and so on and so forth. At least , … in the ideal world it should.

    And I still believe that by and large ,…and I have a sneaking suspicion that one of the reasons why Trump succeeded and Key held sway for so long was simply that the bread and butter ‘class’ aspects of the Left have been slowly but surely given way and have been marginalized in favour of the progressive identity politics’ of the Left.

    Which in turn , were easily hijacked then incorporated into globalist neo liberalism.

    That is why we had a so called Progressive in Clinton ,… yet !…. she was seen as part of the globalists entourage – and not as a champion for the traditional Left . And if she was seen as a champion for the social aspect , – fiscally she became increasingly associated with and was seen as endorsing the hard right…

    And I would say that Key used that same formula. All those posts railing against what Key was doing to the poor, workers, wages / conditions /unions …all the political abuses, the surveillance , the flouting of our laws… he could do that and still appear as some sort of liberal minded politician simply by making a few small inconsequential compromises to appease…

    Doing that only has a certain shelf life though , sooner or later the opposition would mount.

    And so he could get away appeasing ,- just so long as the main goals did not suffer. Basically he was playing one off against the other all that time. And because the Left had fragmented ,… and moved away from its core origins… there was a vacuum he could exploit. And the Left went round and round in ever more frustrated and divided circles.

    Couple that with a privatized media ( that was fast tracked under his auspices ) that worked in with the focus groups and polling people like Farrar – to put the spin on the PR,… I suspect it was broadly in that manner that was how it was done.

    Basically , it was all just one big con job.

    And the Left allowed itself to get sucker punched. Royally.

    It also hasn’t helped that there are even now phonys on the Left that support neo liberalism. An ideology and economic theory that is absolutely and totally antagonistic to anything the Left should stand for.

    Or even the centre Left.

    And yet these phony’s are still being tolerated in certain political party’s and their views entertained as valid and having merit. Generally because now many are the old guard leftovers from 1984 and are perceived even by those who wish to rid themselves of their influence that they somehow ‘need’ them.

    They are needed primarily as doorstops to win elections. They are needed as doorways for political donations and endorsements from big business.

    Such is the fear of ejecting these phony’s despite their being ‘ heretics’ of the Left.

    And until there are bold initiatives to edge these phony’s out, whether by the natural processes of attrition eg :retirement or ‘ overlooking ‘ them for certain jobs, – or straight warnings, … and until the Left returns to its core reasons for why it even existed in the first place… the chances of another destructive Key type persona coming to power remain very high.

    Fear is the big preventer of the Left at the moment. Fear of losing business support. Talk of regulations, in trade , a strong union movement that possibly could have prevented incidents like Pike River ,… talk of a living wage , of regulations with rent , housing , immigration , Treasury etc… all these things reinforce the ability of the phony’s to stay in power maintain their grip.

    And yet the answers are all to be found pre 1984 , …and with modifications for the year 2016… such as the modern Scandinavian states enjoy now.

    With a revamped Keynesian economy , regulated trade and industrial relations , award rates to prevent exploitation , a taxation regime that is progressive , a govt that is large, not small and impotent… and so on and so forth…

    Back to the basics, … back to the bread and butter issues of a Social Democracy. And it would be at that point , … so much more harder for a subversive Key type wrecker to be simply flown in and then to have been enabled to do what he did to all of us.

    • +100 ..great analysis!…

      …”It also hasn’t helped that there are even now phonys on the Left that support neo liberalism. An ideology and economic theory that is absolutely and totally antagonistic to anything the Left should stand for…

    • I also wondered if that was the case. There have been a lot of journalists and researchers with access to the records. That would make Key’s inactivity on NZ as a tax haven be understood.

  8. Martyn, aren’t you devoting too many column inches to this fellow? He’s history, and there are lots of other interesting stories around that you could write about. We’ve had to endure however many years it’s been; that’s enough in my book. He isn’t worth any more of your time and attention.

    • True that. The Herald have finally, finally picked up on the student visa/immigration scam, a key plank of Nationals cheap labour policy. They are only several years behind and it became obvious to even the least observant probably two years ago. Blogs have been running this outrage for some time now.

      But back to Key, dodgy unreliable polls aside, has been in descent in popularity for some time now. 2/3rds of voters don’t like him. His presence at Mt Roskill did nothing, might even of harmed Parmjeet. His full of shit persona had a used by date and it expired a while back.

      • +1 Xray – Key was sinking like a stone in popularity. He resigned now so he can still lord around telling anyone who will listen, how popular he is and how the country was in great shape when he left…

        • yes agree sign NZ he ( key ) was on his way out and our mainstream media have been rather quiet but have still been justifying his resignation and putting him up on a pedestal all the collateral damage he has done and now he is going to buggar of just like nothing happened

  9. I don’t know why he’s resigning is a shock.
    Criminal Profiling.
    He was never going to see out his third term. By the beginning of 2014 he really didn’t give a shit, have an election, walk it in and then Judy can take over in January.

    Dirty Politics screwed all that up. FJK. Orivada. Slater. Then Sabin etc etc etc
    Made him sweat but he loved it , getting away with it on that September night, the thief would escaped the gallows.

    He wasn’t going to see out the term. It was so evident.
    And yet none of his children could see it, or even bear to believe that daddy would one day leave them.
    Harsh reality

  10. Hi Martyn. Great article! Any hints as to what happened midway this year?

    I just don’t buy his BS story about spending more time at home with the mrs. Something has gone down, I just know it.

    What’s he about to get caught our on? He’s too proud to relinquish power THIS easily. Deals to get Chinese investment in?

  11. Key was successful because he and National finally woke up to the awesome power of the media, and public opinion, but the political left didn’t.
    The political right, about three decades ago, decided that they must slowly but irrevocably gain control of public opinion through the MSM sources of New Zealand and thus they did.
    Of course the advent of the internet and other technology helped their cause.
    National wanted New Zealanders to be happy in their ignorance and indifference and thus the media training organisations in this country were slowly infultrated by the poltical right to produce the kind of sleepy hobbit, uncomplaining, compliant sheep journalists that produce nearly all the “news” which we now consume.
    Once people stop thinking for themselves and let the media do their thinking for them you have won the battle because all you need then do is to provide your own spin doctors who will popularize your superficiality.
    That it would be so effective on the people of a country that had previously stood up to nuclear testing, stood up to apartheid, and stood up for equality and individual enterprise is the biggest mystery of all. After all New Zealanders were reknowned for their “kiwi ingenuity” and yet it happened.
    If happened because the perveyors made it happen in a slow comfortable fashion. If you apply the screws slowly then people get used to the pain and wonder why they had previously complained.
    It also happened because National had the best person for the job. Who couldn’t not like John Key when he burst into politics in 2007? When he became PM in 2008 I even breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t Bill English or Don Brash in this place. At least we will get someone with a bit of common sense, I thought.
    Key told the people what they wanted to hear, time and time again. He didn’t tell them that there would be struggle ahead to fix the country’s problems, what they didn’t want to hear. He told them National will fix it all, the details are not important, you don’t need to know about them and his cherubic nature ensured they would believe him.
    He made promises to the people of Christchurch and the Pike Rivers Miners’ relatives that the government would not abandon them. And yet few members of the MSM ever called him to task on his failure to do it. By then they had found a new line of enthusiasm, such as the latest antics of his son Max.
    Key was the perfect front man: a smiling assasin to cover up the true rabid right agenda of the rest of the government. There were always little tidbits and distractions like tiny little increases in the minimum working wage to take away publicity from what people like Steven Joyce, Paula Bennett, Anne Tolley, Simon Bridges, Judith and Jonathon Coleman were doing to our health system, education system and public transport systems.
    Key’s biggest legacy was perhaps that he reformed the New Zealand MSM in his own image. You actually have to admire the evil genius of someone who can achieve that seemingly so effortlessly.
    But now he is gone. The media fixation will continue for some time until they get shaken out of their slumber and reminded that there is an election less than a year out you scribes! Stop weeping into your John Key handerchiefs and mind a new messiah to worship otherwise you will be distracted from your main purpose – that is to see National relected next year.

  12. Why do we have cell towers springing up everywhere? Why do we have “smart” power meters and “smart” everything else”. Time to wake up and smell the daisies. We are being played and treated like lab rats. These days conquerors don’t need weapons to conquer. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/sd-me-cyber-warfare-20161014-htmlstory.html
    NASA/CIA runs mind control and they sure have a foothold in this country, thanks to jonkey. And they tried to persuade us the group at GCHQ were a lovely bunch of tea drinking girls.
    Conspiracy …. you bet!!

    • Erm, the cell towers are so your mobile phone gets a signal. Since none of the big three (Vodaphone, Spark and 3 degrees) play together, they all are forced to put in their own towers.
      For the record I don’t have a mobile phone, mainly because I get no signal here in the rural…

  13. “His venal selfishness is the most out standing part of his legacy”
    Yes spot on Martyn this is very well summarised.

  14. New Zealanders didnt love him…but the msm did its servile best to cover up what he was actually doing to New Zealand and New Zealanders

    Hone Harawira said it

    Winston Peters said it

    …but a lot of other RNZ commentators thought he was a good guy!

    …nevertheless I think jonkey knew his days were numbered and he would lose the next Election, particularly with Winston Peters at the helm

  15. Labour handed John key a massive defeat in the Roskill by election and trounced the msm and pollster spin. 2 days later John key resigns.

      • Exactly Words and Chooky. As soon as the opposition collaborated with each other, Natz were getting a hiding in Mt Roskill and Northland.

        Love how now the Natz supporters are claiming Winston as their’s when 5 minutes ago they were attacking him as a piece of crap and previously driving him out of parliament.

        I’m sure after a billion years in politics, Winny can see through it all. Mt Roskill showed that Labour’s strategy under Little is working, because moving away from the right of centre Phil Goff position to a record amount of votes for a centre one with Mike Wood who was not a household name.

        People are sick of the Natz and want a change of direction with Labour and Greens and NZ First.

    • Winston Peters said he knew about Key resigning on Friday…before the by-election. Also only a 40% turnout and Woods got less of the vote than Goff had last year’s general election. But I guess you guys still decry the ‘missing million’ when you get beaten, but it’s ignored when you win…yawn!

      • You are full of it, Your Wrong.

        “The fact is that the economy is not in the healthy state that the Prime Minister has for so long claimed, and there are other issues which have caused this decision as well. The New Zealand public should have been informed of this a long time ago”

        “Clearly the Prime Minister does not believe the superficial polls any longer.

        “Contrary to certain perceptions the Prime Minister and his Finance Minister are unable to muddy the waters anymore.” Winston Peters.

        Clearly youre wrong, the substantial Mt Roskill poll proved too much for John key to handle.

    • That’s actually pretty low Countryboy.
      I was brought up to play the ball, not the man.
      I read the link and frankly don’t think any member of parliament, whatever hue, is that bad.

  16. “attempts to tip ones hate” Freudian?

    Ever since the Revered Sport went professional, this country has remained stuck in the ‘winners and losers’ whirlpool.

    ATL mentions ‘able to beat’. That is SO out of date for what’s coming at us this century.

    Co-operation and collaboration – like people did after the earthquakes and do in the quagmires of Auckland to help people to shelter, food, and a bit of hope. That’s what we need.

    Some clear direction from our government, for a change.

    Major parliamentary reform instead of attracting the divisive time-wasting, soap-box ditherers we currently endure.

    Wild Katipo said it: “a govt that is large, not small and impotent…” (plus that crucial bit about losing the support of business when business, with its short-term views, should be worried that its government won’t be there for enterprise as a whole).

    The third leg of the well-balanced stool. Government. It’s the ONLY entity in this teeny country with the clout, resources, and sheer scope to underpin the shift to new work, enterprises and social structure.

    The ONLY entity. It must NEVER hand over those core functions to private enterprise and walk away. The public service mindset – for the greater good of all – must always prevail, so that business can prosper without being driven by fears and greed.

    And policies follow values.

    It’s been a long time since Kiwi values stood clean and whole before us. Perhaps the parties who truly stand for the greater good of all – including our lands and waters and other life forms – can remind us of our best. We need that. All of us.

  17. The cunning strategy was to drag ever more Kiwis into private debt, some managed by state agencies even, like Studylink, and the pretend, our national government debt is so LOW, while total debt has spiraled almost out of control.

    Add of course the massive lending and mortgaging for housing, and the borrowing for reconstruction, and insurance companies refinancing, and what else has gone on, forget not consumer debt.

    We are one of the most indebted nations on the planet, when you add private debt and public debt, but all the damned Key spin government ever talked about was the government’s debt or supposed “surplus” manufactured by releveraging here and there.

    The biggest con job ever has been performed under Key, and it was mostly the idiot housing owners and investors, who became millionaires, who fell in love with the Wall Street Financier and Bankster Key, so the MSM sucked it all up, and loaded endless praises onto him, while he himself did fuck all.

    With all that happening, we can say the average Kiwi has not learned anything from the GFC and from banksters and fraudsters, no wonder the whole charade keeps going on, and it all continues as if nothing ever happened.

    Wait until immigration slows, as people had enough of all the extra stress on infrastructure and housing, once people are tired of tourists that demand services that pollute and destroy the land, and wait until China slows more, and the shit will hit the fan, something huge for this little, gullible land and people.

  18. The problems of inequality in NZ weren’t created overnight.
    Every party that ever comes up says they will also address this.
    We’ve had enough time since our first lurch to the right for this. These problems weren’t created particularly by the National party either.
    Why wouldn’t any politician not look down on our ‘petty bigotry and small mindedness,’ then (as in this, just below this)? But are they above this pettiness? Well they are of us…But are they everyday?
    But that also explains,‘the shrugging off of ideologies,’ again – a vague point (below in this). But not completely this?
    On to John Key his self- for whose small mindedness might it be that he despises the most left to himself? Or by now? Well he has registered some disenchantment finally? But why wouldn’t he want to do something about these problems if he could himself now? That would fire someone up? Ordinarily? But now we have these latest earthquakes. Now he’s thrown a ‘hospital pass…
    One thing, the more this went on, the more Key’s own brand would be damaged, ‘all he cares about’, pointed out in this (also be low)!
    I’m brought to this? That this could be, forgive me, Keys version of David Lange’s famous cup of tea now? But not made disinterestedly as per himself? Still a selfie. But which also brought Douglas out from where he was hiding behind David Lange’s rather large self, also stacking the shelves, it was his way as well. Well it’s the policies they have to sell now. At last.

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