Is this the Political Cartoon of the Year?!

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Can this political cartoon from a Fairfax community newspaper  be the most insightful and damaging to National, ever penned?

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TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

After all the criticisms; all the protests; all the thousands of media stories; and seven years of blogging from myself – it all comes down to one searingly scathing cartoon.

 

The scandal of rotting hospital buildings and thousands suffering on waiting lists for surgery may prove to be the the beginning of the deconstruction of the myth of National’s “reputation as a responsible fiscal manager”.

The reality is brutally simple. So simple that even the most low-information voters should be able to comprehend: National won elections not on any fiscal responsibility – but by bribing the electorate with tax cuts.

With tax cuts came cuts to state services in health, education, border security, police, DoC, housing, etc. For many New Zealanders, our under-funded state services is more than an academic exercise by the Wellington ‘Beltway’. It’s personal;

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“Doing more with less” became a National government mantra that meant, in reality, over-worked, stressed, and under-paid teachers, nurses, doctors, police, et al, and essential public services pared back or cancelled entirely.

Unfortunately, it may take a while for it to sink through to New Zealanders that we cannot expect a Gold Standard of public services – whilst paying only for a cheaper Bronze-plated level.

We get what we pay for.

That brutal lesson in basic arithmetic started this year: taxes = services.

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References

Fairfax media:  Over 5000 at risk of going blind waiting for treatment, Ministry of Health says

Previous Related Blogposts

“It’s one of those things we’d love to do if we had the cash”

Tax cuts & school children

The Mendacities of Mr Key #3: tax cuts

The consequences of tax-cuts – worker exploitation?

Plunket and the slow strangulation of community organisations

The cupboard is bare, says Dear Leader

An earthquake separates John Key and ‘The Iron Lady’, Margaret Thatcher

The Mendacities of Mr Key # 19: Tax Cuts Galore! Money Scramble!

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9 COMMENTS

  1. “On the cusp of something special.” – Never have impending social collapse and civil war been described so prosaically.

  2. I’m not sure which publication this cartoon was in, but I’m sure somewhere out there is an editor who is about to lose his or her job.

    • Yes, very surprised that a cartoon criticizing National would be published by an organization dedicated to corporate raiding and exploitation via propaganda and suppression of truth.

      • The golden age of high seas piracy was the 18th century … it was brought to an end by those who not only stood to gain from the trade but also those leaders of integrity who made it an issue to track down , apprehend , and bring to justice those offenders.

        In the coming years, and especially if there is wide spread suffering by a repeat of the global credit crunch ,… and those modern day pirates responsible ….

        We may find, the tolerance exhausted , the penalties increasingly stiffer, and widespread demand for swift justice to not be withheld as a delaying tactic.

        The same mood is sweeping the west currently as people are disillusioned with 3 decades of theft , fraud and lies under successive western neo liberalism.

        Can you hear the drums , Fernando ?

  3. It says something when New Zealanders need to use cartoons to understand politics.

    I despair at what Frank euphemistucally refers to as “low information voters”. I call them what they are: morons.

    I wonder who Farmer Brown voted for? Let me guess…

  4. … ” The reality is brutally simple. So simple that even the most low-information voters should be able to comprehend: National won elections not on any fiscal responsibility – but by bribing the electorate with tax cuts”…

    THIS ,…. in a nutshell.

    Which rivals the cartoon displayed for its very succinct and apt observations.

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