Posts Tagged ‘John Key’
Ye-ouch! Emmerson on Dotcom debacle
Crikey! That’s strong … Well, fair enough I guess. In A farce upon farce reaching to the highest level — John Armstrong of the NZ Herald offers a passable imitation of an apologist’s defensive spin for the Key government, ending with this: [Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bill] English’s behaviour is inexplicable. But the […]
#PlanetKey OPEN MOCKERY continues, corroding the Teflon
Trust Steve Braunias … The secret diary of … Planet Key (click) In which Braunias delivers a poke of (well-deserved?) ridicule and indignity to the Prime Minister’s ‘Planet Key’ clanger. I wonder if Mr Key or his advisors sense yet how complete the appearance of tone-deafness was in his juxtaposing a ‘Nirvana’ of abundant golf […]
The #PlanetKey ‘gag’ is going to bite John Key. (That’s my prediction)
“We wouldn’t have toilets on Planet Key” — Prime Minister John Key at Question Time. Arrogance like this looks bad. It erodes respect. Mr Key is going to have to jettison this, or be defined by it. Do you see it differently? Let me know. – P
Oh, for a straight answer to a straight question
John Key delivered a good performance on TVNZ’s Q&A current affairs programme this morning — UNTIL he was asked about John Banks.* You can watch the interview here at TVNZ on demand (17 mins) And here is the audio of the 3 minute section where interviewer Shane Taurima asked about Mr Key’s standards for his […]
Is John Key ‘hugging a corpse’? Does he have a choice?
It’s an ugly phrase, ‘hugging a corpse‘. I remember reading it a while back in relation to political management. A quick web search popped it up (in this part of the world) as one of National Party blogger Cameron Slater’s 13 ‘Rules of politics and guidelines for politicians’, thoughtfully transcribed by reporter Pete Bailey from […]
Bill Clinton’s still got the shine. Unlike some.
I’m too young to have observed at first hand the way the US media was [supposedly] swept up in a love affair with John F Kennedy. Sure, I’ve read contemporary accounts like LIFE magazine fawning over the Kennedys etc, and looked at the phenomenon historically, but that ain’t the same. As an observer I was […]
Rights, rights, everywhere, but not a drop to drink
From this morning’s NZ Herald editorial about the National-led government’s political machinations around heading off court action by Maori against its flagship asset sales policy*: ‘Too clever’ risk in Govt shares plan Crown lawyers have acknowledged that pre-colonial iwi and hapu had customary control of rivers and streams in their area and those rights were […]
Read this and tell me it doesn’t remind you (just a little bit) of John Key’s SkyCity Casinos convention centre deal for extra pokie machines
Dave Pell’s Next Draft recommended weekend read was Matt Taibbi’s The Scam Wall Street Learned From the Mafia in Rolling Stone magazine. I agree. It’s a fascinating read, but kind of sickening too. USA v. Carollo marks the first time we actually got incontrovertible evidence that Wall Street has moved into this cartel-type brand of criminality. […]
The dignity of the office
There are roles the political leader of a country plays that are non-political. They are a task of the office rather than the office-holder. A prime minister responding to a national emergency, for instance, or representing our country in times of grief or alarm. John Key does these well, in my opinion. His everyman, guy-next-door […]
Taking the pfiss out of John Key
Wow. The honeymoon is well-and-truly over: Here’s open comment that the NZ Prime Minister is routinely observed “fibbing, hiding something or not totally convinced by [his] own argument”. ‘How are the mighty fallen!’1 This is just as devastating, in a different way, as what a former NZ Herald editor said in John Key’s media whack-a-mole […]
Blind trust? Hang on, isn’t that a ruse?
I was part of a brief Twitter conversation about the use of trusts to keep assets out of the clutches of creditors which included this … @badtom “I want to slap their tax-dodging babyboomer snobfaces.” Fine epithet. There are less foul reasons to establish a trust @keith_ng — Peter Aranyi (@onThePaepae) June 11, 2012 “I […]
John Key’s media whack-a-mole ‘tactical’ — Gavin Ellis
I said yesterday in Setting a narrative: ‘aggressive’ ‘hostile’ ‘antagonistic’ ‘tabloid’ media that I thought the prime minister’s comments criticizing the media (and especially the NZ Herald) were an oh-so-deliberate attempt to characterise future criticism of the Key administration as an aggressive, sensationalist news media lowering standards to desperately chase sales/readers/viewers. Defensively denigrating the news […]
Setting a narrative: ‘aggressive’ ‘hostile’ ‘antagonistic’ ‘tabloid’ media
Fairly carefully thought-out impromptu comments? … Lost that loving feeling? John Key interviewed by Leighton Smith on his perceptions of change in attitude by ‘the media’. Immediately reported as: and this:
Teapot tape saga sputters out with withdrawal of ‘costs’ action against cameraman
For the record: Teapot costs bid dropped By Cherie Howie Herald on Sunday May 6, 2012 The Attorney-General has ditched plans to demand nearly $14,000 in court costs from freelance photographer Bradley Ambrose over the long-running “teapot tape” saga. Ambrose was embroiled in controversy and faced criminal investigation after he taped a conversation between Prime […]
For the record: Teapot tapes media audit clears ‘pond scum’
Herald on Sunday journo Jonathan Milne’s narrative of how the ‘cup of tea’ media stunt got recorded and the actions following is a must-read (if you care). See: Findings not quite Key’s cup of tea (NZ Herald) Read it. Seriously. (Ignore the 1 April dateline.) In the same paper, I noted that broadcaster Mike Hosking […]
