John Key has been unable to turn our economy around

[davebullet]

If George can turn your love around, maybe he might be able to do the economy?

[shrub]

i knew our Beloved Leader was a lightweight, but wtf?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news...ectid=10703972

I have to say the blue really goes with his eyes, but it does make his bum look big. The bracelet is the master stroke though, all he needs to do is get his chakras balanced and he will be a superman and I wonder whether his tarot reader advised him on the election date or his astrologist?

[Swoop]

It is the stuff of political nightmares. It would be a party from hell. Imagine if Hone Harawira, Sue Bradford and Matt McCarten were to form a party and actually get themselves into Parliament.

Here we have a rabid left-wing Maori nationalist, a rabid left-wing social activist with a tinge of green, and an old-fashioned union boss who is so far to the left that he could shake hands with Sir Roger Douglas on the right.

It's unlikely to happen, thank God, but the mere idea of it, floated by Mrs Bradford this week, is enough to give John Key and Phil Goff palpitations, such is the fragility of coalition alliances in this election year.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Act Party is in disarray and there is growing apprehension that it might not survive, since it is dependent on Rodney Hide's re-election in Epsom. That is in no way certain considering the many ways he has blotted his copybook in this term.

Then there's Winston Peters.

So it's shaping up to be a fascinating election year and I cannot remember another in which a campaign has begun as early as this one. The year has hardly begun and the principal parties are hard at it.

Already Mr Key and Mr Goff have announced major policies which, at last, open a clear division between the right and the left. For too long National and Labour, in their quest for that elusive, grey thing called the centre, have been almost indistinguishable from one another.

I suppose this early start has to do with the imminence of the Rugby World Cup, which will occupy the nation's attention for the critical pre-election months of September and October.

Like many other Kiwis I have but a passing interest in the game. However, I do know that the hoi polloi and the media will be totally obsessed with 30 men chasing a pumped up piece of pigskin (or whatever balls are made of these days) round a paddock and there will be little room for political discourse.

So the Prime Minister has drawn a line in the sand as the year barely hits top gear with his announcement of National's intention to partially privatise a number of state energy assets.

And Opposition Leader Phil Goff has responded with a slew of old-fangled socialist policies such as tax exemptions for the lower-paid and higher taxes on high earners, restoring handouts for early childhood education and "Mondayising" date-specific public holidays.

I can see Mr Key's motive in announcing the partial privatisations this early, for it will take a lot of time and effort to convince a once-bitten, twice-shy electorate of the benefits of such a move.

I suspect, however, that he will succeed. There is a huge difference between Mr Key and what he proposes and the stupid sacrifice of state assets by the incompetent to the point of stupidity, short-sighted Labour ideologues of the mid-1980s.

One big difference is that, unlike the Lange-Douglas-Prebble-Caygill crowd, of whom Mr Goff was a colleague, Mr Key is no economic theoretician but a highly-successful, pragmatic and independent-minded businessman, the first we have had of such ilk as Prime Minister in my lifetime.

Another big difference is that he has been and is being absolutely up front about National's state asset plans. In fact, he has laid his political future on the line. The 1980s crowd sprang asset sales (giveaways as it transpired) on a bewildered electorate with no prior warning and no consultation.

As chief executive of NZ Incorporated, we can expect Mr Key to organise the planned partial privatisations in such a way that the nation really benefits both financially and socially, and retains a majority equity in them. There are, of course, traps - and these have been made loud and clear by commentators and letter writers since the announcement was made. Mr Key is no fool, so one would expect that he will cover all those bases as the year progresses.

Mr Goff, on the other hand, whose background is university lecturing, union organising and politicking, refuses to acknowledge that the country is so far in debt that it is almost flat broke and cannot describe in any detail how on Earth he proposes to finance the handouts he has so far announced.

It would be great if Mr Key would also revisit the idea of sacrificing a few acres of useless bushlands in the interests of giving access to large deposits of hugely valuable minerals, and run that past the electorate over the next few months.

These riches don't belong to a handful of trampers, bird-watchers, bug lovers or tree huggers but to all of us, and it is extraordinarily selfish of them to try to deprive the nation of the means by which to lift itself out of penury.

I've had a gutsful of coalition governments. They're part of the reason we're in such a parlous state. So let's pray for a National landslide, and stand-alone, one-party governance.

By Garth George, NZ HERALD.

[Skyryder]

It is the stuff of political nightmares. It would be a party from hell. Imagine if Hone Harawira, Sue Bradford and Matt McCarten were to form a party and actually get themselves into Parliament.

Here we have a rabid left-wing Maori nationalist, a rabid left-wing social activist with a tinge of green, and an old-fashioned union boss who is so far to the left that he could shake hands with Sir Roger Douglas on the right.

It's unlikely to happen, thank God, but the mere idea of it, floated by Mrs Bradford this week, is enough to give John Key and Phil Goff palpitations, such is the fragility of coalition alliances in this election year.

A new party based around Bradford, McCArten and Harawira has been in the pipeline for some time.

Depends if Hone is kicked out of the Maori Party. I doubt if Sharples and Turia give shit about Hone forming another Party. They have nothing to lose either way as the Maori Party have stated they will work with Labour if Labour can put a coalition together. Hone would bring in Bradford and McCarten along with others as he is shoe in for his elctorate seat. If Peters gets in that's one less for Key. Under normal circumstances a left wing party would take votes away from Labour. But these votes if Hone forms another Party will take votes away from the Maori Party. Bradford will not take many away from the Greens
McCarten will take some from Labour and the Alliance. All in all Key has played his cards too soon.

Skyryder

[MisterD]

A new party based around Bradford, McCArten and Harawira has been in the pipeline for some time.

Depends if Hone is kicked out of the Maori Party. I doubt if Sharples and Turia give shit about Hone forming another Party. They have nothing to lose either way as the Maori Party have stated they will work with Labour if Labour can put a coalition together. Hone would bring in Bradford and McCarten along with others as he is shoe in for his elctorate seat. If Peters gets in that's one less for Key. Under normal circumstances a left wing party would take votes away from Labour. But these votes if Hone forms another Party will take votes away from the Maori Party. Bradford will not take many away from the Greens
McCarten will take some from Labour and the Alliance. All in all Key has played his cards too soon.

Skyryder

I don't think that Hone's a dead cert by any means if the Maori Party were to put up a credible Northern Tribe candidate. There's more to the electorate than his mum's rent-a-crowd.

Putting that to one side though, to bring in list members this new party has to get votes from somewhere - the Maori party only got like 3% last time so it can only be from the Greens and Labour. All it will alter is the size of the overhang not the size of the "left block".

Winnie is the joker in the pack, but for my money, JK's announcement that he won't work with him has ensured that any protest vote by natural Nat voters over the ETS or smacking or F&S will go to ACT. There's a good chance that this new party could drop the Greens under 5% but imagine the fun in trying to hold a Labour-Green-Nutters-MP-Winston coalition together, could be the death of MMP!

[Bald Eagle]

could be the death of MMP!

so something good might actually come out of this election then.

[shrub]

so something good might actually come out of this election then.

Unfortunately that would mean the return of FPP, and that is a major retrograde step. MMP is possibly not as good as STV, but it will take forever to get the electorate to understand anything else - they still don't get MMP!. Proportional representation is the only thing that keeps our political system genuinely representative and it keeps the pollies honest. It is very unlikely that the madness of the Muldoon or Lange/Douglas era would have happened under proportional representation.

Muldoon once famously said that he could have an idea while shaving and it would be law by lunchtime - this was while he led a government that the majority of NZ voters hadn't voted for!

[SPman]

I don't think that Hone's a dead cert by any means if the Maori Party were to put up a credible Northern Tribe candidate. There's more to the electorate than his mum's rent-a-crowd

You don't know the mood of Northern Maori very well then, do you? Hone has the most mana of any MP up there - because he tells it like it is and isn't running scared....of his party, or any other party

It is the stuff of political nightmares. It would be a party from hell. Imagine if Hone Harawira, Sue Bradford and Matt McCarten were to form a party and actually get themselves into Parliament.

Yeah - interesting - would certainly have the rabid right in a lather..........it's not even an established fact (and probably won't eventuate) and they're already foaming at the mouth!

Anyway, what's JK's response to the economy and unemployment - "wait and see, it'll all be better tomorrow"

Jesus wept..........