Island Life: A week in the life of that nice Mr Key
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said All Black might have to rescind his textses if you didn't get them the first time
I thought this was an instinctive technique applied by rugby players in the scrum, to prevent torsional discomfort (and to allow continued propagation of the species)... or is the phrase retract his testes ?
Anyhoo, p'raps Key'll grow a pair if we all SMS* him that he needs to.
*is this 'word' safer? -
You have to be mildly amazed at the way National has got the "attack the messenger" spin working though. Not just through the National Internet PR Department but actually out into the MSM as well.
And yet none of the usual suspects at Kiwiblog will answer the most basic question: why didn't Key ask to see the evidence?
This crisis could have been averted as soon as Key had been told of the allegations. He should have stood Worth down pending an investigation. Instead he's gone from one extreme (doing nothing) to the other (sacking him before all the facts are in).
David's post has nailed it for me. Key's rudderless and is making it up as he goes along. Is Key the sort of person to lead us out of a recession?
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We call em "markers", they call em "texters". Lord knows why.
They actually call one a texta, and textas is plural.... for exactly the same reason someone in NZ might say "Vivid" or "Sharpie" instead of "marker". It is a brand name.
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Perhaps it is just Key's misfortune to follow someone as awesome as Helen Clark, and the public has to high an expectation after her reign.
Or not.
Ha. It just shows how bad Key's management of this issue has been. I'm unsure whether it's the fault of Key himself or whether his Chief of Staff just did a crap investigation. But ultimately the buck stops with Key.
That his office didn't request any further evidence from the first complainant and backed Dr Worth solely on his word is quite ridiculous, and shows an appalling political myopia and bad judgement. THey should, of course, have found out all the facts before coming to a decision. And indeed, it would never have played out this way under Clark and SImpson.
I was Damien O'Connor's advisor when, last year, a few (to be unnamed) blogsites (followed by frenzied inquiries from MSM outlets) were heavily insinuating that he had raped or sexually assaulted a woman, and which he had then covered up. After alerting the Chief of Staff, I went through 2 years of Ministerial diaries to find his whereabouts on every day, called numerous people who were supposedly tangentially involved (e.g. proprietors of establishments) and others who could vouch for his whereabouts, and gathered other miscellaneous proof that such claims were ridiculous. And I did this knowing that he hadn't committed any sexual assault, and based on his word.
It's all about having all your ducks in a row before you go into battle. (How's that for a mixed metaphore?!?) That Key didn't seek full disclosure from Worth or from the complainant shows appalling political and risk management.
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Thanks James. That's very useful context.
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Great antennae, no compass.
If I may be allowed to crow....just a little (read the poem not the bit above)
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It seems Worth was threatening legal action if the earlier complaint were made public. Typical behaviour for entitled easties, but may have made Mr Eagleson more inclined to half-heartedly pursue his investigations. That and the concerns about the rich vein of blue-blooded party funding drying up, of course.
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He doesn't have a direction, because he's already at his destination. And he desperately wants to be liked. The public (less desperately, but mostly) want to like him.
I agree. I heard Key speak in person the other day.I was waiting for the famous charm and the relationship development with the audience which could make up for a lack of history with that particular sector - and there was obvious goodwill towards him. But it was very disappointing. He started with some jokes about his day (apparently he made a comment about how bad his day was going when opening the cancer accommodation in Chch yesterday - hey you're just battling cancer, I have to run the country), but then it was apparent he had not been briefed or had not bothered to find out what the meeting was all about. He got names wrong, and the only philosophy he offered was an economic rationalisation one.
Helen Clark could speak to 6 or so groups a day and from what I observed she was always prepared, appropriate and respectful, whatever the occasion. Key will have to learn fast that NZ is full of diverse groups of people waiting for evidence of effective leadership from him and a few jokes won't cut it.
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Hey it's worked for him so far. Certainly a lack of ambition from all of us about our expectations of leaders.
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hear hear: well said.
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Rik,
I'll borrow a phrase from McDonalds to describe how I feel when reading your comments David - i'm lovin' it
Will be interesting to see if the minority voices here are loud enough to affect the election process in the fullness of time.
I'm not really passionate about politics or more specifically National and/or John Key however would like it noted that I do not agree with your opinion.
Has anyone consider how the activities involved in governing a country may have evolved over time? I start to wonder if it is not too dis-similar to the administration of a large company - money comes in (corporate and personal taxes), money goes out (health, welfare, police/justice). Books have to be balanced, you can swing things one way or another (higher or lower taxes, higher or lower benefits) but at the end of they day it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the country should not run at a loss for an extended period of time and that all people seem to want is the face of someone that they can relate to (trust, be proud of, whatever) at the helm of this "administration".
I'm happier with John Key steering the ship than I was with Helen Clark.
You, obviously, are not.
But that's cool - I patiently waited for Labour to get the boot and now you can do the same with National.
But nothing really changes at the end of the day.
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It seems Worth was threatening legal action if the earlier complaint were made public. Typical behaviour for entitled easties, but may have made Mr Eagleson more inclined to half-heartedly pursue his investigations. That and the concerns about the rich vein of blue-blooded party funding drying up, of course.
Because rich party funders just love a sexual harasser?
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I start to wonder if it is not too dis-similar to the administration of a large company - money comes in (corporate and personal taxes), money goes out (health, welfare, police/justice). Books have to be balanced, you can swing things one way or another (higher or lower taxes, higher or lower benefits) but at the end of they day it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the country should not run at a loss for an extended period of time and that all people seem to want is the face of someone that they can relate to (trust, be proud of, whatever) at the helm of this "administration".
Except you're missing the major difference: companies are about profits, governments are about people. I don't want someone I can "relate to" running the place; I want someone who is competent. Someone who cares about doing the right thing for the country as a whole, not just whether they're liked. Maybe that's too much to ask for in a PM; but I rather think it's not.
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But nothing really changes at the end of the day.
Yes it does. Labour changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders in its time in government by repeatedly raising the minimum wage, re-universalising the public health system (well, almost), introducing working for families, and ensuring that the Reserve Bank encouraged employment rather than its opposite. National will change the lives of hundreds of thousands more with its tax cuts for the rich and failure to protect jobs (this list is horter because they have only been in power for six months; more for good or ill or YMMV is obviously to come).
What goes on in Wellington is not some amusing sideshow for the entertainment of the beltway elite, or some tiresome distraction from the "real" business of farming mate - it matters. It directly affects people's lives for good or ill, on everything from whether people have enough to eat to whether they can beat their children.
People who don't care about it are simply fools.
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Excellent post, David, it's right on the money.
I'm happier with John Key steering the ship than I was with Helen Clark.
Sure he's at the helm, but is he steering or adjusting the wheel in accordance with where the ship is currently lurching ? No compass indeed...
According to Checkpoint, Key's office took no notes from the meeting with Goff where they discussed the first "nuisance" complaint. WTF ? This kind of allegation is very serious, and they don't notes ? Not only that, but then they accept Worth's word at face value.
We've gone from Nanny State to Fanny State - it seems Key's instinctive response to any unplanned event is to fanny-about doing nothing. Why take action when a bit of blokey charm and vagueness will suffice ?
BTW, over at The Standard, they have a transcript of yesterday's interview between Key and Mary Wilson.. What a squirmfest.
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By sending them some textses?
Wasn't this Bob Clarkson's problem?
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it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the country should not run at a loss for an extended period of time
Not quite. Many people seem to think that analogies can be drawn between, say, family earnings and expenditure and the economics of a nation. This is a false equivalence as families have no control over the value/worth of their cash/investments, a government can have this control.
A long term view of global economics indicate a, roughly, ten year cycle.The IMF estimates that global recessions seem to occur over a cycle lasting between 8 and 10 years. During what the IMF terms the past three global recessions of the last three decades, global per capita output growth was zero or negative.
ref.
The trick is to synchronise growth and recession so as to smooth out the effects of this cycle has on the population of your country.
Well, that is the basis of the ideology of the left. However, the ideology of the Right seems to favour using times of economic hardship to line their nests, buying up assets at lower prices. The trend since the seventies, with the advent of Thatchers monetarist policies in the UK, is to divest the nation of "expensive" assets and allow the private sector to run them "better".
The upshot of this is, in my mind, obvious.
We are out of sync. While the rest of the world is tending to lean to the left in regards to eliminating the worst effects of global recession for the majority of their people. We are lurching to the right at exactly the wrong time. -
The other thing the public notices is a lack of consistency in the message, which happens when there is not a clear direction from the top, and I think NZers are very resistant to being patronised or spun. For example, ministers shouldn't say how mportant something is - say adult community education - and then slash funding for it.
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I'm noticing a theme through the latest personnel problems from the government - it is as if when considering someone for a position only one side of the ledger is given any weight. And inexperience isn't treated as much of a downside at all. John Key, having been accused of this himself, may be measuring others by his quick rise to leader and Prime Minister.
Paula Bennett - With no great changes in the department, someone who been there herself must've looked good with inexperience not treated as a downside, and she approves...
Christine Rankin - On paper she may've looked like someone to speak for families but many years of negatives were passed over as if nowt.
Melissa Lee - Youth, energy and ethnicity but again inexperience and a conflating media company work with the mettle to manage the hustings.
I'd also add Mark Ford, Chair of the Auckland Transition Agency - they did erconsider this as the heat from those above was so fresh, but went with him anyway. With the role of the private sector in local government still to be decided he and Associate Local Government Minister John Carter Chairing the Select Committee will need watching. At least (I hope) the bills won't passed under urgency.
And now Rchard Worth who, as I've discussed before around elections as I'm in the Epsom electorate, has never shone in Parliament, making him a Minister seems to have required a serious disregards for his past mis-steps. -
They actually call one a texta, and textas is plural.... for exactly the same reason someone in NZ might say "Vivid" or "Sharpie" instead of "marker". It is a brand name.
I swear that marker pens always used to be called Vivids, and didn't start to be called Sharpies until Sharpie started their television campaign.
Fuck that. Vivid 4 life.
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And inexperience isn't treated as much of a downside at all.
There's an obvious reason for this particular bit in regards to Ministerial appointments, and that is that National spent nine long years in opposition, during which many of their previous Ministers retired or were de-elected.
More generally, no Prime Minister ever complained of having too many talented people for their Cabinet. And with a pool of just over 60 (some of which are from coalition partners), its not really any surprise.
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We've gone from Nanny State to Fanny State
Heh
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But with Christine Rankin and Richard Worth the case against included more than inexperience.
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On Newstalk ZB John was reputed to have said that the person making the allegations was the alligator
HA.
Whole thing is descending into a Monty Python-scripted episode of Dad's Army... -
I swear that marker pens always used to be called Vivids, and didn't start to be called Sharpies until Sharpie started their television campaign.
Fuck that. Vivid 4 life.
In my mind, they're 'whiteboard markers' if you're going to use them on a whiteboard, and 'permanent markers' if you're going to use them to deface property.
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