Quick, someone hit that weasel word on the head with a stick! 'Basically', Yanis? Perhaps you could point me to a policy or manifesto statement – no 'hidden agenda' balls, please…

Supports social welfare, wouldn't have sent troops, global warming…

Try saying the John Key quotes below out loud, in a Don Brash voice (add "er ... frankly" or something). Then imagine the…

"... Mr Key defended the right of the United States and its allies to have invaded the country."

on the grounds that the US has the right to trash any coutry it feels like?

is this an example of the core National values Key says he stands for?

"National would not sent troops to Iraq although Mr Key defended the right of the United States and its allies to have invaded the country." (newswire/NBR)

A missing auxiliary verb or the wrong final letter? Makes a pretty big…

I understood David's basic point to be…

eh? if you want to criticise David's tongue-in-cheek parsing of Key's oratorical style, be our guest. but the above criticism doesn't really cut it IMHO because you seem to have imgained something that is not there.

OK, maybe, but I think you're being naive. Partisan advantage is a long game...and…

Yes I would, if that's what the broad expressions of good intention mean, but that's my beef: it's so vague it could mean a great deal or not very much at all.

I was listening to him being questioned on morning report this morning on climate change. His argument seemed…

You don't think a different approach to relations with the small parties, race relations, and a radically different attitude to climate change, aren't substantial? I do. This is a radically different approach to the Brash years.

Yes I would, if that's what the broad expressions of good intention mean, but…

Oh, I've known him a few years now and always found him very charitable, especially in the matter of buying one lunch

I agree – I owe a lunch, coffee & several beers to the guy.

You would not expect detailed policy just yet. That would be very bad process in a new leader.
You do though need to set a tone, with vision statements and the like. Any new leader of any organisation needs to do this sort of thing.

Rob, I don't disagree. But…

You do though need to set a tone, with vision statements and the like. Any new leader of any organisaiton needs to do this sort of thing.

Clark did NOT do this when she took over Labour in 1993, and it was a huge mistake. Back then she…

You would not expect detailed policy just yet. That would be very bad process in a new leader.

You do though need to set a tone, with vision…

So I say Key's speech is distinctive enough if one is prepared to be minimally charitable. Sadly, however, that's not Slack's metier.

Oh, I've known him a few years now and always found him very charitable, especially in the matter of buying one lunch.

That's false... your opening remarks were not principally a general lament. Rather you tried specifically to do a sort of silly, pretend-whimsical undermining of Key's seriousness

eh? if you want to criticise David's tongue-in-cheek parsing of Key's oratorical style, be our guest. but the above criticism doesn't really cut it…

My opening remarks were a throwaway observation about this growing tendency for politicians to speak of themselves in the third person.

That's false... your opening remarks were not principally a general lament. Rather you tried specifically to do a sort of silly, pretend-whimsical undermining of Key's seriousness (the sort of…

How many are there now who cannot 'remember' important events less than 6 months after they happened?

Brash has recently placed himself on the list with regards to his…

"I firmly believe in climate change and always have," was new National Party Leader John Key's answer to nine-till-noon interviewer Kathryn Ryan earlier this week when asked whether the climate was being affected by Greenhouse gas emissions.

Here's a good example of this "no past" problem…

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0611/S00487.htm

If you are looking for a guide to my political philosophy then I suggest you look no further than the core values and principles of the National Party.

Wow, I aced Mr Slack's Key test by answering how I'd expect a stereotypical national party member to vote, & now it sounds…

1. the face or front of a building
2. an outward appearance, especially a deceitful one

(From the OED)

Unless you were comparing him to architecture, then I would suggest that yes Cushla you were accusing Key of being something, i.e. full of shit. It doesn't really matter what…

Oh noez!

But I get what you're saying.

The trouble is, written English isn't quite capable of expressing all the nuances of spoken English.

However, now that I've had a think about it, I probably wouldn't use…

Shows though that somebody is aware of where they stand on something. Mind you, they could change their mind 19 times between now and then. Any hint on which party it MIGHT be?

Now we know Mr Key and friends will be promoting lower taxes, but Labour/UF are clearly positioning themselves to do the same (unless Cullen really wants to ensure that Labour loses next time by continuing in his moronic ways).

just as an aside, a composer / producer friend of mine…

Of course this won't help you with the class size and non-contact time issues though, but it…

When I talk of post-ideological, I do not mean no ideas at all,…

If you are looking for a guide to my political philosophy then I suggest you look no further than the core values and principles of the National Party.

I'd like to look a little further, John, if you don't…

Well, that's an argument but I don't think it's a good idea to reduce complex and highly contentious matters of political philosophy to bumper stickers. Just ask Francis Fukuyama whose rather dense 1989 essay The End of History?, and the 1992 book based on it, ended up in some…

True. But the complaint here about Key's speech isn't about its lack of policy, it's about a lack of John Key.

What Key promised wasn't a policy speech but…

Such malevolence and smallness from Slack. Blogs are so revealing.

So are comments. Enough of that please Stephen.

...we are moving into a post-ideological era. We have seen what strong ideologies like communism and national socialism can do and of course the Muslims are held back by their ideology.

Kent, capitalism is a strong ideological concept also. Is that included in your hindrance list?

Perhaps it is causing…

You must have written your share of quacking speeches DS?

Guilty as charged.

Who the hell really listens to them anyway...although I'll never forget that Mike Moore election night speech.

And that's the point: the remarkable ones really are memorable, and enable you to form a strong impression about the…

I think that the leader needs to…

Well, up to a point. I think the semantic problem there is that 'ideology' has a pretty innocuous definition ("a…

I don’t resile from what was the thrust of…

No, I posed some some legitimate (but entirely debatable, of course) questions about the book – which I…

On many occasions I have read in the media that, "John Key did a good job against Michael Cullen at the last election,"…

MMP was worked out by Labour a lot quicker than National and now National have cottoned on. It's a make friends system, not enemies because no party is going to get more than 50% of the vote in…

Oh, come on... It's probably not just you – but I guess no matter who you are in political life, you better grow a thick enough skin to realise there's going to be people for whom you're damned if you, damned if you don't, and in the wrong regardless.…

pick a number, John, any number and get specific

Jesus, talk about an unreasonable demand! Has any politician anywhere ever (let alone in first/personal address) said anything of the sort?

As it happens, Key mentioned his ideal income tax structure 19c/33c etc on Monday so I guess that affords almost…

If John Key was announcing policies on Day Three it wouldn't say a lot for…

Do they have arsepirations going backwards too?

Much more intriguing is … does he actually have anything else to say? Was…

* economy: don't scare the horses
* maori: kiss and…

Perhaps, but let's hope he waits a decent interval before graduating to some of the other stuff newlywed are supposed to get up to. :)

Richard Llewellyn is looking forward to seeing how Mr Key goes in forming a more *inclusive* opposition, but is neither stirred nor shaken by the fact that his first speech is writ in large letters with a lite touch.

He's got some post-Don fences to…

I think you're being negative.

Perhaps I am. But he's reputedly been thinking about having the job for quite some time, and he's gone through two election campaigns in which he's been asked to articulate his vision.

Moreover, he promised the speech would be something rather more than it proved…

As for specifics. What the!? He's only been in the job less than a day!