Posts by Alfie
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Tom Scott's take on the Slater/Key relationship.
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Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Sacha,
lovingly
And who supplied the lube?
"I can't recall."
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Bryce Edwards in The downfall of John Key examines why Key chooses to maintain contact with the increasingly toxic Slater. He quotes Matthew Hooton...
Talking on Radio NZ's Nine-to-Noon he argued that Key is making a perfectly logical choice to try to stay in Slater's good books out of fear of what could happen if Slater became his enemy. If Slater and Key fell out then the blogger could go nuclear, dishing the ultimate dirt on Dirty Politics, according to Hooton.
Here's what he said: Key 'risks Cameron Slater going off the deep-end essentially, and revealing the full extent of his relationship with the Prime Minister himself, the Prime Minister's Office, with a number of John Key's ministers, with a fair bunch of the backbenchers, and with some senior party officials'.
Key might not survive that - listen to the RNZ 23-minute interview here.
It seems that having utilised the services of Slater, the National Government is now unable to simply walk away from him. That would be too dangerous. Slater would not take kindly to be disposed of. Partly this could be because Slater is rather unpredictable and inclined to lash out at his opponents (or those betraying him).
Edwards also references a blog post from Bryan Gould who suggests that Key is now "Cameron Slater’s creature."
Slater has little to fear if the whole sordid story comes out. It would simply confirm the centrality of his role and would confirm an image of ruthlessness he has sought to cultivate. But for John Key, it is imperative that the story stays under wraps.
One word from Slater, in other words – and the Prime Minister is history. Slater holds John Key’s place in that history in the palm of his hand. If Slater calls the Prime Minister, of course that frightened man will jump to it. He will even run the risk of discussing a leaked Inspector General’s report with him – and then trying to bluster his way out of admitting that he had done so.
So, what seemed to be a mystery becomes a much more worrying truth. We have a Prime Minister who is not only careless with the truth but who is obliged, for fear of being exposed, to do the bidding of the nastiest and least principled person in New Zealand politics. Is that the Prime Minister this country wants?
You need a long spoon to sup with the devil.
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Toby Manhire with a plea to give John Key a break.
As any student of critical theory will tell you, Key is simply awake to the futility of pursuing concrete meaning in a world of contested reality. He is invoking the sort of thinking once articulated by Harold Pinter.
"There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false," mused the socialist playwright. "A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false."
Life is complex. Everything is contestable. Meaning is potato.
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Hard News: Incomplete, inaccurate and misleading, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Little’s performance in the house yesterday was the best we’ve seen from an opposition politician in over six years and the best from a Labour leader since forever.
Agreed! During the Labour leadership campaign I posted that they needed someone intelligent and articulate with a sense of humour. Somebody who could counter Key's oily glibness. I was afraid that Little wasn't that person, but I've been forced to eat my words.
Little's performance over the last few days has been nothing short of stunning. At last, Labour has a leader they can be proud of.
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Jeez... Key has some nerve. On RNZ he basically called the SIS report inaccurate, claiming some facts were "disputed". The man can't lie straight in bed these days.
And once again Andrea Vance sums up Key's reaction perfectly.
Still, Key continues to insist his staff acted professionally at all times. Perhaps that is because Ede and de Joux were doing exactly what they were paid for: the dirty work while keeping the boss' hands clean.
More power to Vance!
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John Armstrong has penned a fairly damming response in the Harold.
Dirty politics? Well, that is arguable. Cynical politics? Without question.
The Key administration has plumbed new depths of arrogance and contempt for the notion of politicians being accountable for their actions in its response to today's hugely embarrassing report by the independent watchdog who maintains oversight over the Security Intelligence Service.
Rather than take the findings of the report by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Cheryl Gwyn on the chin, National sought to bury the report.
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There's another good piece from Andrea Vance in today's SST which contrasts nicely with some of the more sycophantic articles like this one which have been published by the Press in Sutton's home town.
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Key sends Slater a written apology for releasing the email which sunk Judith Collins. No lessons learned there then.
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More Sutton, and Andrea Vance absolutely nails it.
