Posts by Tom Semmens
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
And Key has announced the date - November the 26th. It seems the whole privatisation announcement was part of the now signature cynical media management strategy of prime minister Kevin Taylor - get the bad news out of the way and then attempt to simply shut down politics until the five weeks after the RWC when Saint John can coast them home with warm fuzzies of him and Richie McCaw holding aloft the Rugby World Cup.
I predict that after this week we won't hear Key on Morning Report or anywhere else that isn't a patsy media opportunity again for the next eight months if he can help it.
-
The army gave Mubarak the kiss of death this morning when it declared the protest legitimate and said it would not move against the demonstrators. Now all that the regime has is the state security apparatus, and if thy crack down to hard the military will intervene with bigger and better guns. Remember, since the Egyptian partial victory in the 1973 war the army has been an enormous source of patriotic pride in Egypt.
Expect Mubarak to flee and a junta of generals to take over promising reform. The army runs Egypt now.
-
Hard News: "Orderly transition" in #Egypt, in reply to Jeremy Andrew,
To which Veitchie and Deano both guffawed and, to general sniggering, said in unison with the P.M. the word"moist".
-
“…But Key and English are the reason we have this gigantic deficit. John Key’s perceived strength during the election was that his financial genius would transform the national economy, and English was supposed to be this shrewd, wise guardian of the government’s books. In reality they’re proving to be a pair of colossally irresponsible, incompetent fuck-ups…”
Danylmc finally admits that voting for National in 2008 was a bad, bad idea.
It seems to me that Key has been in power long enough now to start beliving his own P.R. He genuinely seems to think that because everyone loves him he can ram these sales through after winning the next election.
But privatisation is one of the main reasons we got MMP as our electoral system in the first place. The polls at the moment point to Labour losing the next election’s race to form a coalition. But if MMP works as advertised, Mr. Key might find the day after polling that he hasn’t won the electoral mandate he is after either.
-
Two recent events:
A friend of mine, a slip of a pretty, young, little blond girlie girl who is all flimsy frocks and champagne, was punched from behind in the side of the head by a huge bouncer, she was knocked to the ground and lost two teeth -all outside a well-known upmarket Viaduct bar - for simply failing to hear the bouncer telling people to get off the steps. The management did nothing, and she found it took a lawyer to get the police to take the assault seriously.
Another girl I know, equally young, pretty and mild mannered, was beaten up in the women's toilets of an Auckland nightclub by a guy who she told get out. She got bad concussion and bled profusely. The security staff accused her of being drunk (read concussed from having her head repeatedly bashed against a concrete wall) and refused to call the police. She had to do that herself.
Management refuse to take incidents seriously whether it is caused by or filtered through security. The police are increasingly perceived as bone idle, they would rather not be bothered with "pub fights". Patrons rely on security - yet it is an almost totally unregulated industry and open to any bozo who is big - and bad - enough.
It is not good enough. The whole security industry is in dire need of serious reform, and has been for years.
-
The argument here, when stripped down to its essence, appears to be that Guyon Espiner gets to decide what is a legitimate coalition government and what is not.
I didn’t see that shifty little Tory son-of-a-bitch on any party list last election, so why is this so? Wouldn’t it be far cheaper to simply clip the wings of over mighty gallery journalists than contort our electoral laws to suit their ego?
-
Dodgy the clown. Grimly appropriate, methinks.
-
Kevin Taylor = Captain Panic Pants, John Key’s chief PR flack.
It simply beggars belief that our PM is so concerned with not being associated with bad news that he can’t even mumble a few words of condolence or support. When this disaster happened, government ministers fell over themselves to be seen standing with the saint of the hour Peter Whittle or to be broadcast making sad statements of support. Last night and today, Howard Broad was left to carry the whole show.
Key has no moral courage or compass, a trait all to typical of a corporate suit, and simply does as he is told by his media man. That being the case, it is clear who is actually running the country.
-
Interesting to see prime minister Kevin Taylor’s spokesman John Key refusing to front the media over the decision to seal the Pike River mine. If anyone had any doubts John Key is a lazy, polls driven coward this must surely remove them once and for all.
The disgraceful cynicism of the exploitation of the tragedy for political gain by Taylor and Key followed by the total abandonment of the vicitims and their families when the political opportunity had been milked for all it was worth is incredible.
-
Meanwhile, in Australia a Labor cabinet minister has now been outed as an American spy
This is getting better and better. *gets popcorn*