The Key scandals begin to roost

The scandals that have swirled around the Key led National Govt since 2008 are flocking in to roost as Key announces the election date.
For too long Key has operated as this cartoon illustrates:

Key attempts to distract the voters from real issues.

Since the Pansy Wong and Richard Worth resignations, the bus ticket flaps at Double-Dipton English, Heatley, Banks, Dunne, Smith and others NZ has witnessed Key manipulating the truth a gross of times.
Now the scandals that have flowed from the Sky City deals, the Warner Bros sell out, Welfare payuts to Rio Tinto and other cash for favours deals we see an arrogant Cabinet minister declare her self innocent of serious conflicts of interest in her dealings with a company her husband is heavily involved in.
The inability of John Key to act and severely discipline his out of control minister demonstrates to the nation that he is, behind the carefully PR crafted image, a weak, ineffective and ethically challenged Prime Minister and figure head leader of the once proudly honourable National Party.

It is obvious that there are serious problems and conflicts crawling from the closets of the Key cabinet as the previously concealed leadership struggles, held in check until Key officially told them that his boredom (The Bellman reckons that unofficially Key has been canvassing his desire to quit NZ politics among his associates as he has ticked off his bucket list of things to do as leader of the National Party. This quotation from John Armstrong's Herald opinionista piece amply illustrates this rumour:
However, there is an eerie feeling that the current circumstances are about as propitious as things can get for National, yet the party is by no means guaranteed victory on September 20.
The onus is thus on Cabinet ministers and MPs to hold the line until polling day by projecting an image of competence and confidence while ensuring as much as possible that this picture is not clouded by foul-ups or embarrassments.
National MPs will be asking why Collins failed to see how her actions were compromising this strategy - and whether, for all her undoubted strengths, there are some previously hidden flaws in her character which have now put her leadership credentials in serious question.
This is not an academic matter. Key made it very clear this week that should he lose the September election, he will not be hanging around Parliament for very long afterwards.) with the position had reached its limit, within the National Party break for open ground.

Raising the Minimum Wage- How the White House argues the need.

This presentation from Slideshare provides the rationale for an increase in the minimum wage from the White House's analysis.

The points made are as relevant in New Zealand as they are in the US and provide the ammunition necessary to demonstrate the instrangence of the Key-English-Joyce arguments that demand an even lower wage regime in NZ despite the Key released recent election year offer of half a stick of chewing gum an hour increase in the minimum wage in an attempt to defuse the traction being gained by Cunliffe and the Labour Party in support of the Living Wage Campaign.

Hypocrisy rules supreme in the National Party Caucus

Frank Macskasy's article on the Daily Blog provides the proof of the economic and social hypocrisy that has been the hall mark of the National-Act government since the 2008 election.

The Herald cartoon also reveals the cynicism behind Key's raising the "relevance of the NZ flag" issue as his policy weaknesses are exposed by David Cunliffe.  Key may protest that he favours the "Silver Fern" when, in reality, he'd rather we adopted the Stars & Stripes where he and his asset stripping corporate raiders perfer to reside.

The Wholesale Sell off of State Assets has UK echoes

The economically irresponsible Key inspired sale of state assets to foreign asset strippers in the face of public resistance to the rape of the economy has echoes in the UK as Cameron & Clegg pursue a similar policy.

All one needs to do is replace the smug faces of Cameron & Osborne with those of Key and English or Joyce and the caption remains appropriate.

Why we should oppose The GCSB Bill in brief

This cartoon from The UK Guardian succinctly sums up why we should continue to oppose the PinoKeyo initiative to increase the spying capabilitry of the GCSB.

This could be John Key on any day instructing the spy agencies what can or cannot be seen by NZers who value a free society.

Judging by the number of heavily censored documents that are released only after an Official Information Act request the Key led National-ACT government operates behind closed doors and with a total lack of transparency or honesty when dealing with the NZ public.

One only has to recall the Sale of NZ Labour Laws to Warner Bros and now the secret shonkey deal with SkyCity Casinos to see why Key, as he channels the less attractive aspects of Holland and Muldoon, would want such legislation available to him in NZ.

RUMOURS OF LETTER CIRCULATING IN NATIONAL CAUCUS RIFE!!!

Following on the beat up by Duncan Garner last night in which he promoted a malicious rumour circulated by the well known rumour tosser Whale Oil ( http://thestandard.org.nz/much-a-coup-about-nothing/) a new and more credible rumour of a letter being circulated among the National Caucus to unseat John Pinnochio Key has surfaced in the local electorate.

Apparently the letter, written by Slater and Lusk and circulated by the local MP, is designed to hasten the elevation of Judith Collins and Anne Tolley (known in local National-ACT circles as the ABC {All Behind Collins } group) as National Party Leader and deputy Leader after top secret internal National Party polling revealed that Key and English were perceived as being weak on dealings with Gambling bosses and had caved in on funding Auckland transport schemes supported by the arch enemy of the National-ACT party- Len Brown.

Watch out for and listen to Patrick Gower and Duncan Garner on TV3 tonight as they breathlessly uncover the truth about this dastardly plot to unseat the "beloved leader". (PS: the transcript of the interview follows. )
We are expecting Garner to interview the mischief makers at the centre of the coup plot - known as the ABKs- and extract details behind this exercise in self preservation among members on the right of the National-ACT party.

Why John Key is starting to lose his teflon image.

 John "PinoKeyo" Key is beginning to walk into the second part of  Carlo Callodi's  cautionary tale of the wooden puppet who wanted to play on a real stage as his manufactured reputation as the truthfull teflon Prime Minister begins to unravel.

The evidence to support the reasons that underpin the report from the Fairfax-Ipsos poll confirming the slide in the public's opinion of Key's trustworthiness and truthfullness can be summed up in these NZ Herald cartoons.

 Primary reason- selling the State Assets to his foreign asset stripping corporate cronies in a cynical decision to enrich the wealth gathering few.

 Second reason: His readiness to make back room deals with foreign corporates from Warner Bros, to Casino companies,  questionable Charter School companies  and, with Steven Joyce and Simon Bridges, Big Oil companies while over-riding due process and parliamentary scrutiny.

The artifical construst of Key as a trustworthy Prime Minister was always one that needed questioning and scrutiny. Unfortunately for NZ that scrutiny has been a long time coming and may not be enough to stop the mad cap asset stripping and undermining of the social welfare system schemes that are feature of the National-ACT government.

Super City - disposal of Assets

The latest Cabinet briefing paper on Local Body Reform does not bode well for the residents and ratepayers of N.Z. cities and towns. If the definition of core services is as narrow as reports indicate (local roading, water, sewage, rubbish disposal ) then expect to see your local council gutted and your local ratepayer purchased assets disposed of in a fire sale to any bidder who may appear and expect those assets that do not provide a rapid return to the private / foreign owner who may appear from either increased charges or restructuring and part sale of spun off "companies" or that which can be transformed into businesses to be run down and slowly but surely disappear as community services.
Watch out for libraries, community halls, art galleries, museums, swimming pools..., to be the first services to be affected. The rhetoric of ACT lovcal body councillors in the Eastern Suburbs and those of the Key favoured mayor for the Hide created Auckland would indicate that their philosophy is "I'm a moneyed philistine who doesn't use the public library / community services .. so why should anyone else have to need to use these services?"
Remember that it was John Banks and the Citizens & Ratepayers who were responsible for the disposal of community housing in Auckland before the Hubbard mayorality. It was also John Banks who wanted the Council to invest in V8 street racing at the Ratepayers expense with no reward to the Ratepayers. Remember it is the John Banks lead group in the present Council who appear to think that Mobile Library services are not core business activities for the Council.

To advocate referenda on the activities of the Councils but to deny the ratepayer citizens of greater Auckland the chance to vote on the wisdom of high cost spending to destroy the administration infrastructure of Auckland is a further demonstration of the dictatorial policy processes we are seeing in the Engkeylish government and must be opposed at all costs if we are to retain our sense of community and participation in the activities of our cities and towns.

The Pretender's new clothes

Over recent months the media has been fascinated by the emergence of the latest pretender to leadership of the National Party. Their fascination has spilled over to the polls in what has been recognised by researchers in the USA as the bias effect.
The research showed that the repetition of poorly researched and quickly read news articles were more readily assimilated than articles that required the reader to critically assess the information put in front of them. Thus the 8 second sound bite of the TV and the "short snappy" head and sub head of the newspaper distorted the information available and resulted in a mis-reading of the actuality being reported.

So it has been with the representation of the leadership and policies of the National Party. Since the unseating of Don Brash the spin doctors have been dressing John Key in clothes borrowed from past successful Labour campaigns.
The one that generated the initial media fascination with Key was the visit to "struggle" street and the "adoption" of a young Polynesian girl as an introduction to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Here the National Party was borrowing the cloak of Norm Kirk whose working class credentials were considerably more credible than any pretended by the National Party leadership.

When Norm Kirk walked onto the Treaty Grounds with the young Maori boy he did it from instinct, from his own sense of right and acknowledgment of the connection between himself and the people. For the National Party the occasion had to be manufactured with Key positioning himself as "champion of those on struggle street" and then, amid a flurry of press releases and spin, taking the daughter of a street resident to Waitangi to emulate the iconography of Kirk's instinctive and natural action. The media loved it because the journalists covering the "media event" lacked the historical memory that would have triggered warning lights in the eyes of experienced reporters.

If one compares the two situations one can see the difference in style, in attitude, in relationship and understanding of occasion between Kirk, the working class man of the people, and Key, the pretender.
As the posed photo-opportunity on the bridge to Waitangi, the carefully chosen T-shirt with its "culturally sensitive" icon and the deliberately "casual" clothing all demonstrate the influence of the Public Relations / Advertising agency spin doctor on the situation.
Soon after the frenzy of Waitangi Key was filmed for a TV interview springing up the steps of Parliament Buildings in emulation of the Bob Harvey inspired 1969 campaign film of Norm Kirk presenting himself as the leader of the Labour Party.
For anyone with a long political memory the spin doctoring was obvious. Here was Key and his political dressers raiding the wardrobe to clothe their man and, by association, give him the clothes that would "soften" the image of the money-man, the financial mover and shaker who had been in the employ of the speculators who had profited during the "free-market" buccaneering days of Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson.
The political cynicism and crass manipulation of the National Party spin doctors was evident and to become more and more obvious as the campaign to make their leader and their policies appear palatable evolved.
The pretender was to pick and choose his new clothes as the occasion suited.... at some point the clothes would prove not to be a good fit and the insincerity of the campaign would be revealed.