Are you saying National has been too acidic ?
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That might be too subtle, my scientific comrade.
Bryce Edwards today, on Key's decision to look after No. 1.Quote:
We – the left, the progressive movement, pick your own label – now have our best chance in nearly a decade. Not just to win. Not just to get comfy in the back of a Crown limo or find out if the seats really are greener on the other side of the House. We can get a Labour-Green government which plans for the future and rebuilds New Zealand into a country which cares about people, leads the world in our response to climate change and growing corporate power, and promotes strong, progressive values over the nasty, cynical individualism of the right.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11761271
Yes accurate article about the Selfish Key by Bryce Edwards.
Key's selfish calculation
Key has probably seen the writing on the wall. The chances of winning a fourth election, and forming a government without Peters has been growing slimmer. He has therefore decided that it is better to get out now rather than have his legacy eroded by involvement in such failure and fracture.
Hence Key has made a decision based on his own needs - certainly not those of National. There is no doubt that National would have a better chance of winning a fourth term under Key's leadership than anyone else. His leadership is probably worth 3-5 percentage points for National. We might expect that a National Party under Bill English or Paula Bennett would struggle to get even 45 per cent of the party vote. So if Key really believed in helping keep Labour or New Zealand First out of office, he would have stayed to fight on.
Instead he's thrown a "hospital pass" to the rest of the caucus. Bill English will get the job as Prime Minister. He's probably got the best chance of keeping National in with a chance. And in the way that Key has timed his announcement - leaving his caucus only seven days to make a decision - and in his very significant endorsement of English, has effectively acted to keep any other rivals from taking the job.
New Zealand will remember John Key mostly as a successful prime minister. Part of this has been down to his strong forte in making political calculations. There should be no doubt that he used these skills in weighing up whether to go into a fourth election. And he has probably made the right call in judging that the risks to his legacy, reputation, and enjoyment in office were seriously negative if he stayed in the game. But the National Party might have reason to question the consequences of his latest decision
Tom Scott, good one.
I didn't realise that the main role of the PM was to stay popular?
You can do that by deferring the hard decisions till some later player - like superann.
Lambast Labour for the housing woes of the time then do nothing about them till they are much worse - look over there, move along nothing to see here.
He has done nothing to transform the economy - bring in more cheap labour doesn't a transformation make.
I agree dobby41, this now feels like a caretaker govt, ten years of treading water, rather than a progressive one.
I have to agree with Fran O'Sullivan too.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...+December+2016
Eight (more) wasted years
https://croakingcassandra.com/
Michael a good bloke so have a read - EZ should like it
Quote -
There has been no “very big step change” in our economic performance. What is worse perhaps, there has been no serious attempt to bring about such a change