The Unity Ticket
Gerry Brownlee will not restand for Deputy Leader, which means a unity tickey of John Key and Bill English will be elected annointed on Monday. This is a very good outcome for Caucus and the Party, while somewhat tough on Gerry who I think has put in a damn good performance this year, It’s just the reality of politics, that sometimes you move sideways. In the long term I think Gerry will gain kudos for his decision.
My expectations is Bill will be Deputy and Finance, with Gerry No 3 and still Shadow Leader. Beyond that I won’t guess!
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Tags: National
November 27th, 2006 at 7:29 am
This makes voting National a realistic option for me, something it never was under Brash.
I would like to see Katherine Rich higher placed – she was rather unfairly dumped for daring to disagree with Dr Brash in her own portfolio. She was doing good and thoughtful work there before Dr Brash started advocating hard-line welfare policies.
But who is the best choice for working up a good relationship with the Maori party. The National party has a very solid history of working with Maori, and there’s no reason they can’t build on that so that the Maori party becomes a realistic coalition option.
November 27th, 2006 at 7:46 am
And the slightest hint of dealing with a race based party with a race agenda will shut the door on National for a lot of other people.
The whole thing might work better for National if they got policies and bloody stuck to them rather doing a wind direction check every morning before stating what the position of the day is.
November 27th, 2006 at 7:54 am
There will be a huge sense of satisfaction in the National Party after many many years of coups the party is able to settle its team, the dream team professionally. The party has not been able to do this since 1974!!!! when Muldoon rolled Jack Marshall. National is the natural party of Government and we only get Labour Governments when there is a problem in the National Party. There is no room for arrogance and complacency, the Clark team is formidable but THEY are the weird sect. John Key is a brillent deal marker, the absolutely perfect politican for MMP politics. He will grab the reins of power from Clark and she will not know it has happened.
November 27th, 2006 at 7:55 am
I don’t really understand this – English will be seen as a has-been. Why not be prgamatic and say sorry you guys we know you work hard but we really want power next time. So stick in someone like Collins as deputy, who is not scared of giving the old one fingereed salute to liarbour, to capture the women’s vote.
Don’t understand hardline on welfare – if you mean backing off from making people work for the benefit and keeping benefit levels well below what workers get then National will sure as hell loose my vote.
We’re seriously running out of time to use this money to stimulte productivity. Imagine what infrastruture we could have if over the last 40 years people had to work for the dole. Its archaic and unfair for them to sit round not contributing – its lunacy! Even the democrats are against it.
Read “history of working with Maori” “history of giving in to Maori”
November 27th, 2006 at 8:00 am
What will English’s appointment for good MPs like Brash, McCully, Nick Smith and Maurice Williamson?
November 27th, 2006 at 8:01 am
What will English’s appointment mean for good MPs like Brash, McCully, Nick Smith and Maurice Williamson?
November 27th, 2006 at 8:03 am
Tell you what, Porcupine and Murray. Why don’t you vote for Act? That will give National a coalition partner on the right, as it moves to retake the centre ground it has lost to Labour under the Brash leadership.
It’s an MMP environment, ladies and gentlemen, and the sooner National starts working with that, rather than against it, the better.
November 27th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Porcupine – while many may see English as yesterday’s man, he has been one of the star turns for National in the last couple of years. His pre-election pressure on Mallard and Benson-Pope over school closures, NCEA and the Wananga were telling, and he has kept the pressure on Maharey this term. Rather than going away and sulking after being rolled, he has worked hard, and his elevation is deserved.
November 27th, 2006 at 8:08 am
One thng is clear there is no room in the Key National Party for petty personal agendas. There is one target and that is the political destruction of Helen Clark and the Labour Party. Hopefully for a very very long time. Gerry Brownlee has made that clear with his statement and everyone else will fall into line including the wider National Party. The next stage is for John Key to sort out the weaknesses in the volunteer side of the Party. He will do that skillfully. He brillent deal maker and manager of people.
November 27th, 2006 at 8:14 am
National has always been a coalition of interests, an at times uneasy alliance between conservatives and liberals. Most current commentators seem to have overlooked this.
Of course, there are also the right wing anarchists, and the right wing statists. The latter are always a fringe minority, and the former had mostly moved out to Act. Brash was a bit of an aberration, in that his faction has seldom been in control.
It’s the liberals and conservatives that have more middle ground appeal, not the fringe.
I don’t really know what Key’s beliefs are. It will be interesting to see them emerge.
November 27th, 2006 at 8:31 am
I see Key is being positioned to carry the can for the whole sorry fiasco. How long before he is rolled, and English reclaims the leadership?
November 27th, 2006 at 8:39 am
John Key believes in the National Party values and he will give a short statement on that I understand today. That is more than enough for me. What does the Labour Party stand for – envy, fear, excuses for failure.
November 27th, 2006 at 8:50 am
We are the centre ground!
Lets face it we’re all workers – if you want power you need to appeal to us – median income and up a bit $30-90K workers who cant stand the shambles the country is in form succesive L and N govts..
If your on $300K and you want national in to give you and extra 10K in your pocket and hou salve your conscience by letting people get more that the median income by doing nothing – then your a Remuera socialist and you can FO to another party.
November 27th, 2006 at 8:57 am
It’s the liberals and conservatives that have more middle ground appeal, not the fringe.”
But all change comes from the ideas promoted by the fringe, not the long dead road kill in the “centre” (stagnant)
Theres an old saying…”cut out the middle man”.If you want to change things then the middle is the wrong place to be.
Nationals revival in the last couple of years is due to taking ACT’s policies and making them their own…and people responded positivly!See the polls.More people voted for tax cuts than against at the last election. The mood in this country is right for a harder line on sepratist Maori rascist bullshit, welfare dependancy and the PC invasion into more and more areas of our lives.
Revelution is brewing…does National/ACT have the nerve to stick to principle and ride that baby into office in 08?
November 27th, 2006 at 9:03 am
Exactly James. lets let the “polls” decide.
Will you be riding high like after Orewa, or will you languish 1-2% ahead of labour looking for a “coalition partner” like a pck of pussies?
Who votes labour – highly paid academics and those fed intravenously by the government.
Who votes National low to middle income people who pay for all this crap – they’re as sick as hell of cronyism.
November 27th, 2006 at 9:38 am
So Bill English has ‘blackmailed’ himself into number 2 in return for not contesting the leader vote. How real is this ?. he is obviously angling for the top job again. At least gerry wasnt leadership material in the public eye but certainly made a good Dean of the 3rd form – meaning the new MPs.
So National now has an untested new leader, a old leader who resigned under a cloud, a dumped leader whos wants a comeback and half the caucus who have only been there for 12 months.
Tim Barclay is wildly enthusiastic about this lot taking government in the next 3 months.
It will all fall apart .. again.. before the next election
November 27th, 2006 at 9:53 am
Porcy’s prediction
National, put your policy on one side of an A4 sheet, appeal to the middle, and you’ll get power.
Keep your prommises to the middle kiwi.
If not we’ll have 20 years of one term governments just like Auckland has had 20 years of one-term lying mayors!
November 27th, 2006 at 10:14 am
Im with porcupine. I couldnt believe it when I heard English being touted Its bad enough that the Socialists will label Key as inexperienced but now they have the double Yesterdays man A dumped failed has been leader.Clark and Cullen will be licking their lips waiting to attack in the House. The Nats need a wimmin to get the female vote Thats where they have lost out in the past 3 elections.A Key Rich ticket would give them a fighting chance come 2008.Now they will struggle.
November 27th, 2006 at 10:17 am
Frankly for an inexperienced politician, Key’s at the last election dealt with both Clark and the snide little shit from Hawks Bay with relative ease, I don’t see he will need to much media coaching from here.
In Bill Englishes case, he is a very good Lieutenant, and this is what a good captain needs!
November 27th, 2006 at 10:25 am
gd,
I’m not convinced you are right about the Key/English combination.
English did very well under Bolger & Shipley, looked a rising star, right up until he took over from Shipley. Then he came accross as pretty hopeless as a leader.
After he was ousted by Brash, English suddenly started performing well again. He has been a real thorn in Labour’s side, has been convincing in the House and on TV.
I don’t think he is Leader material. He is a very good senior party MP, and potentially a very good deputy leader. A leader does not always make a good deputy, and a deputy does not always make a good leader- the skills & temperement needed for each position are different.
Only time will tell, but, given the fact that English performs best when he is not leader, the Key/English combination may work, and if it does, it is likely to work very well.
November 27th, 2006 at 10:29 am
gd,
just another comment, if my wife’s opinion is anything to go by (she is very level headed, and has almost no interest in politics), after 3 terms of Clark, there is a strong feeling that another woman leader is the LAST thing they want.
November 27th, 2006 at 10:49 am
National needs to bring back Georgina! Key has a clean slate with the general public, and he needs to immediately make a strong statement distancing the new leadership from previous ‘Maori-bashing’ comments. These comments (however well intended they were), were IMHO, one of the big reasons that women turned away from voting National.
November 27th, 2006 at 10:50 am
Little bird has just told me the waterfront stadium is a go, irrelevant of what comes out of this mornings caucus meeting!
Is this any surprise?
November 27th, 2006 at 11:04 am
National needs to bring back Georgina! Key has a clean slate with the general public, and he needs to immediately make a strong statement distancing the new leadership from previous ‘Maori-bashing’ comments. These comments (however well intended they were), were IMHO, one of the big reasons that women turned away from voting National.”
Meaning that women must pig ignorant twats who can’t think….God Jen what a load of shit.Plenty of women i know as well as heard on radio etc agrreed wholeheartly with Brash and his anti racist comments.Apartheid is a Labour policy….not Nationals.
November 27th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Brash should be finance. English was Minister of Finance before, but given that Bill Birch was Treasurer (this was after the NZ First coalition breakdown), this is not significant and let’s face it, Brash knows more about this than all other MPs put together.
The Nats have stabbed in the back the man who rescued them from oblivion and will now promote the man who led them to the worst result in 60 years. English has been useful in education – he should stick with it.
I suspect the Nats will now adopt the UK Tory strategy – sell out everything and simply look like a less sleazy/lie filled version of the government.
November 27th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
Bring back Ruth Richardson and Jenny Shipley to finish the job they started under Bolger.
November 27th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Actually, while we have good policy advisers in Treasury it is a waste to have Don Brash locked up with the nuts and bolts of the Finance portfolio.
As an economist he knows what makes an economy tick and knows much about the efficient use of assets. Hence I would prefer him to be shadow Minister of Economic Development where (like Jim Anderton) he could shape the portfolio to his own image and also make that Ministry responsible for the RMA, and have either key or associate responsibilities in SOEs, Crown Land, and Energy.
This would give him more room to make a difference that Finance assuming that National continues to advocate lower spending and taxes.
November 27th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Actually, while we have good policy advisers in Treasury it is a waste to have Don Brash locked up with the nuts and bolts of the Finance portfolio.
As an economist he knows what makes an economy tick and knows much about the efficient use of assets. Hence I would prefer him to be shadow Minister of Economic Development where (like Jim Anderton) he could shape the portfolio to his own image and also make that Ministry responsible for the RMA, and he could have either key or associate responsibilities in SOEs, Crown Land, and Energy.
This would give him more room to make a difference than in Finance assuming that National continues to advocate lower spending and taxes.
November 27th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Culma – your little bird has as much credibility as the National Party…….
November 27th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Oh Owen would they be the same good policy advisers who are busy down in Wellington right know talking to our (workers ha ha) government and big business how to screw us sensless with carbon taxes?
From the Royal Society of NZ news watch:
Business lobby seeks carbon price, ban on inefficient vehicles
Ministers, business executives discuss possible carbon trading regimes
at the Energy Future Forum
Oh really and we’re supposed to trust these people with our future!
No thanks.
November 28th, 2006 at 12:30 am
Owen, you make a fair point. MED is far more filled with left leaning interventionists, although the Finance portfolio is worth far far more than any others. It would easy enough for Treasury to take control of economic policy again. Remember, just because Anderton is Minister of Economic Development has meant little in energy, communications and trade policy – though it does not mean that Brash couldn’t have all of those.
Of course the Economic Development portfolio should go – it is a Labour/Alliance creation which should be replaced by Commerce once more.
June 12th, 2007 at 7:14 am
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