The Anti Smacking bill was passed on motivation by party whips, like the Anti Smacking law, the Education imposition was passed in the face of majority opposition from parents. And now a bargain on dishing out a knighthood surely proves the man is a one man democratic nation.

He is basically running the country by himself, his way…

Keep dreaming, mate. Neville Key is as ordinary as the greasiest fish and chips you can buy.
He’ll play to the masses until the last moment. He and his spineless party will never rock the boat and undertake the radical reforms our country needs.

Each country get the government it desrvers.

I think New Zealanders have a greater capacity for change and new ideas than the politicians gives them credit for. We’ve been there before. I just wish John Keyless would use some of his popularity to make a case for radical change in NZ. There’s no honour in being a popular PM who does nothing much, particularly when there’s so much to do. Steady-as-she-goes is not an option. We’ve nearly fallen out the bottom of the OECD.

I was at the Backbencher the other night for Backbenchers. Roger Douglas was there at the ACT table (plus some very pretty ACT groupies). The rest of the place was full of Sue Bradford supporters. Depressing to see so many economically illiterate people, surrounding one of the few recent politicians with any good ideas.

Ideals don’t apply.

No its not. Principle not party.

Yes, Key et al need to do more, a lot lot lot more, that’s true.

But we’re dealing with an electorate who are almost totally ignorant of economic mechanisms and what it’s like to live in a world where forces beyond your control directly influence your destiny.

Australia is where it is because it focuses on the US and on SE Asia and it has direct influences from both those nations. UK has Europe and an institutional memory of being a world power with all that entails.

We have neither. Our biggest influence for most people is the stock quotes flashed up at 6:15 every night and that’s about it. Ask your average punter who’s not self-employed what this nation’s economic drivers and greatest opportunities and threats are and they don’t have a fucking clue.

That’s a real shame and although these reef-fish also exist in great numbers in other countries, at least in those countries there’s a realism bought about by proximity and importantly, enough people in the population with a 3-digit IQ who can drag the rest of them into a realistic worldly perspective.

Unfortunately we don’t have any of those factors here and furthermore, we’ve just had nine years of clever and sinister lefty propaganda that has markedly skewed the field, leftward.

This is the reality and correcting this oil tanker’s trajectory is not a simple or quick matter. In this country we have a very high relative proportion of leftists inhabiting the deepest levels of the education, media and political bureaucracy. They squeal like stuck pigs the instant any rational business-friendly policy settings are promulgated. They’re planting the seeds in the reef-fish. Given all of this, this country is pretty screwed and it’s amazing that despite this, the polls continue to show such strong support for the Nats.

Consequently they have to tread softly because you watch what happens to their support the instant they don’t. On balance however, it’s better to have these guys in power than the alternative, is it not?

Yes, I agree. But, how couldn’t he avoid it with the miserable existence he lives?

Fulminating / ranting / excoriating others for eating meat, for being achievers, for not being idlers like him, for not worshipping Gaia, in other words for living normal lives, seems to be his daily obssession.

I despise bludgers like him.

I think I’m more exasperated with New Zealanders than John Keyless. Politicians your deserve, and all that.

..and steering the country through and (he hopes) out of economic recession as crucial in consolidating support for his party.

What? Borrowing a billion a month because they’re too spineless and unprincipled to reduce government spending and euthanise even one of Helen’s legacy of useless quangos, commissions and government bulge. They’d rather mortgage NZ’s future than countenance a drop in the polls.

Pull your finger out, Johnboy. Stop thinking about your ratings and start thinking about New Zealand. Do you want to remembered as the popular man who did nothing to stop the slide, or the man who turned the ship around?

Let’s have a few targets and regular updates on progress: Govt spending as % of GDP, Welfare spending as % of GDP, etc.

Oh, and please tell Bill English to shut up about productivity and catching up with Australia until one of you actually does something substantive to achieve that aim. Talk is cheap.

Hey Maxie, get some perspective. “The right” don’t think National are much different to Labour, and view them as just another bunch of regulating self serving trough feeding socialists /Progressives.

The main difference is Labour had a plan, an objective, and were working towards that objective. Key and his hangers on don’t have a clue.

last heard coming outa phil goofs office in the beehive

” nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo”……