Garth George proposes gay marriage to John Key

Garth George writes in the Herald:

It comes as no surprise that John Key and National remain top of the political pops a year into their reign. That’s pretty much all down to Mr Key, a Prime Minister the like of whom we have never seen.

I have met almost every prime minister since Sid Holland led the first National Government elected in 1949, and none of them resembles today’s incumbent.

Now I quite like John Key myself, but this sounds like a serious boy crush. Garth should just ask Bronagh directly if she is okay with him dating John also.

But that really sums up Mr Key. He is a man of the people, as yet unspoiled by the poisonous atmosphere of power politics, and in spite of his position and spectacular wealth remains one of us.

He is every bit at home in the company of a class of primary schoolkids as he is with the man and woman in the street, or in the company of the world’s high and mighty. He is amiable, engaging, good-natured, highly intelligent, humorous and, most of all, unaffected.

You feel comfortable in his presence; there is no “side” to him, no insistence on protocol, no efforts to protect him from the hoi polloi. And one of his most attractive traits, which he makes no effort to hide, is his unbridled enthusiasm for, and utter delight in, being Prime Minister.

Garth is right that Key has not changed greatly since becoming PM. Many media have remarked on this.

The enthusiasm for the job may well be part of his popularity, as it does not come across as enthusiasm for power in its own right. Helen Clark often said she enjoyed the job massively, but her public persona was almost that it was an obligation she had to endure to make life better for us all.

Unlike so many of our leading politicians in recent times, he has not graduated from the schoolroom or the lecture hall or the law office into politics, but has achieved significant personal success in the real world.

Thus he is short on theory and long on practice, and his readiness to admit to making a mistake or an error of judgment, so rare in politics, is just another quality appreciated by us Kiwis. He doesn’t U-turn; he simply closes one door and opens another.

Umm, I’m not sure calling a u-turn a nicer name, means it is not a u-turn!

Where I do agree, is that Key does not see a compromise as a sign of weakness. His commercial background has him seeing it as how you make progress.

Nor is he – as so many wealthy people are – miserly. He is reported to give freely to charitable causes, and insists on paying for his wife to accompany him when he has to travel overseas.

As a proud New Zealander, this makes me cringe. He is our Prime Minister, the chief executive of our nation’s business amounting to much more than $100 billion. He is, by private business standards, paid a pittance in salary and expenses.

As our principal face to the world, he should always travel in style, first class all the way, and should be able to take his wife, and even family, with him if he chooses – all at the Government’s expense.

And he should also be able to have an annual triumph, with the government paying for four sacrificial white bulls,  and giving him the right to execute his chief opponent he has vanquished. Also one slave to be supplied to whisper “Respica te, hominem te memento” in his ear.

Mr Key is an avid fan of the All Blacks, a frequent attendee at their games and a regular, potently encouraging presence in their dressing room.

He just sneaks in to gaze at Dan Carter in his jockeys.

This is a political stratagem of astounding brilliance. For if the All Blacks win the World Cup on October 20, 2011, New Zealanders will be in such a state of euphoria that National will stroll over the line in early in November.

If John is betting the entire election on the All Blacks winning the Rugby World Cup, that must be why he has promised Richie McCaw a Knighthood, if the All Blacks win 🙂