Wednesday, November 29, 2006
I've been thinking ... Prebble doesn't have a monopoly on this
Interesting to see John Key given free rein to make "mom-and-apple-pie" statements, and to distance himself from the Don, particularly vis-a-vis Orewa I. In fact, as Yamis observed in conversation earlier this week: so far, "he could be in the Labour Party."
Update: David Slack is thinking along similar lines, albeit with considerably more eloquence, and reference to his wonderful DuckSpeak Machine (TM). He also makes reference to Key's first armoured cheerleading division - y'know the same ones who proclaimed Don Brash to be the greatest thing since since Ruth Richardson up until about, oh, last Thursday.
Full credit to John for being able to answer a question directly (something Don seldom managed): on TV1 last night a reporter asked him "Do you agree that Maori receive special treatment in social services in this country?" (or words to this effect - I can't find the clip) and he quickly replied "No, I don't."
Err, ok, but your party has spent a good deal of the last three years telling the New Zealand public that they do. And your party experienced a spectacular revival in its fortunes based almost solely on expressing this message in the strongest possible terms (thus mixing a few useful observations into a deep barrel of dog-whistle politics). And to the extent that, say, there is still affirmative action in certain University programs, Maori clearly do receive "special" (i.e., preferential) treatment in certain areas.
Some good writing in the Guardian: Polly Toynbee observes that British fat-cats are much like their crony capitalist counterparts in New Zealand: whatever the state of the economy, and whatever their tax rate relative to that found elsewhere, they will complain and whine incessantly about being hard done-by and crippled by the weight of burdensome regulation. They are also "far too tribal" to acknowledge that Labour governments can coexist with successful economies.
And George Monbiot serves up a useful piece on "defence" spending in an era when actual threats to national security generally come from "people who plant bombs on trains", and against whom "submarines, destroyers, Eurofighters and anti-tank rounds are of precious little use."
Update: David Slack is thinking along similar lines, albeit with considerably more eloquence, and reference to his wonderful DuckSpeak Machine (TM). He also makes reference to Key's first armoured cheerleading division - y'know the same ones who proclaimed Don Brash to be the greatest thing since since Ruth Richardson up until about, oh, last Thursday.
Full credit to John for being able to answer a question directly (something Don seldom managed): on TV1 last night a reporter asked him "Do you agree that Maori receive special treatment in social services in this country?" (or words to this effect - I can't find the clip) and he quickly replied "No, I don't."
Err, ok, but your party has spent a good deal of the last three years telling the New Zealand public that they do. And your party experienced a spectacular revival in its fortunes based almost solely on expressing this message in the strongest possible terms (thus mixing a few useful observations into a deep barrel of dog-whistle politics). And to the extent that, say, there is still affirmative action in certain University programs, Maori clearly do receive "special" (i.e., preferential) treatment in certain areas.
Some good writing in the Guardian: Polly Toynbee observes that British fat-cats are much like their crony capitalist counterparts in New Zealand: whatever the state of the economy, and whatever their tax rate relative to that found elsewhere, they will complain and whine incessantly about being hard done-by and crippled by the weight of burdensome regulation. They are also "far too tribal" to acknowledge that Labour governments can coexist with successful economies.
And George Monbiot serves up a useful piece on "defence" spending in an era when actual threats to national security generally come from "people who plant bombs on trains", and against whom "submarines, destroyers, Eurofighters and anti-tank rounds are of precious little use."
Comments:
Post a Comment