Does it make you want to vomit as well?
We have had to put up with him for a year already and it is interesting that our first post shares the day with the one year anniversary that John Key and his Cabinet were sworn in. Despite the fact that I certainly don’t agree with his actions, at least he must have achieved something, right?
Wrong! Even his staff haven’t bothered to make something up to go on his wikipedia page, under his “Prime Minister” section is only mentions 5 things, he won 45% of the party vote, he was sworn in on the 19/11/08, for his first trip overseas as PM he went to APEC, he appropriated $50Million for the cycleway and his electorate office had a motolov cocktail thrown thrown through the window. That what wikipedia says, not much really considering that two of those things are to do with him becoming PM, one of them is about someone not liking him and the other two are actions which considering we are in a recession are extremely trivial.
Mr. Hyde seemed to agree that he hasn’t done anything, but I think it is a little harsh considering he had to distance himself from the failure that was the Mt. Albert campaign, a rouge minister who had to resign and the rest of the caucus disobeying his tough line on partners traveling the world and playing up like children in a playground. In all honesty it has not been a great year for the National Party to do with achievements, but I will hand it too them that their spin doctors do an OK job in making it all pleasant for the 6 o’clock news.
For youth however, as Fran Sullivan pointed out the other day, there is little sugar coating that can be done to make the message about youth unemployment any less bitter and to top it off (if you remember) one of the first actions of the Government was to chuck workers rights out the window with the 90 day Fire at Will stuff. That legislation will do nothing to stop the problem and it will, in fact, add to the amount of young people that are being sacked.What amazes me is that the Right talk about it like they have been doing some great stuff, lies lies lies!
It is only a year until election year rolls around, lets just hope that by then the public, particularly youth, will wake up to the Tories.
Here’s to the first post!
21 Comments so far
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Hate to be a spoil-sport but: do you think that 59.9% of New Zealanders might know better than you… Just a thought!
Comment by kiwiteen123 November 19, 2009 @ 7:52 pmDo you think that maybe only 3% of the country think about politics more then in the election year and actually know what happens in Parliament? Just a though. Who says the majority of the 59.9% are just misinformed?
Comment by liverouge November 19, 2009 @ 10:05 pmWhat are you proposing? That all New Zealanders that do not think about politics shouldn’t be allowed to vote?
Comment by kiwiteen123 November 20, 2009 @ 6:04 pmWelcome to what could be a great blog
Comment by Trevor Mallard November 19, 2009 @ 8:25 pmThanks Trevor!
Comment by liverouge November 19, 2009 @ 10:02 pmNo problem. Nice to see you finally have your own blog Mr Sleep.
Comment by Trevor Mallard November 19, 2009 @ 10:14 pmHi Trevor,
Can’t say this one is mine, but it’s good to see some other Young Labour people have taken the initiative.
Comment by James Sleep November 19, 2009 @ 10:43 pmSo. I note civil liberties in your keywords. Thoughts on the October 15th raids and the impact that’s had on the activist left?
Also, you misspelt the word political.
Comment by Ian Anderson November 19, 2009 @ 10:56 pmBut he’s achieved so much!
90-day fire at will act, reducing ACC cover to put profitability back into the work accident industry, converting the Emissions Trading Scheme to an Exporter’s Trainwreck Scheme to maximally capitalise on NZ’s image before world trade collapses from global warming issues, got thermal generation capacity back on the road map to ensure this, banning gang patches – hasn’t that been successful – scrapping biofuel regulations, shutting down biofuel companies, re-instituting national standards on education to put competition back into the education sector…
Don’t forget that cycleway brick he laid!
But most importantly, he has achieved…
Endorsement of corrupt behaviour by cabinet officials. You can already see Labour MPs licking their lips at the low bar this sets for their behaviour.
Comment by Sam Vilain November 19, 2009 @ 11:17 pmErrr, Mount Albert wasn’t a failure for National. It was quite an eye opener seeing Labour having to fly in activists from as far as Dunedin to campaign for them, in what should have been their safest seat. Mt Albert was Labour in full panic mode – for no particular reason but to create a “victory” for Labour in the midst of terrible polling and a humiliating election result.
Comment by Clint November 19, 2009 @ 11:36 pmHaha Clint, you know full well that Labour didn’t “have” to fly us in. We chose to go as it would be a positive experience.
If losing ground in a seat isn’t failure for National, I’m not sure what is.
Comment by Septo November 20, 2009 @ 10:01 pmThe question begs – no matter how you try and brush it under the carpet – why did Wellington and Otago Labour members need to go? Why weren’t all these “positive experiences” learned for much cheaper during the election campaign only a few months beforehand?
Labour pulled all the stops out and looked remarkably desperate in a seat that Helen had nurtured pretty well. A bit of an overkill don’t you think?
Comment by Clint November 20, 2009 @ 11:59 pmGreat to see a new blog. Am sure there will be good discussion happening here. Pleased I can write a comment and see it published. Finding the “other new blog” a bit troublesome (the Nat one). But willing to give it a go.
Hope to have some cross fertilisation with Red Alert.
Comment by Clare Curran November 19, 2009 @ 11:55 pmClare
Welcome to the blogosphere
Great first post, hope to see much more of the same!
Comment by rocky November 20, 2009 @ 12:31 amInteresting that Key’s Wikipedia page seems to be infrequently updated.
I would note, however, that Phil Goff’s page is equally unloved: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Goff
Comment by G November 20, 2009 @ 8:55 amRemoved-Trolling
Comment by Uncle Helen November 20, 2009 @ 11:29 amLove that you don’t require people to ‘register’. What’s that for anyway -discouraging posting? Hope your moderation level enables and encourages all political opinions to be expressed -unlike NACT sites.
Comment by Linda November 20, 2009 @ 5:58 pmLinda, what ACT site requires you to register? The only sites I have trouble with are Labour afilliated ones and NRT who doesn’t even allow comments.
Comment by clintheine November 20, 2009 @ 9:06 pmBTW was nice to see Pete get hammered in the house today, not a bad call from a Nat regarding immigration policy. OUCH
Comment by clintheine November 20, 2009 @ 9:07 pmPersonally, I prefer vert ministers to rouge.
Comment by Kadin November 27, 2009 @ 1:56 pmNeville Chamberlain no 2? Yep, I dream of Labour making a huge come-back, I don’t care who leads Labour, what is it with National and their hard-nosed right to rule? The media are not helpful either, Key has gotten an easy ride so far.
Comment by Patsy December 17, 2009 @ 5:52 pm