4 May 2010
John Key, Part LXXIV
A Fatuous Conniver, or Consummate Politician?
I believe the evidence of 2 years of Key-mania, the answer is that he is both - a consummate pollie and a fatuous twat.
As a politician, he managed to take over the party which has seen itself as the natural party of government for most of the 20th century, despite having no political experience and in fact, having no experience of anything outside of money markets. It's not as though he would have been hired as CEO of a non-finance company when he quit the world of international treasury operations - Key is no David Kirk, and look how his political career went!
This completely vindicates the assertion that Key is an outstanding political talent. In the days of shouting your message from the hustings, Key wouldn't have made it past the first heckler; his understated (read: wimpy) deliver style would have made him a laughing stock. Oldsters who remember Wallace Rowling and Jack Marshall will know exactly what I mean.
However, we don't live in the days of the Town Hall meeting, we live in the days of saturation TV coverage and photo-opportunities, things at which Key is a master.
So why is such a successful politician, who has welded together teams as diverse as Maori and ACT to form a government, a vacuous nebbish?
Because he has no backbone.
Attacking cigarettes was easy, and even things like mining national parks are only red herrings. The real test of Key's manhood was the report on NZ alcohol attitudes and policy advice written by Geoffrey Palmer.
Palmer is a legendary genius who manages to rise above his own political colours, but despite National requesting the report, Key has shelved all of the recommendations.
Alcohol will continue to ruin countless thousands of lives, will scar thousands of families and will breed more generations of alcoholics, but Key will not make decisions which will cost him votes. Those of the anti-mining brigade weren't ever going to vote National; they are Green to the last pair of leather sandals.
Check out Key's real record, aside from grog, since the recession became evident:
The bike track. A joke.
The insulation scheme. A bigger joke, which enabled a few smart boys to get rich quick, but which has cost exponentially more than expected due to poor governance.
Property tax. Key had a golden opportunity to create a society aimed at home ownership rather than capital gains on property, but given the preponderance of National voters among landlords, no real changes are being made.
He makes the appropriate noises at the appropriate times, but Key's constant fudging shows that he only after votes to ensure his tenure - he is indeed the little boy who wanted to be Prime Minister, but he unfortunately has not a single clue on getting NZ to move in a direction.
Despite having one of the most popular governments in our history, we are rudderless, drifting through the 21st century as a young and talented sons and daughters move to the bright lights of UK and Australia.
At a time we need a leader, we get a bloke making photo-opportunities. Instead of a Kiwi bloke, we have some comb-over metrosexual with 2.4 children.
Copyright © Alan Charman