Prime Minister John Key resigning New Zealand (24)
New Zealand prime minister John Key resigns
Key says he would vote for his deputy prime minister, Bill English, if he put his name forward for leader, after shock announcement that he is quitting
Elle Hunt and Eleanor Ainge Roy
Sunday 4 December 2016 23.30 EST
John Key, the New Zealand prime minister and leader of the National party, has resigned in a decision that has taken the country by surprise.
Key held a media conference in Wellington at 12.45pm local time, after informing the cabinet of his decision.
His resignation will be effective from 12 December, when National MPs will meet to select a new leader.
Key said he would vote for his deputy prime minister, Bill English, if he put his name forward. English briefly led the party to its worst-ever electoral defeat in the 2002 election, but has since served as a successful finance minister.
Key is widely regarded as one of the most popular prime ministers in New Zealand’s history. He was first elected in 2008, and recently marked his 10-year anniversary as leader of the National party.
He said stepping down was the hardest decision he had ever had to make, but there was “no way” he could have served a full fourth term.
This felt like the right time to go, he told reporters. “Sometimes you’ve got to make hard decisions to make right decisions,” he said, adding it was an opportunity to refresh the National party’s leadership of the country and hopefully clinch a fourth term.
“I think one of the reasons governments fail at that fourth-term hurdle is leaders don’t want to leave, everyone says ‘I’ve seen this before’. This is the chance to demonstrate newness about us.”
He said he had a “pretty long discussion” about standing for a fourth term with his wife, Bronagh Key. “I don’t feel comfortable looking down the barrel of the camera and not being honest ... On a family basis, I don’t think I could commit much longer than the next election.”
He denied that Bronagh had given him an ultimatum, but said his leadership had come at a cost to his family. “It’s been a decade of a lot of long, lonely nights for her and it’s the right time for me to come home.”
Analysis John Key kept the knife he reserved for himself perfectly concealed
Fittingly, as head of a party lauded for its ability to renew, Key edged himself out of the leadership before there was much speculation about his future.
His children, Max and Stephie, had suffered an “extraordinary level of intrusion” along with the opportunities that came with being New Zealand’s “first family”.
In the past year, Key has had to answer to questions about his son’s burgeoning career as a DJ and social media personality. Spending more time with his family was a major factor in his decision to stand down, he said.
Key said he believed the mark of a good prime minister was one who left the country “in better shape than they found it”.
“Over time others will judge whether I’ve done that. All I can say is I gave it everything I had. I have left nothing in the tank.”
One of his regrets was not getting the Trans-Pacific Partnership “over the line”, as well as his failed bid to change the flag.
He said he considered his economic management of the country as a mark of success, even though New Zealand had weathered some crises during his government, including the Canterbury earthquake and the Pike River mining disaster. “Very few countries are in the financial position we’re in.”
Read the rest of the article and tweets
Key says he would vote for his deputy prime minister, Bill English, if he put his name forward for leader, after shock announcement that he is quitting
Elle Hunt and Eleanor Ainge Roy
Sunday 4 December 2016 23.30 EST
John Key, the New Zealand prime minister and leader of the National party, has resigned in a decision that has taken the country by surprise.
Key held a media conference in Wellington at 12.45pm local time, after informing the cabinet of his decision.
His resignation will be effective from 12 December, when National MPs will meet to select a new leader.
Key said he would vote for his deputy prime minister, Bill English, if he put his name forward. English briefly led the party to its worst-ever electoral defeat in the 2002 election, but has since served as a successful finance minister.
Key is widely regarded as one of the most popular prime ministers in New Zealand’s history. He was first elected in 2008, and recently marked his 10-year anniversary as leader of the National party.
He said stepping down was the hardest decision he had ever had to make, but there was “no way” he could have served a full fourth term.
This felt like the right time to go, he told reporters. “Sometimes you’ve got to make hard decisions to make right decisions,” he said, adding it was an opportunity to refresh the National party’s leadership of the country and hopefully clinch a fourth term.
“I think one of the reasons governments fail at that fourth-term hurdle is leaders don’t want to leave, everyone says ‘I’ve seen this before’. This is the chance to demonstrate newness about us.”
He said he had a “pretty long discussion” about standing for a fourth term with his wife, Bronagh Key. “I don’t feel comfortable looking down the barrel of the camera and not being honest ... On a family basis, I don’t think I could commit much longer than the next election.”
He denied that Bronagh had given him an ultimatum, but said his leadership had come at a cost to his family. “It’s been a decade of a lot of long, lonely nights for her and it’s the right time for me to come home.”
Analysis John Key kept the knife he reserved for himself perfectly concealed
Fittingly, as head of a party lauded for its ability to renew, Key edged himself out of the leadership before there was much speculation about his future.
His children, Max and Stephie, had suffered an “extraordinary level of intrusion” along with the opportunities that came with being New Zealand’s “first family”.
In the past year, Key has had to answer to questions about his son’s burgeoning career as a DJ and social media personality. Spending more time with his family was a major factor in his decision to stand down, he said.
Key said he believed the mark of a good prime minister was one who left the country “in better shape than they found it”.
“Over time others will judge whether I’ve done that. All I can say is I gave it everything I had. I have left nothing in the tank.”
One of his regrets was not getting the Trans-Pacific Partnership “over the line”, as well as his failed bid to change the flag.
He said he considered his economic management of the country as a mark of success, even though New Zealand had weathered some crises during his government, including the Canterbury earthquake and the Pike River mining disaster. “Very few countries are in the financial position we’re in.”
Read the rest of the article and tweets
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Rumples: And the worrying thing is that unlike strongmen in other lands leading peasants who've never read Trumpsters will never become bright through reading. This being the difference between uneducated and badly-educated. There's no hidden Einsteins in trump's audience who've never been taught the basics of mathematics where Lenin and the bolsheviks taught peasants to read and found within these peasants people who could design rockets.
Trumpism really is a war on intelligence and once they've annihilated intelligence it's gone in our post-educated race. There's no intellectual potential within them - only the small amount provided by genetic randomness; your kids are only 95% sure to be dumb if you are dumb - and they have no one to land that man or mars or operate cern or do anything memorable. Because of this I can see America now entirely defaulting on its natural, lazy and walmart state.
Trumpism really is a war on intelligence and once they've annihilated intelligence it's gone in our post-educated race. There's no intellectual potential within them - only the small amount provided by genetic randomness; your kids are only 95% sure to be dumb if you are dumb - and they have no one to land that man or mars or operate cern or do anything memorable. Because of this I can see America now entirely defaulting on its natural, lazy and walmart state.
However, if Trump is shrewd and sticks to the basics - border issues and trade dealt with tactfully rather than rhetorically - there's a chance of not alienating the brilliant in a great wave of comman man mediocrity.
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Rumples: However, if Trump is shrewd and sticks to the basics - border issues and trade dealt with tactfully rather than rhetorically - there's a chance of not alienating the brilliant in a great wave of comman man mediocrity.
Common*
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there's a chance of not alienating the brilliant in a great wave of comman man mediocrity.”
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Rumples: However, if Trump is shrewd and sticks to the basics - border issues and trade dealt with tactfully rather than rhetorically - there's a chance of not alienating the brilliant in a great wave of comman man mediocrity.
Economically speaking we're damned if we do and damned if we don't. Leaving or staying within globalism means a worse(material)life for your children as there's no way of returning to the silliness and decadence of before. One way or another we will be meeting the developing world in the middle and what you got in return was cheap goods and a house you bought for a pittance and is now worth an excessively large amount - globalism provided a free lunch from the property market.
Yet it being safe to walk the streets at night, the culture, the atmosphere and having some pride in what you do are all things we can improve upon. Whatever it is about the modern world which has emotionally crippled people into voting Trump must be understood and to this end they must express themselves like an earthquake expresses itself.
We must deal with them with tolerance, understanding and the one thing many have spent their lives railing against: compassion. Like it or not we don't choose our roots or our people.
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Rumples: Economically speaking we're damned if we do and damned if we don't. Leaving or staying within globalism means a worse(material)life for your children as there's no way of returning to the silliness and decadence of before. One way or another we will be meeting the developing world in the middle and what you got in return was cheap goods and a house you bought for a pittance and is now worth an excessively large amount - globalism provided a free lunch from the property market.
Yet it being safe to walk the streets at night, the culture, the atmosphere and having some pride in what you do are all things we can improve upon. Whatever it is about the modern world which has emotionally crippled people into voting Trump must be understood and to this end they must express themselves like an earthquake expresses itself.
We must deal with them with tolerance, understanding and the one thing many have spent their lives railing against: compassion. Like it or not we don't choose our roots or our people.
Yet it being safe to walk the streets at night, the culture, the atmosphere and having some pride in what you do are all things we can improve upon. Whatever it is about the modern world which has emotionally crippled people into voting Trump must be understood and to this end they must express themselves like an earthquake expresses itself.
We must deal with them with tolerance, understanding and the one thing many have spent their lives railing against: compassion. Like it or not we don't choose our roots or our people.
Morally speaking to redress the blance of generational theft and also to help make America great again old people should be downsizing their properties and giving that money to productive young adults(i.e their kids). It's important that old people don't blow all their free lunch on cruises, imports and young foreign women - i.e. it's important that old people behave patrioitically instead of just talking nationalist - and share that free lunch with those footing the tab.
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Rumples: Morally speaking to redress the blance of generational theft and also to help make America great again old people should be downsizing their properties and giving that money to productive young adults(i.e their kids). It's important that old people don't blow all their free lunch on cruises, imports and young foreign women - i.e. it's important that old people behave patrioitically instead of just talking nationalist - and share that free lunch with those footing the tab.
Trumpy seems to have struck a balance between the two------ This thread is Archived ------
Great. Now we'll have yet another cuzzybro on the jam roll.
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Rumples: Morally speaking to redress the blance of generational theft and also to help make America great again old people should be downsizing their properties and giving that money to productive young adults(i.e their kids). It's important that old people don't blow all their free lunch on cruises, imports and young foreign women - i.e. it's important that old people behave patrioitically instead of just talking nationalist - and share that free lunch with those footing the tab.
Not your Money,Rumps!
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I'm curious Sophia - do you see yourself as among the brilliant that you refer to or more the mediocre common man that you refer to there ?
And do you really think the common man (ie one who is not of the elite) is lacking in intelligence, common sense , creativity etc ?
Key has followed closely the path of Tony Blair ... a non politician parachuted in to serve the US interests above the UK or NZ national interest and particularly the interests of the people.
Now, also like Blair, he's packed the job in leaving a mess behind himself, the ChCh situation is far from recovered, Kaikoura is a total mess, we have record levels of homelessness and a home purchase crisis, the health sector is close to crippled many in the country feel ignored and that the improvement of the nation has any place in his agenda ... just cook the books and make it easy for Intl Corporates
And he's supporting Bill 'The Blower' English ( The Spectacular Loser of 2002 ) to lead the party to defeat next year ( as did Blair nominate Brown ) Like the Tories in the UK, blow an election, leave the opposition to struggle with mess and then when they begin to achievbe anything claim it was a good situation inheritted from the previous govt! ( have you seenn latest quote from Politico mag - it already claims that Trump is inheritting "The Obama Boom )
I have an even more brilliant idea, so cunning that it would make even Blackadder and Baldrick sit up and pay attention with the cunningness of it's brilliance ...
Why not make Hekea Parata the interim PM ... she seems to enjoy being a stooge and has lots of experience of mucking things up and alienating people as her portfolio at Min of Education shows ?
She could become NZs legendary first woman PM and probably set women in politics back by a decade or more as well ensuring a certain National defeat next year?
Watcha think
And do you really think the common man (ie one who is not of the elite) is lacking in intelligence, common sense , creativity etc ?
Key has followed closely the path of Tony Blair ... a non politician parachuted in to serve the US interests above the UK or NZ national interest and particularly the interests of the people.
Now, also like Blair, he's packed the job in leaving a mess behind himself, the ChCh situation is far from recovered, Kaikoura is a total mess, we have record levels of homelessness and a home purchase crisis, the health sector is close to crippled many in the country feel ignored and that the improvement of the nation has any place in his agenda ... just cook the books and make it easy for Intl Corporates
And he's supporting Bill 'The Blower' English ( The Spectacular Loser of 2002 ) to lead the party to defeat next year ( as did Blair nominate Brown ) Like the Tories in the UK, blow an election, leave the opposition to struggle with mess and then when they begin to achievbe anything claim it was a good situation inheritted from the previous govt! ( have you seenn latest quote from Politico mag - it already claims that Trump is inheritting "The Obama Boom )
I have an even more brilliant idea, so cunning that it would make even Blackadder and Baldrick sit up and pay attention with the cunningness of it's brilliance ...
Why not make Hekea Parata the interim PM ... she seems to enjoy being a stooge and has lots of experience of mucking things up and alienating people as her portfolio at Min of Education shows ?
She could become NZs legendary first woman PM and probably set women in politics back by a decade or more as well ensuring a certain National defeat next year?
Watcha think
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HexagonKeySet: I'm curious Sophia - do you see yourself as among the brilliant that you refer to or more the mediocre common man that you refer to there ?
And do you really think the common man (ie one who is not of the elite) is lacking in intelligence, common sense , creativity etc ?
Key has followed closely the path of Tony Blair ... a non politician parachuted in to serve the US interests above the UK or NZ national interest and particularly the interests of the people.
Now, also like Blair, he's packed the job in leaving a mess behind himself, the ChCh situation is far from recovered, Kaikoura is a total mess, we have record levels of homelessness and a home purchase crisis, the health sector is close to crippled many in the country feel ignored and that the improvement of the nation has any place in his agenda ... just cook the books and make it easy for Intl Corporates
And he's supporting Bill 'The Blower' English ( The Spectacular Loser of 2002 ) to lead the party to defeat next year ( as did Blair nominate Brown ) Like the Tories in the UK, blow an election, leave the opposition to struggle with mess and then when they begin to achievbe anything claim it was a good situation inheritted from the previous govt! ( have you seenn latest quote from Politico mag - it already claims that Trump is inheritting "The Obama Boom )
I have an even more brilliant idea, so cunning that it would make even Blackadder and Baldrick sit up and pay attention with the cunningness of it's brilliance ...
Why not make Hekea Parata the interim PM ... she seems to enjoy being a stooge and has lots of experience of mucking things up and alienating people as her portfolio at Min of Education shows ?
She could become NZs legendary first woman PM and probably set women in politics back by a decade or more as well ensuring a certain National defeat next year?
Watcha think
And do you really think the common man (ie one who is not of the elite) is lacking in intelligence, common sense , creativity etc ?
Key has followed closely the path of Tony Blair ... a non politician parachuted in to serve the US interests above the UK or NZ national interest and particularly the interests of the people.
Now, also like Blair, he's packed the job in leaving a mess behind himself, the ChCh situation is far from recovered, Kaikoura is a total mess, we have record levels of homelessness and a home purchase crisis, the health sector is close to crippled many in the country feel ignored and that the improvement of the nation has any place in his agenda ... just cook the books and make it easy for Intl Corporates
And he's supporting Bill 'The Blower' English ( The Spectacular Loser of 2002 ) to lead the party to defeat next year ( as did Blair nominate Brown ) Like the Tories in the UK, blow an election, leave the opposition to struggle with mess and then when they begin to achievbe anything claim it was a good situation inheritted from the previous govt! ( have you seenn latest quote from Politico mag - it already claims that Trump is inheritting "The Obama Boom )
I have an even more brilliant idea, so cunning that it would make even Blackadder and Baldrick sit up and pay attention with the cunningness of it's brilliance ...
Why not make Hekea Parata the interim PM ... she seems to enjoy being a stooge and has lots of experience of mucking things up and alienating people as her portfolio at Min of Education shows ?
She could become NZs legendary first woman PM and probably set women in politics back by a decade or more as well ensuring a certain National defeat next year?
Watcha think
I don't get to vote, What they give is what we get.
See that's not right./ or left
I see English in with the westie chick, nice balance
Or blondie hard out with English as a 2nd
Yet he does the budget well.
Torturing a she is,shes too scary?
Maybe Prime!
Not sure she can gather the full want of New Zealanders.
Yet it is not us that vote.
Whatcha done johnny!
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sophiasummer: I don't get to vote, What they give is what we get.
See that's not right./ or left
I see English in with the westie chick, nice balance
Or blondie hard out with English as a 2nd
Yet he does the budget well.
Torturing a she is,shes too scary?
Maybe Prime!
Not sure she can gather the full want of New Zealanders.
Yet it is not us that vote.
Whatcha done johnny!
See that's not right./ or left
I see English in with the westie chick, nice balance
Or blondie hard out with English as a 2nd
Yet he does the budget well.
Torturing a she is,shes too scary?
Maybe Prime!
Not sure she can gather the full want of New Zealanders.
Yet it is not us that vote.
Whatcha done johnny!
Watcha done there sophia ... sure looks like you completely avoided answering the question ?
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It's astounding
Time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll...
Time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll...
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Yes, I can see that plain enough ;-)
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HexagonKeySet: Yes, I can see that plain enough ;-)
It's just a jump to the left.
and then a step to the right.
Oh blimey!
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sophiasummer: It's just a jump to the left.
and then a step to the right.
Oh blimey!
and then a step to the right.
Oh blimey!
It's OK SS ... I'm convinced already
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sophiasummer: I don't get to vote, What they give is what we get.
See that's not right./ or left
I see English in with the westie chick, nice balance
Or blondie hard out with English as a 2nd
Yet he does the budget well.
Torturing a she is,shes too scary?
Maybe Prime!
Not sure she can gather the full want of New Zealanders.
Yet it is not us that vote.
Whatcha done johnny!
If they put English in , he's their biggest loser , just farking wow . Give Little and Peter's the keys now . If "Big Jude" gets the nod maybe the keys will be lost in the crap around her . It would be better that she the chosen one as its doubtful she would win an election next year and that would bury the cow for all time . Please please please make it so .See that's not right./ or left
I see English in with the westie chick, nice balance
Or blondie hard out with English as a 2nd
Yet he does the budget well.
Torturing a she is,shes too scary?
Maybe Prime!
Not sure she can gather the full want of New Zealanders.
Yet it is not us that vote.
Whatcha done johnny!
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epirb: If they put English in , he's their biggest loser , just farking wow . Give Little and Peter's the keys now . If "Big Jude" gets the nod maybe the keys will be lost in the crap around her . It would be better that she the chosen one as its doubtful she would win an election next year and that would bury the cow for all time . Please please please make it so .
you seem to be very judgemental erb. Go on create a party of your own an put your name up for PM. Then you can judge------ This thread is Archived ------
HexagonKeySet: It's OK SS ... I'm convinced already
Come up to Lab........annnnnnnnd sesssssse whats on the slab!
English first?
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Created: Dec 2016
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Or is it?
More Pony Tail tugging?
Or not?
Stepping away for family reasons?
Cool.
The depths of what is happening with housing is pretty much blown.
He is an ex money guy, he did awesome in te stock exchange.
Whats he seen coming?
Or not.