The (John) Key factor: grinners are winners

Key says he’ll quit politics if defeated this year. This could be read as arrogance, but it’s really sending a clear message: Stay with me because what you see is what you get. Otherwise it will be back to Labour’s secret machine men and women manipulating their parliamentary puppets.

Clark was thrown out largely because voters got sick of social engineering. They’d had enough of PC correctness and expected the newcomer to return the country to its robust roots.

That hasn’t happened. Key has undone little of Labour’s work, but National’s fear of being labelled the nanny state has made him cautious on curing social ills, like being tough on drivers who drink, tackling the country’s poverty and the widening gap between rich and poor. On these issues he’s had a clear mandate but has failed to act.

There’s one wild card in this scenario of certainty - the Rugby World Cup in October. Should the All Blacks lose, NZ will slump into depression, then seek scapegoats. With the Mixed Member Proportional system favouring minor parties, some curious coalitions might result if the electorate puts a pox on all politicians.

Sceptics believe that if Key gets a second term the smile will turn to snarl. An electorate lulled to sleep would be easily ambushed by the rabid right, currently safely kennelled but ever ready to savage NZ’s state-owned enterprises and socialist structures. The Accident Compensation Corporation that provides no-fault cover to all is seen as a likely target, along with the State-owned Kiwibank.

Who’d believe such scaremongering? Even if he sold the family silver and kicked the kids into the street it must surely be for the best. John’s such a nice man.