On the hazardous yet cyclical Grand National racetrack of politics, it looks like it's blinkers on and non-stop whipping of the horses for National from here til the 2014 election finish line.
The last week's running had bad omens all over the track; corpses, dark copses of impenetrable thickets of legal thorns, and rude genuflections and curses from the lead jockeys.
Aaron Gilmore should have be scratched from the race. He was not up to form. Like Colin Espiner, I have watched Gilmore's Maiden and Valedictory Speeches and still none the wiser why the hell he ever got in the game. All I heard was Beaker bait: Me me me me me me me me me.... Little wonder that his ambitions lie dead in the pond. Go to Oz, young idiot, and raise the IQ of both countries.
Speaking of which, John Key's colours are finally revealed as nothing more than a Muldoon in Holyoake's Y-fronts; a dull grey with stains of uncertain origins polka-dotting the garment. Not his fault Gilmore got under the hooves.
The track is heavy from the rain of shit that the Kim Dotcom storm has thrown up. The GCSB thickets have been exposed in the downpour as well, and there's no way their fuck-ups (US or NZ Police-inspired or otherwise) are getting an autopsy. Let's put a blind around that mess and forget it ever happened.
Joyce is flogging away close to Key, maneuvering to give himself enough time to give the lagging Shearer and hopeful Norman the finger. Think you can pull that old nationalisation gambit? I'll show you how to nationalise a gambit. Suck on a 35 year binding PPP contract!
Who cares if he's dosing the horse with too much ginger? Not only is Joyce picking winners, he's insured them against private losses. The first sod for the new National (Party) Convention Centre will be thrown before the 2014 election, and opened before the 2017 one. No wonder John Key keeps harping on about a four year term. Rome wasn't built in three years.
Unbridled power is evident in Judith Collins' form on the MMP review. Listening to her on Morning Report, she's personally absolutely for a bill on MMP reform. But, alas, five parties are content with the status quo. Her party among them. What's a poor Justice Minister to do?
In a few years, all of Simon Power's legislative jockeying will have completely washed away, like beers in rain. Ghosts of the civil dead indeed.
Never mind that Collins is the jockey behind the big push on welfare reform and not Paula Bennett, as confirmed by a reliable little Beltway birdie last week. Never mind she was the brains behind the last deal (as CCA Head honcho) that sealed Sky City's deal with the Clark government, which is being waved around as precedent. Stick it on the incompetent Labour schmucks like a Kick Me sign anyway.
Budget Day tomorrow and I reckon Bill English will be spanking it for all it's worth. Budget surplus is on track for the 2014 election, and if Labour don't get within a length of winning soon, you can pretty much write them off til at least 2020. My advice is to shoot the old nag and go on foot. It'll be quicker in the long run.
