Adverts from the Cricket World Cup

Earlier this year New Zealand co-hosted the Cricket World Cup. It was a great way for advertising people to sponsor an event …oh and some Cricket.

A moment of truth

Steven Joyce has a barber, ponder this. It is a fascinating insight gained from Victoria University Press’s excellent new book on the 2014 New Zealand election ” moments of truth”.

The 2014 election will go down as being, well odd. Something with a lot of kinetic energy but having little impact on the outcome. This theme seems to run through the whole of this excellent book, a book that seems slightly stronger than its 2011 older sibling.

At one end we had Dirty Politics, what did that mean ? It seems the answer is not a lot. Whether you were offended , amused or enthused by it seems to only reinforce your original standpoint. And then there was the big reveal. Kim’s moment of truth. Big let-down for many.

I can’t help thinking after reading this book what is the point of John Key ? Seriously some will applaud the Nats strategy over the past 9 years. I am not one of them. The question I keep coming round to is this, is the strong mandate a kiwi way of reflecting the lack of vision ? How will future historians look back at Key ?

There’s a great blend of Media perspective, candidate perspective and academic analysis. I still don’t know of another book quite like it , and a CD !

I’m not sure that National – Key will be threatened in 2017. Some of the writers tackle the challenges lying ahead for the non-National block and particularly the role of Winston Peters. New Zealand is clearly developing its own , FPP mentality biased PR system, and in some ways it works well.

I look sometimes at the gaps in my collection of these books, it’s a look of annoyance and also a reality check on the challenges, a look perhaps that Steven Joyce’s barber gives to Steven Joyce’s head.

 

 

Callaghan and the Queen

According to Kenneth Morgan, when Jim Callaghan decided not to call the 1978 election he wrote a letter to the Queen.

He did this before informing Cabinet and indeed while the rest of the Country thought he was bonkers after his Gangster wrap at the TUC conference

but I digress. He wrote in his own hand , which means without a typist. Apparently the Queen couldn’t quite decipher it. In particular the threat of a “hung ” Parliament. Now we have all been there, an elderly relative sends a xmas card wishing “pots of lure “. So what did she think he was warning of

A long Parliament – that would be a real threat.

A honey Parliament – bees everywhere, maybe some improvement

hurry, huge ? Wong, worry ? Who knows ..

But that song , the most cryptic message ever. Apparently most people thought he was saying game on , when it was game off. Bernard Donoghue claimed to have warned him it wasn’t a Marie Lloyd song ( having sourced it from Joe Haines ) but would he listen ?