The BFD - Insight: Politics

This past week has finally revealed the vast gulf between reality and the claims of Jacinda Ardern that the best economic response to the Chinese plague is a strong health response.The PREFU and the GDP figures showed that to be like every other statement made by the Prime Minister.A complete sham.Her health response has produced an economic response worse than the OECD average.Worse than neighbouring Australia.And worse than even the USA, which the Prime Minister says we are doing better than.Our economy is is the toilet and hundreds of thousands of people are now either unemployed or about to become unemployed.For all those people who defend Jacinda Ardern who think she saved us, I bet you never thought it was you, your job or your business that were the ones having to make a sacrifice.And to rub in the salt, all those still calling for stringent lockdowns are ones who will never feel the chill economic winds as they are all invariably in cushy state funded jobs.The economic head winds have turned a sure thing election for Labour in to an election that is now harder to pick than a broken nose.We have stark choices now.The status quo which means high unemployment, massive public debt, and a decade or more of deficits.Or we can flip the switch and elect a government that backs Kiwis to help themselves.This election is shaping up to be the most important in living memory.I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight: Politics. 

"Trust us" the experts say. "We are your one source of truth" they add.But what happens when they get it wrong?Unnecessary lock downs is what. They were and remain unnecessary.But if you dare to challenge the orthodoxy of the Government, you are howled down as a "denier".Well, the experts got it wrong. But as usual it is the general public who suffer. We should always challenge the experts, and especially the politicians.Being a sheep just gets you led to the slaughter.A little bit like the lowest paid who are constantly promised by Labour that if they are returned to government, then this time they will share in the rewards.It matter not a bit that they’ve been promised this by Labour election after election, with no actual delivery.It doesn’t help that the media are as dumb as a bag of hammers and take the promises from politician as gospel.But as more people discover the truth, the faster the anger is building.Will there be enough angry people before the election to change the government. Time will tell.I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight: Politics.

After four weeks of bad news for the government we are now seeing the Media party mobilising to protect the Covid Queen.We’ve had attacks on the husband of Judith Collins, and multiple media scolds writing tut-tutting columns telling us off for a variety of sins that include daring to ask hard questions of the Prime Minister, or even mocking her with internet memes.I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more precious Prime Minister who seeks to have many in the media defend her.Ironically, the same media she no longer deigns to court when international media give her a much more sycophantic hearing.Have you noticed too how she no longer fronts the daily press conferences from the podium of truth.She only does good news, and so it falls to Chris Hipkins to weather the storm of media questioning over the latest mishap in handling the Covid Crisis.The Prime Minister wants all the plaudits and none of the criticism. That’s not leadership.It stands to reason that if you take all credit for the good things then you are also responsible for all the bad things too.The Prime Minister has fallen for the age old trap that most politicians fall for in their careers. Believing your own spin.That’s why they still think Kiwibuild was something other than an abject failure.That’s why they had hundreds of working groups who did nothing and produced even less.Every single one of their major promises at the last election have been a failure.Kiwibuild, Light rail, and Child Poverty.Why then do so many think the Covid Queen has done a grand job when all evidence and previous promises and policies suggest otherwise?It’s an enigma, but an enigma that will be cracked as more and more people suffer the economic rip tides destroying jobs and businesses.Campaigning on what you’ve done seems to be a particularly barren field to plough.Voter want solutions, and those solutions need to be achievable to get us through the economic catastrophe that has befallen us.That is where Labour will suffer. Their past performance is ordinary at best, and utter failure at the worst.Can we really trust them to “keep us moving”?I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight: Politics

We are now entering the fourth week of compounding bad news for the government.As each stuff up is revealed and the more time the Prime Minister spends explaining away the stuff ups the less the public has confidence in their ability to manage the pandemic.The past four weeks have exposed the Government and their PR messaging and slogans as just that.PR and slogans.Scratch the surface and the facts are laid bare and they aren’t pretty.As more and more people find out that the health response was more good luck than good management the angrier they get.When they lose their jobs and businesses as a result of that mismanagement they’ll get even angrier.No amount of slogans and weasel words can undo the damage being done because the government has employed a disaster of an elimination strategy that was always doomed to fail.Calling a virus tricky as some sort of labeling and blame sharing device is just lame.The simple facts, as you will soon hear, is that the Government that failed to deliver affordable houses under their Kiwibuild scheme.And the Government that failed to build light-rail to the airport. is the same Government now failing at the border.It really shouldn’t be a surprise.I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight: Politics.

The clown show of the government’s border and isolation policy rumbles on.It is becoming apparent that Arthur has no idea what Martha is about.Instead of competence we’ve got incompetence coupled with gross negligence.Michael Morrah has been, until recently, the sole media voice questioning the competence of ministers. And for his efforts the Jacinda-maniacs have been abusing him for daring to point out that the Princess’s halo has slipped.But things are changing because Andrea Vance, normally a pom-pom waving cheer leader for the government got stuck in yesterday over the big little lies the government has been peddling.And it is a long, long list of lies.The gloss has come off the Government.They wanted a Covid election, well now they’ve got one.We have a Government that seems to have gotten through the first lockdown through good luck rather than good management.When you think about it for just a minute, it really shouldn’t be a surprise that the whole thing has turned out to be an omnishambles.After all this is the same Government who did nothing for a year except employ high priced consultants in working groups, declared the following year to be the year of delivery and then delivered nothing, have failed spectacularly on key election planks like Kiwibuild and Light rail to Auckland airport.It really was stretching credulity to think they’d done a brilliant job at the border.Turns out they haven’t.I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight: Politics. 

This week has seen an astonishing turn of events.On Sunday last week the Prime Minister launched her election campaign at the Auckland Town Hall  with a policy free speech.She declared that she was essentially going to use the election campaign as a referendum on her response to the Chinese plague.She was banking on the high polling to continue, that there would be continued positive international media coverage of her obvious brilliance at standing alone in the world and beating the plague.On Monday she announced we had passed 100 days with no community spread.And on Tuesday it all came crashing down as she had to announce that she was locking a third of the population down because we now had community transmission in Auckland.Think about that for a minute...we were told we were still virus free on Monday, and by Tuesday, because four people tested positive we now had to lock down a third of the population. By Saturday in just five days the number of active infections has reached 69 people.This can only be because of failure at the border, because if it isn’t it means that we actually hadn’t eliminated the virus like claimed and the folly of only testing symptomatic people is exposed.The Prime Minister wanted an election fought on her response to the Chinese plague, and now she’s got it.And she is drowning in failure, which is why poor old hapless Chris Hipkins is busy fronting all the failure. There is no way Labour are going to let their Covid Queen deliver bad news.And so we are now lurching towards an election where only the government is allowed to campaign, which is what they do every day with the 1pm briefings.The election must be delayed, but Labour won’t want that because every day that goes by records more failure and then the subsidised chickens are going to come home to roost.Labour are gambling with our democracy but I think they’ve under-estimated the palpable anger on the streets.We did out part and complied with their illegal lock downs, but it turns out the government hasn’t been doing their part.I’m Cam Slater, and this is Insight: Politic

It looks like we are going to have a policy free election campaign from the Labour party, and that just isn’t good enough.It’s lazy and it’s arrogant.Perhaps they’ve decided that policy runs the risk of actually having to do something.The Prime Minister has said that they are going to fight the election on the basis that they did a good job during the Chinese Plague.She also made a bizarre reference to a Netflix show in launching her campaign.But did they?That’s why they are scare-mongering on community transmission and masks.Their poor performance on past promises is also why they don’t want to campaign on their achievements. There are precious few of those.Sadly, the media are letting Jacinda Ardern get away with it all.And with her army of Covid Karens telling off anyone who dares criticise we are fast losing any semblance of robust political debate.That’s why we ask the hard questions and draw your attention to the mawing gap between Labour’s slogans and promises and their actual delivery.I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight politics. 

Can politics get any more exciting? After two polls, one rogue, one not so bad we are now into the election campaign proper. National has had a tumultuous few weeks but is now settling down. Judith Collins has brought clear air to National’s sails and it is starting to show. This week will see the last show downs in the house and Jacinda Ardern isn’t looking happy. In the parliament Ardern’s mantra of kindness is replaced with baleful stares and barbed words. Her body language shows fear not strength. Ardern is feeling pressure, and not all of that is from the opposition. There is disquiet on the back bench at her willingness to knife Iain Lees-Galloway and there is talk of a knifing of another minister. One wonders what Ardern is trying to distract from by chucking ministers under the bus. As we lurch towards the election the wheels are starting to come off the economy, breaches in quarantine and strange infections of people leaving New Zealand all stand to under the sloganeering of the government. And what exactly are their election policies going to be at this election. So far it is the sound of silence. From today onwards we are going to see the biff and wallop of a true election campaign where for once the result is vitally important for our economy. Are we going to elect a government built on borrow and hope, or are we going to elect one who will right the ship. Labour used to mock John Key’s borrowing in the wake of the GFC and Christchurch earthquakes. Labour’s debt monster is much greater than that. This election is more important than any in the past twenty years. Game on.

We’ve had another brutal week in politics, this time with the demise of Iain Lees-Galloway who has let an office affair destroy his political career. Some are blaming Judith Collins for his demise, but he has only himself to blame for putting himself in the predicament he faced. Collins acted quickly and decisively in dealing with Andrew Falloon and thereby snookered Ardern into coming down hard on one of her ministers. Some departing MPs have rather hypocritically had a whine about how mean parliament is. I’ll dish some dirt on their hypocrisy. And how about that poll last night? I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Stuff’s survey is far more accurate and Newshub are going to look very embarrassed for even publishing that rogue poll.But we will also have a quick look at what’s ahead for the cannabis referendum. Finally, who would have thought the Green party was so bereft of ideas that they had to steal their slogan and promote another party.Interesting times. I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight: Politics. Taylor Swift  - MeanGipsy Kings - La CucharacaSesame Street - Hard Being Green

We’ve had a massive week.So much has happened.This podcast covers what it all means for the big players and I will also share some personal moments that i’ve had with Judith Collins.I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight: Politics. Music:The Byrds - Paths to Victory (Bob Dylan)Dave Dobbyn - LoyalPharrel Williams - Happy 

They say revenge is a dish best served cold.This week we were finally able to eat a good healthy helping of revenge as Michelle Boag finally poisoned herself off and resigned from National.They say revenge is unhealthy, and that may be so, but I’ve just received from Amazon, a fresh pot of gloating cream, and now I’m going to rub it inNot before time and certainly not before poo-fingering National’s election chances.We will look at her demise and what it now means for the National party.Calls are now coming from the left for an Epsom-style deal in Auckland Central.What will this mean for Boag acolyte Nikki Kaye, and what will it mean for the Greens.Finally I will highlight what scientific fraud busting expert  Dr John Ioannidisis saying in the US about the over-blown and erroneous data models for the Chinese plague.Given the reliance on phony models here in New Zealand what he has to say will be critical in being able to hold the government to account for the economic destruction we are witnessing to date.Was it all for nothing?I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight: Politics.

Welcome to Insight: Politics - Episode 13 This week I’m going to help Clare Curran remember some of her past history.The sort of things she seems to have forgotten as she attempts to rewrite her past.Then I’ll share with you the uncanny coincidence of the appearance of a baby whenever the government finds itself in hot water.Lastly I will delve into what appears to be a very deep puddle of wetness inside National as they try to out-woke Labour in this election.I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight: Politics.

This week is going to be very exciting, with the launch of Judith Collins’ book ‘No Punches Pulled’.I await my personal signed copy with interest.I’m in the book, of course, and I talk about one instance that has already been published as an excerpt.With the campaign season underway we are getting a lot of political commentary about what is happening and what polls are showing.I’ll help you identify the wheat from the chaff.We will also look at the state of media in New Zealand and wonder about the lack of conservative voices.There are solutions, so I’ll explore that with you.And speaking media you’ll laugh at the Washington Post’s latest failed hit job on Donald Trump, that actually proves what he’s been saying about the worst cities in the US for crime. Turns out he’s right, they are held by Democrats.I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight: Politics

Wow, what a week.Gun owners were thrown under the bus by NZ First in a craven act of betrayal. What will be the electoral consequences of that?And is the situation recoverable?Then the government’s Chinese plague recovery efforts  had the wheels fall off the trolley in many different ways. Lapses at the border, inept management of quarantines, reports proving the government lied about PPE stocks and reversals of previous policies over testing, masks and recovery.Now the Army is in charge of the borders.It all sounds like the government is no longer in control of the narrative and on the back foot.Is it possible that we will see a deal in Auckland Central as a way to shore up Green support and destroy Nikki Kaye's moral right to claim a leadership role.Never say never in politics.Finally I’ll delve into what increased support from members will or could make available as we strive for our goal of ten thousand members.I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight: Politics 

With Parliament in recess it is tempting for politicians to take a break, but we are only 3 months out from an election so there should be no breaks whatsoever.The National party however has taken a break and you may be surprised to learn that they are now into their fourth week of a new leadership team, not so that you’d notice.The gaffes and mis-steps continue, except this past week they have all been from Nikki Kaye.National is showing themselves to be very wet and urban focused.I’ll look at why they are struggling and why we are still looking like a 2002 scale disaster.International events have caused the rowdies to agitate here in New Zealand and we now have a wonky jihad underway against all the symbols of colonialism, with some commentators unable to find a single positive feature of colonialism. We’ve had a great response to our challenge to support conservative media. I’ll go into a bit more detail on that.