Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Admit you were wrong lads

You'll remember the to-do last year, the beat-up from The Standard over John Key's slip of the tongue as to whether he wanted to see wages in New Zealand rise or fall. No amount of denials would convince Tane, Clinton (Steve Pierson) Smith, Irish Bill and all the good ole boys that John Key didn't have a secret agenda to cut the wages of New Zealanders.

Today, at the CTU's Productivity Conference, John Key has uttered these words (our emphasis added):



Let me finish by saying that in recent times the CTU has shown leadership in New Zealand’s fight for economic growth.

You’ve been prepared to work with the Government, and with employers, to find solutions.

I want to keep building on that relationship.

There is a lot to gain from each of us understanding each other better, from working out what we have in common, and deciding where we can deliver more together.

I absolutely share your vision for a more-productive, higher-wage, higher-skilled economy, producing goods and services valued throughout the world.

And I look forward to working with you to make that vision a reality.

He really couldn't say it any clearer could he? We reckon an apology is in order from The Standard to John Key. But do we expect one? Somehow, we doubt it!

You can read the full speech here.

UPDATE: The Standard won't be apologising for anything, it would seem. Tane just wants to spin more of the old fibs ...

6 comments:

Lee C said...

The VDS is still obsessed withthe 'trust' meme - I fear they would rather accuse Key of lying than admit they were wrong.

Inventory2 said...

Interesting observation Lee - it adds to the perception that Clark was actually dead right when she said "This is an election about trust" - because the voting public decided that Labour and its sock-puppet friends actually couldn't be trusted.

PS - I was tempted to refer to them as "cocktrumpets", but I wasn't sure whether I had the right context. I'll have to seek Barnsley Bill's counsel!

showmethetaxcut said...

Now that how you treat the VDS.

Don't you just feel the mojo rushing back into your veins?

Inventory2 said...

Absolutely smtc - the mojo is fair flowing this evening!

Who'd have thunk it eh? JK showing the CTU that Nats are actually people, not baby-eaters!

scrubone said...

But what's the point? Even at the time, the full context of the quote was such that it was clear he misspoke on that one sentence.

That's why the media had to apologise.

Inventory2 said...

scrubone - I guess the point is that The Standard made this slip of the tongue one of the central planks in their pre-election attacks on Key's credibility. I'm loath to go back through The Standard's archives, but there were dozens of threads all banging on about the same thing. Even when the newspaper apologised, Tane and co reckoned that the Nats had heavied them into an apology, and continued to perpetuate the myth. Thety seemed to be followi ng the old maxim that if you repeat a lie often enough, it gets traction.

Bottom line - they were wrong, and they should 'fess up and apologise. But lefties don't seem to do apology very well, if at all. It's not in their DNA.