Public ownership of NZ Inc has dropped from a paltry 12 per cent of everything to an insignificant 3 per cent.
The prison population has climbed from 8000 to 10,000, while the ratio of Police to citizens has dropped from 1:501 to 1:526.
Though the number of main (non-Super) social welfare benefits has dropped from 304,000 to 284,000 since the 2013 reforms, in synchronicity the number of homeless - who don't qualify for benefits - has risen by around 20,000 in the same period.
Apart from buying a lot of "dirty" carbon credits from the Russians and signing a treaty or two, NO action has been taken to address climate change. Meanwhile our net greenhouse gas emissions have risen from 47.63 to 56.69 million tonnes per annum.
Not to mention the ruination of our waterways, gutting the RMA, setting us up to lose our sovereignty under the TPP or its clones, and running the country as a tax-free laundering service for mates and mates of mates (as we discovered courtesy Mossack Fonseca's files).
But while these are all things easily blamed on Key if you are (or were) enraptured by the cult of the charismatic populist, none would have occurred were it not for the vacuous contributions of the rest of National's caucus.
So, who's up next for PM? That very much depends on whether National wants to win the 2017 election, or not.
Credit Key with one thing: being incredibly astute (or lucky) when it comes to forecasting future socio-political events. Bailing out now strongly suggests he's either afraid he might lose next year, or that sometime next term a crunch will come that he cannot winnow out of. Or both.
Key's backing of deputy Bill English (with Paula Bennett or Simon Bridges as his deputy) is the equivalent of the kiss of death - a backhanded reward lasting only til the election, which they would then lose. This is a strategy to clear someone like Judith Collins to take the reins straight after, so she has a term as opposition leader to get the public to warm to her - so as to win in 2020.
Why? Because LabourGreen would struggle to resuscitate the baby (see list above) and probably face down the next GFC to boot; a recipe for almost-apocalyptic failure. Even Collins would look palatable then!
Or, if she can't contain herself, or if they really think they can win four straight without Key, put Collins in now and be damned. Which we would be.
In any event, John's laughing. He has a date in Hawaii, or maybe with the IMF, and doubtless NZ has already been dropped off the face of Planet Key.
Sorry to break it to you, but betting on a narcissistic financial gambler was only ever going to end one way: his.
