![John Armstrong: It's out with Aaron, on with Budget](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=808)
John Armstrong: It's out with Aaron, on with Budget
John Armstrong asks: What kind of pressure was exerted over the weekend to force Aaron Gilmore out? Has he done some kind of deal with the party?
John Armstrong asks: What kind of pressure was exerted over the weekend to force Aaron Gilmore out? Has he done some kind of deal with the party?
Does anyone outside the Wellington beltway really give a toss about Aaron Gilmore, a parliamentary nobody who beyond fulfilling his duties as backbench lobby fodder, is an utter irrelevance when it comes to matters of real political import?
Aaron Gilmore no longer enjoys the confidence of his leader. That's curtains for a backbench list MP at the bottom of the National Party caucus, writes John Armstrong.
Aaron Gilmore is living testimony to Andy Warhol's prediction that in the future everyone will enjoy 15 minutes of fame, writes John Armstrong.
In the week or so since it revealed its plan to slash power prices, Labour has bared its teeth at anyone questioning the wisdom of breaking up the wholesale electricity market just as it is showing signs of functioning as intended.
Much of the chief press secretary's job involves anticipating when and where things might go awry, writes John Armstrong.
It all adds up to absolutely no bark and likewise no bite from this supposed public watch-dog, writes John Armstrong.
Humankind can be divided into two categories: those who understand the complexities of the wholesale electricity market and those who do not, writes John Armstrong.
The discussion on the rights and wrongs of Wall's private member's bill has been conducted in a pretty civilised fashion both inside and outside Parliament, writes John Armstrong.
Climbing out of a self-dug hole will be a major test for John Key, writes John Armstrong.
If Bill Englishis found to be wrong and has misled Parliament, he will be in big trouble, writes John Armstrong, and the Government will be more than shaken, if not stirred.
Like every good public servant inculcated with the bureaucracy's ethos of caution and restraint, Iain Rennie chooses his words very, very carefully. So when he says he is "surprised", he means he is quite shocked, even stunned.
Once again, John Key finds himself a victim of his own making by not being completely upfront from the very beginning, writes John Armstrong.
Negotiating with Hollywood moguls must now feel like a bit of a doddle for John Key compared to mixing it with the cold-blooded, razor-wielding gang of cost accountants from Rio Tinto.
Someone should tell David Shearer that getting all indignant about someone else's blunder was not the best of tactics to employ in Parliament, writes John Armstrong.
Why has National remained so incredibly popular for so long despite suffering continuing calamities, embarrassments and unwanted distractions, asks John Armstrong.
When it comes to dealing with Labour's enemies - or as he would prefer to say - dealing to them, Clayton Cosgrove displays all the sympathy and mercy of a knuckleduster-carrying rottweiler.
You cannot have a witch trial without a wicked witch. More so when the person whose vilification had reached lynch-mob proportions turns out to be a veritable Prince Charming.
Bill English must be asking himself what he did in some past life to have seemingly so incensed the forces of nature, writes John Armstrong. "What next? A plague of locusts? Or frogs? Or boils?"
In one stroke, Mighty River Power has made a mockery of Parliament's annual financial review mechanism,.
The share offer is likely to be heavily over-subscribed and applications will have to be scaled back, writes John Armstrong, thereby leaving some investors disappointed.
Although it takes some swallowing, the Prime Minister's insistence that there was no plan B had the Supreme Court blocked the part-sale of Mighty River Power has to be taken at face value.
David Shearer has pulled it off, writes John Armstrong. Yesterday's reshuffle of shadow portfolios is very different from the one he instituted on becoming leader 14 months ago.
Jobs, health, education and housing - along with economic growth (or the relative lack of it), those are the five big issues which Labour will hammer in the run-up to next year's election.
National's damage control strategy has been to try to paint Key's earlier contacts with SkyCity as perfectly normal, writes John Armstrong
Key may not be losing much sleep. But this report is no comforting, soft bed of hay. It is a bed of nails, writes John Armstrong.
Hekia Parata or no Hekia Parata in the job, Cabinet ministers had few illusions from the start.
Someone who was genuinely apologetic for causing such deep offence would have expressed remorse at the earliest opportunity, writes John Armstrong.