![John Armstrong: Key needs to offer hand up to Conservatives](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=808)
John Armstrong: Key needs to offer hand up to Conservatives
If John Key wants to avoid having to govern with Winston Peters perched on his shoulder, he is going to have to help Colin Craig, writes John Armstrong.
If John Key wants to avoid having to govern with Winston Peters perched on his shoulder, he is going to have to help Colin Craig, writes John Armstrong.
National is not short of policy. Just look at the party's website, writes John Armstrong. But there is little that leaps out and grabs your attention.
Armstrong writes: The PM's offer is not so much a tax cut, more like a tax offcut - one which will not be finding its way into your wallet for the best part of another three years.
The dirty tricks done dirt cheap by a band of National Party members and associates have permanently stained National, writes John Armstrong.
If Colin Craig thinks it's been a struggle getting his Conservative Party close enough in the polls to clear the 5 per cent threshold on election day then he hasn't seen anything yet.
John Armstrong asks, "Is it too soon for National to dare to dream of running a government with the Conservatives in tow and Winston Peters locked out?"
Confused? Who wouldn't be? It is difficult enough getting to grips with the new forms of inquiry laid out in last year's Inquiries Act without the politicians complicating things even more.
It is not so much death by a thousand cuts; it is death from being buried by thousands of emails, writes John Armstrong.
John Arsmtrong writes: After two weeks of absolute tumult, the election campaign looked like returning to normality yesterday.
Bill English somehow neglected to mention New Zealand First in his press statement yesterday decrying the "big spending" promises made by Labour, the Greens and Internet Mana.
John Armstrong looks at the PM's change of tactics as he tries to deal with the continuing fallout from the 'Dirty Politics' scandal.
One question - and one question only - lingers like flashing neon on a moonless night as the Nicky Hager-instigated political firestorm of the last 10 days finally seems to be burning itself out, if only gradually.
The inspector-general of Intelligence and Security's decision to investigate the release of SIS documents to Cameron Slater is "hugely significant", writes John Armstrong.
John Armstrong writes: Huge cracks suddenly appeared yesterday in the wall of denial erected by the National Party to shield itself from the damaging allegations.
The tirade of insults, invective and scorn directed at Nicky Hager must rank as one of the most sustained efforts by National.
One of the allegations in Nicky Hager's book is the modern day equivalent of the 1972 burglary of the Democratic Party's HQ at Watergate, writes John Armstrong.
How to explain Peters' "two Wongs don't make a right" excuse for a joke, writes John Armstrong.
An unlikely pairing suggests that the sale of Lochinver Station to Shanghai Pengxin Group is one sale to foreign interests too many, writes John Armstrong.
It seemed just a slip of the tongue. Or was it, asks John Armstrong. Nick Smith surely meant to talk of "co-operation", not "collaboration", in Parliament yesterday.
Colin Craig might not realise it yet, but he and his Conservative Party colleagues have basically been picked up, chewed over and spat out by National, writes John Armstrong.
It sure ain't pretty. It sure ain't enlightening. It is most definitely insidious. It is a creeping cancer of the New Zealand body politic, writes John Armstrong.
You might well think Steven Joyce and stand-up comedy would be mutually exclusive. But you would be wrong, writes John Armstrong.
As captivating and entertaining as such a contest would have been, Winston Peters is unlikely to throw himself feline-like into the pigeon loft, writes John Armstrong.
John Armstrong writes: If any spies from the Labour, Green or Maori parties infiltrated yesterday's Internet Mana rally, they would have come away worried.
Goodbye whacky Greens; hello orthodox Greens. So moderate and non-threatening is the Greens' policy on "economic innovation" it could almost have been written by Bill English.
Here is a prediction: voter turnout in September's general election will slump to a new low.
Tomorrow's keynote address by Cunliffe to what is Labour's election-year "congress" will delve deeply into personal stuff - his background, education, motivations and so on, writes John Armstrong.
The roading announcement was also part of a wider strategy to convince voters that the Greens will be the driving force of any post-election coalition, writes John Armstrong.