Departing Premier Emphasises status as non-professional politician In the end his trader’s instinct told him that the market for John Key futures had reached its zenith and that it was thus time to quit the position. It was John Key’s good luck to take up New Zealand’s portfolio of prime minister at the precise time that a baby-boomer backbone electorate tired of an extended doctrinal politics and instead required the stability needed to catapult them into an easy retirement. John Key anticipated by a decade the dismay with professional politicians that is so evident today and he now brought to…

Wellington, Nov 29 (Petra) -- His Majesty King Abdullah II held talks on Tuesday with Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key, on ways to advance bilateral ties in the economic, trade and defence fields. The talks, held at the Parliament in Wellington, also dealt with the two countries' efforts to expand cooperation and the prospect of Jordan benefiting from New Zealand's expertise in agriculture, renewable energy, education and other sectors. Further, both sides agreed to stimulate the private sector in both countries to exchange visits to explore investment opportunities in the different sectors. In their discussion of efforts to…

The psychology behind voting: What makes you tick.   As Americans prepared for an unprecedented election and Brits continue to reel from the Brexit fallout, Joanne Black looked at the psychology and genetics of how we vote in a recent edition of The Listener. Entertainment, puzzlement call it what you may but this latest round of presidential elections in the US have transfomed  politics into a form of entertainment no matter the seriousness of the outcome. Continue to the full article

The UK and Brexit then the US and Trumplections  - what is happening in the political arena?  So will the coming months see a change inhow the election message is delivered to the voters in New Zealand for the 2017 elections?  Is  MMP strong enough to weed out the Trumps of this world? Of course time will duly deliver the answers but meanwhile ahead is an  interesting time of rhetoric, promiseswrapped in appealing packaging, the ridiculous, the practical and  the preposterous, its all part of the game hopefullythe rules will see the country end up with positive governance in place…

New Zealand Party’s forecast based on own pre-election analysis   New Zealand’s ACT Party predicts without qualification that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. The political party’s newsletter Free Press states flatly that “Clinton is bombing out.” The party simultaneously forecasts that the “fallout” from Mr Trump’s election “will be like Brexit.” It will be “terrifying the day before and unnoticed the day after.” The party’s Trump prediction is based on its own pre-election soundings in the lead up to New Zealand’s own general elections. The party does not amplify this demographic or statistical analysis.…

Tapie Affair Opens Door of Opportunity for Kiwi   A door of opportunity has unexpectedly opened to enable New Zealand prime Minister John Key tomaintain his upward trajectory in the form of becoming managing director of the International Monetary Fund. The present managing director of the IMF Christine Lagarde (pictured) has become inextricably enmeshed in France’s Tapie Affair and has been ordered to stand trial for her alleged part in it.This coincides with a move to place a non-European official at the helm of the IMF. This originally came about in order to position someone from a BRICs nation at…