Key lied

In the debate on Tuesday, John Key swore black and blue that he had made "no formal agreement" with the Maori Party to ditch National's policy of abolishing the Maori seats. Today, he's changed his tune:

National Party leader John Key is in the middle of another controversy after admitting today he told the Maori Party he was prepared to drop a policy to abolish the Maori seats in Parliament.

"They've raised it with us on numerous occasions and I've made it quite clear to them it's not a bottom line for us," he told reporters on the campaign trail in Dunedin.

Key's defenders might seek solace in that phrase "no formal agreement". It was merely a tacit understanding, nothing binding (sounds like their attitude to the Treaty, actually). The rest of us will call it what it is: a lie. And its deeply revealing of the character of the man that he would try bullshitting us rather than being upfront and saying that the policy was up for negotiation and obviously they'd have to take the Maori Party's views into account if they wanted to work with them.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering how the Maori Party feel about Key making a deal with them, then denying it in public and calling them liars, all in order to pander to his redneck base. If that's how National treats its potential coalition partners, then they may find that they don’t have any.