Key washes his hands of the "underclass"

Last week, Campbell Live did a followup piece on the people of McGehan Close, who John Key had used as a propaganda prop in 2007 to soften National's image. Their verdict?

But now Mrs Nathan says although she still likes Mr Key personally, as a politician he is an "arsehole" and has done little to help the poor.

"He's just making everything better for high earners and not the low-income ones," she told Campbell Live.

Key's response to this? His government has done as much as possible for the poor. But oddly, the polices he cites in defence of this - tax cuts for the rich, sub-inflation rises the the minimum wage, and a complete suspension of employment law for the first 90 days of employment - are all policies which benefit the rich, rather than the poor.

More importantly, its pretty obvious Key could have done more. For example:

• he could have targeted his tax cuts to primarily benefit those on lower incomes, as Labour did. Instead, he handed out money to his rich mates, while leaving everyone else with the crumbs.
• he could have increased training allowances to allow those on benefits an opportunity to escape poverty - something shown to work, with Minister of Social Development Paula Bennett as an example. Instead, he cut them.
• he could have made childcare more accessible, to reduce barriers to employment. Instead, he's cut that too.
• he could have used targeted employment schemes to help those at the bottom. Again, he's cutting them.
• he could have engaged in real job creation to ensure there were jobs to go to. Instead we got a joke cycleway and some accounting tricks designed to create the impression of action without actually spending any more money.

The list goes on and on, and exposes a massive gap between promises and action. As much as possible? I don't think so.

But what Key is confessing here is that this is as much as he is willing to do. Having used the "underclass" as a propaganda prop in the 2008 election campaign, promised to make their lives better, he's not actually willing to do anything to help them after all. It's all just spin and bullshit again. I think Key has proved Mrs Nathan's point.