Did he storm off?
UPDATED: Right. I've put up the video above of John Key ending the press conference he held after his trade announcement where he refused to answer media questions about the so-called 'teapot tape' conversation with ACT Epsom candidate John Banks last week.
Whether Key 'stormed off' or not is up to you. I used those words in the YouTube headline, I admit, but not in the video headline, so I'm sitting on the fence there :).
From my vantage point at the press conference, it looked like a planned move from Key and his staff. In the video below of Key answering my questions on the Renminbi and trade, you'll see him say he'll take questions on the teapot stuff after any questions on trade.
When the media later began asking about the cuppa tea with Banks, and whether the potentially illegally-gained transcript of the conversation should be made public, seeing as it could be in the public interest to do so, Key reverted to saying he thought New Zealanders were interested in the economy and trade (you'll see him say this in the video above). He then took off.
This teapot stuff (and to be honest there wasn't even a teapot on the table) is now dominating the election. Labour will be annoyed because they can't get their policy on the front-page (or even page 2) any more. That's their fault as leader Phil Goff immediately came out and said the tape of Key and Banks should be released, fueling the fire. So if I hear Labour complaining about not getting any airtime now because of this circus then they get no sympathy from me.
For National, it's dominating the debate because any policy announcements they've made have been pretty limp-wristed as they try not to scare people before November 26. Yesterday's welfare announcement, which was supposed to be "chunky" was a good example of this.
Here's Key talking about trade. In the middle, he makes the comment on answering the teapot questions later:
Of binge drinking and savings plans
I found myself heartily agreeing with this piece on Stuff on the Zac Guildford drinking saga by Fairfax's Mark Reason. But before I could finish reading the column I was distracted by the advertising which accompanied it.
Unfortunately the answer to the statement that New Zealand doesn't have a binge drinking problem is provided to us from a beer advertisement:
Yeah right.
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