I've been bumped off my flight, and for the first time ever, am sitting in a Koru Lounge, drinking free booze and bludging wireless net. Woop! 

My first thought was, i wonder which endlessly important person took my seat. 

I walked past Speaker Lockwood Smith when I came in, who then left when the flight I should have been on was called.

He has been doing a great job as Speaker. It's about time someone reigned in the appalling habit of refusing to directly answer questions in the House. As a member of the general public, i'd like to know the answer to some of those questions rather than get a series of point-scoring politics-playing comments. Ministers should be answerable to those who voted them in, and it's the job of the Opposition to ask those questions. So bravo, Lockwood, for changing the game. 

I find it wonderfully hilarious that he is taking the role of Speaker and creating theatre. His jaunty stance, his careful wardrobe choices (the red silk lining of his robes today was inspired), and his decision to re-route the Speaker's procession may be indulgent but shows that he is going to be one to remember. 

Being shackled to a student loan, however, i'm going to lump him with the blame for the student loan system. He may start on the road to redemption if he continues the great performance seen thus far as speaker. 

My intention for this blog was not to get all lefty. But hey, i grew up in Labour Lower Hutt, am still paying off my student loan, and have a BA. But i'm going to do my best to look at arguments from all angles, and i'll do my best to be diplomatic.

But as Mr Ellis down there pointed out, Nikki Kaye did an amazing job of winning Auckland central. Extra points for bringing fresh new ideas to the House. Yep, i just spouted one of those tired lines but it’s true - something needs to be done about engaging not only the youth vote but bringing new perspectives to the table so that different, hopefully effective ideas come to fruition. And it was about time Ms Tizard exited the building.

To be honest i’m surprised that JK doesn’t have a staff member responsible for his outfit selection. If I was Chief of Staff i’d delegate responsibility to the best dressed person in the office to weed out the bad ties in the Prime Ministerial wardrobe. 

I don’t claim to be anything other than an ordinary person, so like any ordinary person, when Kate Wilkinson gets up to speak, I think to myself ‘Oh, nice suit. Good choice. But the hair! Fluff! Get it under control! Product, product, product!’ and then am too busy mentally defrizzing her mane I can’t hear a word she says. Shallow, I know. I’ll also admit that the average person doesn’t watch question time, but they do see snippets on the news - and imagine the reaction would be similar. 

Isn’t it one of those researched things that us humans are really terrible because we instantly judge others on looks alone? How about I put myself out there, stick my hand up, and plead guilty? That doesn’t mean I won’t be friends with absolutely anyone I find entertaining and interesting.

To eat my own words, most anything that Key and his Cabinet do now to attempt to stem the crisis flow will look as if it has Obama all over it. Which is where the young’uns need a look in. Too bad they’re stuck on the back benches doing their time to earn a front seat. 

I'm going to apologise for not talking about the NZ big economic awesomeness plan that is announced today. My brain can't cope with reading the paper this morning. Sorry.

John Key wore the most heinous tie in the House for the first session of 2009. Vomit would be an accurate description. 

And is suit is much too banker - wide pinstripe on navy. Rodney Hide’s was even more obnoxious. In times of economic crisis, where the majority of blame is squared on the banks - i have fear in my heart seeing those banking suits on screen. 

Being able to watch the House on tv makes for an all new ability to assess tactics and structure. Behind JK we see three men. Men. In power suits. 

Behind Phil Goff is Maryan Street, Darren Hughes (cleanly shaven thank goodness) and Annette King by his side. It’s a well-orchestrated vision - women and a new generation. Just call me a youthful feminist.

Having said that, PG’s tie isn’t much better than JK’s. Orange is not his colour, but the suit is right. As soon as he opens his mouth PG’s experience is undeniable. His tone and intonation empathises with the victims of the Victoria bushfire tragedy in a way that JK’s fluffing never can. 

Having seen some of the Australian House yesterday, I have to say that the New Zealand debating chamber is miles more tasteful than its Australian counterpart.  

Simultaneously, Obama held his first prime time press conferene. His suit, tie and shirt choice - immaculate. Sober, perfectly cut, and perfectly fitted. That man knows his mind. He knows his lines inside and out. Oh, one can only dream to be so beautifully and captivatingly eloquent.

Just a quick aside to the cricket - whoever it is that is interviewing the two captains out on the pitch: WINNER suit. the wind is picking up the corner of his jacket and flashing us the most glorious snatches of fuschia silk, perfectly complimented by his blue tie, white shirt and another immaculate suit. HOT damn. I’m in love. I will always say: it is all about the lining. The lining makes a suit. Oh hold on. The shirt has stripes. Not so keen on the whole now, but still. that lining. oh yeah. 

Back to the first question time of the year...

Oh dear. Darren is wearing pinstripes too. Today, Nathan Guy has it on the button. Too bad all the lines coming from JK are tired. If Labour had cut taxes earlier, one would assume that we’d be in much deeper schtook with the economy.  

I’m undecided about Russel Norman’s suit. Obviously challenging the status quo with the light colour, which is good, but he needs to back it up and learn how to ask a coherent question.

Hmm all these patsy questions asking about concerns with levels of debt - one wonders if they’re trying to tell everyone that government debt is really scary (normally an approach of Labour’s) and so they will have an excuse if they need to cut spending over the coming months. Will be interesting to see how that one plays out. 

The moral of the story: now is not the time for pinstripes. 

I have a bit of a girly crush on new Labour MP Jacinda Ardern. 

Because TV3 is all copyright concerned, i can't embed the video, but watch her interview with Oliver Driver (mmm Oliver) here.

Think she could have done with some lipstick - i'm no lipstick girl myself but she looked a tad washed out...like the top though. Nice and cheerful in these doom and gloom times.

Her view that Opposition parties need to know when to celebrate positive changes made by the Party in Government was a refreshing change from the norm. Before the election i got pretty sick of constantly hearing that everything that anyone did was wrong, and bad, and that we're all worse off because of so and so's idea.

Here's some more, just cos i can't get enough...the tailored suit is a good look on her - a nice contrast to the masses of fabric worn by the likes of Annette King and Ruth Dyson. The little brooch on her lapel is cute too...very 40's. Hopefully she'll continue to make good clothing choices so i can gush over her some more.

Oh here's another one. Ugh I hate Paul Henry. So rude, and not in a funny way like Oliver Driver. I'll leave Paul to gush over Nikki Kaye. She does have good balance with her choice of suit/top/necklace. Keep an eye on that one, too. 

I'm rather looking forward to the House being back in session next week - yay!

I’m looking at some of the notes I’ve made over the past few days. So apologies if the first couple of points are a bit stale already.

 

1. JK doesn’t want the Pacific Forum time to be entirely taken up with ‘The Fiji Business’. Does this mean he doesn’t think Fiji is an issue anymore? Would he rather we all just pretend that it never happened and it’s all a box of fluffies? Ok then, we’ll just file it in the ‘Old News’ and ‘Just too Hard’ baskets. Done. Dealt with.

 

2. And he’s not quite the media savvy PM yet – using ‘Yip’ in response to a question is not classy. A bit blasé. And someone needs to get him a shorter tie. It looks a bit silly when he’s sitting down. At least at the Pacific Forum he got lei’d.

 

Right, now for something a little more current.

There is a dashing young man sitting just along from me at the café in the library, tapping away on his laptop. There was eye contact, a bit of glad eye followed. Ah, that was nice.

I’ve been a tad overwhelmed in the past couple of days by the amount of political news all over the place. I’m going to have to teach myself how to pick the best bits.

Judith Collins ranting about Boy Racers. Yes, something needs to be done, for sure. But crushing cars? Isn’t that kind of wasteful? What about confiscating, selling, taking out fines and then donating to charity? (which is something the PM is clearly into) Or putting the money into funding public transport of resources for low decile schools? My favourite, though is my own – what about creating a similar sort of restriction on age or license type that applies to motorbikes. So if a person is on their restricted, or under the age of, say, 18, it would be illegal for them to buy or drive a car that is two litre, or turbo, or has a V6 or higher. Obviously not all boy racers are under 18, but that would restrict a large number of them to little farty rice burners.

I’m still grumpy about the cast issue. Apparently it’s up to 13grand or something silly. I feel that it’s cheapening politics. JK is trying hard to be hip and modern and I just don’t buy it. JK needs some more media coaching - he’s coming across as very flustered in his press conferences, and it makes me uncomfortable

What makes me even more uncomfortable is THE HAIR. Omg it’s like a car crash. The other night on one of the post-7pm shows his hair was all pushed forward in a lame attempt to disguise his receding hair line. Yuck. I’m sure it’s to keep him looking young and virile (more yuck) but I think for all our sakes he should just embrace the inevitable and cut it all short.

Then there’s the minimum wage issue. After years of harping on about the increasing wage gap between us and Australia, here is the perfect opportunity to rectify what National saw as so hideously wrong. Out our minimum wage up to the equivalent of Australia’s. There’s very idealistic of me, yes? I know all the arguments behind it – small businesses having the pressure put on profits etc etc. Sorry. I do care about them too.

Need to dash off to a meeting…and look at the library guy again. Nice retro blue and brown shirt, brown dress pants, mussed dirty blonde hair…and jandals. Love it. And the way he’s staring intensely at the laptop screen…I wonder if he looks at women with such intensity?

You're kidding me, right?

I can't imagine anything more tacky. Actually, it's a tie - the fact he's had Pacific leaders sign the damn thing, or the fact he's putting it up for auction.

And then there's the fact of his relationship with his wife. Jump. how high?

gees.

On a completely different note, i wasn't terribly worried about my job prospects for when i arrive in London. Until i started looking, and realised, to my horror, that I couldn't actually justify applying for anything less than interesting. Oh yeah, i could get an EA or PA job, or an admin job, just fine. But i'd be bored to tears in about ten minutes. 

The stuff website is telling me that the 'World economy 'may lose 51 million jobs''. Oh crapola.

Another sign of the state of the economy (well, in my ill-informed mind anyway) is the National Bank no longer opening UK bank accounts for its customers with Lloyds TSB. 'It just got to be such a drawn out process' was the reason I got. Hmm. That might explain why the cost of opening the account went from $90 to $130 without much notice.

And, in the news(paper) today...

one thing i've noticed - our broken-armed PM might be getting in the news - but he's only getting teeny-tiny snippets. Hardly a photo since the stair-tumble. One would think he's been PM for three years and everyone is bored, not a fresh and new and exciting leader. Unlike someone else we know. (Yep, Mr Obama, here's looking at you).

The World Section of the Dom brought more interesting things. A tiny bit about crumbling support for Gordon Brown and Labour in Britain.

Richard Long in the The Long View suggests some small government departments should be scrapped in order to make room in the Budget. Just another opinion piece riding the Obama wave? Not that Obama's specifically said he's going to cut bureaucracy, more that public money needs to be spent wisely and carefully on projects (and staff) of high value. Maybe 3M should watch their bottom line, some peeps might be cutting back on their post-it note orders. 

I'm all for this sort of concern about using the people's money - as long as services that have an effect on and improve their lives aren't impacted. If a little old lady in her state house can't get the ponding in her back yard fixed and the hole in her ceiling patched up, forgettaboutit. And there's no need to take the craft knife to public sector in New Zealand just because Obama says so.

Simon Upton then opines that the Greens (in Nandor's words) 'fastened their lifeboat to a sinking ship.' I can see where he's coming from. Had the Greens, shock horror, gone into coalition with National, our little old lady might get some free insulation action when the hole is patched up - saving her precious money on the power bill. Wouldn't that be using MMP for all it's worth? Though in that case i'd be putting money on the coalition falling apart within six months faster than Rodney Hide can say 'there's no such thing as climate change'.

Normally I don't venture so far as the Business section, but I was looking for my horoscope. Obama dominates almost the entire second page. Not a very flattering or big photo. Maybe the paper was trying to imply that they're moving on to concentrate less on how beautiful he is and more on the serious business of the President. 

Instead we're treated to the asses of a pile of bikers. Apparently the US are thinking about another multi-billion dollar bail out of the American banks. Those banks that did all the dodgy debt dealing and caused all the crap in the first place. 'Economic stimulus' sounds much more enticing than 'bank bail out' doesn't it? 

This is the point where I wonder why i'm following all this political stuff. The news is all doom and gloom and thundery clouds bearing down on us.

And my horoscope?

'Don't let love lead you astray. Formulate your ideas and put them to the test, even if someone is trying to slow you down.' 

So, even the stars think I should find me a proper man instead of dreaming of the President. 

And today, in the news:

a journalist tries to explain why I am so in love with Obama (for the record, i agree with her)

I am officially on the hunt for a man so that I continue to be a healthy, rounded person. Rather than one with delusions of grandeur and daydream about how hot the leader of the free world is.

May as well put it out there - my goal is, one day, to go on Air Force One. It doesn't have to fly, or nothin', but i would like a coffee. That would be great. Trim latte, thanksverymuch.

On the news last night, Rodney Hide wore a pink shirt. With red around the inside collar. His face was red. The part of his (waxed, clearly) chest we could see was red. His head was shiny. He was saying something about how local councils shouldn't go into partnership with KiwiBank (they are looking at having branches at Councils so they can get banks back into the smaller communities). All I could think was, man, it wasn't a good idea to put on that shirt. Didn't help that he looked very much like he was on holiday rather than working hard as a Cabinet Minister.

How wonderful and refreshing is it to see that the new President is completely in love with his wife?

 

(photo from ChicagoTribune.com)

I can't get enough of that song, that dance, those loving looks...oh, swoon. Oh, for a man...

And I liked the ball dress. Nice colour, very simple in contrast with the delicate details. I especially liked the one shoulder. My favourite from all the coverage, however, was the very 50's dress she wore to greet people going in to visit the White House. Absolutely perfect for her figure, and the pattern was to die for. Like the sleeve length too. I need to get me one of them dresses. mmmhmm.

(photo from the Associated Press site)

More than ever before have we heard about the use of clothing as political weapon. And boy, the new first couple have weapons of mass destruction when it comes to their wardrobes.

Watching CNN today they were talking about how hot Obama looked in both business and bathing suits, and how he looked so at ease in both. There was also a story about how Michelle dresses like 'the rest of us' and they keep replaying the Jay Leno interview where she confessed to buying the J. Crew outfit she was wearing off the net. 

Am I buying into a sexist stereotype by caring and thinking about what the First Lady is wearing? Is it sexist to pay more attention to what the women are wearing than the men?

I figure that fashion is an integral part of pop culture. We are all aware the choices we make everyday reflect on our values, our personalities, and the fact we know people are looking. Michelle knows we are looking, talking, assessing, critiquing, and therefore dresses appropriately. She'll be well aware that some will be hit, and others will be miss. That you can't please everyone. And besides - women dress for women. So i'm going to say it isn't sexist for me (a woman) to look at her and do what comes naturally: judge.

This isn't all about the women, though. Obama has announced a pay freeze on the salaries of all senior White House staff. He has urged all public servants to take care and be aware that the money they spend, the budgets they approve, is the money of the people. Every staple, every post-it note, phone line, text message, and drink from the water cooler, if paid for by anyone earning taxable income in the States. That's some pretty serious responsibility, right there. 

I love that he also announced an Executive Order on Ethics, which brings in new rules on lobbying. Transparency is, too, a crucial word. 

Something completely and utterly transparent is John Key's attempt to look 'Prime Ministerial' amidst the hype and say oh, well, I suggest MPs should take a pay freeze. Not that the  independent Renumeration Authority has to listen to him. Just like the petrol companies didn't drop prices because Gerry Brownlee said out loud that he thought they should. They dropped them because, just like every other day of the year, the companies looked at all the different factors that affect pricing and made a decision. 

Tell you what, those 100 days of action in New Zealand have amounted to...um...? They're still on holiday, aren't they? Do those 100 days count all the days Mr Key had off in Hawaii for Christmas, or do they stop and start counting as they please? I am a little worried that maybe he isn't eating well. Surely a man of his age shouldn't break his arm that badly falling down the stairs? Maybe he needs to drink more milk. Can't have a brittle-boned Prime Minister.

(Photo from stuff.co.nz)

Holy crap, where has the day gone? Need to get started on that hunt for a man like Obama. you know, the loving looks and all that.

Polly xx

Hi, my name is Polly and I am a political junkie.

There. I said it. 

I got up at 5.30am to watch Obama's inauguration. I know, I know, I could have just got up at some reasonable time and watched it on delayed coverage at 11, but I wanted it to be memorable. You know, be able to tell the Grandkids about how 'i remember' (in that shaky old lady voice) ' when i got up at some crazy ass hour to watch McHottie Obama get sworn in as the first African American President of the USA. Oh, he was fiiiine! And you know, that wife of his, she wore this amazing dress. Showed off her figure it did. Brought classic elegance back to the White House, yes indeed.'

Not entirely sure how the voice in my head ended up with a Southern American accent.

So, someone told Aretha Franklin that that hat was a good idea. It really wasn't. Though I like the shades of grey. Mmm grey.

Paul Henry's tie on Breakfast? Was he taking the piss?  

I was intrigued by the amount Obama referred to bringing in an era of the States being an international peace keeping force. It's about time. 

Obama said it: He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. It is the people, it is the people, it is the people. And boy, did the people come. Holy crap, that was a crowd. I wonder how many had to step over the corpses of their prejudice to turn up and support the first African American President. 

My hope is that his mentioning the great concern of global warming will lead to greater global action on the issue.. John Key seems determined to pawn to dirty old Rodney Hide and have a select committee that considers if climate change even frigging exists. Shame on you, smiley man.

Dick Cheney in a wheel chair. Ah, karma.

Despite what i'm going to tell the grandkids, i'm not sure about Michelle Obama's dress. Carly Flynn liked it. I'm fond of the design, but not the colour. Or the sparkle. But the cut is very Jackie O. Good. That's what she needs to do. 

I can just imagine what is going through her head while watching Bush leave in the helicopter - 

'oh my goodness. I am holding the hand of the President of the United States. OMG. OMFG. This is my life. How did I get here?And later, i'll go to BED with the PRESIDENT! Holy crap. Better shave my legs.'

Obama is a symbol of hope that everyone, no matter what, can cheer for. Just because he identifies with Bob the Builder and tells us that 'yes, we can.'

I had chocolate cake for breakfast. Because, yes, i can. Anyway, how else is one meant to celebrate history?

oh Oliver Driver. You are beautiful. And tall. And so hot in that black on black suit. My Mum doesn't like it. I adore that you stare down the camera at me and take the piss. And say all the completely inappropriate things that everyone is thinking but would never dare say. 

Right. Coffee time.

Love, Polly xx