HoS Editorial

The HoS editorial looks at the speeches last week:

… As to the substance, National leader John Key has certainly had the better of the early exchange of blows. He needed to. Since assuming the party leadership he has struggled to shake the image of being something of a policy lightweight, a financial-market whizz-kid who, for all his protestations about being poor-born, is out of touch with the real world. His speech in Ellerslie on Tuesday was short on anything resembling oratorical flourish – a demagogue this man is not – but it revealed a leader keen to grapple with the issues close to voters’ hearts.

… The fact that his suggestion of a boot-camp-style “Fresh Start” for young offenders has been well-received by both sides of the law-and-order debate – the hardline Sensible Sentencing Trust and the liberal Prison Fellowship – is an indication of how deep and widespread anxiety is. In the working-class neighbourhoods where Labour has always been able to count on electoral support; in the blue-ribbon National strongholds; and in the liberal centre ground, people are ready for leadership in this matter.

That makes it 4-0 in the editorials.