Chris Trotter on John Key morphing into PM

As I was somewhat distracted on Friday, I didn't get around to typing out Trotter's From the Left opinion piece from the Dominion Post. It's now appeared online, saving me the trouble.

When you deal with the devil, the devil always wins. I think it's notable that people like Trotter are so impressed with Key. So, here's Chris Trotter in full isn't he just wonderful on John Key and his deal with Labour.

Key morphs into prime minister

Okay, I admit it, I was wrong about John Key. What he did on Wednesday afternoon was quite extraordinary. Not only did he help his principal political opponent out of a very deep hole, but he also told the denizens of the far Christian Right that they should stay in theirs.

The pro-smacking lobby was positively salivating at the thought of 18 more months of promoting their creepy version of Christianity to the New Zealand public. And I'm sure their leaders were also secretly delighted at being given such a wonderful opportunity to colonise and subvert the National Party.

Don't laugh. The once proud Republican Party long ago fell prey to these holy red-necks, and even across the Tasman, the influence of Christian fundamentalism in the Liberal and National parties has grown ominously.

There is a deep and disquieting political synergy between the dark emissaries of neo-conservatism and the dogmatic proselytisers of Christian fundamentalism. The former seek an all-encompassing ideology strong enough to control the disintegrative tendencies of liberal capitalism; the latter claim to have found it.

Of late, this neo-conservative- Christian fundamentalist axis of influence appeared to be gaining an impressive amount of political traction. Certainly, something very weird was going on in the National Party.

Like those Transformer monster machines my friends' kids used to watch in the 1980s, the party was changing: reassembling itself into an older, darker and much more dangerous political mechanism. The young, confident and voter-friendly National which John Key has been marketing since the end of 2006 was beginning to look pretty shaky.

Even worse, it was Bill English, the man so many voters had hoped would steer National back into more inclusive and conciliatory waters, who was leading the transformation. The thoughtful and pragmatic representative had morphed into an angry standard bearer for the "power-at-any-price" school of politics.

The "moderate", tipped to be our next finance minister, was demanding massive cuts in government spending and further deregulation of the labour market. Could this really be the Bill English who, seven years ago, at a meeting of the Balclutha branch of the party, had boldly spelt out what National needed to do to regain power?

"The groups that vote for us are the ones who are shrinking fastest . . . We lose 1.5 seats each election just on the demographics alone. The new voters will be young and brown. If we're not getting their vote, we're not going to get into Parliament . . .

"There was a smell that came across the party early in the 90s – too focused on the dollars, not worried enough about the people who were missing out. We didn't do enough to change those impressions . . . There's a perception that rich people vote National, and it's true. I hate that. It would do us good to see us drive some of those people away."

Mr Key's strategy over the past six months has been based squarely on his deputy's Balclutha analysis. From volleyball at Ratana, to walkabouts at McGeehan Close and Waitangi, everything he's done has strobed "National wants to help the people who are missing out".

But, about a month ago, National's pollsters and focus groups started whispering in Mr Key's and Mr English's ears that Helen Clark's stubborn defence of Sue Bradford's "anti-smacking" bill was collapsing Labour's support across all demographics. "Middle New Zealand" was angry and confused about the bill's objectives. The right-wing churches' misinformation campaign was bearing fruit. National had only to keep the fundamentalist cauldron bubbling, and in 2008 New Zealand would be theirs. Or would it?

Mr English was confident that he and his boss could ride the neo- conservative-Christian-fundamentalist tiger, and saw no harm in allowing National to become the instrument of God's righteous wrath.

But Mr Key decided that he didn't want to – and didn't have to – win that way. He had gone into politics to help New Zealanders lift their game not to fight the Battle of Armageddon.

By reaching out to Ms Bradford and Miss Clark and committing his party to a principled compromise on the repeal of s59 of the Crimes Act, Mr Key has made certain that the next National government will be just that – a government.

That's a prime-ministerial transformation.

Conservatives anticipating the Rapture should call Brian Tamaki.