Sir Bob Jones
nopunchespulled.com
My predictions for Labour/Green and National/ACT were astray by 5% thanks to the landslide.
The happiest people will be the pollsters who Auckland Central excepted, pretty much got it right, even with NZ First given historically they’ve understated that Party’s vote.
While the result was unsurprising, the sheer magnitude of it constitutes a watershed in New Zealand politics.
That said, if politics was a commercial activity, this was an election it would be smart to lose as the immediate future promises a grim economic prospect for governments.
But in democracies the reality of politics is as an opportunity for non-descript ordinary folk to temporarily become public figures, something they would never achieve in the outside world. The brutal fact that, in the immortal words of Enoch Powell, all political careers end in tears, doesn’t figure in their moments of triumph.
But it certainly did on Saturday night for Winston, Shane Jones and their colleagues, plus Judith and her decimated Party, and garbage of the Jamie Lee Ross ilk and the variety of new no-hoper aspirants wearing various no-chance political hats.
History says many of Saturday’s losers, in their quest for a public profile and income they’re incapable of otherwise gaining in the outside world, will doubtless lower their sights and target the next round of Local Government elections.
Now we’re left with the US Presidential election to fret about. The non-de-script Biden is irrelevant, rather it’s a for or against vote on the abominable Trump.
Whatever the outcome there will likely be post-election public disorder. The prospect of witnessing Trump being carried kicking out of the White House in the mode of Assange’s humiliating ejection from the Ecuadorian Embassy, would be a wonderful spirits lifting spectacle for the world to cap off a truly traumatic year.
On that note, now our election is over it’s surely overdue to call time on any more Ashley Bloomfield television appearances. A fitting finale which may indeed be necessary, in a similar Assange-like exit, Ashely also being dragged kicking and screaming from the television cameras. These daily updates are a ridiculous nanny-state overkill.
I’m amused by the election post-mortems for the Nats. Blaming Judith’s alleged campaign mis-steps misses the point.
I gave up on the Nats 30 years ago as a Party of individual liberty and the market economy. It’s why ACT was formed, namely to promote precisely these values which National has only ever given lip-service to. Since 1984 history says if you value those things then vote Labour. Better still vote ACT.
A reborn National Party should forget election post-mortems and concentrate on two things. First producing ACT-like policies and second, put a stop to the current surreptitious sky-bayer infiltration. I remarked on this last week and note respected commentator Matthew Hooton did likewise the following day. The Party has become infested with Irish Catholics and happy-clappy candidates.
This is certainly not representative of New Zealand. Take the Islanders, Maoris, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims out of the equation, all or most being into superstition, but not being National voters anyway, and New Zealand is a largely secular country with probably at best only about 30% subscribing to supernaturalism.
For all the blather about MMP we remain substantially a conventional two party system; a basically don’t rock the boat conservative National Party which generally matches the public mood, set against a Labour Party promoting changes which only gains appeal about every decade, but still frightens voters.
Notwithstanding it’s current woes a dramatic National revival is still on the cards as the awful economic days lying ahead start to bite next year.
Hard times drive people to blame governments and look to Opposition options for salvation. That reality may see the Nats attract some decent candidates, which they can certainly do with.
Is there a good side to our current troubled world?
The answer is yes, given the right half full glass outlook, namely think of what it would be like if everything was perfect; no virus, no crime, full employment, no natural disasters, no administrative cock-ups etc., etc. In short the paradise promised by the skybayers, but, and there’s a bloody big but, a life of eternal boredom.
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