If National wins ...

[fungus pudding]

Where oh! where have all the flowers gone? (left posters) carried this ancient topic forward through two elections. "If National Wins" well they did, twice and all the signs are that they could win the next one. The sun is shining outside, Kiwis are returning home in droves, and all is well - except maybe for Auckland? Didn't I read somewhere that the leader of that fair city announced that he was paying his staff a minimum of $18 an hour or more in accordance with his masters policies? Now he seems to have blown out his wages budget by a few million dollars - and he hasn't got a Labour Govt. to bail him out. Now there's an opportunity for Kim Dotcom if ever I saw one.

Dollars to doughnuts they will win the next election. This was the tough one, but they'll get a clear run now. Conservatives need an electorate seat or they'll get an even smaller vote next time. Winston's mob will be gone - Labour/Greens need to amalgamate or something. Unions and union backed parties have had their day. I think we're seeing the dying stages of Labour so an alternative to National is some way off.

[westerly]

Dollars to doughnuts they will win the next election. This was the tough one, but they'll get a clear run now. Conservatives need an electorate seat or they'll get an even smaller vote next time. Winston's mob will be gone - Labour/Greens need to amalgamate or something. Unions and union backed parties have had their day. I think we're seeing the dying stages of Labour so an alternative to National is some way off.

Dreams are free . Natioal came back from 27 seats in 2002

westerly

[artemis]

Dollars to doughnuts they will win the next election. This was the tough one, but they'll get a clear run now. Conservatives need an electorate seat or they'll get an even smaller vote next time. Winston's mob will be gone - Labour/Greens need to amalgamate or something. Unions and union backed parties have had their day. I think we're seeing the dying stages of Labour so an alternative to National is some way off.

Ron Mark is a credible successor to Winston I reckon.

[BlackPeter]

Glad its all over, even if I would have preferred a National lead government (vs National being able to run it alone ...).

Seeing myself in the centre of the political spectrum, it was a bit sad to observe previously centre-left parties like Labour and Greens to all crowd the far left of the political spectrum and ignoring (and actively putting off) the voters in the centre.

Democracy is about parties sensing and representing their electorate, not about parties trying to force their political agendas down the throats of the voters. So I guess, every party got what they deserved, and Labour and Green can sleep well in the knowledge that there are still roughly one third of the electorate happy to be represented by hard left wing politicians.

So it looks like another 3 years of the same (and yes, I prefer that to suffering under hardly thought through left wing policies). If I have a wish free (I probably don't), than I would wish for one of the left wing parties (Labour or Green) to return back to the centre and trying to represent as well ordinary people. It would be nice to have next time a real credible alternative in the centre.

[nextbigthing]

Glad its all over, even if I would have preferred a National lead government (vs National being able to run it alone ...).

Seeing myself in the centre of the political spectrum, it was a bit sad to observe previously centre-left parties like Labour and Greens to all crowd the far left of the political spectrum and ignoring (and actively putting off) the voters in the centre.

Democracy is about parties sensing and representing their electorate, not about parties trying to force their political agendas down the throats of the voters. So I guess, every party got what they deserved, and Labour and Green can sleep well in the knowledge that there are still roughly one third of the electorate happy to be represented by hard left wing politicians.

So it looks like another 3 years of the same (and yes, I prefer that to suffering under hardly thought through left wing policies). If I have a wish free (I probably don't), than I would wish for one of the left wing parties (Labour or Green) to return back to the centre and trying to represent as well ordinary people. It would be nice to have next time a real credible alternative in the centre.

BP you nailed it. Exactly.

Interesting article on stuff with a great comment by David Shearer, something along the lines of Labour needs to stop trying to represent a band of minorities and start representing middle NZ.

[winner69]

Glad its all over, even if I would have preferred a National lead government (vs National being able to run it alone ...).

Seeing myself in the centre of the political spectrum, it was a bit sad to observe previously centre-left parties like Labour and Greens to all crowd the far left of the political spectrum and ignoring (and actively putting off) the voters in the centre.

Democracy is about parties sensing and representing their electorate, not about parties trying to force their political agendas down the throats of the voters. So I guess, every party got what they deserved, and Labour and Green can sleep well in the knowledge that there are still roughly one third of the electorate happy to be represented by hard left wing politicians.

So it looks like another 3 years of the same (and yes, I prefer that to suffering under hardly thought through left wing policies). If I have a wish free (I probably don't), than I would wish for one of the left wing parties (Labour or Green) to return back to the centre and trying to represent as well ordinary people. It would be nice to have next time a real credible alternative in the centre.

That's not the way it meant to work these days

John's friends up north will be very pleased with him ....he serves them well

[fungus pudding]

Dreams are free . Natioal came back from 27 seats in 2002

westerly

Labour and Greens either either amalgamate, or Labour will die.

[nextbigthing]

Labour and Greens either either amalgamate, or Labour will die.

Not quite IMHO.

Labour need to stop pandering to minorities and telling us how to live and instead listen to middle NZ. Keep promoting a smart clean economy with a safety net function but only tax and govern where required, leave the rest to the individual to do what they think is best.

Only when they finally do this will they gain support again. David Shearer seems to be the only guy in Labour who had grasped this.

They have two options now. More of the same, or start listening to what most kiwis actually want - which I get impression is the 'bluegreens'

[BlackPeter]

Labour and Greens either either amalgamate, or Labour will die.

Not sure - I believe there is a place for (real) Green policies and there is a place for left wing policies in our political spectrum. The problem this time as I see it was that both Labour and Green went for the left wing ... maybe the Greens wearing a wee little green jacket to conceal their real political agenda.

I think that NZ needs a strong environmental movement which is politically balanced and able to work with parties on both sides of the political spectrum to protect our environment. As long as the Greens are unable to do this, they will stay in opposition.

In my view there is a place for both parties if they manage to sort out who is representing which part of the electorate, instead of all of them crowding the same spot.

[craic]

Everyone seems to have missed the peculiar Napier result. A very hard working Labour candidate regained the seat from National, primarily because an equally popular, local, Conservative candidate, split the vote with a lacklustre National candidate. This was evidenced by National getting almost double the party vote that Labour got in Napier. Had McVicar not been here, Labour would have one less seat and National one more. Nash is probably a bit raw for the role of Labour Leader but time will tell. He had two main platforms here, the repair of the Napier/Gisborne rail ink and "No to Amalgamation" of local bodies in the area. Both are now dead issues so what does he have for the local apart from rides on his big red fire engine