If National wins ...

[Major von Tempsky]

R.I.P. Russel Norman.

A non NZer (Australian) leading a significant NZ party was always a non-starter - particularly when he spelt his name wrong.

[elZorro]

R.I.P. Mike Sabin. National, Northland MP, bad boy?

And now we start to see the calibre of the National Party's MPs?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...ke-sabin-quits

Northland is a National stronghold, and Andrew Little thinks that's not likely to change. But Labour will still contest it. Indeed, one of my emails today is the Labour Party imploring me to send funds urgently for a war chest for that by-election.

Well, I've already done my bit for a while (I trickle funds in each month anyway), but why would a by-election cause a mad scramble for funds, unless they are already very low? Pity Labour doesn't seem to have something like the Waitemata Trust, St Pepper. Even when Labour gets funds from the unions, it's a tiny amount of about $1 or less a member, for the whole year. Most of the party funding seems to come in small amounts from individual members. That's all good, the best way, they just need more members.

I'm sorry to see Russel Norman backing down from being co-leader of the Greens. He's at least as good as Metiria at fronting to the camera and making points in the House. He'll be hard to replace. You did well, Russel.

[neopoleII]

""And now we start to see the calibre of the National Party's MPs? ""
so which labour party member was chasing a naked man down the street at night?
and where were they staying?
what were they all up too?

end of the day....... politicians are people and people do different things.....
its politics, media, and political trolls that push private issues into the political limelight to score political points.

show me a squeaky clean politician and i'll show you a 1/2 a person.......

as for russel...... i dont like him, am glad he is moving on, and hopefully the greens can become a greater party.
green policy should just concentrate green and leave the "social" stuff to others.
that way the greens can join any government to help keep this great land green
if they did that...... the left and right folks might give the greens one of their 2 votes to say........
left or right.... we like a bit of green in NZ

hopefully the greens can / could be a good part of NZ.

[elZorro]

""And now we start to see the calibre of the National Party's MPs? ""
so which labour party member was chasing a naked man down the street at night?
and where were they staying?
what were they all up too?

end of the day....... politicians are people and people do different things.....
its politics, media, and political trolls that push private issues into the political limelight to score political points.

show me a squeaky clean politician and i'll show you a 1/2 a person.......

as for russel...... i dont like him, am glad he is moving on, and hopefully the greens can become a greater party.
green policy should just concentrate green and leave the "social" stuff to others.
that way the greens can join any government to help keep this great land green
if they did that...... the left and right folks might give the greens one of their 2 votes to say........
left or right.... we like a bit of green in NZ

hopefully the greens can / could be a good part of NZ.

OK neopoleII, certainly a bad-looking Labour incident, but he's no longer an MP either. Don't think the police were involved.

A bit about Russel Norman. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/poli...blow-to-greens

Some of the comments under that article are from both sides, of course. The considered ones are in favour of his tenure. Others, like your comments, just say that they couldn't stand him, but for no particular reason. He's Australian? He wanted his flag back? And?

In other words, your opinion of someone has been formed through insinuation, a few put-downs, and not much else. You don't know why you "don't like him", you just do. This is how National's strategists work, it's perfect. Spend enough money and blogging effort, and the main opposition personalities can be impaired within the feeble unchallenging minds of many voters.

Of course, I am open to a proper discussion on how Russel Norman let down the Green Party in the ten years he was co-leader. He was actually a big chunk of the opposition in the House for the last three years.

Martyn Bradbury on Norman, briefly. I like the comments.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/01/30...russel-norman/

Are you going to be like John Key today over Sabin - "No comment on that" "No comment" "I'm not making any comment on that" etc.

Sooner or later, John Key is going to get pinned down properly. Please let it be before the 2017 elections.

[winner69]

EZ, that Eleanor Catton really pissed off many saying New Zealand was dominated by neo-liberal, profit-obsessed, shallow and money hungry politicians who did not care about culture.

Remember my definition of neo-liberalism. She right on the button eh

Go Eleanor

[elZorro]

EZ, that Eleanor Catton really pissed off many saying New Zealand was dominated by neo-liberal, profit-obsessed, shallow and money hungry politicians who did not care about culture.

Remember my definition of neo-liberalism. She's right on the button eh.

Go Eleanor

W69, you'll probably enjoy the start of this article from Martyn Bradbury, it was a bit too left for me further on. But he's correct, Labour people can't figure out how John Key gets away with it. It's more than John who's involved, that's for sure. A big group of self-motivated people who are very organised, somehow.

http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/01/29...-in-the-polls/

[fungus pudding]

""And now we start to see the calibre of the National Party's MPs? ""
so which labour party member was chasing a naked man down the street at night?
and where were they staying?
what were they all up too?

end of the day....... politicians are people and people do different things.....
its politics, media, and political trolls that push private issues into the political limelight to score political points.

show me a squeaky clean politician and i'll show you a 1/2 a person.......

as for russel...... i dont like him, am glad he is moving on, and hopefully the greens can become a greater party.

The greens will not become a greater party until they drop this silly co-leader business, and declare a leader and deputy; neither of specific gender.

[elZorro]

The greens will not become a greater party until they drop this silly co-leader business, and declare a leader and deputy; neither of specific gender.

Typical comment from your side of the fence, FP. Why is the Green's system any worse than National's? It's certainly bound to be more representative. Labour go even further, and try to have their MPs look like the wider NZ. There have been some fairly silly National Party situations though. These don't rate a mention.

Just read a comment about the housing market in Auckland. This could be another reason a chunk of state houses are being sold.

XRAY says: January 29, 2015 at 12:21 pm

The Herald are loving John Key today, Audrey Young and John Armstrong giving Key an 8/10 all round for his State of the Nation, Little a 4 out of 10. Clearly, neither questioned Key's motives for State House sales or this new social housing problem that must be solved with market forces and tax payer money. So it’s the same old, same old.

But Auckland’s housing market must be a worry for National at the moment and maybe because it's on thin ice. I know that there are bugger all houses for sale, desperate estate agents can’t even offer up another place to one person I know who is looking at selling, and the reason is it’s too damned risky selling, because unless you leave NZ or relocate to Hokitika you are likely to be unable to buy what you want, and most importantly, what you can afford. In short, rents have to match incomes, like it or not for investors, but those aren’t matching purchase prices. So the whole house-of-cards model is teetering. If it goes bang, so does NZ. So Key is clearly trying to poke fingers in the fast increasing holes in the dyke with taxpayer cheques to speculators to prop up their investments with market-driven rent, I mean the money has to come from somewhere and it ain’t from our low wage economy. This mega short-term “social housing policy” is social welfare policy for the speculators, to keep this badly run economy from tanking - but time's running out!

[fungus pudding]

Typical comment from your side of the fence, FP. Why is the Green's system any worse than National's?

Any party campaigning to run a country or form part of a government should nominate a leader capable of the Prime Ministerial role. Especially so in the green's case when they were making noises about deputy P.M if Labour won. Thank Christ they didn't. (At least I would if I were religous)

[elZorro]

Any party campaigning to run a country or form part of a government should nominate a leader capable of the Prime Ministerial role. Especially so in the green's case when they were making noises about deputy P.M if Labour won. Thank Christ they didn't. (At least I would if I were religous)

Funny, I read an opinion somewhere recently, that Russel Norman was the most intelligent party (co)leader in parliament.

I don't often agree with Oliver Hartwich from the NZ Initiative, but I think he's put together a thoughtful piece here.

Little’s progressive vision

Dr Oliver Hartwich | Executive Director | oliver.hartwich@nzinitiative.org.nz

Having become leader only a couple of months ago, there were great expectations for Andrew Little to spell out what Labour would focus on under his watch. He delivered in his ‘State of the Nation’ speech. The image Little presented of his ideal Labour Party was painted with a big brush, presenting the general direction rather than individual policy initiatives. Little said so himself, so criticism that his remarks were lacking in detail are off the mark. That was emphatically not what Little aimed to achieve. What he actually tried to do was much more ambitious than adding to the nitty-gritty of day to day politics: to find a new narrative, a new raison d’être for social democracy. Around the world, social democrats are faced with the same challenge: to show that they are still relevant in the 21st century. Ironically, this problem is a result of their past successes. Social democracy has achieved many of its historic demands. For example, it established social safety nets, promoted equal rights for men and women and fought for many of the civil liberties we take for granted these days. Having achieved all that, the question becomes what it is that should drive and characterise a modern Labour Party. Some international centre-left parties have jumped on the band-wagon of environmental topics and anti-growth rhetoric. However, this territory is firmly occupied by Green parties so there is not much to gain for social democrats. Other centre-left parties have resorted to more ideological positions often taken against markets and business – ignoring that many of their voters work in the private sector and know a thing or two about the importance of wealth creation. Little’s speech shows that he does not intend to fall into the same trap as many of his fellow centre-left leaders abroad. Instead, he presents a much more appealing idea: a reconciliation of social democracy with the market economy. Little thus states that wealth has “to be created first before it could be shared”. He says that “a good quality of life for all of us needs strong economic performance.” He emphasises that “when people have jobs, they have dignity, they have self-respect, and their families have the best future.” In other words, Little wants to see his party on the side of those creating wealth, jobs and income. In the best sense of the word, this is a truly progressive vision. If Labour now follows Little’s broad vision, we can expect a more interesting political contest of ideas than what we have become used to in recent years.