If National wins ...

[iceman]

Just watched Winston and Mark Osborne on Q&A. Winston, the best opposition politician in NZ, made all sorts of silly promises like a fast train between Auckland and Northland and a suggestion on a fixed dollar value. I can not understand people that vote for him !

[elZorro]

Just watched Winston and Mark Osborne on Q&A. Winston, the best opposition politician in NZ, made all sorts of silly promises like a fast train between Auckland and Northland and a suggestion on a fixed dollar value. I can not understand people that vote for him !

Yes, but Mark Osborne had a nervous voice for such a big guy, and on the other side of the camera up north was Steven Joyce, coaching the hapless newbie. A little birdie told me last night that National is privately conceding the election already, amongst its party faithful.

[Major von Tempsky]

Hey, it's time for a posting for Daytr, just after EZ, so I'll jump in.

If you think the bye-election campaign has descended into madness, you are probably right and people in the privacy of the voting booth will reflect more seriously.

Fixed exchange rate? Ha! Ha! Ha! Not even Labour will resort to that! The NZ dollar, believe it or not, is the tenth most traded currency internationally. Where would he get the hundreds of billions of dollars needed to defend his assessment of the value of the NZ dollar (which internationally with Winston in power would be very hard to sustain). A high speed train to Whangarei? Who for?, the population of Northland is not nearly sufficient to justify that or even a railway to the port against very flexible diesel engined multi-wheeled multi trailer trucks.

Put a chokehold on immigration and stop NZ's economic growth?
He's a raving nutter, smokes and turns 70 this year. Is Winston the face of future? You'd have to be a moron!

[elZorro]

Hey, it's time for a posting for Daytr, just after EZ, so I'll jump in.

If you think the bye-election campaign has descended into madness, you are probably right and people in the privacy of the voting booth will reflect more seriously.

Fixed exchange rate? Ha! Ha! Ha! Not even Labour will resort to that! The NZ dollar, believe it or not, is the tenth most traded currency internationally. Where would he get the hundreds of billions of dollars needed to defend his assessment of the value of the NZ dollar (which internationally with Winston in power would be very hard to sustain). A high speed train to Whangarei? Who for?, the population of Northland is not nearly sufficient to justify that or even a railway to the port against very flexible diesel engined multi-wheeled multi trailer trucks.

Put a chokehold on immigration and stop NZ's economic growth?
He's a raving nutter, smokes and turns 70 this year. Is Winston the face of future? You'd have to be a moron!

Tell you what MVT, Winston will probably have a great 70th birthday party with his extended family, later next month. The backdrop will be him having just handed National a record defeat up north. Not too shabby at all.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11416930

And John a week later..

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/n...ectid=11420790

[Daytr]

I don't agree with all of Winston's ideas & I'm sure some of them are just attention grabbers.
But he's going to be hell of a lot better than what we have had until now in Northland which amounts to neglect.
It just shows how bad National have got that despite some hair brained policy & a lot that is good as well to be fair people by the thousands will vote for him. I will freely admit many are voting against National rather than voting for NZF. I would suggest that's a bigger statement to John Key than anything else.

I do love the way MVT you love speaking for others & I mean fictional others. The 'we' & that people may vote differently to what they say publicly etc. Vivid imagination there. You should right a novel, or perhaps you have already started here. One of Winston's other policies is to increase the use of rail for freight, an idea that has a lot of validity & it will connect with that port you didn't think existed !

Anyone seen any polls of late?

[elZorro]

I don't agree with all of Winston's ideas & I'm sure some of them are just attention grabbers.
But he's going to be hell of a lot better than what we have had until now in Northland which amounts to neglect.
It just shows how bad National have got that despite some hair brained policy & a lot that is good as well to be fair people by the thousands will vote for him. I will freely admit many are voting against National rather than voting for NZF. I would suggest that's a bigger statement to John Key than anything else.

I do love the way MVT you love speaking for others & I mean fictional others. The 'we' & that people may vote differently to what they say publicly etc. Vivid imagination there. You should right a novel, or perhaps you have already started here. One of Winston's other policies is to increase the use of rail for freight, an idea that has a lot of validity & it will connect with that port you didn't think existed !

Anyone seen any polls of late?

No, Daytr, seems like the parties are polling using their phone calling. It'll be interesting to see if National do a Labour-style method of getting out the voters. But although it sounds impressive, not many people seem to use the vans and cars that are laid on. It's a lot of hassle, for not many votes.

Here's a centre-right columnist with his views. Even then, he's still saying it'll be close.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-stan...ction-too-hard

I'm keeping a wary eye on ipredict, and National hasn't been able to post more than about a 30% chance of winning, for days now. If there really are lots of National people who think that they've got the by-election in the bag, they don't seem to be betting on it that conclusively.

[Daytr]

Yeah there are a lot of people commenting on social media re getting calls every night from national party supporters asking who they are voting for. Many obviously getting annoyed by it particularly as most of the calls have come from someone sitting In Auckland. Never going to go down well with a Northlander. Funny not seen one complaint about NZF or Labour, so not sure if they aren't doing the same or that people don't mind. I don't have a landline thank goodness. Re cars they are on offer, but I think both Labour & National have offered them in the past, not sure about NZF.
The only polls I listen to are independent media polls. Seems like its still neck & neck.

[Daytr]

I just had a chance to watch Q&A and he doesn't suggest fixing the currency, he said setting it more favorably for exporters which could mean a whole host of things. I'm not saying that's necessarily a good idea either, but don't misrepresent what he said.
Yes and referring to a fast train, not high sped rail as you seemed to be implying.
I noticed Osbourne didn't rule it out either. And $1.75Bln I think we are getting an extra 30kms of motorway which very few here in Northland care about, especially at that cost. I wonder what that rail option would cost? We have Air NZ cut flights up here, so perhaps rail is worth investigating, obviously dependent on cost. Beauty of rail vs flying is it could get you right into Auckland CBD and could be a major commuting option for people living on the shore as well into the city & take stress off the bridge which they been trying to do for years. Roads like most of Nat policy is so 20th century. Most other countries in the world are investing heavily in rail options.

I know I'm biased but I thought Peters won it hands down.
Osbourne looked like an over wrought school boy who had just been denied his pudding, he did so much whining.
Did you see the side glances as Osbourne was taking instructions? Haha.
Actually for a 1st timer, credit where credit is due, he does quite well with his public speaking generally.
Its really not Osbourne that's the problem, other than no one seemed to have heard of him, its his party & those that are supposedly helping him.

[Daytr]

Last one for the night, a couple of Nat MPs asked the same question twice about where was Winston Peters. Apparently its a real no no to ask that question of other MPs no matter what side of the fence. (but when have John Key's Nats respected anything?) Anyway if I had been me receiving the question, I would have responded with, where is Mike Sabin ?

[iceman]

Hi EZ,
I think you have to be fair and feel for Mark Osborne being thrown in against the best opposition politicia NZ has. I think it was quite sad how the Labour guy on the program attacked Osborne for his physical appearance. But of course Labour doesn't really count any more with Winston First taking over as Leader of the Opposition !

Yes, but Mark Osborne had a nervous voice for such a big guy, and on the other side of the camera up north was Steven Joyce, coaching the hapless newbie. A little birdie told me last night that National is privately conceding the election already, amongst its party faithful.