Tuesday, April 27, 2004
A strange day in politics
It was a strange day in New Zealand politics today. A Prime Minister who should have sacked one of her cabinet ministers did not....and the leader of the ACT party resigned when he probably should have stayed.
Of the two, Helen Clark is the more likely to regret her (in)decision. She will now be seen as weak and inconsistent (she has sacked other cabinet ministers for far less), and pandering to Maori when she would not tolerate the same from pakeha.
As for ACT: Richard Prebble is not the problem that underlies their terrible plunge in the opinion polls. And there really is no-one else among the party's MPs who will do any better. The real problem is that National has moved some of its policies to the right, and squeezed ACT out to the very edges.
Not that this will do the poor voter any good, either way. National leader Don Brash may be right of centre economically, but he is very liberal/left-wing socially. He will not provide National with the coherent basis it needs if it is to regain its position as a centrist conservative party. The party will continue to wobble around a confused core of beliefs (and consequently, policies).
ACT will continue to be predominantly libertarian (there is even less future in them trying to become more conservative).
So the poor voter looking for a party with sound conservative values is going to struggle in vain. It may be that NZ First is the best placed to exploit the gap - and once again Winston Peters will be king maker after the next election. He must be laughing all the way to the polls.
It was a strange day in New Zealand politics today. A Prime Minister who should have sacked one of her cabinet ministers did not....and the leader of the ACT party resigned when he probably should have stayed.
Of the two, Helen Clark is the more likely to regret her (in)decision. She will now be seen as weak and inconsistent (she has sacked other cabinet ministers for far less), and pandering to Maori when she would not tolerate the same from pakeha.
As for ACT: Richard Prebble is not the problem that underlies their terrible plunge in the opinion polls. And there really is no-one else among the party's MPs who will do any better. The real problem is that National has moved some of its policies to the right, and squeezed ACT out to the very edges.
Not that this will do the poor voter any good, either way. National leader Don Brash may be right of centre economically, but he is very liberal/left-wing socially. He will not provide National with the coherent basis it needs if it is to regain its position as a centrist conservative party. The party will continue to wobble around a confused core of beliefs (and consequently, policies).
ACT will continue to be predominantly libertarian (there is even less future in them trying to become more conservative).
So the poor voter looking for a party with sound conservative values is going to struggle in vain. It may be that NZ First is the best placed to exploit the gap - and once again Winston Peters will be king maker after the next election. He must be laughing all the way to the polls.
