On Sun, 02 Feb 2020 17:38:49 -0600, Tony <lizandtony at orcon dot net
Post by TonyPost by CrashOn Sat, 01 Feb 2020 19:37:44 -0600, Tony <lizandtony at orcon dot net
Post by Tonyhttps://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/119215711/simon-bridges-rules-out-working-with-nz-first-after-election
Interesting that you choose that word as the subject when posting
about this.
I nearly didn't because I think there are very few political actions that fit
that word.
However on this occasion I believe there is an element of integrity in saying
to Mr. Peters that they don't want to deal with him. I can absolutely relate to
that.
I agree. This is a calculated risk by Simon Bridges, but he is being
honest and open about his intentions. In effect he is confirming that
National as a party do not work well with those who do not wholly
share their views - and since those that vote NZ First are probably
closer to National in their views on policy than to Labour, this could
be detrimental to the chance of a National-led government.
Realistically, Winston is not likely to last forever, and some of the
other NZ First MPs have shown that they would be assets in either a
Labour-led government or a National-led government; it would be a
shame to see them go - and in my view both Labour and National have
not acted in the interests of the country in not accepting the
recommendation of a review of electoral laws to reduce the 5%
threshold slightly - in my view a coalition government may well be
more desirable than a single party government, as they must work
though issues in some detail before decisions are made. An interesting
story about Mike Moore was his workig through some trade policies to
see what was wrong with them and how they cuold be defeated - and
finding that in fact they should be supported.
Post by TonyPost by CrashThis initiative is well-overdue - National's failure to do this prior
to the 2017 election (they did this for the 2008 and 2014 elections)
may well have been why they are now the opposition.
Something that the news media seem to miss is that National-led
governments are typically numerically dominated by National and
therefore more predictable and consequently more stable.
In Australia the conservative parties are the Liberal and Country
parties - they do not appear to be regarded as less predictable or
less stable as a result. In large part this is a personal spat between
a conservative politition , Winston Peters, and a Conservative
politician, Simon Bridges. But good on him for being clear that he is
preared to accept an electoral loss rather than endeavour to work with
a politician that is elected by NZ Voters.
Post by TonyPost by CrashThis is in
contrast to the current government that was formed because NZF (with
just 7.2% support) chose to join a coalition with Labour. Labour
dominate numerically but not enough to call the shots with the Greens.
Any one of the threeparties have enough votes to stop any particular
policy, but realistically all wish to achieve similar goals - with
many of those goals also shared by the National Party!