And to the guy below I’ve been working pretty hard to see what influence we can have on government education policy rather than just trying to destroy Tolley. One example is the work this week in the select committee to see if we can use the Ombudsman to get to a point where there is an agreement to stop primary school league tables and thereby ensure professional buy-in to quality standards, not that the current proposals pass that test. For more on that see :-
http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2009/06/11/education-standards-who-are-they-for/

But what is even more pleasing: The Roy Morgan Government Confidence Rating is at 150.5 (up 5 points) with 69% (up 3.5%) of New Zealanders saying New Zealand is ‘heading in the right direction’ compared to only 18.5% (down 1.5%) that say New Zealand is ‘heading in the wrong direction.’

We are of course dependent on those countries to recover since exports are that important. And unlike Australia we don’t have minerals that have largely shielded them from this recession. I also think its too early to say the US and Europe are recovering. They have huge debt problems that will cause problems in the future. They’ve got some helpful signs but considering many countries dollars are faring far better against the US dollar surely signals weaknesses the US economy still has. I will say the US is out of the worse they were. Some will say that is because of the stimulus packages they had. I can’t agree with that. That is the market sorting it out.

When we had rogernomics and ruthenasia, these were considered close to best practice. There Is No Alternative, and so on. That’s not the case now, and the memories of how that was, are still potent.

I think that ‘no privatisation in the first term’ phrase might come back to bite the Nats a bit. If they signal a turn toward neoliberal solutions in the second term, when no one else in the world is trying them, they’ve got a hard sell. Labour and the Greens will be able to point to alternatives this time around.

if failure is losing your electorate seat. Then it certainly didn’t hurt Darren Hughes or Steve Chadwick in 2008 and David Parker in 2005.

Of course Anderton hasn’t had that influence for a long time. He’s essentially a single MP that really should just be part of Labour.

Dunne will stay as long as National is in power. I think National will want him to stay. More moderate than Act. Whilst he is unlikely to give National any number outside of his own seat. He can bridge the gap between Act and National. That is itself important in National’s coalition arrangements. Though National will need to get the message out that their supporters should vote Dunne and not Shanks. Since all that does is give Chauvel a better chance at winning Ohariu. Indeed he gained 2, 500 more votes than he did in 2005. Likely the only Labour member to have done so in 2008.

Its likely some of that was because Dunne declared he’d work with National only. But regardless it was a real achievement.

‘No Brash, No cash’ was probably a part of it as funding shifted back to National. They also lost a lot of the original behind the scenes players from the then Employers Federation. They got quite a bit nuttier for a while, flirting with the fundies and talking about ‘gun rights’ and ‘Lauren Order’. That loss of focus on economic liberalism changed the perception of the party I think. Hide’s ‘perk busting’ phase of small scandal crusading was another symptom of them losing their purist ’serious thinker’ image.

From your estimation f Bennett you’d think Pillay would have defeated her with a 3000+ majority. As that didn’t happen. You’re underestimating her.