NZ Election - I Only Care About One Promise National Has Made To Us

As a lot of you will already know I don't really hold a lot of truck with politicians and politics (in the generalist sense) as they both have VERY little to do with my life. In fact the ever approaching financial doom that we are all imminently about to experience may have more of an effect on me and mine and this has nothing to do with NZ politicians (or even US/UK politicians if you remove their obvious financial interests).

And so when asked who would I vote for this weekend I would randomly mention any party that popped into my head ... well, any except ACT as they do seem to be a little bit nasty. Oh, and the Kiwi Party because they're obviously just mad. I would then follow up my answer with, "It doesn't really matter does it? It'll probably be a slight shift to the right (we're talking millimetres not kilometres) because both main parties are 'purple' and long gone are the days of 'red' and 'blue"

In the US this is probably an attitude that helped President Obama.

Here in NZ it was seen as somehow undermining the democratic process.
Well, stuff it because I can still see no difference between Labour and National apart from personalities and presentation style.

But then there is ACT. I've always placed ACT in the "jovial but never to be voted for" basket. Actually I quite like Richard Prebble. Of course I'd heard of/read about Roger Douglas and his "Rogernomics" but having never lived in NZ during the 1980s I don't have any of the seemingly guttural and visceral reactions to him I am getting from friends. Those times do sound a little close to my UK home and almost as nasty. Thatcher is, as far as I know, sleeping quietly in the House of Lords never to bother innocent people again. Roger Douglas has returned to parliament and seems hell-bent on "sticking it to the country for it's own benefit" once again.

So, Mr John Key, Mr Bill English (another I have more than a minute for) and all the National chums that we never really got to see through this farcical "NZ presidential campaign" - can I ask that you keep this one promise you've made:

run a government for "all New Zealanders"

I'm not too bothered about any other promises you may have made ... can't for the life of me think if you or anyone else did actually make any pre-election promises.

And when ACT come along try and remember that, according to the official site, they represent 3.72% of New Zealand (77,843 actual people which, in my sporting world, is just about a good sized football stadium). They also polled LESS than NZ First (4.21% / 88,072 people).

One stadium of voices is NOT "all New Zealanders" ... please remember that

As for election night - apart from seeing a mate on TV for the brief moments it was on I think Russel Brown sums it up for me with this:

The settings were sometimes evocative: Peter Dunne seemed to be on his own, Winston's was an old folk's home, Tariana was with her whanau, and Labour's do was full of women drying each others' tears. Only the dancing Sikhs saved National's gathering at Sky City from looking more like a drunken eastern suburbs theme party than it did. (The hooting Parnell types outside Key's gate as he left for Sky City briefly made me think of a zombie flick. I imagined bands of them roaming St Stephen's Ave, clutching bottles of pinot gris.)