There is a sea change happening in the wider electorate which is counter intuitive to what the polls are saying.
On the one hand the public overwhelmingly support much fairer taxation but the polls tell us we will have an Act/National government in a couple of weeks which will increase unfairness in tax.
The simple answer to this contradiction is that people vote against governments rather than for them and Labour are being punished for failure – a party in policy paralysis – unable to get out of its own way and get anything meaningful done.
Spelling this out is a recent poll conducted by Essential Research for the lobby group “Better Taxes for a Better Future” which shows the big majority of voters want a Capital Gains Tax, a Wealth Tax, a Windfall Profits Tax and want the wealthy to pay at least the same tax rates as the rest of us (A survey conducted by IRD earlier this year found the uber rich pay less than half the tax rates the rest of us pay)
Here are the figures:
Capital Gains Tax
Windfall profits Tax:
Wealthy to pay more tax:
Wealth Tax:
A TVNZ poll released last week shows overwhelming support for a Wealth Tax in line with Green Party policy.
The poll asked eligible voters if they would support or oppose a wealth tax on the assets of New Zealanders with more than $2m in assets if having the wealth tax meant everyone got free dental care.
A majority – 63% – said they’d be in support of it, while 28% were opposed. The rest didn’t know or refused to say.
The polls show the ground has shifted dramatically in recent times and has opened the way for Labour’s traditional values (if they have any life left in them) to flourish. The electorate is wanting fairer taxes and have the free-loading rich pay much more.
But Labour under its current and former leaders has been looking the other way. It is out of touch and faces its heaviest electoral defeat in my lifetime.
National and ACT are doing well not because voters want them but because voters are voting against Labour.
The same thing happened in the 1990 election. After six years of brutal Labour policies under David Lange and Roger Douglas the electorate had had a gutsful. They wanted to stop featherbedding the rich at the expense of the rest of us. Labour was thrown out and National came in with policies that were even worse than those proposed by Labour.
The same thing will happen this election.
There is a pervasive belief among self-interested politicians that when they are interviewed for opinion polls people will say they are prepared to pay higher taxes but when they get into the ballot box they vote against tax increases. But this argument can only apply when the individual voter faces paying more tax. In these recent polls the call is for the undertaxed rich to pay a much fairer share. These tax changes the electorate wants won’t impact the 99% of voters who go to the polls.
Even National and Act voters want these taxes – but the Labour leadership remain lost in the neo-liberal wilderness. They haven’t got the message.
Labour’s failure means we will have to face three years of awful National/Act policies which will deepen the problems we face.
I haven’t kept count but I have personally heard from dozens of Labour members and voters who have told me they have left the party this year and won’t be voting Labour this year – disgust is the dominant theme.
After this election Labour’s only hope is to reshape the party around the changed public attitudes to tax and find its roots once more. That’s easier said than done for many reasons. Labour’s activist base is irredeemably middle class and it only has tenuous links with organised workers (less than 10% of private sector workers are in unions) who are a small part of the voting public.
Chris Hipkins has shown no sign he is capable of leading the rejuvenation policy, thrust and direction the party needs. He is still in the politics of the late 20th century. All the indications are that the job of Labour renaissance is beyond him.
Hopefully there will be enough good people left in Labour to do what’s needed.
Rather than trying to renovate an old building, it is sometimes easier to knock it down and build something new.
Ada you are on the button.
I have been thinking and saying for sometime this could be the demise of the Labour Party.
The rise and rise of the Greens and Te Pati Maori is a sign of total discontent and a dreadful lack of action by Labour.
I think Labour’s days are over, they do not and have not represented the working person for a very long time, straddling the middle and at least in foreign policy moving to the right.
It seems to me that the two minor parties could form some sort of Alliance and bring home the taxes that the majority desire and many other things for the benefit of the majority of people in Aotearoa.
Funny thing Michael, many a knowledgeable pundit was saying the same thing of National at the last election such was the demise of their party and those abandoning ship. ACT took a number of their votes yet it seems ACT are starting to leak back to National.
All it would take is NZs media to do an about turn from right to left, then you may see different results.
Michal, ask anyone who recieved the latest health pay equity offer( today) if they agree with your “have not represented the working person for a very long time,” That is so far from the truth its not funny. This has been the case for the past few years. If only the media would report this positive news. They aren’t interested.
I think your comment is more wishful thinking than reality.
Though as the 4th Labour Government showed, it’s much easier to take over an existing structure, than build a whole new one.
As Jim Anderton said ‘I didnt leave the Labour Party, the Labour Party left me.
I am firmly in that camp.
Their failures are too many to list but both Jacinda and Chris’s ruling out of a CGT, the parties trashing of womens rights and the promotion and validation of trans culture to children is enough for me.
The next 3-9 years is going to be brutal but the Labour village needs to be destroyed in order to either save it or to make way for a better alternative.
“Labours activist base are irredeemably middle class”, yes they are. Hence the obsession with LGBQ etc, race, tax breaks on electric cars the riff raff could only dream of affording and bike bridges. They think they have done gods work, meanwhile the rest of us wonder if they realise we even exist.
Tax is but one of so many reasons Labour have lost so much support and I don’t have any faith nor do I think there is the talent to rebuild, they are way too arrogant to see their litany of faults. I agree with Ada, it will be a matter of burning the village to save it. But even then I don’t know anymore!
John – Labour does not like its voters…
Hurts cos it’s true
Aaron – Yes
One of the perverse side effects of the wealth tax is that you need the wealthy to remain wealthy to keep collecting the taxes. You need Hipkins to retain ownership of his three houses so as to collect the tax on his combined wealth.
If the socialist in you says it is better to force the despised land lord class to sell their homes to the workers, your wealth tax will take a hit.
Another example is Bob Jones, you need him to be wealthy to collect the tax, the state wants him to be wealthy to keep providing office space for the PMC, yet the socialist wants the means of production (or office ownership) to be in the hands of the worker.
Just do this with any wealthy person and quickly see the wealth tax is not a means to wealth distribution. You need the wealthy to not only stay wealthy but to actually increase their wealth to be able to meaningfully distribute part of their wealth.
Wealth tax is actually anti worker and anti socialism.
Maybe Labour has it right?
Right on Gerrit
The pervese effects of a wealth tax have not been considered or appreciated.
The narrative is focussed on the very few super wealthy, who have the ability to cash up and move their wealth.
The real burden of a wealth tax will fall on the next tier down, the farmers and commercial companies producing and employing, = the outfits currently paying the bulk of company tax.
Now apply a wealth tax to those enterprises, where do the funds come from to pay that tax? Out of profit, off the bottom line= less taxable profit = less company tax to be paid.
Hence the net effect may actually less total revenue collected.
Now a capital gains tax is a whole different concept. Buy a house for $300k sell after 7 yrs for $1m profit $ 700k tax that!
And the seller has the coin to pay!
Cf wealth tax which would come at the expense of some other tax.
Your comment is along the same logic as Martyn’s pictures where the rich tell us a wealth tax won’t work. It would be relatively easy to design a wealth tax that does not burden standard farmers/companies so that is not an issue. You should know that wealth (Capital) & profit are separate items in the accounts so there is no reason that a wealth tax would reduce profit in normal circumstances. I expect that financial engineering will soon find a way to reduce any wealth tax due so it is probably not going to be a long term tax income boost anyway.
You also neglect to mention the better supply of government services from higher government income which will leave the population happier & reduce various negative social problems. I suspect that the tooth fairy would be more reliable than the government (of any colour) at delivering so it is understandable that you don’t expect higher government income to result in better public services. I expect the politicians & public servants will all get increased income & perks though.
I’m going to party-vote Greens and electorate-vote Labour, as I did in 2020, in the confident hope of a miracle: that we’ll elect a Greens-Labour-TPM government.
The prospect of a National-Act government is chilling. The poor will be crushed. (If we’re lucky, they’ll need Winston Peters and NZ First, who might frustrate some of their crueller plans, and even force an early snap election.)
The Greens are not my first choice. That would be TOP, The Opportunities Party. The annual tax on residential land that TOP proposes to finance income-tax cuts is easier to collect than the wealth tax proposals of the Greens and Te Paati Māori. Land cannot be hidden, nor whisked overseas to the Bahamas (or Australia). The TOP tax can be added as a line on existing local-body rates bills, making its collection (and redistribution in income-tax cuts) immediate and almost cost-free. (Compare that with James Shaw explaining on the October 1 QandA how the Greens would collect their wealth tax.) And taxing the land beneath houses will subdue price growth, making homes more affordable. TOP, however, is only 1% in the polls, and dependent on leader Raf Manji winning the Ilam seat in Christchurch. That seems unlikely, and I don’t want to waste my party vote.
The Greens are not even my second choice. That would be Te Paati Māori. Not for their plans for co-governance, but for their proposals for taxing the rich and lifting up the poor. I vote for economic justice. TPM’s tax plans are more radical than the Greens’. They would also be hard to implement. But TPM, along with the Greens, could force a smaller and chastened Labour caucus to dump Chris Hipkins and again embrace wealth taxes to reduce income taxes for the poor. However, Te Paati Māori is little higher in the polls than TOP; its return to Parliament seems dependent on Rawiri Waititi holding the Waiariki seat. That’s no sure thing, and I don’t want to waste my party vote. So TPM, like TOP, won’t get my vote.
As for Labour. What a fruitless six years. All those vain promises. And this past year has been the worst. Chris Hipkins replaced Jacinda Ardern, promising to return to ‘bread-and-butter’ politics. Which turned out to mean doing as little as possible. Labour forfeited my party vote in 2020 when Ardern, having already promised never to implement a capital gains tax, promised no wealth tax either. Now Hipkins has done the same: he’s promised that as long as he leads Labour there will be no CGT, no wealth tax, even though polls show that that is what we, the people, want. What is Hipkins’s campaign now? Scrapping GST on fruit and veges? He turns instead to the politics of division and rancour, accusing National, Act, and NZ First of racism. His is a campaign of empty negativity, because he has so little positive to offer.
The Greens, Te Paati Māori, and Labour all complicate the struggle for economic justice for everyone with battles over culture and identity, and plans for ill-defined co-governance. These divide voters and create a stumbling-block for many. But it’s important to set these issues aside and think of the harm that will be done to so many by a National-Act, or National-Act-NZ First government.
We need a government that will deliver economic justice. For that, we need Labour in the next government. But a smaller Labour, without Chris Hipkins as leader, a Labour driven by the Greens and Te Paati Māori to tax the rich, reduce the burden on the poor, and restore our ailing health service, child welfare support, and aged care.
That’s why I’m voting Labour in my electorate but giving my party vote to the Greens.
Definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. What we see from LINO and the so-called Greens is simply the expression of their political DNA. Don’t expect anything else.
Yet you vote right, is that not insanity and doing the same thing over and over again.
What makes you think you know people’s voting history? Even people you’ve never even met? Aren’t you just projecting your own rigid tribalism onto everyone else?
I’ve never right in my life before. But I will this time.
Your historical posts tell a different story and I call bullshit on your “never voted right in my life”
Same for me in Christchurch central labour seat party vote green.
It is the only way to go.
TOP will win Ilam.
National and ACT voters have a massive incentive to make sure Raf wins Ilam.
Even if they choose not form a government with TOP, it takes Winston’s negotiating power away.
National and ACT need options- TOP is that option.
Great comments, I could not believe Hipkins continuing on the same road, I think they would have had a good chance of getting back had they done a number of taxes.
TPM for me, always voted Green. TPM has the best climate change straategy.
Virtue signalling to the alphabet community and their rights as if they dont have any, from a drop kick who trampled over citizens rights during the weezer, and gave everyone a choice, will do Dipkins no favours.
Chris Hipkins does what he thinks will attract votes not what is best for people.
On this occasion he’s misjudged the mood.
Unfortunately we can’t select individual policies and vote on each issue as we see fit. Sadly for me some of the best policies this election are coming from parties who have gone out of their way to thoroughly alienate me and others like me for the last 3 years.
And then also quite likely throw in some rabidly insane ones to boot.
I remain in the undecided column.
If Chris Hipkins remains leader of the opposition after the election it will be a travesty,
“NZ wants a wealth tax dammit Chippy…” Martyn Bradbury
Unfortunately, Chris Hipkins can’t hear what NZ wants, Chris Hipkins is listening to a different narrative.
In his speech conceding the election to Christopher Luxon. It is imperative that Chris Hipkins also announce his resignation as the leader of the Labour Party.
In my opinion, without new leadership, the Labour Party will not be able to effectively rebuild itself.
During this election campaign, Chris Hipkins has deliberately distanced himself and his administration from the Previous Prime Minister and her achievements.
The Ardern administration led this country through a major Far Right terrorist atrocity with empathy and grace.
During the Pandemic Prime Minister Ardern made the hard decisions necessary to protect the lives and health of New Zealanders, above business as usual. This antagonised the Right and Far Right. But the vast majority of New Zealanders rewarded the Ardern administration with the largest MMP election night result any administration has ever achieved.
The Far Right were incandescent with rage, and vented that rage against the Ardern government and Ardern personally.
Highly visible and voluble and well funded, the far right protesters and extremists were representative of only a tiny minority. (As the Far Right always are).
As a way of indirectly attacking her people first policies, egged on by the Centre Right and supported by wealthy backers, the Far Right targeted Jacinda Ardern personally. This personal vitriol led to the Prime Minister’s resignation, and the elevation of Chris Hipkins to the Premiership.
Instead of building on the achievements of his predecessor, Chris Hipkins, bought into the Far Right narrative that the Ardern administration was unpopular.
All the electoral capital that the Ardern administration had built up, Chris Hipkins has managed to piss against the wall.
The first real test of Chris Hipkins leadership was the climate change fueled devastation that struck Hawkes Bay.
If ever there was an example of what climate change has in store for our farmers and the rural sector this was it.
Prime Minister Ardern had famously described climate change as this generation’s Nuclear Free Moment.
The destruction wrought by Cyclone Gabriel was an opportunity missed for Chris Hipkins to reinforce Ardern’s message and come out fighting for comprehensive climate change action.
Backed with all the facts and figures the science provided him, Chris Hipkins could have won New Zealanders, especially our rural sector and farmers, over to concerted climate action and mitigation funded by a windfall tax on the wealthy. (the first time this had been suggested).
Fueling the Far Right anger.
Hawke’s Bay farmers, growers call for more help as Government rules out cyclone recovery tax
By Gary Hamilton-Irvine
27 Apr, 2023 05:02 PM4 mins to read
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/hawkes-bay-farmers-growers-call-for-more-help-as-government-rules-out-cyclone-recovery-tax/63TK4JWY6JDYFBYWNSDUQISPSQ/
The Government has ruled out any new tax to help pay for ballooning cyclone recovery costs.
….farmers and growers in Hawks Bay say they are receiving “Radio Silence”.
Chris Hipkins refused to listen to the calls for a windfall tax to deal with that particular climate emergency, also succumbed to the Right and Far Right narrative and quietly defunded our climate change response generally.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/03/21/climate-crisis-hipkins-shaw-respond-to-grave-ipcc-report/
“As part of the PM’s climate policy purge and “bread and butter focus”, the Government has scrapped or shelved four climate-focused transport priorities…..
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/131519045/government-crashes-major-climate-policy-and-creates-290-million-hole
Government crashes major climate policy and creates $290 million hole
Olivia Wannan17:00, Mar 16 2023
Building on the “Kindness” mantra of Jacinda Ardern, Chris Hipkins could have agreed to make our tax system fairer.
Instead Prime Minister Hipkins appeasement to the Right and Far Right, will keep our public health system and education and welfare system and climate crisis response starved of the desperately needed increased tax funding.
Dealing daily with an overstretched and under funded public health system, the historic threatened strike by Senior Drs. over funding and staff retention, should have been the final last warning to the Prime Minister that he is listening to the wrong narrative.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/499021/hospital-dentists-and-doctors-union-calls-off-monday-s-strike#
Yes I agree Pat. But who would they put up. The only one I see with anything like the ability is David Parker and I doubt he wants the job. Hipkins was a complete fool.
Chris Trotter right on the money again
https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/124554/it-news-media%E2%80%99s-job-elicit-information-politicians-not-prosecute-them-writes
Things like the Capital Gains Tax?
They did not have the balls to do what should have been done. Mandate? They had the vote of the people but the will the people was overpowered by the economic elite, the corporate born to rule.
Fear, cowardice, no will for battle, capitulation.
The battles are to be fought, like for rail in Auckland. Those in that context which were given away in the 1960s and 70s. And now we are are in ‘never-able-to catchup mode.’
” …we will have an Act/National government in a couple of weeks …”
But we currently have an ACT/National government right now. It’s called Labour. From the very nanosecond that roger douglas crawled out of old Labour leaving behind a rancid carcass of its former self, Labour has been spelled Labor and in it’s internals are the workings of the 14 multi-billionaires, the 3118 multi-millionaires and the four foreign owned banks taking $180.00 a second out of AO/NZ in nett profits after the, the banks, falsely inflated frankly quite shit houses into $millions
We, us lot, haven’t been in steerage and control of our politics or our country for at least 39 years. I’m not fucking joking or being glib and no, I don’t mean the Bee Gee’s neither.
An example might be found in the old woman working down at the local 4 square. She’s been hobbling about on two bung hips for four years waiting to get the operation she’s just had. Great! Of she goes, but our laziness, our cowardice and our bottom-step stupidity meant that, that old woman has lost four otherwise good years of her life because we lot didn’t step up and THINK, and mean really THINK about what’s just happened here. We’ve got mountains of money for health care and available immediately to everyone and we’re being fucked without the kissing by now vastly rich pricks and here they come again wearing their cheap lipstick, fishnets and rich fat white cunt fetishes.
Are we ever going to understand what it is exactly that’s been happening? I don’t think so. Not by the looks of how our political analysis seems to have sustained a head injury
and writing of heads, have you noticed that GroundSwelling is lining up to lick luxon’s bald head? Groundswell is a pathetic mumble of cockies slavering at luxon’s feet hoping he’ll give the muddy little diddums’s a wee pat and a lollipop. It’s sickening. It’s nauseatingly vomit inducing when I read or, God forbid, see those muddy, swelling dopes cuing to finger their abusers.
This election? We’re about to go nowhere. The hyper riche are too powerful and probably too desperate now to let go of we, the dribbling public money-tit people, especially in these heady times.
Here’s what I would do if I were rich. I’d go and live in a country where I had no idea what people were talking about. Just give me a dog, a goat, a sheep, a chicken for good company and a basement stocked with wine and cheese. I’ve learned from travelling that after a while AO/NZ becomes irrelevant and that’s where I want to go.
Dont hold your breath on Labour changing from the current neo liberal policys they are glued too. They have been this way since 1984 and I dont see any true left in their ranks that can lead a change to true working class principles. Sadly.
Micheal W was probably the only chance but sadly no longer in a high enough position to do anything
There’s a glimmer of hope tho’ @ Ken. The mathematics in our current political cistern don’t add up, and haven’t for a while – at least since the cult of neo-liberalism grabbed everybody by the sinsitive bits.
Welfare for the 1%, and then the 9% at the expense of the 90% doesn’t work that well for very long – unless you’re comfortable with various violent outcomes. Natives get restless, drums are constantly beating and eventually drown out the triangle player in the timpani section.
So how are you going to vote? Hopefully not as a revenge voter.
I’m fucking sick of having to vote for the least worst option, just as you probably – but it’s the way the cistern we have works.
This election is probably inspiration for some sort of symphonic or operatic work where the right wing screaming of the banshees will be singing the descant and pretending to be victims. (half the gNats are already at it)
The only bonus of voting for the right is we get rid of the left.
Then we need to deal with the right by voting……..
Fuck em. Vote Green or Mapri Party.
Indeed! IF you mean Party vote.
And vote for the most competent and compassionate rep for your electricate. Which means, for example Ibrahim Omer in Wellington Central, or Kieran McAnulty in the Rapa. (There will be places where a double vote Green is warranted, others such as Ilam – TOP. And TPM candidates where appropriate)
It’ll be an indication of just how fucked lil ‘ole Nu Zulln that punches above its weight has become, but IF the left loses in this space going forward, place your bets now on how long you think the coalition of arseholes is going to last)
Hopefully, some1 will have their trigger finger on the SWIFT link stop button (actually you just need to leave the cabinet door open), but if not, we’ll probably need a substantially reduced army to protect it.
Your only enabling Labour by voting Green or TPM.
If you don’t want Labour your choices are a wasted vote or a vote for the right.
Not great
Well of course they aren’t left and haven’t been for many and many a year 1980s. But they can’t see this. Duncan Webb says he is a socialist. There is the tory party in Britain bringing in an excessive profits tax but it is toooooo hard for poor little Labour to do.
Yes Anderton as he said didn’t leave the party left him.
Chris Luxon does what he thinks will attract votes not what is best for people.
On this occasion he’s misjudged the mood.
how can we expect anything from LINOs who had a massive majority but chose to betray the nz people…
Need Winston and NZF to keep them both in check and get some sensible policy through, NZF have got good people and policy however their Leader and Deputy are controversial and not particularly well liked. Winston is either liked or hated by New Zealanders.
Ngungukai Yes, New Zealand First. Seymour is much more of an absurdity than the NZ First leaders, not as bright or experienced, and more of a sociopath IMO. Peter’s innate conservatism could serve any parliament well after the string of jumping beans who’ve lost sight of what they’re there for, and importantly, who they are there for.
Jumping beans. An excellent description of many of our parliamentarians.
Labour still protecting the status quo !
” Aotearoa has a cost of living crisis. And one of the major drivers of this crisis is the supermarket duopoly, who gouge every dollar they can out of us. Last year, the Commerce Commission found that the duopoly was in fact anti-competitive, giving the government social licence to fix the problem. Instead, Labour decided to protect the status quo, by slow-walking minor changes which will do sweet fuck-all. But now there’s an election, so suddenly they’re promising action ”
” While I appreciate the sentiment, the timing on this is utterly cynical, effectively holding something they should have been doing anyway hostage to electoral outcomes in an effort to grub votes. ”
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2023/10/labour-still-protecting-status-quo.html
Labour are labour only by name they are a bit like lost sheep, in the first Coalition Government 2017-2020 they had NZF holding their hand and guiding them.
“The simple answer to this contradiction is that people vote against governments rather than for them ”
A charismatic leader would nullify this. The Natz did this thanks to JK and we, or the Left, did this thanks to Jacinda. A boring leader exposes a party or the party in office to the missteps their time in office generated.
From John Minto’s post above:National and ACT are doing well not because voters want them but because voters are voting against Labour.
The same thing happened in the 1990 election. After six years of brutal Labour policies under David Lange and Roger Douglas the electorate had had a gutsful.
Even National and Act voters want these taxes – but the Labour leadership remain lost in the neo-liberal wilderness. They haven’t got the message.
Labour’s failure means we will have to face three years of awful National/Act policies which will deepen the problems we face.
A few words in support of David Lange’s beliefs. On reading Harvey McQueens book on his time with Lange, ‘The Ninth Floor’ I have a picture of a bigger man intellectually than previously held. On p.33 are extracts from his thoughts in a letter to Douglas.
It starts off :
Your radical strategy would negate our assets….I cannot dispute what you say about the damage being done by the continuing deficit and our growing public debt…It persists because we are reluctant to ask the taxpayers to pay for the mistakes of the past and to pay for what we do on their behalf. We can no longer afford reluctance….If we spend it taxpayers have to pay for it…. Facing up to this responsibility does not mean we must overnight eliminate nearly all the public debt. The electorate does not expect miracles of us. We are expected to steer a steady course towards economic stability and our social goals…
…User pays in social services: what is proposed would have altruism and benefaction do duty for entitlement…Those who are poor must seek for admittance to the entitlements of citizenship. They must depend not on the institutions of the state but the whim of government for their support. That is so much in opposition to all that you and I have stood for in politics that I do not even go into the impracticalities of it. It is wrong.
The revolt against government: those who for philosophical reasons object to the intrusion of government are not those whose lives are clouded by disadvantage. They are not the people of Mangere or Manurewa. The people who support us are people who depend on the government. Their lives are enriched by it.
Tax cuts mean little to them.
(David Lange, extracts from a letter to Roger Douglas, 22 April 1987. Perhaps someone could transfer it all to the blog so we could all read it. I haven’t time to learn )
McQueen says further: The political intent of Douglas and Prebble was to capture so much ground right of centre that Labour would replace National as the dominant party. But, as so often happens, strategy led to ideological capture.
Thanks.
All the truth, no matter the truth. Why you have unblemished integrity.
I ‘won’t ‘ point out the corners into which public ‘social democrats’ have run in the last 40 years. And so lost their reputation, that for the only cause that matters, that for the people and reality.
I wouldn’t vote for Labour if I tripped over it. I’ve been voting over that 40 years except for Muldoon’s early election. Sad ‘small change’ campaign. Cunliffe must be laughing his head off, Chippy being an enemy of the man who wanted to do well on your/our score.
If Muldoon had held off, in great retrospect, I would have voted for him. Rather than neglecting the neediest for 40 years, the trial-some journey for the ‘lower’ 80 %, and the non-attention to climate change when we knew it in 1990. But I know it was the age of individualism, after the collectivism of social democracy. People wanted to party, and, malheureusement, are still partying — nil response to my comments to family about the reality.
John, you have older roots in it than me, but I wouldn’t care, apart from the vile politics of it, if this Labour Party broke up and blew away in the wind.
Not how a party for the people should be. They should have a heart first and last, like Norman Kirk’s party.