Many moons ago – back when the notion of replacing Andrew Little with Jacinda Ardern was the sort of pie-in-the-sky idea dismissed by almost all serious commentators as almost assuredly fatal to both her party and her person, rather than some form of titanic/cthonic masterstroke capable of apparently singlehandedly reshaping the political landscape upon a whim – I sat down to pen a piece entitled “The Golden Path”.
Earlier in the week, Wairarapa Labour candidate Kieran McAnulty made some pretty stirling remarks about the problems of social housing…
I got a lead on a major party poll that had just been done in the Wairarapa, and which basically confirmed what I’d been saying. It ranked the contenders for the seat both in terms of their support out there in the electorate (i.e. how many folk were likely to vote for them) – but also in terms of their ‘likeability’, relatability, recognizability and such.
Look “behind the curtain”, if you will.
The timing of events is, in politics, almost never coincidental.
I remember once upon a time remarking that Peter Dunne’s occupancy of the Ohariu seat was one of the great…
At the time of writing, it’s been perhaps sixteen hours since news of Steve Bannon’s resignation broke. And dependent upon…
It has been said by a mind far wittier than myself that whilst history doesn’t repeat … it sure does…
In the coming days, as the vultures of various news outlets attempt to pick clean the carcass of a once-indomitable…
By the end of this week, a quantity of ink fit to fill Lake Rotoiti – and sufficient electrons to power Tiwai Point for about the space of half an hour – will no doubt have been marshalled in service of commentating upon what Jacinda Ardern’s ‘shock’ elevation to the leadership of Labour means for that party. And, for that matter, the prospects of actually securing ‘progressive’ governance in 2017.
Every Election, there’s a seat or several whose outcomes are fantastically interesting to watch. This is because they are the ones that are actually balanced upon the knife-edge – where a few dozen votes one way or ‘tuther will actually help to determine the shape and course of our politics for years or even decades to come.