Can Raf Manji win Ilam without an Epsom cup of tea deal?
Food inflation has exploded…
Food prices soar 12.5% annually – largest increase since 1987
The new figures from Stats NZ compared prices in April 2023 with the same month last year.
“The 12.5 percent annual increase in April 2023 was the largest since September 1987 which included the introduction of GST in 1986,” consumer prices manager James Mitchell said.
Grocery food prices were up 14%.
“Increasing prices for barn or cage-raised eggs, potato chips, and 6-pack yoghurt were the largest drivers within grocery food,” Mitchell said. “These were the same drivers for grocery food last month.”
Last month’s annual increase was 12.1%.
Mitchell said in today’s announcement fruit and vegetables prices increased by 22.5%, restaurant meals and ready-to-eat food prices increased by 9%, meat, poultry, and fish prices increased by 9.5% and non-alcoholic beverage prices increased by 8%.
“The second-largest contributor to the annual movement was fruit and vegetables. The increase was driven by tomatoes, avocados, and potatoes.
…the pain this is causing and the food stress it is driving are burning people right now.
The desperation, the constant bombardment of destabilisation and the economic dislocation everyone is going through right now are pushing people beyond their frayed limits.
Voters are demanding pragmatic solutions for their hurt, they have no interest in ideological platitudes.
Here are the issues…
…culture wars generate noise, they aren’t the real bread and butter concerns of voters!
TOP are a possible fault line in the political fracturing we will see as cost of living drives voters to seek solutions. If the constituents of Ilam elect Raf Manji the coat tail MPs he would also bring in could be a direct influence in the creation of the next Government.
In times as volatile as this with an angry electorate, political turbulence can throw up unique upsets.
Raf Manji is an intelligent, personable, driven candidate of quality who has the potential of winning over the electorate on his own terms without needing a cup of tea deal with either Labour or National.
To do that, TOP have to hold up one solution that would be a bottom line for their supply and confidence vote that would offer direct relief on the cost of living.
Voters want solutions, if Raf can hold up one policy adoption that could provide immediate material relief on the Cost of Living, he could convince Ilam to change the country.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media
There isn’t really any place for protest votes to go at present.
T.O.P. and N.Z.F. are barely any different from the others.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail, R.F.K. Jr. is the main challenger in the Democratic primary race, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the leader of the French opposition.
The fact that the local supporters of Trump or Sanders/Corbyn/Mélenchon/R.F.K. have nobody to vote for demonstrates that the domestic political system is completely rotten.
I am a voter in Ilam and am involved in local groups and do not hear anybody saying voting for a minor party would solve the problems we are all suffering from. The Labour MP has been nearly invisible and done little for the area. National have a good candidate and I hope he can return to a party seat.
Raf sent us a flyer in the mailbox in Ilam, so that’s a start I suppose.
No comrade, everyone from Christchurch has been telling you for about a year that this is beyond impossible.
Top has less of a chance of winning ilam than the Greens have of winning Epsom, ilam is bluer than a green party members hair.
Sarah Pallet was a one off from COVID and Raf got most of his votes in 2017 for three reasons
1. It was a bit of a change election and people were sick of national in chch.
2. Labour ran an anti abortion candidate meaning half the votes went somewhere else.
3. The greens implosion over welfare meant the very rich environmentalists needed somewhere to go and they voted raf.
Labour not standing in ilam means Raf will just get the second highest am amount of seats.
Top should be going after Wellington fucking central not fucking ilam.
Wellington central is winnable for top .
As a fellow Chch voter in the Ilam electoral I would agree with you .In the words of wisdom that film favorite the Castle “tell him he is dreaming “
If he said UBI for everybody except the 300 super rich …or no deal then he will be in.
Ilam is a strange seat with Ilam University, The fancy area of Boy’s High, the state houses of Bryndwr, Fendalton!, benighted Riccarton and of course, the lower middle class drift of Bishopdale. Oh , and Avonhead and Burnside, both with heavy immigrant population.
Look, we don’t know in Ilam. We are here to be won like a winsome cartoon princess. We have Sarah Pallet, who works hard and meets and greets all the same handful of people that earnest Labour MPs do. We have the fantastically clever, yet lazy and haughty Raf Manji who we all remember from the council years, and some unknown shiny young doctor called Ben, or James or something who was Head Boy at Boys High on the National ticket.