Ta JC it came straight frm the heart. How long have we all been searching, writing, looking for results to no avail. Now the wiords slip out already polished a thousand times.

Good question. Faint or feint?

Anker. The bottom line has to be a sound education system, then theoretically, everything else will fall into place. Education is not just a disaster under Labour, it is pro-actively damaging children. National were no better, the dumbing down has been progressive – for want of a better word.

Peters has made a start addressing the genderID ideology being forced upon children in the school system, but even before this, our students were already lagging behind globally in basics like numeracy and literacy skills where we once did well, and which they need. Clearly Labour, National, and the hopeless Greens cannot be relied upon, and may be complicit; NZ First is looking a good option at this stage.

Ah-ha, Wayne! That sounds suspiciously like conventional wisdom.

What may have been true 20 years ago ain’t necessarily so in 2023. The degree of polarisation, and the deep dissatisfaction with the status-quo (which the smaller parties are better placed to pick up than the larger ones) suggest to me that a party that refused to be pushed to the side on a matter of principle might do very well in 2023-24.

Never forget the phenomenon of “Pasokification”. Pasok, the Greek socialist party, was reduced from the ruling party to a handful of seats when the country roundly punished its failure to deliver prosperity and progress for the Greek people. And, lest you think this only happens to parties on the left, remember what happened to Brian Mulrooney’s “Progressive Conservatives” in Canada. From government to just 3 seats in one shattering electoral lesson.

The conventionally wise can always be made fools of by voters who have, finally, had enough.

Yes Brian, it was like watching beersies between mates on a Friday night.

You mean, like when Key and the NATS were in power and Mike Hosking MC’d the leader debates?

Yes all part of the sharade of power just passing on the batten to the blue team.