Keep reminding your friend, mate. It’s what friends do!

The reason they agreed to a minister of finance if a coalition does result from the MoU is because Labour is very clear that it’s the senior partner and thus needs a Minister of Finance from its own party, and the Greens had said before a previous election that they might want to negotiate for that position. So that’s basically Labour making clear that position is off the table, because they feel they need the purse strings controlled by the lead coalition party. It’s a bit too early to start divvying up roles, although I do hope they’ll start having their spokespeople co-ordinate more closely in question time, (eg. Labour and the Greens asking supplementaries on each other’s primary questions) and more joint policy announcements like NZ Power, (speaking of, please bring SOMETHING like that back) as that definitely did well for the perception they were a government in waiting.

As a Greens supporter, I at least feel it’s not an unreasonable clarification.

‘That’s why most of them concentrated on their own electorates and didn’t really care about the party vote – it is interesting to note that Labour gained electorate votes in most of the seats they won whilst losing a lot of party votes.’

I would say that was about it in a nutshell.

There’s no other way to consider the lunacy that prevailed during 2014. A comfortable seat in parliament with a good pay … albeit with being the opposition… or maybe it is… they have been so long in opposition that the Rogernomes wouldn’t feel comfortable being in govt…

Or maybe it is that they considered National doing a good enough job for the neo liberal cause that they could have a holiday on the public’s expense…

either or….in their case.

There are two ways to improve your own image: first you trash those around you in the hope that it makes you look better by comparison. The second is to speak generously and effusively of others. The second policy never fails to present the speaker in a positive light, with the likely extra benefit of usually receiving a grateful endorsement from the other party.

Next, they might like to quietly offer an olive branch to Hone. In so many ways they are on the same side. They don’t need to try to absorb Mana, (in fact that would probably just push the more radical to withdraw while giving an unnecessary weapon to the Right), just to allow a more tolerant, supportive atmosphere to develop on the Left. A congratulation here, a positive reference there…A confident “Big Tent” coalition will not only set out to woo those in National who are horrified by some of the directions this cynical administration has chosen, but also to provide accommodation to get an effective voice of the further Left back into Parliament while encouraging a less destructive relationship with their angry and frustrated militant fellow-travellers.