Why Matt McCarten is the real reason why Simon Bridges is wooing the Greens
Simon Bridges continues to woo the Greens…
Simon Bridges has defended his record on the environment in his first appearance on Newshub Nation as leader of National.
He said the party’s policies needed to evolve, and it would place new emphasis on environmental issues – but wouldn’t give any new policies.
Asked by Newshub Nation host Lisa Owen if he could work with the Green Party, he said there was a case “on genuine environmental issues”.
“I think we do have a difficulty frankly, though at the moment, which is it’s a Green party that’s red as well, its default position is to go with the Labour Party. A true Green Party in the middle that could work with both, in my view, would achieve a lot more for the environment.”
…here’s the real reason why Simon Bridges is wooing the Greens – Matt McCarten.
What many on the Left, and certainly within the political punditry, don’t appreciate or understand is that Labour’s victory last year was set in motion a year earlier by Matt McCarten’s ‘Big Tent’ strategy that aimed at expanding Labour’s voter base while eliminating National’s support partners.
Matt knew that by killing off National’s support partners, Labour had the chance too form a new Government because National couldn’t get 51% of Parliament on their own. This is why Labour moved against the Māori Party by recruiting Willie Jackson and killed off Peter Dunne with Greg O’Connor.
The strategy worked and National were left with no coalition options.
Say what you like about National, but they learn from their mistakes far quicker than the Left when it comes to taking power. Bridges is wooing the Greens, not because he has any real intention of creating a coalition with them, but because at current polling of 5%, National just needs to shave off a couple of thousand blue-green supporters currently voting Green to sink the Party beneath the threshold and suddenly Labour don’t have the numbers they need to win in 2020.
Pundits and the Social media Left keep scoffing at Bridges trying to woo the Greens, what they don’t understand is that he has no intention of winning their hand, just a tiny fraction of their voter base so that they slip under 5% and that their scoffing is actually amplifying Simon’s message.
Saying something and doing something aren’t the same. Whoever he is wooing need to have a look at his track record as far as the environment is concerned it is bad.
As for his Maori heritage your either Maori or your not it has nothing to do with what percentage.
There’s nothing that would make both Labour and National happier than to return to the good old political duopoly of yore. IMO we need at least 4 or 5 significant parties to have any real chance of creating a truly progressive society (which I why I’m in favour of lowering the threshold to ~3 percent, since you have to start somewhere).
Simon fucking Bridges allowed the oil companies into the conservation estate and let the “amazon Warrior” ‘the worlds most dangerous ship that causes ‘sonic booming’n that cause earthquakes int our waters!!
So Bridges has blood on his hands already and will be dealt with some day.
He has ruined our rail system and gone mad just building more roads.
Bridges’ reference to National’s “track record” on electric vehicles would be a joke if climate change were not a train-wreck bearing down on us.
The Greens would be wise to keep clear of National’s “death embrace”. The Nats have already destroyed three coalition partners (*) – the Greens do not want to be #4!
(*) Ok, Maybe two. ACT is still hanging on life-support. But when the Nats decide to pull that plug…