Winston knows it’s over

Winston is easily one of the best political campaigners in NZ.

His barnstorming tours are always one of the feathers in his hat as a politician.

He can inspire, charm and outrage in that uniquely quintessential Winston way that always makes writing him off the most dangerous curse in NZ Political Punditry.

However. when the great master is openly complaining about the restrictions on campaigning under Level 2.5, you know he has recognised NZ First’s final midnight…

NZ Election 2020: How the pandemic is changing campaigning

Restrictions on gatherings under alert level 2 – and 2.5 in Auckland – are continuing to hamper election campaigning throughout the country, with large-scale meetings off the table.

Campaign season is often a time of hugs, hongi and handshakes, where voters cram into packed halls while listening to the big election promises, but COVID-19 means limited gatherings and social distancing are a must.

Never one to mince words, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, who is avoiding Auckland, had this to say: “It’s the worst campaign environment that I’ve been involved in because, not only is it in the cold months of the year, but it’s in circumstances in which people cannot be meeting, can’t assemble in halls and you can’t have a traditional political dialogue. But we’ll get by and we’ll keep doing what we can do in the circumstances.”

…it feels like the tide has turned on Winston and NZ First.

The nationalistic economic capitalism he championed as a bulwark to free market neoliberalism has mutated into a feral cronyism that ensures primary producers aren’t regulated.

His go to play on immigration has no traction in a locked down country and the conspiracy kink that ran through his provincial voter base have far more pornographic offerings from NZ Conservatives, ACT and Advance NZ.

It would take an unprecedented event to reverse NZ First’s fortunes, so large it would make everything else unrecognisable.

Barring that unprecedented event, this will be Winston’s swan song.

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