Politics and Prose

Despite the palpable change of mood that is in the air, I can’t help but come across diehard Labour supporters who will honestly back
Clark no matter what she does, what she says, or who she crosses.

I’m not a 100 per cent National supporter – it certainly isn’t the perfect party and I’m critical of National whenever I see policy I disagree with.  However, in alignment with my principles, it is the best party for me.  National is very different from Labour – it’s a party that accepts dissenting views, allows for contrasting opinions to meld in the same pot, expression of speech and individuality is paramount to their polices.  I think they’re more family friendly, more environmental, better economic managers and the MPs are more well-rounded people.

Supporting Labour this election is to fight a losing battle.  And while I admire the confidence (and indeed courage) to face adversity when the odds are stacked up against you, I cannot understand why anyone would want to give Labour another go, considering the peril we’re in.

Let’s see how we’ve done:

• Our standard of living has declined in the last 9 years;
• our poor are still poor;
• our hospital waiting lists have grown longer;
• our standard has living has declined;
• our justice system is still weak, still favouring the criminals and punishing the victims;
• our wages are still decline;
• our OECD ranking has declined;
• and our brightest are leaving our shores.

Our years of ballooning surpluses have been squandered by a government more interested in their own future than in New Zealand’s.  The Labour government is undeniably partly responsible for the current economic turmoil NZ is in, and we’re to trust them to see us to the other side, yeah right.

Besides, Helen “safe pair of hands” Clark won’t even be around.  She’s warning us about changing horses mid-race but, ironically, she’ll be out of there before the terms up, so we’ll be changing nonetheless.  Clark won’t led Labour into 2011 - so why risk voting for Clark when she won’t stick around.

So change is inevitable - do we change one lame horse for another, or cash in our old horse now for a fresher, brighter finish.