Just say no to NZ First

I was thinking about writing this as my column for The Post. But decided to keep it to Patreon since the audience here is much smaller, and I'm worried that anything I write about NZ First just gives them attention, making it more likely they'll get back in.

I've spoken to key folk in National and Labour recently who have both expressed that there is a reasonable chance that NZ First will make it in again after the election. This is based on their own internal polling.

The National person I spoke to give it a >50% chance, while the Labour person wasn't as bullish but still thought it possible. Neither party had NZF above 5% at present in their internal polling, but said the trend was there. 

This would be fucking disastrous.

Not just because NZ First would almost certainly go with National and (this may come as a surprise to you), I'm not that keen on a National-led Government, but also because NZ First is such a toxic stain on our politics.

I have written in the past that the party was a sort of benign bigot sponge. Winston would do a rallying cry for all the racists of society to vote for him, and then once in power he'd do nothing. Which, I argued, was better than the alternative, where some populist racist gets the votes and then does a racism with it.

But if we have the chance to kill off NZ First, we should! Because goddamn they're awful. The NZ First foundation scandal was bad man. And they only escaped punishment due to a loophole. They're also a handbrake on progress. And they're proud of that fact.

Winston has also weirdly made it clear he won't go with Labour; he doesn't like to make his coalition plans known pre-election so he can keep his options open. Except this time he knows that he'll cash in more on the anti-Government vote. It's why he embraced that anti-mandate protesters, and it's why he's trying to turn himself into an "anti-woke" crusader. 

He'll definitely prop up a dreadful ACT-National government, and frankly the three of those parties together sounds like a hellscape.

Other than the Gold Card, what has Winston actually achieved? What policies has he done while being in government several times? 

The only situation I could countenance a NZF vote would be if it was clear that Labour/Greens/TPM had no chance and I wanted to inflict a handbrake on National/ACT, but I don't think that's going to be the case this election. It could go either way.

I think that the left's acceptance of NZF after the 2017 election is one our biggest shames. 

Anyway, if you want a single reason why NZF are a toxic mess to be avoided then I give you this, Shane Jones was recently at an Old Folks home giving his views on whatever, and there was someone who looked concerningly familiar in the crowd. Now it's not been confirmed that it's him, but boy oh boy this dude looks like Colin Craig.