Political Rant

So...the news is in...I'm glad that Labour has finally been able to formally announce government and prove all the fearmongers wrong who predicted Don would make a last minute comeback but at what a price!! It wasn't quite as bad as I feared, the Greens voting student librarian was bemoaning Winston Peters as the new Finance Minister. I rushed home and discovered that Dunne and Winston had indeed been offered ministerial positions. I'm not to worried about Dunne; Labour got through the major social policy changes last term so I think he'll prove reasonably solid. But I have to agree with John Campbell that there's something ironically shocking about seeing Winston Peters, after all his bigoted comments over the years, being given Minister of Foreign Affairs; I could see Helen's pain as she calmly explained that they had been forced to work with what the voters had supplied.

I heartily wish Act hadn't got in and that the Greens had got that tiny fraction of the vote more that they required to retain Nandor (who is just lovely). It's hard to say whether that would have significantly affected this outcome however. Every election I pray that Winston won't get in and will finally retire to a bach full of pin-ups of himself and every time he weasels his way back in. I suppose this shows how great his skill is as a politician, after all, his new campaign of neutrality worked a charm to resuscitate flagging votes. What I fail to understand is how anyone who doesn't suffer from severe memory loss falls sucker for his charm every time? Did people honestly believe his humble claims of creating cheery stability without self-serving wile and negotiations coming into play? Both Helen and Don shuddered at the thought of having to do deals with Winston, and how many truly desired to see him as a Minister again?, yet here we are again with Winston being given the prime position of kingmaker by the NZ public. *sigh* *shudder* *groan*