Thoughts Post Election

While I sensed a landslide for National it did not happen; or did it. The swing to the Right was massive with many sitting Labour MP's biffed out of electorate seats and popular local Labour MPs returned but the party vote in the electorate going to National (eg West Coast) .

What carried the day for Labour was the Labour vote in the major metropolitans - latte Socialists. A quick look at the map shows, for example, urban Auckland electorates that are west of the Southern Motorway are red. Like Labour's MPs your average dweller in these electorates is likely to fit the old socialist term of labour as opposed to capital. While there may be many contractors they by and large won't have to worry about writing payroll cheques.

The South Island is interesting - outside of the major metropolitans, it is now very blue (West Coast excepted). These are resourceful people, long standing New Zealanders, who trust the Labour Government to do nothing except introduce more petty laws, liberalise longstanding social mores and generally scab off the backs of others.

Country wide Labour's urban oases are surrounded in a sea of Blue.

Clark looked composed but a little fretful last night I thought. Certainly not the commanding triumphalist entry I expected. While she was in tune with the country's mood, the braying by the pack on and off camera was a stark contrast. Judith nowhere to be seen.

Clark knows better than anyone the difficulties ahead. I disagree with her comment they have held/increased their vote within 1% of 1999 (which, BTW was last century). What Labour did was pillage Left votes from the Greens and JAP (bet he didn't do the acronym when he thought his new name up?) as Labour itself haemorhaged C-L votes to NZ F and UNF. Otherwise where did the Green and JAP vote go National, ACT? - they are both down on 2002, MP wise.

Cool thought of the day - Nandor out literally. Toking, lying back wondering where it all went wrong and why they are not getting their message across? Physician heal thyself.

Thing to look forward to - hearing Locke ran naked down Broadway in recompense of his bet with Rodney.

Pee'd off thought - the electorate dealt to many top Labour MPs bigtime, but they all crawled back on the list. Sutton, Barker, Beyer...

Rodney home - fantastic. Now he has an electorate it will be a brilliant base to build a proper party from. A quick squiz at the booth data shows tactical we Epsom voters were - he had huge support in the Electorate - the "Worth" booth counts in Remuera are a complete rout for Rodney.

Party vote in the electorate is interesting:
ACT 3.5%
Green 5.1%
Labour 26.4%
National 59.6%
NZF 2.4%
UNF 1.8%

So Rodney is ahead of his nationwide electorate vote and most of the voters were taking heed of the exhortations to ensure National got the party vote - even if voting for Rodney.