Recent polls in the UK show that right-wing party Reform UK, led by charismatic Nigel Farage of Brexit fame, is eight points ahead of the Labour Government led by PM Sir Keir Starmer: Labour are on 22%, the Tories have declined to 21% and Reform has increased to 30%. Pundits are suggesting that traditional party loyalties are breaking down.
Mr Farage has argued that the public are concerned with crime, ineffective borders and criminals walking free. He wants to stop using migrant hotels, stop spending billions of pounds on foreign aid, and remove the DEI bureaucracy. That sounds somewhat familiar.
The latest issue is Sir Keir Starmer signing an agreement 22 May to cede sovereignty of the UK Chagos Islands territory, a chain of islands in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius, an African island nation 2000 km from Chagos. Britain had purchased the Chagos Islands from Mauritius in 1965 for £3 million. There were objections from Chagossian British nationals who argued they weren’t involved with the discussions. The UK signed a 99-year agreement with Mauritius to lease back the Diego Garcia joint UK-US military base there which will cost the UK an average of £101 million per year. Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam said the agreement completed “the total process of decolonization”. Nigel Farage said the deal was “not necessary” and played “into China's hands”. I think it was a way for an African nation to get more money from a European one.
The Chagos Islands issue has further motivated Farage. Back in February this year he used a parliamentary debate on a petition – signed by over three million people – to warn both Labour and the Conservatives that the traditional political system is “breaking up” and called for a General Election. After the Chagos Islands agreement was signed he again called for a General Election, citing a surge in support for Reform UK and a decline in Labour’s popularity. With the next British election not until 2029, Mr Farage claims the people want change now.
I suggest that we have something similar in New Zealand, except that we have an election next year. Our two main parties are also past their use-by date and should also be replaced. We also need some fundamental change.
For a long time National and Labour have been playing Left-Right politics to satisfy our natural predispositions. It is like throwing the dog a bone to chew on while they do whatever it is they want. For the last fifty years they have been alternately working on what has become the He Puapua project: Labour passed the Treaty of Waitangi Act in 1975, National signed the UNDRIP in 2010 and Labour commissioned and received the He Puapua plan prior to the 2020 election. Now, when Act try to stop it with a democratic referendum, they are barred from doing so by a National Government.
We need to do what the UK are doing and replace both National and Labour at the next election. But with what? The Green Party are off their rocker and the Mad Hatter’s Te Pati are not paddling with all hoe. That leaves Act and NZ First.
In my opinion, Act are the only party in Parliament which offer rational evidence-based views and are prepared to assert them. The Treaty Principles Bill is an example. David Seymour addressing the media in the foyer of Parliament demonstrates a rational understanding of the issues. Other members of Act have demonstrated similar virtues. That does not mean they are necessarily correct – true evidence and sound reasoning are difficult to attain – but they go about making their argument in the proper way.
Like Reform, Act have been increasing their vote. Like the UK, New Zealand is facing existential issues. If we want the opportunity to make New Zealand great again, all we have to do is recognize Labour and National for what they are – rule-bound, turgid anachronisms – and abandon them. We now know that is possible because it is happening in the UK. There’s many a slip between cup and lip and a cautious approach is warranted. But if we make Act the major party in coalition with NZ First next year, we will at least have the opportunity to succeed. The greater the gap between Act and the other parties, the greater will be that opportunity.
Everything the colonists built is still there for us, all we have to do is pick it up.
Barrie Davis is a retired telecommunications engineer, holds a PhD in the psychology of Christian beliefs, and can often be found gnashing his teeth reading The Post outside Floyd’s cafe at Island Bay.
9 comments:
As has been said regularly of late, two wings of the same bird. National and Labour are two tired political parties whose primary policies are very similar and have exceeded their use by date.
In other news, Tommy Robinson is out of prison.
I’m distressed at how people around me write off Seymour simply as an ‘arrogant prick’. These are smart Wellingtonian professionals whose own political and social values are very close to his. But they persistently reject him. When I hear him, I hear clear reasoning and a slightly right of centre theme which I am comfortable with. My friends support Labour as a matter of principle, but everything they say has more in common with Seymour. Why exactly does Seymour generate such dislike?
Political parties of any stripe are not the solution, they are the problem. When one or other appears on the surface to be acceptable check under the hood before buying. Until we can return to actual representation of and by the productive part of the population the downhill trajectory will continue. A form of balloted selection of our representatives, and a strictly limited term in power, is perhaps a viable approach. Otherwise we will simply be following the prediction of Socrates, who noted, after masculine autocracy comes feminine democracy, which is then replaced by oligarchic tyranny. We are now at the beginning of the latter.
But, does the voting public have the intellectual capacity to understand we have reached a critical point, beyond which there will be no turning back.
Looking about most public places in recent times, and being aware of the level of indoctrination over the last 50years, I think not.
Yes, I fail to put my finger on it about Seymour. He's a country mile more erudite than most of the has- (or never) been's in Parliament, but I've now met a number of women who just don't like him or think him a racist of all things? It defies logic and common sense, just like Luxon's "nothing he likes comment" about the TPB. Maybe there's a secret pandemic afoot that causes stupidity or a lack of clarity of thought? Of the current lot, Seymour and ACT are our only hope.
It's the jab. No joke.
A YouGov poll a week later put Reform on 28 per cent, with Labour on 22 per cent, and the Conservatives barely ahead of the Lib Dems on 18 per cent.
Anon:5.49 It seems obvious that any person, who suggested David Seymour argueing repeatedly that NZ should remove ethnicity requirements and all are equal in NZ , racist should not be taken seriously.
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