Who moi, Pollyanna?
Sep. 18th, 2005 04:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trixtahSo, the NZ media has already started trumpeting about NZ's "swing to the right" after the election. And, actually it's somewhat true, despite my somewhat optimistic comments yesterday (this morning, I suppose).
If we look at the vote percentages, the left-wing parties got 50% of the vote last year in aggregate, while the right wing got 45%. This year, the left has 47% of the vote, while the right has come up to 49.7%. Those aren't large numbers, and I think that nearly 5% increase was due to the magic words "tax cuts". It depresses me how many people would rather put the country in hock than forego a couple of cents in tax. Oh, and other than tax cuts, the rest of the "swing" would have been due to those idiots who fear the depredations of the dreaded Maaaarie radicals and those terrorist immigrants. Tossers.
Which is even more ironic, since those Māori radicals are one of the minor parties holding the balance of power in Parliament at the moment. The Māori Party has less than 2% of the vote, but quite a bit of clout with their four neither-left-nor-right seats. It's hard to say which way they'll go when it comes to forming a government. The party was founded last year as a reaction to the "betrayal" of the Labour Government (due to very complicated issues about land rights). However, if they feel that the National Party will compromise on any of their requests, they are sadly deluding themselves. It's all very well forming your own group when the primary one no longer does what you expect it to; it's another thing entirely to ally yourself with another group who WILL NOT do anything you want. It's called cutting off your nose to spite your face.
We'll have to see how the cookie crumbles.
If we look at the vote percentages, the left-wing parties got 50% of the vote last year in aggregate, while the right wing got 45%. This year, the left has 47% of the vote, while the right has come up to 49.7%. Those aren't large numbers, and I think that nearly 5% increase was due to the magic words "tax cuts". It depresses me how many people would rather put the country in hock than forego a couple of cents in tax. Oh, and other than tax cuts, the rest of the "swing" would have been due to those idiots who fear the depredations of the dreaded Maaaarie radicals and those terrorist immigrants. Tossers.
Which is even more ironic, since those Māori radicals are one of the minor parties holding the balance of power in Parliament at the moment. The Māori Party has less than 2% of the vote, but quite a bit of clout with their four neither-left-nor-right seats. It's hard to say which way they'll go when it comes to forming a government. The party was founded last year as a reaction to the "betrayal" of the Labour Government (due to very complicated issues about land rights). However, if they feel that the National Party will compromise on any of their requests, they are sadly deluding themselves. It's all very well forming your own group when the primary one no longer does what you expect it to; it's another thing entirely to ally yourself with another group who WILL NOT do anything you want. It's called cutting off your nose to spite your face.
We'll have to see how the cookie crumbles.